Tutorial: Quick Site Plans

by | Oct 16, 2011 | Fundamentals | 40 comments

 

With this tutorial, I wanted to show the workflow that I use to develop a clean looking architectural site plan. This tutorial, like many of my tutorials, doesn’t use a rendering engine, only Sketchup image exports and Photoshop. Although I don’t use a rendering engine, a rendered roof plan of a building could easily replace the Sketchup images used in this explanation.

 

 

 

1) Start with an aerial image of the site at as high of a resolution as you can get it. I prefer to use aerial satellite images for site plans because it adds detail and texture that is hard to get with a 3d model.

 

1_site_plan_aerial

 

 

 

2) Once the site plan is opened in Photoshop, go to “Image>Adjustments>Desaturate”.

 

1_desaturate_site_plan

 

 

 

 

3) I have topography line work but I want to remove the white background and I also want the line work to be white, not black. To do this, first invert the topography image. Go to “Image>Adjustments>Invert”.

 

2_invert_site_plan

 

 

 

4) Now that the image is inverted, go to the layer blend mode drop down menu in the layers pallet and choose “Lighten”.

 

3_lighten_site_plan2

 

 

The site plan should look something like this….

 

3_3_midway

 

 

 

5) Next, 3 images of the building design need to be exported from Sketchup. Basically, one image will be the color, one will be the line work, and one will be the shadows. It’s important to export each image individually so that each can be edited separately. Also double check that the shadows in the Sketchup model are going in the same direction as the shadows in the aerial photo.

 

1_display_edges

 

 

 

6) Open the “Shaded with textures” SU export in Photoshop and scale it to the correct site. Some time will need to be spent editing out the background so that just the building is visible.

 

4_su_color_site_plan

 

 

 

7) Open the “Line work” SU export in Photoshop. Set the layer blend mode to “Multiply” to remove the white background. Lower the opacity so that the line work isn’t too strong. The only reason I am using the line work is to add a little detail to the roof plan.

 

5_su_linework_multiply_site_plan

 

 

 

8) Open the “Shadows” SU export in Photoshop. Choose “Image>Adjustments>Levels”.

 

6_levels_site_plan

 

 

 

9) Move the left slider to the right until the shadows are completely black.

 

7_levels_adjustment_site_plan

 

 

 

10) Set the layer blend mode of the shadows layer to “Multiply” to remove the white background.

 

8_multiply_site_plan

 

 

 

11) Select the “Smudge” tool and set the strength to 92%. Slightly smudge the edge of the shadows not touching the building.

 

9_smudge_site_plan

 

 

12) Select the “Eraser” tool and give the eraser a soft brush with 25% opacity. Begin slowly erasing the edge of the shadow not touching the building. The corner where the shadow meets the building should be the darkest.

 

91_erase_site_plan

 

 

 

13) Create a new layer and move it below the building layers. A little color will be added to the background.

 

92_new_layer_site_plan

 

 

 

14) Select the “Paint” brush and give it a soft brush with 50% opacity. Paint in the color radiating from the building. I do this so that the design becomes the focal point and the color stays somewhat consistent.

 

93_green_paint_site_plan

 

 

 

15) Set the layer blend mode to “Overlay” to set the color into the image.

 

94_overlay_site_plan

 

 

 

I have used this technique to create many of my site plans in school. It’s quick and looks like it took more time than it really did which is always a good thing.

 

95_final_site_plan_architecture

 

 

 

 

40 Comments

  1. Eduardo Matos on October 17, 2011 at 12:47 am

    Thank you so much for this amazing tutorial! Indeed it looks like it took thousands of hours to make it, gotta have to try it myself!

  2. Magda on October 17, 2011 at 2:06 am

    I have been following your blog for a while now. All of you work and tutorials are awesome! Thanks a lot for sharing.

  3. Eddy on October 17, 2011 at 9:50 am

    Love it! Love it! This is going to help me a lot.
    Thanks Alex

  4. mostafa on October 17, 2011 at 1:56 pm

    thank you so much this is really helpful.
    Thank You

  5. Joao Torres on October 17, 2011 at 5:39 pm

    Again Alex you are the men…! 😉 Many thank's

  6. ALEX HOGREFE on October 19, 2011 at 12:02 am

    Thanks everyone

  7. josh on October 20, 2011 at 5:08 am

    i really appreciate you sharing your blog and tutorials! This one rocks! THANKS!

  8. zhao on October 20, 2011 at 2:57 pm

    it's so easy to understand the way to draw the plan.I think it will be helpful on my project.

    thanks a lot again!

  9. olivia on October 21, 2011 at 7:35 pm

    Thank you so much for all the tutorials. They really helped me a lot. Check out this image i did after seeing one of your tutotrials: http://www.nd20.org/?p=873

    Thanks Again!

  10. T on October 24, 2011 at 12:48 am

    hi alex, thx for the awesome tutorial! just wondering if you could tell us what program u used for the topography linework? cheers!

  11. Alex Hogrefe on October 24, 2011 at 1:30 am

    I had an old topography map that I traced in CAD. I then exported as a pdf to be dropped into Photoshop.

  12. Chetna Balla on February 17, 2012 at 5:35 am

    Hi alex,

    Trying to follow your tutorial for my site rendering… really helpful.. Thanks!

    Could you elaborate on the highlighting of trees after step '15' is done.

  13. ALEX HOGREFE on February 19, 2012 at 4:09 pm

    @Chetna,
    Sorry, Im a little confused by your question. Steps 14 and 15 involve creating a new layer, and painting a simple color, in this case green, over the black and white site plan. Then the layer with green paint is set to "Overlay" which essentially blends the color into the back and white images. The idea is to add color, but not have it overpower the site plan.

  14. Mana on May 28, 2012 at 6:02 am

    tnx a lot…. this is really helpful.

  15. Chetna Balla on May 28, 2012 at 4:38 pm

    Hi Alex,

    Sorry about the delayed reply. I followed these steps and got an amazing site render… However, the Google Earth image of my site doesn't show trees as clear as in yours. So i'd a li'l trouble with it.

    Eventually its come out relaly nice. thank you so much 🙂

  16. ebrahim on July 30, 2012 at 2:13 pm

    hi ALEX it was really cool and thanks for sharing this
    but there is a question for me how can i get the smooth contour lines as the same in the tutorial
    i get my topographic lines in sketchup by the train and geo location :
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4J9sWEZR6E
    but those are not smooth curve
    can you tell me what to do please?
    thanks in advance

  17. Ruslan on December 24, 2012 at 5:53 pm

    Hey Alex, was just admiring all the great work you have been doing in the past couple of tutorials and i wanted to ask you what program/website would you recommend for getting clean aerial shots of different sites. Google maps seems to only have the crowded view with the text that cant seemed to be turned off. Thank you.

  19. jk.gue on April 9, 2013 at 7:19 pm

    Alex,

    I was wondering what your approach would be if a project is in an urban setting. I just wondering how you would color it in terms of the satellite imagery.

  21. Fraser on July 9, 2013 at 12:53 am

    Hi Alex, absolutely love the tutorials! really informative and I have to say have put me at ease before returning to uni haha. I was just wondering with the contours- There seems to be many of them very close together, when I do my plans and use contours the only ones I can get are very widely spaced apart. Your contours really lift the site plan and I was really just wondering how to go about getting such informative contours?

    Thanks, look forward to more posts

    Fraser:)

  22. Nick W on August 9, 2013 at 3:00 am

    Hi Alex, Really like this view where do you get your satellite imagery from? Struggling to get high enough quality/zoom anywhere. thanks!

  23. simidus on September 9, 2013 at 3:45 pm

    Merci bcp:) good job

  24. Fei on December 11, 2013 at 6:25 pm

    I regret didn't find out this tutorial in my university years…..you are very awesome!!!!
    Thanks a lot for teaching me

  25. grace on December 12, 2013 at 3:49 pm

    BEST TUTORIAL EVER! looks awesome and so quick!

  26. May on January 31, 2014 at 5:24 pm

    Thank you so much for the tutorials! You're the best.

  27. Farshad on March 19, 2014 at 12:51 pm

    Thank you alex 😉

  28. Eldar on July 14, 2014 at 5:18 pm

    Thanks! This is awesome. I used your tutorial for my homework at design class.

  29. Cyrus on August 22, 2014 at 5:56 pm

    Do you have any good resources for aerial maps without any road labels or other writing?

    Thanks

  30. Jesús Palacios on December 9, 2014 at 3:44 pm

    Great renders as usual.

    Just one question, Alex, where did you get these high res. aerial images? The google earth aerial images are not so good as yours.

  32. lea on June 30, 2015 at 1:44 pm

    please can someone tell me where can i find the videos of the tutorials? thank you very much

  33. Marco on October 1, 2015 at 2:04 am

    Alex, how can I export the google maps with scale?

  34. kim on October 25, 2015 at 4:40 pm

    Alex, is the aerial image a google map?

  35. Noemi on November 11, 2015 at 6:50 pm

    Hola Alex!!!! Thank you so much for your teaching , u are really my inspiration! Love u!! 😉

  36. arsitek rumahan on February 29, 2016 at 1:34 am

    i like the tutorial, its easily understad, thx Alex.

  37. A.Obama on March 17, 2016 at 1:38 pm

    #AlexHogrefe For president !

  38. Renna on October 27, 2016 at 11:28 pm

    love you, thanks for the tutorial.

  39. Sazzad Khan on November 2, 2017 at 11:43 am

    Fantastic tutorial. This is very much helpful.Thanks for this

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