Glass igloos in the Nothern Lights

SketchUp's Real-Time Rendering Moment: Lumion View, AI Render, and the End of the Export Workflow

SketchUp 2025–2026 has added native PBR materials, AI image generation, and real-time rendering plugins like Lumion View, letting archviz artists produce photorealistic images without leaving the viewport. This collapses the traditional design-to-render pipeline.

Glass igloos in the Nothern Lights

Back in September 2019, I came across an advertisement for a snow resort in the depths of Lapland. I was amazed by the concept of observing northern lights, or as they also know "Aurora Borealis" in specially equipped glass igloos and caught fire with the idea of making my own interpretation of this kind of recreation, besides I had little experience in creating large landscape environments, so it's time for Bob Ross style. Because of the latest events in the world, it was doubly nice to try to depict what we are now deprived of. Outdoor walks, freedom to travel and the simple joy of natural phenomena. I hope that by looking at this render you can, even if you are at home, feel the comfort, majesty of nature and clean winter air, which I tried to convey. Software used: 3ds Max, Gaea, Corona, tyFlow, Photoshop 220218

Posted on 25.04.2020