Virgil Johnson

Another disadvantage of Lumion is clients have to load the (free) player program on their computer to play the interactive game. Not that big a deal but it's there. I use SketchFab to help me out on this since it loads directly off the internet but it has its limits as to how big a file you can load. Usually good for detail items that need explaining. But in the end it is the real time programs that rule. (remembering that Revit itself is an instant real time program if you think about it.) btw I custom design fantasy garden structures which call for a lot of direct client input so real time programs are the only way for me to go. Clients direct the design directly. v

Mr. Weiss. Assuming you are not in the business of creating fine art pieces and you want to grab your client's attention quickly, inform them, and seal the deal (what I do in my business) and you want to do it cheaply and quickly... 1. I prefer Lumion. I can link it to Revit. I can control materials much better than Enscape. The release 9 allows better lighting, etc. Lumion allows to rendering in various styles which is useful to me. And. I can render to element in a few minutes. 2. Photoshop. Very fast. I use actions to speed the work. Handful of minutes is all that is needed. Element renders are all the difference. 3. Max. Useful as an auxiliary program mostly. 4. Vray. Don't even bother. 5. Sketchfab. It's interactive. Repeat. Interactive. It also does a fairly good job with lighting and materials. Probably all you will need for architectural renders. My clients want to see action and detail. They want it quickly. Interactive. Dramatic. Grab their attention. Easy to understand. They want to make decisions. Virgil Johnson Stone Ridge, NY

not sure what those are but will Google it thanks v

HP has discontinued ink cartridge #199. Anyone know where I can find a replacement? HP refused to even talk to me about it. Somehow I don't think I should scrap my perfectly good 8700. v

Not having used SketchUp in many many years... how about changing the materials in the model to white or gray or whatever? not sure sure about making extra lines invisible in SketchUp but Revit has that function and I would think SU would have that function as well. did you try searching for a tutorial in YouTube? try this search..."making lines invisible in Sketchup" v

Not sure if this is a help... I use Revit myself. You can take a look at this...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HQMKiL1Ii0 also for more defined lines I use Photoshop... duplicate background layer use filter>stylize>find edges set screen on this layer to multiply or overlay or whatever seems best (experiment) adjust fill and/or opacity slider

Yup!

For me the right way to make images is to know what my clients want. I work mostly in the design phase right from the start which means a lot of Revit models being changed as the design gels. What is wanted is fast clean illustration that shows what the project is looking like. I chose a style that fits the client's needs. No entourage. In my business no one gives a rat's butt about realism. Photorealism went out of my life years ago. Too much work and too many people doing it cheap. My work is with local clients and since they need multiple visualizations as the project progresses it all stays local. No need to compete with someone thousands of miles away working in a different economy. I gear my images to what my client thinks is good. It makes for a nice business. as an aside I recommend learning to use Revit. You will need to be good at it because that is the world today. When my clients look at the images they often ask me to make changes to the model and illustrate those changes. Virgil

My vote is for illustration as well. I design and build garden structures, artist's studios, and occasionally small house in a fantasy style for here in the Catskill Mountains. Photorealism would be inappropriate for fantasy designs. I tend to cater to my individual client's taste. Also since my real work is in Revit I can take images from Revit into Photoshop and come up with good results as we go through an interactive design phase. Max does come in in the end for something a little more polished - but still fantasy illustration style. Virgil

I haven't the book here in NY but as I recall there is a link (address) for the files in the first part of the book (somewhere). As I remember you kind of have to look for the link. I think you just have to register on the site and you can get at the files. But then again I am going back years in my memory.

Revit is pretty useful when you are going to use the drawings for actual building. - remembering that some of the elements drawn are sent directly to a CNC machine. Kind of a case of what you see is really what you get. Drill down and you will find Revit is very good at parametrics. A lot more discipline than something like Max but if you are doing architecture...

I tend to do mine in Revit. Since I have to produce construction documents...Revit is generally my modeling program of choice. For me visualization is not an end product but a design process (product).

Maybe some parts from here? Free. http://archive3d.net/?category=445&page=1

I have a similar problem from time to time with the wrong viewport rendering instead of the camera. Tried the trick of switching to another rendering engine and back to Vray but no luck. What worked was to delete the camera and create another and changing viewports and making it the camera viewport. Don't ask me why. virgil

Can't say if cleanup is normal myself. I did a road and bridge project last December and the files were from Microstation and came to me in a .dwg format. Everything was there. Alas the person drawing was horrible and there was lot of cleanup not from the translation but from the goof off work. Why anyone is still drawing in 2D is beyond me. Mostly I get Revit and Civil 3D files. I guess this didn't help you all this much. virgil