Tom Hamelrijckx

Well in the very beginning of my career as a 3d artist I was only working with a very well known architect in my country. I was only modelling (not even bim) and creating renders back then, so doing mostly 'monkey' 3d work like you call it. I didn't mislike that at all, since I consider my skills not so much situated in design but more in supporting techniques. So in that situation I could still work on very high quality projects, not too big in scale, and I wonder if a broader profile could be even more interesting for an small architect firm like that...

Hi everybody, Until 10 years ago I was active as a freelancer in the visualization industry, using mostly sketchup, vray and photoshop. I had quite some knowledge with max and finalrender as well. At a certain point I felt like having to redirect what I was doing professionally and by coincidence I left that 3d profile altogether because I got the opportunity to start as a furniture maker, since I also have some woodworking experience. I have been doing that for 10 years now, and although I love doing this, I also realize that I won't be able to doing it forever since it is a physically very demanding job, and I also miss being involved in architecture projects, the way I was when I was a 3d modeler and visualizer. So I consider focussing on a 3d profile again, and since times have changed I want to inform myself on this forum what skills would be best valued. Bim interests me a lot, but I have the impression bim modelers only got to do just that. Am I wrong about that? I would like to know about how diverse the job description of a Bim modeler can be. Do you do visualization as well? Other techniques even, like photogrammetry, or even data analyses with the bim data that can be extracted? In what kind of offices do you work in that case? Thanks for your thoughts concerning this ...

Scott thanks again for your feedback, Do I understand correct - that the architects/designers in your firm are in the teams that you call the 'Revit/SketchUp/Rhino teams'? So they design in that software? - that you only do texturing, rendering and postproduction? Or still more than that?

Great, thanks for all of these valuable tips. I will look into the mentioned software. To refocus a bit on the first question, is anybody here working inside an architecture firm doing only 3d and project visualization for that one firm? I'm curious to know about your task description. I guess the "in-between" renderings in Enscape or Lumion still need a modeling, texturing and setup phase that an architect is not going to spend his time on, no? And aside all this, I remember the only less pleasant aspect of this work being the last-minute demands and the resulting stress. How do you guys handle this? It might be worth another topic maybe....

Thanks Scott that's already very valuable info. Since I am in this reboot phase the purpose is to integrate a training phase in the beginning, and Blender was on my list. Apart from what you mentioned, is there any other valuable software or skills that might be interesting and with which I can distinguish myself a bit? I suppose 3d modeling and post production in PS are still indispensable skills. Or not? As well, sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't be valuable to be able to produce high-res environment imagery with photogrammetry (and a drone), but it looks like that would take me too far off track. Am I wrong? (PS I was using Sketchup and Vray)

Hi everyone, Until about seven years ago I was active as a 3d graphic designer, doing visualizations for architecture projects and giving sketchup courses. I did that for about 15 years until I was given the opportunity to start working in a carpentry workshop. I have a background in carpentry, and I just happened to start missing the manual aspect in my 3d work, so I gladly accepted that challenge. It worked very well for a couple of years, and little by little the focus shifted more to the carpentry work. But then some life events made me suspend my professional activities for quite a while, actually long enough to reconsider how I will move on now. Both activities have been put to a halt completely, but they both give me energy and I would like to keep on exercising both of them part time, one having priority over the other. So the idea is to first start doing 3d again, and get that part rolling smoothly. I lost some technical skills in those last years though, so I wonder how to get this started again. That's what this post is about, I could use this communities' professional opinions, insight and ideas. question 1 In a brainstorm with an acquainted architect that was interested in launching an internal 3d cell in his firm, we thought it might be interesting to let our mutual needs for a launch runway coincide with each other. I thought it would be good to develop a workflow in which all the current projects of the firm could get a constant 3d update as the project moves on, and gradually let that model develop according to the architects' needs. On demand, low-workload renderings could be produced to support progress briefings internally or with the client. In time I'm supposing this can get ran smoothly enough to get the renders better and better. Final renderings would be kept on outsourced anyhow. Until now I didn't get any feedback from this firm anymore, so I guess there are issues that don't convince them. So that's my first question; what do you think might make my case more convincing? I wonder as well if this project is not too big to start for me, considering I have been out of this business for a while. question 2 Second question is, could I reconsider other more modest options than starting such a big project? A refresh training maybe? Or in another sector? It doesn't necessarily need to be in architecture, I think more technical applications like photogrammetry might suit just as well. I appreciate all feedback and thank you for reading this already ;-)

Hi all, I was wondering what you guys do if your main working computer fails during production. Now I guess a lot of you have a spare machine, but I'm sure other solutions must be out there. A little explaining; I travel a lot and do occasional (basic) 3d imaging, so I prefer keeping my hardware configuration as simple as possible without too much hardware to maintain. But I worry what to do if my laptop let's me down. I should need access to another machine in a reasonable amount of time... All ideas welcome! Thanks a lot

Hi all, Since a couple of years I give a 3d modelling training for sketchup and now I would like to extend that workshop package with visualizations for architecture. I thought about proposing a chapter with a free renderer and one with a professional one. I would like to find out which professional renderer I would use for this. Which one works best in an architectural production environment? I go with Vray? Thanks for sharing your opinions...

Hi everybody, I just read about the texture replicator feature in the modo 601 article, which would interest me as a plugin in max, and my guess is it already exists. Anynone knows which plugin would do the same trick? Or a Photoshop plugin maybe? Thanks

Hi all, I'm thinking of buying an eee pad transformer, and was wondering if it would be possible through idisplay (for android) to do photo retouching with a touchscreen stylus... Would be usefull, no? Your thoughts on this? Thanks for the input...

... try Neufert Architects' data, they're considered an important reference...

... this seems very very very difficult...

Hi all... Attached you see a rudimentary animation of some curtain hooks, moving one after the other along a spline (the rail). Pay particular attention on the specific delayed movements in the beginning; hook 2 only starts moving when hook 1 is at a certain distance on the rail, and so on... I did this animation, putting a key on every hook, every 5 frames more or less, only to give you a show of what I want to reach. The actual end result however, wil be a longer path, a longer animation duration, way more hooks, and above all, a specific management of where and when the first hook will be positoned throughout the animation (the other hooks will follow accordingly to the specific curtain movement). Giving these circumstances, I impossibly can put a key on every hook separately during the whole animation, so I thought maybe this could be done with a bone system & IK solver, constrained on the path. Since I don't have any experience with this, I really don't have any clue on how to implement it, so I could use some tips and techniques with this. Sorry for the zip file, but the uploader didn't accept wmv... [ATTACH]43871[/ATTACH]

Actually creating a cloth and fixing it to some hooks isn't difficult with the built in cloth generator. Moving the hooks along a curved path and let the cloth act accordingly is already more difficult. I tried with a path constraint but the problem is that I have to move each hook through a different path constraint controller on the motion panel if I understand right. Is there a more straightforward way to attach the hooks (and the curtain) to a path?

... Actually it wasn't solved yet, thanks for that valuable feedback!