kimblarsen

Hi all, It looks like I may be teaching a course in Architectural Visualization this winter in Oslo for 35 students. I have almost no time to prepare the course it will have to based partly on the course material on an existing book on architecture visualization, although I ideally would like to create it based on existing projects we have done in Placebo Effects. Maybe I can do that for some of the practical exercises. Just to let you know the "3ds Max 2011 - One Project from Start to Finish" is not a candidate. I have looked at the 3DATS book "3ds Max 2008 Architectural Visualization Beginner to Intermediate" but since I dont have the book it is difficult. Also I have two issues with this book. First - 3DATS dont have many copies left, and two it is based on Max 2008. The Intermediate to Advanced book will be too advanced I think. Maybe I could use a couple of chapters from "3ds Max 2010 Architectural Visualization - Advanced to Expert" dunno. I have basically 6 weeks and 12 lectures + workshop time (3 hours per 2 hour lecture) to teach these students a basic understanding of architecture visualization. They will be familiar with basic 3D Studio Max, or so I hope, and principles of 3D visualization such as form, composition and color (again I hope). Initially I want to start with knowledge about the architecture design process, terms, then image composition and storytelling in images, and about CAD and Revit and how architects create buildings in various softwares. Then on to how to create a few arch viz still images and a short animation. A bare minimum in terms of tutorials will be to have them do ONE interior image, ONE exterior photomatch illustration and a short animation that is edited to make a whole. I am also considering using some online tutorials providing I am allowed to use them in this way to teach 35 people. Thanks for your advice and thoughts. Regards, Kim Baumann Larsen

I would really like to see the list made alphabetical and split by free and commercial as well as having a brief one paragraph description of strengths and weaknesses of each particular texture collection/web site. I will make a start - each entry could look something like this (maybe we should stick this into a Wikipedia entry ?). Arroway is my current favorite texture resource after the free cgtextures.com. Arroway (commercial) http://www.arroway.de Types of textures / collections: Stone, wood, concrete and tiles + a mix collection called edition one Wood: from contemporary flooring, modern parquet floors to rustic floor boards and outdoor patio wooden flooring. Pros: High quality, tilable, large resolution (and most importantly) large size textures (4-8 meters square) textures of real architectural materials in lossless PNG file format. Separate diffuse, bump and specular maps. Low resolution non-watermarked preview textures accessible on the web. Cons: DVDs only (no download option)

I would think most architecture firms would account for costs related to visualization in terms of salaries to the 3d artists plus the software and hardware costs and percentage of fixed costs attached to the persons working on visualization. Where it becomes difficult is when people are doing visualization as part of their architectural design. Some, or most, architecture studios would probably not bother calculating the percentage of time for their employers that are pure visualization. Then again, it would probably be fairly difficult to find out exactly what is considered visualization work and what is considered architectural design. For us, Placebo Effects, having come out of being an inhouse architectural visualization company, this division has become very clear. We specifiy architectural design consulting (3d modeling and imaging) separate from pure visualization, but there are times when they overlap. I am no longer managing Placebo Effects but I think we would be happy to provide data for the survey. I would also like to help out with issues such as the one above; how to formulate a definition for what is considered arch viz within an architecture studio. Cheers Kim,

Hey Jeff, You may want to look into getting your site compatible with Piclens - a fantastic plugin that allows inline web 3d browsing of images on sites such as Flickr and Google - http://www.piclens.com - I believe it is being used by the Ballistic Publishing guys for the jury work on their books; at least I thought that this was what was used for the last one. Cheers, Kim

Great that you are doing this again Jeff! I have not been involved with this in any way but I do think that reducing the amount of work required for all parties, both participants and judges is a good thing. Also, I am not sure how well defined each challenge was last year. I do think that everyone would benefit from a topic or some form of framework for each challenge since it is all to easy to spend a lot of time just coming up with an idea, any idea, on what to make. I also believe that some form of formal or idea constraints, other than time, will help the competitors focus and it will allow the judges to more readily compare two projects up against eachother. I am not on the judging end of this nor planning to enter the competition - I simply cannot find the time. However I would advice that leaving the judging of the final challenge to the 30 days before SIGGRAPH could be tricky if you have judges that are taking their summer holiday. It might only be in Scandinavia but here people usually take 3-4 weeks off for summer - mostly the whole of July. I know that in souther Europe most people go on vaction later, like August though. How is it in the US and Canada? Does that mean that there are 20 entries for each challenge then? Are you planning to have separate judges for each category? The 10 x 3 x 2 = 60 submissions to judge seems to me to be quite a daunting task to submit to. Cheers, Kim

Hi Jeff, Great idea Jeff - and to get the ball rolling - having been involved with the last two AVC conferences this is certainly something that I would like to take part in - both from a delegate point of view and speaking / making-it-happen POV. Late spring in Prague next year sounds great - I think the last time I was there is some 16 years ago or something during an Architecture school excursion to marvel at the many fine historical buildings. Cheers, Kim

Hi Nisus! Great to meet up with you at the 3D Festival in Copenhagen - and since I talked a bit about real time architecture visualisation there - here are a couple of real-time visualisation software: Octaga Octagon Player: http://www.octaga.com/ DigitalArts VisuAll: http://www.digitalarts.dk/ Cheers Kim,

Hi Christopher, I believe that these kind of experiments towards more abstract (digital) architectural visualisation looks are very important. I find that the most difficult thing to convey with CG in architecture visualisation is the unfinished nature of a project under development. NPR (non photorealistic rendering) techniques might help in this respect. We do a lot of work for architects and they are much quicker to embrace these types of illlustrations. So are clients in creative fields like advertising agencies. Developers are harder to convince. Perhaps you could have used more abstract silhouette style (half transparent?) symbols for people other than the traditional photographic textures? Also you could try adding outlines (cartoon render) to the transparent objects or all in the axo view image. This could be done as a separate rendering and composited afterwards in Photoshop. I think the shapes and spaces would read better. Keep up the experiments! Cheers,

Hi Jeff, We got the natFX plugin for MAX before summer and we have just started using it. It works very well for producing outdoor scenes (which we are currently not doing too many of). My only complaints are the lack of a sufficient variety of European and Nordic trees and plants. Also they have yet to produce the kind of plants and small trees which we need for interior visualisation (which we do a lot of). Cheers, Kim

I've got this "music video" type of project where I am producing a 20+ minute abstract CG animation to go with a new music piece by a young Norwegian composer. It will be performed in three Nordic cities early next year. The music is a meeting between traditional Norwegian string instruments (Fiddle) and folk tunes with that of industrial noise - the destruction of the modern city: Akira meets Grieg. So, I am going on a study trip to Tokyo/ Kyoto/ Osaka or thereabout September 23 to October 5 to experience the visual culture of Japan. In particular I will be seeing a lot of architecture; Tadao Ando and Shin Takamatsu are my favorites. It would be great if I could meet up with someone involved with CG in Japan while I am there. Anyone out there involved in designing console and computer games in addition to architecture visualisation? For some visual references to where I am going with this see some of my more abstract CG work at: www.ocean-north.net and go to the Exhibititon Design: ARS01 project and Installations: chamberworks project and http://www.cgarchitect.com/gallery/image_spotlight.asp?fileName=pfx_bmw_sno3 and http://www.cgarchitect.com/gallery/image_spotlight.asp?fileName=pfx_bmw_sno2 Cheers, Kim

Studio/Institution: PLACEBO EFFECTS Client: PBE, Oslo Genre: Landscaping Software: 3D Max, Arnold, Microstation, Photoshop Website: http://www.placeboeffects.com Description: 3D visualisation study for the local planning authorities in Oslo. Concept image for regulation and massing guidelines.

Studio/Institution: PLACEBO EFFECTS Client: Entra Eiendom Genre: Office Interior Software: 3D MAX, Arnold, Microstation, Photoshop Website: http://www.placeboeffects.com Description: Concept office layout for Posthuset

Studio/Institution: PLACEBO EFFECTS Client: SiA Genre: Institution Software: VIZ4, MAX4, Microstation, Photoshop Website: http://www.placeboeffects.com Description: Concept study for lab at the new Akershus hospital. Architect: C.F. Moellers tegnestue Interior architect: DARK Design

Studio/Institution: PLACEBO EFFECTS Client: SiA Genre: Institution Software: VIZ4, Microstation, Photoshop Website: http://www.placeboeffects.com Description: Concept study for patient room for the new Akershus hospital. Architect: CF Møllers tegnestue Interior architect: DARK Design

Studio/Institution: PLACEBO EFFECTS Client: Volvat terasse/DARK Genre: Residential Interior Software: Microstation J, Form Z, Lightscape, Photoshop3 Website: http://www.placeboeffects.com Description: Concept visualisation of livingroom and kitchen for Volvat terrasse apartments in Oslo Norway. Design by DARK Architects. Co-creators: Dag Meyer & Bonsak Schieldrop