Are images like this made in Max, PS, Illustrator, Impression, or M-Color?

[danb4026]

In my endeavor to find an easy way (quick turn-around) to render a high rise, I have not yet gotten a clear answer as how to produce an image like the one attached. Modeling the buildings is way too much work for such simple looking, yet effective results.

 

If you were given the job to duplicate this image, how would you go about it?

[Kawzy]

The background buildings just look like a bunch of boxes with maps for the facades. We use the building maps in the 'Absolute Textures' to accomplish exactly this. I hope I was understanding the question correctly.....

[Tommy L]

There are a few different ways you could approach it. Depends on what programs you are most comfortable in. I would use max and Photoshop, mainly for masking and drop shadows in the render engine. Could just as easy be done in Illustrator and Acad. Could be done in Painter if you like. Or even Corel Draw. Choose your weapons.

[danb4026]

Thanks for the replies...

 

We use the building maps in the 'Absolute Textures'

 

Are "absolute textures" better than others for some reason? I have Marlin Studios "seamless downtown" textures which are quite good. But when applied to a full building, I find they tile.

 

There are a few different ways you could approach it. Depends on what programs you are most comfortable in. I would use max and Photoshop, mainly for masking and drop shadows in the render engine.

 

Tommy, could you explain what you are talking about in a bit more detail? I would go with Max and PS as my preferred weapons.

[Tommy L]

Did you mean the background buildings or the main ones?

[danb4026]

Well, both I guess. Would you model all the buildings....background buildings as simple boxes with maps applied, as Kawzy suggested, and main buildings with all detail and extensively mapped in Max (window glass, metal etc.)? Or would you do most of the detail work in PS?

[AJLynn]

You could do that a lot of different ways. I'd probably just render it out with a Material ID pass and use that with Photoshop to put the sky map on the windows.

[danb4026]

Material ID pass is different than applying a multi-sub-object material?

[AJLynn]

Material ID renders out a separate image file where the color is flat and the colors are determined by the material ID property set to each material. So for example, I could have this separate image where all the glass is pure red and the steel pure blue etc. This is useful in post for things like making layer masks.

[danb4026]

Ahhh Andrew..... So, as I use Vray, I would run a Vray-MatID pass. The Vray-matid just renders a black image. I will play around and see what I can figure out.

[AJLynn]

You need to assign the material ids to each material you want to color in the material editor.

[sicor]

Hi,

 

I'd say it was done simple 3D then flat, 2D. We do a lot of competitions and this is the fastest way to achieve this kind of effect - there's no perspective - it's elevation-like approach. So for us the quickest way is to set up basic scene in 3D to produce proportions and relations of buildings but this is only draft - whole fun part lies in 2D. Hope this helps.

 

Best Regards

sicor

 

____________________

http://www.viscone.pl

Edited May 27, 2009 by sicor

[neko]

autocad/CAD and illustrator

 

1.) requires no 3D drawing - the 2D elevation needs to have nice clean linework and good layer management (by material/colour). draw closed polylines around the areas you want to colour in autocad/CAD.

 

2.) open in illustrator and colour by layer (illustrator layers are hierarchical, so you need to work like a collage image)

 

3.) reflections are done with 2D sky images mapped onto glass. other materials can be done with filters/effects or mapping images onto illustrator layers.

 

the advantage over 3D is obvious - no extra work from existing drawings. the advantage over photoshop is that it is a vector-based image.

 

daniel: i just got back from a mini-vacation late last night. did the files i sent you not help ? if you need something more similar to the one you posted, i might be able to send you something more complex.

 

this subject deserves a decent thread discussion, but i'm just too busy today.

[STRAT]

i've been producing rendered orthographical elevations such as this for years in Cinema4D. just set up your scene as you would if you were to render it in 3d normally, then just render of an orthographic viewport instead of the camera. then position in photoshop with the appropriate extras

[neko]

i've been producing rendered orthographical elevations such as this for years in Cinema4D. just set up your scene as you would if you were to render it in 3d normally, then just render of an orthographic viewport instead of the camera. then position in photoshop with the appropriate extras

 

but is that making the assumption that you already have a 3D model to create these views with ?

 

the process that i am suggesting requires no 3D work at all - just good 2D elevations (which you would likely need before creating any 3D model). there is a need for some extra linework (shadows as well), but that has got to be quicker than producing a 3D model just for the purpose of a coloured elevation presentation.

[STRAT]

yes. sorry. i didn't take the liberty of reading the complete thread. just the opening post.

[neko]

yes. sorry. i didn't take the liberty of reading the complete thread. just the opening post.

 

it's not wrong, just unnecessary IMO.

 

i worked on a massive convention centre project many years ago, and i remember my boss asking myself and another graphically inclined architect what would be the best way to approach drawing coloured elevations for the project.

 

he advocated building a full-blown 3D model and then rendering out all the orthographic images. the complex did have a lot of difficult angles and geometry. i advocated the autocad/illustrator approach (again with existing elevation drawings done).

 

he won out since it was more his project at the time......must have taken him months to produce the final drawings. in the end they were still inferior to the illustrator approach since they were massive in size and pixelated.

[Kawzy]

Seems like you're getting plenty of advice on ways to do this and all seem great. We pretty much use only 3ds max and Photoshop, so we'd build the model in 3d and apply materials. When we do rendered elevations, they are almost always in addition to perspective renderings so we have the building already modeled. To do an elevation like this, we'd just set up an orthographic camera like others have suggested and pop boxes into the background with textures on them like I mentioned before. Then we'd make alterations in post. As far as Absolute being better or not, I'd say they're okay but the ones you have would probably work just as well. They sometimes tile also on large buildings. I mentioned it because I'm almost positive that the buildings in the background are actually using Absolute textures because I'm pretty sure we have the same ones.

[danb4026]

Great advice all around. There are two different plans of action:

 

The first applies to the images below....in this particular situation I built a basic model. I did not want to go into a lot of modeling detail and used Greeble for the extraneous buildings with an AO map.

 

I wanted to take a simple model like this and create an appealing image in the least amount of time.

 

The second option is to do what Paul is talking about, using cad files that I have for another building and taking the elevations and creating an image using PS or Illustrator. My problem is the CAD files are gigantic and everything is xrefs and blocks. There are 332 layers and the process seems overwhelming to me. On top of that, I have never done it before.

 

PS....I have a meeting next week with a high rise residential architect here in NYC. My portfolio is primarily interiors because so far that is what has been asked of me. If I have a good image to present to him, there is a good chance I could get a good job out of this. This is why it is important to me.

Edited May 27, 2009 by danb4026
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[Justin Hunt]

IF you print the CAD files to a PDF they will import into illistrator as verctors, no need to worrk about the XRefs.

 

jhv

[WAcky]

Or you can open a DWG in illustrator then file > export to PSD to retain layers and vectors...