Modeling for architecture: Scripts to automatically create 3d buildings
One of the primary tasks of an architectural visualization artist is to create a 3d model of an architectural project, in order to add lights and textures to create a realistic visualization of the building. Besides the main architectural project, we sometimes have to work on secondary 3d models or builds to compose the environment of the visualization. The need for secondary 3d buildings will depend on several aspects like the camera angle and site location. If the project site is not on an urban environment, there is a useful trick to hide the background of the rendered image, which uses lots of trees placed on key points to hide the background of the image. But, for urban environments the solution generates odd results.
As a matter of fact, it is almost certainly that we will need to create those buildings at some point.
The first option to create secondary buildings for visualization is to model them from scratch, but it would require too much time. Another way to add those buildings on visualization projects is with a few useful scripts that create procedural buildings, with only a few mouse clicks. There are options to create buildings for 3ds Max, Blender 3D and Maya.
For 3ds Max I found the Building Generator one the best options available, and we can create several details for the builds. I even made a small video showing how to work with the script.
Other option for Autodesk Maya is the KludgeCity that can create procedural buildings in a very similar way than Building Generator. The downside of this script for Maya is that all 3d models resemble commercial buildings only, but the levels of detail on the 3d models are incredible. The tool was created using MELScript in Maya.
And to finish the list, we have the Suicidator city generator for Blender 3D which can create buildings and urban environments with a few mouse clicks.
All tools are free to download and use, at least by the time I`m writing this article. They can be really helpful on the process of creating assets for background composing. And not only architectural visualization artists will like the tools, but game designers and animators will mostly enjoy the time saved.
Free external renderer for SketchUp: LuxRender with SU2LUX!
One of the most used tools to create rough studies and models for architectural visualization is SketchUp, because of the easy to use and speed in which we can create 3d models. So far, if we wanted to render a project designed with SketchUp and with photo real algorithms, we had to turn to commercial applications like the famous V-Ray, largely used with 3ds Max for architectural visualization or turn to tools like Maxwell Render, FryRender and Indigo Renderer. All of them are capable of generating great images, but for artists and students with few resources just Indigo offers a free version.
An option to use open source render engines like YafaRay and LuxRender, would be to use Blender as a middle-ware to import the 3d model and use of the exporters available with Blender to render projects. Well, at least for LuxRender this type of actions won’t be necessary anymore, since an user from the LuxRender forums announced the development of a script that connects SketchUp and LuxRender. The script is called SU2LUX and it can be downloaded right now from this link.
The script is already exporting meshes and a few material types like Mattes and Lights. Other tools will be implemented in time, but this is great news for SketchUp users and architectural visualization artists. At the same thread at the LuxRender forums we can find a few rendered scenes created with the exporter and LuxRender.
For artists used to get a full set of options to render with LuxRender in LuxBlend, the new script may look a lot simple, but it’s only the first version. In the proper time and hopefully with the help of other developers, the toll will look like LuxBlend when we talk about the number of tools available. One of the things I miss the most in this versions if the wide range of materials available in LuxRender, but it’s a start as a said.
If you are an architectural visualization artist and uses a lot SketchUp to create quick designs, this script and LuxRender may be a great solution to work on quick renders and visualizations as well. This is a powerful tool capable of use Unbiased render methods to generate realistic images, and it’s completely open source and free to use, which make LuxRender a great companion for SketchUp.
Project Butterfly: Free web based AutoCAD?
Let`s take a small break on the GPU rendering articles and go to another trend, this time is about internet. We have a bunch of applications been released this days with online versions like office suites and even illustration tools like the amazing Sumo Paint. A few weeks ago I have showed a project from Autodesk called Dragonfly, using Flash to bring a quick interior design tool with the ability to add and see objects and scenes in 3d. This is an example of what could be accomplished using only web based applications.
Well, this week I found out about another project from Autodesk that has a more complex goal, which is to create a simple version of AutoCAD running on a web browser. This project is called Autodesk Butterfly.
If you don`t want to visit the project web site, they have an introductory video explaining how it works:
Despite the fact that I had a few problems launching the application on my Mac OS X, the software worked out really great on a windows machine, using both Firefox and Chrome. So far, the project has only a few tools and it`s aimed on the visualization and collaboration between team members. A quick look on the interface will reveal only a few drawing commands, but a lot of tools for visualization.
This is a great idea for users that don`t want to install a DWG or DXF viewer on their computers, only to show of a few ideas to a client or even work on a new computer. The solution to send technical drawings to clients so far, involves the use of PDF files or other ways to allow someone without CAD experience to view the projects.
If the project remains a free web based application it could work as a true solution to view CAD files. For instance, we would be sending a link to a client instead of a big PDF file. I would love to evaluate academic projects using an online tool like this too; it would make the life of teachers a lot easier.
News about GPU rendering with LuxRender, YafaRay, iRay and Maya
In the past few days a lot of interesting news and demos about GPU rendering appear o twitter and user forums. It`s quite clear that after the announcement of Octane Render and Arion, we will start to see even more releases related with GPU render. I will start with the announcement of a GPU render dedicated for Maya, called FurryBall and it`s based on Path Tracing algorithms just like other solutions, which results in quite good rendering and GI quality. The video below shows a quick demo of the software running in Autodesk Maya and manipulating a 3d car model, with a good level of detail. It works in a similar way than V-Ray RT inside 3ds Max.
The second demo I want to show involves LuxRender and the production of animation with the software. If you may have already tried to create animations with LuxRender, you may know how time consuming it might be. For each frame of the animation we have to spend a great amount of time to get a noise free image, or use a lot of computers in a render farm. With the new experiments on LuxRender and GPU Render, we can expect to create animations using complex materials like glass in a very short time. Here is an example of simulation using the Bullet Physics to create the interactions between objects and LuxRender:
Now, let`s take a look on a demo of iRay from Mental Images. A friend asked me a few days ago if he could use one of those GPU based renders as their main software to create photo realistic images. Well, the next video shows the result of an image rendering during 15 minutes with iRay. Of course, the video has only 15 minutes in length, because it`s in timelapse format. But, we can see the result after all that time and the quality of the image.
And to finish the assorted group of news and demos on GPU rendering, you might be asking yourself when we will see YafaRay to get a GPU render modele? Well, they just posted a page with ideas for Google Summer of Code 2010, and one of them is the use of GPU to speed up the rendering. If you want to take a look and help with YafaRay GSoC 2010 ideas, visit this link. One of the projects is the integration between YafaRay and Blender 2.50. I really hope that they get at least one project accepted this year.
How to animate anything in Blender 2.50?
As you may be aware of the new tools and functionalities of Blender 2.50, one of the new features is the possibility to animate anything with the new and redesigned animation tools. Back in Blender 2.4x we had to work on a few tricks to create animations with modifiers parameters or other values, especially if those values weren`t available at the IPO Curve Editor. Sometimes the trick to animate a 3d model would involve hooks or lattices, but now it`s possible to really animate anything!
This last week one of my students asks me how to animate the parameters of a modifier. The objective was very simple and consists of creating an animation with the simple deform modifier. How to do that?
Since I believe that a lot of people may be with the same problem then my student, I decided to show up how to create this type of animation. It`s much simpler than you can imagine. For instance, if we had to work with the simple deform modifier, with the Twister mode activated. We want to create an animation where the object starts without the influence of the modifier, and with time it goes blending further more.
The secret to create this type of animation is to add keyframes to the modifier parameters. Just place the mouse cursor on top of the parameter and press the i key. It`s that simple. Of course, before that you should place the animation at the frame that you want the keyframe to be added. The video below shows how it works. Besides the tutorial, it`s my first attempt to post a tutorial in FullHD at Youtube.
For other types of parameters like the levels of subdivision of the Subsurf modifier, we will not see a curve at the curve editor. It will look like the image below shows, a series of straight lines, because we can only use integer values for subsurf divisions.
This is the trick for all parameter that we want to animate with Blender 2.50.
In architectural animation we will use this type of trick to change parameters of the camera and the way we see certain materials and textures. I wonder if we will be able to add animation to the parameters of the exporters of YafaRay, LuxRender and Indigo Renderer? By now, we still have to wait to test it.
