How to create a glow effect for lights in architecture
The work of an architectural visualization artist is not constrained to deal with commercial projects for architecture. From time to time we have to work on the design of a scene for a game or even special effects for a small studio. Besides the modeling of large scenarios and buildings, it seems like architectural visualization artists tend to be requested to work on light design more often then I expected. Because of that, I`m always trying to find ways to learn more about tricks and techniques to create effects related to light design.
Learn how to work with IES Lights and Unbiased render engines is a big help, but sometimes we must work with tools like the compositor to create light such as a light glow without external render engines. I just found a great tutorial created by an artist called DDD that shows an interesting technique to create a light glow effect already in Blender 2.50.
Light Glow Effect Using the Compositor in Blender 2.5 Tutorial from DDD on Vimeo.
At the video description page in Vimeo the author of the tutorial describes that this video was a combination of two other tutorials. There you will find the links to those tutorials and the .blend file for this tutorial available to download.
Tutorial HeeksCAD: Another free AutoCAD alternative
Among all free alternatives to AutoCAD we have FreeCAD and HeeksCAD on top of the list as the best options for open source CAD solutions. Last week I already posted a small tutorial I found about how to use FreeCAD and today we keep going with the free CAD series and the tutorials shows how to get started with HeeksCAD. The videos were created by a user called RepRapLogPhase and show some of the basics of HeeksCAD. In the first video of the series we have a quick intro do the HeeksCAD interface with an overview of the tool.
Here is the set of videos:
From the second video to the end we get a quick look on how to create simple 2d shapes like circles, squares and other shapes. At the third video we learn how to work with reference points and to finish the series, an overview of the transform tools like copy, move and scale.
If you trying to migrate from AutoCAD, or another CAD tool, to a open source solution, those tutorials will help you to get started with HeeksCAD.
SU2YafaRay: Export from SketchUp to YafaRay
The workflow of an architectural visualization project for a Blender artist usually has a final stage when we may use external render engines, like YafaRay and LuxRender. From both renderers the one with the largest number of scripts and plugins that make it compatible with lots of 3d softwares is LuxRender. We have options to user LuxRender with 3dsmax, Maya and even a SketchUp script in development. For YafaRay users willing to render their projects on other 3d packages it was unable to do that until last week.
A developer called exvion posted an experimental script at the YafaRay user forums called SU2YafaRay and it makes possible to export scenes from SketchUp to YafaRay.
At the forum thread you will find lots of render tests and more info on how to use the scripts, along with the feedback of the YafaRay users that already tried the script. It is quite simple to use, just extract the content to your SketchUp scripts folder. If you want to download the script directly, try the SU2YafaRay page.
This could be a big boost to the YafaRay community by bringing a lot of new users with YafaRay background, and be a great open source option to render scenes for architecture in SketchUp.
Tutorial FreeCAD: Creating 2d views for technical drawing
The process of migrating from a CAD application to another software application could demand a lot of work from a professional already used to the commands and solutions. If you have any plans to change your CAD software to one of the open source alternatives to AutoCAD I posted last week, I manage to find a few tutorials that might help in the process. The tutorial I found yesterday is about FreeCAD and shows an important task for anyone working with technical drawing.
This tutorial was created by an user called salceson2. At the video we can learn how to add different views of an 3d model to a project, and prepare it for print. The tutorial uses a simple 3d model created from two primitives and a Boolean operation.
I know it is not enough to start working with FreeCAD, but it could be a starting point to learn the tool. In the future, I`m planning to post more tutorials on tools like FreeCAD and other open source CAD tools.
Stay tuned!
YafaRay 0.1.2 beta available to download
Since the end of 2009 an experimental version of YafaRay showing some of the features we can expect to be on YafaRay 0.1.2 is available to download. Now, the same version has moved from an experimental build to a beta state, which means that in a short time the stable release will be available. How this new release of YafaRay could help architectural visualization artists? There are a lot of new features on this release, and talk about all of them would required several articles.
Let me show two of those features that have been already mentioned here in the past. The first feature is the ability to use IES Lights with Spot Lamps. This new feature will help us to work with real light emitters’ information, and create better light design visualization.
The second new feature is a brand new shader in the materials tab called Roughglass, and it can create exactly what you are thinking right now: frosted glass. If you ever tried to create frosted glass in YafaRay or Blender, you know how hard it is, but with this new shader the process is quite simple.
If you want to try the YafaRay 0.1.2 and see the full list of new features, visit the YafaRay 0.1.2 Beta thread at the YafaRay user forums. By now there is only a binary for windows 32 bits, but soon new options will appear.
