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We are proud sponsors of FlyignArchitecture's new contest, Architecture Unchained. To participate, you have to upload your work in progress of an architectural structure free from the constraint of gravity. Franco Folini, Novedge's President and Co Founder, is one of the judges and we are keeping a close eye on the competition.
So, why not start by learning a bit more about FlyingArchitecture's founder, Matus Nedecky?
Novedge: Tell us a bit about who you are and what you do
Matus Nedecky: Hi all! So first of all, let me thank Aurora Meneghello for giving me
this opportunity to be interviewed by Novedge. It's an honor!
My name is Matus Nedecky, I am originally from the small Slovak village of
Zelenec. When I finished my high school in a nearby city, I started to
attend the BUT - Faculty of Architecture in the Czech Republic. After gaining experience in three architecture firms (full-time during my studies), I
decided to go my own way and become an architectural visualizer. There's
still a long way to go, even if I have reached some milestones already,
which can be seen on our studio's website.
Novedge: How did Flying Architecture start? And how has it evolved?
Matus Nedecky: FlyingArchitecture
started as a simple blog back in summer 2009. As I started to work in
Rhinoceros 4, and I was working on some basic commercial visualizations,
I needed to use the same 3D assets over and over again. Unfortunately,
there was no website dedicated to Rhino assets at that time, the only
package you could get was McNeel's Savanna3D... and I thought I could do better. So I started producing my work. First I
created fifty 3D models in Rhinoceros and then I published the website on
social media. Leo Bonilla, a great guy from
Colombia, and Rendy Himawan, a designer from Jakarta, contacted me right away. These two (and
many others afterwards) gave me great support, they shared my passion for this
project and they also shared some of their 3D
models. And this is where it all started :)
Then many people from all over
the world started to share their own 3D models, and FlyingArchitecture
grew rapidly.
I believe if one does something with passion, he will undoubtedly do a great job. And I can proudly say I loved doing this! It
was and still is such a great feeling seeing all our own models and our fan's in visualizations all over the world (I have seen some models in
visualizations by BIG)... it's an honor to serve thousands of people
and to offer them something they need.
Well, free 3D models were just the beginning... since 2009 I also added other features, like the forum, materials and tutorials. Besides the
website itself, I also work on architectural visualizations for
commercial clients.
Then on December 28, 2009 everything changed. That's when I first
talked to Veronika Nedecka, when she was an interior design student (now my wife and the mother of our child) - since we
knew each other, we also started to work together, so our professional
services went much more pro! Thanks to our images, which were getting
better and better, we were offered to teach a workshop on architectural
visualization in Barcelona, Spain, and we accepted.
Since then, we led workshops in Barcelona, Vienna, Rome
and some personal courses in Bratislava. Now we're are planning some
more events, so if you are interested... stay tuned! :)
I can't forget to mention that our new online store with 3D models is the first marketplace where Rhinoceros users can get truly realistic, high quality, 3D models ready for use in their 3D
scenes. Take a look here.
Novedge: What are the rewards and challenges of having your own business?
Matus Nedecky: It's
not really a walk in the park.... But of course it has many more pros than
cons. However you are responsible for everything - you have to care
of PR, marketing, the job itself, bookkeeping, etc. There is so
much to think about, that it may
sometimes seem unbearable. Just don't give up! Even if you think it's not worthwhile
and sometimes it is a struggle, there are always better days coming :)
For me, better days came with Veronika and my co-workers, Lukas [Filip, interviewed here]
and Fabio.
The biggest challenge is time management: it's extremely hard
to balance it all - work, family, free time, eventually school and also
other projects.
The biggest reward for me since I started
to work alone has been the lack of stress. I have to admit, I work longer
hours than before, but I do not have someone standing behind my back
checking what I am doing. Oh and also as an artist I have
the opportunity to express myself, my own style and feelings, not just the opinions
and style of my team leader... That's the biggest satisfaction!
Novedge: What surprised you the most?
Matus Nedecky: Well, I'd say it's the
positive feedback! I started working on the FlyingArchitecture website just
for fun, and to create something that I needed. You should see
the mass of positive feedback I received, it's such a great feeling to receive hundreds of emails that say "Thank you"... That was the
best award I could ever get :) So Thank You all, who supported me and
who said Thank You... You gave me new energy to continue.
Novedge: What is a recent project that you worked on?
Recently at the
FlyingArchitecture studio we are working on tens of residential/commercial
buildings for our clients... mostly new buildings for commerce or flat
units. From time to time we also have a great opportunity to work on
something very specific, like museum designs, firemen stations, hotels
and so on.
What I appreciate the most are personal projects. At the moment, I
am running about 5 of them, but I can show you some I finished
recently. It is very important for me to take a break from commercial work
(for most of them we sign an NDA, so they cannot be published)
and to create something in my own style with a touch of artistic
feeling.
This is the Norwegian house, design and visualizations by FlyingArchitecture:
Aluminium house, some romantic idea of where I'd love to live:
FlyingArchitecture, our future office design. We jut have to wait a bit for the technology to catch up :)
Novedge: What software do you use?
Matus Nedecky: Haha, that's a long and painful story... At university, they taught
us how to use 3ds Max, but I gave a try to Cinema 4D, Blender, Modo, SketchUp and
Rhino. I have to say that polygons just aren't my blood type. That's why
I was so amazed by the NURBS technology in Rhinoceros, which I chose as my
primary 3D software.
Since then, I use it on a daily basis. It worked great in college
for all architectural drawings and also for 3D modeling and rendering.
Its stability and extraordinary user-friendliness just amaze me. And
that's why I stick with it :)
Besides Rhinoceros, I use V-Ray for Rhino and Photoshop. The combination of these software solutions give us extreme
flexibility to finish all daily tasks in a very effective way and within reasonable time.
Novedge: What makes a good render extraordinary?
Matus Nedecky: The most
important thing is to be original. That's why I try to keep Rhino as our primary
3D software in FlyingArchitecture. The worst thing that can happen is that somebody starts to take shortcuts and just mindlessly copy and
paste assets to their 3D scenes. There are tons of CGI artists working
like this these days... So the direction we are taking is to use custom
3D models and our own photos for exterior postproduction, so we stay
original all the time.
Generally speaking, it's always up to the artist, everybody has a different point of view. There is an artist in all of us, we just have to
release him :) Don't just copy... create!
Novedge: What are your plans for the future?
Matus Nedecky: I always have big plans! I would need several lifetimes to
accomplish them all... Of course, there are some
particular plans for FlyingArchitecture, mostly regarding the website
itself, so we can get bigger and better with our free 3D models
database. I'll have more news soon, so stay tuned! And of course,
we are doing our best to offer better visualizations to our clients
every day. You can check our current visualization portfolio here.
Want to see more? Check out FlyingArchitecture's website.
Ready to share your Architecture Unchained? Read all about the contest here.
And don't forget to get in touch with us on Twitter and Facebook!
Eric Standley: I am an artist with a formal background
in painting. Somewhere along the way my allegiance to content
overthrew my obsession with paint. I did manage to retain my
meticulous nature. I am also an Associate Professor of Studio Art at
Virginia Tech.
Novedge: Your work is unique. How did you come up with the idea of Laser Cut Windows?
Eric Standley: I was working on a series called AM
Wisdom that included laser cutting circle-based patterns into
Cheerios boxes. When I was leaving the laser lab one day I stacked a
few cut pieces together and was blown away by the layered complexity
of the different works. I took out my sketchbook and wrote down a
dozen questions that took about 2 years to work through. The dominate
question being "Could I be conscious of creating multiple layers
that related to one another at the same time?" It's funny, I
never considered the work to be windows exactly. I am influenced by
Gothic and Islamic geometry found in architectural ornamentation-
including windows, but always saw the work as a form of drawing. It's
the relationships of the negative spaces between layers that become
physical space- an odd transformation from the sum of 2 dimensional
drawing to 3 dimensional spaces.
Novedge: Can you talk about your process
in creating these incredibly elaborate pieces?
Eric Standley: I sketch a composition first- working
out an overall goal. Then I draw each layer in vector-based software.
Each layer is cut individually with a CNC Laser. The work is then
cleaned of chads, assembled and bound like a flip book. The final
stage of my process includes building a mount and frame that holds
the work, allowing for a degree of movement that is inherent with
paper. The vector drawing process is the most time consuming, taking
me months to work through. I draw on a matrix: compositions are
constructed across the page and laterally on layers above and below.
Generally I work on 3 layers at one time. My max capacity is a
lateral consciousness of 7 layers at one time- of which I can do for
about an hour. It's taken some practice to do. The closest analogy I
can think of is playing chess: to consider 4 or 5 moves ahead and the
possible tangents... that's more or less the same facility of my mind-
a similar game...
Novedge: What software do you use?
Eric Standley: I use CorelDRAW for my vector work. The
program has a fairly sophisticated CAD-like orientation while still
being visually responsive. It's important for me to see what I'm doing
as I make decisions. I have been meeting the limits of the software
recently even though the vectors take up a small amount of memory. I
am currently working on an Arch that at layer 20 is over 23,000
nodes/8000 objects. I'm having to produce two separate vector drawings
that will be cut on top of each other to make one very complex layer.
I cut with a ULS PLS6 laser outfitted with a High Power Density Optic
package. The optics changed my work- allowing me to cut a thread of
paper .008" wide- about half the thickness of the paper itself.
Novedge: How does teaching inform your
art practice and vice versa?
Eric Standley: I believe creativity is best fostered
in an environment that encourages process and discovery. This
requires risk taking, allows for individuality and permits
epiphanies. Such a learning environment is incredible to be a part
of. I provide guidance by way of some wisdom, stories and
experiences, and in return I come to know each student, work with
them and assist in their goals. I am honored to be a part of and
witness their artistic progress.
Novedge: Can you tell us a bit about
your upcoming projects?
Eric Standley: I've been working with light recently-
illuminating from within the work (as seen in Argos). I've also been
working outside traditional geometry and leaning toward bilateral
symmetry and asymmetry, as found in water- flow dynamics for
instance. These are coming through in Arch 4 which is currently in
progress. I've also been working with some hand-made papers, rice
paper and transparencies. There are certainly more failures than
successes with newer questions and goals, but I feel an urgency to
produce the work. It wakes me up in the morning and it is the last thing
I'm thinking of before I fall asleep. There is still quite a bit to do
within this body of work.
Curious to see more of Eric's work? Check it out on his website.
And don't forget to connect with us on Twitter and Facebook!
Our 69th Webinar, Working with Shaders in Artlantis 4.1, left us all wanting for more! Here Chris Stringer answers all the questions he couldn't get to during our live Q&A session.
Q 01: Can a render from Artlantis be used as a Postcard?
A: No. A Postcard is a specialized type of low-resolution (400x300 pixel) JPEG rendering with additional information about the scene's materials embedded into it, created in Artlantis using the menu/command Tools/Create Postcard. By contrast, a regular Artlantis rendering created using the menu/command Inspector/Render does not contain this type of information...See also Q 2, Q 12 and Q 24.
Q 02: Can Postcards be moved from one PC to another? Must the Shaders be shared on both rigs?
A: Yes, Postcards can be moved, shared, emailed, etc. Yes, the original Shaders that existed on the computer/project where that Postcard was created must also exist on any other computer where that Postcard is going to be used, if it is to work properly. To ensure that Shaders and other media files used in a specific project travel safely with the project when it is being sent from one computer to another, always remember to save the project using menu/command File/Export as Archive… See also Q 1, Q 12, and Q 24.
Q 03: When you re-assign materials, will it be saved that way when the document is reopened?
A: Yes. Those settings are retained in that Artlantis file. See also Q 9.
Q 04: What are the limitations in Artlantis if a texture is pulled from the web? Do you lose any feature rich operations if you apply your own texture?
A: The limitations really depend on the quality of the texture and the set of accompanying image maps, because your goal in Artlantis shouldn’t be just to use good textures…it should be to use good Shaders. So,what’s the difference? A texture is a single bitmap image that defines one aspect of a material’s appearance. They can get assigned to the material in the 3D modeler or later in Artlantis. The most common type of texture used isa color (diffuse) image map, which are typically made by photographing a real-world material and often digitally altering them to create seamless edges. A material that only has a single texture map assigned to it is going to appear “flat” and less realistic…i.e. more computer-generated. A Shader is a combination of one or more separate texture files(typically all based on the same color image map as a starting point) that work in combination to define a material’s appearance in ways that cannot be accomplished with the use of a single color image map alone. Shaders typically make use of additional supporting image maps to add effects such as bump, reflection, shininess, normals, etc. These maps interact with the scene’s light and reflections to add life-like qualities to the materials. In Artlantis, it is possible to create a custom Shader that has all of the advanced settings of the high quality default Shaders in Artlantis, since they are offered to you within the menu/command Tools/Create Shader From... But, you either need the skill to create the supporting image maps for the shader (if they don’t already exist), or you need to find someone who already has those skills and has created those image maps. You can learn a lot by using the Create Shader From command to examine some of the existing Shaders’ settings and their accompanying image maps.
Q 05: Is there a specific relationship between values of the bump to the normal maps?
A: The bump and normal maps are both typically derived from the same starting point: the diffuse (color) image map. Both can be used to create the illusion of enhanced depth or relief in a Shader by affecting the way light interacts with the underlying color map, however, the normal map can be used to accomplish more than what is possible to achieve with the bump map. The grayscale information in the bump map can only scatter light in the direction of one axis: the Z axis.The normal map is a more advanced type of bump map, using the RGB color information it contains to scatter light in the X, Y, and Z axes. As an example, when creating a slate floor tile Shader, you might start with an 8 x 8 tile grid for the color map.
Giving it a Reflection of .7 and Shininess of 700 would create the following appearance:
You might use a bump map to simulate the depth of the grout lines and provide a rough textured quality to the slate surface. The lighter areas in the bump map will result in that area of the diffuse map appearing raised while the darker areas will appear to be recessed.
The normal map could have some of those same qualities as the bump map. It could have the same basic texture, accentuating the rough texture of the slate surface (below top). However, it could instead be created to scatter light in a simpler, profoundly different way…to make the individual tiles appear as if none of them were laid completely level (below bottom), so that the reflections of the background do not line up perfectly on each tile.
The combination of the bump and the normal maps could be used to both enhance the natural texture of the material and create more of a random appearance to the reflections in the tiles.
Q 06: Chris, can you show us how to use light on interior at night views? Thank you.
Q 07: How can we make realistic renders like those in 3D Studio Max using Sketchup with Artlantis?
A: The built-in Artlantis radiosity engine strikes an excellent balance between quality and speed. However, if you need something that goes beyond the capabilities of the Artlantis radiosity engine, check out the Maxwell Render engine for Artlantis. By default, it is installed with Artlantis 4.1 in a 30-day demo mode (can be activated with the purchase of a separate serial number) and is accessible from the menu/command Artlantis/License/Maxwell Render Engine (on Mac) or Help/Edit License/Maxwell Render Engine (on Windows). Licensed from Next Limit Technologies, the developers of the standalone version of Maxwell Render, the engine is an optional product that excels at creating hyper realistic renderings with physically accurate lighting behavior. The renderings take significantly longer to produce, but if that level of quality is needed, it is possible to do so without having to leave the familiar and extremely easy-to-use Artlantis work environment. That’s a powerful combination! Normally,you’ll want to use Artlantis for your preliminary renderings (and most of your final renderings, for that matter), then use the Maxwell Render Engine when is has to be perfect. You’ll note that there is a dedicated family of Maxwell Render Shaders in the Catalog of mostly reflective and refractive surfaces. You’ll want to apply those in a different version of your Artlantis project before doing a Maxwell rendering.
Artlantis Radiosity Engine:
Maxwell Render Engine:
Q 08: I had difficulties customizing interior views using white walls in Artlantis. I use the "china", "basic" shader, but never got the realistic view as you can see in this if it's possible.
A: If you want to achieve brighter whites, here’s what to do. In our example here, we’ll be changing the walls. First, you’ll want to have probably either the Basic or Expert Shader applied to your surface. The color doesn’t matter, but just to keep things simple, make it white. Locate the blanc.jpg in the Catalog/Images and drag it onto the surface (the walls, for example) in the 3D Preview window. In the ShadersInspector/Material list, select the blank.jpg texture. In the settings for that texture, mark the Rep. checkboxes so that it tiles horizontally and vertically. At this point, you probably won’t notice any visible changes in the 3D Preview window yet.
With the blank.jpg texture still selected in the Shaders Inspector/Material list, adjust the Ambient slider to the right to maybe around 0.20 or so. You should see the white areas of the walls brighten considerably. If you take the Ambient slider all the way up 1.00, it will increase the white to a very unnatural looking pure white, which you wouldn’t normally do. Note that the ceiling in the next image next has not been changed, thus becoming a point of reference compared to the brightened walls.
Q 09: Is it possible to apply a shader texture in just one face of the imported model? Or do we need to import another model with that face in a different shader?
A: Yes, you can apply a Shader to just one face using the re-assign material command. There is no need to import another model. First, select the face by activating the selection tool in above the material list.
Change the selection method to single face.
Click on the desired face in the 3D Preview window to select it. The selected element will temporarily be highlighted. Then, click on the Apply Material icon, in the Shaders Inspector palette.
A dialogue will appear. In this case, you will want to apply a copy of the currently selected material to the surface. Give the new material an appropriate name.
The final result is a new material definition for that surface, which now operates completely independent of the other elements in the scene that shared its previous material. You can then apply Shaders to this surface as you normally would in Artlantis…just drag and drop a Shader directly onto the surface in the 3D Preview Window.
See also Q 03.
Q 10: How can we use HDRI files to get shaders affected within the environment?
A: While it is true that HDRI does affect the appearance of Shaders in the scene, that’s a lighting/background topic really best left for a future webinar. In the meantime, you can watch this video available on the Artlantis YouTube channel: Artlantis 4.1 - Adding HDRI Background.
Q 11: When we render the "white" shader from native Artlantis there's always a little bit of gray aspect. How can we control this shader to put it more with and apply to interior walls?
A: See Q 8.
Q 12: Since the Postcards are just jpegs, do they have to be generated from Artlantis?
A: Yes, they must be generated from Artlantis, because they are not “just” jpegs, they are specialized jpegs with additional information embedded into them. See also Q 1, Q 2 and Q 24.
Q 13: Can you do paint on the surface, like graffiti effect?
A: Yes. While there is no paint brush tool in Artlantis, this can be easily achieved if you add an alpha channel to an image in Photoshop to mask out its background. In the alpha channel, dark areas will mask the image and light areas will remain visible. Export as a TIF or PNG, then drag and drop that image file directly into the Artlantis 3D Preview window. Scale, reposition, and check the Use Alpha Channel checkbox.
Q 14: I have problems with 3D plants from version 1.2 looking very rough when rendered in 4.0. Do you know why that would be?
A: That would be a question for the Artlantis technical support team. We would need to know what plant files you’re using, a few things about your system and setup, and might possibly need an archived project file to diagnose the cause and offer a solution. To submit a support ticket on artlantis.com, use this link.
Q 15: Is there an easy way to use alpha channels in Artlantis, so you can make realistic looking grass for example?
A: Yes, but Shaders might not be the best option. The problem with many grass textures (and even high quality grass Shaders) is that from a far distance, they appear too repetitive, while from a close distance, they appear too flat. You could start with a grass Shader, and drop one or more subsequent grass textures onto it (with various bits masked out using an alpha channel to show the other underlying grass texture) to create a more randomized appearance to the grass texture, but this does nothing to resolve the problem that in real life, unless you’re on a golf course, grass normally doesn’t look like low-pile carpet.
Grass 1 with alpha (goes on top)
Grass 2 (goes underneath)
Grass textures 1 and 2 combined. The blend creates more randomnessthan using one texture alone, however it still looks pretty flat.
Grass is a material that is really difficult to simulate through just a texture and some bump and normal maps, because in reality it is a highly volumetric type of surface. Yes, you’ve got to put some kind of ground material in your project, but rather than taking great pains to create a Shader to simulate grass or using a high-poly 3D grass object, you could instead make a composite for your final image. Artlantis provides the option to save out a rendering as a Photoshop file. The resulting file contains 5 separate, very useful layers: MODEL_FRONT (the foreground elements), BACKGROUND (the background elements), MATERIAL (a materials map, differentiating the materials in the scene by unique colors), OBJECT (like the materials map, only for objects),and ZBUFFER (a grayscale depth map of the scene). The first 2 layers combine to create the finished rendering, but it’s the last 3 layers that can be very useful for post-process editing.
If you don’t already own Photoshop, stop what you’re doing and order it now. If there’s one other tool you need to create great renderings, it’s Photoshop. We can open this rendering in Photoshop and quickly use the magic wand to select the ground plane in either the OBJECT or MATERIAL layers. We create a grayscale mask from this, then apply a glass distortion filter to it to give it more of a rough edge.
Next step is to combine the rendering with a real image of the site or a photograph of a neatly manicured lawn (via a quick trip to a stockphoto website). I located 2 suitable images, used the content-aware fill to extend and touch up some areas, blended them by setting one of them at 50% opacity, then brightened the result with an overlay layer. Grass is brightened by adding a new solid green layer, set to overlay at 28% opacity
The final result of the new grass added into the overall composition is pictured below. Much more convincing! Since this is a tutorial about adding grass textures, I won’t discuss the additional compositional elements, cropping, and other adjustments that could be done to this image in Photoshop to make it a fully realized architectural rendering.
Q 16: What is a good practice to make good use of those different mapsto make better looking gaps or displacement?
A: See Q 5.
Q 17: We've had a lot of problems with swimming pools in particular. If in the modeler the solid element (slab) for the water actually touches the walls around it then Artlantis shows a black surface when rendered. We've been doing a work around which is leaving the water short of the walls and floors of the pool by about 1 cm inorder to not have the black surface. Any suggestions?
A: Sometimes, a simple work around is the best solution! You might also try just using a flat plane for the water. I once talked to a person who was rendering an interior and was puzzled by the way that the exterior looked wrong through the windows, even though everything was oriented properly and set up correctly. As it turned out, she was using the “glass” refraction option in her windows’ glass Shader settings, which was warping the view of the exterior like a magnifying glass. This was quickly and easily resolved by simply changing the glass refraction option to “air.” Your issue might be related to something like this…some weird refraction happening at the water’s edge. If you think this is a bug, you should create a support ticket with the Artlantis technical support team. They would probably need an archived project file to diagnose the cause and offer a solution. To submit a support ticket on artlantis.com, use this link. Another option might be to try posting in the Artlantis forum.
Q 18: Good afternoon, in my experience with Artlantis I have a problem with exterior renders. In general, is there a simple way to make the default shader to look more natural, I mean imperfect, weary or grayed out?
A: See Q 13 and Q 15 (first half)…stacking alpha channel images on to materials. The repetitiveness of the brick wall in the example from Q13 is definitely broken up by the graffiti, but in your case, you will probably be using a more subtle pattern (maybe a light layer of patchy dirt/grime that is applied across the surface), with maybe a few additional one-off textures applied here or there to resemble pockmarks or imperfections. You can apply as many textures as you want over top of a material, and you can opt to have them simply operate as one instance, or repeat to tile across the surface. Also, keep in mind that when a texture is applied to a material, that texture can then be set to be 100% transparent and used as some other kind of map (such as a Bump map) by adjusting the relevant slider (such as the Bump slider). So, you can really stack up or layer a whole series of graphic effects onto a material to achieve just about anything you want for imperfections or weathering.
Q 19: Can you render the pool image we're looking at?
A: Here’s another look. Sorry, the high resolution version stays with me!
Q 20: Are Artlantis 4 and Artlantis Studio separate applications that need to be purchased separately?
A: That depends on what you need. Artlantis 4 is available in two separate packages: Render and Studio. Render creates still images only, while Studio creates still images plus dynamic content like animations, VR object movies, and iVisit 3D panoramic VR presentations. You can start with Render, and if you ever need to create any of the dynamic presentation content, you can upgrade to Studio for very close to the difference in cost between the two applications. Incidentally, they both use the same file format interchangeably, so an office team could easily use both Render and Studio on the same project files.
Q 21: Can ImageCels be incorporated in Artlantis?
A: Yes. According to the imagecels.com FAQ, their “images (people,trees, etc.) are 2D in the 32 bit .TIF (LZW compressed) file format with embedded alpha channel masks. They are placed against a 0,0,0 black background. Textures are 24 bit .TIF (LZW compressed),seamless and tileable.” TIF is one of the many file formats that Artlantis supports, including support for embedded alpha channels.
Q 22: What are good websites to get HQ textures?
A: There really are a ton of them. Our store, objectsonline.com, sells 6different volumes of Artlantis Shaders, but we do not carry any stand alone texture files. Marlin Studios is one old favorite. Another is TurboSquid. But, even with a site as huge as TurboSquid, I will often start my search by using Google image search, and then happen upon professional texture websites along the way, once I find the best example of a texture for whatever specific material I’m trying to create.
Q 23: I was an Artlantis user for many years and missed the latestupgrade path. In 4.1 can we re use all the shaders that we have for the past versions? (vol 1-10)
A: Artlantis has been around since the days of big hair and spandex (although being a French product, I’m not sure what was popular in Paris back then). When Artlantis was completely recoded and released in 2005, Abvent reset the version numbering to 1.0 and split the product into Render and Studio. Users of the legacy version, which had reached v.4.5, had a period of several years during which they could upgrade at a discount. Currently, users on Render or Studio v1.0 or later are eligible for a discounted upgrade to Render or Studio v4.1. Regarding the legacy Shaders, if the disc they came on is copyrighted year 2000 or later, there is still a chance they might work. Backwards compatibility was available for the legacy Artlantis Shaders volumes1-10, if they were released on or after year 2000. Although many of them still might work, they are not officially supported anymore. I’m not sure if yours will still work for you, but you could test that out by downloading the Artlantis 4.1 demo version, which runs without a serial number for 30 days. You would just need to copy your legacy Shaders into your programs folder…Artlantis/Media/Shaders/.
Q 24: Are postcards embedded in the project file, or do we need to transfer postcards to other computers where the project file is being worked on?
A: Postcards are separate JPEG files that are created in a project, but are saved outside of and operate independently of that project. Do not rename or edit them! They should normally be stored in your program's folder…Artlantis/Media/Postcards/. You will want to keep copies of the Postcards on any computer where you may later want to access them.You should also ensure that any Shaders referenced in a postcard also travel with the Postcard. See also Q 1, Q 2, and Q 12.
Q 25: What is the difference between reflection and fresnel settings?
A: The Reflection setting of a Shader controls one aspect of the Shader’s appearance: its ability to reflect light. The Fresnel Transition can, in effect, dynamically override or exaggerate the Transparency and Reflection settings of the Shader. In order for Fresnel to have any noticeable impact, there must be at least some level of transparency and/or reflectivity assigned to the material in the Shader settings. Fresnel will increase a material’s apparent reflection/opacity as a surface is oriented more obliquely, angled to face away from the observer. Conversely, a material’s apparent reflection/opacity is reduced as a surface is oriented more tangentially, angled to face toward the observer. When a material is assigned a low Fresnel Transition value, the apparent differences between the material’s reflection/opacity, when viewed at different angles, are exaggerated. When a high Fresnel Transition value is used, the differences are minimized. The following images illustrate these differences.
High Fresnel setting viewed at different angles…minimal differences
Novedge: Tell us a bit about who you are and what you do.
Ryan Swanson: My life began in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where I went to high school for architecture. I then moved to Tampa about 7 years ago to attend The University of South Florida School of Architecture and Community Design where I will soon receive my Masters in Architecture. I'm an aspiring architect, designer and creator. I like to make things and make things for a reason. I hate making something that has no back story or reasoning for its existence. I try to live by this quote from Jim Henson - "When I was young, my ambition was to be one of the people who made a difference in this world. My hope is to leave the world a little better for having been there.” It's kind of cliché but I believe if I'm alive I might as well make it worth it.
What do I do... Well I try to dip my hand in just about anything I find interesting. I coach and play volleyball, dj on my spare time, and pretty much just try to live life as much as possible. Which is a hard task to do while in Architecture School. I recently have really gotten into emergent technologies and how they can be used in a large scale realm to push urban activation. So I spend a lot of time learning and designing. I never want to stop learning.
Novedge: How did you become interested in architecture and the public space?
Ryan Swanson: I think my interest in architecture kind of came about when I was young and asked my mom what I could do that involved math and art and she was like "architecture." That started me down this crazy wild path to where I am today. I didn't really get into public spaces until I went to Europe about two years ago. Me and some friends backpacked around for 5 weeks going to about 7 different countries. I began to see what a real public space was and actually be a part of their activeness. It's one thing to read about how a space is in a book than to actually experience it. I saw how people began to come together and interact with one another through the space. It was something that I never really saw in Fort Lauderdale or Tampa in the urban environment.
When I came back to the States I had just actually moved close to downtown Tampa and began to ride my bike there quite often into downtown. Before I never had a reason to drive the 20 min to downtown because there was never anything going on. I began to ask myself why Tampa was unsuccessful when it came to public spaces. It had some of the same parks, spaces, and open areas that I experienced in Europe. I began to realize people just either didn't know that the spaces existed or that it was ok to hangout in an empty grass lot. Or, it was just that there was nothing going on for them to want to hang out there. If you look at any big city you can walk down a street and feel like you are alive. Something is always happening or about to happen. I wanted to make this happen in downtown Tampa. I felt it had the potential and wanted to begin to create a change in the social interaction downtown. Public spaces are a way for people to escape and with the way our world is looking these days people need any way they can get to escape the harsh realities of life and come together.
Novedge: What is a recent project that you worked on?
Ryan Swanson: I'm actually working on a couple of different projects right now. One is this interactive projection installation I call Projecting Fun. The idea for the projection installation is that it is something that can be easy to transport and it can be as big as you want it. The installation is done using the xbox kinect and processing, an open source code driven software. Right now I have a simple script that reads movements of the body and allows one to dance and play and see themselves projected at a large scale doing it. The idea of this installation is to promote interactive activity in inactive spaces. It draws people in but also makes people begin to appreciate and notice the space they are occupying. My goal is to give people a good time and break up their typical route, but also make them appreciate the space they are in. I have done this installation in two locations, one on the side of an old facade and the other under an overpass. So this is something I have done but I am still working on making it different and more playful.
The next thing is a prototype for this thing I call the Space Manipulator. The idea is that it's this cube that is placed within an inactive space and it can be broken down to a multitude of spatial arrangements for people to interact with. The idea is to get people to begin to play and work together on something and to create this idea of public interaction. The whole concept is to get people to come together in a space that isn't regularly used but is an interesting public space that should be activated. So when bringing this installation in I hope to not only give people something they can hang out on and move, but something they can begin to discuss and figure out. Public spaces are about bringing people together and creating a place for people to be interactive and become a part of the space. It's about creating a conversation between the human body and the space around them. The Urban Conga is working on a bunch of different projects right now and they can be seen on our website. But something that has recently fell into our arms is helping design, create, and run a Fab Lab in South Tampa. Essentially we are working to create a place for learning and collaboration. The idea is that the house is always developing projects done by people coming to the Lab to learn and create. We hope to set up a studio in the Lab and begin to collaborate on a lot more public installations with creators from the Tampa area.
Novedge: What software do you use?
Ryan Swanson: Software is something I told myself I want to have a vast knowledge in. It's like being a painter; you don't want to paint with just one color. Through architecture school and 3d modeling I have become really familiar with 3ds Max, SketchUp, V-Ray, AutoCAD, and Photoshop. I use these programs for prototyping ideas and mostly for rendering and setting up files to be laser cut or CNC routed. 3ds Max is also good for animations for showing how interactive installations work or for getting accurate prototypes to pitch ideas. When showing people what you plan to do it's all about making it as pretty as possible and 3ds Max can do that for you. Rhino, with the Grasshopper plug-in, is probably the program I use the most for modeling and designing ideas. Rhino is great for parametric modeling and also it has an endless supply of plug-ins and can do a multitude of functions. Grasshopper is a generative modeling tool for Rhino that uses algorithms to create form. It also can be interconnected to Arduino which is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. The two can be used together to create real world interactions and create a digital model from that interaction. Another program I use for interactive projection installations is Processing. It is another interactive open-source software that runs off of Java. The great thing about Arduino and Processing is that everything is open source, so everyone is willing to share ideas, code, and help. The idea is to keep pushing the limits and for an idea to keep growing. So if you make something maybe someone else can make something cooler with the thing you created and then so on. I believe technology is important to keep up with the ever growing society we are in. So I keep trying to find new software that I can learn to make things better and bigger with.
Novedge: What is the Urban Conga?
Ryan Swanson:The Urban Conga is a collective group of creators activating urban spaces through interactive installations. We stimulate urban spaces through exploration, activation, and above all interaction. The objective is to spark a conversation between the public realm and the human body through interactive installations. Our mission is to start The Conga Line! We want to collaborate with other creators and begin to start a movement in inactive areas.
We are not a group of artists that create static public art to make a dollar. Our philosophy is to inject care into local communities by accentuating and enhancing the beauty of the current urban conditions! With like-minded passions to better communities, we are turning unused and overlooked urban spaces into interactive places to live, learn, and love your city. The Conga started in September 2012 when I and a couple of other students at the University of South Florida School of Architecture realized we were interested in solving the problem that our downtown is having with activation. So in doing my thesis I tried to incorporate my research into The Urban Conga in how to interact with people and what they best respond to in order to begin to activate these unused spaces. Our goal is to start a movement! We hope there will begin to be an Urban Conga group everywhere just giving people something to do and interact with and have fun. Our whole motto is "Come out and play!"
Novedge: What are the rewards and challenges of being part of a collective, such as the Urban Conga?
Ryan Swanson: Everyone works in groups in school and hate it. I feel this gives a false reputation on collaborations or working in a collective effort. In the working world this is something a majority of people have to learn to accept and deal with. I think working with other people is how to make something better. If you lock yourself in a room you are only getting one perspective on the thing you are doing and that is your own. When you put together a bunch of people that have different skill sets something amazing happens. IDEO is a design consulting firm that solely believes on creations through a collaborative effort. They are one of the top design consulting firms in the nation due to this mind set. If you look at any online open sourced software, people collaborate everywhere. Someone puts up some code that does a basic function and someone else takes that basic function and makes it fly a rocket ship. Maybe that's a bit extreme but my point is that things grow from a collective effort, every time being pushed to be better and different. At the same time you do run into problems with communication and people not being on the same page, but I feel in the end the rewards out way the some time bickering and arguments over how things should happen. The way the Urban Conga is set up is anyone can come to us with an idea and the motivation to make the idea happen. What we want to do is make that idea for an interactive installation happen. Either through helping that person with funding or just helping them build and design it. Ever since we started this collaborative group so many artists, performers and creators have reached out to us to make stuff happen. People need something that is actually out, doing stuff that they can sort of latch onto. Collaborating with these people just helps me learn more of their specific skill set.
Novedge: What advice would you give to people looking into going to college to study architecture?
Ryan Swanson: If you want to study architecture in college make sure it is something you are truly passionate about because it takes over your life!!! Keep your mindset open when it comes to what design and architecture are when starting. You will realize that the knowledge you learn in architecture school can be used in so many different ways of design not just in building buildings. Also architecture school is all about teaching the art side of things and not the real side of architecture so make sure you study how things functionally work and about coding and all that jazz as well as the fun stuff. Architecture school becomes a part of your life you kind of begin to realize no one outside of architecture school really understands what you are going through. It makes you feel sort of like an elitist in the college world but also excluded. Learn to love the studio and make it your home. Working in the studio is the most important part of architecture school. It goes back to the whole idea of putting different skill sets into one room and learning from one another. The main thing is just to hold on for the wild ride architecture school will bring you!
Our April Book of the Month is Bridgette Meinhold's Urgent Architecture. Today we talk with the author about her passion for sustainability and art.
Novedge: Tell us a bit about who you are and what you do Bridgette Meinhold: I am a freelance writer and artist based in Park City, UT. I'm the architecture editor for Inhabitat with a focus on green building, sustainable architecture and innovative design. When I'm not writing about sustainability, I paint atmospheric landscapes in my reclaimed shipping container art studio.
photo by Claire Wiley
Novedge: You have written over 2,000 articles on green architecture for Inhabitat. How did you first become interested in ecological issues? Bridgette Meinhold: I have always been interested in the environment. I have two degrees in engineering - a BS in Mechanical and a Masters in Civil & Environmental and have worked in the fields of renewable energy and sustainability consulting before becoming a writer.
Novedge: What have you learned and what surprised you since you joined Inhabitat? Bridgette Meinhold: There are so many people out there working on amazing designs and innovative products. I'm excited to see what architects and designers come up with next and I enjoy featuring their work and sharing it with our readers.
photo by Laurel Cummings
Novedge: Why write Urgent Architecture? What would you like readers to come away with from the book? Bridgette Meinhold: I have long been concerned about the effect of natural disasters. Growing up in Oklahoma, we experienced tornadoes regularly and I felt when I was younger there was nothing that could be done to protect us if one came by. But now that I'm older and have learned more, I know that we do have the technology and know-how to build safe homes. I wrote Urgent Architecture to share with the world some of the amazing projects I had found to show that we need to be building smarter in order to save lives.
Novedge: Can you talk about a few of the structures you show in the book? Bridgette Meinhold: One of my favorite projects was the LIFT house in Bangladesh that was designed so that part of the home would float when floods occurred. The home was designed by Prithula Prosun as part of her architecture master's thesis as a prototype for low-cost and flood-resilient housing. Centered around a stationary brick core are two lightweight bamboo and reed structures that can rise up with flood waters and then lower when they recede. This ensures the family has somewhere safe and dry to live during the floods that come regularly to the area.
photo by Prithula Prosun
I also really like the SLUMtube house, which is an affordable housing concept in South Africa built from reclaimed materials and shipping pallets. It was designed by Andreas Claus Schnetzer & Gregor Pils, who have built many other shipping pallet houses. They wanted to help people in South Africa learn how to build safe, comfortable houses using found materials and the ubiquitous shipping pallet. The tubular design came about because the two designers wanted to eliminate the need for expensive structural wood beams.
photo by Palletenhaus
Novedge: Your book touches on big problems, such as poverty and natural disasters. How can architects become more involved if they want to help? Bridgette Meinhold: Poverty and natural disasters occur in every nation of the world. Obviously it's great if architects or designers find projects they want to help out with in other places around the world, but I strongly suggest looking first for projects in the local community. Hooking up with local non-profits to provide design expertise is an amazing way to donate your time. Otherwise check out Architecture for Humanity, which is a fantastic organization dedicated to improving the built environment around the world and offers up many volunteer opportunities.
Novedge: What innovations do you see in architecture? What do you think will change in the future? Bridgette Meinhold: Architecture is innovation and every day there are new ways to think about things and new products and technologies the help increase efficiency, health and safety. Sustainable design is the way of the future and green building strategies will only improve with more practice and implementation.
See more of Bridgette Meinhold's work on her website and follow her on Twitter.
Ready to own a copy of Urgent Architecture? Find it on Novedge. And don't forget to join us on Twitter and Facebook!
Today we talk to Lukas Filip, a member of our online community, Rhino Jungle. The dreamy quality of his renderings caught my eye and I asked him to share a bit more about what he does.
Novedge: Tell us a bit about who you are and what you do
Lukas Filip: First of all, I’d like to thank you for choosing me for this interview and for giving me this opportunity. My name is Lukas Filip, and on the forums I am known as “Yosi”. I’m from Slovakia, and I am 27 years old and live in my hometown Kosice. After finishing Secondary Technical School of transport I decided to get a degree at Technical University of Kosice in Civil Engineering, which is where I found out all about CG. As for what I do, I am currently at the end of my part time job as seller and designer at a kitchen studio, and beginning official cooperation with Matus and Veronika Nedecky’s at Flying Architecture visualisation as a CG artist.
Novedge: Your work has a certain "dreamy" quality: can you talk about how you approach your images to create this effect?
Lukas Filip: I’ve never thought about it that way, this is kind of hard to explain... Generally, I follow no strict rules. I usually go with my feelings, instead of relying on exact repeatable steps. My melancholic nature might be the cause of this "dreamy" quality. I’m a lover of cold weather, frosty days, dense fog, and mountains half-clad in heavy clouds and so on. Not that I dislike sun or anything.
Novedge: What is a recent project that you worked on?
Lukas Filip: That would be Traditional Housing in Slovakia. After visiting one of these houses I got enchanted by the simplicity of this project, use of raw rood, this so-called "return to our roots." I am starting to feel a bit fed up with glossy and flashy looks in architecture, and prefer simplicity over complexity, use of neutral-coloured matte materials and so on. My main objective was to create something that would make you feel you are part of the nature and give it certain fairy-tale feel (what is better suited for a fairy-tale scene than a lovely wooden cottage at the edge of a forest?). The moment I decided to work on this I knew what the scenes should be about, colours, composition and all.
The early morning scene is my personal favourite; it has everything I love – the time is just before sunrise (I am an early riser), it has my favourite colour tones - shades of blue/cyan with rich green grass, dense fog engulfing the valley and so on... The day scene is more traditional, lots of light and a little girl chasing a deer. Who wouldn’t want to live in such environment? I have to be careful though, for this could backfire just as well; some people might actually imagine a lonely wolf instead of a lovely deer, with the chase thing being the other way round, that would be a big no-sell material!
Novedge: What software do you use? Why?
Lukas Filip: Some six years ago I made my first render using Archicad. Continuing to Artlantis Studio 2.0 I tried to gain more knowledge and enhance my work. Experimenting led to passion and I found myself craving for more, constantly unsatisfied with my results. During this time I learned most of the basic stuff, the need for good lighting and the basics of texture mapping. I eventually ended up using Rhinoceros 4 and V-Ray. Why? It is very user friendly, it doesn’t require a NASA-built power station, it is stable enough, and when a new version comes out, it actually is a new version, not a bunch of service packs packed into a prettier coat. With a V-Ray plugin for rendering and Photoshop for post processing it gives me everything I need.
Novedge: Where do you find inspiration for your work?
Lukas Filip: I’d say everywhere: just observing life around me. While shopping, sitting at cafeteria, trekking, reading books... And of course in works of famous CG artists, like matte painter and concept artist Raphael Lacoste, or Viktor Fretyán (MIR).
Novedge: Can you tell us a bit about your upcoming projects?
Lukas Filip: As I mentioned before, I’ve never been satisfied with anything I created in my CG portfolio, some I even dislike. There are several personal projects in my mind right now. Some I hope to finish by the end of this year, maybe even a re-mastered version of one of my older projects ;-). Then there are one or two much more complex projects, in terms of time, research and skill needed that will require several years of mere preparation. The theme itself is very famous and if actually finished, it would not be part of my usual architectural portfolio.
If you want to see more of Lukas's work, check out his online portfolio and connect with him on Rhino Jungle.
You might have noticed Novedge is undergoing some design changes (check out our new webinar slides!). On this blog, we have been publishing two interviews every week for the past couple of months. This series of interviews is now called The Edge as we talk to people at the edge of knowledge, innovation, new businesses and art.
Novedge: Tell us a bit about who you are and what you do
Juraj Talcik: My name is Juraj Talcik and I am the co-owner, with Veronika Demovicova, of a small visualization studio based in Bratislava, capital of Slovakia. We are creative partners and longtime friends who shared architectural studies together, which is great help in the type of work we do, since our prime customers are architects and property developers. The core of our business is creating high-end promotional 3D visuals of unbuilt spaces and designs, although we wager into other types of work as well, providing supplementary services in small graphic design and website creation.
Novedge: You have a solid presence on Facebook. As a new business owner, how important is it to show your work on social media, enter competitions and be published?
Juraj Talcik: Although I believe media presence (esp. social media) is still secondary to producing exceptional quality of work, it’s an incredibly important aspect of the current global economic market. Various fields including ours are over-saturated with strong global competition and it’s important to communicate your uniqueness. While a lot of traditional forms of business can thrive off hear-say and personal recommendations, digitally-based companies with globally based customers need to put themselves out there in order to reach new customers. A solid media presence across multiple channels helps you push your work into broader and longer internet limelight in times when attention spans are reduced greatly by the over-abundance of content. Apart from Facebook, we have a strong following on Behance and Vimeo, both sites showcasing original content. I noticed that for most the hardest thing is to maintain these channels, which for me is play. I greatly enjoy sharing my work and experiences and giving back to the community, by giving advice and posting images alike.
Novedge: What software do you use?
Juraj Talcik: The primary software in our workflow is 3ds Max from Autodesk, due to its versatility, relative easiness of use and for being literally the industry standard, which is important because it lets us connect it to various other tools being developed which both expand its capacity and also make our work easier. We use 3ds Max to model individual assets such as furniture, and then assemble the whole scene inside it, probably 90% of our time is spent inside. Our renderer of choice is currently V-Ray. We use it mostly for same reason as 3ds Max, it's the industry standard, it’s been greatly developed and is compatible with various other tools. Last but not least, is Adobe Photoshop, used in post-production stage, from color grading to photo montage creation. One special software that’s been in our pipeline for quite a long time and makes us stand out quite bit is Marvelous Designer, a cloth simulator that helps us create life-like assets of various furniture. We also currently test technologies from real-time segment, namely Unity and CryEngine3.
One important thing I would like to mention is that although we build strongly upon the newest technologies, we never lose sight of the most important aspect of our work, and that is communicating design with the right ideas, choosing the proper visual language and storytelling. Technology is only the tool that helps us achieve these goals.
Novedge: What is a recent project that you worked on?
Juraj Talcik: Our most successful and recent project is The White Bedroom, which was a non-commercial endeavor started when we were asked by 3D Artist magazine to write up a complex tutorial on the creation of furniture using cloth simulation with Marvelous Designer software. Alongside it, we created our first animation for it, which ended up being quite successful and was even chosen by Vimeo in the Staff Pick category. It was watched by more than 150,000 people in the first week. In our work we always try to bring uniqueness to each project and this is realized both on the style and the technology front. Marvelous Designer is definitely our most popular feature tool, for which we are well known.
Novedge: How do you find inspiration to stay ahead of the curve?
Juraj Talcik: I consider it very important to seek inspiration outside of your field. Find ideas and translate them to your benefit. For us it means surfing through a lot of photography of various sort, from commercial to documentary to artistic, advertising, movies, literature and even computer games. If you focus too much on what your direct competitors are doing you end up in a chasing race that can’t be won and your work will slowly become just another copy, and therefore inherently worse. I see it happen so often. Second, just like most designers, I strongly enjoy what I do, and when work is fun for you, you improve quickly. Nonetheless, I am a very competitive person, so I am still aware of how others are doing, but I keep doing my own thing.
Novedge: What are some of the rewards and challenges of owning your own business?
Juraj Talcik: The biggest reward is freedom. The biggest challenge is responsibility. Freedom enables you to fit work within your own lifestyle, which by itself makes you a quite happy person. And you can pursue the direction that you wish to explore in business. I am an adventurous person and always wished to be my own boss. I also feel good as a leader, motivating others in their pursuits. Responsibility is something that keeps you awake at nights when others already cleared their minds of work. It never keeps you satisfied, always being hungry for advancement and improvements. It’s a never-ending challenge, and although it makes for a more stressful life, I would not swap it for security.
I discovered Tips for Architecture School, while looking for great blogs to follow on Tumblr. Mark Perrett has built a great resource for anyone currently studying architecture or planning to do so. His blog is also a useful reminder of what it means to start on this path and how much things have changed. Here's what he shared with us.
Novedge: Tell us about yourself and your blog Tips for Architecture School. How did it start and why?
Mark Perrett: I started Tips for Architecture School out of pure necessity. My love for teaching pushed me to become a graduate teaching assistant at my university and my first day with the class was not what I expected. I knew I would be helping people with their designs, and teaching them new methods of drawing and construction they had never seen before, but I did not expect there to be so many questions about even the most basic things like what kind of glue to buy and what pencils to use. I began writing every question the students asked in my sketchbook and when I gave the class an answer, I would fill it in next to the question. After the first two weeks, my sketchbook was almost full with words, phrases, quotes, and questions answered from all my students. I showed it to a friend of mine and he, almost as a joke, said “You should save some paper and write a blog.” So I did. :)
Novedge: What inspires you?
Mark Perrett: I’m 26 now, but I died at age 5. When I was younger, I was thrown off of a horse and trampled. I was rushed to the E.R. and became clinically dead for a few seconds before the doctors got to work. After a year, I completely recovered.
The older I get, the more I can’t help but think that I got a second chance to take advantage of life, and so inspiration comes in abundance. Over time, I have tried to develop a filter for greatness. I look at the world around me and sift through to find the good in everything. If I had to choose one person in particular who inspires me the most it would be my mother. She was, and still is, a great role model for me. Growing up, we lived a modest life, and didn’t really have much, but she taught me how to be positive, innovative, intuitive, and imaginative under any circumstances. This encouraged a fascination with learning and how things work in life in general.
When I got older, I marched in marching band and also toured all over the country for four seasons with a Drum and Bugle Corps. Still to this day most of my mentors, values, and work ethic come from all of my years with music. It is funny when my musician friends read my architecture school blog because they can point out the principles I learned from music as they read each post. Especially as I come close to graduating with my Master’s degree and entering the “Real World”, the need for inspiration and encouragement is growing by the day. Whenever I am feeling inadequate, or that the work I am doing is not sending me in the right direction, I have a few key players in my box of inspiration. And for the record, everybody should have a box of inspiration.
Novedge: What have you learned by writing your blog and answering questions from students?
Mark Perrett: This blog has taught me not only a lot about others, but a lot about myself. In fact, Iwrite every post as if I am addressing myself from the past, which keeps me honest. It is almost like I am going back in time and sharing all of the secrets to life I have learned through experience, but instead of talking to myself, I am talking to the prospective students within my field. That is what teaching is, in a way, a real-time form of time travel. I am in the present, passing on my knowledge from the past, to help people in the future.
Originally this blog was meant to be a place for my intro students to go and read the tips I was writing for them, but the blog started becoming more popular within the Tumblr community and people from around the world began to follow. The questions started pouring in from Singapore, Serbia, Australia, France, Iran, England, The Philippines, and much more. It was surprising to see that I could answer a question from one student and it was beneficial for thousands of other students around the world. It's not just architecture students either. The information can be applied across many platforms of design and life in general. In fact, I believe that application is the most important attribute to all education. Being able to take what you have learned from one genre and apply it to everything else you do in life is a key trait in maxing out your current knowledge to its full potential.
Novedge: What software do you use? What software do you recommend to architecture students?
Mark Perrett: Software is undoubtedly one of the most integral parts of an architect’s education. Through school I have learned and used the following programs: AutoCAD, Adobe Photoshop, Rhino, Grasshopper, Revit, Adobe Illustrator, Google SketchUp, V-Ray for SketchUP and Adobe Dreamweaver.There are many more programs out there like Kerythea and Adobe Lightroom that I seeused a lot, but If I had to pick three programs to prepare you for architecture school they would be AutoCAD, Photoshop, and SketchUP. Here is why:
AutoCAD is one of the most widely used in the industry, but it is so much more than just a software for making clean plans and sections. I use AutoCAD with our laser cutters and CNC Router to build accurate 3D models and prototypes. Another great feature is the 3D modeling capabilities to create high quality 3D graphics. If you are getting into the field of architecture, you will need to be able to use this program.
Adobe Photoshop is a great equalizer. You don’t have to be a wizard of rendering software to produce beautiful graphics. A proficient amount of skill in Photoshop can help you produce stunning graphic representations of your work even if you are not a pro at too many other programs.
SketchUP is the “McDonald’s of software” in the design profession. Everyone uses it, it works great, but it is not as “healthy” for you as some other 3D modeling software because of its brutal simplicity. Other 3D modeling software can do much more, but this is a great place to start. I have heard plenty of snide remarks from professors about this program, but I love it. I can either quickly sketch out an idea or spend hours detailing my entire model, but the program as a whole allows me to make quick, easy digital models for my projects which can later be exported to many other programs for further development. Plus, I can mass a model out in SketchUP and import it into Rhino if I want to use complex forms, parametric modeling, or print on a 3D printer.
Novedge: What innovations do you see in your field, now or in the future?
Mark Perrett: Of course we will always be improving on things like renewable resources and energy efficiency, but I think the innovations for the future of architecture will focus more on architectural amenities. And I’m not talking about bathroom tile. I imagine that, as technology becomes more advanced, so will the way we inhabit space and interact with architecture. Interactive architecture is a growing interest in this field. Architecture has such a broad spectrum it really shapes the way we eat, sleep, work, play, and live life in general. Here is a video that always gets me thinking when looking into the future of architectural design: A Day Made of Glass... Made possible by Corning.
A section of my thesis also deals with interactive architecture in the public realm. A group of four students (including myself) from the University of South Florida School of Architecture + Design has developed an urban design collaborative called The Urban Conga. We activate public spaces by installing interactive installations in downtown/urban settings, creating arenas for exploration, and promoting free choice learning. Learn more about The Urban Conga here.
You can see Mark's personal work on his website and you can read his Tips for Architecture School on his blog. You can purchase his book Architecture Terms | A Guide for Students on How to Speak like a Designer here.
We had the pleasure of meeting François Lévy last November at the West Coast BIM Camp organized by Vectorworks and which Novedge co sponsored in San Francisco. François is not only a talented architect, but he also wrote BIM in Small-Scale Sustainable Design, our December Book of the Month. We asked him to tell us a bit about his current projects, what inspires him and the software he loves to use.
François Lévy: I am
an architect practicing in Austin, Texas. Most of my commissions are for
single-family residential projects by virtue of my being a sole
practitioner, although I occasionally work on commercial projects too,
and collaborate with other firms on larger projects from time to time. I
have also taught digital design and environmental controls courses in
architecture schools off and on for about 15 years, and last year Wiley
published my book on using building information modeling for designing
climate-dominated sustainable architecture, BIM in Small-Scale Sustainable Design,
really the first of its kind. In the book, I discuss at length how the
quantitative information inherent to a BIM workflow can be used for
greener design. Finally, I also engage in design research in space
architecture (design for human activities in orbit and on
extraterrestrial planetary surfaces). Right now, some colleagues and I
are finalizing a paper inspired in part by DARPA's Hundred Year Starship
(100YSS) initiative, which we hope to have published in a journal this
year.
Novedge: What inspires you?
François Lévy: I'm
inspired by the delicious dialog that can arise between a building and
its place. When buildings are carefully indexed to their climate, the
natural world can serve as a guide for architectural form. Solar
orientation, prevailing winds, the scale and pattern of vegetation, the
topography of the land, and the context of neighboring natural and
human-made structures all can inform a project. Buildings that are
responsive to their place can not only perform better, but they can be
truly beautiful and satisfying—not because they parrot the mere form of
natural structures, but because they are deeply absorbed in the laws of
natural systems. See video animation here.
Novedge: What is a recent project that you worked on?
François Lévy: We're about to start construction on Boussoleil (a made-up French word
meaning 'sun compass'), a single-family rural home I designed for a
couple a short drive from Austin. They've had the land a few years, and
been patiently awaiting their new home. Their sensibilities are modern,
but also quite practical, and they have high standards for building
performance and quality. At the same time, they wanted a home that would
be sympathetic to the land and sensitive to nature.
Because
my clients wanted a home with a modern aesthetic that could accommodate
solar photovoltaics, I initially designed a shed roof that was oriented
due south, with an elevation (pitch) to maximize summer solar
collection (the peak load due to cooling needs). Unfortunately, an ideal
building orientation for passive cooling in our climate (long axis
running east and west, with maximum northern and southern exposure)
created a site problem, as one end of the house would be seven or eight
feet out of grade. (One requirement of the owners was that the house be
all on one level, with no steps). So early in the design process, I
investigated varying the building orientation somewhat, looking at the
impact the deviating the long face from true south might have on solar
collection and passive heat gain, and comparing that to the site work
cut-and-fill implications of an orientation that was more or less
parallel to the site's topography.
I
was able to use my design software of choice, Vectorworks ARCHITECT, to
evaluate these competing objectives using its built-in heliodon (solar
animation) and site modeling tools. In addition, I referred to the
research literature to help me determine how much I could rotate the
roof azimuth from due south and not suffer a significant loss in solar
collection. Simple online tools like PV Watts helped
me fine-tune the roof orientation and validate its elevation, and BIM
sun studies were essential in avoiding tree canopy and self-shading.
Extensive sun studies throughout the design process, in fact, helped me
refine roof overhangs and window sizing and placement.
There
were a variety of other ways that I used the quantitative analysis
opportunities of the building information model to inform my design
decisions. A few examples:
•
Balancing the amount of south-facing glass to internal exposed thermal
mass (concrete floors and masonry fireplace surround) for winter passive
solar heating;
• Designing an appropriate thermal chimney height and ventilation openings for passive cooling using the stack effect;
• Dynamically sizing the rainwater harvesting cistern based on available roof area;
•
Providing material takeoffs for lumber, roofing, wallboard, brick,
metal siding, concrete, etc. for project cost and material waste
analysis as the design progressed;
• Optimizing the acoustic ceiling area in the living room to control reverberation times and therefore acoustical quality.
Novedge: What software do you prefer and use? Tell us why.
François Lévy: I've
been using Vectorworks ARCHITECT for years, since it was MiniCAD+ in
the early 90s. Like several other BIM authoring tools, Vectorworks
allows the designer to produce detailed, intelligent 3D building models.
Moreover, what I've found to be particularly attractive about
Vectorworks is that it encompasses a breadth of modeling tools. These
include the kinds of building-specific tools one might expect (walls,
doors, windows, stairs, roofs, etc.), but Vectorworks also allows very
flexible free-form modeling, from NURBS to primitive solids and Boolean
operations. As a result, Vectorworks is very much a designer's BIM, as Jerry Laiserin has
aptly described it. Also, Vectorworks' output, from 3D renderings to 2D
drawings, just look great. As a result, my entire design workflow, from
site analysis and conceptual design all the way through construction
documents and construction administration happens in Vectorworks.
In my experience design is not a linear process, but requires frequent iteration. There's inevitably a redoing of work or loss
of information when transferring files around a suite of separate
digital design tools. While each of those tools individually might be
quite powerful (and for some tasks essential), there's a corresponding
loss of efficiency when exporting or importing files. As a result, the
designer is discouraged from making too many "round trips" from, say,
modeling to drafting and back to modeling. Since my model and drawings
are linked throughout the design process, in many cases it's easier, not
harder, to make 3D model changes even late in design. My models are
always up to date, and I'm freer to make changes. That's very powerful.
Novedge: What innovations do you see in your field now or in the
future?
François Lévy: It's difficult
to predict the future, of course. There's an obvious path before us
suggesting more, better, faster of what we already have now. What's
harder to see is what the next big leap will be. The
Architecture/Engineering/Construction industry is also pretty
conservative and slow to adopt change. While very large construction
forms have been on the cutting edge of adopting BIM, small builders are
slow to adopt technological innovation. So I suspect that in my world
(smaller architectural projects), change and innovation will be driven
by consumer products and software more so than by professional-grade
hardware and software. For example, we've only just begun to see the
impact of tablet computing. Tablets aren't really computers as we tend
to think of them, and I doubt we will be authoring a lot of content on
tablets soon, but they are getting quite powerful. There are already
great tools that make documenting a site pre-construction and during
construction more effective. I think those tools will evolve as tablet
computing moves forward. More contractors will use their tablets in the
field; perhaps the architect's model could be superimposed with live
walk-through video of the project under construction, flagging
inconsistencies between the two. Another consumer product that will
predictably advance and get cheaper is the display. Displays may, within
the foreseeable future become so lightweight, portable,
high-resolution, and affordable as to replace a roll of job site
drawings. This is already happening on very large projects. I don't know
that paper will completely disappear over the life of my career, but
digital displays may become more widespread, even on small projects.
Imagine markups in the field coordinated in real-time with the entire
design team (and the building official!)
We asked Cristiano Sacchi, our co founder and CEO, to share some thoughts for the end of the year. Cristiano loves to look ahead and decided to write about a wish he has had for many many years...
"Another year has gone by and for the
design community it was a very interesting one indeed. The fast
spreading of desktop 3D printing alone makes 2012 a year to remember.
As we look forward to an even more
interesting 2013 I have my usual, still unfulfilled, wish for the
software development wizards out there: Will we finally see a good
initial stage design concept tool? As a matter of fact, the back of
any envelope, or a napkin, still beats any software for very early
stage concept design. Can we finally do better than pen and paper to
help creativity at every stage?
Over the years we have seen great
progress in the conceptual design software space. Products like
bonzai3d, Moment of Inspiration (MoI), and SketchUp offer good early
stage creativity tools to industrial designers, architects and
engineers, but they have not replaced the napkin yet.
The ultimate
early-stage design tool would be something that you grab for an
impromptu brainstorming session instead of pen and paper when pen and
paper is readily available on your desk. If such a tool were
available, the benefits would be incredible: the resulting draft model
could be used downstream to create many things, such as accurate designs and 3D printouts. Early analysis tools (like like rendering and stress) and remote communication would
also be very easy (e.g., you could Skype in a colleague from a remote
location to have a quick opinion). And that would be just the start.
I have had this same wish for the past quarter of a century and one thing that gives me hope is that tablet computers have now gone mainstream. Will this new
device finally inspire somebody to find a way to replace pen and
paper for conceptual design? Maybe the lack of a proper device was
the problem – as long as computers only sit on your desk and can
only be operated with a keyboard and a mouse they might be
intrinsically less appealing than pen and paper – and certainly you
cannot bring them with you at breakfast or lunch when suddenly you
start brainstorming about a new design idea. Will the tablet be the
game changer?
So, will this be the year when I get my wish? Can I get my wish at
all? Are napkins inherently better than today’s computers and
software? What do you think?"
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