Project 3: Animation

PROJECT 3 HOUSE ANIMATION

3DS Max

FLY AROUND AERIAL

WALK THROUGH

(In a hurry?)


The goal of this project was to take Project 1's two Revit models and animate them in 3ds Max. I've created a walk-through of one house and fly-around of both houses. To make the walk-through visible and life-like, I used a series of photometric free lights at maximum intensity. Also, I used an eye height camera with head turning to simulate real movement through the spaces. Certain other considerations were taken into account to make the video more lifelike: swinging doors, glossy floors, stained wood shelving (and other various textured materials), a trip up the stairs ;), and head turning/tilting to see important objects that catch the eye. 3ds Max is a great tool, but it has its limitations. It was extremely difficult to redo layering by floor level after importing from revit. It would be helpful to have the same level layer setup when transitioning between programs. What I was impressed with was the range of material choices, the workability of animation using keyframes, and the 4 window view setup. Now, if only it didn't take so long to render... RENDERING RENDERING RENDERING RENDERING RENDERING RENDERING

WALK THROUGH 2

(Post Chill Pill)

ENDS 116 Project 2

My image is a front sectional view of the first and second floors of the family house. It emphasizes the view from the front door through the living room and into the backyard. By photoshopping figures into the foreground and background, I have given the visual viewer an easy way to relate to the image. The range of activities going on in the image (reading, talking, running outside) show the versatility of the different spaces of the house. The photoshop interface made this process fairly simple, given the numerous options at hand. The tools I used most heavily were “darken,” and “burn.” Darken allowed the figures to take on the same lighting as the room they were placed in. Burn allowed me to darken certain areas of their bodies and make shadows at their feet. One problem I encountered was the difference in “crispness” of the people and the space. The people tended to look cleaner around the edges than the objects around them, making them look out of place. To fix this I used blur, sharpen, smudge, and clone stamp tools. Overall the use of photoshop made this house more accessible in the typical client’s eyes.

I chose to use the posterization effect on one of the images because of its emphasis on shadows. I feel that it’s a simple way to bring out the hard and soft lines as if they were in a comic book. On the third image, I chose to use a color variant after converting to black and white because it gives the appearance of an old photo. By taking out the wide range of colors, it lets the viewer focus on the other aspects like subject matter and layout as opposed to wall color and fine details. Again, this easy change helps the eye to notice different things in the same image.

Image Citations

"34536652 Jorge Salcedo." Shutterstock Images. Web. 3 Apr 2010. .

"6980614 Phil Date." Shutterstock Images. Web. 3 Apr 2010. .

"Foto S.A. Photo and Servicing Agency." Foto S.A.. Web. 3 Apr 2010. .

Project1

The overall design idea behind both houses was a combination of feng shui, energy efficiency, and the individual styles/needs of each of the clients. The exterior design is very geometric, as no joints are a perfect 90 degrees, and no two walls are parallel. This gives the houses an interesting shape from all angles; also, it works to keep the sun from directly heating one wall for an extended period of time. In Wei Yan’s house, the larger of the two (and northern most), the floor plan was designed so that his two children have adequate learning and open playing space upstairs and downstairs, while the studio office and all bedrooms are private and separated. Wei Ling’s house, on the other hand, is largely open and simple. She has access to outdoors from the majority of rooms in the house, as this is where she likes to spend the most time. Both houses take into account inlets and outlets for wind ventilation. This allows easy cooling in the summer and (mostly) negates need for air conditioning in the spring and fall.

The modeling process was accomplished using BIM (Building Information Modeling). The series of steps used (summarized) are as follows: exterior walls, floor, building pad, interior walls, stairs, ceilings, roof, components (furniture), landscaping, and other details.

I would say that the Autodesk Revit interface is very useful and well organized. It is easy to access each tool and helpful that there are explanations if you hover over them. There were continual problems with editing the materials and duplicating instances. To resolve this, it would be helpful if instances were not automatically grouped, and instead, the user could group walls/floors as needed to change the materials. In overall performance, Revit worked fairly well. The interior renderings are slow, but they have numerous rendering options that make each rendering incredibly photorealistic.

ENDS 116 Project 1

ENDS Project 1 focuses on creating a behavioral setting using BIM (Building Information Modeling). It is a good example of how energy efficient architecture can affect costs, maintenance, and overall efficiency of design in the simplest of sites. This particular site, home to two potential residential houses, is located in Bryan, TX. The larger of the houses is designed for a family of four while the smaller houses a single woman, mid twenties. To accomplish a sustainable design, the following are a few of the important things taken into account: location, orientation, privacy, material availability and purpose, prevailing wind, the lake view, etc. Inside the houses is one particular piece of custom designed furniture that is practical and efficient in it's own right. All pieces come from the same 4'x8' sheet of wood, all joints are friction fit, and disassembly leaves compact, flat wood parts that are inexpensive to ship.