lecture topic - May 16 2007 - Preparing final hand-in

The topic was examining images from the past to develop a plan to present well.

We talked about:

Ensuring that the images presented in the final render set developed a theme about the building. The goal was to try to focus on presenting in images some form of narrative that enhanced your reader/viewer's knowledge of the building or of the process of modelling or of the process of rendering... Examples that were presented of acceptable foci for a themed page were:

• comparison of the Light Studio and the Mental Ray renderers (e.g. time vs quality)
  
• an analysis of the way(s) in which daylight reaches the interior through sections and other views
• an analysis of the architect's writing about his/her building is revealed in the form /light interplay
• an examination of the role of light in the progression one makes through the building from outside to in or from gallery to gallery ...
• representation / revealing of the qualities of light in the major spaces in early morning / late afternoon - summer / winter - night / day - sun / overcast conditions
  
• interrogation of the design principles - formal / rhythmic / organic / asymmetric - affect the flow of light

We noted yet again that there is a requirement in the assignment to include the following (NOTE again, that both renderers must be used):

Assignment One - Part B

• Minimum
  The fifteen rendered images should be visible on the website in thumbnail form. Appropriate background image(s) to represent the view out from the building, or appropriate "textures" applied to art works in an art gallery or similar contextual information will be required.The web page should also contain appropriate text documenting: your name, the name of the architect, the course, the date and the name of the modeling and rendering packages used to produce each image.
• Below Average
  All above, plus: at least ten renderings using Autodesk Viz to simulate realistic lighting conditions in the space(s) in a minimum of two different ways using Global Illumination and not (7 of one approach: 3 of the alternate is the maximum deviation from the desired 5:5 split in pictures).
• Acceptable
  All above, plus: documentation of the image differences and the settings used and time taken to render between the two Viz renderings approaches.
• Average
  All above, plus: all fifteen renderings using AutoDesk Viz/Lightscape AND Rayfront/Radiance to simulate realistic lighting conditions in the space(s) NOTE: with the arrival of the LightStudio plugin, it is important to recognise that the split here is between the (Mental Ray) PHOTON MAPPING rendering approach and the (RADIANCE) BACKWARDS RAY TRACE approach. Thus the different renders are Global Illumination within the Mental Ray Renderer in Viz and Radiance with the Lightstudio renderer in Viz.
• Good
  All above, plus: use of AutoDesk Viz/Lightscape AND Rayfront/Radiance/LightStudio to simulate realistic lighting conditions in the space(s) with some additional images at night (say 6 daylight rendered with one program and 9 daylight with the other, plus 3-6 with artificial lighting); and all thumbnails link to larger minimum 1280x1024 images on your personal web site.
• Above Average
  All above, plus: association of the idea, concept or theme being communicated with a critical idea, concept or theme: e.g. analysis of relationship between this building and others by the same architect or others from same era; or analysis of natural lighting via sky and sunlighting; or examination of systems of circulation through buildings and demonstration of which system this building belongs to ....
• Very Good
  All above, plus: use of Autodesk Viz/Lightscape and Rayfront/Lightstudio for four of the views showing how the natural lighting models compare between the two rendering programs.
• Excellent
  All above, plus: ... you tell me (the possibilities are endless)?

I also noted that the software for hdrshop is available for use on the Course Information directory. This allows one to import a series of identical images of different exposure level and amalgamate them into ONE High Dynamic range Image. (i.e. to take a series of photographs of a sky and thus use it as a light source for ones scene as explained in this online tutorial)









hdrview is available on the same R:\esources directory if one wants to view the hdr image. There are plenty available online - just check FLICKR.

Also we examined the role of procedural materials in making more interesting images than can be achieved with materials which are merely pictures pasted onto surfaces... This work from Irena a couple of years ago is an illustration of a procedural texture in Radiance - the underlying render engine to Light Studio:













And finally, a couple of words of caution:

1. bringing files into Viz successfully is only part I of the render process. Make sure also that you can render in Light Studio and in Mental Ray. If your object names are very long because of the manner in which you have brought the model into Viz, then the Light Studio renderer will not work. You must fix this somehow by altering the layer / object names in the export process, or by importing the file into Deep Exploration and then re-exporting in the simpler form...
2. As noted at the beginning of the year, Light Studio only work in Viz - if you have exported to Max for mental ray, then be aware that you will be competing for a much smaller number of licenses than with Viz come crunch render time AND you will still have to export that model and read it back into Viz to use Light Studio
3. There is a major flaw in the Viz 'section' tool that stops it from producing sections that are orthogonal to the building - because sections are created by setting 'cutting planes' in Viz/Max camera definitions. The work around is that one can create the files in Viz and with the mental ray renderer run the 'render to texture' option. Then save the file out as a 3ds format - with named camera views. THEN within Deep Exploration (DE) one can set up the section plane (+X) rotated and placed where it shows off the interior best and from within DE... Witness this simple B&W model rendered with a cutting plane:

Footnote: link to hdr render and good caustics for water in same tutorial when compiling this blog.

lecture topic - May 15 2007 - narrative

More video watching - this time extracts from Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering's documentary about Jacques Derrida.

Specifically:

• you call this verite?
• Echo and Narcissus
• the sex lives of philosophers
• without even an ash

As a means of understanding narrative and film - try to get inside the mind of the authors (whom Derrida addresses often on the subject of whose story is being told by their editing decisions). Try to ask -

• when did the quotes get assembled? before or after the filming?
  
• why two cameras?
• what were the other people shown in the video at the end of the movie doing and why?
• would the narrative of the episodes we watched change if played in another order than the movie (ref Eisenstein etc)
  

Review: Paris Rive Gauche development

Paris Rive Gauche - Architecture - New York Times no new museums that I can find - in the general discussion. However, this does sound like a really interesting debate. I'd have to say if it ends up like la Defense - then its yet more destruction of a city's fabric in the hope of some innovative freedom for individual designers to express themselves. The wonder of the older parts of Paris is that the anonymity of the similar height / facade / fenestration architecture is enlivened by the life in the streets - the corner cafes and the odd ball petrol stations and cafes jostling for space with the parked cars and bikes and the people wandering and bustling through the streets, occupying the ground floor. It is a revelation and a great pleasure to cram one's luggage into one of the tiny 'hotel' rooms in one of these buildings, where the hotel is merely a couple of floors of the whole apartment complex, with a cafe / bar on the ground floor. This review does not promise that type of 'life'. However, in all these discussions, I wonder where are the voices of the people who have to live in these buildings. Do people actually like / prefer to live / work at la Defense instead of in the hearts of some of the older arrondissements? Will they want to / do they already want to move into this new Rive Gauche? Sounds like a research project?

(Photo illustrates Sunday morning in la Defense 'neighbourhood')