BBSc303 Lecture, 5th May 2009 - Sam Curtis

3dsmax mental ray Setup Workflow  (similar workflow lightstudio, different daylight systems and materials)

1) Setup your units. Make sure you are working in real world units.

2) Import your model (via FBX for Revit). Check the units (Measure tool under the tools tab)

3) Create a Arch & Design (mi) 'matte' material (from the template), 50% grey. Apply to the entire scene.

4) Hide the glazing in your windows, or create a Arch & Design (mi) 'Glass: Thin Geometry' material (from the template)

5) Create a Daylight system. Say yes to both questions when asked.

6) Make sure the Compass Rose is not too big, and do not drag the daylight system out too far from the scene. Keep it small,just twice as high as your buildling.

7) Setup the correct location for the daylight system. Change the day and time to something suitable.

8) Set up your camera views.

9) Go to Exposure settings and change exposure pre-sets to 'Physically Based Lighting, Indoor Daylight'

10) Bring up the render dialog box. Set render size to 320 x 240. Turn on finalrender and set to Draft. Set image anti-aliasing to Draft (Min 1/64, Max 1/4).

11) Render.

12) Adjust the sun position. Change the time in the daylight system until the sun is in the correct position. Re-render and repeat until satisfied.

13) Adjust your exposure. Go to Exposure settings and again and change the exposure setting (Exposure Value (EV)) and click Render Preview. Adjust the exposure setting until satisfied.

14) Create your materials for your walls and floor.
For gib painted walls create an Arch & Design (mi) 'matte' material (from the template) with 80% white. This is the reflectance value real white walls.
For a wooden varnished wall, use Arch & Design (mi) 'Satin Varnished Wood' material (from the template)

15) For the rest of the scene, use ony Arch & Design (mi) or ProMaterials. There are ProMaterial libraries you can load with a wider range of pre-defined realistic materials

16) When doing final renders, increase the render size, anti-aliasing the final render quality.

 

Useful Keyboard Shortcuts

F10  Render Dialog
F9  Re-render last
F12  Transform Type-in Dialog (move, rotate, scale)

M  Material Editor
H Object Selection
Q Select
W Move
E Rotate
R Scale
Alt-Q Isolate Current Object
Shift-W Turn off navigation wheel
Ctrl-D De-select current selection
Space Lock selection

Architectural Record News | AIA, Harris Interactive Poll: Empire State Building Tops the List of Beloved U.S. Buildings

Architectural Record News | AIA, Harris Interactive Poll: Empire State Building Tops the List of Beloved U.S. Buildings Yet another example of how surveys have all sorts of in-built biases. One might at first glance be tempted to rate this list as demonstrating that old is better in the eyes of the average punter. Top 10 includes a bridge and three sculpture / memorials. But recognition factor and exposure might be more telling here. The USA being so large that people from the East will often never have travelled all the way out west and may even take great pride in the fact... Nationally known monumental buildings become the only possibility at this point.

If one wanted to get really disappointed, one might look at the Las Vegas Bellagio appearing at number 22 as being a much more disappointing result. My reaction to that building when I walked through it last December was: fun fountain; great Christmas decorations; facarditecture was even more anonymous than expected. In this case instead of gilding the lily we seem to have the designers (one hesitates to call them architects) gilding a thorn bush.

To return to the theme: that Taliesin West and the Robie house by Frank Lloyd Wright appear after the San Francisco International Airport seems to me to highlight the recall factor and the status and experience of the people who voted, more than the genuine worth of the buildings listed in the eyes of the voters.

People talk about chart junk invading graphs and destroying our understanding of the underlying data by decorating the graphs rather than contributing to understanding. This to me is much worse: pseudo-systematic 'surveys' of a group of people whose characteristics and preferences are unknown and representing their vaguely gathered opinions as a genuine viewpoint...