January 31, 2012. Beaverton, Oregon: e-on software the leader in 3D sky, light and nature technologies, today announced the immediate availability of LumenRT 2 Review, the second generation of the company’s revolutionary product for the interactive visualization of architectural projects with full physical lighting.

The product, currently compatible with SketchUp, is being ported to other platforms. To support this major release, e-on software also publishes a free trial version of LumenRT 2 for Macintosh and Windows, immediately available for download from try.lumenrt.com.

LumenRT 2

E-on software invites all architects and designers to watch the LumenRT 2 Review presentation video, showcasing the true real-time power of LumenRT 2. This video, entirely rendered with LumenRT 2 is visible on the company’s YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/eonsoftware.

Last but not least, e-on software is happy to announce that the upgrade to LumenRT 2 is available for free to all registered users of LumenRT 1. However, because this offer is limited in time, e-on software indicates that current users should upgrade without delay.

LumenRT 2 Review: A New Media for Architects Is Born!

With last year’s successful introduction of LumenRT, e-on software made a noticeable entry into the real-time market. This first version was immediately recognized as a significant advance by the architectural industry (including a nomination to 3D World CG Awards 2011 for Plugin of the Year), leading to many prominent ArchViz companies embracing LumenRT’s revolutionary approach. The ability to create accurately lit, immersive 3D visualizations of their projects and to share them with their clients was indeed considered a substantial asset.

LumenRT is the only solution that combines real-time rendering with a full, physical simulation of light, letting architects and their clients accurately experience the true volume and lighting of their designs.

Thanks to LumenRT 2 Review, architects no longer have to choose between high-quality images and real-time visualization. They can create high quality real-time visualizations of their models, explore them with any standard or 3D mouse and share them with their clients as self contained executables.

With a completely new, state-of-the-art real-time engine, LumenRT 2 hoards a plentiful number of new features and enhancements:

• Complete physical simulation of light,
• Physically accurate reflections,
• Adjustable time of day,
• Precise anti-aliasing and motion blur,
• Soft shadows with varying softness,
• Superb water and underwater effects,
• Advanced material rendering,
• Photo-realistic skies,
• Low quality mode for optimized performance on slower boards,
• And a lot more

The complete list of new features in LumenRT 2 Review for SketchUp is available at: www.lumenrt.com/overview/#Release 2.

LumenRT 2 Review Trial Version

The release of LumenRT 2 also marks the release of the first Trial Version of LumenRT, immediately available from try.lumenrt.com

The trial version of LumenRT 2 Review for SketchUp is a fully functional version of LumenRT 2, valid for 15 days. Output from the trial version is watermarked and not valid for commercial use. The trial version enables all SketchUp users to check how their communication could benefit from e-on software’s cutting-edge technology! The trial version can easily be converted into a full commercial license by purchasing the product directly from within the plug-in or a LiveCube.

Those who don’t use SketchUp can still experience the visual quality of LumenRT LiveCubes right away by downloading a set of sample LumenRT 2 LiveCubes at www.lumenrt.com/download and explore them live on their computer while they wait for support of their favorite application. The complete electronic documentation is also available for download from that page.

This next resource I’ve found provides you with full services from design – printing – delivering and the cool part about it is that they’re really affordable. Of course you don’t have to take my word for it, you can try it for yourself. What I loved about it from the very beginning is that it geo-detected my location. It knew I was in Romania and they had this cute message up top: “Yes, we deliver to Romania” , really liked that.

But enough about that. StreetShirts is the UK’s no. 1 for t-shirt printing and they have plenty of designs to choose from. Here are just a few:

Of course, as any respectable source for printed shirt, they also give you the option to print your own designs. The website has a nice design editor where you can add your own images, and see how they look on different shirt colors. You can scale, rotate, move and make all sorts of interesting things with your images to achieve the desired look for your next favorite T-shirt. Not only that, but you can also order printed hoodies, shorties, mugs and all sorts of things.

Go take a look at this t-shirt printing website.

This is a quick design I’ve made to see how it works. Gotta say, this website is pretty amazing.

The Vector Set 19 is no exception, and you will find inside Chain link, MMA Apparel Essentials, Tribal, Patriot, Fighters, Fists & Fight Gear, and Medieval vectors, all at a special launch price of $34.99 discount from the original $69.99.

Just wanted to recommend this cool resource, and hope you enjoy it.

You can visit their official website HERE and get the special price.

This book actually made my day when I received it in mail this Wednesday. It’s not only the colors (eye candies) and the short introduction made by the author , but the interview itself was created in a manner that could make me forget for a moment that I’m an adult. As you can see in the image above, the book was printed in 25 different color background, and as we are already accustomed from allied operations the intention was to make the each reader think different.

The Review

I loved the short note found on the book and I take the liberty to post a part of it here since I believe it should have made it in the actual introduction of the book:

IF YOU LIKE “THE LITTLE PRINCE” THEN YOU MAY LOVE MY STORY

The above statement was so strong, and it actually prepared me for the read, expecting something a little abstract, and funny and of course sensitive and creative. I was not disappointed. I actually remembered how I was as a kid: strange, with my own world and always creating my own mind games and toys…

Interviewer and DS

The one interviewing Delicious Storm (DS), is “Socrates” (a persona resembling the well known greek philosopher that used to ask a series of questions not only to draw individual answers, but as well to encourage fundamental insight into the issue at hand).  Although Socrates asks only 17 questions, it is enough to discover a different way of thinking, and to get into the brains of the Delicious Storm, and his vision on architecture, and thought creation.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

Likings

What I liked most in this short book (only 37 pages with lots of images and aired spaces) is the fact that in a world conducted by egotism, greed and money, there is still a honest interest found in some individuals that try to look at the world from a different perspective(s) every time they work on an architectural project, showing people that “HOW we live in our houses is as important as the furniture we fill it with. It all has to do with degrees of perception.” – DS

The whole concept of this book is in my opinion to get the reader (mostly architects) to rediscover their creative side, a side that can become “dumb” as we grow old and forget to PLAY, and let their imagination fly.

Dislikings

What I didn’t like … because there is a side that’s very ugly about this book… is the fact that it ends so fast, I read the whole thing in 25 minutes (time including gazing at the pictures).

Final Thoughts

But even though the book is short, I think it will change you as an architect, and make you think different about our job, not only as designers of buildings, but as storytellers. Because each and every project, is in itself a story we have to tell the world (a story they hear every time they look at our creations).

This book can help you become a better storyteller, so give it a shot, you won’t regret you did.

Blender 3D: Architecture, Buildings, and Scenery will be featured here at Archtopia for a while, and it describes the power of Blender 3D in Architectural Visualizations. You will see how to use the final models to create simpler scenes for use in 3D games, where real-time rendering is necessary. You will also see how to use them to create the sets for animated movies.

About Blender 3D

Blender 3D is a open-source 3D graphics suite, that is capable of modeling, rendering and animating 3D environments, and one of the best parts about it, is that you can download it for free at: http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/. Another cool thing about it is that the installed program it’s only 10 MB, and not only that,
but it can run on Linux, Windows and Mac OSX.

About the Author

Allan Brito is a Brazilian architect who specializes in information visualization. He lives and works in Recife, Brazil. He works with Blender 3D to produce animations and still images for visualization and instructional material.

Besides his work with Blender as an artist, he also has substantial experience teaching 3D modeling, animation , and multimedia at Mauricio de Nassau College.

He can be reached through his website at http://www.blender3darchitect.com, where he covers the use of Blender
3D and other tools for architectural visualization.

Although this is a detailed guide, is far from being full of useless blabbering, and it goes straight to the point, taking you from a to z, from installing Blender and understanding how it works to the post production editing of the final images with another awesome yet free software: GIMP.

Not too long ago, you probably saw a review of the SketchUp 7.1 for chitectural Visualization here, and while SketchUp is a different animal with tremendous power, we feel that Blender has been avoided for far too long, and the truth is that it can easily be measured with SketchUp in many ways. More about that, after the brief presentation of the chapters.

Chapter 1: Introduction to Blender and Architectural Visualization

This chapter will cover the basics on Architectural visualization, the hardware and software requirements for Blender, tools for visualization, and CAD and 3D-Architectural modeling and resources.

Chapter 2: Blender 3D: Quick Start

Starting up with the interface of the software in Windows, and the customization power of the interface. Blender can be a quick tool if you know the keyboard shortcuts, and this is exactly what Chapter 2 covers.

Chapter 3: Modeling

You will learn about mesh primitives, operations such as extrude, subsurf modifier, smoothing faces, grouping and proportional editing.

Chapter 4: Modeling for Architecture

Architectural modeling is all about proportions, and precision. This chapter will teach you how to work with layers, and how to create the basic objects we use everyday in architectural modeling, like walls, openings, floors and lining, etc.

Chapter 5: Modeling Details

Yes, believe it or not, GOD is in details, and this chapter will demonstrate how you can model windows, and doors with the amount of detail you want

Chapter 6: Modeling Furniture

Here you have the option of modeling, of using predefined objects from a library. Also if you really want to create your own designs, there are two sub-chapters that will cover modeling a chair and a sofa. [sample chapter here]

Chapter 7: Materials

If you lack experience with materials, than this chapter will cover this subject. Materials of course will give life to your scene, so learn this fast, and learn it well.

Chapter 8: Textures

Working with textures can be nerve wracking, and can kill your mood if you don’t find what you want, or can’t get the texture to map on your object in the desired manner. This chapter will clear things for you.

Chapter 9: UV Mapping

what is UV mapping, and why should you care? well, the fact is that no matter what texture you use, if you don’t map it the right way, it will look awful and un-natural to everyone.

Chapter 10: Light Basics

Light will get the best out of your materials, and this chapter will teach you how to use different types of lighting like: Lamp, Sun, Are, Spot, and will show you a simple exercise for best results.

Chapter 11: Radiosity and Ambient Occlusion

For some this might be new terms, but rest assured, this chapter covers all you need to know about this sort of rendering.

Chapter 12: Global Illumination with YafRay

YafRay, just like Blender, is a open source external render, which works great with Blender. Some say it’s the external software that presents the best integration with Blender.

Chapter 13: Animation for Architectural Visualization

If you’re a big animator, then this will give you all you need in order to create the best animation for you scene, from describing Keyframes, to Interactive Animation.

Chapter 14: Post-Production with GIMP

You surely heard about Photoshop, but I’m not so sure you heard about GIMP, and that’s a shame, because this software can help you adjust your image in a few mouse clicks. This chapter goes in depth explaining post production techniques.

Conclusion:

Blender 3D is a powerful tool when you can master it, and the libraries that you can find for it are in constant growth, so this can be a great option if you’re trying to achieve great results with a free software with powerful features, and minimum hardware requirements.

To get you free sample chapter CLICK HERE!

You can find the book on the official webiste of PacktPub, or on Amazon.

Leave your impressions in the comment section bellow.

a book by Robin de Jongh

This week you might have noticed a “Featured Book” section on our middle sidebar. Well the book is entitled SketchUp 7.1 for Architectural Visualization – Beginner’s Guide and is a detailed guide, that will literally take you by the hand and teach you how to make stunning photo-realistic and artistic visuals of your projects, with free software, and free resources that you can find all over the internet.

So let me start my review, because I can’t wait to tell you guys about the things you can learn through this book.

About the Autor and why this guy knows what he’s talking about:

Robin de Jongh is a consulting engineer and designer who has successfully used SketchUp for multi-million pound new developments, and a whole bunch of smaller projects, from steel staircases to new product prototypes. He previously ran an architectural and product visualization company. Robin holds a degree in Computer Aided Product Design and is a professional engineer registered with the Institution of Engineering Designers in the UK. He writes a blog about SketchUp for design professionals at www.provelo.co.uk.

So uhmmm, yeah with the knowledge you will gain from this book you will set up your work and dress it up for a kill in such a way that it jumps off your screen, grabs your audience by the guts and never lets them go, because this is the first guide on SketchUp that goes beyond the basic modeling exercises that you can typically find in the online video tutorials. So keep on reading.

Frankly, when I saw that the book has 400 pages+, I thought this thing is full of fluff, and will bore me to death. But to my pleasant surprise I found a lot of descriptive pictures, and that’s exactly what a visual based guy like me understands best. So, without further ado, I’ll make a brief presentation of the chapters that will enlighten your path to fast, easy and breath taking presentations of your projects:

Chapter 1 – Quick Start Tutorial

This chapter is a fast forward for those impatient to get to the realistic sketchup scenes. Here you’ll find out how to model the scene, fix the lights, add textures, background, and make a quick render in Kerkythea.

Chapter 2 – Plug in and Gear Up

You will find that with a couple of free plugins and some other software you can turn SketchUp into a fully functional 3D modeling, visualization and animation suite similar to …. let’s say 3D Max!!! (well the truth is this part made my jaw drop)

Chapter 3 – Composing the scene (free sample available)

This chapter will teach you how to make modeling a less hard work by setting your scene prior to starting work. Here you’ll use CAD plans, site images or even Google Earth to build the optimized scene for quick rendering or animation. (I know you will love this part of the book, so I got a sample of this chapter from the publisher for you guys – See it Here)

Chapter 4 – Modelling for Visualization

The pro modeling methods you can learn here will save you both the time, and the hassle of working with large polygon counts that can slow down your PC considerably, and at the same time will show you how to make those photo real renderings we all love in a blink of an eye.

Chapter 5 – Applying Textures and Materials for Photo-Real Rendering

Since the world evolved really fast lately, we have at our disposal a lot of free online image resources, professional digital cameras, and so a really effective way of bringing the “model” to life. The tutorials you’ll discover in this chapter will show you some unique photo and material handling tools to create surreal, mega easily textured scenes.

Chapter 6 – Entourage the SketchUp Way

Now you have a scene, with modeled buildings and applied textures, and the next step you wanna take is to make it shine with some Entourage, like cars, furniture, and of course trees and bushes and other nice things. In this chapter you’ll learn how to find the best libraries, and also to create your own (that you can give to others, for FREE or CASH).

Chapter 7 – Non Photo Real with SketchUp

Some other free software that you will learn how to use is GIMP, a powerful photo editing photo suite, that can simulate sketchy pencil and watercolor styles. And yeah, almost forgot about this, you will learn the AWESOME “Dennis Technique”.

Chapter 8 – Photo-realistic rendering

Some in depth presentation and step by step introduction into Kerkythea, the amazing free rendering software, with proven best settings for test renders and final outdoor and indoor scenes. This chapter amazed me, because it covers everything you need to know about getting professional photo-realistic renders out of a simple SketchUp model.

Chapter 9 – Important Compositing and After Effects in GIMP

We all know that the rendering process isn’t the end of the line, because there’s lots of subtle but important after effects you can apply to make the image even more effective. This particular chapter covers how to add reflections without rendering, creating depth of field effects from a depth render, adjusting levels for realistic daylight scenes, compositing real and rendered images.

Chapter 10 – Walkthroughs and Flyovers

Here you will find tutorials that will show you how to create storyboards, set up cameras and paths in SketchUp with extra plugin functionality, export test animations and final renders. Photo real animations are then composited to make a simple showreel.

Chapter 11 – Presenting Visuals in LayOut

This final chapter I really enjoyed since I like to play with layouts. The layout module is bundled as part of SketchUp Pro and is introduced in this final chapter for those who wish to explore the free trial before committing to Pro. You will learn how to bring together SketchUp models and artistic or rendered output into a screen presentation or printed portfolio, adding borders, text and dimensions.

Conclusion:

Without any doubt, the SketchUp 7.1 for Architectural Visualization Beginner’s Guide really uncoveres the power of SketchUp as a modeling and rendering software. The best part about SketchUp, as you might already know, is that it’s FREE, and all of the other software you’re encouraged to use in this book are free as well. A little phrase that I really liked from the book was “If it’s not free it’s not worth having”. Think about it, other people are paying as high as $3,990.00 for a Autodesk 3ds Max, and other image processing tools like Photoshop or what not, and you can have this other software that delivers almost the same results for FREE.

I’m an Architect, and I’ve worked with paid software before, but I gotta tell you, the free software are most of the time way better than the paid ones, for the simple fact that it’s made by passionate people that upgrade and tweak it all the time. So if you want to learn how to use a free software that delivers results time after time, please check out this book. I guarantee, you won’t throw your money away, the price for this book is way too low for the knowledge it shares and the results you can achieve.

You can also find the book on Amazon HERE.

So if you’re not yet convinced about the power of this software, check the free sample of the 3rd Chapter, and tell us your thought about it.

~ Francis D. Ching (Author)

Building Construction Illustrated

Bought this book the other week, and fount it more than useful, so I thought I’d give it a review. I needed some information regarding residential construction, but what I found was so much more.

This Illustrated book is packed with almost everything you need to know about construction. When I say that, I mean it covers all of the major components. It does not walk you through tiling a floor, but as an example it does show the different methods of framing and provide clear illustration of how each method is done. I only wanted information on residential construction, but this book covers commercial building as well. The drawings are excellent. I found it tough to put the book down and found myself re-reading several sections because of all the information contained in them. It will serve as an excellent reference guide for all of my future projects. I have already changed many of the details for my upcoming project as a result of this book.

This is a must buy for any respectable architect or engineer out there.

Description:

The classic visual guide to the basics of building construction, now with the most current information

For nearly three decades, Building Construction Illustrated has offered an outstanding introduction to the principles of building construction. This new edition of the revered classic remains as relevant as ever-providing the latest information in Francis D.K. Ching’s signature style. Its rich and comprehensive approach clearly presents all of the basic concepts underlying building construction and equips readers with useful guidelines for approaching virtually any new materials or techniques they may encounter.

• Laying out the material and structural choices available, it provides a full under-standing of how these choices affect a building’s form and dimensions. Complete with more than 1,000 illustrations, the book moves through each of the key stages of the design process, from site selection to building components, mechanical systems, and finishes.
• Illustrated throughout with clear and accurate drawings that present the state of the art in construction processes and materials
• Updated and revised to include the latest knowledge on sustainability, incorporation of building systems, and use of new materials
• Archetypal drawings offer clear inspiration for designers and drafters
• Reflects the most current building codes and CSI Master Format numbering scheme

With its comprehensive and lucid presentation of everything from foundations and floor systems to finish work, Building Construction Illustrated, Fourth Edition equips students and professionals in all areas of architecture and construction with useful guidelines for approaching virtually any new materials or techniques they may encounter in building planning, design, and construction.

The design of an apartment presents several challanges not imposed on the designer of a free-standing house. The most restricting is probably size, and second having to deal with walls that probably can’t be moved. Even more interesting or challenging is dealing with the confines of an older building that may have beams in strange places, or in one instance in this book a now abandoned water tank on the roof to be converted into a penthouse.

150 Best Apartment Ideas (Hardcover)

As you might guess from the title, this book consists almost exclusively of pictures of 150 apartments from around the world showing how some of the best architects in the world have handled the challenges presented. The apartments are not your low end Government supported housing, but top of the line units in New York, or Milan, or perhaps Melbourne. It makes this an ‘idea book’ suitable for any architects office.

The book itself is beautifully printed on heavy weight paper and the book has a sewn binding with headbands, features that will make it last a long time even with heavy usage.

Of all modern luxury brands, Louis Vuitton can claim to maintain the richest and most varied associations with the world of art. Included in this volume are Louis Vuitton’s important collaborations with an elite group of artists, architects, designers, and photographers, such as Jun Aoki, Shigeru Ban, Vanessa Beecroft, Olafur Eliasson, Zaha Hadid, David LaChapelle, Jean Larivière, Annie Leibovitz, Takashi Murakami, Richard Prince, Stephen Sprouse, James Turrell, Inez Van Lamsweerde, and Vinoodh Matadin.

The book is structured as a seductive anthology of the house’s most visible collaborations. Critical essays examine and position Louis Vuitton’s patronage—under the guidance of Artistic Director Marc Jacobs—during one of the most fertile periods of contemporary art and design.

Louis Vuitton: Art, Fashion and Architecture (Hardcover)

The contents of this book are wonderful, edgy photography, great subject matter.
If you are expecting just fashion, this is not the book for you. It contains storefronts, (hint:architecture in the title), art and just enough fashion to satisfy a woman. The actual book I received is a little shoddy.The binding does not seem strong and it feels the pages may come out with a lot of use. There also was
tearing on the title page next to the spine, this is a new book and I am a liitle
disappointed in the condition.