Although the model was made in Envsioneer, all could have been done in TFPlan. A 3DS export includes all textures and import to Real Time Landscape Architect 2, is seen in the following link video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4vk3BE_QMg&feature=youtu.be (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4vk3BE_QMg&feature=youtu.be)
I believe the latest version of Realtime Landscape has a nice texture to assign to the windows. This sample just has 'color' to windows.
Car, BBQ grill, fountain, front bench and landscaping is all that has been added, the rest is all TFPlan type modeling.
Jack
Hi Jack,
Very nice model and movie - very smooth.
What are the advantages of using Realtime compared with the TFP Animation movie? Presumably the landscape and 3D trees etc, what about setup, lighting, file size/type and render times? How does it go inside - do you have to recreate the lighting?
Obviously this is done as a semi cloudy day and I notice that the building itself creates a noticeable shadow but some other objects dont - noticeably those on the paved areas, car, BBQ and pillars for example - or do these appear better in 'harsh' sunlight? How is the lighting actually controlled? Similar to TFP?
Allan
Hi Allan,
I don't know if the latest version handles things differently but basically what you see is what you get. There is little I attempt to do to correct or adjust, except for the plants and terrain and water.
Sun is either sunrise (this example) morning , noon, afternoon, sunset or night. Lights don't interact with the model but the program has it's own building tools that do interact.
Here's how I see it. I'm creating a 3D model but the customer is only seeing a static portrait. This is a quick way to get them to see the whole context. You can go inside but everthing is dull , as you noticed the model doesn't exist as far as shadows go, it seems to cast but not accept. That is why the car's shadow didn't exist, the drive was made in TFPlan (envis). Had I used Realtimes road tools, there would be a shadow.
The file size is huge as an AVI output. Over 1 gb. But I use Camtasia and convert it to WMV and at 800 x600 it's about 20 mb.
The main goal here is to give the customer the most bang for the buck and to help them further envision their product.
RENDERING TIME
- ABOUT 4 MINUTES !!!! (not a typo,,, four minutes :-) edit > 2100 frames at around 1 frame rendered per second
Jack
Hi Jack,
I guess your punch line at the end says it all!! Not bad for 4 minutes!! Serves the purpose VERY WELL.
Thanks for sharing it!
Allan
http://www.ideaspectrum.com/release_notes/arch2011/arch2011.php (http://www.ideaspectrum.com/release_notes/arch2011/arch2011.php)
With the slow economy, I didn't upgrade this year but here is a list of latest versions improvements from last Spring. I wonder if models can 'accept' shadows when imported?
I will have to download the free trail and see. I assume more impressive results will be coming this spring with another version.
Jack
Another big plus are the plants themself.
First off the program has a built in editor, so I can either adjust brightness, contrast or hue on the fly, or I can actually 'stay within the program' and open the plant, cloning or erasing parts so it looks different as in real life.
Then, save to my own materails list, in addition to within the program , use those plants in TFPlan.... many online places sell plants for more money than this whole program costs.
Jack
I downloaded and tested the new version (from last spring) of Realtime.
It does cast shadows on the model now. But it has a limited number of textures in the trial version so I cannot get a substitute texture for glass and don't know what to set glass to in TFPlan so that it is either clear or clear and reflective. That is the biggest problem at this point.
Settings kept the same, Sunrise, you can see Gazebo shadow on drive, Tree on roof and faintly see front deck handrail shadows (so the model is casting shadows on itself)
edit YIKES , I didn't realize the image was that big, kind of cool. I do see export to movies now allows at least twice the size as before 1900 x rather than 800 x
Jack
Hi Jack,
Yes that looks better on the later version - shadows certainly make a difference.
It is obviously a quick solution to a movie if render time is a factor.
Alln
Jack, thanks for the heads up on the landscaping tool. Had looked at IdeaSpectrum a few years back.
Must download trial as interested especially in the road tool.
I see in the latest version (trial) that you can now output direct to WMV so the file size is small. Just need to test and change the WMV settings a bit as the default compression lacks quality.
Landscape Arch 2 seemed to do reasonably quick realteim renders, I trialled one of 30 seconds movie length and it took about 9 minutes on my system which is not tooooo bad. For some reason it took 4 times to do the same render but output to avi (but that was using the cinepak compressor provided), yep tried another avi compression and its about 9 minutes.