Design + Render workflow

I thought since I'm down sick with a head cold that I might post a bit of my process for a recent render\design.  Not a step by step so much as an overall, broad workflow.

I'm currently part of a two student team working on a studio project that involves getting together a 'visionary' package for a client.  For our next presentation we're prepping our massing model with locations that have higher detail to give a better idea of where we're going.

So - Step 1...the basic pergola model I made that came from a squiggle on my teammate's trace paper:

Then, Step 2: making an adaptive curtain panel component for that rigging to give us the shape we want:

Step 3: Placing that component on the divided surface:

Step 4:  Put it into our massing model, add contextual details for the scene and then go to 3ds max and render!  I used iRay with my GTX 580 for this.

UPDATE:  And Another use for this was in the Market place - these renders are Mental Ray + VRay:

Redesign

I thought I'd post a redesign of one of my renders from a week ago.  I decided to change the brick pattern to a basket weave, I 'baked' my Substance texture from the concrete wall into a bitmap and then modified it in Photoshop to give it a sort of interesting sub-pattern to it rather than the 'panelized' look from before.  I also tweaked out a bit on the UVW mapping of the wall in Max and placed my texture EXACTLY where I wanted.  The curtain wall is an obvious addition.  Also I applied a strong 'levels' adjustment to my concrete texture BEFORE I added it to my render, so that gave a nice punchy contrast to the render even before I photoshoped it.  I also improved the grass a bit by using the mental ray '2 sided' material.

My render settings were pretty high...1600x3200, sampling was 16 min\64 max, and Final Gather was set to 'Low' (since it's an exterior scene I felt that was fine.)

All in the Family...

For the ASID:

A quick review sheet and some links for Revit Families:

• First and foremost: pick the right template to begin with!  Often there is no going back.
• Flex your model early and often!
• Avoid at (nearly) any cost the mistake of locking geometry to geometry….this is BAD and the family will not flex.  Rather, ‘sketch’ out your shape with reference lines\planes and align the geometry to that reference geometry.
• Reference lines are used for rotation and are not infinite (where they begin defines the rotation point!), reference planes for horizontal spacing or permanent angles and they are infinite.
• With complicated families you will need to ‘nest’ one family within another….an example would be a single ‘shelf’ family within a bookshelf family.
• Make something an ‘instance’ parameter if you want it to be changeable for every ‘instance’ of the family.  Use ‘type’ parameter if you want it to be universal.
• I highly recommend the book ‘Mastering Revit 2012’ by Eddy Krygiel

For information on the Revit class I taught this last summer (Arch. 404) visit:

http://flexingfamilies.blogspot.com/

Also, if you are interested, here is the Autodesk Official Family Guide page.  It’s for Revit 2010 but applies to 11\12:

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=13376394

And last but not least, a link to a great PDF shortcut list.  Credit to the RevitKid for finding it on HOK's blog who (I believe) found it and linked to it.  Originally it was done by David Driver.
http://davidddriver.com/Product/Freebies/Revit/Revit%20keyboard%20ShortcutsVert.pdf

Renders

Thanks to a new computer I just built myself, I've been motivated to revisit some old renders and create some new ones.  I can't say how great it is to have a new (read: FAST) machine!  I decided to go watercooled, since a lot of the work I do puts 100% load on the CPU and\or the GPU.  I've been impressed so far...the cost wasn't too high and the benefits are fantastic.  Sub-50C temperatures on my GPU when I'm rendering and sub 70C on my CPU when I'm rendering.  Part of the reason the CPU is hotter, I think, is that I've overclocked it and also the direction the water runs goes from Pump+Reservoir > External Radiator > GPU > CPU > Pump again.  So, in other words, the hot water hits the CPU after the GPU so it's warmer.

Anyway...on to the images!  They are a mixture of different renderers (including iRay, the new GPU renderer in Max 2012) as well as some digital painting.