Module 4 - Design Project Brief:
Lights, Camera, Render!

Module 4 - Design Project Brief: Lights, Camera, Render!

Overview

In this assignment you’ll create views of your proposed design for a vacation to share your design ideas.  You’ll create:

  • annotated plan views with dimensions and model element tags
  • schedule views summarizing model element information in a tabular form
  • exterior and interior camera views using Revit’s visual styles as well as rendered versions of those views

The focus of this assignment isn’t on creating additional model elements – rather, the focus is on refining your existing building model to create interesting and inviting views that help explain your design ideas and sell the design concept.

Getting Started

Use your linked your Vacation House project file from module 3 as the starting point for your work.

What’s Expected

Plan Views

  1. Create annotated floor plan views of the upper and lower levels of your proposed design. Be sure to include:
    1. Dimensions to the faces of all exterior walls and interior walls that intersect with them
    2. Tags on all door and window elements
    3. Tags in each interior room showing the name and square footage
  2. Duplicate these plan views with detailing (to include the annotations), then using Visibility/Graphics overrides to create two new versions:
    1. Duplicate Version 1 - to share with your clients that showcases how the spaces will be used. It should include all the furniture, fixtures, and casework elements.
    2. Duplicate Version 2 - to share with the constructors that focuses on the building elements.
      1. This version should include only the building shell -- for example, the wall, door, window, curtain wall, floor, roof, and stair elements.
      2. Hide the interior elements such as the furniture, fixtures, and casework in these views.

Schedule Views

  1. Create these schedule views summarizing the elements in your proposed design:
    1. A Door Schedule showing the doors on all levels. Include these fields:
      1. Mark
      2. Family and Type
      3. Width
      4. Height
  2. A Window Schedule showing the windows on all levels (excluding the curtain wall panels). Include these fields:
    1. Type Mark
    2. Family and Type
    3. Width
    4. Height
    5. Glazing Area (by creating a new calculated field = Width * Height)
  3. Add a Grand Total line to the Window Schedule and calculate the sum of the Glazing Areas.
  4. A Wall Schedule showing the total areas of each wall type to assist with cost estimating.

3D Camera View - Using Revit’s Visual Styles

  1. Create a stylized exterior camera view of your proposed design using Revit’s visual styles.
    1. Place a 3D camera to create a new exterior perspective view. Try to create a ground-level perspective view that simulates how your clients will actually perceive the house.
    2. Experiment with Revit’s visual styles and Graphic Display options to create a stylized view that conveys the feeling that you’d like to share. Try:
      1. Choosing a Silhouette line style to emphasize the edges of your building elements.
      2. Casting Shadows or turning on Ambient Shadows to create a soft lighting effect.
      3. malemmamEnabling Sketchy Lines (and adjusting the level of Jitter) to create a hand-drawn effect.
      4. Creating a Sun Setting to accurately display the sun and shadows for a particular location, date, and time.
      5. Diminishing the intensity of the shadows cast.
      6. Using a background image – a gradient, a sky, or a photographic image.
    3. Once you’ve found a group of settings that you like, you can save them as a View Template to make it easy to apply them again to other views.

Rendered Camera View - Exterior Sunlight

  1. Create a rendered exterior view of your proposed design using Revit’s internal rendering engine, Autodesk’s Render in the Cloud web service, or another rendering tool of your choice.
    1. Use the same exterior perspective view (created in Step 4).
    2. Enhance this exterior view by:
      1. Assigning or adjusting the materials as needed (where the default gray material is displayed).
      2. Adding trees, and plantings, and exterior furniture. Use the RPC tree and shrub components from the Plantings folder in the Revit library.
      3. Adding vehicles – why settle for boring? With a little hunting in the BIMtopia Library and on RevitCity, you’ll find the car of your dreams!
      4. Adding people - use the RPC Male and RPC Female components from the Entourage folder in the Revit library.
    3. Render this view using Revit’s internal rendering engine, Autodesk’s Render in the Cloud web service, or another rendering tool of your choice.
      1. If you use Autodesk’s Render in the Cloud web service:
        1. Choose the:
          1. Output Type: Still Image
          2. Render Quality and Size
          3. Exposure: Native (as you’ve set it in Revit) or Advanced (for enhanced control of the exposure settings – especially useful in dimly lit environments)
          4. File Format for the resulting image
        2. Click Start Rendering and return to work. The cloud rendering service will notify when the job is complete.
        3. When complete, switch to the View tab and open the Render Gallery. Then, download the rendered image to your computer.
        4. In Revit, switch to the Insert tab and open the Image tool to import your cloud rendering image file into your Revit project.
    4. Place the rendered exterior view side-by-side on the same sheet as the stylized view in your Revit project.

Rendered 360 Degree Panorama View - Interior Sunlight and/or Lighting

  1. Create a rendered interior panorama view of the main living/entertaining area in your proposed design using the Render in the Cloud web service or another rendering tool of your choice.
    1. Place a 3D camera in the center of the main living/entertaining area.
    2. Enhance this interior view by:
      1. Assigning or adjusting the materials as needed (where the default gray material is displayed).
      2. Adding furniture and decorative objects – for example, flat panel televisions, vases, rugs, artwork. Don’t fully decorate the house, but try to infuse with a little life to help us imagine the fun times that will occur there.
      3. Adding lighting fixtures - lamps, wall sconces, or ceiling pendants or downlights. Note: for ceiling-hosted light fixtures, you’ll need to add ceiling elements to host them.
      4. Adding people - use the RPC Male and RPC Female components from the Entourage folder in the Revit library.
    3. Render this view as a 360 Degree panorama using the Render in the Cloud web service or another render tool of your choice.
      1. If using the Render in the Cloud web service, choose Interactive Panorama as the Output Type in the Render in Cloud dialog.
      2. Panoramas can typically be shared with others by created a shared link to a web server. If you’re using the Render in the Cloud web service:
        1. Open your rendered panorama in the in the Render Gallery at: https://rendering-beta.360.autodesk.com/myrenderings
        2. Click the Share with Mobile Device button in the toolbar at the top of the web interface.
        3. image
        4. Click the Share Via a Public Link button to copy the link to your clipboard.
        5. Paste the link into the body of your Notion posting. Notion will ask whether to Create an Embed. You can choose this option to embed the panorama view right on your Notion page.

Sharing Your Project

Please follow the instructions in the Canvas assignment to upload your building model to your folder on Autodesk Construction Cloud (BIM 360) Documents and create a new post sharing your project on this linked Notion page.

✏️Module 4 - Design Project Submissions: Lights, Camera, Render!

Points to Ponder / Wrap-Up Questions

Please choose 3 of the following Points to Ponder questions and share your comments on this linked Notion page.

🤔Module 4 - Points to Ponder