Hey guys.
Andrew here from
GarageFarm.NET Academy
We have the next update of our collaborative archviz project! As I said in the previous post, we are trying to complete a full architectural visualisation project with the whole team working remotely from different parts of the world and with different software.
The first thing we needed to do was pick the location for the cabin. It had to have a cool view, some visible features of a good place for leisure time, and in general, be a good basis for creating a compelling environment.
DJ took care of that and he has chosen not only the general vibe of the place but actually a real location for the cabin. He did it thanks to the BlenderGIS addon for Blender. It allows the creation of a general model of terrain based on its GIS location from Google Maps or other GIS vendors.
Here is the place he picked.
Location: Dj checked for different mountain lake locations in different parts of the world, as the idea was to show the cabin design in a spectacular environment immediately communicating vacation mood.
Finally, he picked English Lake District as a perfect balance between mountain height and family accessible leisure.
A place suitable for hiking and canoeing without too many extremes, beautiful sights guaranteed nonetheless.
It has all the features we needed, and we could use Google Maps to find pictures of the location. We used them as a reference for creating the surroundings, like the trees, ground, local technology for roads, small architecture and other features of the landscape and vegetation.
DJ created a basic model of the terrain with as much detail as possible
with the BlenderGIS addon. Then he needed to export it so Thomas could build the scene based on that in 3dsMax.
He exported it as fbx from Blender. The basic exterior layout included some initial scattering of trees and stones blockouts which was also exported as meshes to give Thomas an idea about DJ’s concept which he could then recreate and/or modify using 3dsMax’s tools like Forrest Pack for the final scene setup
BlenderGIS addon website: https://blender-addons.org/blendergis-addon/
General BlenderGIS addon GUI
Example location in BlenderGIS addon.
The BlenderGIS addon is free and pretty impressive - it allows for Google Maps (and other like OSM) integration inside Blender and directly importing map textures and 3d height data into Blender.
After some minor mesh corrections, we had a ready base for setting up the cabin’s environment
In the meantime, Amiel created materials for the cabin in Substance.
Working on the darkwood planks of the cabin external walls.
Adding detail to back zinc sheets on the facades.
Andrew has finished the model of the cabin. It wasn’t difficult since it’s a perpendicular shape with not very complicated detail. It was modelled in 3ds Max, so it was easy to pass it to Thomas who is a 3ds Max user as well.
Cabin model
Marco helped with the additional elements of the landscape to give more life and countryside vibe to the scene. He created a pier model in Blender and textured it in Substance Painter.
We also wanted to add dome sheep or birds to underline the countryside mood, but we cut that feature to make it before the deadline. But don’t worry - we will create all kinds of variants of the visualisation later.
Since the location has a lake we created a canoe (in Blender) with Substance textures.
Tomas job is to prepare the final render. Here are the first interior shots versions (3ds Max + Corona), There is a lot to improve but we have a general setup.
This is what we have at this stage. We will continue to work on the project and create video tutorials on how the elements were created on the way
Renders straight from Corona.
I'm very curious about your feedback, so don't hesitate to comment!
In the meantime, we are working on the videotutorials and polishing the renders.
Andrew
