Floor Plan presentation techniques

[David Bearss]

I am preparing for a series of model home designs and I am looking for some different samples / options and graphic techniques for presentation floor plans and elevations to be generated within Archicad. Possibly 2D plan rendered in Lightworks, or sketch. Color ideas would be nice. Would anybody be kind enough to suggest options or post some examples or links to samples for inspiration?
Much appreciated.

[Anonymous]

~/archiben wrote:
[edit]for some reason, the preview of this image appears as a blue smudge?! click through and it's in full colour. is it just me? (safari 3 beta) or is there some kind of new preview tech in operation here admins?[/edit]

(Ben

I was wondering if it was something to do with links / visited links but doesn't appear to be. Another thread of yours I saw earlier today looked fine, while mine imediately below it was dark blue, whereas now yours looks light blue and Tom's one is full colour. Bizzarre. At least large images are scaled own now instead of displaying full size. Got a few smilies not appearing from time to time too. I think someone is fooling with the formatting or something.)

[David Bearss]

I do this sort of thing for quick presentation plans to clients - floor plan from Archicad, then overlayed onto rendered floor plan in Artlantis. Or if I haven't taken it into artlantis yet, I just add colour in photoshop. Pretty quick + easy after you do a couple.

Tom, nice look. Can I ask how you coordinated the size / scale of the archicad image with the artlantis image? I am thining of doing a similar type but with a lightworks image.

[Anonymous]

David wrote:
Tom, nice look.

cheers

David wrote:
Can I ask how you coordinated the size / scale of the archicad image with the artlantis image? I am thining of doing a similar type but with a lightworks image.

From Archicad I save as PDF at 1:50, then in artlantis I render a floor plan view - when rendering parallel views you have the option to render at specified scale - so I render at 1:50 and 150 dpi (i don't bother rendering very high res because they're usually distributed via email any way.)

In photoshop open the PDF floor plan and choose whatever dpi you rendered the artlantis image as. Both images should line up pretty well, you'll need to do some shuffling around to get them perfect, but shouldn't have to resize either of them.

Note: In photoshop, the plan goes on the top layer and it's layer mode is changed to Multiply, this gets rid of all the white bits.

I'm not sure if you can render scaled parallel views in lightworks though...

[Anonymous]

i use , Artlantis " with white materials , just to get shadows and nice readiosity effect " then Piranesi , to add materials and colors in Piranesi its quick.. and the most important thing that it is FUN!! i mean really and i can add edges there .

[Anonymous]

David wrote:
We want our buyers to be able to easily read the plans and have the drawings appear to be creatively inspired and not look like a cleaned up construction drawing.

This search for artsy looking illustrations, I never got it. Why hide the fact that your design took a lot of thinking?

Anyway, this is my formula for success:

For each floor produce a 3D cuttaway image, cutting plan around 1.6m height (block "z" in the window). Export your 3d window (hidden line) onto your layout, next to the plan. That way it will help your client to understand the technical drawing, where you put all the dimensions. It is a live view, so if you change anything, it will update.

This view you also export to Artlantis (Never got the hang of rendering with AC). Leave all the furniture behind, leave all the doors open.

Put all the furniture and people and greenery and whatnot in Artlantis. Use www.formfonts.com objects.

Render all your images in 1500x1000 pixels. That way you can take them on your pen to a photography shop, where they print it on a 15x10cm photo paper, for next to nothing, and in no time.

See attached example (preview looks s*****y, not my fault)

Oh, and never render the cutting plane black, or red. If you HAVE to use color, choose something happy, like yellow.

So, now you know all my tricks.

[David Bearss]

This search for artsy looking illustrations, I never got it. Why hide the fact that your design took a lot of thinking?

Agreed. It is a fine line to walk to dress up the floor plans, but not muddy them up and make them confusing.

The rendered Plans seem to provide a good balance between creativity and readability.

Very inspiring.

[Anonymous]

Ah, and keep the camera angle small. That way, the renderings gets a "model" look.
And rotate the camera, so you can see all walls.
And place the sun behind the model, left hand.
And... well, maybe I should write a book about it.

[Anonymous]

rjwilden wrote:
This is how I do a floor plan sketch at the moment. A combination of sketch, Lightworks and 5-10min in photo shop. Gives me this loose sketchy look. The whole process would take 30min for a floor plan. Then import into layout along with a few exterior and interior sketchs.


Richard.

GREAT WORK! Lovely..