It’s been roughly one week since our last update. Today’s post we’ll cover off what we’ve accomplished so far and what’s left on the project.
1. DVD Video
We’re glad to announce that the project has officially hit production. The rendering of all the frames is underway and moving along smoothly. The project is being rendered in Anamorphic Widescreen DVD Format. It will be displayed on a 42″ Widescreen TV in the showroom hooked up to a DVD player. The decision to render out in DVD format vs. HD was based on time and budget.
2. Still Renders
For online and offline marketing materials we used pre-rendered orthogrphic, 1 point and 2 point perspective views. These renderings are used to create final paintovers. Below are some render shots prior to post processing.
Fig. 1 – 2 Point Perspective View
Fig. 2 – Right Side Orthographic View
Fig. 3 – Main Floor Overhead View
Fig 4. – Basement Overhead View
3. Paintovers
In this project we’re creating much of the environment and ambiance using 2D post processing techniques to save time and budget. Also since there is very little user interactivity, there is no need for a touchable, realistic interactive environment. Fig. 5 was created at 300dpi and coloured in CMYK to be ready for print. This paintover will be used on Billboard. The challenge with Othrographic paintovers is creating perspective from a view that has no perspective. Here we use 1 point perspective techniques to help create a pseudo sense of realism.
Fig. 5 – 2 Point Perspective Paintover
Fig. 6 – Right Side Orthographic Paintover
Fig. 6 – Main Floor Overhead Paintover
Fig 7. – Basement Overhead Paintover
What’s left?
Once the DVD Frames have been rendered we will be doing some post processing to give them the final touch. We will also be creating two more 1 point perspective paintovers from the front and rear orthographic views.
For more images on this project feel free to visit our Flickr and Youtube pages.
For those of you following our humble blog, during select projects, we will be providing updates and insights during the development process. With these updates we are giving you an opportunity to follow our progress, successes, and mistakes. While we are a company of digital learning, and exploration, we offer you a seat along side to learn with us as we explore the very best of our talents and creativity. To that regard I leave you with the first project update.
When the project was initiated with Glennstar our deliverables were 1) to create a 3D asset of the Ironwolf Communities Duplex show home, designed by Architectural Designer, Elisa, McLellan; 2) render several print ready assets for marketing materials; and 3) Create an architectural fly-through showcasing the virtual home, so that it can be deployed to DVD and the Web.
Fig 1. Duplex Show Home – Main Floor
Fig 2. Duplex Show Home – Developed Basement
I won’t get into too many technical details of the project but I’d like to highlight a few big ones.
Working on any project, especially a project with so many aesthetic components to consider, can be a daunting task. Even a small 3D home project there are thousands of bits, parts, and pieces to create and maintain. In residential construction, the client or even the clients customers can request colour changes, small tweaks, “minor” wall changes, door type changes, etc. We use a technique called file referencing.
For example, if a house has 3 windows that are exactly the same, then those windows should all be pulled into the main model from a single source file. The benefits of this are two-fold. First we only need to model the asset once and any future changes to the asset will propagate up to the composite model. Secondly, assets that aren’t complete can still be added to the composite model in proxy form. An example would be knowing the size of a new door model but not knowing the final design of the door. The artist doing the layout of the composite model can make a new file with a cube object of the same size, shape, and with the same pivot point as the final door model. They can then reference that file into the composite model and position it on the house. When the design for the door arrives from the client, that proxy file can be modified to specification and voila! The door in the composite model will have maintained the changes.
Other advantages to using a reference pipeline can allow multiple team members to work on the same file, and build a database of reusable assets. Since developers use finishing products and materials from many different manufacturers, file referencing allow us to maintain a library of assets which include many types of metadata, such as, manufacturer, product type, product style, product color, and the list goes on.
Specializing in interactive tools like the Unreal 3 Engine, that which most Arch Viz companies wouldn’t even consider, not only do we need to take into account how our assets are constructed but also their performance abilities in real-time. All assets that we develop are created using the latest in rendering technology such as Parallax mapping, giving final assets that photorealistic shine without hindering engine performance. The benefit is that all of our houses can be used in interactive simulation software like Project Carma, without a lot of extra customization.
One last consideration which requires both experience, patience, and proper planning, is the pre-rendered fly-through. Creating a video of a camera moving throughout a virtual house is more than just hitting the easy button. your home television outputs approximately 24fps, which is 24 frames (images) per second. If a video is 3 minutes and 30 seconds long, the number of frames that will make up that video is 5040 frames. First of all creating assets with game development practices helps with this process. Today’s rendering technology doesn’t impede visual quality by using lower poly assets. The time required to create each frame is determined by a number of variables that the computer needs to calcuclate. This process is called rendering. These factors can include number of polygons, visual objects, light sources, resolution of the frame, shadows, reflections, refractions, and camera depth. Any minor changes to any of these variables and settings can drastically increase or decrease the time it will take to render each frame. In our process we do a number of tests before a scene will enter final production. These tests include camera flow, lighting, resolution, and production quality to name a few. The trick is to get the scene as perfect as possible before hitting the production cue.
Below is an example of camera test #22.
In summary, the only challenges that we’ve faced in this project thus far have been the lighting design of the project. Ensuring that the lighting is set just right to give not only realistic illumination but enough ambiance enabling the proper mood for both the video and still renderings.
For those of you in the industry that new to Arch Viz (architectural visualization), I wanted to point out some of the benefits to using CG technologies on your projects.
1. Cost Effective – Recent recession aside, the cost of materials is expensive. For any builder, small, medium, and large, the cost of doing business is more than just human resources, and adequate labor. The cost of materials used, and wasted and shipped can be staggering when setting up in new development sections. As well as the risk of sitting on show properties that burn a hole into any business budget with furniture, staff, and marketing materials, business loans, etc. At the cost of one average middle class show home (approx. 2500-3000sq ft @ $400k/unit ), depending on your service provider, almost 100 3D rendered homes could be built and textured.
2. Green Technology – In our day and age, with considerations like environmental impact, on site and in the office. 3D Arch Viz can take the paper away from trash bins. these technologies can be applied to various creative media inside your show-centers as well as your customers homes. Video fly-through’s and interactive home customizing tools such as Zensoft’s Project “Carma” can be deployed to HD TV’s web browsers, and kisok computers. 3D assets can be reused, re-textured, and even modified. Can you do that with scale physical models?
3. Customer Simplicity – Buying a home is stressful enough for your customers. Remember when you purchased your first, second or third home? Worrying about the mortgage, moving, location & social impacts, paint colors, etc? Not to mention that most customers have trouble visualizing their new space before it’s built. No more trying to interpret 2′ of space off the dining room sketched out on a pre-printed 36″x24″ blueprint. CG Architecture can help them visualize their new home, from interior design decisions, floor plan, and whether their stuff will even fit!
4. Customer Engagement – have you ever had a customer walk into your show center while you were busy with another customer? Did they walk in and walk out in less than 5 minutes without really saying much to you and than venture to your competitions show center across the street? There could be a number of reasons for this, but aesthetically, everyone is different. Neutral colours, the latest interior design fads, and modern contemporary furnishings don’t appeal to everyone. 3D assets can be a cost effective way of displaying the same spaces with a variety of options, that may be more attractive to potential home buyers. Being able to relate to your customers needs, likes, and dislikes of a home may be the one thing missing from your game plan.
There are many other reasons why CG technology can help you build your business. The above mentioned are a just a few topics that we can help with.
Glennstar Homes, founded by Master Builder, Glenn Fraser, initiated 3D Arc Viz (Architectural Visualization) projects with the Zensoft Studios team. The goal of the project is to create one of their multi-family show homes in the Iron Wolf Developments Community. The end product at a fraction of the cost to building one of his show homes during current economic times, enables Glennstar to showcase their products to potential customers in a variety mediums with very little risk.
Fig 1. Kitchen 1 light test with dark wood cabinets.
Fig 2. Kitchen 2 light test with light wood cabinets.
Zensoft Studios uses it’s knowledge of game industry workflow, pipeline, and technology to create realistic, stunning, 3d architectural renderings. All 3D assets are produced game engine ready, optimized, and ready for Unreal Technology and Torque 3D Engine pipelines. The teams work with their architectural partners will help the development of their the upcoming proprietary software, Project Carma.
For more images of Zensoft’s 3D Architectural Renderings please visit our Flickr collection.
What does it mean to work professionally? I find myself asking that question daily, having attended the Alberta College of Art and Design I was exposed to people, all colours and creeds with their own take on what it means to be creative and the purpose of such a thing. “Bah, professional!” Some would speak with venom, and then return to a canvas to throw paint at it, while others not unlike myself regarded the word with reverence; something to aspire to through pushing ourselves further via hard work and dedication.
When I was a lad, and before my parents diabolically sold the NES from under my nose, I would enjoy late into the day classic titles such as Castlevania, Dragon Warrior, and the Mario Brothers. When asked that patronizing, yet important question of “what I wanted to be when I grew up” it was certainly to “do art for a living!” While a freshman the entire experience was mysterious and mythical since I was playing out my childhood dreams attending ACAD, taking my first steps towards doing art professionally! The smell of rubber cement permanently adhered to my mind, while some of the Art History I crammed for the week before lost its hold post examination. As the years progressed the rose coloured glasses had to come off, I began to realize my experiences as a student seemed to be lacking something, and it was the engagement the rest of the world has to offer. College, as hermetic as it can be sometimes, is great for the mind, and for building character through hard work. it is great because of the interesting people and the experienced professors that lay out their life on the table, feeding us nibbly bits of personal experience that only they can impart.
Challenges in the studio present themselves to me in a variety of ways, mostly from fighting with technology which occasionally gives me grief. The parallels can be drawn from the college experience of consistently needing to meet deadlines for school projects to working in the studio and needing to get things done on time. With the college trials of learning proper colour theory, perspective, design, and even art history, it became a montage of skills useful in the studio when the need arose to call on the learned knowledge and wisdom, similar to my time parked at a desk in the classroom messing around with a new program, I’m constantly learning new ways of doing things. Differences I noticed between the two is that the playing field seems much more vast in the work place when dealing with the lineup of clients all offering their input on a project and discovering the common ground on which we can all stand.
Being a professional is the willingness to take challenges as they come, to set those challenges for ourselves, and for all who are creatively minded to keep the inspiration alive as we look to our heroes. When we think of where we want to be in the future some of us are guilty of donning the rosy goggles and only looking at what we want to see. Those spectacles only bear the truth that we give them, it is up to us to bring on the roses.
January 16th, 2009, Diamond Comic Distributors Inc., announced another minimum sales quota increase, which affected all comic publishers across the board. The repercussions of their recent move left a gap in the market for small to medium sized publishers alike. Zensoft Studios Inc. sought to fill this gap by creating a social platform called, The Fabler, a web 2.0 platform targeting comic consumers, creators/publishers, and retailers, as an alternative self publishing solution.
With an aggressive roadmap, Zensoft seeks to fulfill the needs of these three unique entities within an industry that fuels billions of dollars in consumer sales per year, through the syndication of comic book intellectual property across multiple mediums and consumer product genre’s. These mediums include, comic books, merchandise, blockbuster movies, and video games, etc.
“In our research, the current state industry has created an opportunity for us to explore unique distribution models…,” says CEO Bruno Steppuhn. With overstocked retail shelves, overprinting, under served indie and a saturated mainstream market, it’s hard to find the right balance between what’s hot, and what their customers are looking for.
The Fabler’s goal is to offer a plethora of meaningful self publishing tools for alternative creators, which not only include feasible print products, but also merchandising and licensing opportunities. “The mainstream markets are supported by fresh talent and ideas that come from unbound creators. We want to harness those opportunities enabling creators, small press, and small retailers to grow,” Bruno elaborates.
Thefabler.com is more than just offering services to help the smaller guys. It’s about enabling visual story telling in a medium that many of us, since childhood can say fueled our imaginations. The Fabler loves comics. We want to continue to see them flourish.
For more details and up to date news on The Fabler, check out thefablerblog.com.
As a growing interactive company, one of the hardest things for us to do is come up with a singular public profile that sums up who we are. Our daily work is riddled with creativity, over the top ideas, and fun in the workplaces, but we are much more than fun, games, fancy computers, and nerf guns. We are dedicated, professional, and most of all passionate about interactive content in all forms.
The Enso through it’s simplicity symbolizes our constant quest for growth and perfection.
On behalf of the Zensoft Studios team and family of companies, I’m proud to announce the launch of a new chapter in our saga. For almost a decade now, we’ve had the honor of working with valued partners and clients like SRI International, The Kois Center, Art Machine, and Science Alberta Foundation just to name a few.
From humble beginnings as passionate game and game content developers we’ve now taken the next step in our evolution. We’ve grown as a company, team, culture, and partner. Thus with that we feel that our new image reflects our growth.
Our bright new future not only includes new services and products offered, but also further insight into our culture. Whether your a potential partner, inquisitive mind, or passionate developer, I welcome you to Zensoft Studios reimagined.
