An Archiviz Workflow Overview in 3ds Max, Sketchup, and Digital Fusion
Tutorial Details
- Software: Google Sketchup 6 (or newer); 3ds Max 2009 (or newer); Vray 1.5
- Difficulty: Advanced
- Completion Time: 2 - 3 hours
- Additional Files/ Plugins: VraymtlPresets
Final Product What You'll Be Creating
In this Architectural Visualization workflow overview you will learn how to use Google Sketchup for photo matching, create a Vray-proxy in 3ds Max, use Max script to speed up your workflow, reduce render times when creating a large scene, set render layers in 3ds Max, and do some post production in Digital Fusion.
Step 1
Start Google Sketchup 7.1 (sketchup 6.0 at least), go to (File > Import…). Use “use as new matched photo” as the import option. This will help you quickly step into “PhotoMatch”, Sketchup’s new function.
Step 2
“Spacing” = 1000 mm, meaning 1 meter per grid unit when the “Grid” option is set to “On”.
Step 3
The Red and Green axis stands for the two vanishing points of the original photo, and the Yellow line should be matched by the photo’s horizon line. These points should be matched the photo’s V.P as correctly as possible.
Step 4
Go to (Draw > Rectangle) to create a rectangle based on the original photo’s perspective, and then use the “Push” tool to generate a cube.
Step 5
Right click the top line, and chose “Divide”, then use the “Line” tool to create lines. Divide the cube by 17x19x5 segments.
Step 6
Use the same method to create a new cube on top of the original one. All of the segments should be created based on the original photo.
Step 7
Use the “Circle”, “Push”, and “Offset” tools to create a column. Copy it by pressing “N” (N=1,2,3…).
Step 8
This is the final result of the Sketchup modeling portion.
Step 9
Go to (File > Export > 3D model).
Step 10
Chose “3ds” format as the file type, and export it into 3ds max 2009. This is the end of the Sketchup part.
Step 11
Start 3ds Max 2009, make sure your 3ds Max units are set to “Millimeters”.
Step 12
Go to (File > Import…) to import the ’3ds’ file.
Step 13
Hit ‘C’ to switch to the Camera view, and press ‘ALT+B’, to open the Viewport Background window.
Step 14
Hit ‘F10′ to open the Render Setup, and set the “Image Aspect” to 0.6667. Change the render engine to Vray 1.5 sp2.
Step 15
Select the Camera, call it “Fine”, and set the FOV to 45 degrees.
Step 16
Select all of the columns, add a “Smooth” modifier.
Step 17
Modeling the window frame.
Step 18
Final result of all of the frames. Use the Instance Copy option to copy the frames based on the imported 3ds file. Try to match the original photo as correctly as possible.
Step 19
Create the window glass by using the Shell modifier on a plane.
Step 20
Move the glass into the right place on the bottom of the frame.
Step 21
Create the Door Gate by using Extrude + Shell + Edit Poly modifiers.
Step 22
Use the Line + Extrude + Shell Tools to create the top window frames.
Step 23
Add an “EditPoly” modifier, and use the “Chamfer Settings” tool to fillet the edges.
Step 24
Create the glass geometry by using the Shell modifier. Notice the glass’s position.
Step 25
Create a plane, and apply the plan image to it as a material. You can use this reference plan to create the interior wall.
Step 26
Here is the result of the interior wall and ceiling base.
Step 27
Draw a line on the floor, and go to (Create > AEC Extended > Railing > Pick Railing Path).
Step 28
Create 3 instances of the glass railing (click to see the large version of the image.)
Step 29
Create the 3rd Floor interior walls. There is no reference image so just rely on the plan and the original photo.
Step 30
Using the CV Curve + Loft tools, generate the small ball in the interior.
Step 31
Use the Line tool to create the support wires.
Step 32
Use the same techniques for the large ball.
Step 33
Use the Line + Extrude tools to generate the ceiling panels. Don’t forget to fillet the edges.
Step 34
Model in the lights on the ceiling panels and move them to the right position.
Step 35
This is the final result of the modeling part. We will be moving on to the material steps in a moment, but before starting I would like to introduce this amazing script called “VraymtlPresets”. You can visit www.siger.it to download it and also get more information. The latest version is 0.6.
Step 36
Put the “vraymtlPresets_v06.mcr” to your Max script directory. The Macroscripts (.mcr) should be placed in “maxroot\UI\Macroscripts” folder. Go to “Maxscript > Run Script”.
Step 37
Open your “VraymtlPresets_v06.mcr”.
Step 38
Go to “Customize > Customize User Interface”.
Step 39
Select the S_Vray Tools Category.
Step 40
Click “New” to create a new toolbar, name it whatever you want it to be, and hit “OK”.
Step 41
Drag the new toolbar to your top max toolbar, and drag the “VRayMTL Quick Presets” action to this new toolbar (under the Action window in your Customize User Interface) and click it. You should now have the script installed.
Step 42
Select all of the window frames, open the “VrayMtl Presets_0.6″ toolbar, and go to “Gemstones > Onyx Black > Assign”. Open the material editor, set the diffuse color to (35,35,35), and leave everything else as default. Apply the material to all of the frames. Click to see the larger image.
Step 43
Open the material editor, change the material type to “VrayMt”l. Set the “Diffuse” color to (213,203,202),
the “Highlight Gloss” to 0.45, the “Refl. Gloss” to 0.92, the “Subdivs” to 20, and make sure the “Use Interpolation” is on (it will help you reduce the render time). Apply this material to all of the columns. (Click for the larger image.)
Step 44
Select the Glass of the bottom area, open the script, go to “Glass > Architectual > Assign”. Make sure the Reflection “Use Interpolation” option is off. Click for the large image.
Step 45
Open the script, go to “Metal > Stainless Steel > Assign”. Change the BRDF type to “Blinn”, the “Anisotropy” to 0.7, and the “Rotation” to 90 degrees. Apply this material to all of the chrome objects, like door frames, door handles etc..
Step 46
Select a new material ball, change the material type to “VrayBlendMt”l, and select White Plastic as the base material and Black Plastic as the Coat material. Make sure the “Use Interpolation” option is on. For the “Blend Amount” option, use a black/white jpg as a mask, where the white part will be the Base material, and the black part will be the Coat material.
Step 47
Select all of the window frames and apply the “VrayblendMtl” material to them.
Step 48
Select a new material ball, change the material type to “VrayMtl”, and set the diffuse color to (219,203,180). Set the “Reflection Color” to (168,168,168), and make sure the “Use Interpolation” option is on. Select all of the interior walls, and apply it. Click to see the larger image.
Step 49
This is the final result of the material part.
Step 50
Now to plant some trees. Here I use Evermotion’s product. You can buy and download it from http://www.evermotion.org/modelshop/show_product/sassafras-plant-24-am61/933/0/0/ It has a lot of polygons on this tree, but it looks amazing to me, so I used it to detail this scene. 40EUR per models may be a little pricey for your taste, but anyway you can find any tree models to finish the scene.
Step 51
Select all objects that make up the tree, and go to (UtilitiesPanel > Collapse > Collapse Selected) to convert them into a single object.
Step 52
Right click > Vray Mesh Export.
Step 53
Select a Folder to store the “.vrmesh” file, and make sure the “Automatically Create Proxies” option is on.
Step 54
Set the Display mode to “Preview From File. 3ds Max just created a proxy automatically.
Step 55
Use the Instance Copy and Scale tools to duplicate the proxy in front of the building.
Step 56
This is the final result of adding trees.
Step 57
Create a plane VrayLight, and set the color to (249,132,74). Set the “Invisible” option to “off”, change the “Multiplier” to 70, and Instance Copy this VrayLight to fit all of the ceiling lights. Click to see the larger image.
Step 58
Go to (Render panel > Vray panel > Global switches), and you will see that it is at draft render settings.
Step 59
Open the Indiect Illumination panel and hit render (467×700). My render time is around 57 seconds (ASUS C90P Notebook,cpu:Q9550, ram:4G, GC:9600MGT).
Step 60
Go to (Create panel > Lights > Free Ligh) to create a photometric light using an IES file. Move the photometric light under the Vraylight, and Instance duplicate. Here I have 114 IES lights in this scene.
Step 61
Here is the result of adding photometric lights. The render time is 1 min at 467 x 700.
Step 62
Create another VrayLight, set the color to (255,163,82), and make sure the “Invisible” option is off. This means the light can be seen by the renderer.
Step 63
Instance duplicate the light to the interior corridor (match the photo’s position as correctly as you can). Use the Scale tool to get light to fit the interior walls.
Step 64
Go to (Render Setup > Vray:Envirorment), and set the GI multiplier to 1.0. Use the Fine.jpg to generate GI. Use a jpg to generate the reflection and refraction, with the multiplier set to 2.0 to give brighter reflections. Notice that the mapping is set to Spherical.
Step 65
Here is a test render done at sStep 64. The render time is up to 5 min because of the VrayLight subdivs are set to 14 with 144 VrayLights. You can reduce the subdiv value to speed up the render time. From this test render, you can see that the interior was a little bit dark.
Step 66
Create a big Vray Plane light. Set the color to (255,188,82), with the “Invisible” option on, but the “Affect Spec and Reflections” off.
Step 67
These are the final render settings in the render setup panel (click for the large version!)
Step 68
And the final render layers settings and render results (again, click to see the large version!)
Step 69
Now for the final compositing step we will use the software Digital Fusion 5.3.
Step 70
Drag the final exr file into fusion, and rename it as “BeautyPass”. Go to the “Import” panel, change the depth to “Float32″, and set “Post-Multiply by alpha” to “On”. When you save the .exr file in 3ds Max, Vray also puts every pass to a single file, so you can change every render pass easily. Here are two examples (Diffuse and reflection pass). Click the “Format” panel, and change the RGB channels the way you want it to be. When you are done with a pass, use Ctrl+C to copy, and Ctrl+V to paste another node. Then go to the “Format” panel to change the channels. You should have a Diffuse, Raw_GI, Raw_LT, Reflection, Refraction, Specular, Sell_Ill, and Beauty pass. Click to see the large version of this image!
Step 71
Here is the final result (click to see the large version!) Thanks for watching. If you have any questions or suggestions, please let me know. Hope you liked this tutorial. EnjoY!!
Don’t miss more CG tutorials and guides, published daily – subscribe to Cgtuts+ by RSS.
Enjoyed this Post?
Subscribe to our RSS Feed, Follow us on Twitter or simply recommend us to friends and colleagues!
By K. Shane
Join our newsletter!
Create a Tutorial, Get Paid!
Have something to teach the world? Want to earn money doing it? Tutorials, screencasts, and articles published here on Cgtuts+ are largely contributed by readers just like you! We'll pay you great money for good content. Find Out More
Wow…Its really fantastic.
thanks WSQ,hope you like this tuts~
Nice Job and great effort!
thanks Kumar~~
Amazing tutorial! And the end result looks really, really good. Thanks K. Shane!
thanks beauty~~~and your works look really amazing to me too~~:):)
Really Nice! result. very good and thanks bro.
thank you Lui~~~~~any kind of C&C will welcome~~~:):)
Wow Amazing :D
thanks bro~~~
Nice tutorial, very in depth!
Google Ronen Bekerman, he uses sketchup and max and vray too. His architectual work is amazing fa sho
thank you dillard~
Ronen,i know that guy,he is very professional!
Great tut. Can we get a printer friendly version?
:) well i will try~~~haha~~
Awesome tutorial, very helpful.
Can we get the source files though please? Obviously not the tree, but the photo/plan image and the scripts?
Thanks
i’m sorry,but in fact,the original photo and the source reference photos was provided to cgtuts,i don’t know why they can’t show it on this page~
but you can add my msn:kevinshane@vip.qq.com and i will send you all the files inculding the script:):)
would you mind if i add you too sir? i really wanna try to follow along this tutorial, I’ve been dying to learn camera matching for a while now, thanks so much :)
It’s really awesome and well explained, thanks for sharing this tutorial.
thank you kutu~~and your works is very nice to me ~~~~
Great work!!! but only if you can post the link for the images, there´re parameters I can´t see.
i am so sorry,in the original tutorial,when the image become too small to show,i also put the original size image on the link,but i don’t know why cgtuts remove those “enable large” link~~~~i will contact cgtuts to deal with those small image…
They seem don’t fix that problem. All images stay small and can’t access the readable size version (maybe only allow premium users, how sad…). Almost step I can try+tweak the parameter myself when they so small. But final image Fusion (Step 71), I can’t see the node map of render elements, don’t know which elements go into what compositing… I’m new in Fusion.
Hi Jn26,
Thanks for bringing this to my attention! I’ve just gone in and added a link to the bigger versions :)
Cheer!
Matt
Superb tutorial, thanks for the tips
thanks GUSTAV~~~
Very nice tutorial, but the composition part you make it too fast so i couldn’t make anything out of it.
but thanks so much for the rest
hi,thanks for your suggestion.
may be i just try to contact cgtuts so that you can see the large size of the last two image,that contains all the fusion part detals,like parameters and how to link ~~~anyway,i am so sorry,i will try more detail explain in my next Interior Rendering tutorials~~hope the next one will give you fully understanding~~~
Great tutorial,amazing work but i cannot make anything of the final render settings, the image is just too small,please enlarge.
I’m so sorry,but cgtuts admin will deal with this problem,plz keep attention when they have done!Also,you can add my MSN:kevinshane@vip.qq.com I will send you all the ref photos and script on msn.Well,seems like that is the only way to reach the ref files..:):)
Thanks all~~
I will try to write some of text-tutorials to discuss about Interior renderings of something else like speed up the render time~if someone can give me C&C,i will be very appreciate with that~~:):)
Agreed, would be nice if you went over what you did in fusion a bit more, or at least have a bigger image for the comp.
Some images doesn’t open in my browsers… have you a PDF format?
From where I download the “vraymtlPresets_v06.mcr” ??
Out of curiosity, and for integrity sake on CGtuts+ part:
Why exactly does your version of Vray identify itself as the demo, but yet you havent any watermark?
Now I am not accusing anyone of anything, I am just curious. I am also quite sure Kaleb would not approve of pirated software being readily identifiable on CGtuts+ tutorials (again not accusing, simply inquiring). =)
The 64 Step Image doesn’t open… I’ve tried so many times and nothing…
This is great. Thanks for sharing.
Hey Admins,
This looks like a great tute, but is a bit pointless visiting the site to do it if almost a week later the reference files are still not yet uploaded. Please expedite this as I can’t go further without the files.
Thanks,
TJ
Hey guys~~don’t waiting for the admins~
I will upload the files to Hotfile.com ,if admins don’t mind~~~:)please be a little bit more patient
Here is the reference photos you can download blow this site:
—————————————————————————————-
—————————————————————————————-
http://hotfile.com/dl/37853049/8b30f0c/ReferenceImages.rar.html
—————————————————————————————-
—————————————————————————————-
OR search Leslie_L_Dan_Pharmacy_Building_in_Toronto in google.com
Here is the final models of sketchup + 3dsmax files:
—————————————————————————————-
—————————————————————————————-
http://hotfile.com/dl/37854539/474b813/sketchupmax_files.rar.html
—————————————————————————————-
—————————————————————————————-
Please don’t add my msn,cuz I always answer the same question !so if you have any question about this making of tuts,please write down you comments in this page so i could answer it together.Thanks guys~~
K.Shane
Very nice tutorial, very complete and well explained, the only thing is if you could share the images in a bigger format because in some cases one can not read or see the number values. Congratulations it is a great job.
Thanks
kewwllll >_<
love it! thank you so much from indonesia!
I agree with Alex. It’s very hard to read the Fusion steps image. Can you make the images available to download?
I have been away for the last week or so, so sorry about the delay on this. I will see about linking to some higher rez images asap.
yeah~..Kaleb is working in progress of linking the high detail res images~will be soon…
Thank you for this great tutorial. It’s very professional work. Please, would you tell me how did you do the rays of the lights to be visible. Is it made in the final post work and how it’s made.
hey Deyan, you can see the vray-light settings,make sure your invisible option is turn off…and you will get the shape of vray rectangle lights showing in renders
Thank you for your answer but I mean the lights under the oriel ( I don’t know is this the right word, or maybe bow window is much correct than oriel, sorry for my English). There is something like lens effect in the final image. It looks perfect. When I use vray light i see only the ligh and the lighten objects but can’t see rays or glow effect around the light. Sorry for my English again
I mean the lights from step 57
congrats for your work and tnx for tutorial.
Can you share the 67 steps at the full resolution?
Good luck
hey ariaty~~you will see the high res images soon~~~
Great tutorial. One question, why do you transform the tree to vraymesh?
thanks!
The reason, he wants scene not getting heavy. Use vray proxy for tree (each one 0.5 milion polys) make render easier and faster.
Good tutorial.
The correct address of macroscript VRayMtlPresets is http://www.siger.lt (LT domain, not IT :) )
Excellent!! Thank you for share your work… I’d like see the image of 64 ITEM, Please.. you’ll can recharge those image…
The script is not free? Gotta pay for it …….
Nevermind it was the material library that costed money.
I have the script installed and can load it, but when i load the little button is blank and cannot push it?
good work kevin, thanks for sharing your knowledge
hi..my name is tommy, from indonesia
i wished i can make this 3d modeling :D
very good tutorial :D
Great job, Thanks for sharing your work with us, Im waiting for the see the high resolution images soon.
Great job, man. You really know your way around Max.
One thing i would add it that if the original photo’s vertical lines aren’t straight, quickly insert it in Photoshop and lens correct.
Anyway, superb tutorial.
yeah~~that’s a good idea!Thanks for your comments!
hey guys all,
I will write another post production work flow tuts in detail and it is w.i.p.ing~~~thanks guys~~
HI, I wondered if it is possible to get the reference images and the script? THe Hotfile links aren’t working anymore and in the Premium section they are not available. Would be really great. Thx in advance
i wish i can work like u…. admire…
Nice Job and thanx for your tutorial,
please can you re-upload the Reference photos and image Number 64
thank you
Nice Job and thanx for your tutorial,
please can you re-upload the Reference photos and image Number 64
thank you in advance!
How about the reference photos. The tutorial is great but then you tease us with the ref photos and then they are gone again.. put it up so everyone can enjoy the tutorial.
Hi man,
Goooooooooooooooooood job, you can relaod de hotfire files ??? Its dont work anymore … PLEASE !
Just save the photo at the top of this page and use it for your reference photo its the same thing. There is never support for free tutorials..
Is someone have the full res of the last picture ? http://cgtuts.s3.amazonaws.com/144_Max_ArchViz/71.jpg
http://cgtuts.s3.amazonaws.com/144_Max_ArchViz/71_L.jpg don’t work :’(
Hi V!nc3r.
Apologies about that, the link is now fixed!
Matt
Hi man,
Please ! Fix the archives of HOTFILE to download …
Tanks Very Much !!
Thanks you so much for the tutorial, its so useful and nice explained, congratulations!!
Very good tutorial !
Can you re upload files ReferenceImages.rar and sketchupmax_files.rar
Very nice tutorial. Would this be possible with mental ray rendered as well? All the cool renderings seem to be done with Vray.
Hi!
Very useful tutorial!
Thanks you!
but, the Hotfile link (with max file) don’t work! Please share it again!
gers