Fast Rendering of Visualizations with Lumion (TM)

Stunning visualizations in seconds! Lumion uses real-time 3D technology for rendering.This amazing technology of Lumion renders images in a fraction of a second. The aim of of the software is to create a lightning fast workflow between packages like Autocad or Sketchup and stunning visualizations.

Lumion uses real-time 3D technology for rendering.

This amazing technology of Lumion renders images in a fraction of a second.

Stunning visualizations in secondsLumion uses real-time 3D technology for rendering. This amazing technology of Lumion renders images in afraction of a second.

Lumion offers what architects could only dream about for years!
If you are an Architect or 3D artist you will be pleased to discover what you can achieve with Lumion.Visualization software should not feel like an extra job, it should just be there for you when you need it and it needs to deliver results without effort.We provided Lumion with a user interface that is designed around you.
Complex tasks look easy with Lumion. The most important goal of Lumion is to let you do jobs yourself which usually require expensive specialists. That is amazing by itself but on top of that Lumion renders in real-time, meaning you can view the end result instantly.
Lumion supports models created in Sketch-up, 3DS Max, Maya and most other 3D design software. You can run Lumion next to your existing software. Just fire it up and have an image or movie of your work in 5 minutes.







A different kind of software
Lumion redefines how you use software. Regardless of the difficulty of the task at hand Lumion makes it feel easy. Extensive user testing combined with GPU technology was used to create a new level of usability.
The graphics engine is designed for instant visualization. Just import your models and Lumion makes them look good. No effort. No waiting. Lumion’s “theater mode“ allows you to us it as a 3D viewer for easy flytroughs of complex 3D models in real-time.
Lumion includes a stunning arsenal of high quality content. A huge library of plants, trees, people, cars, animals, landscapes, buildings, materials and more provides you with everything you need to make movies and images stand out.







Materials and lights
Lumion comes with a extensive material library to quickly provide your models with realistic appearances. Need changes in your model? Update your model with a single click in Lumion and all materials are automatically applied to the updated model.


Lumion materials combine perfectly with the sophisticated lighting system. This system simulates daylight, fog and sky color. Creating good looking images was never this easy.


Recommended System
Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7
2GB system memory
1GB Graphics memory
NVIDIA GeForce 260 or equal performing 3D card
Supported file formats
Textures: BMP, DDS, PSD, PNG, TGA
Models: MAX(Requires 3DS Max installation), DAE, FAB,
FBX, OBJ, 3DS, DXF
Most tools such as Sketch-up and Maya allow exporting to one of these formats
Supported output format
MP4, BMP, JPG





Included content
Lumion includes a very large library of materials, people, animals, trees, plants, buildings, street furniture, landscapes, cars, boats, roads and more.


Tutorials and Demo Version can be found on Lumion Website

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Quick Tip: How to Draw an Infinite Clock with Art Brushes

How to Draw an Infinite Clock with Art Brushes
 Follow this tutorial and you will find out how to draw a clock that goes round and round to the infinite with the help of Adobe Illustrator’s Art Brushes. You will also learn some tricks on how to make all the hours and the divisions to fit perfectly.

Final Product What You'll Be Creating

Step 1

Start by opening a new web document then draw a 500 x 400 px Rectangle that will define your working space. Now take the Spiral Tool and draw the first spiral like the pink one in the image. While drawing the spiral press the Up Arrow key on the keyboard to create more segments. When you are done draw two more spirals or just scale the first one and make sure they are centered at the end.

Step 2

To create the Spiral Art Brush first take the Star Tool and draw a small black triangle. Rotate it -90 degrees and using the Selection Tool (V) drag the right side to make it longer like below. Drag the obtained shape into the Brushes Panel and choose New Art Brush. Use it to stroke the first spiral made.

Step 3

Next you need to divide the spirals and to do that first draw with the Pen Tool (P) a straight vertical path that will define the 12-6 direction through the middle of the clock. Take the Add Anchor Point Tool (Plus Symbol) and starting from the top click on each spiral to add a point where each spiral intersects this path. Zoom as much as needed and do this until you arrive at the other end of the spirals, all the way in the middle not only on the shown point in the image. When you are done take the Scissors Tool (C) and click on all these added points to cut and obtain the half segments.

Step 4

Take the Type Tool (T) and type the hours from 6 to 12 first. The font I used is Algerian, 105 pt. Go to the Object menu and Expand then scale each hour like shown above each one. Now you need to place them at equal distance from each other and this is an important step otherwise the hours and the divisions won’t fit. Take a look at the X and Y values in the Transform Panel. Keep the same Y value for all hours and at the X value starting from 6 keep adding 100 px for each hour according to the previous one. Repeat this step for the 12 to 6 hours.

Step 5
Drag the 6 to12 and 12 to 6 hours into the Brushes Panel and choose New Art Brush. From now on I will refer to them as 6-12 Art Brush and 12-6 Art Brush. Stroke the first segment of the third spiral, the black one, using the 6-12 Art Brush and as you can see the straight path drawn at the step 3 doesn’t go through the middle of 6 and 12 as it should. Here is the trick to fix that. Drag the art brush back into your working area from the Brushes Panel and there will be a rectangle in the group. Select it and drag the left side in the middle of 6 and the right side in the middle of 12 like you see in the image. Do the same for the 12-6 Art Brush then drag them both back into the Brushes Panel. Now stroke the segment using the new brush and this time it fits perfectly.

Step 6
Double click on Stroke in the Appearance Panel to open the Stroke Options window. Here you can change the Size value if you think the hours are too big and if they are flipped or upside down check the Flip Along and Flip Across options. Also check Proportional. Continue to stroke the other segments all the way and use the 12 or 6 hours from the previous segment as reference to adjust the Size value as you go. After expanding you can delete the duplicated hours.

Step 7
To create the Divisions Art Brush first draw a triangle shape and the four lines having a 1.5 pt black Stroke. Copy and Paste them five times and arrange them in a row then place one more triangle at the end. Scale each one of them from 100% up to 70% for the last triangle. Also use again the same method from the step 4 to make sure all the divisions are perfectly aligned and at equal distance. Keep the same Y value for each division and to the X value this time add only 10 px starting from the first triangle. This step will take some time but otherwise the divisions won’t fit with the hours.

When you are done take the Delete Anchor Point Tool and delete the points from the left side of the first triangle and the points from the right side of the last triangle. This is another trick to know otherwise after you define the brush you will have to drag it back into your working area to move the sides of the rectangle in the middle of the first and the last triangle, like you did for the 6-12 and 12-6 Art Brushes at the step 5. Now you don’t need to because you already obtained the halves.

Step 8
Stroke the first segment of the blue spiral using this Divisions Art Brush defined earlier. I changed the Width value to 70% because I thought the divisions were too big but in your case it’s up to you. Continue to stroke the rest of the segments and use the last half triangle from the previous segment as reference to scale the next segment as much as needed so they fit perfectly like shown in the close up. For example, in my case a 75% Width value was just right for the second segment then 80% for the third one, 85% for the fourth one and so on. As long as you zoom enough to see each pair of halves and you set the right Size value all the Divisions stroked segments will fit properly. You can also make further adjustments using the Direct Selection Tool (A) after expanding.

Step 9

Next select the pink spiral, go to the Object menu and Expand Appearance. The colors used for the gradient are: blue (R=84,G=159,B=215), dark blue (R=0,G=86,B=120), orange (R=208,G=155,B=39), yellow (R=243,G=232,B=92), brown (R=122,G=117,B=99), green (R=98,G=138,B=102), again dark blue (R=0,G=86,B=120), again blue (R=84,G=159,B=215) and light blue (R=188,G=217,B=242). Set the angle value to 10 degrees. Copy and Paste in front this spiral shape, keep the same gradient just change the angle value to 90 degrees and set the Blending mode to Color Burn.

Step 10
Let’s add some shadows. Select the first group of hours (the 12 is missing because I said you need to delete the 12 and 6 hours that are duplicates) then go to Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow and set the values like in the image. Do the same for the next four hour groups not for all of them because the rest of the hours are too small and there is no need.

Step 11

Fill the 500×400 px rectangle in back from the beginning with a linear gradient called Purple, Yellow that you can find in the Swatch Libraries menu under Gradients > Color Combinations. Change the angle value to 180 degrees. Duplicate this rectangle, delete the fill and use it to mask the clock. To do that select all the clock shapes made so far and also the empty rectangle, that must be in front of them and go to Object > Clipping Mask > Make.

Step 12
All that is left to do is to select the spiral shape in back (there are two) and go to Effect > Stylize > Outer Glow. Set the values like in the image and the color used is black (R=0,G=0,B=0).

Final Image
Here is the final image of the infinite clock, play around with the settings to see what you can come up with. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.

Tutorial by, Diana Toma

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Fireworks 101

Making a Simple Logo!

 This time we have a very nice tutorial done by a Gyorgy Fekete. It cover some basic functionalities and it's very useful for those willing to improve their Fireworks skills. You will learn how to play with paths, combining, subtracting and much more. Also you will end up creating a logo. 

Lets begin!
First let's see what combine path objects are and what can you do with them. In Fireworks there are four main combine paths: Union, Intersect, Punch and Crop.

Union

You can unite two or more objects with it. Just drag the two objects onto each other (it helps if you select the same color for both shapes, this way you would see the final union), select both objects and go to the Modify menu, Combine Paths -> Union. This simple command alone creates rather complex shapes.

Intersect

With intersect you can create a shape whose the result of the intersection of two or more shapes.You can do this the same way as with Union, select the two shapes and go to Modify -> Combine Paths -> Intersect. It also helps if you decrease the opacity of the topmost shape to see the final intersected result.

Punch

With punch you can cut a shape from another. Just go to Modify -> Combine Paths -> Punch. I use this command the most while I'm creating my shapes.

Crop

I rarely use this command, although it's very powerful. It's useful if we use more than two shapes. The main idea with crop is that it creates a hybrid intersection from the two circles underneath the rectangle. The rectangle is the topmost shape.

Now let me show you the real power of these commands. Let's create a complex shape without using the pen tool or a tablet. Just the plain old mouse and these four commands.

Creating a Logo!

Let's create a logo with two leaf shapes and some fancy text. First the most important thing is that we have to learn how to see different shapes from two or more, and what type of command to use to get those shapes.

Step 1

For me the easiest way to create a leaf is from an oval. So, create the oval and draw a rectangle shape on top of it like this:

Now just Punch the rectangle from the oval and the result will be this:

Dublicate this shape (CMD+C; CMD+V) and flip it horizontally (Modify -> Transform -> Flip Horizontal). Match the two shapes and apply the Union command to get this shape:

Step 2

Ok. Now rotate this shape a little bit and duplicate it twice. Draw a rectangle under the duplicated shapes like this (note that the blue oval shape is the top most, the green one is in the middle and the rectangle is at bottom):

The idea is to get that shape in the middle (dark blue):

We achieve this by selecting all three shapes using the Crop command and then selecting the remaining shapes and using the Punch command. You will get this shape:

Now we go back to our original 'leaf like' shape. Duplicating it again and shrinking a by 80% (CMD+SHIFT+T), then punch the smaller shape from the original.

Step 3

Align the remaining shapes and apply the Union command, like this:

Duplicate the final shape and color it differently. Flip it horizontally and align the two shapes therefore the duplicated shape goes under the original one, like so:

Duplicate the red shape one more time and drag it out, we will need it later. And now you guessed it select the two shapes and Punch the red shape and mask the rest like this:

Punch the oval from the green shape. Align it with the remaining red shape group it together (CMD+G) and shrink it to 30%.

Final Result
Voila, we got a leaf logo. You can write a 'web 2.0' name and you got your company :-)

Also, you can play a little bit and create some crazy shapes like that!

Regards: Gyorgy Fekete

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Playing with Vectors in Illustrator, Work of Art

To create a dynamic design, Lets play with Vectors in Adobe Illustrator !

 Lets play with Illustrator and try to create a cool black and white artwork. The inspiration here taken from some skateboard deck designs which have sort of 3D effect without using gradients or anything, and not exactly a woodcut effect either.The whole process is an excellent way to improve Illustrator techniques.In this tutorial we are goi to see how to create a design from scratch.

First sketch

Go Digital !

Step 1

Create a new document in Illustrator, Using a web format with 1920x1200 pixels. After that add a black rectangle using the Rectangle Tool (M). This rectangle will be beneath all the other new objects, you can even create a new layer (Window>Layer) move it into this layer and lock the layer so you won't be able to edit it.

Step 2

With the Ellipse Tool (L) add a white ellipse in the center of the black rectangle. To do that go to Window>Align, then select the objects and click Horizontal Align Objects and Vertical Align Objects.

Step 3

Add another circle a little smaller the the first one, using white for the color and black for the stroke. Also use 4pt for the Stroke weight.

Step 4

Once again add an ellipse using the Ellipse Tool (L) and fill it with black. It will be smaller than the others. After that aligned it in the center using the Align options. Duplicate this ellipse. We will need one that will be always beneath the new elements and another to be used to create some vector bevel effects.

Step 5

Duplicate one of the black ellipse from the previous step and move it down a little bit, like the image below. Fill it with white. Select the both ellipses and go to Window>Pathfinder. Select the second options on theShape Modes, the Minus Front.

Step 6

Repeat the same process we did in the steps 4 and 5 but with smaller circles. Look at the image below for reference, 1 is from steps 4-5 and 2 is from this step, Also the red circles are for reference.

Step 7

Duplicate both elements and flip them vertically. The idea is that these elements will be used to create a sort of bevel and give some depth to the illustration.

Step 8

Add anohter ellipse, this time a white ellipse in the center of the design.

Step 9

Create another black ellipse in the center smaller than the previous one. Use the image below for reference.

Step 10

Duplicate the ellipse from the previous step and align them in the center, after that resize the ellipse a little bit and move it up a few pixels so the top part will be thinner than the bottom.

Step 11

Once again, repeat the same thing as the previous steps 9 and 10, but make it thicker, as we already know this tutorial is all about playing with the tool.

Step 12

Create a triangle using the Polygon Tool. Fill it with black. Re size it to get a triangle like the one in the image below.

Step 13

With the triangle selected, press ENTER to open the Move Dialog Box. Use 10px for the Horizontal and0px for the Vertical. Then press COPY.

Step 14

Now press Command (MAC)/Control(PC) + D several times until you cover the circle from side to side.

Step 15

Select the two elements in the very center and start resizing them vertically only. Repeat that for the other elements.

Step 16

With the Rectangle Tool (M) create a thin black rectangle (1), then a large one with white(2), anotherblack one (3) and then another white one very thin that will work like a stroke. Group these rectangles so you can use the group to create more elements.

Step 17

Start creating blocks with 4 elements with copies of the group of objects we created in the previous step. Rotate them so none of them will have the same angle.

Step 18

Repeate the previous step 7 times. The idea is inspired by those old hubcaps or a bicicle wheel. Notice that all of them have different rotations.

Step 19

Add an ellipse to be used as reference for the Type on Path Tool. With the Type on Path Tool click on the ellipse to add the text that will follow that path.Use MOD for the font and 72pt for the font size.

Step 20

Now using the same technique we did in the previous step, add more text, this time use the same font but with smaller size, 48pt. Use the image below for reference.

Step 21

Select all the rectangle elements created in the Step 19 and group them, after that duplicate the group, fill it with black and put it beneath the original group. Move the black group to the left and bottom, the idea is to create a shadow for those elements.

Conclusion

The idea of Abduzeedo was to play with vectors and create a design that has depth but using only black and white. However I love to place texture over vectors. Now use an old paper texture, courtesy of Shutterstock and you can get it here. Place the texture on top of the other elements and change the Transparency Mode to Multiply.You will have a really nice effect.This is not exactly a super effect but it is really good to improve your Illustrator skills.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE ILLUSTRATOR FILE USED FOR THIS TUTORIAL

Referrence:Abduzeedo

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