#lumion8

[kiwisim4]

Just keeping on Rendering , 

I’ll eventually get back into playing the Sims 

[globalarchstudio]

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Move, vary and animate: breaking down the ‘Backyard Pool’ video

Learn how to animate objects, switch on layers and alternate between model iterations in a single animation with this video breakdown.

As the architect, you and the client might not always see eye-to-eye for every space in the house’s design. For instance, the client really wants a backyard with a swimming pool, a safety deck for young children, relaxing poolside seating and a lawn, but he/she can’t imagine how it’d all fit!

Fortunately, you’re armed with a great idea — a large, wooden pool deck that, with the help of a motor, can slide and cover the pool. 

As an all-in-one tool, Lumion can help you engage your client with a creative, animated render. In minutes, you can animate the wooden deck and truly show the beauty of the backyard when it’s finished, all without third-party software.

In this blog post, we’ll take a deeper look at the ‘Backyard Pool’ video and explore how to thrill clients using features such as Variation Control (Pro only), Layer Visibility and Move.

Setting up the ‘Backyard Pool’ scene

In Lumion 8 Pro, one of the new features was the Variation Control effect. Located in the ‘Scene & Animation’ effects in Movie Mode, Variation Control lets you easily show iterations of a single model or completely different models in the same video.

By using this feature, it’s quick and easy show a client how the addition of the swimming pool and mobile pool deck will impact the look and feel of the backyard.

So, let’s take apart a few elements of this animation and see how it was done.

Import the first model and add variations

The first step is to import one of the model variations. Generally, this will be the model that you’ll show first using Variation Control, though it can also serve as the principal, final design. No matter which model you import first, what’s important is how you set up the Variation Control effect later on.

Import the model as you would do with any other. In the Lumion editor, select the ‘Imports’ category and then simply click on the green button to locate and import the model.

After importing the model, make sure to keep it selected (its node will be blue). This will allow you to import the variation.

To add the ‘variation model’, locate the small dialog box in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. This is the variation control box, and it lets you import the building variations and then easily switch between them.

As you can see in the following gif, the only varying factor between the two models is the swimming pool.

Assign Layers

In addition to showing multiple variations of a building or property, it can also help to assign certain objects to a layer and then show the layer at a specific point in the video. 

For this animation, we assigned the mobile pool deck and the pool furniture to Layer 5. That way, we can animate the appearance of the swimming pool first with the Variation Control effect, and then have the pool deck and pool furniture show up later with the Layer Visibility effect.

Layer 5 Disabled

Layer 5 Enabled

Now that you have imported your model, imported the variation models and assigned certain objects to a layer, you can go about building the rest of the scene, adding trees and other objects, and then texturing and applying beautiful materials to make your building truly “pop.”

Create the Individual Video Clips

The entire, 26-second animation was created using only four clips. The entire video layout looks as so:

Clip 1

In the first clip, we took three photos in Lumion’s video-maker to animate the camera’s pathway. The camera in this clip circles around the backyard as the swimming pool pops into place.

Clip 2

In clip two, we have an overhead pan showing the wooden cover closing over the pool. To make this clip, we took two photos in Lumion’s video-maker.

Clip 3

For clip three, we figured it was best to show the backyard in its entirety. This way, the client can see what his/her whole backyard will look like with the pool and the sliding pool deck.

Clip 4

Then, to close off the video, we needed a clincher, something for the client to walk away with.

Because of the importance of this last shot, we simply did a pan of the backyard (6 seconds of animation from 2 photo points), giving the client the time needed to fully absorb the swimming pool’s appearance in the backyard.

Inject style and mood with the right concoction of effects

After importing the variation models, placing the pool deck and furniture in a layer and preparing the individual clips of your movie, it’s time to inject life into the scene with the right assortment of effects. 

Below, we have a gif of rendered images showing how each effect impacts the look of the backyard scene.

Below, you can find the individual effects and their settings.

Sun

Sun Height: 0.3

Sun Heading: 0.3

Sun Brightness: 0.8

Sun Disk Size: 0.0

Shadow

Sun Shadow Range: 4000m

Coloring: 0

Brightness: 0.2

Interior / Exterior: 0.0

Omnishadow: 3.0

Shadow Correction: 0.0

Shadow Type: Normal

Soft Shadows: On

Fine Detail Shadows: On

Reflection

Edit: Add the reflection planes where relevant

Flicker Reduction: 0.5

Reflection Threshold: 25.0cm

Speedray Reflections: On

Sky Light

Brightness: 2.0

Saturation: 1.0

Sky Light in Planar Reflections: Off

Sky Light in Project Reflections: Off

Render Quality: High

Hyperlight

Amount: 30

Global Illumination

Sun Amount: 0

Falloff Speed: 84.4

Reduce Spots: 1.0

Sun max effect distance: 30.0m

Preview Spotlight GI and Shadows: Off

Chromatic Aberrations

Dispersion: 0.02

Affected Area: 0

Safe Shadows: 0

Sky and Clouds

Position: 0.3

Cloud Speed: 0

Master Cloud Amount: 0.7

Low Clouds: 0

High Clouds: 0

Cloud Direction: 0

Cloud Brightness: 0.2

Cloud Softness: 0.4

Low Cloud Softness Removal: 0.8

Sky Brightness: 0.6

Cloud Preset: 1.0

Cloud High Preset: 0.3

Overall Brightness: 1.3

Color Correction

Temperature: 0.7

Tint: 0.3

Vibrance: 0.4

Brightness: 0.5

Contrast: 0.6

Saturation: 1.0

Gamma Correction: 1.1

Limit Low: 0

Limit High: 1.0

Analog Color Lab

Style: 0.9

Amount: 0.6

Selective Saturation

Color selection: 0.3

Range: 1.0

Saturation: 0.3

Darkness: 0.5

Residual Color Desaturation: 0.0

Depth of Field

Amount: 100.7

Foreground/Background: 0

Focus distance: 3.6m

Sharp area size: 0

Auto Focus: Off

Exposure

Exposure: 0.5

Sharpen

Intensity: 0.4

Vignette

Vignette Amount: 0.1

Vignette Softness: 0.8

Wind

Foliage Wind Strength: 0.4

Applying Layer Visibility, Variation Control and Move

In addition to applying ‘image quality effects’, we need to add the ‘animation effects’ to show the appearance of the swimming pool and the closing pool deck.

For instance, in Clip 1, we used the Variation Control and Layer Visibility effects, while in Clip 2 and 3, however, we needed to animate the sliding pool deck using the Move effect. Below, you’ll find out how we applied these three animation effects to the individual clips.

Clip 1

As mentioned earlier, the goal of Clip 1 was to introduce the client to their current backyard and show a variation with the pool. Using keyframes and the Variation Control effect, the model with the pool was able to appear at a specified moment.

Here’s how we did it:

1. Create the first keyframe at zero seconds and set the ‘Current variation’ slider to the model without the pool.

2. Create the second keyframe to indicate a variation switch. Set the ‘Current variation’ slider to the same number (as the model without the pool) or a blank variation.

3. Create the third keyframe and set the ‘Current variation’ slider to the model with the swimming pool.

*Note: The actual switch happens at the center point between the keyframes. If you don’t add the second keyframe, the switch will occur halfway between the first and the third keyframes.

The next step is to get the pool cover and pool furniture to appear with the Layer Visibility effect from the ‘Scene and Animation’ effects in Movie Mode.

Using keyframes, like with the Variation Control effect, you can make the layer appear at the right moment. Here’s how we did it:

1. Set the first keyframe to indicate the layers you want to show before the appearance of Layer 5.

2. Set the second keyframe to designate the appearance of Layer 5.

Clip 2 and Clip 3

For Clip 2, we no longer need the Variation Control effect or the Layer Visibility effect. Therefore, for these clips, you can simply disable them from your effect stack.

To get the effect of the moving pool cover without post-processing or having to use third-party software, you can use the Move effect in the ‘Scene and Animation’ effects in Movie Mode. 

Here’s how we did it:

1. Click on “Edit” to select the items you want to animate at the start of the clip. With the ‘Move’ effect, you can only select one item at a time.

2. You can animate the position, height, rotation, scale and pitch of the selected item. With the object selected, move it to its starting position.

3. Select the ‘End Position’ triangle to confirm the ending point of the animated object.

4. Repeat with every object you want animated. You will see black lines indicating the movement of the objects.

Create movement and pull viewers into your designs

By using the right effects, from the Move effect to Layer Visibility and Variation Control, you can create a dynamic, exciting animation that’s assured to pull your client into the spaces you’ve designed.

[charleenang]

[lumionblog-blog]

Drone-to-3D workflow for architectural visualizations

Architects and designers often need to know how a design will be incorporated into its real-life location, while clients and “non-architects” turn to photorealistic visuals (images, videos and more) for a deeper, more visceral understanding of the project and the architect’s intentions.

Story by Pjotr van Schothorst, Lumion ([email protected]).

Nesselande Project with context made from this drone-to-3D workflow.

While working in Lumion, features such as OpenStreetMap (OSM) and satellite ground planes can provide some context for your design. They are suitable options for quickly building urban or rural environments relevant to your project’s location, but they’re also limited. 

For instance, OSM only provides rough building shapes, rendered white, and the satellite maps are flat, often outdated, and the resolution is too low for client visualization.

NYC skyline with context provided by OpenStreetMap, rendered in Lumion 8.3.

This all got me thinking — there has to be a better way to improve fast context-building without having to sacrifice photorealism. I investigated several options, starting with Google Maps and Google Earth SDKs, but these services do not allow their data to be used outside the scope of Google Maps and Google Earth, such as for architectural visualization.  

One solution is to create a 3D model of the environment using a series of photographs taken by a drone. This technique is sometimes used at construction sites to monitor progress, but it is not yet widely used for architecture design and visualization.

To test its viability, we used a drone-to-3D workflow for several real-life design projects. From our experiences, we derived a workflow simple enough to be used by architects (and not only 3D specialists). Using a modern drone and the software RealityCapture, it is now possible to capture an area of 300x300m and create a textured 3D model of sufficient quality for presenting a realistic background for your Lumion visualization.

Oh, and you can do all of this in one day. 

Workflow Summary

This summary is a condensed version. Click here for the full drone-to-3D workflow story (PDF).

Step 1: Buy a Drone.

Drones are getting cheaper, smaller and increasingly powerful by the minute. For this workflow, I used the DJI Mavic Air. It costs $800, weighs less than half a kilo and it can fly for 20 minutes on one battery. The DJI Mavic Air can also cover a distance of 10km and make 4K video and 4000x3000 images with good resolution. This is adequate for our purpose of creating 3D environments as a backdrop for architecture design or visualization.

10-inch tablet and tablet holder next to the DJI Mavic Air.

Also, I’d recommend that you buy some extra drone batteries and, if needed, a 10-inch Android tablet.

Step 2: Capture Drone Images.

Using a special app on your tablet for controlling a drone, e.g., Drone Harmony, the second step is to capture images around the area of interest.

The Drone Harmony app lets you draw the area of interest on a map, and then it calculates the flight path of the drone, capturing images automatically with a 60% overlap from the previous shot. This overlap is needed for automatic 3D model construction.

Example flight path in Drone Harmony.

Do five runs of the same flight path above the desired area, but make sure you assign a different camera angle for each flight. For instance, you can fly the first run with the camera pointed down and the other four runs with the camera tilted at 45 degrees. Each run takes 7 to 15 minutes, so the entire flying will take about 1 to 1.5 hours overall.

Step 3: Enter images into RealityCapture (RC).

While there are many different software programs for compiling drone images into a 3D model, I found RealityCapture as the best option. RealityCapture automatically aligns all of the images and then it creates a 3D model, adds textures and inspects the model’s quality. This literally takes a few minutes of manual work, and a few hours at most of background processing by the RealityCapture software.

Constructed 3D model after RC aligned and processed the images from your drone flights.

Step 4: Cut out the lesser detailed areas and unwanted objects.

If the quality of the model is OK, the next step is to cut out the lesser detailed areas and unwanted objects, and then simplify the 3D model to a smaller model. Depending on the model’s size and complexity, this can be anything between 30K and 1M triangles.

Cut out a specific area where you will insert your CAD building or spaces.

Texture the model again and export it in an FBX format. Cutting and simplifying the model takes between 20 minutes and one hour.

Step 5: Import the model into Lumion.

After importing the 3D drone model into Lumion, you can dress it up with trees, cars, people, furniture, etc. You can also import your design from SketchUp or your CAD/BIM program (Revit, 3ds Max, AutoCAD, Rhino, etc) on a separate layer. Make renders and animations.

Westpoint Apeldoorn Project, rendered in Lumion 8.5 after going through the drone-to-3D workflow.

This typically takes anywhere between 15 minutes and several hours.

If you want the full story, with detailed information and tons of great images and videos, check out the full Drone-to-3D workflow (PDF).

Testing the Workflow on Real-Life Projects

I used this workflow for several projects. One is a test project of a beach and dune area featuring an existing Lumion example house. The following two are commercial design projects from local architects. These are briefly described in the next sections.

Beach and Dune Area

Test project. Existing Lumion beach bungalow added to a 500x500m captured beach area near The Hague, The Netherlands.

Animation of the Dune and Beach Project

Nesselande Project

Private house design on a small island in a new residential area near Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Architect: Studio Aaan.

From the architect: “The house is located on a private island in a new urban development close to the city of Rotterdam. The house is oriented towards the new park located on the next island southwards. In order to be able to enjoy the views, the living areas are projected above the surrounding dike levels and the sleeping areas are located below. The lower floor is half sunk into the island and is organized around two patios. As a structuring design principle, the roof consists of expressive wooden beams in a dense pattern. The beams create a canopy on the south facade as well as a characteristic interior ceiling.”

Studio Aaan’s private home design (center right) in a 3D model of the real-life neighborhood of Nesselande, The Netherlands.

Nesselande project detail

Nesselande project interior

Nesselande project animation

Feedback from the architect, Hilbrand Wanders, of Studio Aaan: “For any architecture project, but especially a private, freestanding housing project, the interaction of the building with its surroundings is crucial. We want to study the project as an architectural object on its location, but also want to consider how the surroundings are experienced from the interiors. Only once a house is finished and the owners move in, one can precisely see how certain trees are creating shadows in the house, what objects in the surroundings are blocking views from a certain position, or how window openings are positioned relative to window openings of the surrounding buildings. These aspects are highly influential on the living qualities and are difficult and too time-consuming to model by hand completely early in the design process. It is very interesting for a designer to consider the correct 3D environment from the first moment on, to test the first design-ideas within a correct 3D surroundings, but also to communicate these to a client in a very clear and tempting format. In the case of this project, the fact that the views on the site were blocked by surrounding dikes, were the reason to place the living rooms on the first floor. All other design steps (bedrooms around patios in souterrain, the stepped garden wrapped around the house) were consequential to this notion.”

Westpoint Apeldoorn Project

Refurbishment of an existing office building into 98 apartments, each with a balcony, in Apeldoorn, The Netherlands.

Architect: Paul Spaltman

Paul Spaltman’s design of a refurbished office building in Apeldoorn, The Netherlands.

Another aerial render showing city context created from the Drone-to-3D workflow.

Front of the Westpoint Apeldoorn Project

Animation of the Westpoint Apeldoorn project:

Feedback from the architect, Paul Spaltman:

“Even though the 3D scan isn’t completely perfect, I can say that it offered an enormous additional quality and offered many new options. The fact that my design was embedded so clearly in the environment is an added value, not only during the design, but also during presentations and discussions with the customers, governments, and local citizens or whoever is involved. My client called that he is really positive about my design, and he will now discuss it with the city council (landscape, urban design, review etc.). The plan to replace the existing building is a sensitive topic with the people living in the area, so everybody is super critical. The 3D scan of the environment will play an important role in this approval process.”

Cost Overview

The following table sums up the software and hardware components I used. Other components may be needed, with additional costs, as well.

Creating your own 3D environments with drones

My experiences have shown that creating 3D environment models from drone images is very straightforward and feasible for any architecture design visualization.

The investment in time and money is relatively low, and any architect can do it without extensive training and/or the need for a 3rd-party service provider. The resulting models have value both in the design process (Lumion LiveSync) and for communicating with clients and other interest parties, like the city council and local citizens (Lumion rendered images and animations).

[kiwisim4]

Forest House

I know this isnt sims content however I did a thing

Built completely in Trimble Sketchup and Rendered using Lumion 8...Also my 1st Venture in 3D Videography Using HitFilm express which is free video editing software ...., Look out for more in the future

Still Images Here

[lumionblog-blog]

Photo-matching, drones and more!

See how Feature Graphics, an architectural visualization and schematic design firm based in Seattle, quickly photo-matches Lumion renders with scenes from around the city.

Aerial photo-match of the Center Steps Apartments. Photograph taken with a drone and matched with a Lumion render of the apartment building. Credit: Feature Graphics.

In architectural 3D rendering, context can be king.

Sure, clients want to see the building before it’s built, but some clients also want to see the building in the context of its immediate neighborhood. Others want to know what the real view from the building is like.

When preparing renders, one method for achieving realistic context is to create fully featured environments with trees, bushes, cars, people, bus stops, other buildings, etc. 

And while Lumion makes context-building a pretty fast and easy process, there is another, quicker path to lifelike environments around rendered buildings:

Photo-matching. 

Photo-match of a high-rise. Photographs were taken from the street and matched with a Lumion render of the building.

Photo-matching is a technique used to insert a render into a photograph, merging these two elements together to realistically place your model in the context of its planned site.

In this blog post, we talk photo-matching benefits and processes in Lumion with Matt Fuhr, founder of the Seattle-based architectural rendering firm, Feature Graphics.

Photo-Matching With Feature Graphics

Feature Graphics is no stranger to quickly creating captivating, realistic renders. In Seattle and elsewhere, you can often find Matt photographing buildings from the street or, if you look up, you may see his drone shooting from the air.

When photo-matching renders for his firm’s clients, Matt says, “We’re using this technique to basically capture more accurate and more realistic context for the city and the general public to get on board with a project.”

Photo-matched Seattle Center Apartments. Building rendered in Lumion 8.

While creating renders for the City of Seattle, Matt found that the various neighborhood design review boards would respond really well when they actually see landmarks, shops, and other things that are in the area.

How photo-matching can save time

“Usually, the architects will send us a 3D model that includes the building and the sidewalk, and that’s about it. When we do photo-matching, all we have to do is head to the site, take photographs, and then match the photos with Lumion. This takes a fraction of the time it would take to model the streets, surrounding buildings, and everything else immediately outside the scope of the site.”

Below are two renders showing the difference between modeling the building context vs. using site photography.

Image created by modeling and rendering the surrounding context.

Render photo-matched with on-site photography.

“The time that we’re saving matching Lumion renders with photos, instead of modeling 3D environments, has allowed us to stay on price point with a lot of international rendering firms,” Matt continued.

Using a drone to capture photos of the site

Another benefit of photo-matching is that it can help provide realistic views of the building, showing what the public will actually experience when the building goes up. This is especially true when photo-matching renders with images taken from a drone.

Photo-match of an apartment building. Photograph taken with a drone, building rendered in Lumion.

According to Matt, “More and more developers are looking for aerial shots to go to investors and get funding for projects. It’s really nice to have the first image of a project show the building zoomed out in the larger scale of the neighborhood and the city.”

“You can see that the project is close to these landmarks and its in this neighborhood of town, and it’s a great image to get people orientated to where the site is, and understand the greater context instead of just looking at it and saying, ‘Oh, this is how the building affects this block.’ It shows how the building fits in with the larger neighborhood it occupies.”

Photo-Matching Process with Feature Graphics

With regards to process, Matt said that the most important part of the process is blurring the edges where the photo meets the rendering.

“The point at which we blend the 3D model with the photograph is usually at the curb. It’s already, a harsh shadow line, so that’s a really easy place to cut the rendering and match it using digital tracing paper, but sometimes we go further back and blend the modeled sidewalk with the actual sidewalk, and obscure that with planting strips. Most projects around Seattle will have some type of landscape planting to put a barrier between the sidewalk and the street edge,” Matt said.

To match the colors and allow the Lumion-rendered building to perfectly mesh with the photograph, Matt will take the photos at the right time of the day to work with the renderings.

Sometimes, however, he’ll throw the model into Lumion first and complete a shading study to figure out the shadow alignments. He’ll also figure out how the building should be lit and the best time to go to the site and take photographs.

“It’s always key to have the shadows going the right way.”

Photo-matched Seattle Center Apartments. Building rendered in Lumion 8.

With the photos taken, Matt uses a program called On Top Replica, which is essentially digital drafting paper, to line up the Lumion viewport with the photograph.

Want to learn more about photo-matching and other rendering tips?

The Lumion Support Center is a forum where hundreds of Lumion users and architecture and design firms, like Feature Graphics, are able to share renders and rendering techniques.

Want to know more about photo-matching? Here are two forum posts from Lumion users who have created their own photo-matching techniques.

Photo Matching In Lumion

Easy Photo-Matching for Beginners (Lumion 8.3)

Try Lumion for yourself and download a free trial.

[lumionblog-blog]

New in Lumion 8.3: LiveSync for SketchUp

See your building while you build it in an environment that’s so realistic, it’s like you’re pushing and pulling real-life buildings into shape.

New in Lumion 8.3, LiveSync for SketchUp creates a live, real-time link between your SketchUp model and Lumion’s beautiful, fully featured environment.

Now, as you interact with your model in SketchUp, the LiveSync for SketchUp functionality provides high-quality feedback for solving design problems or presenting your work in the context of the real world.

Add a window in SketchUp, such as in the gif at the top of this post, and your Lumion scene updates instantly with realistic lighting, natural-looking materials and real-life context. Place trees, people and photorealistic or artistic effects for a supercharged SketchUp workflow that’s second-to-none.

In this blog post, you can explore all of the new features and functionalities of LiveSync for SketchUp. The topics covered in this post include:

How to download and install the LiveSync for SketchUp plugin

LiveSync Demo — The Simple House

Real-time camera synchronization

Real-time materials synchronization

Adding objects to your synchronized scene

View your SketchUp model with photorealistic or conceptual effects

Importing and saving your project

Lumion 8.3 is a free update for Lumion 8 users. In addition to the SketchUp plugin, the new Lumion 8.3 includes an all-improved LiveSync for Revit.

The LiveSync plugins for SketchUp and Revit are free for everyone.

How to download and install the LiveSync for SketchUp plugin

LiveSync for SketchUp is only available for Lumion 8.3. If you already have Lumion 8, you can update to the latest version by looking for the ‘Getting Started’ email in your inbox.

If you didn’t receive the email, visit our Knowledge Base article, ‘How do you get the email with the Lumion download link?’

The next step is to get the Lumion LiveSync for SketchUp plugin. It’s available in the SketchUp Extension Warehouse, which you can find in two places:

On your local copy of SketchUp

Via your web browser

You can access the Extension Warehouse directly in SketchUp by clicking on  ‘Window’ in the toolbar and selecting ‘Extension Warehouse’ in the drop-down.

Simply search for the LiveSync plugin and click on the “Install” button on the extension details page. SketchUp should do the rest. 

You can see the whole process below in the following tutorial:

Manually installing the LiveSync for SketchUp plugin

If you access the Extension Warehouse via your web browser, you can download the LiveSync plugin as a .rbz file. 

Through this method, you will need to install the plugin manually, but the process is very easy and shouldn’t take you more than a minute. 

To install the LiveSync plugin manually, follow these directions:

Open your version of SketchUp (the LiveSync plugin is only compatible with SketchUp 2017 and SketchUp 2018).

In SketchUp, locate the tab ‘Window’ and select ‘Extension Manager.’

Click on the ‘Install Extension’ button.

An Open dialogue box should open. Locate and open the .rbz file.

Click ‘Yes’ to proceed and install the extension.

You should now have the LiveSync plugin installed on your version of SketchUp. Locate the plugin under the ‘Extensions’ tab and click ‘Start LiveSync’ to instantly view your model in the Lumion environment.

How to start LiveSync for SketchUp

Before starting the real-time LiveSync for SketchUp, make sure that SketchUp and Lumion 8.3 are both open. Also, you need to choose a scene in Lumion. If you’re building a scene from scratch, you can use the ‘Plain’ scene.

To start LiveSync, click on the Start LiveSync button. Wait a couple moments for the SketchUp project to be synchronized into Lumion.

Hot Tip: Lumion will drop the LiveSync model on the 0, 0, 0 mark. To move it off the ground terrain a little bit, select the model and move it up to 0, 5, 0.

Next, it can help to optimize your monitor setup for the best LiveSync viewing experience.

If you have a dual-screen monitor, simply drag SketchUp into one screen and Lumion into the other. It may be a good idea to have SketchUp on your main presentation computer and the Lumion window with LiveSync on the other screen.

If you want to do a split screen on one monitor, such as in the gif above, you can drag the SketchUp window onto one half of the screen, and Lumion onto the other half.

LiveSync Demo — The Simple House

It’s like a supercharged viewport for your SketchUp model. With LiveSync running, you’ll view the model in the lifelike environment in Lumion, and you’re free to modify the Lumion scene with trees, objects, materials, atmospheric lighting conditions, effects and more.

For the demo, we wanted to use a simply shaped building to show the immediate, immersive impact of LiveSync on a SketchUp CAD model. 

Although the building retains its simplistic shape in both programs, the synchronized Lumion viewport adds a whole new level of depth, space and realism to the building. This is ideal for design development and for creating truly captivating presentations.

Let’s see some other ways how LiveSync can help get you in the creative flow as you explore your project.

Real-time camera synchronization

When you rotate the building in SketchUp, the point-of-view rotates in Lumion. If you find that perfect viewing angle, you can be ensured the same perspective when you render in Lumion.

To sync the cameras, click on the ‘Start Camera Synchronization’ button in the LiveSync toolbar. Now, as you orbit in SketchUp, the project in Lumion will track right alongside it.

If you find a helpful camera perspective in SketchUp that you want to keep, you can save that camera angle in Lumion for future use by saving it in the Photo or Video modes. 

Real-time materials synchronization

The new LiveSync also synchronizes the materials and the material assignments from your SketchUp model. As a result, SketchUp’s materials are rendered, in real-time, in Lumion.

Any glass or water from your SketchUp model will become the highly realistic Lumion glass or water.

LiveSync with glass materials:

LiveSync with water materials:

LiveSync with grass materials:

Aside from glass and water, the rest of the synced model will feature the SketchUp materials. Fortunately, you can add Lumion’s high-definition materials to the synced model and add even more depth and realism to your model.

You can save and load material sets to quicken the material assignments and get a perfectly textured model instantly.

Adding objects and completing the scene

Before getting into the scene creation in photo or video mode, it can help to fill out the rest of your project with real-world objects. 

From trees and plants to furniture and lighting elements, you can build your rendered scene as you continue developing the model in SketchUp, all while creating a viewing experience that’s second-to-none.

Hot Tip: If you want to add context from another project, you can use the ‘Merge Scene’ feature in Lumion. This is an excellent feature for distributing work among a team. One person can be dropping trees while another person is texturing and setting up camera views. Once everyone has completed their work, you can simply merge the scenes.

View your SketchUp model with photorealistic or conceptual effects

By going into Photo Mode, you can view the SketchUp project in a variety of beautiful environments of your creation, both photorealistic and conceptual. Going through this process as you continue developing the SketchUp model’s design will help reduce rendering time even further.

LiveSync with a photorealistic effects stack:

In Photo or Video Mode, you can start by loading any of your custom effect stacks, choosing one of the preset Styles, or working through the effects to develop your own style from scratch.

After stylizing the scene, if you click on “Build With Effects,” you can view the SketchUp model with a much more polished view.

Hot Tip: When viewing your model with the ‘Build With Effects’ feature, you may notice a difference with the focal length. To fix this, change the focal distance. In many cases, changing the focal length to 35mm will ensure a similar, more in-tune viewing angle.

You can also view your LiveSync project with a variety of conceptual effects, ideal for eye-catching presentations. Here are a couple examples.

LiveSync with a Color Sketch Style applied:

LiveSync with an outline and B&W effects applied:

Importing and saving your project

When establishing the LiveSync connection, Lumion will automatically import the SketchUp project. This means that, as you texture and work on the scene in Lumion, you can save the file as an .LS8.

The next time you start working, you can simply open the SketchUp file and Lumion .LS8 file, turn on LiveSync, and design away!

Real-time design development with Lumion 8.3

Lumion 8.3 and the new LiveSync for SketchUp enables real-time visualization like you’ve never seen before. Explore your SketchUp project in a whole new light as you continue building your model in the context of the real world. 

If you already have a Lumion 8 license, then you don’t need to upgrade. Simply look for the ‘Getting Started’ email in your inbox to download and install Lumion 8.3. The LiveSync plugin for Revit and SketchUp are free for everyone.

For upgrades from Lumion 7 or previous versions, visit Lumion.com/upgrade.html.