Getting Started with Lumion 3D

134 Pages·2014·3.52 MB·English

by  Ciro Cardoso

Getting Started with Lumion 3D
Create a professional architectural visualization in
minutes using Lumion 3D
Ciro Cardoso
BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI
Getting Started with Lumion 3D
Copyright © 2013 Packt Publishing
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First published: December 2013
Production Reference: 1171213
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
Livery Place
35 Livery Street
Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.
ISBN 978-1-84969-949-5
www.packtpub.com
Cover Image by Ciro Cardoso ([email protected])
Credits
Author Project Coordinator
Ciro Cardoso Sherin Padayatty
Reviewer Proofreaders
Mirivano Carrig Ameesha Green
Simran Bhogal
Acquisition Editor
Neha Nagwekar
Indexer
Tejal Soni
Commissioning Editor
Amit Ghodake
Production Coordinator
Saiprasad Kadam
Technical Editors
Aparna Chand
Cover Work
Aparna Kumari Saiprasad Kadam
Copy Editors
Roshni Banerjee
Sarang Chari
Karuna Narayanan
Shambhavi Pai
Alfida Paiva
About the Author
Ciro Cardoso is a Portuguese 3D artist who has successfully used Lumion for
multimillion-dollar projects. He was bit by the AutoCAD bug in 2000 and has
been producing 3D graphics for professional organizations and companies since
2005. His list of personal clients covers countries such as the United Kingdom,
Portugal, the Netherlands, and Africa with numerous projects ranging from
graphic design work to 3D visualizations.
Besides his work as a 3D artist, he also does voluntary work teaching
SketchUp and CAD to youngsters. He can be reached through his
website at http://www.cirocardoso.net.
I would like to thank my dear wife, Miriam, for her unfailing
support during the writing of this book. I would particularly
like to acknowledge Neha Nagwekar for being very
supportive throughout this project.
About the Reviewer
Mirivano Carrig spent five years studying civil engineering at AIT in Ireland.
Along with having a keen interest in it, he also shares a great passion for architecture
and art. Over the years, he has received numerous awards for his work related to
civil engineering. In 2012, he set up a blog/website called Vano Engineering, which
can be viewed at http://vanoengineering.wordpress.com, and in its first year,
it gained over 15,000 views and has been growing ever since.
He is most noted for his thinking outside the box approach when it comes to designs,
both architectural and engineering; combining his experience in drawing and art
with his flair and understanding of structures.
I would like to thank my father for all his support, motivation, kind
words, and words of wisdom, but most of all for always being there!
Thank you.
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Table of Contents
Preface 1
Chapter 1: What is Lumion? 5
Lumion background 6
Why use Lumion? 6
What can we get from Lumion? 7
Differences between the several versions of Lumion 8
Importing our 3D models 9
Workstation specifications 10
Lumion's 3D interface 11
A look into the New tab 11
Exploring the Home tab 12
The Examples tab 13
The Load scene and Save scene tabs 13
The Import full scene and Export full scene tabs 14
Quick start 14
Importing the model 17
Working with Layers 19
Applying materials 19
Controlling the weather 23
Changing the landscape 23
Adding objects 25
The Photo mode 28
The Movie mode 29
Saving your scene 33
Summary 34
Table of Contents
Chapter 2: Preparing the Scene 35
Need help with modeling? 36
Modeling for visualization 36
Preparing CAD drawings 37
Modeling with SketchUp, 3ds Max, and Maya 38
The importance of detailing 39
Adding detailing using bevel edges 39
Adding detailing 44
Using additional models 45
The importance of materials 46
Common issues 47
Summary 49
Chapter 3: Creating Materials 51
Lumion materials 52
The Properties menu 52
Placing the texture 55
The Textures and Advanced options menus 55
The Custom menu 56
The Invisible material 56
The Landscape material 57
Creating materials in Lumion 58
Summary 61
Chapter 4: Working with Lumion 63
What is COLLADA? 64
Exporting from SketchUp 65
Exporting from 3ds Max 66
Exporting animations 67
Exporting from other 3D software 68
Working with Lumion 68
Summary 71
Chapter 5: Building the Environment 73
Modeling the landscape 73
Sculpting the landscape 74
Modifying the terrain 75
Creating a heightmap 76
Changing the landscape's material 78
Adding a water plane 79
Creating an ocean 80
[ ii ]
Table of Contents
Setting up the weather 81
Populating your scene 81
Adding trees, people, and other models 82
Using sounds 87
Special effects 87
Summary 88
Chapter 6: Preparing the Render 89
The key aspects of composition 90
The importance of framing 91
The rule of thirds 92
Exporting an image with the Photo mode 93
Creating a video with the Movie mode 95
Summary 97
Chapter 7: Post Production 99
Post production 100
Working with an image 100
Working with layers 103
Using different blending modes 103
Adding the specular map 104
Accurate selection with material ID 105
Adding contrast using a lighting map 106
The sky alpha map 107
The importance of adjustment layers 107
Working with Curves 108
Applying lens effects 109
Chromatic aberration with Photoshop 109
A little bit of sharpness 110
Depth of field 110
Final touch with noise and vignette 111
Summary 113
Index 115
[ iii ]