304 replies to this topic

[John Honea]

For those saying Lumion isn't worth it, I'll tell you this from using it for a year and a half.  I went from customer approvals of initial elevations on the first round of about 65-70% to honestly about 95% with Lumion.  Maybe I'm getting better at reading the customer, but the odds don't support it being just that.  And I will say I have gained a lot of new jobs through showing Lumion renderings.  Accordingly, I've also been able to raise my prices with the improved renderings.  I also now do render specific jobs for other builders and designers as well as design, a nice increase in income.

[Don Gibbons]

I include stills with my standard package.  As far as videos, well, thats up to you.

 

What rendering takes two weeks?

See post #35 in this thread for 2 week rendering(Nick Moorhead).

[John Honea]

[Don Gibbons]

For those saying Lumion isn't worth it, I'll tell you this from using it for a year and a half.  I went from customer approvals of initial elevations on the first round of about 65-70% to honestly about 95% with Lumion.  Maybe I'm getting better at reading the customer, but the odds don't support it being just that.  And I will say I have gained a lot of new jobs through showing Lumion renderings.  Accordingly, I've also been able to raise my prices with the improved renderings.  I also now do render specific jobs for other builders and designers as well as design, a nice increase in income.

The problem is dropping $5000.00 (CDN$) and a learning curve and likely upgraded hardware for it. I'm thinking the biggest kick in hardware will be a new video card, somewhere in the $1500.00 range.

[John Honea]

For the video card, you can actually do a 1080 and be well under $1k and still have it perform great.  I'm using that setup now.  But your point is taken on the price.  That being said, the learning curve really is much better than you think.  There are a lot of exceptional tutorial videos that really get you moving.  Personally, I know I've gotten the last several projects through my renderings and has helped push me into the next tier of houses to design.  It definitely was a leap of faith, but well worth it.  It's paid off several times over.

[Nick Moorhead]

See post #35 in this thread for 2 week rendering(Nick Moorhead).

 

Yep for a "movie quality" 2-3 minute clip it takes a loooong time to render. Typically my clips are 4-star and 'full HD'  and are anywhere from 8-25 seconds long take somehwere between 4-7 hours to render (with a GTX 1080 card) Most of my videos are about 20-30 clips long. 

[Nick Moorhead]

Allen, those clips are looking good! I haven't played around with terrain heights on my models yet (I'm a 'flat-earther' for now, ha) Do you find it easy to integrate Softplan topos into Lumion? By the way, I REALLY love that grass in Lumion 9! I'm still on 8.5 as I couldn't convince my company to upgrade for the "pretty grass" 

[Allen McDonnell]

Nick, yes.  

 

The model i import into Lumion will include a site (grass) ((with all topography done in SP)) with all flatwork (driveway, approach, sidewalk, and patio) and planting bed.

 

Import into lumion,  assign textures to glass, concrete, planting bed, and grass.  then add vehicle/people/trees/plantings for context.  Also do lighting.

 

People that say it takes too long haven't given it an honest go or watched videos.   

 

The pretty grass would for sure drastically increase movie render time.

[Allen McDonnell]

Nick, do you increase the can light lense emissivity?  I have it set on 317 for this photo but generally in the 180 range.

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[Nick Moorhead]

Hey Allen, 

 

Yes, I have some pre-sets I have created for a variety of day/night shots. As far as emissive light goes, I tend to only use that on the light bulbs of my lights (it gives a nice 'halo effect' on the fixtures)  

 

For your terrain-work, do you cover up your imported SP topography with the native Lumion terraforming tools? I personally so not like how the native SP terrain looks once imported into Lumion and find it is a bit of work covering it up with the 'raise-lower' terrain brushes in Lumion. SP terrain geometry looks a little to 'angular' to me an doesn't have the nice natural slopes you see in reality. My wish is that Lumion, or some other creative person would create a variety of scenes that we could plop our SP models on as sometimes I feel I spend entirely too much time on planting "tree bombs" to hide my horizon lines...

[Allen McDonnell]

The imported model i put in lumion includes the site.  Then i assign the pretty grass to the "property" as it is called in SP.

 

Yes.  SP terrain looks angular but the 3d grass helps hide the sharp edges.

 

Raising and lowering terrain in L will drive you crazy. 

 

Take for instance 9' basement.  I will place site at 8' (12" below T.O.F.).  I place concrete (all flatwork) 4 inches above ( so say 8'4) i place planting beds an inch below that.  Then i use the live grass to cover up some of the 4 inches.....then the amazing part...i cut the top of the grass down so it wont go above the top of concrete.

 

Your correct on "tree bombs"...L processes all that info as well which increases render time.

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[Allen McDonnell]

Example

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[Allen McDonnell]

Turning the simple into stunning.

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[Sam Morgan]

Here's out latest one

 

https://www.youtube....tejjmVdDw&t=20s

[Nick Moorhead]

Just finished up one here too, enjoy!

 

https://youtu.be/zOZZBEgKoZk

[Sam Allen]

Hey Nick and Sam....Great looking animations!  How long did it take and how much of it was original Softplan?

[Nick Moorhead]

Hey Nick and Sam....Great looking animations!  How long did it take and how much of it was original Softplan?

 

Hey Sam, thanks for the compliment and welcome to the forum! Hard to say exactly for me how long my renders take (throughout my day I do different design tasks) but if I would have to guess, I would say it would take 3-4 weeks if I dedicated my entire day to a single render (that would include render times as well)

 

I use Softplan for all the structural elements and sitework. All of the furniture and decorations I import into Lumion directly from a variety of free 3D render sites.  I will say this last render (linked above) was the first time I used the Softplan to Lumion export function and it was MUCH easier and faster to work between programs! 

 

Are you thinking of joining the "ever expanding Lumion party ???" ha

[Allen McDonnell]

Nick, i think people get nervous when they read 3-4 week render time.  A more fair assessment may be to break it down with time spent setting up a model i.e. placing objects, texturing, and so on and then how long it takes the computer to render a video or picture.

[Nick Moorhead]

Hey Allen,

 

Just to be clear 3-4 weeks is for an entire project. I am sure if I had a SUPER PC like you I would be done in half the time 

[Allen McDonnell]

Im currently working on this project.

 

I rendered this photo twice.  Here are results

 

3840 x 2160   45 seconds

1920 x 1080   11 seconds. 

 

I have less than an hour of set up time.  By set up time i mean...

 

-Import softplan file.  Less than 60 seconds

-Assign Lumion textures.  several minutes

-provide context...trees, people, flowers.   several minutes

 

Now movie is a whole different ballgame.

 

We cannot group render time for still photos and movies in the same category.

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