Styles and how to go about them

[Allen Weitzman]

There are some wonderful examples of projects on the Piranesi Galleries and I've seen others in the SketchUp forums and so on. These are wonderful uses of Piranesi from working architects and designers out there and I was wondering if this could be the forum to post how tos.

What were the settings used? What did the original 3d model look like so we can see how much effort went into the transformation in Piranesi and so on.

How much color was used so when they were diluted in Piranesi using the soft painting technique (or some other), they looked right.

How long did you work on the Piranesi side of things and so on.

There are many of us who are not professional renderers or illustrators and given that we're using mostly SketchUp and Piranesi, not the wealthiest bunch on the tree either.

Am I asking for too much and asking people to give away "trade secrets"??

Allen

[Noel Designs]

Allen, May I suggest working through the tutorials on one of your existing files. I have found the tutorials to be extremely valuable and once done, you can see how many different affects can be mastered in Piranesi.

Grant

[marcocrawford]

Hello Allen,
I am quite happy to show the various stages to reach the final image. Top is the basic EPX created in MicroGDS - middle image is the total texture map created and the final image was the softened image

[Allen Weitzman]

Marco,

Thank you for showing the sequence you followed. I also thanked you in another post for sharing your lighting images.

Wonderful stuff. Are you a working architect or a professional renderer/illustrator?

Allen

[Brian Woodward]

Allen,

Marco is a little modest. I'm not how he would describe himself!! (He does have a problem with the English Weather though, you will see him in the middle of summer with several layers of clothing!)

Marco spill the beans, recount the story of Napkin to images in how long?

Brian

[Brian Woodward]

Oh Allen:

Piranesi Library Sketch Cuouts "Cutouts by Marco", might answer whether he can draw or not.

[Allen Weitzman]

Brian,

I get it. Checked out the cutouts by Marco and yes, he can draw. Is he (Marco are you?) an architect or professional illustrator or what?

I did play with a night scene last night. Crude, but not bad for a first shot. I will continue to be inspired by Susan and Marco.

When I grow up, I want to be like them.

:-)

Allen

[Brian Woodward]

Allen,
I'm not sure what he likes to call himself! He certainly used to do Architectural illustrations by hand some years ago.

He can also drive out other product (MicroGDS) very well and knock out 3d models and renders in no time at all

[marcocrawford]

Gosh all this praise, I am beginning to blush a little. Brian is quite right about the fact I feel the cold. I was born in the semi-tropics and have lived in warm climes for many years. I think what finally confirmed my strange problem with cold to the lads from Informatix was at a time I was working in Singapore for a MicroGDS distributor, the former MD (Martin Macgarry) of Informatix came to visit us. It had been a rainy day which caused the temperature to plummet to 28C, Martin found I had switched of my office AC and I was wearing a sweat shirt, to be fair my wife was also feeling it a little chilly!.
My background is Architecture and I also studied Graphic design, I have over the past many years been Architectural Assistant, Interior Designer, project manager, CAD consultant, Architectural Illustrator ( the old style with air brush and bristle brush) and CAD Manager, sometimes all at the same time and in various countries. I was fortunate enough get going on the beta version of Piranesi 1, and have been enjoying the tremendous development from version 1 to the current mind blowing version 4.. Currently I run a 35 MicroGDS CAD system for a medium sized London practise.
Like you I am also a fan of the images created by Susan. Its very heartening to see the great wealth of varying styles appearing on various Galleries and the high quality of images, I think this a great credit to the product and its developers which is so versatile that it can give users such freedom to express their own talents.
After the above you may be regretting asking the simple question “architect or professional illustrator?” ….

[marcocrawford]

The “Napkin to images” to which Brian refers was an exercise our practise was involved in. We were required to make an initial presentation to demonstrate how we would rejuvenate an existing town centre, illustrating in sketch form the feel and character. The Architect in charge and myself sat down at the PC and from a very simple initial sketch site layout, which she had scribbled on the equivalent of the “Napkin”(image 1), we developed the basic model in MicroGDS, building it straight of the scanned paper sketches (image 2). Once we were happy with the model it was passed to Piranesi (image 3) and the textures added as required (image 4). Finally the image was softened to create the loose sketch (image 5) that was needed to show the design was very much in evolution. The great thing about working this way was that the Architect and myself could bounce lots of different ideas around as the forms and finishes developed, and by working directly on MicroGDS and Piranesi the whole process from the “Napkin” to final image took only one day !! . The second image (image 6) was created the following morning in about one hour. I have attached the full sequence of images, some of which you have already seen. The last image (7) was created to form a watermark style background to the presentation.

[Carlos]

WOW!!!...I love your technique Marco...I agree with Allen...I want to be like you. Very rarely do you get a chance to meet someone with so much talent that is so humble...Thank you for the great images and the very honest explanations....btw...I rely heavily on your cutouts...now I know where they come from...thanks a bunch!

Carlos ;-)

[kdjanz]

Oh Allen:

Piranesi Library Sketch Cuouts "Cutouts by Marco", might answer whether he can draw or not.

Where can one find these cutouts?

Thanks

Kelly

[Carlos]

If I'm not mistaken...they should be under "Sketch cutouts" in you style browser...mine loaded up automatically when I installed the program.

Hope this helps.

Carlos ;-)

[Penuel]

Oh Allen:

Piranesi Library Sketch Cuouts "Cutouts by Marco", might answer whether he can draw or not.



guys how can i join in your conversation? You can email me at JesusBudys@yahoo.com for some instruction

[Carlos]

Penuel...to post aq message or a response...just click on the post a reply button on the bottom left of the thread message. then type your message and click submit reply...I too had a bit of a tough time posting...you'll get it...hang in there.

Carlos ;-)

[Penuel]

Penuel...to post aq message or a response...just click on the post a reply button on the bottom left of the thread message. then type your message and click submit reply...I too had a bit of a tough time posting...you'll get it...hang in there.

Carlos ;-)

thanks carlos :) and God Bless You

[Carlos]

No problem Penuel. Don't forget though...now that you know how to post....you'll have to share some of your images with us on the forum....that way you'll be as addicted as we are...lol

Carlos ;-)

[Penuel]

No problem Penuel. Don't forget though...now that you know how to post....you'll have to share some of your images with us on the forum....that way you'll be as addicted as we are...lol

Carlos ;-)


He he he ..........ok carlos it is my pleasure to do that.:) you nkw what i'm happy because i have a new friend:) and i thank God for it! God Really bless me:) by the way there's a little prob. my samples are to big it is around 588 - up kb and some are almost 1 mb - up how can i reduce it carlos?

[Carlos]

Penuel:

I'm getting to this post a little late because I just saw your succesful post in the user gallery, but I'll tell you what I do anyway...maybe somebody else will be able to use the info. I open the images in Adobe Pshop and play with the image size and resolution until I get it small enough (file size) to post. There's another way as well...Adobe Pshop has a "publish to web" feature that allows you to do this "on the fly"...I haven't tried that yet, but I will next time I post something else.

To access the "image size" controls...click on the Image file tab and then select "Image Size"...you should get a dialogue box. the first set of numbers are the image pixel dimensions...I haven't really messed with these...I usually adjust the Document size dimensions below and the one that makes the most difference in size and quality is the resolution. I usually set my images to 8-10 inches (document size) and 150-200 resolution...It is my understanding that most web images are 72pix resolution...so I set mine to roughly about twice that for the web.

Hope this helps.

Carlos ;-)

[Penuel]

just wanna say thanks for the help carlos. God Bless You

[Yien]

hi there,

im new to this forum and i was suprised to see the works of Marco...you really did the napkin sketch to final image in less 2 days?? WOW!! at my school we use popular cad and rendering, plus photoshop...and that would take me many days!

think we forget our goal at university, lets say : communicate the idea with the client and Piranesi seems to be the right one.

i did all the tutorial with the demo, but i need more, where could i find advance tutorials?

thank guys for sharing your concepts .

-Yien

[Brian Woodward]

Hi Yien

Welcome to the forum. Did you download the demo and the video tutorials, or did you get a cd?

There are more comprehensive tutorials on the CD, if you e-mail me I can give you a link where you can download them from, but they are quite large.

Regards
Brian

[apw79]

Where are those tutorials files.... please help me!!!!

[JOAO ARAUJO]

Thank you for your image examples ....you are really a pro in this

[apw79]

I notice that you start the process with a very simple 3d drawing... I´m one of those who spend a lot of time drawing stupids details for nothing.... I want to ask you how did you insert the interior drawings... because i see that there ar diferents dephs... but in the 3d there is only one plane.... did you draw that part in other program.... just like photoshop... tell me please... it is very interesting

Thank you

Ale

[marcocrawford]

Hello apw79,

I do indeed try to limit the amount of detail, to speed the process. As I am going to soften the final image anyway, I can get away with vague information (often that is all I have anyway ).
The interiors are images scanned from books or magazines and placed as a single tile texture then “tweaked” to suit the available space. Once in place I can doctor them a little by adding artificial shadows and using fade to create a greater sense of depth. Add a bit of sparkle with an alpha brush (I use light13.png which comes on the CD). I have attached a couple of the images used to ilustrate.
Hope this helps
Marco.

[JOAO ARAUJO]

"the force is with you ........"" and we hope you dont spend it all

[apw_79]

All the days are to learn a new thing

[Podge]

Thanks for your info. I'm new to Piranesi and excited by the possibilities!
Do you know where on the Piranesi site I can download the "Soft Painted Effect" I read about this in the tutorial but can't find where to get it.
Thanks

[Blumenschein]

Hi Yien

Welcome to the forum. Did you download the demo and the video tutorials, or did you get a cd?

There are more comprehensive tutorials on the CD, if you e-mail me I can give you a link where you can download them from, but they are quite large.

Regards
Brian

Please can you mail me too this link? (Rosendieb@hotmail.com). Grazie,

Blume.
Doesn't exist any book or something else???

[joe mcgovern]

Hey Brian,

Could you please send me the link to download the advanced tutorials?

Thanks,
Joe

[exlybris]

me too please ;)

(tfg@netcabo.pt)

[David Cooper]

Hello Joe and exlybris,

The Piranesi 5 tutorials are on the Piranesi DVD and the demo CD: see "Piranesi Tutorial" on the Piranesi help menu.

If you've downloaded our trial version, the tutorial was omitted to save space but you can get it here:

Windows version
www.informatixsoftware.com/files/Piranesi5_Tutorial.zip (http://www.informatixsoftware.com/files/Piranesi5_Tutorial.zip) (54 MB)
Open the file Piranesi_Tutorials.chm to get started.

Mac version
www.informatixsoftware.com/files/Piranesi5_Mac_Tutorial.zip (http://www.informatixsoftware.com/files/Piranesi5_Mac_Tutorial.zip) (48 MB)
See the PDF files in the Help folder.

A few parts can't be completed using the demo but extra files are included to work around this - see the readme file for details.

Regards,
David