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Lumion 3D Cookbook

By : Ciro Cardoso

4.2 (6)

Lumion 3D Cookbook

4.2 (6)

By: Ciro Cardoso

Overview of this book

This book offers uses practical applications using recipes with step-by-step instructions and useful information to help you master how to produce professional architectural visualizations in Lumion. The cookbook approach means you need to think and explore how a particular feature can be applied in your project and perform the intended task. This book is written to be accessible to all Lumion users and is a useful guide to follow when becoming familiar with this cutting-edge real-time technology.This practical guide is designed for all levels of Lumion users who know how to model buildings in 3D and a basic understanding of Lumion, who want to enhance their skills to the next level.

Preface

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Sections

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the color images of this book

Free Chapter

1. Importing in Lumion

1. Importing in Lumion

Introduction

Importing your own 3D models

Importing animations from 3ds Max

Navigating in Lumion

Relocating your imported 3D models

Reverting your last action

Locking your 3D model's position

Organizing your 3D world with layers

Updating your imported 3D models

Replacing an imported 3D model

2. Placing the Content

2. Placing the Content

Introduction

Placing 3D models

Copying 3D models

Removing 3D models

Placing models on the terrain

Placing multiple 3D models

Randomizing the size of 3D models

Configuring 3D models

Placing 3D models accurately

3. Manipulating and Controlling 3D Models

3. Manipulating and Controlling 3D Models

Introduction

Selecting multiple 3D models

Selecting different categories

Transforming and selecting any 3D model

Spacing multiple 3D models

Aligning different 3D models' orientations

Snapping multiple 3D models

Randomizing 3D models' orientation

Rotate on model

Constraining the 3D model's rotation

4. Constructing Your World

4. Constructing Your World

Introduction

Shaping the terrain

Configuring the terrain brushes

Working with the Terrain menu

Changing the landscape

Painting the landscape

Blending the 3D model with the terrain

Working with heightmaps

Adding water in Lumion

Creating a seashore

5. Controlling the Weather

5. Controlling the Weather

Introduction

Defining the sun's direction

Modifying the sun's settings

Tweaking the shadows

Tuning the skylight

Adding soft shadows

Configuring the global illumination

Modifying and animating the clouds

Setting up fog

Making it rain and snow

Controlling the wind

Using the Sun study effect

6. Working with Lumion Materials

6. Working with Lumion Materials

Introduction

Rolling back materials

Configuring materials

Making the 3D model invisible

Creating a realistic glass

Saving materials

Streaming water

Glowing materials

Adding realistic grass

Improving reflections

Correcting flickering

7. Special Features

7. Special Features

Introduction

Creating fire

Adding fumes and vapors

Placing fountains

Falling leaves

Adding text

Using the clip plane

Controlling effects in the Movie and Photo modes

Checking effects in real time

8. Getting Realism with Camera Effects

8. Getting Realism with Camera Effects

Introduction

Using the Bloom effect

Adding lens' errors

Correcting the color

Separating objects with DOF

Simulating the Lens flare effects

Using God rays

Adding noise

Isolating colors with Lumion

Using the Vignette effect

Sharpening your image

9. Non-photorealistic Effects

9. Non-photorealistic Effects

Introduction

Adding a Manga effect

Using toon shading

Painting your image

Drawing with a pencil

Painting with Watercolor

Creating stills

Using special formats

Creating and combining different NPR effects

10. Bringing Your World to Life

10. Bringing Your World to Life

Introduction

Creating a camera path

Changing clips

Animating the 3D models

Bringing people to life

Controlling the camera

Animating curved paths

Animating the camera's focus

Using motion blur

Animating the layers

Configuring the Near Clip Distance effect

Animating effects

11. Creating Videos

11. Creating Videos

Introduction

Affecting individual clips

Affecting the entire video

Handling the clips

Creating transitions

Camera effects

Using the Titles effect

Framing and composition

Adding sound

12. Rendering

12. Rendering

Introduction

Exporting videos

Rendering individual clips

Rendering stills

Rendering an image sequence

Broadcasting on TV

Working with perspectives

Rendering passes

13. Lighting

13. Lighting

Introduction

Using spotlights

Previewing spotlights

Configuring the properties of light

Setting up shadows

Tweaking the Global Illumination effect

Using the Exposure effect

Working with reflection control

Index

Index

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Updating your imported 3D models

Over the course of a project, it is very common to have certain 3D models updated, and we need to update those 3D models into our Lumion project. This can be a rather daunting task, taking into account that most of the time these updates in the 3D models happen after we have already assigned materials to the imported 3D model.

Getting ready

Before we update the 3D model into Lumion, it is vital that we save or export the 3D model with the same name that we used to import into Lumion. This means that we need to overwrite the old file (we can always create a backup) so that we can update the 3D model in Lumion successfully.

How to do it…

With the Import menu selected, perform the following steps:

Select the Edit materials menu.
Then click on the small white dot on the 3D model to select the model.
Click on the Reload model and re apply materials button, as you can see in the following screenshot:
Click on the OK button to accept the changes.

There's more…

As a safety practice, we might want to save our old files in case something goes wrong. Typically, I rename the file to something like House_OLD_01-13.dae (.dae is the extension for the COLLADA files and is just for reference purposes). The OLD tag is self-explanatory, showing that this is an old file and the 01-13 tag represents the month and the year it was created. If the project is complex and there are a few modifications, just create a text file where the 3D models are stored, and in this text file write something like the following:

House_OLD_01-13.dae -> Fence replaced
House_OLD_02-13.dae-> Window ground floor replaced

Why should we go this extra mile and do this? Well, the reason is that when we are working on large projects, they can take weeks and even months to be completed, and a complex project always goes forward and back with changes, which means that something you changed last month may be back after a few weeks because the client changed their mind. With this text file we don't need to open every single file to check where we did the change.

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