If you are in the business of communicating designs to clients or setting up an exhibition space and need something that little bit different then augmented reality carries a large wow factor for very little effort.

You can download a free trial from http://www.inglobetechnologies.com/en/products/arplugin_su/info.php

The post Augmented Reality for SketchUp: Now on the Mac appeared first on Digital Urban.

Take a look at the movie below for a glimpse of the possibilities:

Objects can imported from the 3D Warehouse as scene settings or props to be animated, of note is the ability to move objects in realtime while recording an animation path – as part one of their tutorial below illustrates in terms of setting up a car animation:

Setting up the cameras and the final scene can be completed in under 10 minutes – something that is definitely of interest for those doing pre viz work or story board settings for advertising/films etc:

See http://sketchersstudio.com for full details and a trial download, the full version is currently available for $59.

Thanks go to maoltuile for mentioning Sketchers Studio in the comments to our post on hyperShot, Realtime Rendering for Windows and Mac.

The post Sketchers Studio – 3D Animation for SketchUp on the Mac appeared first on Digital Urban.

Even when you have the correct settings rendering times can run from a few minutes to a few hours for city and geographic models. As such we were intrigued with the 14 day demo of hyperShot by Bunkspeed. HyperShot is a software renderer, that allows anyone within minutes, to create photographic realism with their model. As their site info states – think of it like a new type of camera, an all software camera. Import all the popular model formats, drag and drop accurate materials, choose your environment and you have a photo of your digital model.

The interface takes a little getting used to, oddly enough because it is so easy to use and with so few options to tweak. You can simply load up a model, the software supports Obj, FBX, Collada, Autodesk 3D Studio Max (3DS), Rhino 4.0 and prior and SketchUp 7.0 and prior on the Mac (our test platform) set a HDR environmental map and then render.

The image above is a geographic model out of ESRI ArcScene, every other software package we have tried to render it in has crashed with ‘out of memory’ messages, hyperShot rendered it in 3 minutes.

Its a similar story with the image above, rendered within a HDR environment in a couple of minutes. This allows us to get on with the work flow rather than worrying about ‘photons, final gathers’ etc etc that are far too common in 3D packages.

Of note also is the ability to render from SketchUp via .skp or .dae files and it handles SketchUp files rather well. Below is a render of our SketchUp model of Fitzrovia Square, London:

The only option we would like to see is the ability to render out animations and fly throughs of the models, that would make hyperShot a must buy.

You can find out more and download a 14 day demo for both Windows and Mac operating systems via http://www.bunkspeed.com/

The post hyperShot: Near Realtime Rendering System for Windows and Mac appeared first on Digital Urban.

Featured below is a city based on the Apple Logo:

The CityEngine is one of the most powerful tools currently available for the creation of urban environments. Of note is its ability to import OpenStreet map data allowing a 3D road network to be quickly and easily developed.

The movie below illustrates the construction of a fantasy city:

Finally below illustrates the rebuilding of Rome:

We hope to set aside a few days in the new year to take a close look at the CityEngine – you can download a 30 day demo direct from Procedual.

The post CityEngine – Now for Mac appeared first on Digital Urban.

Featured below is a city based on the Apple Logo:

The CityEngine is one of the most powerful tools currently available for the creation of urban environments. Of note is its ability to import OpenStreet map data allowing a 3D road network to be quickly and easily developed.

The movie below illustrates the construction of a fantasy city:

Finally below illustrates the rebuilding of Rome:

We hope to set aside a few days in the new year to take a close look at the CityEngine – you can download a 30 day demo direct from Procedual.

The post CityEngine – Now for Mac appeared first on Digital Urban.