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Archive for January 16th, 2009

This is a little trick for creating your own studio that I learned from the Step-by –Step PhotoWorks Self-Study Guide, and decided to try on PhotoView 360, to see if it would work. Well, it does, with a few limitations, but it does work.

All it is about is creating a virtual studio with a backdrop, like photographers use in their photo studios, and a set of area lights.  The backdrop is simply an extrusion, like the one shown in the image, large enough so that the edges won’t be seen in the rendering, and with a smooth transition between vertical and horizontal surfaces, if possible, to avoid seeing the seam between them.  The area lights used here are like reflection panels in the real photo studio; a simple square shape will do. These area lights are mated perpendicular to the lines in the 3D sketch (shown in orange), as you can also see in the image. By editing the position and length of the lines in the 3D sketch, we’ll control the position of the area lights in our studio. Our model will go matted to the backdrop, preferably right in the middle. In this image, the model is a small LEGO toy car. As you can see, the model should be small in comparison to the studio, and the lights far away enough, otherwise it won’t work.

The book goes on in great detail about how to use this virtual studio inside PhotoWorks. Basically, you need to get rid of all other light sources and leave only the area lights you have created.  The same is true for PhotoView, we need to get rid of other lights and backgrounds in the scene and in order to do this, we are going to use the Black environment. Note: for better results, we should apply the Area Light material to the square panels before applying the Black environment; otherwise we won’t be able to see a thing. We can increase the intensity of the light in the scene by editing the Area Light material properties and modifying the value of the Luminous Intensity. I used a value of 20 W/srm2 in these examples. Of course,  it would be even better if each area light was a separate part, instead of three instances of the same part, because that would allow us to modify the luminous intensity of each light independently of the others.  In this example, however, every time I change the luminous intensity for one of the area lights, all three of them are affected, because all three of them share the same value.

By zooming and panning, we can obtain a closer view of the model, making sure that neither the area lights, nor the edges of the backdrop can be seen.  This is easier to do in PhotoWorks, thanks to the cameras. We can also add a material to the backdrop. It’s a good idea to try and experiment a few. The materials included in the folder Studio Materials, under Miscellaneous, have a few interesting choices.   I know what you’re probably thinking: it doesn’t really look good in the preview, does it?

Well, render the image and you’ll probably get a nice surprise. It make take some trial and error, some adjusting to the position and intensity of the lights, perhaps even adding more lights, but once you have your virtual studio customized the way you want it, you can exchange the model for some other one in the assembly and use it over and over again.

OK, I confess, I am a faithful subscriber of Elise Moss’ weekly CADzette, a newsletter that offers tips and tricks for AutoCAD and other Autodesk’s products, and even some good advice for SolidWorks users, at least every now and then.   It’s a really good reading, because Elise has tons of experience and is always willing to share with the rest of us. Anyway, this fragment was taken from this week’s CADzette. It just seemed interesting to me and wanted to share with you here, to see what you think about it. Just so you know what she’s talking about, Elise teaches in college. She’s recently begun teaching SolidWorks and is talking about the class that just started.

My SolidWorks class at Laney College in Oakland started this week and it was standing room only with a packed room of students and more students hoping to get in.

 I contrast this with the past two Inventor classes I was supposed to teach over at SFSU – both cancelled due to lack of interest.

 How did SolidWorks beat out Inventor?  I think they used Autodesk’s reputation as a 2D CAD software against them.  The programs are certainly close in features and capabilities.  Hands down SolidWorks emerged the winner and is now the standard in the mechanical world.  But will SolidWorks be able to crack the architectural world?  That may prove to be a harder nut to crack.”

Interesting trend, isn’t it?