ACM007 - Artlantis 101

So this is a followup show to ACM006 - intro to Artlantis, where I explored what Artlantis is and why it’s such a fantastic piece of software - especially for architects. It would probably be best to check out that show for a quick introduction before diving into this one, but still this is just going through the basics. Abvent Artlantis is recognised as the fastest and most powerful solution for photo-realistic rendering and animation developed for architects and designers. This show will bring you up to speed on lots of the functions and capabilities of this great piece of software!
I’m exploring how to download the Artlantis 3 trial from the Artlantis site as well as MyArchicad.com - where I downloaded the Archicad 13 trial in the Archicad 101 show. If you’re a student or teacher, just like with Archicad you can apply for a free 1-year educational license for Archicad and Artlantis from myarchicad.com.
In addition to the trial, I download the Archicad to Artlantis exporter - enabling me to save my 3D Archicad model into an Artlantis one, so I can edit and render it. Next I export the 3D building model I created in show ACM005 from Archicad, import it to Artlantis, and give a quick overview of the general interface. I then add some shaders to the model from the Catalog - Artlantis’s great object manager - while replacing some of the Archicad materials with the more sophisticated Artlantis shaders, setting the scene with the heliodon and cloud formations, and then finally rendering a scene for final output.
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Sivak Dmitry's winning free-form building designed in Archicad

Back in show ACM003 I had mentioned ArchitectsJury, a community website where you can upload your work, get feedback, get inspiration and get noticed. Your work can get reviewed by others, you can make contacts with other students and even potential employers, or just get some ideas, plus from time to time there are even some student competitions where prizes are given out.
Segwaying nicely into my subject today, a winning project in the 2009 Fall ArchitectsJury competition - a very dynamic museum of modern art designed in Archicad by Sivak Dmitriy - a student at the Odessa State Academy of Building and Architecture (Ukraine).
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Autodesk's Project Dragonfly graduates to 'Homestyler'
Some
might have been aware of an innovative web
application Autodesk had been working in
its
Labs called
‘Project Dragonfly’; the labs experiment with new
approaches to CAD design on the ground as well as
in the cloud, and Dragonfly was a ‘technology
preview’ for quickly designing a floor-plan using
only your browser.
Well I’m very excited that Autodesk has taken its
training wheels off and renamed it :
‘Autodesk
Homestyler’.
Homestyler
is a very simple 3D home + garden design
application all of which runs on your browser -
meaning that it’s ‘cloud-based’, just like many
of the services we use everyday like
Gmail,
Gdocs,
Flickr,
or
Youtube,
whethere you’re running Mac OS, Windows, or
Linux.
creative NERDS show off Photoshop CS5
Following Adobe’s online event, the excitement skyrocketed about the entire CS5 suite. The improvements across the board are amazing - bringing more control + flexibility in design, allowing the creative process to flow more naturally.
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Adobe CS5 online sneak preview event
Adobe is offering a sneak preview of it’s new Creative Suite 5 software, online today at 4pm BST.
CS5 is said to have over 250 new features across the Suite, but I’m most excited about the great stuff they’re bringing with Photoshop CS5.
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the architect who became a 3D film maker : Joseph Kosinski

Having been a great fan Disney’s 1982 film, “Tron” was probably one of the first movies that sparked my interest in 3D modelling and animation. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a fantastic film - especially for those early years of computing. Compared to today’s 3D realism it’s archaic obviously, but still very impressive for the ‘80s.
I had heard that someone was possibly working on a Tron remake/sequel, as it seems most series and movies are being done - best of all until now being hands down “Battlestar Galactica”, but that’s a topic for another post - so I was delighted to read Cliff Kuang’s post on Fast Company about the new “Tron Legacy”.
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archiCADmonkey featured on the Artlantis blog
This morning I was catching up on some RSS feeds after my brief time in Greece for the easter period, and an article jumped out at me and what d’ya know, over the weekend the archiCADmonkey show was featured on the official Artlantis Blog : Artlantissimo - of course the episode they blogged about was the ACM006 - intro to Artlantis, a brief introductory video showing why Artlantis is great for 3D rendering architectural models.
It’s such an honour to be recognised by Abvent while the show is still in its early days. The next show will be even better when it’s released - I’m still working on a few screencast pieces - so “ Artlantis 101 ” should be up on the bitwaves in the next couple of weeks.
Till then please show some love to the folks over at Artlantissimo
goBIM™ : the first BIM iPhone app

Hold the presses, the day has arrived! It seems
just in time for the release of the iPad - due
this Saturday - a cunning developer has created
what looks like the first BIM app for the iPhone
+ of course the iPad. (and no I promise...this is
not an April fools gag)
A few weeks ago I had talked about the
possibility of
Graphisoft bringing out an iPad / iPhone
app for viewing 3D BIM
models - similar to their Archicad project viewer
‘Virtual Building
Explorer’ - but it seems
this guy has beat everyone to the punch.
It's called goBIM™
- write
that down! ...or you know, just click the iTunes
link at the end.





