pipo

Des , yes all very precise info Best to work with a full frame 35mm , no need for multipliers Our methods are pretty much the same , match view I really only use for aerial montages from drone photography

my investigations with the match tool are that even when the result looks correct when matched with a full frame of 35mm photograph the resulting focal length is not correct I have checked this many times by comparing manual placement of camera on a fixed surveyed point on the site plan and correct camera info from exif (focal length) I have tested this with various focal lengths 21mm - 200 all with varying results I wouldn't rely on match view for a render that scrutinisation from government departments pip

Thanks J for the complimentary words Lumion is by no means a perfect tool , It excels primarily in speed and setup With regard to our animations however, they are primarily studies or competitions , not marketing or sales quality output which is not achievable with Lumion. We don't do any realtime yet ....have considered Unreal as a future consideration however..... With our larger scenes there is often a small sketchup component (not the instancing type) The (more) detailed modelling in fz and some massing elements and landform terrain etc in sketchup Also easier to work with google maps and faster to paint up in skp... Lumion imports various file types so no issue here , the lack of a live plugin is no issue , on sketchup I don't even bother with it. Lumion prefers fz files in dxf , dwg .....3ds and obj also. With regard to plugins I will surely be in the minority here With maxwell I only use the plugin to export into studio...fz and maxwell never operate simultaneously I just prefer it this way , same with fz lumion....export the file , import the file . Also we are working with some pretty huge files so stability is always optimum with only one app open pip

few renders that can see the light of day now

3d grass models used here

Also regarding your tiled roof I generally model everything but for this roof I would definitely use displacement and only model the ridge cap Try this as a start point....maxwell displacement works well for basic planar displacements Tiles roof modern_4.mxm

Remember to ensure the normals are correct on the planes on to which you are scattering Important also to ensure the world coordinates of the maxwell grass objects (MXS objects) are 0,0,0 otherwise the scattered grasses will not locate properly Image below shows example of the grass models used in the render sample NOTE : when imported into studio all these objects occupy 0,0,0 so they will be overlapping in the viewport I have moved them here to indicate the relative sizes and variation used for the render

Prepare geometry The main drawback with scattered grass is the edging to driveways or curbs Method requires setting up the geo with 3 sections - A - main grass plane edge with no scatter , B - outer thin perimeter of grass on which you scatter small grass objects to maintain a reasonably straight edge ( I usually scatter 2-3 different smaller grass objects ) C - inner body of grass on which you scatter larger grass objects and clover etc ( I usually scatter 5-6 different grass objects plus say 2 flower objects ) Basically create the plane that requires grass (A) then offset 10 cm and 30cm to create B and C A, B and C are all mapped with a basic grass texture , this will only be visible on the edge of the grass.

Hey Andy With your grass I would suggest you experiment with scattering. This will give you far superior results than maxwell grass. I will post a little visual tutorial shortly Pip

thanks guys maxwell rendered

the new website is indeed a great improvement