In this video, I’m going to talk
about the 10 most useful moves or tricks that I’ve learned on
Lumion since I started using it. ---
Okay, so let’s dive
straight into the list. This video is sponsored by Lumion, and
I was really happy to partner up with them for this video because Lumion is in
fact one of many programs I currently use to work on architectural visualization. Number 1 My first tip is this: Use the preset
styles thact Lumion offer, however, and here’s a big "however", It’s a shortcut
to quickly get to a great result but to add a personal flavor to the renders, my
suggestion is to tweak all the settings I usually start with the realistic,
so that it adds the most useful effects to the scene, and from there
I start tweaking it to fit my image. Change the HDRI and
direction to fit your scene, On Skylight, check both here, and if your
PC can handle go for “ultra” as well. And on shadow check both soft
shadows and fine detail shadows. I only mentioned the things you
shouldn’t miss, but remember to slide all sliders to see how it affects
your image and customize everything. One effect that is important and is
not included in the style is Global Illumination, be sure to add it
and play with the settings, global illumination is when the light bounces
on objects, then the color this object has affects its immediate surroundings. Kind of hard to explain it in words,
but here's a before and after GI. Two, Since we’re talking about effects,
I’d say 99% of the time, you need to have the two-point perspective
added to your effects list. This will ensure that your verticals
are always in fact vertical. It makes your composition
a lot better, trust me. Three, And lastly on the
effects tips, reflection. This is a tough one. One thing that bothers me when
using Lumion is that reflections are not that reliable, but you
can kinda minimize this issue. You add as many reflection planes as your
computer can handle, personally, I usually add all 10, which is the max available. This doesn’t work only for glass
or mirrors, but any type of surface that has some type of reflection, it
just makes it a lot more realistic with proper reflection calculations. Round and curved surfaces won’t look good. I’ve tried so many things but Lumion
simply can't deal with it, for example in this image I had to Photoshop
the side table in, because on the rendering it was looking too bad. By the way, if you’re new to the
channel, I’m Oliver and here I talk about architectural representation
and visualization, so subscribe if you’re enjoying this video. There’s a whole library of
videos for you to explore and new ones are always coming out. Four, Now scenes, more
specifically focal length. This is not a rule, but if you don’t
know anything about which focal length to choose, my suggestion is
to stick to the most natural ones. That’s also what you find
most often in real cameras. The lower the number, the wider
and larger your scene will be. I usually stick with 24 to 35mm. Smaller numbers for interior
scenes, larger numbers for exterior. But remember this is just a guide,
depending on the occasion a 16mm might work for thigh spaces, or
even a 50 to 80mm for close-ups. Number five, One of the biggest strengths of Lumion
is the immense library of assets, be sure to take full advantage of it. Usually, I have only the rough
modeling done in Sketchup, or Archicad, and all accessories and
plants are added here in Lumion. Then of course, if I need something
specific I’ll try to find it over the 3d model warehouse, or
even this website called Casoca. Oh, bonus tip, be sure to always use
Lumion with the live-sync plugin, you’ll then have a much smoother workflow and
will be able to work with both the 3D software and Lumion simultaneously. Six, On the same topic of asset library,
learn how to use the fine-detail plants, especially the trees. These models can really take your
renderings in Lumion to the next level. But be smart about it! Use only on the trees and plants that
will be close to the camera so that your file doesn’t get too heavy unnecessarily. Tip number seven, Nothing in the real world has
90 degrees sharp corners or even is a perfect smooth surface. This is something I like a lot about
Lumion, you can give minor defects to the material with these two sliders. Round edges and weathering. Just go easy with it, a tiny
bit of both is more than enough, it’s about the small details all
around your image that combined create an interesting composition. Eight, This is a tip that saved
me many many times. When you do all of the tips I mentioned,
and depending on the size and complexity of your project, you’ll undoubtedly
have a heavy file on your hands. For reference, here are my pc specs, and
it’s barely the recommended on Lumion. So to still be able to walk
around the model and set up the render without lagging too much,
I often play with the editor mode. Go to settings, and these two
are what you’re looking for. As a matter of fact, my quality is
only set to two stars as default. It’s about trying it out and seeing
how it affects your workflow. Keep in mind that this does
not affect the final render. Only the editor, like your
current window, so when editing materials and adding objects,
remember to take that into account. I like to do multiple render
tests to check the progress. Nine, I know I complimented the asset library
that Lumion has, but tip number nine is to avoid using the 3d people. They look too fake and don’t allow
much flexibility in post-production. Here’s the thing, if you need to use them
to meet a deadline or if you don’t know much about placing cutouts in Photoshop. You may be excused, just
please don’t place them too close and facing the camera. Add them to the scene with intention. Oh, and when I meant that there’s no
flexibility is that usually human figures in architectural photography are captured
blurred, either to not distract you from actually looking at the built environment,
or done even as an artistic choice. The blur comes from setting a
slow shutter speed in the camera. And when can mimic that in Photoshop
with Filter, blur, motion blur. In the real world, no one is static when
taking architectural photos, which in a sense is what a render from a project is. So having those perfect still
and sharp human figures in your images can feel a bit off. Number 10, And for the last Lumion
tip… Render Elements If you wanted to ignore all 9
tips I told you in this video, just please don’t skip this one. Post-production in
Photoshop is a vital step! It’s where you’ll correct minor
things, add your identity and really make the image come together. Sometimes it’s just small things, but
other times there's a lot more to do. And you can’t do any proper
work without these channels. So whenever you click to render
something, be sure to activate these little letters here. They’ll output separate colored
images that you can use as selection guides in Photoshop. By the way, I’ve got a full course on
architectural post-production, and in the lessons, I show you step by step how to
use Photoshop to be confident in doing the fixes and changes in renderings. I’ll leave a link down in the
video description if you want to learn more about this course. This concludes the 10 tips I
wanted to talk about, but it was actually hard to only do 10. I’ve written down more than 20,
to be honest, so if you want to see another video like this,
let me know in the comments. Thanks, Lumion for sponsoring this video,
I’ll link the Lumion youtube channel on the first link in the description
if you’d like to continue your study on this real-time rendering engine. They’ve got some really
interesting tutorials there. Or also, I’ve done other videos on
Lumion here on the channel, even using it to create renderings for a
competition, click here to go there.
