DIGITAL VISUALIZATION FOR DESIGN PROFESSIONALS II

Professionals in architecture and other design-related fields who already have substantial experience with 3D modeling and rendering but want to boost their digital visualization skills, exploring and expressing design possibilities in ways that resonate powerfully with clients and translate more seamlessly into buildable results. If you're tired of having to rely on someone else for renderings in order to convey your design intent and want to take back control of the design process, this course is for you.

LOCATION: AJSNY. 1140 Broadway, Fifth Floor, New York, NY 10001

DATES: This is a two-day course that takes place over a single weekend. It will be offered at least two weekends each month (assuming sufficient enrollment). The minimum class size is two people, the maximum is eight. In the event that you have registered for a class that does not have sufficient enrollment two days prior to its start date, you will receive a full refund of your registration fee and priority in registering for a future date of your choice.

TIME: Each day of instruction begins at 9AM and wraps up at 6PM with a one hour break for lunch. Complimentary coffee, tea and filtered water are available throughout each day, but students should expect to make their own arrangements for lunch.

SOFTWARE: 3DS Max 2017, VRay 3.4, Revit Architecture 2017 (All software is provided on workstations in AJSNY's instructional studio)

AIA CES Learning Units: 16

COST: $1200/seat

After completing this course, you'll be able to:

• Understand and use advanced modeling methods to express and refine design concepts faster.
• Optimize materials and geometry as you work in order to improve rendering efficiency.
• Understand the unique requirements of modeling for 3D printing or CNC milling and how to make sure your geometry will yield good results in fabrication.
• Understand and optimize VRay render settings to get the best possible results in the least amount of time.
• Set up and use VRay's network distributed bucket rendering functionality to speed production
• Organize large, complex project files effectively to better facilitate collaborative design work.

Why The Arch-Viz World Uses 3DS Max and VRay

• A Five-Minute History of Computer-Generated Imagery.
• Biased vs. Non-Biased Rendering Engines.
• Squeezing the best possible performance out of the hardware you have.

3DS Max as a Design Tool:

• System Unit Scale and why it's so important.
• What you really need to know about Gamma.
• The Universal Coordinate System and why staying as close as possible to the origin will help you stay sane.
• Understanding the Object Transform Matrix and knowing when it needs to be reset.
• Understanding the Slate Material Editor and making node-based shader networks work for architectural materials.
• Best practices for file organization: Layers vs. Groups vs. Selection Sets vs. XRefs.
• Building and maintaining a model and material library that's actually useful.

Getting Better Results Faster From VRay:

• What you really need to know about Deterministic Monte Carlo (DMC) sampling and how to choose the right settings in every situation.
• Understanding Trace Depth and BSP Tree depth and their impact on speed.
• Understanding image filtering and texture filtering and when you can get away with disabling one or both for faster, more efficient rendering.
• Understanding color mapping and how to use it effectively.
• VRay materials -- Best practices for optimizing speed vs. quality.
• Bump maps vs. normal bump maps vs. displacement. Which to use when.
• Understsanding the VRay physical camera and why it makes sense to use it.
• Understanding the Irradiance Map and Light Cache and how to make them work most efficiently.
• Brute force as a viable alternative to the Irradiance Map and Light Cache.

Modeling for Design:

• Editable Mesh vs. Editable Poly. Which to use when and why.
• Managing modifier stacks and balancing performance/stability with editability.
• Exploring design options with subdivision surface modeling.
• Best practices for typical interior modeling scenarios.
• Best practices for typical exterior modeling scenarios.
• Best practices for modeling context.
• Modeling for fabrication.
• Getting useable geometry out of Revit. And back in.

Rendering for Design:

• Exploring design options through rendering: How to get useful results fast enough to make deadlines.
• Material studies: Accurately simulating reality vs. representing a desired result.
• Best practices for managing texture maps. Size and quality vs. memory overhead and speed.
• Best practices for lighting interiors.
• Best practices for lighting exteriors.
• Exploring design options through post-production: Using mattes and elements effectively.
• Making distributed network rendering work for you.

Keeping Large, Complex Projects Manageable:

• Best practices for organizing project files in a multi-user environment.
• Using Asset Tracking and the Resource Collector effectively.
• Establishing firm-wide layer-naming, G-buffer ID and Render Element standards.
• Understanding proxy geometry and when to use it.
• Case Study Example: John F. Kennedy International Airport, Terminal 4
• Case Study Example: The World Financial Center
• Case Study Example: Park Avenue Between 43rd and 47th Streets