Vertical City of the Future

A lot of work was put into this thesis presentation. It lasts for a whopping 6 minutes and 47 seconds consisting of numerous animations along with unique stills. Some parts appear to be done in a power point type presentation where the director calls out several facts about his creation. This feature was put together with such care, I absolutely enjoy the way it starts off with site analysis, then structure stats, then structure features, then spaces..... and then finally several seamless shots, and approaches of the whole building, showing off the design to the viewers. Great job to Michael Ka'ainoni, the person responsible for this thesis project.

Rubiks Cube House

Interesting and fun concept! I like how the animation starts off as a sketch and then goes to realistic rendering. The producer/s of this video also added some stills in between sequences. A signature move that one might notice is the way the director moves the camera through foliage until the building can be seen clearly, this is done several times. One thing I'd like to point out is the cool 'moving sky background' that happens near the end of the presentation, nice touch. I will say though, that it would be nice to see this animation done with closer frame gaps to improve the smoothness of the animation, but of course that would require more time and computing power. Thanks to "Homeworks" for posting this video up in YouTube.

3D Animation of Interior

This piece was produced by Silvan van Alphen on March of 2007. Incredible arrangement of animation, stills and sun study animation (at the very end). Some say the camera movements are a bit violent but personally I kind of like the effect. It speeds up when transfering you from one spot to another and then slows down at a special space which allow viewers to focus in on what is being presented. Nice touch I'd say. Selection of soundtrack is fitting for this fly-through! Great job Silvan van Alphen.

3D Animation, Wire Frame & Stills

This is a 3D Animation of the interior of the Marni store in London. Nicely done by Silvan van Alphen and designed by Sybarite. I like how the animator uses different methods to present a single idea with seamless transitional effects. The focus of this presentation is obviously the modernistic stairs which leads to the second level....now that's what I call hardcore modeling! Lots of detail and curves. The camera path leading you up the stairs is incredibly smooth and consistent with relation to height, I know if I ever do an animation going up a stairwell it will not be a walk in the park. I suspect the still at the very end to be an actual photograph of the finished product. If not, then great rendering!

3D Architecture Animation - experiment

This sample is from YouTube's "cableguy11". He was experimenting with cameras and materials in "MAX"...which I assume to be '3d studio max'. This is a great piece mimicking a miniature scaled model with white volumes representing surrounding structures and applying materials and color to the design enhancing focus to main point of interest....the design. A wonderful way of presenting architecture. Although some of the surfaces were too shiny for my taste...but that's just my opinion. I would like to see the surrounding buildings with a flat-white-card-board-type texture applied. Camera speed, angles and movement are pleasant. For someone just experimenting....this is pretty darn good.

Gardens by the Bay

This is probably one of the most artistic type of architectural 3d presentation I have been so lucky to have seen so far. It was done by Squint/Opera and was originally the winning entry to a landscape architecture competition in Singapore. Very pleasant to watch and incredibly creative!

Experimental Architectural Animation

This short animation was described in you tube as Experimental Mograph, Sound & Motion. Some cool morphing happening in this video, and experimenting with 'camera shake'. The 'camera shake' technique is slowly working its way into 3d fly-throughs which has been around for quite some time in computer animated movies. Adds excitement to a scene when used correctly. I heard that this could be done with programs such as Adobe After Effects! Don't know what could be used for the abstract morphing effects.. but I have done something similar when I experimented with Cinema4D.

NEORAMA - Demo Reel 2006

These folks are amazing! The demo reel shows it all. Very crisp architectural animated pieces. They have a demo reel for 2007...I'll try to post it up when I can. This was 2 years ago! And it's still of outstanding quality even for nowadays. Their website is definitely worth a visit which is also very well designed. Check out Neorama!

3D Sao Paulo

This is a nice massing model of an urban scape. All secondary/entourage structures were rendered white and the only thing detailed was the primary structure and landscape and some street scape. This technique has been used in many real life scaled models. Why not do it in computer generated models too right?! Very neatly done.

Jacques Ferrier - Projet tour Phare

This might be a different scheme of a building design included in one of my previous posts or this could be an entire different project. Regardless, this 3d animation has very good composition with an effort to tease you by showing parts of the design through out the fly through. It is only around the ending where you actually capture a full glimpse of the whole project. I find this technique to be intriguing.

Agence Peripheriques

Great camera paths and speed. I like the transitional effects between different shots. It has its own style of presenting itself from sounds to entourage, this makes for a very unique animation. You have to love the little flying fairy effect used through out the presentation! Great job :)

Nave Appleseed

Growing Warehouse made with 3dsmax, VRay & Premiere. A short construction simulation of a warehouse project. Nice job 3DX Design & Appleseed Construction! I like the touch they used for the "environment" during the 360 degree view of the warehouse....I'm referring to the plywood type board used at the base of the model..and empty background...with a simple horizon line..it gives it that scaled model feeling which is neat. Then at the end they merged the model with a photo montage which shows the project at its true enviroment. Sometimes this technique is a good idea because we don't always have nice backgrounds to present our models....and we're better off either inventing the surrounding or completely ignore it and focus on the main project. One thing for sure though....it saves time when your rendering the frames!

Project Hypergreen - Jacques Ferrier

Boy, talk about realism! This 3d presentation is magnificent. Excellent camera path and all shot in one single sequence! No fancy soundtrack in this fly-through but there was something different instead....something worth taking note of....there was simply just ambient sound. This technique, in my humble opinion made this feature more dramatic and powerful as a presentation. Design wise...wow... I mean that is not something you see everyday. Great concept Jacques Ferrier! Growing up as a kid who wanted to become an architect, this was the type of design that brought magic to architecture.

SketchUp Model

There have been many sketchup models exported to google earth, from novice modelers to advanced professionals, they are all unique. I found this presentation to be a good example of a fly-through, produced using sketchup as the main software. I have personally used sketchup on 4 occasions, and it got the job done for its purpose. I have never done movie presentations using this software but as you can see, it is possible and it looks good in my humble opinion. What I like the most is the fact that it has that fluid look to it. Go SketchUp!

3D Architectural Visualization - Property Development

The new generation Business Center will be built using the latest technology, with luxurious shopping and recreational areas. This is a virtual visualization of the CITYDEL business center scheduled to be completed around the middle of 2007. The people from iCube Visualization are the one's who produced/directed this presentation. The fly-through animation starting at 2:45 is a great example of Construction Simulation, a medium which is gradually working its way up into the work places of 3d modelers, drafters and architects. Lots of interior shots in this one guys.

Fujairah Hotel

"A 3d Walk through done by TUNISIAN Architects in Dubai 2007, Resort in Fujairah." A very complete presentation. Starts off by approaching the project site from the ocean (I'm assuming it's an ocean...haven't googled the exact location yet) and works it way up high to create a nice aerial shot of the whole site! I personally like this technique. This might make sense to do with some fly-throughs but not all. The textures applied to the 3d surfaces were amazing. High quality if you ask me, most especially the texture applied to the walls. The entourage, which is sometimes ignored in most presentations because of difficulty to achieve realism, was well rounded in terms of complexity and quality. Water, trees and landscaping fitted together very nicely. Kudos to La Cienda for the concept design.

360 Aerial 3D Animation

I found this presentation to be pretty neat. Yes, it is simple, but I like the way how the frames were rendered using the hidden line technique and then swithcing over to a "cardboard type" model along the middle of the presentation and then ending with a fully colored model. I would also like to note that the people who produced this started the clip with a texture map of the floor plan/site plan, a style I have seen on other video samples in the past year, works great every single time.

3D Architectural Animation - House

From You Tube's 3D Designs "This is a 3D animation of a house, as it will be seen from the street driving up to it. The owner wanted to add enough landscaping that covers up the walkout basement level." ....Now, I have to mention, that the 3D landscaping in this short clip was so well done. A lot of care went into making this. The shrubbery and trees are by far one of the best I've seen in terms of realism and subtlety. Also, I'd like to add a quick note on the number of frames and playback speed decided to be used in this animation, in my opinion, was well conceived and assembled with the right values.

Unimed Fly-Through

Opera Image's 3d animation of architectural model Unimed HQ located in São Paulo, SP, Brazil. I love the sectional "cutaway" technique they used in the beginning of the animation. Then it flies beautifully throughout the inside of the design with brightly lit interiors with a bit of a diffused glow-like filter that creates that dreamy type of feel. Very smooth. Great Presentation!

3D ArchiCAD Fly Through

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This is a 3D ArchiCAD fly through of the "Devenshire Building" which was produced by 23 year old Martin Smith, a 5th year architecture student at the university of Newcastle located in the UK. A combination of animation and 'stills' was used for this presentation. From one fellow AC user to another, "keep up the good work!" and thanks for sharing.

Transformation in Architectural Design

From YouTube's Pascal Mueller...."The video shows buildings designed by two great architects, Gottfried Semper and Le Corbusier, and the emergence of new designs using a novel modeling system to compute design transformations. Shown at ACM SIGGRAPH 2005 Computer Animation Festival". The transformation sequences are pretty seamless! Love this piece.

3D Achitecture Restoration

This intro was created for an architectural restoration company, VIP Restoration, as part of a promo of their services. This type of method, from plan to 3D, is always a cool thing for me personally. There's just something fun about it. There is about 2 more examples in my previous posts that use this method for animating architectural designs. Great intro!

3d Video Animation Render

Pleasant 3D animation of a site viewing from a bird's eye view. Some still renders and fly-throughs but the aspect that caught my attention was the way the Site Plan was animated from above. Gentle camera movements and warm colors achieved was inviting in my opinion...I guess it also depends on who is viewing the film. 3d animation by UokU.

Architecture Student Animation

This short animation was produced, to my understanding, by a group of students. The things that use to be almost impossible to achieve are now becoming more common as software and hardware are gradually developing rapidly. Architectural animation and 3D modeling will become very typical in all architecture schools all around the world. It has already begun. Nowadays, I would not be surprised to know that handful of architecture students in a single classroom have the capabilities to achieve 3D visual representations of their projects.

Designhive's Snowhill Animation

I like how this animation begins.....with the building somewhat simulating construction in the latter phases....instead of columns and beams, they went ahead and simulated the assembly of a few architectural details/features like curtain walls and shading panels and what not. I gotta say, nice glass materials! Now the ending, now that's something new I've seen compared to the previous architectural animations I've posted, its basically a night shot of one of the buildings with the lights turning off section by section until its pitch black. Excellent touch.

3D Master Plan - Vnimation

This is a cool 3D animation of a 174 ha. piece of property! An urban plan of northern Ha Dong City - Ha Tay which is close to Ha Noi Capital. The render time must of took a lot of computing power to produce this footage. Nevertheless, very well worth it. I like the reduction and increase in playback in certain portions of the animation. The soundtrack was fitting for this type of grandeur. I would also like to make a note of the 'dreamy' visual effect on the opening of the shot...excellent! Great job Vnimation.

iCube Visualization - Demo Reel 2007

iCube's 2007 3D architecture animation demo reel is a neat compilation of some of their work. Grass swaying, water movement & flying butterflies are just a taste of some of the animation details possible to produce with a combination of creativity & technology. This reel also features a very nice construction simulation from the ground up. Definitely worth taking a look at!

1st & Main

This architectural flythrough was produced by "NC3D" for GBD Architects. The animation highlights many of 1st & Main's interior and exterior features and views. The project model is also set in a 3D replica of Portland City. Moving entourage and solid 3D animation makes this a great presentation. I like the touch with the boat around the beginning of the flythrough. The camera rolls and angles, like some in my previous posts, are carefully executed.

Architecture Thesis - Modular

This was made by a user on YouTube named 'homeworks255'. Nice 3d animation study of ideas. Quick motions and execution allowed the creator to present his/her concept from simple to complex in just 2 minutes and 45 seconds! All structure, no entourage... very straight forward!

Interior Animation

This very nicely done interior animation was done by Proyecto Digital, a studio based in Madrid. This piece of 3d architectural animation is clean, neat and easy on the eyes. Each time the camera poses for a shot, things light up as if your taking a picture with a flash camera. Great touch and great model!

Molao Project - Vietnam

3d and architecture concept by Archipel (Vietnam, SE Asia). This presentation had some interesting camera rolls and 'shaking' which I found to be pretty cool. Adds spice to the animation. Choice of music (in my opinion) matched the whole shot. Take note on having the option of adding music on the finished presentation, makes it much more dramatic. Fantastic work Archipel!

Persian Architecture

An animated film inspired by the Persian Architecture. Made by Cristóbal Vila (who also made the Fallingwater animation on my 2nd post). Great lighting and camera movement. The details and textures are incredible. One thing I've noticed with Mr. Vila's films is that he opens them very well with an artistic expression of some sort.

School of Business

Produced by Neoscape, Inc. to help raise funds for the new William & Mary Mason School of Business. This animation starts off pretty sweet. Begins from a work bench/table, which was nicely modeled, and makes a transition from a floor plan to an actual building model. The way Neoscape represented the specific areas of the building through color coded 3d transparent masses, I thought, was just brilliant.