3RD DIMENSION INVOLVED IN A POSSIBLE $17.9m DEAL
3rd Dimension hit the headlines last month in the Florida Press but luckily for all the right reasons. Our 3D Visualisation of this luxury residence made a few heads turn and with a price tag of $17.9million you wouldn’t be surprised to learn so. This 17,000 sqft house is located right on the seafront with an amazing infinity pool. The 3D visualisation of the house was split over two projects. An exterior and an interior. We worked very closely with the West Palm Beach project architects Yates Rainho Design and the interior designers Rogers Design Group to ensure that all architectural detail and interior design was interpreted to the highest standard & detail.
The exterior visualisation was a considerably more straight forward project. But then again they always tend to be. One of the drawbacks of our interior work is the realism we achieve. When clients are presented with our images they soon realise that their design can be realised to exact detail and this often involves the modelling of furniture.
It was a great project to work on with a great client and our work has been well received by many parties in the sunshine state. Now all we have to do is get a site visit in on the next one! Make sure to check out all the visuals in our Gallery
€2000 FREE!
Thanks to the @Creative D (www.creatievd.ie) networking group & NTI Birmingham, 3rd Dimension headed over to Birmingham last week to visit a number of UK based companies and to attend a one day event all in the pursuit of collaboration and new opportunities. This was a joint iniative between Creative D, ECCE, Birmingham University and NTI (New Technology Institute) which offered us a FREE opportunity to meet with specific UK based companies in order to increase our networks and expand our bussiness possibilities. Apart from being a fully funded trip through The European Creativity Voucher, the companies I met were hand picked to suit our line of business which made the visit a very targeted trip. A special thank you to Alexa of NTI who despite just arriving back from running 6 marathons in 7 days in the Sahara desert, she managed to chaufer me around to meet with some fantastic people and creative companies which generated a number of very strong leads.
So what did we gain from the trip? Well first off, the Open Data seminar which I attended on the first day was very insightful as to how companies are actively gathering open and free data and using this data to make money but at the same time saving money for their clients. Bundling open data into easy to understand formats and Application Programming Interfaces (API’s) is a lucrative approach to securing and developing business.
One such company who have built their company on such an approach is MusicMetric. They gather open data such as social media, press and downloaded content & information for music artists, then bundle into an API. Their clients (recording artists) can log in and find out who is saying what about them, what the best platform is for publicity, what the best platform is for music download, which is their most popular song/album etc etc. The API and what goes behind it has no doubt cost a small fortune to build but the information they gather is FREE and having 600,000 artists on their books at an average of £5 per month…..you do the maths!
I will admit that at first, I did not see the seminar as a worthwhile or productive event for our industry. However with most things, once it’s digested and you keep an open mind, then you can apply a lot of what you have heard and learnt to your own industry. Case in point is that the following day during one of my meeting I thought of how 3rd Dimension could utilise open data and how we could apply it to our new concept of The Virtual Shopfront.
The following day was a full schedule with plenty of very beneficial meetings, each one targeted at the work of 3rd Dimension. The companies I met ranged from an Architectural practice to a digital media advertising & content management company. (Full Range / K4 Architects / Fleet Milne / QRKY). Some great leads have transpired from the meetings and we are already looking at returning to Birmingham very soon. The great thing about The Creative Innovation Voucher initiative is that it’s all about SME’s trying to collaborate and build ties between cities. The impression Birmingham gives is that it is a digital and creative city with plenty of business to be found and plenty of open minded companies to collaborate with.
So until our follow up visit I will leave you with the quote of the trip – “Minds are like parachutes, they only work when they are open”
SECOND GOOGLE SKETCHUP COURSE
Due to the amazing feed back from our ongoing inaugural SketchUp course (now in its 3rd week), 3rd Dimenson are delighted to to announce that the planning for a second SketchUp course is nearly complete. All that is left to do is decide on the dates. If you have not done so already we strongly recommend that you record your interest in this course so that you can be contacted when dates are announced. Simply click on the pic below to register.
EQUINOX & SHADOW STUDIES
An equinox occurs twice a year, when the tilt of the Earth’s axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the Sun, the center of the Sun being in the same plane as the Earth’s equator. This results in both night and day having approximately equal lengths. The first of this years equinox’s occured last week on the 20th March. Because the Equinox is one of the specific dates we use for our shadow studies we thought we would explain the importance of such studies and what is involved.
A shadow study or shadow analysis gives an accurate representation of the shadows that will be cast by a proposed development or building on its surrounding environment at any given time of the day for any day of the year. It allows local planners and planning authorities to make informed decisions on planning applications by identifying the impact that a proposed development will have on it’s surrounding environment in terms of overcasting shadows.
A shadow analysis can be carried out for any time of the day, for any day of the year. However it is generally accepted that December 21st, March 21st and June 21st at 9am, 12 noon and 3pm are the only times required by the planning authorities as they include the summer and winter solstice and an equinox. This is when the sun is at its highest and lowest in the sky (June Solstice & Dec Solstice) and when it is directly over the equator (The Equinox as described above).
So what is the process for producing a Shadow Study? Well the most important thing is to create a digital 3D model of the proposed development and neighbouring buidings. This also includes the surrounding existing and proposed site works. The difference with a digital 3D model for shadow studies than that for 3D visualisation is that a lot less detail is required. For example, facade design details and opes etc that will have no bearing on shadows cast do not need to be modelled. Buildings do not need to be textured and no interior detail is required. In effect the digital 3D models are block models representations that illustrate the scale and mass of the proposed and existing buildings. It should be noted however that any structural details such as balconies, overhangs or protruding objects do require modelling as they will have an impact of the shadows cast.
Once the wireframe digital 3D model has been created in AutoCad (including all relevant proposed and existing buildings and sites) it is imported in 3ds Max design. This is our key 3D visualisation program. It is an extremely powerful & intelligent piece of software and it is an essential program for creating shadow studies. It allows for the input of time and date data and calculates the corresponding position of the sun for anywhere in the world. It also allows for full control over the intensity of light and shadows.
There are a number of ways the final CGI’s can be illustrated and all are acceptable in terms of planning. Below you will see three different images. The backgrounds of each of entirely different. The first (L to R) shows the digital model with no background image and the corresponsding CGI has been rendered using the entire digital 3D model. The second shows the digitial model with an OS MAP as it’s background and the third shows the digital model with a satellite photo as its background image. Each option is dictated by what has been requested and what is of importance to the planning authorities. The larger the area of concern for the planners, the more likely it is that a background map will be used. For example in the first image which shows a proposed house extension, the planners are only really concerned with the shadows being cast on the nbeighbouring houses. However in the third image the proposed building is approciaxtely 300ft tall so the shadows being cast have far greater reaching implications and therefore a greater area needed to be shown. It is not always possible to model this larger area due to budgets, time constraints and lack of information so satellite maps are used instead. Immediate neighbouring buildings do however require modelling.
It is important to note that a shadow analysis is not a sunlight analysis. A shadow analysis can only show the length of shadows that will be cast. They do not show that amount of sunlight that will be received or lost from a particular development. We also cannot predict the density of the shadows or intensity of the sunlight as this would have millions of permatations on any particular day. Shadow studies are an important part of many planning application and come at the request of the planning authorities.
