Express your artistic vision with Lumion
As an architect, it’s sometimes hard to be understood. See how Lumion can help you convey design ideas.
Behind every design there’s a story
Chances are you’ll need more than a 3D model to get your point across. Something that gives it meaning and context.
If you’re designing a residential home, for example, it could be a story about the future owner’s lifelong desire to wake up every morning surrounded by lush nature.
On the other hand, an interior architect may feel compelled to tell a story about the warm and welcoming atmosphere of the kitchen in the morning.
Vintage kitchen, rendered in Lumion by Aditya Pradana.
Architects are artists at heart
No matter the story you want to tell, to express a unique design idea, you'll need a tool that's easy, intuitive, and that doesn't stand in the way of your creativity.
Lumion 3D rendering software removes the barriers to free-flowing expression, letting you tap into your artistic side with tools and features to communicate a rich, unique story about the project. You’ll be empowered to clarify intent and express your creative vision in your renders. With Lumion’s fast rendering speeds and simple workflow, there is a direct path from your imagination, through the 3D model, and into the render itself.
In this article post, you’ll discover how Lumion helps you to better express your creative vision through visualziation, removing some of the mystery and difficulty in creating captivating renders that show exactly what you mean to show.
A different league of architectural rendering
In the past, creating beautiful renders felt a little bit like a magic trick, an illusion. You really had to be an expert to render a design with compelling moods and a realistic atmosphere, and it was usually left to the specialists. Lumion feels different. Even as you turn on the software, Lumion just feels different. You’ll find a clean and straightforward interface that helps you get started as quickly and easily as possible.
Import your model
The first thing you need is a 3D model of your design. Lumion seamlessly works with all major CAD and 3D modeling software, making it easier than ever to incorporate rendering in your design development process. The Lumion LiveSync real-time rendering plugin is available for Sketchup, Revit, Archicad, Rhino, AutoCAD, Allplan, BricsCAD, Vectorworks, and many more.
Add context and atmosphere
Once you import your 3D model into Lumion's scene editor, you can add context and bring it to life with materials, nature, objects, and atmosphere. You can easily surround your design with realistic landscapes, control the time of day, the sun's position, or weather conditions.
Render images, videos or 360 panoramas
Once you build your scene, you can quickly produce different visualizations and take advantage of Lumion's rendering effects to transform your render into a work of art. You can instantly make orthographic views, one-of-a-kind animations with animated phasing or animated clip planes.
Orthographic views
With each and every option in Lumion’s photo, movie, and panorama effects, you have yet another opportunity to turn your render into a unique result that lets you stand up and say, “This is my design, and it came from the heart”, and your renders will express exactly that.
There’s a lot to be said about the Lumion stress-free workflow and all the possibilities it brings, but what’s important is this — Lumion wasn’t made to feel like software. It was designed to feel like an integral part of the architect’s journey, from the creative process to the final construction. The possibilities for creative expression are virtually endless.
Harness the power of animations
Animations are an incredibly effective medium to communicate design ideas and concepts.
With the Animated phasing effect you can clearly show how the different elements of your design interconnect to bring the final result to life.
Concept Model Rendering, rendered in Lumion by AoDK, Inc.
How Lumion empowers creative expression
When you close your eyes and think of the perfect representation of your design, what did it look like? Was it a static view of the exterior, or were people and cars moving all about? How did the trees and the landscape around it look? Or perhaps you were inside of your design, getting a feel for the space or simply enjoying a captivating detail, such as the way the light shines through the windows or how the fire felt inviting.
This vision doesn’t necessarily have to be photorealistic either. Perhaps the ideal visualization of your design looks more artistic and conceptual, where light, pastel colors and a surreal atmosphere can heighten emotion and make it impossible to miss. The variety of possibilities is endless, no matter the story you want to tell. This is exactly what Lumion empowers you to create — the unique vision you have for your design.
Even if you have a house style at your studio, one that’s different from any other architecture firm, Lumion makes it easy to apply and then save for all your future images, videos and panoramas.
With the Styles feature, you can give your render all the necessary elements for a beautiful result, but think of this feature more as a starting point for personalization; in other words, add a Style and you’re only a few steps away from a completely unique, captivating look.
Lumion Styles
Conveying emotions
Architectural visualization is a powerful medium that can go beyond showing form and function. You can convey a certain mood that evokes emotions and connect with people at a deeper level. It's surprisingly easy to achieve this in Lumion, thanks to a wide range of atmospheric effects that would otherwise take hours to create.
For instance, the Precipitation effect allows the weather to reinforce the refreshing feeling of cool rain on a hot summer day, or how the ominous cumulus clouds lingering on the horizon leave you marveling at the forces of nature.
With just a few clicks you can combine different effects to achieve a certain look and convey a noticeable mood. By mixing the Volumetric light with the Fog effect, you give your design a touch of mystery, while drawing attention to a certain element or feature that you want to highlight.
How to create an emotional render
In this video tutorial you'll discover how you can use Lumion to create "a visual emotional experience of spaces that don't yet exist".
How to use Lumion to create emotional renders - tutorial by Steven Rubio, creator of Show it Better
Let your personality shine in your renders
Architectural rendering has become more important than ever for private clients, developers, government agencies and the communities who will, ultimately, adopt your design into their immediate surroundings.
So when you’re in the process of developing the design, Lumion rendering software fits perfectly within your daily routine, helping you enter a creative flow and efficiently render images, videos, or 360 panoramas, at every phase of the project. Then, when you’re getting ready to unveil your finished renderings to the client or the public en masse, Lumion has all the tools you'll need to effectively communicate your unique vision, exactly how you imagine it.
