TIME:
2 weeks
TEAM:
Me and one other
TOOLS:
Rhino 3D
Keyshot
Illustrator
This project was birthed from coincidence - I wanted to further explore 3D modeling and rendering in Keyshot, this time with something more concrete (and wood, plaster, windows and furniture) while a friend of mine had just purchased their first home (a beautiful Brooklyn loft no less!).
I was initially planning on doing interior design work for a space I had imagined from scratch, but the timing of it worked out all too well. My friend was showing me different pieces of furniture they were considering getting for their space and, subsequently, I asked my friend if they would be willing to have to work on visualizing their space along with them.
He agreed!
I asked my friend if they had any idea what the dimensions of the place were or if they saw floor plan when they purchased. They were able to find the floor plan, as seen above, and I got to work on redrawing it out in Rhino 3D using the measurements found on the floor plan.
Because this was my first real floor plan drawing, I had to do a lot of research on small details that I previously did not notice or account for. Things like exterior vs interior wall thickness, average closet depth, average door width and height, average staircase width, things like that. Some of the measurements shown in the original floor plan simply didn't make sense when I drew it out. I had to make the decision to adjust spaces that didn't fit in the overall dimensions - namely making that bedroom on the first floor 1'-5" shorter.
Below is the barebones floor plan I drew in Rhino!
Once I had drawn out the basic floor plan, it was time to extrude and combine. I drew the first and second floor next to each other so I had to extrude the walls upwards and then stack the floors on top of each other.
Due to the nature of viewing angles in Keyshot, it was imperative that I kept all my layers extremely organized in Rhino. Having them perfectly organized would later allow me to hide and make visible interior or exterior walls, the upper loft level, furniture, etc. in order to get the perfect view.
My friend was debating between a few different pieces of furniture. I was able to find 3D models of few of the pieces he was considering - the iconic Bellini Camaleonda couch and the Vignelli Metaphora coffee table.
Here's a top view of the lower floor with some of the furniture my friend showed interest in. We were focusing on the main living area.
I felt comfortable with the 3D model in Rhino, I opened the file in Keyshot to get those perfect renderings. I started messing around with material types and ascribing a color and texture to the main pieces. I adjusted the environment, calculated the longitude and latitude of the loft and adjusted the height of the sun. It felt kind of like playing God by making it always perfectly golden hour in this loft.
One thing I was incredibly drawn to in the software was the slight reflections found on the floor and some of the pieces of furniture. I loved seeing the rest of the room reflected in the round Arco lamp cover, the rug reflected on the tv screen, the sunlight bouncing off the glass tabletop.
Through the process of making this interior photo realistic, I found slight errors I had made throughout- the pot of the vase not being aligned to the stand, the barstools levitating an inch off of the floor. I fixed these small errors in between my computer processing renderings, as well as changed materials I didn't love.
I began playing around with moodier lighting to evoke a tone or an emotion. After these were rendered, I found I preferred the brighter lighting. It seemed like at the end of every 15+ minute rendering, my attention was brought to 3 other details that needed changing!
This remains a work in progress, as all design work never feels fully finished until I arrive at a deadline. I want to keep tweaking these images until I get the lighting just right, that takes a certain level of mastery that I'm still figuring out.
