Preface

Lumion has a strong presence in the visualization field as a useful, practical, and efficient tool to create beautiful architectural visualizations in a quick and efficient way.

The need to write this book started with the necessity to find proficient ways to work with Lumion and to simplify its workflow. If you think about it, there are several stages that we need to go through before we present a Lumion visualization. Each stage presents its unique challenges, in particular, if you are new to the 3D world. As an example, at the importing stage, you don't simply import a 3D model in Lumion. You have to confirm whether the geometry is optimized and that there aren't any overlapping faces and you also need to check whether each surface has a material that can be used in Lumion.

Yes, Lumion is an intuitive tool, but that doesn't mean it will do all the hard work for you. That is why you have this book, which covers the most important stages of Lumion and helps you understand the ways in which you can take full advantage of Lumion's capabilities.

This book doesn't have any examples for you to follow, for just a simple reason; you want a book that is practical and efficient without wasting time following an example that has nothing to do with your project. Certainly, you may want something that you can apply straight away to your project and see first-hand how things really work. For that reason, I encourage you to read this book while working on your projects and then, later, you can use it as a quick reference.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Getting Ready with Lumion 3D, focuses primarily on the first steps to be taken with Lumion, and this will help you to understand what is available inside Lumion and how to bridge the gap of the lack of models. Two additional topics are covered in this chapter to help you start a project in Lumion on the right foot: the use of layers and how materials are essential while importing a 3D model.

Chapter 2, Importing and Handling 3D Models, will help you to import 3D models from any application and will show you how to tackle specific problems while importing 3D models. You will also learn how to import 3D models and work with large scenes. After importing, After importing, the next stage will involve how to place and handle a group of 3D models.

Chapter 3, Creating an Interior Scene with Lumion, covers different techniques to create interior scenes with efficiency and interior scenes. This involves three sections: one that covers 3D models and how you can take full advantage of the Context and the Properties menu, the second that helps us with the materials, and the third to create an interior lighting rig.

Chapter 4, Creating an Exterior Scene with Lumion, will help you to handle the different technical aspects that compose a landscape. A more in-depth look will provide you with the best techniques to create different landscape types. A special section in this chapter is aimed at helping you with the sculpting of the terrain and will show you the different techniques available to modify the terrain.

Chapter 5, Working with Physically Based Materials, provides you with all the help you need to start working with the physically based rendering materials (PBR) that are a fundamental aspect to create believable visualizations. You will learn what makes them so special and also three different techniques to create materials in Lumion.

Chapter 6, Animation Techniques in Lumion, explores how to turn a lifeless 3D world into a vibrant world full of animations and life. Some technical and advanced tools are also covered in this chapter to give you full control over Lumion's camera.

Chapter 7, Producing a Still Image with Lumion, is the first part of two chapters that explains how to use Lumion's effects in the Photo mode to produce believable visualizations by mimicking what is present in the real world.

Chapter 8, Producing a Movie with Lumion, is the second chapter that gives you additional information about Lumion's effects. This chapter also provides you with information about how to create, organize, and combine small animation clips to create a beautiful movie.

Chapter 9, Exporting and Post Production, has some important information regarding the best ways to optimize your scenes before you export or render them. The two important sections that we've covered here are how to use render passes for an efficient workflow and how to use Lumion Viewer.

What you need for this book

Lumion version 4 is used for all the examples in this book, but you can follow the explanations using the free version or a previous Lumion version. Although Adobe Photoshop is used in some examples, you can use GIMP as an alternative.

Who this book is for

This book is designed for all levels of Lumion users, from beginners to advanced-level users. In this book, you will find useful insights and professional techniques to improve and develop your skills in order to fully control and master Lumion. However, this book doesn't cover the process of transforming 2D information (a CAD plan) into a 3D model.

Conventions

In this book, you will find a number of text styles that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "Lumion lets you save a stack of effects as a Lumion movie effects file (*lme) that can be loaded into a different project."

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, for example, in menus or dialog boxes, appear in the text like this: "When clicking on the Save Movie button, the initial option available is the MP4 tab and the options to export are very simple."

Note

Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.

Tip

Tips and tricks appear like this.

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