There is a lot of talk regarding GPU processing and realtime rendering solutions for design visualization. Vray RT is pushing the brute force methodology. Overall it shows a lot of promise but will require some breakthroughs in the near future to be a real contender. With the support behind CUDA though my guess would be that happens sooner rather than later.
A few other solutions that are of interest use Direct X in Windows to drive realtime worlds. The three top contenders seem to be the CryEngine, Lumion and Twinmotion. The interesting thing about these solutions is the environmental approach they are taking. The ability to interactively adjust sun, weather and other atmospheric attributes allows for some very interesting visualization potentials. The simulation of landscape or ecological processes with constructed models inches slowly forward.
The Cryengine 3 trailer is extremely impressive. The improvements in gaming engines is really amazing from the time 3 years ago when we taught realtime landscapes at LSU using the source engine.
We have just concluded another semester of the Advanced Digital Representation seminar at the RRSLA. This year we had approximately 28 students split between graduates and undergraduates. You can view the Syllabus and some of the earlier projects: 1 … 2 … 3 … 4. The final project involved the building of a large regional landscape based on a predefined set of landscape typologies. They then placed themselves within this landscape and developed an illustration that attempted to capture the experiential qualities of the landscape. The illustrations were driven by an aesthtic that was adopted from assigned films. The project brief is here and some of the final products are below.
I spent a portion of the summer working on several illustrations for the LSU Coastal Sustainability Studio (background @ link). The studio collaborated with Guy Nordenson to create an exhibit at the Venice Biennale looking at sea level rise and methods to create coastal infrastructure through sediment diversions and other soft infrastructures. In conjunction with other members of the studio I had the opportunity to create several illustrations and animations for the studio as well as the exhibit in Venice and a publication for Places.
Interesting example of experimentation taking place by Alan Berger and others at MIT and the GSD. The work involves examining different wetland configurations and how they effect the flow of water to maximize the cleansing effectiveness of the vegetation. The forms and experiments are beautiful and intriguing, it is great to see hydraulic experiments taking place through physical models. Berger describes natural systems as functioning through inefficiency, I would disagree with this. Our narrow view typically pegs the idea of efficiency around a single attribute, such as water flow. Berger is designing systems that trend toward maximum efficiency across a range of attributes which is how natural systems function. Water flow may not be at maximum efficiency but the composite system is at maximum efficiency resulting in greater ecological fitness. Great images and videos at MIT news page and an interesting post on mammoth.
Good interview with Joseph Kosinski at the 5D: The Future of Immersive Design event. Kosinski was one of the partners of KDLAB which did some interesting explorations into the possibilities of visualization tools to create hyper surreal imagery. Kosinski is also the director of the upcoming movie Tron Legacy which looks promising.
Interesting article in the economist about printing body parts. The possibilities are fantastic and possibly frightening, I would say I lean towards fantastic on this one. The printing of biological systems leads us to believe that not only will we be able to replicate but also iteratively engineer/design new systems. Is it feasible that we could print new plant species?
This is a great example of how framing can change the perception of scale in representation. By manipulating the the focus plane Sam O’Hare created “The Sandpit,” a time lapse film that makes shots of New York appear as a model. The technique is tilt-shift photography, and typically uses image editing software to change or minimize the area of focus on an image.
Through the combination of a sand and plastic substrate (to simulate gravel and sand respectively) and alfalfa sprouts (to simulate deep rooted vegetation) a group of Berkeley researchers have successfully recreated a performative model of a meandering stream. Science Daily. Oct 2009
The ability to simulate natural processes through scaled models ties back into the Mississippi Basin Model. In this sense the abstraction occurs because the media (alfalfa sprouts, sand, plastic) perform as scaled counterparts to the real world.
Fantastic tutorial on Video Copilot that shows some of the possibilities available using After Effects. The illusion of moving through strata could be an excellent illustrative technique to show vertical relationships.
