Free 3D & VR Tutorials for Vectorworks, Cinema 4D & Unity
Turn on indirect and ambient lighting to achieve heightened realism in your Vectorworks renderings. These settings bounce light around your scene to create a unified look and can contribute to an overall mood in the scene. When I first started rendering I had no idea what Indirect Lighting was for. All I knew was itContinue Reading “Indirect & Ambient Lighting in Vectorworks Renderworks”
Speed up your Vectorworks workflow and increase realism with a custom renderworks style & panoramic background. Renderworks styles are ideal for projects that have multiple camera viewports sharing the same render settings. You can update a renderworks style from any given camera viewport and the change will occur project wide. This is a huge timeContinue Reading “Custom Renderworks Style with Panoramic Background”
Learn how simple it is to bring .obj files into your Unity scene. Then, import your materials from Vectorworks with a few clicks. Watch the second half of the video below for a basic explanation of Albedo, Emission, Tiling & Offset and Rendering Mode to better familiarize yourself with adjusting the appearance of your modelContinue Reading “Importing .obj Vectorworks into Unity for VR”
What is the best approach to export Vectorworks models for VR experiences in Unity? There are a few steps to take to set yourself up for organizational and performance success, including prepping your file correctly, organizing your objects into material-based classes, and converting them into optimized mesh objects. The final product is a collection of .objContinue Reading “Exporting .obj Vectorworks for VR in Unity”
Unbeknownst to most, there is such as thing as Vectorworks Nomad, a mobile app that converts 3D models for viewing in Augmented Reality (AR). I know! I was equally excited to learn this existed as Vectorworks has made it very easy for its users to start working in AR. The Nomad mobile app is idealContinue Reading “AR with Vectorworks Nomad Mobile App”
Use the Vectorworks’ Export Web View option to share your 3D models with Clients via web link. They can navigate the model with a mouse or enable viewing in VR on their mobile device with the help of Google Cardboard or Daydream. Learn the steps involved in this process and take a look at someContinue Reading “Vectorworks Export to Web Viewer”
Set up your scene’s skybox to loop a 360 video using Unity’s panoramic render texture. Assumptions: You’re building for Android with an OVR camera rig. This tutorial uses Unity 2017.4.0f1 and VRTK 3.2.0. That’s it! I hope this information will make learning VR easier and more enjoyable. One of the goals of ScenicMentor.com is to help designers workContinue Reading “360 Video Footage in Unity with Video Player”
Sometimes you need to prevent the viewer from teleporting into certain areas of the scene, like backstage or onto tech risers. This tutorial will outline how to use VRTK’s Policy List component to tag objects in the scene for teleport exclusion. Assumptions: You already have a scene set up for basic teleport with VRTK andContinue Reading “Prevent Teleport with VRTK Policy List in Unity”
We all want to ‘wow’ clients with jaw-dropping renderings, yet we can’t find the time to learn how. Luckily, improving realism doesn’t require a huge time investment. Instead, it’s a matter of knowing which settings to enable or disable. Seriously! A few strategic clicks can make a world of difference. For more info direct from Vectorworks,Continue Reading “8 Settings for Impressive Vectorworks Renderings”
Set up your scene for teleport using VRTK with a Gear VR or Oculus Go controller. This tutorial uses an OVR rig with tracked remote, straight pointer renderer & UI pointer scripts. Assumptions: You have an Oculus Go or Samsung Gear VR with a compatible Android mobile device & controller. You already have Unity 2017.4.0f1 &Continue Reading “Unity VRTK Teleport & UI Pointer – Gear VR/ Oculus Go”
Build your Unity project onto an Android device for use in Samsung’s Gear VR headset or Oculus Go. Get an Oculus signature, enable developer settings on your mobile device, and build & run to your device via Android File Transfer. Assumptions: You already have Unity installed, you have Samsung Gear VR with controller or OculusContinue Reading “Build Unity app for Android Gear VR or Oculus Go”
Combine three 360 photos in Unity using VRTK v3.3.0 to create a virtual tour experience for VR complete with buttons and scene changes. The final product is an .apk file build & run on Android mobile device for use with Samsung’s Gear VR or Oculus Go. Assumptions: You already have Unity 2017.4.0f1 installed, you own aContinue Reading “Unity VRTK Virtual Tour for Gear VR or Oculus Go”
Set up a scene in Unity using Virtual Reality Toolkit, or VRTK and the OVR camera rig prefab for use with Samsung’s Gear VR headset and a single controller OR for Oculus Go. This tutorial uses Unity 2017.4.0f1, VRTK v3.3.0, and Oculus Utilities 1.23.0 Assumptions: You already have Unity installed, you have a Gear VR headset withContinue Reading “Unity VRTK & OVR Camera Rig for Android”
Use Photoshop’s action window to batch edit a PNG image sequence using Automator. For example, if you are baking images on a sphere to create a 360 image as seen in our Animated 360 Spherical Video tutorial the baked images will render as inverted. Instead of manually flipping every image in your sequence you can setContinue Reading “Batch Edit Flip Image Sequences with Photoshop Automator”
Create an animated 360 video with a stationary camera for use on youtube, facebook, vimeo and Samsung Gear VR. We will create a static environment with moving images/ stock video on screens. Then we will render out image sequences using Cinema 4D baked texture tags and compose in After Effects using a top and bottomContinue Reading “Animated Screen VR 360 Spherical Video using Cinema 4D Lite Baked Images”
Create a 360 video with a stationary camera for use on youtube, facebook, vimeo and even the Samsung Gear VR (see “Hack” in post footer). In about 45 minutes (not including render time) we will bake 360 images in Cinema 4D Lite and compose them in After Effects to create a top and bottom stereoscopic video.Continue Reading “Static VR 360 Spherical Video using Cinema 4D Lite Baked Images”
The following is tailored specifically for scenic designers who are already building 3D models using Vectorworks Renderworks and have access to Adobe After Effects. Use our nifty workflow to bring your 3D model into Cinema 4D Lite and create a fly-through animation in about an hour. We have included the most relevant info needed to lightContinue Reading “Basic Fly Through Animation with Cinema 4D- 60 Minutes”
Below is a windows workflow to prep a file for rendering your Cinema 4D Lite project in After Effects. We will cover how to import your Cinema 4D file into After Effects and provide the essential render settings. The final product is a quicktime file. That’s it! I hope this information helps make rendering in Cinema 4D easier.Continue Reading “Rendering Cinema 4d Lite in After Effects for Windows”
Below is a Mac workflow to prep a file for rendering your Cinema 4D Lite project in After Effects. We will cover how to import your Cinema 4D file into After Effects and provide the essential render settings. The final product is a quicktime file. That’s it! I hope this information makes it easier to render your CinemaContinue Reading “Rendering Cinema 4d Lite in After Effects for Mac”
In this tutorial we will be launching the Cinema 4D Lite application through After Effects. We will be creating a new file by importing a 3D model previously exported from Vectorworks. We will set up our file using the animation industry standard of 24 frames per second, which allows for easy calculations between frames andContinue Reading “Importing Vectorworks into Cinema 4D Lite”
