4th Artefact - Creating floor plan and elevations in 3D

3D software such as 3DS Max not only is used to create high quality rendered 3D iamges but can also be used to create precise floor and elevation plans.
This is a 2D floor plan that I found from the internet but lets just say an interior designer has given this to me to create this room in the correct scale. How long would it take me to complete?
Here I am just gona create the ground floor lounge.

First step I ened to use the tool "tape" to measure out the precise length of the room which is 5.23m.





Same again for the width which is 3.65m



Ok now I have the precise mesaurements for the width and length of the room. Now to the height. (I was given a height with the floor plans but lets jsut say they gave me 1.5m). Here you can either use the tape pool and maually extude the wall to that length or simply type in the length as you can see in this image below.



Do the same for all the walls and I got the precise measurements of that room. Add some pre-set doors from 3DS Max and your accurately measured room is done in a matter of minutes. EASY



Now the 3D artist can concentrate on decorating the room according to the interior designer. This gives the customer a realistic view of what the room would look like.

EVALUATION ON 4th ARTEFACT

So we have learnt so far that using CGI is most accurate method for customers visualising their room and also allows them to give their input towards the design. But is using CGI better to use than hand-drawn methods when scaling the room to perfect scale? This is important because if the room is built to scale everything else in the room will be built to scale as well giving the customer a realistic view of the room. This gives the customer a realistic view of the room meaning the customer gets a more accurate understanding of what the room will look like.
I am going to test this by creating a room to the perfect scale from a floor plan that I have grabbed from the internet. I am going to build a lounge with the length 5.23m, the width 3.65m and the height 1.5m. Using 3D gives the user the advantage of building the walls to perfect scale without having to use a ruler which could lead to mistakes. You can adjust the units setup in 3DS Max to any unit of measurement (here we are using metres) and building a wall can be done simply by typing in the measurement you want and 3DS Max will build it automatically for you to the perfect scale. You can also use the tool “tape” which allows you to manually create the wall to the right scale.
To conclude, the process of creating the entire room to scale took me 20 minutes and from here I can start modelling the furniture, texturing and adding lights to the scene. This has proved that using CGI is the best method to use for visualising. Not only the customer gets an accurate idea of what the room will look like and can have flexibility with the design. But it is also done accurately and at a much faster rate.

3rd Artefact - Flexibilty the customer has with the designer

First Render of a cafe but the client wants to change a few things.



First Change - Flowerly wallpaper
Second Change - Wood laminated floor
Time it took to modify -



On the process of making these new changes the customer decides that she would like to have a few more changes.

First Change - Wooden furniture instead of metallic
Second Change - Modern type of sofas
Third Change - Get rid of plant and replace it with long rectangular table

New tables and Chairs


Wooden Texture




EVALUATION FOR 3RD ARTEFACT

From the previous artefact I have learnt that using CGI to visualise is the best method for a customer to accurately visualise the proposed design quickly and them understanding what they are buying into quickly. However client tends to steer towards looking at quick sketches so they can give more input and get the sketcher to sketch out their idea at a much faster and cheaper rate.
But what happens if the customer wants to visualise the design using CGI and has asked for modifications? According to the interior design Mitchell Brewer he tends to give the customer the visualisation around 2-3 days after discussion of design.
This artefact will show if using CGI gives the customer the flexibility it has to give their input towards the design.
How I tested this was by having a fully rendered design of a café but the customer has asked to have the walls changed to flowerily wallpaper and have the floor wood laminated. This took 10 minutes to change which is nothing because all I had to do was upload a few bitmap images (maybe chosen by the customer) and simply changed the original texture to the new one.
Second change, the customer asked to change the furniture to a wooden Victorian style. This took 30 minutes which involved me to completely model the furniture from scratch and texture it. But making multiples of the same furniture in 3D takes no time at all as it’s simply copying and pasting it again on the same scene. This is a big advantage over hand-drawn methods as they have to draw each one out from scratch which is time consuming.
This artefact has proven that using CGI not only gives the customer an accurate understanding of what they are buying but can give the customer the chance to ask for modifications at a quick easy manner.

2nd Artefact - Questionnaires

Questionnaire for Interior Designer



Questionnaire for professional CGI artist



Questionnaire for interior designer answered





Questionnaire for CGI artist answered



EVALUATION FOR 2ND ARTEFACT

My previous artefact proves that a customer can visualise an environment a lot easier by looking at a 3D walkthrough. However what method would a professional interior designer favour when it comes to visualising to a customer. I contacted Large Creative Limited in Nottingham and spoken to Mitchell Brewer who is a professional interior designer with 8 years of experience. By sending him a questionnaire I have gathered the information that I needed.
He says that throughout his career he has used all types of methods of visualising because it depends on the client type and personality, type of project, project stage, project value and timescale. Each method has its own advantages due to certain types of projects. He then says that CGI provides a very accurate visual of the proposed design meaning client understands and see what they are buying into quickly. But this could be a drawback to a customer as they will interpret CGI as a finish design and they feel that they have no power to influence the design meaning they would steer more towards sketch ideas where they have more input on.
However the client could still ask for changes towards the final CGI design but it would mean more time and money for the interior designer.
To conclude, 3D software has not made other methods of visualising redundant but has aided presentation techniques. In terms of visual communication, different forms of communication help get ideas across to clients depending on the client and the type of project. But when it comes to delivering an accurate visual design a professional interior designer would use CGI.