Help me find a computer tutor in Toronto.

September 9, 2008 3:49 PM

Please help me find a tutor in the Toronto area who can teach me how to produce pictures like this using Autocad software and photoshop. I'm using lynda.com already, but need some more directed help.
posted by OlivesAndTurkishCoffee to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

AutoCAD is not going to help you much here (this just isn't what it does). You are going to be better off using a 3D Animation/Rendering Package (like Maya or 3D Studio Max) then using Photoshop proper to come back and clean it up.

These are very expensive utilities but you don't say much about budget, SW availability, or other SW experience.
posted by milqman at 4:20 PM on September 9, 2008

Yep, that's a pretty specialized area. Brian Smith is the best tutor I know for architectural visualisation in 3DSMax - his books are very good, and what he doesn't know about building viz probably isn't worth knowing. He does do on-site tutoring, but I don't know his rates - it's likely he doesn't come cheap (he's have to fly up from Florida, for starters).
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 4:32 PM on September 9, 2008

Yeah...perhaps you're using "Autocad" as a generic drafting program term, much like someone would use "kleenex" for facial tissue; but it's a name for a specific program. I know Autocad; Autocad is a good friend of mine; and that image is not Autocad.
posted by LionIndex at 4:38 PM on September 9, 2008

Response by poster: I am just learning the differences between all these types of programs at this point. I am hoping to find a face-to-face tutor that can take me through the steps of transforming hand drafted drawings into realistic images. It's not the specific software I'm interested in learning as much as the recipe for how to get to the end product.

I'm sorry The Light Fantastic, I don't know how come you're getting a 1x1 pixel image? It seems to work for me.
posted by OlivesAndTurkishCoffee at 4:51 PM on September 9, 2008

have you given Revit a try? It can do some pretty nice rendering all on its own. And it's the future for AEC.
posted by spacefire at 5:05 PM on September 9, 2008

It really depends on how you want to use the file as well. For example, if that image was a standalone type thing, then it might actually be possible to do it with just Autocad and Photoshop, since Autocad can do a limited amount of 3D; but the bulk of the work would be in Photoshop, adding textures and coloring and stuff, with an awful lot of manipulation to achieve all the different lighting effects. You'd basically use the cad wireframe 3D drawing as a base, like a coloring book, and then color it in with Photoshop. But that's just for one single image.

The other way to go is to do a walkthrough with that level of detail, where you're acutally creating that building within the computer, which would require one of the 3D modelling programs people are mentioning in this thread.

I am hoping to find a face-to-face tutor that can take me through the steps of transforming hand drafted drawings into realistic images.

Hand-drafted? Like, with a pencil or pen? On a sheet of paper? Basically that would be the same as using Autocad, only you'd just need a good scanner to provide the base drawing that you bring into Photoshop. My office doesn't do drawings quite on the level of the one you linked, but we do Photoshop-colored hand drawings all the time. For those, there's no real "recipe", it's just familiarity with Photoshop. All you're doing is going around and filling in the white spaces on the drawing with colors. Picking the colors is the hard part, otherwise it's just using the paintbucket tool over and over.
posted by LionIndex at 9:04 PM on September 9, 2008

Best answer: Keep an eye on the forums at Urban Toronto. There's a couple of guys on there - from time to time - who work in the building-rendering business and could help you out. Or maybe just post your question in the General Discussion forum, and someone will point you in the right direction!
posted by bicyclefish at 10:08 PM on September 9, 2008

a free 3d program is sketchup, you can render in that as well (it's not super nice, but it's a start. I believe you can import the model into 3dsmax for a nicer render). The image looks like a composite, where somebody took a long-ish exposure of the site (so you get the foreground and stuff around the building), then stuff the rendered buiding (at the correct angle) into the picture.

For more details...you can go into architecture! :D
posted by defcom1 at 11:42 PM on September 9, 2008

Best answer: I know someone here in Toronto who is quite gifted with matters photographic. I'll contact him and if he's interested I will put him in touch with you via MeMail.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 3:30 AM on September 10, 2008