Revit at the Movies

[Bryan Sutton]

Since the Movie is well out and the DVD soon to be released... and It was Revit v.5 ...
Here are some examples of sets that I did for IRobot over a year ago. These were done entirely in Revit - design, rendering + CDs.
cheers
Bryan Sutton

[Bryan Sutton]

More pix of the main building atrium interior

[Bryan Sutton]

These were done for the major action sequence at the end of the movie.
Example Revits modeling capabilities
Cheers
Bryan

[beegee]

Really top notch work Bryan.

So these were used to build the sets ?

( and is that an RPC of Will Smith in the background ? )

[Bryan Sutton]

Yes. The renderings are used for pre-viz and reference during construction. I did all construction drawings in Revit. In the case of some of the larger sets we would build a portion of the set (2-3 stories) and the rest would be computer graphic set extensions that in some cases are derived from my Revit model.
Cheers
Bryan Sutton

[Bryan Sutton]

And no unfortunately that isn't a Will Smith RPC. We couldn't get him to sit still long enough to get all the needed photo's to create one.
Bryan

[Steve_Stafford]

Bryan...to steal a phrase from our UK/Aussie folks...Bloody Brilliant!! Thanks for sharing. The portal stuff in the other post is super too!

[Roger Evans]

Wonderful Stuff .. please keep them coming

[Scott D Davis]

Bryan,

Contact Christie Landry at Autodesk, and see if you can get entered into the 2004 Innovation Awards! You are guaranteed to win!

[christopher.zoog51272]

Onyxbox! err....I mean Bryan,

Good to see you are still around, and still using Revit! These models are absolutely fantastic, great job. It must be a great feeling that parts of your model made it into the CGI pipeline and into the Movie!!!! Again, bravo!

-z

PS....can't wait 'til next year when you'll be allowed to show us what you are working on now ;)

[Les Therrien]

that's really exciting!

[Chad Smith]

They are sensational, certainly the best work I have seen come out of Revit to date.
And I love the soft, almost hand-drawn/sketchy look too.

Maybe some pointers on how you got those sketchy looks using Revit/Accurender might be helpful to those of us who struggle with it.

Please do post future works here, of course when the confidentiality is no longer a problem.

[Kroke]

Jaysus Bryon, that freekin ROX!!! I never knew Revit had this much capability...schweet!!!

[Scott Hopkins]

Terrific work! Really fantastic stuff!

[hand471037]

It really is fantastic work.

Hey, also, if you don't mind my asking, did you feed the models to Maya or Max for the CGI? or something else? 'cause I've got a friend local here who runs a company doing CGI for commercials and stuff who's interested in using/buying/renting our old building models for quick & dirty but detailed cityscapes. Would love to hear (and I'm sure everyone else would too) what snags you hit. They had luck with our test model, and I've always been able to pull my Revit models into whatever, but I'd be interested in hearing if there were problems with things like the number of faces, or geometry translation, that sort of thing...

Also do you need any help? 'cause I'm a real good modeler... :D

[MartyC]

Bryan,

Dude, those are awesome. Good to see more work that further goes to prove just how good, and flexible Revit is.


CheersM

[beegee]

These images have inspired me to set out the - 3 Laws of Revotics.


Revit may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
Revit must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
Revit must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law

[PeterJ]

Yeah yeah yeah, no doubt when I leave the office at night, Revit is left dreaming of electric sheep.

[PeterJ]

Exceptional work, Brian. I would be interested to see some of your families for items such as railings and wall panelling.

[christie.landry]

Contact Christie Landry at Autodesk, and see if you can get entered into the 2004 Innovation Awards!

Bryan,
I would have been awesome if you could have submitted your entries for the awards. Unfortunately the deadline is passed. I would love to be able to use your images. Please feel free to contact me directly at christie.landry@autodesk.com or private message me. This stuff is amazing. I look forward to hearing from you.

[Damo]

..... It was Revit v.5 .....
Incredible!

Excellent work

[bclarch]

Incredible stuff. (Although I'm told that it could be done in ADT in half the time. :wink: )

[Les Therrien]

Oooooh.
Bad Button to press.
Shame on You! ;-)

[Nic M.]

Great images
This is the stuff that makes Revit shine
Thanks for sharing

[BillyGrey]

The Rave Continues....

WOWOWOWOWOW

(To bad the rating button doesn't go up to ten stars)

Congratulations on your mastery of this great program :)

[FK]

Incredible stuff. (Although I'm told that it could be done in ADT in half the time. :wink: ) Are you trying to test the 3rd law or what? ;)

[studio3p]

Where do we sign up for the fan club?

[Bryan Sutton]

Thanks for the compliments all and sorry for a slow reply but I am trying to be in holiday mode and family have arrived for a visit. After spending the last 5 months on "Fantastic Four" working 12hr days (for some reason that is the norm for the film industry art dept.) I try to temper how much I look at a computer screen. - But with Revit 7 newly out it is tough!
I must say, inspite of my own wish list, Revit really shines as a design + production tool for set design. Many of my compadres use Vectorworks or a combo of Autocad + Rhino or a few other mostly Mac based apps and they are always drooling over Revit. The co-ordination of drawings, the live link between model + drawings and its ability to present the design so directly really shine. The only thing that holds them back is the initial outlay of funds, the fact that Revit is solely Windows based , or fear of having to learn a different mode of working again. Especially those that use Autocad. I maintain to them that it is worth it just for the fact that there are usually so many flip flops in the design process right up to the time of filming that Revit makes it much easier to deal with all the changes.
Pretty pictures aside, it all comes down to what gets built and the construction dept.'s I have worked with like the drawings that are produced with Revit and that is truely where it excels.
Again thanks for the compliments.
cheers
Bryan Sutton

[Bryan Sutton]

Chad,
Sometimes I composite an exported hidden line image over top of the rendered image in photoshop to help define edges. CZogg outlined it in a post sometime back but there are a few different ways you can go about it. Basically export your hiddenline image at the same resolution ( pixel dimensions) as your rendered image. Paste that image into a layer ontop of the rendered image in photoshop. Turn the layer setting of the hidden line layer to multiply and then play with some of the sketch + blur filters that are in photoshop.
I usually turn the opacity of the line drawing down so it doesn't dominate the rendering.
A little bit sketchy but maby in the future I can formulate a recipe that is more detailed.
At any rate play around a bit and you may come up with something new.
cheers
Bryan Sutton


They are sensational, certainly the best work I have seen come out of Revit to date.
And I love the soft, almost hand-drawn/sketchy look too.

Maybe some pointers on how you got those sketchy looks using Revit/Accurender might be helpful to those of us who struggle with it.

Please do post future works here, of course when the confidentiality is no longer a problem.

[Bryan Sutton]

Jeffrey
This is probably one of my biggest needs / wishlist items for Revit - better import export options. I rarely pass on a direct export from Revit. I open the exported model in Rhino and then check the organization of layers/objects, join polys etc. and occasionally rebuild some geometry. Then I export from there and give an .obj, 3ds, and the Rhino file so they can choose what geometry works best for them. Whether it is pre-viz, playback, or visual effects they usually have a much bigger bag of tricks then I so they will pick and choose what they can use and what is needed to rebuild depending on what sort of texture mapping is needed.
What is also important is that what I give them is dimensionally accurate to what was built to camera and what they have to animate or composite to.
I would love it if Revit could open up a bit more its import / export abilities. The ACIS import is much welcomed but I think it is so lame that it has to be mitigated through a .dwg file. Whats wrong with a straight ACIS import. In my recent project I had to import a robotic arm assembly made in Solidworks into my drawing to check clearances. I had to do it with a dxf import that just about brought revit to its knees and then I couldn't render it or print it at all. I have yet to fully test out the ACIS import with V7 but a few simple objects that I have tried displayed great and I was able to section and dimension properly so this is a good step forward.
We do need to communicate our work + sometimes it needs to go beyond the realm of Autodesk.
cheers
Bryan Sutton


It really is fantastic work.

Hey, also, if you don't mind my asking, did you feed the models to Maya or Max for the CGI? or something else? 'cause I've got a friend local here who runs a company doing CGI for commercials and stuff who's interested in using/buying/renting our old building models for quick & dirty but detailed cityscapes. Would love to hear (and I'm sure everyone else would too) what snags you hit. They had luck with our test model, and I've always been able to pull my Revit models into whatever, but I'd be interested in hearing if there were problems with things like the number of faces, or geometry translation, that sort of thing...

Also do you need any help? 'cause I'm a real good modeler... :D

[GuyR]

Bryan,


This is probably one of my biggest needs / wishlist items for Revit - better import export options

Couldn't agree more, as the owner of discreet .3DS would have to be a minimum. Have you had any experience exporting to Renderman? IF so how did you do it?


The ACIS import is much welcomed but I think it is so lame

The ACIS import can't handle NURBS in the current release, which a lot of freeform modellers will export.

Fantastic images Bryan, enjoy the holiday.

Guy

[andremiko]

Bryan, how do I get a job like yours? Very impressive work.

[Arnel Aguel]

Excellent job It was just done in V5, I can't imagine what we can do in the current and future releases of Revit.

Now where are those people who said "REVIT CAN'T DO THIS"


Cheers

[Scott D Davis]

Bryan,

Any chance of posting just a piece of one of the models, as an example of how you did it? That would be cool! 8-)

[gbrowne]

Hey Bryan, excellent. What spec is yer machine?

[Simon.Whitbread]

I'm definately in the wrong place / time / space. What a project to work on. FANTASTIC.
... wonder if someone is doing the same on Lion / witch / wardrode set?! somehow methinks not.

[Martin P]

Did you get the GA's for building the sets from Revit? These look amazing, you have a great job!

[Roger Evans]

Image of the Year .. Congratulations ... now we need a new category ... for Images of the Decade

I watched I Robot for the first time tonight ~ No one believed I was working .. amazing to see it transcribed ... & I was captivated by the soundtrack and the music as well.

On another tack .. We should have an official award / mascot (3D image) like an Oscar ..
my vote goes for Ruppie the Giraffe

[blads]

Image of the Year .. Congratulations ... now we need a new category ... for Images of the Decade

I watched I Robot for the first time tonight ~ No one believed I was working .. amazing to see it transcribed ... & I was captivated by the soundtrack and the music as well.

On another tack .. We should have an official award / mascot (3D image) like an Oscar ..
my vote goes for Ruppie the Giraffe

you mean something along these lines...

WELL DONE BRYAN

[John K.]

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Absolutely f***ing green with envy here! ;-) From age 10 to at least 16 -- as well as a few times since -- I wanted to work for George Lucas. Then Lucas lost his way... as did I: I believe we both turned to more "practical" pursuits.* At any rate, this gives me hope. I'm out of the respectable rat-race and I'm moving the family to the Hobbiton set of [I]Lord of the Rings... I'll be going to work for WETA or Peter Jackson. Would one of you Kiwis kindly send me his phone# or email? </end winge>

BTW, very pretty work. Just watched the I, Robot DVD. Those cityscapes justify the "rewind" and "slow-motion" buttons...

* How I ever equated "architecture" w/ "lucrative" is the subject of at least one book and dozens of magazine articles...

[chris.hitchcock.nz]

Hey these look really good, as a 'young' architect and Revit user, its great to see some nice design done in revit, it has a little bit of a rep for mall production type buildings, and its great to see it produce some 'architecture' too. I'm sure there's more out there and would love to see more people submit what they have done. Again well done.