Updated Lecture Hall Rendering in Podium

I can't get directional lights to work in Podium...not sure if they are buggy, or what. I had to optical engineer some directional lights by making my own concave reflectors. Optics for the win!

Finished Weave Desk Model

The Weave Desk -- Model Making in Brass -- Progress

Shangri-la Lantern

Reception Desk for a Yoga Studio--UPDATE

I reworked this by putting in a Podium rendering as a transparent layer. I think it adds more definition to the desk structure.

What do we think? Better? A little less free and sketchy, but I think appropriate for reading the complexity of the desk.
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This is maybe the second time I've started with a hand rendering and *then* brought it into Photoshop. I think it is overall reasonably effective, but due to the complicated geometry of the desk itself, I wish I had left the lines from the original Sketchup export in there for increased definition. I tried putting them back in after the fact, but I'd already departed too much with my colored pencil work. Lesson learned. I may hit this again with a ruler and my Sepia Prisma pencil.

In Which I Attempt to Conquer PODIUM...

I took a timeout last Friday with a friend from school to sit down and try to master Podium, the rendering engine for SketchUp (well, one of several).

I have a masters in Engineering Physics and worked for 12 years as an optical engineer. And...I'm finding that only marginally helpful. I guess what makes these software programs tricky is the 7 to 15 minute rendering time each time you tweak a light or a setting means that overall progress towards optimizing your rendering is rather slow. But the results are starting to be pretty amazing. For comparison, see the SketchUp/Photoshop versions from this post.

I'm still working on a couple of these. I blatantly cheated at getting more light into the second perspective by making the ceiling transparent, which makes the shadows not rigorously correct, for example. And I'd like to increase the brightness and contrast in the entrance perspective (which may just be a Photoshop job).

Anyway, for this former Optical Engineer, one thing is certain: Messing with light rendering engines is pretty addictive and it was hard to pull myself away to work on other things! I could easily do this all day. It's a really fun fusion of my former and future careers.

Furniture and Detailing Studio

This semester I am taking Furniture and Detailing Studio with the excellent Debra Folz.

Here's some drawings!

Retail Project

Some perspectives from my couture space for (hypothetically) designer Roland Mouret:

Design for Department of Workforce Development "Rework" Office

Entryway with Office Built-In

Perspective of Hotel Bar (in Photoshop)

This perspective was exported from SketchUp and then enhanced/augmented in Photoshop, and then Prismacolor pencils. Side note: Do you realize how difficult it is to find a picture online of a bartender who is not either a) old-timey with handlebar mustache and bowtie or b) dressed like she's selling more than drinks? When I found this woman, she was like an angel sent from heaven, lemme tell ya.

Marker and Prisma Rendering

Rendered Sections of the Amelie Hotel--Illustrator and Illustrator+Prisma

Staircase Design for Le Fabuleux Destin (the Amelie concept hotel)

Bookstore/Russian Teahouse Project

I'm a little proud of the fact that this rendering took me less than an hour.

Lobby Project Finishes

I'm sure when Lowes came out with their "Let's build something together" campaign, they weren't thinking about interior design students making 7 day emergency slap-dash materials boards, but nonetheless, here you have it. Rubber mulch mat, burlap, marble tile, and two shades of Min-Wax later, I am a bit of a believer. I also found a great use for the seed paper I have lying around the house that I'm never ever going to actually plant. I don't have time for actual gardening, just gardening-inspired concept boards.

"Nautical Lite"

Media room finishes and furnishings for Loft Project. No parrots or eye patches.

Rendered Perspective of Loft Project

Loft Residence Model

Labor / Love / Nature / Nurture

My first project for Studio I centers around the idea that when we love our work and our work is supportive of nature, it will be truly sustaining or nurturing. I drew aesthetic inspiration from images of potting sheds, and also my favorite archetypal workspace, Julia Child's kitchen.