The dying art of Autocad Modeling… Is it.. old school??

I admit, I model in Autocad.. Is this lame. Sometimes people give me that look. The look that “your only modeling in Autocad because you can’t model in 3dsmax.”

That’s not true, I chose to model in Autocad. I come from a generation that autocad was the be all, end all. 3dmax was just this program that was really cool but no one in the office would actually own a copy.   It seems like all the younger renderers wouldn’t touch Autocad with a ten foot pole for modeling. So my question is, is autocad modeling old school?

I think Autocad is a great tool, and now with the advances in lighting and materials, and new presspull command, I think it intergrates with clients elevations and floorplans pretty well.  I was recently on a forum called cadtutor.com and impressed to see some of the new renderings in autocad, lighting and all. Autocad has come a long way from Release 10. It no longer looks like a cartoon.  Some of the interior shots were pretty amazing.

So I dont know nurbs. But you gotta love presspull. Take a client elevation and just start presspulling the regions until you have a whole side of a building modeled in no time. I admit, it still needs a little work and is a little buggy but it could be great.

I can model fast. Probably faster than any 20 year old cg artist with a 3d program. So cut us old timers some slack and don’t give us that look like we are a dying breed. Autocad still rocks!

A little history about my journey to 3D architectural illustration

Hello and Welcome to my first blog. Someone recently told me that while the market in architecture is less than hot right now, it might be a good idea to start a blog. Now I admit that when it comes to 3d rendering, Adobe photoshop, and Autodesk 3dsmax I feel I’m pretty good at technology. So when I had to ask what a blog was, I felt pretty dumb. Anyway, when I got the DL on the concept, I figured it would be a cool idea to write about my journey through the world of architecture.

Having started out as an architecture major at USC (go Trojans!) I find it ironic that a simple turn of events landed me right back where I started, in architecture. I always wanted to be an artist and convincing my parents that I needed to switch to the art department was not my shining moment. Needless to say after 3 majors and one transfer, I did graduate with a B.F.A in studio art.

I find myself 24, and no idea what I am supposed to do. I literally had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of my parents money with no jobs, no prospects and no money. My architecture experience starts here. I am sent on an interview from a tip someone had given me. A man by the name of Jon, half Kiwi, half English, half crazy attempts to interview me while running around his design studio working, panicking, and finally telling me to leave and come back another day because he had a deadline couldn’t talk to me. To make a long story short, we clicked right away. I ended up working for Jon for 4 years in the ever exciting world of systems furniture. Yes that cube you have to sit in everyday is system furniture. Don’t get me wrong, we did more exciting things as well. See Jon is an amazing furniture designer.. We would work on interiors for custom houses etc. Jon did all of his drawings by hand, they were works of art, I told him. And the artist side of me loved that unique side to design. But then I got introduced to Autocad….

Actually I don’t even think it was technically autocad but some other program that was way easier. I started drawing plans, elevations, sections. Soon I was onto axonometric, isometric all done in 2D of course. Then I found 3dsmax.

Hail! 3dsmax Release 1. This was hot. It was officially announced at Siggraph 1995 . Completely new interface, object oriented with modifier stacks and allowing for 3rd party plug-in renders and running on Windows NT 3.5.1.

I was determined to learn this program and Autocad LT. I knew it was going to be the future. Jon and I started doing 3d interiors with the few articles of furniture that they gave you on a Viewpoint disk (I wish I could have thought up Turbosquid.com) we added in his custom built-ins and used the fabulous materials they had in the application (not!) and rendered it out on a sweet 800×600 resolution, real high-def stuff.

The clients freaked. They couldnt believe how cool this was. I knew I had to move forward.
Release 1 turned into 2, 3, 4 and finally here we are. Max 2009.

Our website is: http://www.endisine3d.com