Lumion Introduction January 2019 William Bryan

VISUALISATION WITH LUMION

8.5:
AN INTRODUCTION

General pointers:

Lumion is a real time render engine, similar to Enscape and Twin Motion, but comfortably ahead in
terms of photorealism.

Figure 1 - External Visual

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES:

STRENGTHS:
Incredible Asset Library – most notably trees/plants/Grass
Render time – With a decent PC, you can achieve a high quality render in just a couple of minutes.
Ease of use – Extremely simple to pick up, I would say it’s possible to become proficient within a
couple of days
Lumion Introduction January 2019 William Bryan

Figure 2- Internal View

WEAKNESSES:
Internal Visuals – Although it is possible to achieve high quality internal visuals, images like above
will require a decent amount of post-processing compared to external views.
People – Although the 3rd party people within Lumion’s asset library are convincing, they are still
rather ‘gamey’. I would suggest using them in the midground and background of images, then adding
foreground people in Photoshop. They are very good for crowds etc, as they pick up accurate lighting
and cast convincing shadows.
Clunky Interface –
Although this has
partially been fixed in
Lumion 9.0, we are
currently using
Lumion 8.5 in office.
It is a relatively poor
interface, and although
simple, can be
frustrating at times.
Lumion Introduction January 2019 William Bryan

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

System requirements are pretty high to run Lumion smoothly, as you will see when you run a
benchmark upon installation. PCs tend to be more capable than the recently provided laptops, though
the laptops can still cope with Lumion 8.5 (Lumion 9 not yet tested). Contact IT to get Lumion
installed on your machine.

Most important is a good graphics card, ideally one with at least 8000 Passmark points.
More information can be found here, if you are struggling:
https://support.lumion.com/hc/en-us/articles/360003476793-What-kind-of-computer-does-Lumion-
need-

Software Compatibility :
Lumion performs equally well with Revit, Rhino and Sketchup.

Plug-Ins can be found here: (LiveSync for Sketchup, Revit, ArchiCAD, Autocad
https://support.lumion.com/hc/en-us/articles/360007299413-Where-can-you-download-Lumion-plug-
ins-for-your-CAD-software-
Rhino Livesync can be found below:
https://www.food4rhino.com/app/lumion-livesync-rhino
Lumion Introduction January 2019 William Bryan

FILING

The Lumion Model (.LUM) can be upwards of 2GB depending on assets/modelling complexity. Due
to its poor automatic back-up capability in 8.5, it is recommended to save frequently. You must save
as a ‘scene’, which it will ask you to overwrite intermittently.

Figure 3 - Saving A scene

My personal preference for setting up a file structure reads generally as the figure below. (this has not
been ratified by James Ward, I advise caution…)

Figure 4 - File structure

Lumion Introduction January 2019 William Bryan

EXPORTING AND IMPORTING

Personally, I stay away from LiveSync – although it can be very useful to see your modelling changes
instantly replicated in your visuals, it does tend to slow everything down.
This is particularly pertinent to Laptop users.
Instead, it is easier to export as a collada file(.dae) from any of the above programs, then simply go to
‘Place Mode’ in Lumion and import new model.

Lumion automatically uses metres, which is worth bearing in mind. If you can’t see your model upon
import, it is most likely modelled a significant distance from 0,0,0 within your 3d-modelling software.

Once imported, it is good practice to place your model to co-ordinates 0,0,0 in Lumion. This will
ensure that multiple models align cleanly, which is particularly useful when visualising several design
options. This is done by changing to move mode, (the red box below) below and simply typing in the
X Y Z, making sure the move command (orange box) is selected. Bear in mind you may have to move
all models upwards in the Y-coordinates if your scheme contains subterranean elements.
Figure 5 - Move Mode

REIMPORTING:
Lumion Introduction January 2019 William Bryan

If a change is made in the model, and you wish to reimport, simply overwrite the original .dae file,
then select any material you have already applied, click Menu > Re-Import Model.
Lumion Introduction January 2019 William Bryan

Figure 6 - Reimporting a Model

NAVIGATION

Right Mouse button – ROTATE VIEW Shift – Speeds movement up

Middle Mouse button – SLOW PAN Space – Slows movement down
Left Mouse button – SELECT CTRL + H – set camera to horizontal
W – FORWARDS Double left click – zooms into selected
area
S – BACKWARDS
https://support.lumion.com/hc/en-us/
A – LEFT
articles/360003489973-Is-there-a-list-
D – RIGHT of-all-the-keyboard-shortcuts-in-
Lumion-8-
Q – UP
E – DOWN
Lumion Introduction January 2019 William Bryan

LAYERS

It is good practice to separate your assets from your .dae files using the layers feature. Also, if you
are, for example, testing several louvre options and importing from Rhino, you would export 3
separate files, and assign each to a layer. This makes it extremely easy to push out 3 renders
consecutively.
I tend to do the same with trees, people and lights.

MATERIALS

Lumion disregards any kind of layer system imported from Rhino/Sketchup/Revit.

Materials are assigned based on the material ID of each surface in its original software. Therefore, if
you are exporting a sketchup model with only default white texture and a glass texture, you will only
be able to manipulate those two materials once imported to Lumion. With Rhino, it is simpler to
assign materials by layer.
Bear in mind that the textures you choose in Rhino have no significance in Lumion, it merely serves
to distinguish one material from another. A rhino glass material, for example, can be changed from
glass to concrete to grass to brick etc…

https://support.lumion.com/hc/en-us/articles/360006697813-Materials-Assigning-Materials

LIBRARY: The material library contains hundreds of materials, split into the categories -
Nature / Indoor / Outdoor / Custom.
Pretty self-explanatory.
Generally the 3rd Party Poliigon/Pureglass textures are more convincing than the standard Lumion
textures. Once you have selected your required material, double click on the sphere, which opens up
the sliders. Click the arrow at the bottom to open extended settings.
Lumion Introduction January 2019 William Bryan

Figure 7 - Material Selection

These are very simple to manipulate. I would suggest ‘Weathering’ should be used on the majority of
materials, but do not exceed 0.4 on the slider. Edges performs a relatively effective fillet on any sharp
edges/corners. Gloss and Reflectivity are effective when used in tandem. Use Colorization to
darken/mute a material
By holding shift while moving the sliders, you can have greater control over the action, particularly
useful when changing scale, moving, rotating.

The Move and Rotate tabs are easy to manipulate. Transparency can be
useful, though is quite unpredictable. Emissive is very useful for either
brightening a material in a particularly dark scene, or for creating a nice
ambient glow. Flicker Reduction comes into play when two faces are
modelled too close together (flickering). By sliding to the left, you will
bring the selected material in front of its counterpart. To the right, it will
move behind.
Lumion Introduction January 2019 William Bryan

Figure 8 - Material Editing

LANDSCAPE/ GRASS

The Landscape Tab on the far left is not a particularly useful one for the vast majority of our
work here at Arup. In fact, even the following information on Grass is now outmoded in
Lumion 9.0. Nevertheless, onwards we plough.
Treat your model’s Grass as you would a material, assigning it its own mat ID. Then assign it
the mountain icon. Once completed, open the Landscape tab on the far left and follow roughly
the below settings.
With the option to control size and height, simply toggle the on/off icon and tweak settings until
you’re happy with it.

(In Lumion 9.0, the Grass textures can be found in the

Figure 9 standard material library, without any need to access the
- Grass
Landscape tab).
Lumion Introduction January 2019 William Bryan

SETTING UP A CAMERA

Once you are happy with your imports, you are ready to start getting some
images out! It is quite useful to keep testing the view as you populate the model
with assets and make modelling changes. By designing through your images, you
can streamline your workflow and avoid doing abortive work.
Click on the camera icon if you want a still image, click on the film icon to start
an animation/flythrough, and the 360 Panorama for a VR 360 still.
STILL IMAGES:
Firstly, for a standard perspective, I would suggest setting the focal length slider
somewhere between 18mm and 25mm. To emulate a more ‘orthographic’ output, such as an axo or
plan view you bring the slider up to 75mm+ depending on your model’s size.

Figure 10 - Focal Length

When you are happy with your view, click ‘Store Camera’ and your view is now saved. If you
accidentally move the camera then simply click on the thumbnail to return to the original view.
Save as many views as you like, bear in mind that any change you make in build mode will
affect all views. Using the layers can be useful here, for example if one image is a ‘night shot’
you might have a layer for lighting that can be turned on only when rendering out that image.

Figure 11- Storing the View

ADDING EFFECTS

Now this is where you can turn a mediocre image into a very good one. The general principle is
to build up settings for each ‘photo’ to create various moods and styles.
Always use ‘custom style’ as a base, the presets are rather lacking.
To start adding your effects, click the FX button on the left hand side. (The 3 dashes in the top
right can be used to copy/paste effects between your images. This is pretty useful to ensure
uniformity when producing a set of stills).
Lumion Introduction January 2019 William Bryan

You will be greeted with this menu, with the first tab ‘Light and Shadow’. The green ticks
represent the effects you should always use, while the orange are effects that sometimes prove
effective.
Lumion Introduction January 2019 William Bryan

SUN, SHADOWS:

Let’s start with the Sun effect. This is all fairly self-explanatory.
For the height:
0.0 = sunrise,
0.0 to 0.2 = morning/evening
0.2 upwards = daytime
1 = Sun reaches Zenith
For the heading:
The slider represents 2 full rotations so just adjust according to your scheme’s orientation, This is not
accurate to location. For an accurate Sunpath, use ‘Sun Study’. Sun study allows you to geolocate
your scheme, using both latitude/longitude as well as using the globe as below.

When you are satisfied with the position of the sun, return to effects and click on Shadows. You
won’t go too far wrong following the below settings. Turn on Soft and Fine Detail Shadows,
then bump omnishadow up. Brightness can be useful for a particularly shady visual, and Sun
Shadow Range comes into play when using a long focal length.
Lumion Introduction January 2019 William Bryan

Figure 12 - Sun Settings and Sun Study

Figure 13- Shadow Settings

REFLECTIONS:

For higher quality Reflection, turn on the Speedray reflections at the bottom of the tab.
Then, to add further reflectivity to materials such as glass or high gloss metals/concretes, click
on the pen icon. This will then give you the option of selecting up to 10 planes. This of course is
dependent on the Gloss and Reflectivity attributes you have manually applied to the materials
themselves.

Figure 14 - Reflection settings and applying planes

SKY LIGHT:

Sky Light softens and disperses the scene’s

environmental lighting. It gathers light from several
angles across the sky and leverages them to enhance
shadow shading, depth, colours and textures across
the image. The settings here seem to work well for
me.
Lumion Introduction January 2019 William Bryan
Lumion Introduction January 2019 William Bryan

Figure 15- Sky Light and Fine Detail/Soft Shadows

HYPERLIGHT:

Hyperlight is a simple slider with a rather subtle effect. I find it’s worth using, anything above
50 makes a slight but tangible difference in light quality for the brighter parts of your scene.
Lumion Introduction January 2019 William Bryan

Figure 16 - Hyperlight Effect

Lumion Introduction January 2019 William Bryan

Figure 17- Hyperlight slider and effect

VOLUMETRIC SUNLIGHT:

This can be useful when rendering a particularly atmospheric scene, use with discretion
though as it can be overpowering. Sometimes it is effective to render out two passes, one with
Volumetric Sunlight turned on, and one turned off. They can then be overlaid accordingly in
Photoshop.
Lumion Introduction January 2019 William Bryan

Figure 18 - Volumetric Sunlight

CAMERA TAB:

The next Effects tab we come across is the Camera tab. The only one I reliably use here is 2-
point perspective, just to ensure all the verticals stay vertical!
Depth of Field can be useful when used sparingly, as can Lens Flare (if not a little cheesy).
Tilt Shift is effective if attempting to emulate model photography, or small scale installations/
product design.
Lumion Introduction January 2019 William Bryan

SCENE AND ANIMATION TAB:

The Scene and Animation tab is used mainly for creating walkthroughs
Layer Visibility can be used, but I prefer to turn off layers manually in build mode between
passes.

WEATHER AND CLIMATE:

Lumion Introduction January 2019 William Bryan

SKY AND CLOUDS:

The settings below work well for a typical daytime sky (perhaps in a slightly sunnier clime
than the UK). Push up the Cloud Softness and High Clouds, then use the Position slider in
tandem with the Master Cloud Amount until you are satisfied with the sky.

Figure 19- Sky and Clouds

FOG AND CONTRAILS:

By manipulating the Fog Density and Fog Falloff, you

can create a pretty compelling effect. This lends itself
well to views into longer distance or masterplanning
when used subtly, providing a convincing atmospheric
haze.
Similar to volumetric sunlight, it is often worth
rendering in two passes, to allow greater control in post-
production.
Contrails are simple to use, and effective.
Lumion Introduction January 2019 William Bryan

Figure 20- Fog Effect

SKETCH TAB:
Lumion Introduction January 2019 William Bryan

OUTLINES:

The outlines feature is good for adding definition to the edges of the model. It is most
effective when used alongside the Styrofoam effect which I will introduce later. Use on full
transparency and play with the Outline Density until you achieve the desired effect.

COLOURS TAB:

This tab is effectively a pre-production version of the standard Photoshop adjustment layers.
I would advise avoiding using too many of these, to give yourself flexibility when it comes
to altering image styles in post-production.
Lumion Introduction January 2019 William Bryan

COLOUR

A few subtle tweaks to the sliders is normally enough to

calibrate the colours in your image. It is sensible to stick
to Temperature, Tint, Brightness and Contrast - use in
moderation.

CORRECTION:

Figure 21 - Colour Correction

ANALOG COLOUR LAB:

Instagram for Lumion… Various filters, some more palatable than others. They are rather
similar to using .LUTs in Photoshop, but less editable.
Lumion Introduction January 2019 William Bryan

VARIOUS EFFECTS TAB

Styrofoam effect is very useful for projects that are less ‘designed’, flythroughs etc. God
Rays are similar to the volumetric sunlight and should be used with caution…
Lumion Introduction January 2019 William Bryan

STYROFOAM:

This works well in conjunction with the ‘Outlines’

effect. Use the diffusion slider to achieve the right
shadow balance, 0.0 being darkest and 1.0 no shadows
at all. There is no need to touch noise reduction.
The render will still pick up the salient properties of
each assigned material, such as reflectivity and
glossiness.
Lumion Introduction January 2019 William Bryan

RENDERING

Now you have set up all your effects, they should be nicely stacked on the left
side of your screen. Toggle on and off to see what is working and what isn’t.
Little tweaks will be required here and there until you are happy to get an
image out!

It is worth trying test renders all the way through the process, as you can pick
up things that aren’t visible in the preview mode. To export an image, click
the green button in the bottom right corner.

Figure 22 - Render!

This will bring up the above dialog box. If you have set up several images and wish to render all of them,
click on ‘photo set’. For a single image, stay on ‘current shot’. Toggle on any additional output you want, I
usually only bother with Material ID, but also available are Depth, Normal, Specular Reflection, Lighting,
Alpha maps. Then you are ready to go! Print mode is sufficient quality (3840x2160) unless printing above
a2 size.
Lumion Introduction January 2019 William Bryan

There you have it, you should be ready to start rendering high quality images from Lumion!

If you are struggling with anything, please feel free to contact me or my colleague:

[email protected]

[email protected]