TwinMotion 3D Graphics Free Download, until Nov 2019

[Damo666]

No sure what section to post this in, so Mods please move as appropriate.

 

Outline:
There is a 3D visualisation software called TwinMotion, which takes 3D CAD models and puts it through what their industry calls a ‘Game Engine’ in order to produce real-time rendered images. (Note: It’s neither a ‘Game’ nor an ‘Engine’, this is from an industry that calls everything ‘Architecture’, so don’t waste your time trying to figure it out from the nomenclature they use).

 

Skip this as it’s not relevant, but if you are interested about TwinMotion, it was recently bought by EPIC Games. In our architectural profession, to generate realistic 3D views can take ages, typically 5 – 8+ minutes for a still image, depending on your hardware. Videos can take overnight for a 30 second movie. For this reason, AutoDesk sells you cloud computing to free up your PC to do other work whilst their cloud farm produces your 3D image. However, in the parallel universe of shoot-em-up games, I’ve always been amazed how they can provide the games with smooth scenes brilliantly rendered in real-time. Well, now several companies have cottoned on to this and have started using game engines for architectural rendering, Epic Games’ Twinmotion being one (Lumion and Enscape been others)

 

But back to the serious world of Railway Modelling.

 

How can it be used in Model making?

This is what I’m exploring, but I need to give you the heads up before the free download expires in November. If this is of interest, head over here before November 2019 to get it free (Beginning of Nov, End of Nov? Idon't know)  https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/twinmotion

 

Be aware that it’s a large download, and you’ll probably need a beefy PC / Laptop with a good quality graphics card.  There is their Unreal Engine download, then the Epic Games Launcher which acts as a portal for Twinmotion.

 

But before anyone starts to download, to see what the software is capable of doing have a look at this YouTube video:

 

 

My understanding, which may be incorrect, is that Epic Games have bought Twinmotion  (I’ll refer to it as TM from now on) and are going to do a major update to the software for the architectural professional, so in order to hook up new clients, have offered the current version for free.

 

How does it work:

You use another 3D modelling software, like Sketch-Up, then import it into TM

 

Within TM you can add lots of realistic graphic effects, like brick textures to walls, paving or tarmac to the ground etc. You can change the colour to any tint you want, red bricks can be altered to buff or brown for example. You can then make these clean surfaces more realistic if you wish by adding stains, repairs, ivy leaves etc. All this is seen immediately on your screen on the 3D scene.

 

So, what about Modelling?

I’m exploring how I can make realistic and variable texture sheets to scale that I then print out. Note, I'm NOT talking about printing out 3D models, this is NOT what TM does. I'm looking at a very simplified solution of using TM to generate very realistic PDF sheets that I can print out.

 

Workflow:

Taking Sketch-Up (SkU from now on) as an example, you can either create a 3D model, or just plain planes, and export these into TM.

 

There is an Add-in which you can download into SkU which imports the model into TM easily.

https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/blog/free-twinmotion-update-available-sketchup-direct-link-and-more

 

I’m on a learning curve myself, so I will post more when I learn it myself, but the first thing I discovered is that you need to assign a material in SkU for TM to differentiate. If you don’t apply any materials (‘paint’ a finish) in SkU, then any material applied in TM will be applied to everything, walls, roof, windows, doors will all be in the same material. So in SkU, apply a different ‘paint’ finish to bricks, different to windows, etc, then export into TM.

 

I'll post more later when I have a little time.

[monkeysarefun]

Thanks for this, I'll give it a shot.

 

I'm currently trying to create 3D textures (bricks etc) for a 3D printer and while  I realise this won't do that it will be useful like you say for more realistic printed 2D sheets which I m also playing around with. Currently I'm using sketchup 2017 (the last release that you can run  the free version standalone as opposed to in a web browse)r but its  rendering is done via an exxy 3rd party plug in (vray) which I don't want to pay for - its way overkill for my actual needs  so I'll give this a go.

 

I reckon with the right shadow effects, and so on printed 2D sheets could be  extremely  realistic - I  really like scalescenes but they aren't quite there yet, mainly because nothing in  range quite matches my needs  in regards to  tonings, weathering etc and I do find them a little washed out and too-flat looking but that just might mean I'm printing them wrong.   If this  allows import of displacment maps etc it should be possible to get good 3D effects using scalescenes brickpapers.

 

I've found more suitable tileable examples on textures.com so I'll use them to play around with this.

 

As to the actual 3D bricks, thats still a work in progress, learning displacement maps etc in  Blender....

 

Thanks again.

 

Apologies if there are weird spellings or characters in the above, its spring here, and I have a lovesick parrot who is nuts about my mouse and won't be dissuaded  so typing is rather difficult..

 

Edited October 24, 2019 by monkeysarefun

[Campaman]

We used to have a Quaker but unfortunately he died from liver failure, we currently have 3 alexandrines, 1 Orange Winged Amazon and 6 budgies (all from rescue)

[Damo666]

A quick Workflow, from SketchUp (SkU) to Twinmotion (TM).

The objective here is to produce a flat image to print out some paving (sidewalk)

 

Start in SkU by creating 2 flat planes, and assign a different material to each surface. It really does not matter what materials you choose, it could be carpet and wallpaper, as long as each surface has a different material, otherwise TM will apply the same material to all similar SkU materials.

 

You should download the free SkU plug-in to export into TM:

 

TM auto opens and starts to load the SkU model.

 

Select 'New Project'

 

My very basic SkU model looks like this in TM. Note, that TM generates a default floor plane (Buff brick paviours and a cityscape background), but you can ignore this for this exercise.

 

Next part is to assign some better, realistic materials for the left side bar.

 

I've chosen an 'Old Cobblestone' for my pavement and a 'Granite' for the kerb.

 

You can adjust the scale of the materials and colour. There are TM tutorials that show you how to do this.

Edited October 27, 2019 by Damo666

[Damo666]

Orientate my view to look straight down and this is how my simple pavement looks (a bit of the default paviours are visible top and bottom, but ignore, this will be cropped). This is a reasonable screengrab, but the final image is at the end of this post.

 

Next is to take an image (photograph of the scene). The little arrow in the box bottom-left, click and then the 'Image' to the right appears. Click on this.

 

Then 'Create Image', and your first image appears on the right as 'Image 01'.

 

To the bottom-right of your image 01, click 'more' and the camera settings come up.

 

Here you can change the resolution, I went for 4K, which was a massive file size. Full HD would probable be sufficient.

 

 

Then to get our output, we need to export the picture.

Bottom left there is the box with the arrow point out.

Then click on 'Image' and tick the box beside 'Image 01'. If we had more images we can choose which ones we wish to export at the same time, but here we only have one.

 

Then far right we have the 'Start Export' button. Click this, choose your folder and let TM create your file. It'll be a *.png file, not *.jpg.

 

This is what I got:

And a close-up ;

 

Cobble Pavement.pdf

As you can see, it's possible to make your own texture sheets for a wide range of materials: Brickwork, timber cladding, sheet steel.......

 

The next stage for me is to see how I can calibrate the output to a specific scale. Stone is OK but for bricks I'd need to make sure it's at the right scale. It may mean adding a scale-bar in SkU.

 

Perhaps in another post I'll show how to add some grime on top of these textures, or some fallen leaves, to add a little interest.

Edited October 27, 2019 by Damo666

[monkeysarefun]

Thats a good start. I've downloaded it - I never knock back free stuff!

 

I haven't had a play yet but I have some things I plan to try.

[Damo666]

Had a little play to enhance the pavement.

Here's what I added:

• Some patches of dead leaves, scaled them down. TM randomises each instance, so if you use the same vegetation decal it won't be the same size, orientation or composition as the previous.
• Added two dark patches, to help tone down the surfaces. I should have made these a little lighter).
• Placed an asphalt background on the road (got rid of the buff brick paviours)
• Added some double-yellow lines, then a road grating over, and some leaves against the kerb.
• Added a manhole cover, and arranged the sort order so that it was on top of the pavement but below the leaves.
• Added an 'asphalt' patch to the bottom left on the main road, and some discrete asphalt cracks (around the road gulley).

I reckon this would be good enough to print out on quality paper.

 

 

Edited October 28, 2019 by Damo666