Digital Urban

Normal Service Resumes Next Tuesday...

2009-11-05T12:12:00.003Z

A quick post as we are taking some time out to move flats here in London town. The bad news is that this means we are without internet access for a few days so posts will be limited to say the least.

The good news is that the new place is in a perfect position for some tilt-shift timelapses so a tutorial will be forthcoming along with thoughts and techniques for urban HDR.

We are back at du headquarters early next week when a normal, perhaps slightly enhanced, service will resume...

Unity - Now Free

2009-11-02T10:52:00.005Z

Unity, our current development platform of choice here at digital urban, is now available free of charge. The Indie version of its Unity engine previously sold for $200 and is quite simple one of the best and indeed easiest game engines to work with.

We will be ramping up our Unity development in the coming months, for now if you haven't had chance to use Unity yet, what are you waiting for.

Head over to http://unity3d.com/unity/ for the download.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in...

Mattepainting Toolkit: Creating Photoreal Environments in Maya via Multiple Camera Projections

2009-10-28T09:24:00.005Z

The clip below was shot was modeled, textured, and rendered with the help of the Glyph Software Mattepainting Toolkit. The Mattepainting Toolkit is a newly released plugin suite for Autodesk Maya that allows artists to efficiently manage multiple camera projections for the creation of photoreal environments.

gs_mptk city demo from Glyph on Vimeo.

The toolkit has been developed by Michael Breymann who identified a need to more efficiently model and render scenes that rely heavily on reprojected matte paintings.

For more information take a look at glyphfx.com/mptk.html, Michael provides series of videos looking at how the toolkit can facilitate the creation of a full-CG environment for a feature film - from a first look it certainly looks impressive and we like the way it has developed out of a specific identified need.

London Aerial Tour - Panoramas taken from a Helicopter

2009-10-27T09:42:00.005Z

Google may rule the roads with their panoramic images but the true panoramic artists have taken to the skies to show how it should be done. VR Web Design are currently the only company in the UK offering helicopter based HD aerial virtual tours fronted by known photographer Tom Mills the results are simply amazing.

The short clip below provides a preview:

Panoramic imagery on the web has come a long way since the early QuickTime VR days, take a look at the London Aerial Tour to see the current cutting edge.

Final Call - International Conference on Theory, Data Handling and Modelling in GeoSpatial Information Science, Hong Kong

2009-10-23T12:23:00.003+01:00

We have a final call for papers in geographic/urban visualisation - the deadline for abstracts has passed but as we are running a workshop send them to us via the contact page and we will sort out the initial submission process.

The Joint International Conference on Theory, Data Handling and Modelling in GeoSpatial Information Science will be held on May 26th to 28th 2010 in Hong Kong.

This conference will be a notable event in the international community of Geo-spatial information Science (GISc) in 2010, organized by: Commission II of the International Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) and Commission of Geographic Information Science and Commission of Modelling Geographical Systems of the International Geographical Union (IGU). The conference will join together the Symposium of Technical Commission II of ISPRS, the Symposium on Spatial Data Handling and the Conference on Modelling Geographical Systems from IGU.

ISPRS is a society regrouping scientific societies from more than 100 countries working in domains related to photogrammetry, remote sensing and geographical information science. 2010 will be a special year for the society as it will be celebrating its centenary anniversary. The ISPRS Technical Commission II Symposium is organised every four years alternately with the ISPRS Congress and is among the major events in ISPRS calendar regrouping leading scholars from the GISc and related communities. Last editions of the symposium were held in Ottawa, Canada (2002) and Vienna, Austria (2006) jointly with SDH.

You can find the submission guidelines and template from here.

Also take a look at the new Geovisualisation and Virtual Reality site (its hosted here in CASA) where you can sign up to become a member.

Small Life

2009-10-23T11:37:00.001+01:00

We really need to take two days out and do a tilt-shift timelapse of London, the clip below is both charming and inspiring:

Small Life in Saxon Switzerland from Christoph Schaarschmidt on Vimeo.

Picked up via UrbanTick

Google Street View Guys: 'We Have to Do the Whole Earth'

2009-10-22T13:30:00.004+01:00

We love this:

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Created by Dan Meth, Dan has also created a next timelapse entitled 'Road Trip' using Google Street view:

The Promised Land from Dan Meth on Vimeo.

'We are in Tiawain, is bordering on genius...

Procedural Building Generator v0.5 Launched

2009-10-20T11:39:00.005+01:00

Tyson Ibele, over at http://tysonibele.com/ has released the latest version of his Building Generator for 3D Max 9 and above. Development has been swift with the addition of textures a couple of weeks ago and now a notable update to the creation of windows/details on the buildings.

With the creation of digital cities the 'detail' is crucial, from shutters on windows to lights and blinds, they all add up to create a sense of place. We have not had chance to run the latest version yet as its just been released, but if its anything like the previous iterations it is one of the 'must' have scripts for building digital cities.

Two Tenure-Stream Appointments at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, University of Toronto

2009-10-20T09:49:00.002+01:00

The John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, University of Toronto, invites applications for two tenure-stream appointments with expertise in (1) applied theories of urbanism, landscape, and/or architecture and (2) histories and practices of architecture, landscape, and/or urbanism. These appointments are to be made at the rank of Assistant Professor or Associate Professor, effective July 1, 2010.

Set at once within one of North America’s most cosmopolitan cities and a preeminent research university, the Daniels Faculty uniquely combines the disciplines of architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design in undergraduate, professional, and post-professional programs. Daniels is invested in finding the intersections between nature, technology, architecture, and various geographies in a way that instantiates design to meet its contemporary challenges.

An emphasis on the connections between all of the design disciplines at work in the remaking of the built environment is apparent in the scholarly research and built work of many of its faculty. Daniels is particularly committed to exploring new modes of practice by drawing on the community of minds at the University of Toronto, thereby becoming a focal point for research and speculation on better ways to design and inhabit the built environment. Daniels enjoys significant ties with a number of adjacent disciplines within the university (engineering, geography and planning, art, literary studies, information, health) via both cross-disciplinary teaching appointments and various forms of research.

Following a decade-long transformation of its faculty and professional programs, and a recent major gift, plans are in place to both expand the school’s physical plant and to raise the ceiling of its curricular offerings to the doctoral and PhD levels.

(1) Applied Theories of Urbanism, Landscape, and/or Architecture (Job Number 0900826)
The Daniels Faculty would be an especially engaging environment for someone whose research explores the specificities of contemporary practice from a perspective that is both historically informed and theoretically acute.

Candidates would be expected to bring a substantial research program and to demonstrate not only an ability to fuse their agenda with the interests and commitments of the faculty, but to build new research capacities and relationships.

The search will focus on individuals with a demonstrable background in design and/or the built environment, including but not exclusive to architecture and landscape architecture, who possess a PhD (or one that is substantially complete) or doctoral credentials. Salary and rank will be commensurate with qualifications and experience.

(2) Histories and Practices of Architecture, Landscape, and/or Urbanism (Job Number 0900809)

The Daniels Faculty would be an especially engaging environment for someone whose research explores the historical underpinnings of design theory and practice. Candidates would be expected to bring a substantial research program and to demonstrate not only an ability to fuse their agenda with the interests and commitments of the faculty, but to build new research capacities and relationships.

The search will focus on individuals with training in the histories and theories of architecture, landscape architecture, and/or urbanism. Candidates are required to possess a PhD (or one that is substantially complete) and to give evidence of an active engagement in teaching and scholarship. Salary and rank will be commensurate with qualifications and experience.

We encourage you to submit your application online at http://www.jobs.utoronto.ca/faculty.htm providing the following:
1. curriculum vita
2. statement of research objectives
3. representative examples of publications, research, or design work
4. list of three potential references, including contact information

If you are unable to apply online, please send your submission, referencing the corresponding Job Number, to:

Richard M. Sommer, Dean
John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design
University of Toronto
230 College Street
Toronto, Ontario M5T 1R2
CANADA

Enquiries should be directed to Dean Sommer (dean@daniels.utoronto.ca, T 416 978 3089, F 416 971 2432).

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: November 30, 2009

The University of Toronto is strongly committed to diversity within its community and especially welcomes applications from visible minority group members, women, Aboriginal persons, persons with disabilities, members of sexual minority groups, and others who may contribute to the further diversification of ideas. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority.

Sketch Shapes in Augmented Reality - iPhone App (Hacked)

2009-10-19T10:22:00.003+01:00

The excellent ReadWriteWeb site has a neat article on 'Devs Hack iPhone API for True Augmented Reality '

In short - take a look at the movie below and note the ability to draw shapes and then render via AR, complete with attached physics:

It has notable potential for designing buildings - see http://www.readwriteweb.com/ for more.

Indoor Autonomous Mapping and Navigation

2009-10-17T13:05:00.002+01:00

The movie below details the work led by Nick Roy at the Robust Robotics Group at CSAIL, MIT. It is extremely impressive, while a little scary at the same time, note the real-time mapping and 3D model production as the helicopter scans the environment:

You can find out more about the research and the robotics group in general at http://groups.csail.mit.edu/rrg/

MapTube: Now with 145 Census Maps

2009-10-16T12:36:00.006+01:00

As part of work on the JISC funded National e-Infrastructure for Social Simulation project, CASA has put online 145 census maps. Running within the MapTube system, each map can be mixed and matched with any other map to create unique overlays.

The system was developed as a quick and easy way to view maps of census data without having to go through a slow cumbersome list of drop down boxes only to be left with a .shp or .csv file to download. Future versions will include direct links to the raw data and the possibility to directly query the fields.

Of note in the development cycle of MapTube, each map is now created dynamically, this is in preparation for a new 'mapping service' which will be open to beta testers in early 2010.

You can take a look at the maps via http://www.maptube.org/census/

CryEngine 3: Demo Movie

2009-10-16T10:03:00.002+01:00

The movie below provides an insight into possible new workflows for urban and geographic visualisation - detailing the new sandbox of the CryEngine 3 from Crytek it has us flicking through the pages of PC World to upgrade our graphics card:

Take a look at http://www.mycryengine.com/ for full details.

Auckland 2100 Visualisation

2009-10-15T12:19:00.002+01:00

Anything that includes a distopian city vision complete with 'blimps' gets our attention - below is a vision of Auckland in 2100:

Auckland 2100 Visualisation from Media Design School on Vimeo.

The clip was chosen as 'best of' as part of a project at the Media Design School (MDS) in downtown Auckland, New Zealand. The school offers courses covering 3D Animation, Advanced 3D Productions, Game Development, Interactive Gaming, Visual Effects, Digital Media, Creative Advertising and Graphic Design.

It is well worth taking a look at their Vimeo Channel as well as their main site at mediadesignschool.com

Google Building Maker: CANOMA(ish) + The Crowd = 3D Cities

2009-10-14T09:48:00.006+01:00

Google's Building Maker is a stroke of genius, essentially a mix of CANOMA with the crowd to get users to populate the earth with 3D buildings. We know SketchUp and the 3D warehouse has already gone down this route to some extent, but this takes it to a whole new level:

In essence all you do is select a city from around the world, make a building with photos Google provide, save the building where it will be reviewed, your building becomes part of the Google Earth 3D layer.

So in short, you do the work and then your building is tied up with the terms of conditions. Such is life, we however just love the access to the imagery and the ability to model, terms and conditions are the subject for another post...

See 'Great Software form the past - CANOMA' for more insights into the simularities, CANOMA is up there as our favorite software of all time.

Ordnance Survey: 3D Cities and Accuracy Never Seen Before

2009-10-13T10:37:00.008+01:00

We have a lot of time for the good people down at the Ordnance Survey Research Labs and they have just released an interesting video of some 3D Cities work they are carrying out:

The Telegraph has a good story on this along with a quote from Glen Hart, head of research at Ordnance Survey who states that - “Three-dimensional maps in themselves aren't new, but what we've achieved in Bournemouth is a level of accuracy and detail that's never been done before,".

It'll be interesting to see how this stacks up against Infoterra's Skape initiative, embedded below:

The Ordnance Survey plan to roll out the rest of the UK over the next 5 years and with Google/Microsoft and various other commercial outfits also scanning our cities these are interesting times.

A whole post without a dig at the Ordnance Survey, we are almost proud :)

Gebouw Delftse Poort Animation

2009-10-12T13:51:00.003+01:00

The movie below of the Gebouw Delftse Poort building in Rotterdam by david bijttebier caught out attention this afternoon, it is wonderfully abstract:

It is also worth taking a look at David's Flickr stream as it contains some interesting 'greeble' and urban related work. Its a nice change from the normal 'architecture marketing' presentations that normally dominate.

GPS Import into 3DMax

2009-10-09T13:30:00.005+01:00

UrbanTick - a blog written just a few desks away from where we sit - is looking into the way a city lives and breathes. Part of the work is based on the visualisation of GPS tracks, so linking in with another project here at CASA, Richard Milton has written a script to import GPS tracks directly into 3D Studio Max. The script imports a gpx. file and creates a spline for the path, a marker object and time frames for each point.

UrbanTicks first example movie can be seen below:

3dsMaxGPStest from urbanTick on Vimeo.

We need to check the guidelines on the grant that was used to make the script but we think we should be able to release it, hopefully next week...

See http://urbantick.blogspot.com/ for full details on the research and more movies/maps.

Photosynth - New Overhead View and the du Carpark

2009-10-08T10:38:00.007+01:00

We have been doing some photosynth work recently on an automatic workflow for 600+ image captures and upload - so far its working well and we will put up a post shortly, in the meantime photosynth now includes a new over head view, as the video below illustrates:

Photosynth Overhead View from Microsoft Photosynth on Vimeo.

Photosynth never got as much coverage here on du as it deserved, its only the last few weeks with the ability to mass record images and extract a mesh out of the system that it has grabbed out attention. For those who cant wait you can see the unflattering 'du carpark' over on the main photosynth site. The main point to note is that is was automated and made in under 5 minutes.

We hope to capture something a little more interesting for the main post on the subject...

Want to Write for Digital Urban?

2009-10-08T10:06:00.004+01:00

Digital Urban has until now been pretty much a one man show and as much as we would like to have four or five posts a day pressures of work are increasingly getting in the way.

As such we thought, having gathered a notable readership, we would put out a call if any of you would like to write for the blog? We are looking for talented writers who love all stuff urban and digital, from CAD to panoramas through to timelapses and digital photography.

Does that sound like you? Do you log into digital urban each day to read the latest developments? If so here is what you need to do:

Writing:

Send us to two sample posts in a digital urban style, they can be about anything you want but need to be your own work. We wont use any of the samples here, it will just allow us to see if you have what we are looking for.

About You

A few words about yourself, contact info and how much time you can commit to writing posts. This is an unpaid gig, but hopefully having written for digital urban on your CV can only be a good thing...

Still interested? Then get in touch via the email on the Contact Us page.

Tube Map on Vimeo - Updated

2009-10-05T17:09:00.006+01:00

This is a quick post - just to mention that our animation of the London Underground is now on Vimeo. Next step, if we get time, is to animate it according to the year of construction:

Second Movie of the 'Growing' London Underground Network from digitalurban on Vimeo.

Music is by the Creeping Charlies.

The map is kindly mentioned in the Guardian Article by Charles Arthur 'Government site puts data visualisation on the map'. The gallery linked in from the article is really interesting and well worth a look.

The previous movie with landmarks is below:

London Tube Map Geography:Visualisation Draft from digitalurban on Vimeo.

As a side note, us here at digital urban and the nice people at CASA are about to start drafting a MSc course on all things spatial and digitally urban, we will be asking for thoughts on content so watch out for a forthcoming post...

CityEngine 2009.2 Released

2009-10-05T15:51:00.005+01:00

Procedural Inc. has announced the CityEngine 2009.2, the latest version of its software for the fast creation, visualization and analysis of large 3D cities. The software is used by high-profile companies such as Foster+Partners, Microsoft, Navteq, Boeing, IBM, Thales, Blizzard, Square Enix, etc. and was awarded Killer Technology 2009 by 3D World magazine.

Personally, we really like the integration into game engines - the example of Crysis is notably impressive:

Key Highlights of CityEngine 2009.2

– Large Data Set Support (over 500‘000 buildings on 64bit)
– Map Projections (over 80 projections are supported)
– Accuracy Enhancements (enabling high precision at global scale)
– 3DS Export (plus advancements of Collada and FBX export)

Other improvements of CityEngine 2009.2 include selection-sets handling, interactive editing extensions, GUI refinements, better ATI-support, advanced python scripting and many more details providing a good user experience. For more information, see: http://www.procedural.com/cityengine/whats-new.html

Pricing and Availability
A free 30-day trial version is available for download at http://www.procedural.com. The software can be purchased via Procedural Inc.’s website, or by telephone order at +41 76 720 3303. The CityEngine retails from a starting price of $ 3,450.

Those wanting a cheaper route, complete with integration with Crysis via 3D Max take a look at the developing Procedural Buildings Generator or for the completely free package, Suicidator for Blender.

These are interesting times in the field of procedural cities...

Berlin Block Tetris

2009-10-01T15:07:00.003+01:00

The movie below was created using After Effects as a University project by Sergej Hein, we like it a lot:

Berlin Block Tetris from Sergej Hein on Vimeo.

In Sergej's own words:

"It´s kind of a parody about the former socialist building style. They use to build whole cities, without any change in House design or room layout to create cheep housing for workers (we call them Blocks). In Soviet times you could easily wake up at a friends place in another city and still feel like you are in your flat as the furniture was the same as well...

I was living in a Block on the opposite side of the street in Berlin 2 years ago. Living there remind me of my early childhood in Riga where we had nearly the same Bocks.

I think Alexei Paschitnow, the inventor of Tetris, had kind of the same Idea as me in spring 1984. I bet he was looking out of the window of his Block in Moscow and thought how do soviet architects actually plan this buildings?"

Very neat...

Suicidator City Engine - Free Procedural City Script for Blender

2009-09-30T10:47:00.004+01:00

You wait for years for a free building/city generator and then two come along in the space of the week. Yesterday we detailed the Procedural Building Generator for Max and now the Suicidator City Engine (SCE) has been released. Running via a Python script in Blender, the results are as equally impressive:

The script allows you to automatically create a city by adjusting various parameters, such as city size and complexity, rather than creating each building, each street, and each texture manually.

Creating detailed cities and buildings has suddenly got so much easier and indeed free, which can only be a good thing.

Head over to the Suicidator City Engine page for full details.

Free Procedural Buildings Generator - Now with Textures

2009-09-28T15:04:00.005+01:00

The procedural buildings generator from http://www.tysonibele.com/ has eaten up quite a lot of our free time in the week since its was released. With updates coming thick and fast it now includes automatic texture creation complete with an included texture pack.

If digital urban gave out awards, this plugin would win a big shiny gold one, fantastic stuff and so refreshing to see this level of quality without an equally high price tag.

Head over to http://www.tysonibele.com/ for the download.