Not much, if anything that was done with AE and I didn't see any Flash. You better ask someone that knows and can help, with your questions!


MVRDV - looks like all 3D to me, could be any program, very, very easy/basic

REX - camera matching software (AE can do this, but most use programs like Boujou)

Time sequence is most likely, time lapsed video with AE, could be pure 3D too.

Animation itself is very basic, it is the concept and execution that make the video interesting.




My suggestions:

1. Learn a 3D software very well, you can do anything, if you need to, in any package
2. Learn Premiere. You can do most video editing in there 1000% times faster than AE.
3. Learn AE later one, for motion graphics, but you don't need that for these videos or regular post production (there's a reason why there are two softwares).
4. Flash is great for websites and presentations, but waaaaay overkill for architecture and would be a waste of your time (unless you wanted to do websites). Once you understand animation, AE and Flash (tweens, anyway), will be much easier.


I'd go to 3D Studio if you want to work on animations.

I dont know how Flash or AE fit in to the architecture. However I would suggest taking this time to Learn: Revit, 3DSMAX, RHINO, what ever programs you have available to you.

Also keep up on design work - you dont want to get stuck in the 'computer/3D work' forever.

Draw, paint, collage, read, make models (physical) and learn.

Thanks, that really clears things up for me.

And now begs the question...Rhino or 3ds? I have a beta Rhino for Mac, and it works pretty well from my very limited knowledge...but if I learn Rhino will I still have to go to 3ds for animations? Also, where is the best place to find tutorials for either program? I'm coming from 3 yes experience with ArchiCAD and a bit of Revit (older version) so this type of modeling is a bit alien to me.

Thanks so much for all the help!

Depends on if you want to focus on the animation or the architecture.

I'd go 3D Studio if you are primarily after the animations.

Difficult to say...honestly both are equally important...perhaps ill just begin working with both and see where it goes.

How difficult would it be to model everything in Rhino and then take it to 3ds for animations? The way I see it, I want to be able to most accurately convey and represent my ideas, and not have to worry about being able to do so. ArchiCAD and Artlantis have been fairly acceptable for that this far, but I certainly feel a bit limited with them...I would prefer to be able to approach a project without being held back by an inability to represent and present due to what programs I'm using.

Others on here can tell you more about Rhino.

Generally speaking, you can export/import in 3D Studio. We get all kinds of files from clients, some Revit, some SketchUp, etc. Most of the time we can use their models with some fixing, but sometimes we just have to rebuild them

I am sure there is a way to from one program to the other for rendering.


http://www.rhino3d.com/4/display.htm

I am guessing that will be fine for your purposes, given the sample animations you showed (the ones we do for clients are more photoreal and take more effort, skills and resources to do). Even SketchUP and FormZ have animation that can do basic things.

Seems like either way should be fine for me...3ds has way more documentations and tutorials and I would assume, due to the fact its been around longer, it has a wider usage in firms (particularly the ones aforementioned in my examples)

But, Rhino definitely seems to have a smaller learning curve, with AutoCAD-like commands and all, plus I have the Mac beta version, as well as a somewhat recent version my friend installed on my Windows partition...


I guess I should just locate a copy of 3ds and then start doing some test projects on both programs to see which comes to me faster...

if ur animators and charged by seconds of the clip, MVRDV is a great example, all their animations are unecessarily slow and long...

anyway, 3dmax & maya do well in animation, rhino is for modelling not animation...

if u wanna do some kick ass dynamics, use houdini, that's where all blockbuster movies come from.

Thanks for the help...I've found some really great tutorials on Lynda.com and discovered I can get 3ds free from Autodesk as a student, so I'm going to go that route first, since I'm already pretty set on modeling, then down the road I'm sure ill make tge jump to Rhino for modeling...especially when they get the Mac version all worked out.

I appreciate everything!

Kinda hard to believe I'm just now getting into this when I'm starting grad school...shows what kind of school I got my ug in.

Thanks!!

Don't worry, you are doing what is most important - analyzing others work. Study people that are doing quality work out there, spend time on the forums (like CGArhictect, maybe MoGraph.net) and you'll pic up tons.

Doing stuff like the MVRDV animation won't take long at all to figure out.

this was my experiment with after effects and architectural content presentation. took about 3/4 days

Thomas Heatherwick and Silvio Rech Architects

Good job

Very nice...how do you get it to look like one continuous piece that you just rotate around and zoom in on? Do you make it in Photoshop then bring it in and zoom etc?

Totally after effects

I understand it's after effects...I meant how do you do it in after effects?