This is the first of what is hopefully many video tutorials that focus on techniques associated with architectural rendering. This will help people who are taking online college classes, as well. This particular video tutorial is a two part video that shows you how to take raw digital photographs, and Photoshop them to be high resolution background images for your renderings.   Below the video is a brief description of tools and shortcuts used, and how to use these tools. … continue reading Video Tutorial: Create Your Own Sky In Photoshop (part 1)

This is the first of what is hopefully many video tutorials that focus on techniques associated with architectural rendering. This particular video tutorial is a two part video that shows you how to take raw digital photographs, and Photoshop them to be high resolution background images for your renderings. Below the video is a brief description of tools and shortcuts used, and how to use these tools. … continue reading Video Tutorial: Create Your Own Sky In Photoshop (part 2)

The only reason that you are going to read this article is because you wanted to eat the image to the left, and because every day you have the same disappointed expression as this poor bastard to my left.  Why does he look so disappointed?  Because its another day of eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  You don’t have to go through life treating lunch like a chore or getting fat eating out at restaurants that are killing you with tasteless food. Be the cool kid in the office with the brown bag that rocks. … continue reading Chickpeas, Tomato & Feta Salad

While cleaning up the images for the previous article Download: Sky, one of the things that bothered me was that my digital SLR camera produced a small amount of noise and grain in the image.  Although the Florida skies are beautiful, the sun is also very bright, which can make it difficult to capture a photograph without pixel artifacts in the image.  I don’t have the money to buy a new camera with better features or lenses to correct the problem, so I began to research the internet attempting to find a cheap quick solution to my debacle.  The answer is a beautiful piece of software, which is a Photoshop plugin called Noiseware, and was developed by the fine folks at Imagenomic. … continue reading Imagenomic Noiseware: Quiet Your Images

It’s not just important to be a talented renderer,  developing a great set of resources is essential, and allows you to spend your time on design rather than modeling a lamp. Time spent searching the internet for the perfect sky could be better spent developing a stronger proposal in order to win a new commission or simply meet a deadline.  This posting contains many high resolution (3,000 pixels wide) images of skies that are open source and free to use. Over the years I have developed a plethora of graphic resources that I keep in my satchel (LaCie Little Disk 500 GB Portable Hard Drive, designed by Sam Hecht), and I will continue to organize these resources and post them on this site absolutely free! … continue reading Download: Sky

If you live in the U.S. and have not heard of the company Soprema, don’t worry because you probably are not alone. Soprema is a European based company that was founded in 1908 and they have recently entered the U.S. market. Soprema is responsible for the production and manufacture of many great roofing products which offer great performance benefits available at competitive rates,  compared to traditional roofing products used in the U.S. The most innovative product that Soprema has developed is Soprasolar. Soprasolar offers an alternative ‘green’ roofing option for designers and architects seeking to integrate sustainable building strategies into the design of buildings with flat roofs. … continue reading Soprema Soprasolar Rocks

A significant amount of infrastructure has been added to the site since the initial v.0.30 public release.  v.0.40 brings about many new feature and performance enhancements that were necessary for this site to better function. The most important aspect that has been added to the site is the integration of the site with major social networking services such as StumbleUpon, Twitter and Facebook.  Critique This will continue to get social.  Follow these updates on the Social Network page. … continue reading Vitruvius v.0.40 Released: Getting Social

Disney World in Orlando, Florida is for many reasons worthy of architectural study. While walking through the parks one can study how the environment has been designed to handle large masses of people and apply these principles to plaza or park designs.  One could also study how the signage has been designed to communicate to anyone regardless of the language they speak, and apply these principles to way-finding design in hospitals.  Or one could simply appreciate the reality of fantasy that Disney has managed to create, which after all is very similar to the reality that we as architects attempt to create every single day. … continue reading © Architecture Copyright Infringement

If you are an ARE candidate and have taken an ARE exam then you are somewhat familiar with the grading criteria or lack there of on the exams. For those of you who have not had the pleasure of studying and testing for these exams do not worry you will be trapped in The Matrix soon enough. The only difference is that there is no blue or red pill available for you to find the truth.  To think of it, NCARB has a lot in common with the blockbuster movie The Matrix.  This may make a fun spoof article, but that is for another time. … continue reading *The Importance Of The Asterisk

The link of the week this week is suckerPUNCH.  suckerPUNCH like most blogs relies heavily on their ability to publish sexy and provocative images. Unlike other blogs with similar content, the editors at suckerPUNCH do exactly that, they edit their content, and publish quality not quantity. I have been following this blog since its inception.  The site’s content features a diverse collection work from architects, artists, and designers from just about every field imaginable.  The featured projects and their creators are both inspiring and at the forefront of their respective professions.  The site’s message is clearly stated:
… continue reading LOTW: suckerPUNCH