Section Perspective

Perspective Drawing, Still Image Representation

Objectives

Show depth, project movement in space.
Show activity in the process of happening.
Show shadows, how light goes through the building.
Site relationship to the context, what is happening in the background, which other buildings are present, how it relates to the street.

Prerequisites

Existing 3D model of building

Make sure all surfaces are continuous and all pieces are aligned, this is done by making sure all curves are continuous before they become extruded
Make sure you don’t have any open faces in the model, only solids
Window planes should be individual elements between moleons, avoid continuous plans through other objects. Same for columns, have sets of columns for each floor, instead of continuous ones through the building

Camera settings - 1-point perspective, 35-50mm

Set up 3-4 new layers

Cut
Foreground
Background
Other (structure, particular objects of interests…)

Limitations & Disclaimer

The time estimates represented in this workflow is estimated based on a specific model / input. Actual time required may vary depending on specific use scenarios.

Contents

Steps		Time
1	Setup	1 Hour
2	Create vector linework	0.5 Hours

Option A: Render		Time
3.A	Rendered graphics	1 Hour

Option B: Linework		Time
3.B1	Vector linework	2 Hours
3.B2	Cleanup	1 Hour

Estimated Total Time: 2.5 - 5.5 Hours

1. Setup (1 hour)

Define what you want to show - 20min

Select the whole building, add bounding box by using BOUNDINGBOX. Split the bounding box on the clipping plane to get a surface which is the extent of the model at the cut
Extract a plane coplanar with the clipping plane, which is the intersect of the cut and the bounding box.

Then type ORIENTCAMERATOSRF (invoke BETWEEN, let’s you select two points diagonally opposed on the plane to align to plane). This allows accurate orthogonal 1-point perspective aligned to bounding box plane of the building.

MAKE2D of the building

2. Create + Clean Cut Line Vectors (0.5 hour)

Create the cut lines of the floors and walls

Use the previous cut plane (coplanar to clipping plane) and INTERSECTTWOSETS with the building model. This will yield all the “cut lines”.
To create the cut profile (outline), use CURVEBOOLEAN. Remember to remove interior voids. That makes all the cut lines as a polygon
Add these lines in Cut layer.
Alternative: For a clean model, you can also select all lines of the ClippingPlaneIntersection layer.

Cleaning inside the cut lines

Select the new Cut lines, hatch (make sure it is solid)
Bring the cut outline above the Make2D of the building
HATCH fill cut outline

Export to Illustrator (Hatches export as solid fills) or Go to top view, MAKE2D again

3.A. Rendered layered section perspective (1 hour)

Tip

Make sure you do not have any open faces and only have solids.

Open Vray Interactive on the locked Named View
Open Vray Materials, choose the Countour channel (This changes the material set for the different layers to get the raster lines of which you can alter the width)

Set color to white or grey to create undertone
Set up the width to 0.5

Render the cut-away model with the contour assigned to each material of the original model.
The rendering product should have lines associated with each hard edge of the model.
This image can be used directly as a backdrop for the section perspective.

Export the render to Photoshop, update the lighting
Add figures and trees in Photoshop save as PSD
Export the
Cut lines to Illustrator and place the PSD as backdrop layer

3.B.1 All vector section perspective: clean up (3 hours)

Disclaimer

The timeline for cleaning lines in this workflow is specific to the complexity of the model used, simpler models might take less time, more complex ones might be better of using the rendered layer alternative.

Clean all linework 3h

Go room by room, floor by floor and correct all lines
Go from floor and walls to columns and windows
Change the layers of the lines sequentially

3.B.2 Organizing line work and populating the sections (2h)

Change the layers of the lines to organize

Turn off the cut line
Select all of the lines and turn to layer Background
Then work on bringing the foreground and the light background
Use a red as the color of the layer being changed into to see clearly what got changed or no

Tip

Keep the named view of the Make2D open in another tab to correct the linework

Then turn layers on an and off to see what is front and what is back, to clean other lines as well (now Cut is in red)

Populating the section 30min-1h

MAKE2D of the furniture and figures
Or add figures which are already in section and place them in the foreground
TRIM lines between figures

Final corrections 30 min

Check final corrections
Export to Illustrator and update linework if necessary