In General

Using high quality entourage  and other miscellaneous 3D clutter in an Autodesk Revit project can really bring a scene to life. This brief article will feature and highlight some of the new content in Enscape’s Asset Library – content included free. There are a few subtle enhancements, over traditional entourage, which will be sure to impress the ArchVis enthusiasts following this blog.

New assets are now available

New assets are now available

New car assets are now available

New car assets are now available

Introduction

In the image below, you can see an assortment of desk clutter and entourage used to bring out the potential liveliness of a modern workspace. A scene void of these elements may lead the novice viewer to erroneously perceive the scale of the workspace and how it might function in the intended way.

Enscape assets used to bring a scene to life

Enscape assets used to bring a scene to life

Take a moment to compare the previous image with the one below. Notice the subtle differences in the way light, shade and shadow interact with the truly 3D models, i.e. the people, plant, framed pictures and even coffee cup and brushed metal carafe.

Time of day adjusted to show content highlights

Time of day adjusted to show content highlights

Emissive Materials

Amazingly, some of the content has emissive materials embedded in them. In next image, observe how the computer screen lights up the surface of the desk and the front of the person sitting at the desk when the time of day  is set to nighttime. FYI: light sources  are always on, which is not usually obvious due to Enscape’s automatic exposure.

Some assets have emissive properties

Some assets have emissive properties

Coffee Cup

Thirsty? Let’s take a closer look at that coffee cup on the work surface. It has a “fresh” beverage in it! So, unlike the television shows where they are always carrying coffee cups that are clearly empty, our real-time reading experience can be a little livelier.

Coffee cup has a reflective spoon and liquid in it

Coffee cup has a reflective spoon and liquid in it

Metal Carafe

Notice the difference in highlights and subdued reflections in the metal carafe when comparing the next two images. To improve performance, the curved edges are not perfectly smooth, which is not usually visible from a distance.

The assets are very detailed

The assets are very detailed

Desk Clutter

As we continue to investigate the Enscape assets on the desk, we look to the right and see some desk clutter and a potted plant (by the way, every desk should have a plant!). Again, there are reflections and highlights in the white ceramic pot. Also review the ruled paper in the notebook and the quality pens in the wire mesh pen holder.

Reflections and highlights on the desk materials

Reflections and highlights on the desk materials

Task Chair

Lastly, look at the task chair and shelved books in the background. These are also provided with Enscape.

Notice the reflections and highlights on the chair

Notice the reflections and highlights on the chair

Notice how the light changes the highlights on the red leather seat and backrest. Even the chrome looks a little different due to how the light falls upon the legs and armrests.

Adjusted lighting affects highlights on chair

Adjusted lighting affects highlights on chair

Detailed view of chair

Detailed view of chair

Notice the high quality reflections on the chair

Notice the high quality reflections on the chair

One last tip for using this content in an active Revit production project (i.e. during CDs): place all of the content in a secondary design option. For more on that, read my previous Enscape blog post: Best Practices for Revit’s Design Options. 

Conclusion

For all of this content, except the people, it would be possible to create standard Revit content that could look just as nice, using high quality material definitions. However, those families would take a lot more resources in Revit; panning and orbiting in 3D views would be much slower, for example. The Enscape content, on the other hand, is represented by a simple placeholder in Revit and replaced with these amazing, high-quality, components in Enscape’s real-time rendering environment. Use this high-quality content to bring your own designs to life;  it is included with Enscape at no additional cost. Your clients are sure to be impressed with the sense of realism they will experience when seeing their future building in Enscape, combined with this amazing entourage.

Share your images using these new assets! Please get in touch via twitter @enscape3d  and @DanStine_MN .

Dan Stine

Dan Stine
He is an Author, Blogger, Educator,
BIM Administrator and Wisconsin registered architect.
He works full-time at LHB - a 250 person full-service design firm.