Lumion 3 – ESRI CityEngine and Autodesk 3D Max

Lumion is one of the best rapid visualisation systems out there for architectural style rendering. Its ease of use and ability to create scenes complete with advanced sky and lighting effects make it perfect for urban visualisation. With the release of version 3 we thought we would take the free version for a test run.

The scene below was created using a mix of CityEngine by ESRI and Autodesk’s 3D Studio Max, exported via .fbx. The movie took 8hrs to render at 1080p, 30 frames per second and depth of focus / advanced sky effects:

Lumion 3.0 has notably changed its watermarking on any output – the Lumion Free Not for Commercial Use is not easy to mistake, this is a change to the previous version that had a small banner in the top left hand corner. We can see the reasons why – the previous version could simply be cropped to take out the water mark – but as its on screen the whole time, even in the editor, it does make the work flow painful on the eyes.

With the addition of new video textures, updated sky effects, global illumination and new models Lumion is well worth a look…