Lego Architecture Studio Illustrations?

[JRock1966]

Hello! I purchased the Architecture Studio set over the Summer and have been reading the manual that comes with it. I have been especially interested in figuring out how the folks at Lego made the illustrations of the "sketch-models." I have attached two examples from the book for your review. Notice how they have sketched over top of the pictures of the Lego models with either a pen or pencil. I thought they did it freehand at first but the lines look much too straight to be sketched freehand. I really am wanting to find out how to go about creating these sketch-models as I teach technical drawing in high school and I think would be a fantastic activity for my students. I am thinking of either 1) have my students take digital photos of their models and then we print them out. Once printed, we could use overlay paper to make their sketches with---taped down on top of the photos of course or 2) insert the photos in some type of software that allows you to sketch over top of the photos....MS Paint or Adobe Illustrator maybe?

If anyone else has any constructive suggestions on how I can teach my students how to create these type of sketch-models I would appreciate it.

Thanks.

[tafkatb]

A simple straight edge should do it, really - that and establishing vanishing points to align the perspective. Your first option of using overlay paper sounds like a better method for teaching technical drawing. I recommend looking into some of the textbooks written by Francis D. K. Ching; they were a very useful resource when I was in architecture school.

[m0dulo]

"Sketch models" is usually a term for quick 3D models that are built to explore ideas, like hand drawn sketches. Here are links about sketch models:

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/sketch-models

http://www.r2fact.com/mock-up-sketch-model.php

http://inside.shepleybulfinch.com/2011/04/the-sketch-model-as-iterative-design-tool/

But all that is just semantics and I understand where you are going with this. :)

[JRock1966]

A simple straight edge should do it, really - that and establishing vanishing points to align the perspective. Your first option of using overlay paper sounds like a better method for teaching technical drawing. I recommend looking into some of the textbooks written by Francis D. K. Ching; they were a very useful resource when I was in architecture school.

I like the perspective idea. After reading your post, I studied the picture again and it looks like they did a two-point perspective. The trick is going to be taking a photo of the student's models and getting it at an angle conducive to a two-perspective. But I think we can get it close and then just adjust the vanishing points as needed. That is what I am going to do...this is going to be fun! Even high school students love playing with Legos.

PS - Thanks to you too M0dulo for your input! I was not clear on the definition of a sketch-model and your links helped me immensely. I think I am good to go here guys. Thanks again!

[m0dulo]

Please don't take a photo and then manually "adjust the vanishing points as needed." Everything you need is in the photograph. Perspective is reality. Just extend the edges and if they converge, you will have a vanishing point. If you try to manually adjust it, it will not look real because... it isn't real. Again, the photograph is real. Just extend the lines.

Architecture visualization/rendering/photography is almost always in two point perspective. Depending on the project objectives, you don't need to limit it to two point perspective. A great exercise to teach the differences of one, two, and three point perspective is to have students build a model and then photograph it three different ways, letting them control what is happening with the vanishing points.

Assuming you have a perfectly orthogonal model (like standard LEGO bricks snapped together on a plate):

• If the camera and the object are not aligned on any or only one axis, there are three vanishing points. Edges on each axis will converge at the same vanishing point for their respective axes.
  
• If the camera and the object are aligned on only two axes (e.g. both are perfectly horizontal and neither are tilted but the camera and/or object is rotated about the y-axis), there are two vanishing points. Edges on the y-axis will be parallel and vertical, and edges parallel to the other two axes will converge at their respective vanishing points.
  
• If the camera and the object are perfectly aligned on all three axes, there is only one vanishing point.
  

Essentially, lines that recede in the distance and are parallel to each other in space (not in the 2d representation) will converge at a vanishing point.

Yes, this applies to slopes, too, but the sloped edges will converge at a completely different vanishing point that isn't on the regular horizon line, but that's going a bit far right now.

I have to talk about this, too, because it could be something fun for your class. :) If you keep everything in the same position and change the focal length of the camera, the vanishing points move together or apart, which also expands or compresses the depth. If you move the camera to keep the object the same size, it is called the Hitchcock Effect, Hitchcock Zoom, Dolly Zoom, etc.

Here is that effect being used in a movie:

Edited September 7, 2014 by m0dulo

[JRock1966]

Will do M0dulo! Thanks!

[m0dulo]

One thing I forgot to mention is to watch what happens to the depth in that video. The view outside isn't fake. The distance between everything in view is shrinking, including the table and everything on it.

[JRock1966]

Thanks M0dulo I did see that in the vid......So I think I have figured this out. I made a simple lego model and took a picture of it...then I cropped out the background around the model in the pic. Then I printed it out on blue paper. I tried scanning it in for you all to see but my scanner scanned in B&W so you cannot see the true pic with a blue background. But its background looks similar to the pics above. Now I will be able to do the exercises from the architecture studio manual that came with the lego set like the scale exercise in the pics above. Hopefully my students will enjoy this.

Edited September 9, 2014 by JRock1966

[JRock1966]

Just thought I would share some cool stuff one of my students produced. This is from the "Abstraction" activity on pgs 24-27 of the Lego Architecture Studio Manual.

Edited October 16, 2014 by JRock1966

[m0dulo]

That's great! I like the tree and its shadow. :)