January 16, 2018
Datasmith and Unreal Engine drive real-time architectural design at Neoscape
Real-time technology’s constant evolution has inspired the agency’s specialized approach in providing many unique services that are harder for architectural firms to handle in-house, including short films and interactive experiences.
“We're re-thinking how we approach traditional visualization because of how good real time is getting,” says Neoscape’s President, Rob Macleod, who adds his studio has moved away from rendering scenes and 2D images to a embrace a more dynamic approach to design content creation. “[Instead] we're going to make a great real-time experience and then generate almost unlimited, absolutely beautiful, artistic, and well-crafted renderings out of an engine.”
Unreal Engine has been pivotal in this transformation, but recently adding Datasmith into Neoscape’s pipeline has also made a tremendous difference in the speed and capabilities of the team’s design workflows, says Carlos Cristerna, Visualization Director at Neoscape.
A year ago, Cristerna took on a project to test the process of translating 3ds Max/V-Ray scenes into Unreal Engine. At the time, it was a manual translation that took his team about four weeks to complete, which he says wasn’t very practical time-wise. “Six months ago or so, with Datasmith, that changed completely,” he says. “It literally can do the same thing I did in four weeks in one day, and that is magic.”
When it comes to building a strong production pipeline, efficiency is critical, and making the choice to adopt new tools requires careful consideration over whether the effort is worth the payoff. For Neoscape, the choice was an easy one. “Tools like Unreal and Datasmith allow us to export in so many different formats that it's really worthwhile,” he says, noting Unreal’s ease of use and designer-friendly features empower designers who know nothing about coding to create amazing work.
“We've built our company on delivering a quality experience to our clients, and the fact that Unreal can deliver on that promise is really, really important,” adds Macleod. “We're excited about the direction that Unreal is headed, and we're excited to continue to use it.”
Learn more about how Neoscape is using Unreal Engine and Datasmith by watching the full video above and download the toolsets for free today.