Building Library of Local Content For Photo-based Architectural Visualization In Africa

Transcription

1 Building Library of Local Content For Photo-based Architectural Visualization In Africa Arc. Victor Ejiofor Ugwummadu, Artarc Ltd, Abuja, Nigeria. Prof. Olu Ola Ogunsote, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria. Dr. (Mrs). Bogda Prucnal-Ogunsote, University of Jos, Jos, Nigeria. By

2 Summary This presentation examines the feasibility of building a library of open platform local content for photo-based architectural visualizations in Africa through collaboration and networking. It proposes the development of a dedicated website that encourages contribution of images mostly by members of the local community but also by other communities with collections suitable for the proposed website.

3 Introduction Areas of application of visualizations for architectural presentations include mainly:. the classroom and. in architectural professional practice in Nigeria. The Nigerian film industry (Nollywood), advertisement, and video games also use visualizations for architectural presentations. Photo-based architectural visualizations use photographs of people, trees, cars, backgrounds and other objects to enhance the reality of architectural renderings. Many of these visualizations however inadvertently promote inappropriate architectural styles, imported building materials and foreign cultures by portraying buildings and spaces without local context. This is partly due to the use of foreign content in portraying people, plants, materials and environments. The inadequacies of generic content are most obvious from skin color, clothing and fashion, vehicle plate numbers, plants, backgrounds Plate 01 and building materials.

4 Photo-based Architectural Visualization Plate 02

5 Types of photo-based media content for architectural visualizations Types of photo-based media content required for visualizations include:. People (preferably famous people and recognizable nationalities),. Cars with local registration numbers,. Landscapes,. Famous buildings and backgrounds,. Trees, shrubs and flowers. These can be in the form of still images or video clips. Non photo-based media content include 3D models, audio content and animations of 3D models. These content often require some professional expertise to produce compared to photographs and were therefore excluded at this preliminary stage of library conceptualization.

6 Generic versus customized media content The spectacular impact of local content on customizing architectural visualizations is demonstrated using a few examples from Nigeria (plates 3 to 5). Plate 03: Generic versus African images of casual people.

7 Plate 04: Generic versus African images of business people Plate 05: Generic versus African images of famous people.

8 Global and local sources of architectural media content Current sources of 2D local content include: 1. Private photographic libraries, 2. Exchange of photographs with friends and professional colleagues, 3. Photographs scanned from magazines; 4. Image downloads from the Web, 5. Frames captured from movies with video editing software and 6. Images obtained from baking materials using software such as tbaker. Variations of this content can be produced using photo montage, for example by replacing the head of a man in a suit with the head of a local man (plate 06). The current sources of local video clips are similar. Plate 06 Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4

9 Example of websites with architectural media content While many of the websites offering content for visualizations are purely commercial, some offer totally free content with the rest proposing one form of barter or other. The use of context sensitive advertising using Google technology is common, and the promotion of online communities and Web 2.0 technologies is prevalent even on purely commercial websites. This presentation discusses selected websites that have successfully built libraries with architectural content used for visualizations. Ultimate 3D Links (3dlinks.com) This site offers free and commercial 3D objects as well as a host of other services. Africa Guide (africaguide.com) This site contains photographs of wildlife, birds, people and flora from Africa. It is possible to view by individual country. Visitors are encouraged to contribute photographs to the site. African Photos (africanphotos.gm) This is a community of free photographs from Africa. The photographs are organised by country and by location with a large number from Gambia. Users can comment on the photographs. Plate 07

10 ArchNet (archnet.org) This is an online community for architects, planners, urban and interior designers, landscape architects and scholars with a special focus on the Islamic world. It has a digital library with publications, images and a gallery. Users can contribute images to the library. Archvision (archvision.com) This commercial site offers 2D and 3D Rich Photorealistic Content (RPCs) for visualizations. The library contains people, trees, flowers, vehicles, environments and other objects. There are a few free RPCs but most are only available through purchase or by subscription with a 30-day free trial period. Arquitectuba (arquitectuba.com.ar) This website contains resources for Architectural design including blocks, construction details, software and manuals. The organisation of this complex multilingual website makes access to resources easy. Plate 08 Biometrics (bionatics.com) The EASYnat software can be downloaded from this commercial site for use with various 3D modeling and CAD software. EASYnat provides realistic plant simulation with customisation. Although there are a few free plants, access to the more than 300-specie nursery is mainly through purchase of credits.

11 ArchiDOM (archidom.ni) This multilingual site is popular for the large number of 3D objects which are provided free for architects, interior designers and artists. Archi Planet (archiplanet.org) This website uses MediaWiki software to manage the creation and editing of web pages with text, photographs and Videos of buildings by users. Flickr (flickr.com) This is a very popular photograph and video hosting website with billions of images. It has powerful editing, management, sharing and blogging tools. Plate 09 Free Drawings (freedwg.eu) This site does not contain photos but rather drawing blocks that can be used in architectural designs. However, the website design makes it easy to find specific blocks which are organised in categories. Great Buildings (greatbuildings.com) This is a leading architecture reference site featuring more than a thousand buildings and hundreds of leading architects. The site provides photographs of the buildings and in some cases walkthrough 3D models. It is possible to search by building name, architect or location.

12 The Proposed Website There are already many sources of 2D content for architectural visualizations on the Web. The proposed website should not be a duplication of theses sources, but rather provide a central point for accessing these resources while developing new collections through contributions by users of the website. It should however be fully engaged in the production and distribution of local content independently of image contributions. The ability to search for images using keywords is crucial. Images can be collaboratively tagged to make searching faster, intuitive and accurate. Images should be organised by various categories for browsing. Software for uploading and downloading photographs should be based on leading industry standards, for example Picasa. Interaction amongst users and contributors will be encouraged through blogs and chat rooms.

13 Funding Options Funding support and policy guidelines should come from professional associations such as the International Union of Architects (UIA), the Commonwealth Association of Architects (CAA) and local professional associations. In Nigeria, the local architectural professional associations are the Architects Registration Council of Nigeria (ARCON), the Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA), the Association of Architectural Educators in Nigeria (AARCHES) and the Association of Consulting Architects (ACA). The website should however be run by an independent market-oriented firm and it should promote local manufacturers on a commercial basis. A model commonly found on existing websites is the promotion of both free and Commercial content. Commercial content can be priced using units and image Download can be by subscription or by purchasing bulk units.

14 Conclusion and Recommendations The enhanced realism of visualizations produced using customized local content is obvious and impressive. The collection and management of photographs for such visualizations is however very time consuming. Meanwhile, there are numerous private libraries containing local content and the owners are often willing to share with others. The development of a website that will be a Marketplace for local 2D content and a showcase for visualisations will encourage interaction between professional visualization architects and make sharing easier.

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