How to enhance the presentation of a public space design project

Discover how to best enhance the presentation of a public space design project thanks to video editing functions

How often do you have to present the project to the client and you have the feeling of not being able to fully communicate all the architectural choices?

We know that our interlocutor is not an expert, so we should choose a communication strategy that is simple and yet impressive.Technical drawings (plans, elevations and sections) may not be enough to convey our ideas and often static images like renderings give only a partial view of an articulated model. Using a video presentation can help solve these problems.

Let’s discover together how to work with an architectural design software and what advantages it entails.

We will use an the project of a public area intended to be used as a playground for children. Starting from the model, we will see how simple and fast will be using BIM Video Studio, the functionality of Edificius for video editing.

BIM Video Studio: a new way to present the project

Let’s assume that we have already created the project of a playground with a BIM software (go to the article with the project to be downloaded), and we have to present our project in a public assembly. Here all citizens of the district where the playground will be born along with representatives of the administration (mayor, councilors, etc.) are invited.

It will be extremely important to better communicate the choices made, be persuasive and attract their attention with captivating and immediate images.

How to use BIM Video Studio

Creating a video presentation with BIM Video Studio is easy. BIM Video Studio is a real video editing tool integrated in Edificius.

To get started, we first access the BIM Video Studio environment from the browser. All the rendering material (images, render, real-time video, etc.) can be added on the timeline divided into 7 levels where to add video clips and markers.

BIM Video Studio | Edificius video editing tool interface

We can add different types of content:

texts;
360° images
videoclips;
solar lighting;
effects;
artificial lights;
objects visibility.

We add the videos we already made in the RTBIM environment of Edificius and modify the fading in and out and the duration of each clip. This is to allow a gradual transition from one video to another, with no interruption effect.

You can add texts (editable per size, transparency of the background, font and position), images or views of the graphic drawings (floor plans, sections, etc.), to help understand the spaces that are being illustrated.

We can also set the solar lighting, by choosing the time we want to assign to the frames of the video. In doing so, we could make the study of sunshine evident during all hours of the day or months of the year.

The result will be an amazing video, able to actually show the design choices we have made and that we want to communicate.

How to enhance a project of a public space design project

The playground project, especially because it relates to an open area, allows us to focus on those BIM Video Studio features which have been dealt with less thoroughly in the previous Focus.

We can add to our video clips some effects to make the scenes describing the project much more realistic and emotional.

BIM Video Studio | Effects

The effects available on BIM Video Studio are listed below:

fog: it reproduces the typical effect of fog or dust suspended in closed environments, typical of photo shoots;
rain: we will see rain fall, all wet surfaces and we could regulate their intensity and cloudiness;
wind: the presence of the wind will be sensed by the movement of vegetation and above all by the swaying of trees;
lighting: it regulates the direct light of the sun, the ambient illumination reflected by the sky and the indirect light diffused and reflected by the surfaces;
depth of field: get views with different focus to highlight and highlight details of the project;
lens settings: adds bright halos and optical reflections in bright lighting conditions;
exposure: adjusts the amount of light that illuminates the scene;
audio: adjust the volume of the audio effects;
animations: activates the presence of birds in flight on the scene;
grass: adds a realistic turf;
trees: adjust the colouring of the trees according to their type;
visual effects: adds graphic and photographic effects such as vignetting, colors and styles of representation;
climatic backgrounds: choose a panoramic background image (serene, sparse clouds, cloudy, etc.) and all the rendering parameters (lights, shadows, reflections, etc.) are automatically defined, obtaining beautiful and captivating views even without being experts.

Using the effects is very simple.

With a marker, we indicate when we want the effect to be activated and when we want to eliminate it, placing the marker along the timeline. The inclusion of effects also helps us to understand the behavior of our model in different climatic conditions and to improve the quality of our representation. For example, we could highlight the study of sunshine to get the benefit of the shade of the vegetation on the rides, during the hottest hours of the day.

How to make changes to the template during the presentation

Once the video is finished, imagine that a citizen who presides over the assembly asks us to bring, for example, the slide closer to the existing trees. This is to ensure that the metal top of the slide does not overheat during the hottest hours of the day and to replace the chosen benches with a model with backrest and armrests.

BIM Video Studio | Playground

Directly from the BIM Video Studio environment, by setting the Live Camera view, we can quickly make the required changes. We select the bench and choose a new model from the Edificius online catalog. We will quickly see how automatically both the model and the video presentation will update dynamically.

From the 3D view, instead, we move the slide as required and return to the BIM Video Studio environment. In this case, the presentation we had made is already updated with all the changes, ready to be reproduced to verify the satisfaction of the new project choices.
Open area Layout

Project: Download 3D BIM Model

Here is available for free download the 3D model file of a playground with the video presentation of the project.

Download the 3D BIM model of a playground project

Free download available of Edificius, the building design software