Brandon Smallwood

never mind, found the tutorial

I REALLY like the itoosoft, wish the full version was free though so I could use some of my own images. Still working on the shadows though…

I got the same question with Alexandru, I’v been told to use photoshop do the aftereffect of vegetation for plan or the cluster of trees and grasses in 3dmax would drag my laptop to work exemely slowly.Is there any good suggestion for the plugin programmes to create vivid planting elements in 3d max?

I believe it is a Nvidia 280 GTM, middle of the range but still better than the one on my old computer that ran max 2010 quite well. i7, 8 gigs of ram. Having some photoshop problems too. pretty much everything is frames per second related, it makes zooming and moving things around so hard.

My experience with 3ds max 2010 on Windows 7 Enterprise x64 has been very good. Its certainly a huge step up from Vista. I’ve got a nice set of graphics cards though so maybe thats the difference. What kind of hardware are you running?

So what are people’s experiences with windows 7 and max? I am running 7 professional 64bit and max 2010 64 bit and having some problems, mainly graphics card related. very low fps which is making it hard to model. though I am hoping that max 2011 which comes out in the next month will help.

barlow, I would really be interested in seeing what European style sketches are and what one would percieve is the common american style of drawing?

Anyway we can get some quick sketch technique (marker, colored pencil, pastel etc) and rendering tutorials on here ?

tim-

you bring up a good point..atmosphere is difficult to convey in hand drawn work. all I can think of at the moment is airbrush..

to David — your response was great. thanks. we are about to over-seed an area with native wildflower mix. have to say, had a really good chuckle, more like chortle reading your comments. then had this amazing image of you talking to some folks out in your mojave neck of the woods about carbon sequestration (mostly because I have been in that…[Read more]

I was wondering what sites residential designers use to find certain products or materials. Let’s say you want to find certain types of outdoor porcelain tiles, sculptures, water features, etc. Are there sites out there that are relevant for us to use? And if so, would anyone like to share these?

David, I love your common sense approach!!!

Oops — just saw the link in your second post — thanks, David.

Still would be great to read the actual pub to know what was included in the study.

Wow…. and I thought my comment was long winded!

This is great, though, David. I appreciate it. It is helpful to have to have a peer reviewed pub in this conversation (it means i better try to find the one I was referencing!). And it does run contrary to the prevailing wisdom in the “green” community regarding turf. Do you have a web link or…[Read more]

anyone know the best way to convey “god rays” in drawn perspectives? thanks

This is interesting:

‘Corrected’ UC-Irvine study shows turfgrass to be positive sequester of carbon

Scientists from the Department of Earth System Science at the University of California – Irvine recently published a paper in the journal Geophysical Research Letters on January 22, 2010 titled, “Carbon Sequestration and Greenhouse Gas Emi…[Read more]

In response to John’s question “how would you propose to reduce emissions and increase sequestration through design” in addition to my comments below about how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – landscapes can also play an active role in sequestering carbon through thoughtful plant selection and soil stewardship. Research has shown that…[Read more]

I believe the solution is to first accept the dual responsibility built landscapes hold in both causing environmental degradation AND protecting and restoring the ecosystem services we depend upon.

I agree with David, we can not and should not eliminate turf completely from our landscapes. There are many scenarios where mowed lawn is the best…[Read more]

I have not read the article, Heather, David and Reid, but I think the basic point is good one — maintenance should be consideration in designing a “sustainable residential landscape.” Even here in the SW, we will design what we think is a more sustainable landscape, and put in a water harvesting swale with cobbles. As it turns out the maintenance…[Read more]