[deegola]

No, the whole things was drawn in AutoCAD 2004, then the black and white line drawing was brought into photoshop and colored with the fill tool.

Thanks for the compliment!

[agla]

I read parts of a several part description of this type of technique in Landscape Architect & Specifier Magazine. I don't know if they added the watercolor filter or not, but that sure softens it.

I neither have the clientele who are willing to pay the extra time for such a rendering, nor do I want to invest my time on my dime to produce it. I would like to experiment with it, but my photo shop is very outdated (version 4). It does not support pdf as far as I can tell.

Renderings sure are great, but getting the pay back is not not that easy unless it is selling you jobs that you otherwise would not sell. Basically a marketing investment.

[deegola]

I agree, ultimately, time is always money.

There is a big HOWEVER here though. This took about 45 mintues to color-up.

The original CAD drawing took an hour or two. The color up portion only takes about 30-45 mintues....depending on how elaborate it is.

The trick is simple. I export the BASE DRAWING (no plants) on a layer, then I export the plants on their own layer.

Photoshop (or in this case Paintshop, the in-expensive alternative) can simply "fill" your areas with 1-click. See, photoshop can easily determine the white background, and black lines, so it fills inside the lines....like a kid in a coloring book coloring inside the lines.

So you take just a few minutes to click in a tan concrete, a green grass, and some decorative rocks. Then I spend about 5 more mintues hand putting in some shadows with an airbrush.

I then turn on the plant layer, and point-and-click my photo plants in, using the cad sybols as a guide. Another 10 mintues or so spent. I use the built in drop-shadow feature to do shrubs shadows (small) and tree shadows (large)....

The reason for the then watercolor effect is to actually clean everything up, hiding the imperfections.

The watercolor effect is done by the computer, and takes less then 5 seconds or so.

The whole thing goes really quickly, like I said, 30-45 mintues...but I do feel the it really helps sell the job. We do color-ups like this on all our presentations, the major presentations get full-blown 3D renderigns with walk-thrus.

If anyone's interested, maybe I can do a screen-shot tutorial type thing outlining the process...I think everyone would find that you can do this using most any cad type program (or a scanned hand-drawing) and most any cheesy photo program.

DJ Delten

[agla]

How do you import the cad drawing into Photoshop or Paintshop? Is it by making a pdf, a tiff, or some other way? Hopefully this can be done with something that will hold scale.

[trees]

I'd be interested in seeing how it's done in a screenshot setting.

This is a great look, but like agla says, it seems a touch time prohibitive. I have close to a 60% close rate without this and I'm not sure I'd see a jump in that number because I sell myself first and foremost and the plan is almost secondary.

I could see that for a particularly big job or vision-limited client this could be a help, however. Since I'm always up for improving my work, I'd be interested in evaluating this process. So... post away!

[Hamons]

I use afre eprogram called cutepdf to turn just about any document into apdf -- don't know if it would work for a cad drawign though.

Try it.

cutepdf.com

[deegola]

Agla,

From CAD I basically plot an EPS file. This is easily done by adding the ADOBE POST SCRIPT LEVEL 1 plotter (use your add-a-plotter wizard) That plotter is included (a free download if not) and I just set it to plot to file.

You then just open the EPS in photoshop. You can also set the DPI in photoshop.

Depending on the cad you use, you can also just set it to spit out a JPEG....I have trouble getting a high enough resolution one sometimes, that's why I go for the EPS.

I'll do a screen-shot tutorial, but I can't this weekend......going to sit at the homeshow for 3 days.....

So, in a week or two I will.

[jshilan]

DJ

Can you upload your rendering again. I'd like to see it. The link no longer works, and I went to your website but no luck. BTW, very nice work.

[PLC-Landscape]

Yes, please upload again, I can't view it either. I've been experimenting with using Illustrator to hand draw plans, and would love to see what you've come up with. I totally get what you're saying, just wanna see it. - -- Thanks