Tuscan Foundry. Lumen RoofLight

The company had a dilemma when launching a brand new rooflight for the conservation market. They only had one prototype and no photographic images of the product in use, with a print deadline looming for a new brochure to be ready for a stand at a major building exhibition at the NEC in addition to the images used on the stand itself.

The solution was to take the information supplied from 2d drawings and create a usable 3d model, fully textured with glazing panels and paint finish, also including the featured telescopic solid brass winder.

With the model completed, it was then ‘placed’ in various scenarios of being fitted to a tiled or slate ‘roof’ and with one or three rooflights fitted. After the views were agreed the final rendered images were produced showing angles from the interior and exterior including other ‘props’, such as room furniture or trees and sky.

Because of the flexibility of having accurate 3d models to work with, line drawn renders were also produced as an alternative for the close-up illustrations of the winder .

With the exhibition over Tuscan still rely on images produced from these models; from interactive Flash files to animated Flash movies for their web site.

Apart from the near impossibility of producing photographs at the onset, using 3d visualisations has proved cost effective in the repeated use of the same models for different marketing purposes, with the added bonus of shorter turn-around times in the delivery of quality photo‑realistic images.