Ferry Marcellis, co-founder, and CEO of Act-3D, the parent company of Lumion, the fast emerging standard for rapid, hyper-realistic 3D videos, images, and 360-degree panoramas. Today Lumion’s under the radar growth throughout design firms of all sizes—from sole proprietorships to the world’s top 100—has revolutionized workflows and client presentations. Why the shift to Lumion? What differentiates it from other rendering tools? How does it transform the art of what’s possible for designers? Marcellis offers his views.
Today 61 of the top 100 architect companies in the world are Lumion customers. How do you explain this broad global acceptance?
Software is not something architects necessarily love to work with. So our goal from day one was to offer a design tool that doesn’t fight you. Rather, it works with you as an architect to bring your ideas to life quickly and easily with uncompromising style and precision. Lumion is much more than just a rendering tool. From a built-in video editor to output on your phone and much more. Lumion tries to bring a complete package. Our website is packed with dozens of first-person accounts of the surprise and delight that greets first-time Lumion users. I think anyone who has faced the steep learning curve of other 3D rendering tools will find Lumion is an absolute revelation.
What about architect firms that outsource 3D rendering?
Lumion helps eliminate the workflow disruptions, back-and- forth changes, and expense that outsourcing often represents. What kind of lead time is realistic for outsourcing? A week? Two weeks or more? Lumion compresses the rendering cycle, freeing more time for design. Even clients that render animations in-house with a competing 3D tool benefit. One client, HKS Inc. of Dallas tracked workflow before and after Lumion. They went from two days of design and three days of preparation/rendering to four days designing, with just a single day of preparing and rendering. Everyone benefits.
What about results? How does Lumion help win commissions?
Lumion puts world-class visualization capability in your hands, whether you’re a small or large studio. It’s gratifying how it levels the playing field, allowing anyone to offer wow-factor presentations once reserved for only the few. I’m often asked what my favorite Lumion-produced animation or image is. It’s really anything a new client, small or large, produces from the get-go. You’d be amazed at what I’ve seen from architects and staff that thought this kind of capability was beyond their skills or budget.
Does Lumion play well with others?
Lumion is compatible with all the mainstream design tools, including SketchUp®, Revit®, Vectorworks®, Allplan®, Rhinoceros®, 3DS Max®, Archicad®, and MicroStation®. You can upload and effortlessly reload from all these and more 3D design tools.
What would you tell an architect looking for a better way to bring their ideas to life?
Give Lumion a serious look. We’re not a huge brand name but we’ve managed to create a truly game-changing product. We add new features and capability all the time. Advanced functionality like high-quality lighting, beautiful new materials and directly sharing your designs online are all recent developments and we keep delivering improvements. Ask around. Visit our website. Try the demo. Word-of- mouth is our best sales asset.
About Ferry Macellis CEO of Lumion
Ferry Marcellis is one of the two founders of Act-3D B.V., which was established in 1998 and has since been at the cutting edge of real-time 3D technology. After years of experience creating 3D simulations, training tools, 3D movie technology, and architecture, Ferry steered the company specifically towards architectural visualization. To this day, he remains passionately involved in the Lumion development process.
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