A Hobs 3D project showing changes over time.
By Ed Avis
Reprographers have been helping architects present projects to clients forever, but Hobs in the UK offers clients something that’s often missing in presentations: the time dimension. By adding a time element to 3D presentations – both digital and printed – Hobs’ clients can better show stakeholders precisely how a building is going to emerge.
“Normally a client of our 4D construction sequences will be bidding to win a project, and they want to represent how they propose to put the building up in a timely manner,” explains Shay O’Carroll, national sales director of Hobs Studio, the high-tech division of Hobs Reprographics. “The 4th dimension will highlight key elements where there might be delays or issues. The client will use the sequence to show how they can get around those issues.”
O’Carroll says Hobs has been adding the time element to presentations for about three years. Hobs’ designers use source files from various programs, including Revit or SketchUp, produce the content in 3D Studio Max, render out in VRay, and add motion graphics such as a time line in Adobe After Effects. Two or three weeks is a normal turn-around for such projects, he adds.
The time element can also be added to 3D printed projects, O’Carroll says.
“For example, we worked on a school project that was 3D printed,” he explains. “We went into the first meeting with a model of the existing site, and by the last presentation we had updated the model to show how it had evolved. So it doesn’t have to be digital -- you can bring that 4th dimension to a physical model, too.”
Great for Complexity
A key advantage of adding the time element to the projects is that it helps explain complex elements, O’Carroll says.
“The more complex the project, the more help this is,” he says. “If something will take you 20 minutes in a PowerPoint presentation, and we can do it in 30 seconds, you can imagine the level of complexity you can add to your bid. That’s where we see the real effectiveness of this.”
Hobs can combine these high-tech presentations with more traditional reprographics when needed, O’Carroll adds. When a presentation in traditional paper form is appropriate, Hobs captures still images from the 4D sequences and inserts them into the paper presentations.
Unexpected Benefit
O’Carroll says one unexpected use of the 4D sequences is as communication tools on job sites.
“We didn’t realize how powerful of a communication tool these would be,” he says. “Now they are being used on-site, such as in site orientations and health and safety briefings.”
Hobs was honored for the effectiveness of its 4D presentations with the “Creative Means of Communicating with Target Audiences” prize at the Innovation Excellence Awards 2017, organized by the Stationers’ Company.
To view a brief YouTube presentation from Hobs that shows a collage of 4D sequences, click below: