Over the summer we spoke to Marc about FormFonts 3D. And we learned several interesting things we think readers will want to know about. Marc is not your ordinary Web start-up guy, but rather a registered architect in California whose master’s in architecture thesis ended up a SIGGRAPH presentation demonstrating what was possible — one day — with virtual 3D shopping environments.
Marc’s circuitous background takes him from SIGGRAPH presentations to the world of 3D gaming, to mapping out cities like Paris and London and Toyko to designing and building his own house in San Diego using SketchUp. Now he helps lead FormFonts 3D.
In this interview Marc tells us about himself, about what FormFonts 3D offers content users today and where FormFonts 3D will eventually go. And yes, if you haven’t yet guessed, this too has something to do with BIM!
The formation of FormFonts 3D
AFR: Marc, can you tell me about how FormFonts 3D got started?
(Marc Fredrickson): Fred Abler, the founder and CEO, started a website in 2001 called Objective Networks. People uploaded 3D SketchUp models and the models were downloaded more than 4 million times in less than two years. There was no cost to participate. However, the problem of the model quality and consistency became paramount. Even though there was a rating system, people uploaded many poor quality models and few good ones. Fred needed to either close the site or start a pay-for service where people would know that they could find high quality, low polygon models as well as textures. This is when I, one programmer and many great 3D artists hooked up with Fred to start FormFonts.
And what is your background? I understand you have an architectural degree and have been involved in practice?
(MF): I attended Cal Poly State University-San Luis Obispo and got my undergraduate architectural degree. After working for a few years for an architecture firm, I returned to school to get a graduate degree in Architecture from University of California San Diego. The architecture program was just getting started and many resources were available, including access to the super computer center. Back in 1993 my thesis was a real-time rendered virtual shopping mall called ‘In the Bag.’ A couple of programmers and I worked on it. We showed the thesis at SIGGRAPH 1994 in Orlando, Florida.
At the time, video games were about to transition to 3D environments. The guys at Angel Studios — who did the CG for “Lawnmower Man” and Peter Gabriel’s music video “Kiss that Frog” — had just signed a contract with Nintendo to make games for the N64…and they offered me a job. Since San Diego was still in a recession at the time, I decided to have some fun making video games for a while and then when the economy got better, get an architecture job. But I was having so much fun I stayed with Angel Studios (later bought by Rockstar Games) for 10 years.
And what kinds of things did you do as a trained architect working at a video gaming company?
I worked on Midnight Club, an open-city based driving game. I had the best job – traveling to Tokyo, Paris, New York, and London among others to research and map the city for the game. I wore many hats such as 3D artist, lead 3D artist, environment artist, level designer, game designer, game design department head and office space planner.
During my 10 years making video games I was able to exercise my architectural skills designing and drawing up the plans for a few friends. Moonlighting wasn’t a problem since the clients worked at Angel Studios. I feel fortunate that I had got my architecture license right before starting to make video games and was able to keep doing architectural work.
I understand that you designed and built your own house….using SketchUp.
Yes. After leaving Rockstar Games, I built my own house acting as the general contractor. I designed the house using SketchUp and FormFonts content. Using the digital model, my wife and I knew what we’d be building before we started construction. Construction details may have changed here and there, but the overall look and feel is the same as in the SketchUp model.
At the time when I was looking for a new work adventure, Fred approached me about joining up with FormFonts. I saw it as a great opportunity to incorporate the skills and knowledge learned in the worlds of architecture and video game production as well as to learn new things and explore new areas.
What is the driving motivation behind Form Fonts 3D?
(MF): There are two main ideas. First, the name says a lot about it. ‘Form’ is the 3D part and ‘Fonts’ comes from Ascii. The goal is to some day have graphic styles (font types) as easily interchangeable as changing the font in a text document. The model/object would be nothing more than a representation of the thing, the platonic chair. The style/look/rendering of the chair can be anything. As in a text document every letter can be a different font so in a representation of a built environment, every object can have it unique style and rendered look.
Secondly there’s the idea of Smart Objects or Intelligent Objects for BIM (Building information Modeling.) In order for BIM to work, the models need to have information embedded into them.
For the time being we’re focusing on providing quality models at a great price while we work toward our underlying goals.
Who is your ideal customer and what do they gain by using your service?
(MF): People who love to get lost in creating beautiful things. More specifically, this would be designers in many fields: from architecture, stage design, film production, comic books, construction planning, graphic designers and those that need to represent the real world.
A subscriber gains access to thousands of high quality, low polygon models as well as textures. Instead of taking the hours required to model the 3D entourage and building products, a model can be downloaded from our growing library. Being a web-based subscription service, a customer can download what they want, try it out, and then try out another without having to pay for each individual model.
And being a pay-for service, a subscriber doesn’t have to worry about the quality as opposed to much of the free content on the web. Subscribers can also request models to be made should we not already have what they’re looking for. We like the requests because the subscriber is more likely to ask for something needed by many — as opposed to us guessing what people may need.
You offer your 3D models in particular in several different file formats. How did you settle on these? Is this choice primarily customer-driven and if not then how do you decide which formats to create in?
(MF): As the site has its origins in SketchUp, it is our main file format. We’ve added and removed formats over the years based on what the subscribers are requesting and downloading. We’re currently supporting SketchUp, ArchiCAD, Revit, DWG, 3ds and Collada.
What is the most popular file format?
(MF): It’s still SketchUp, but we’re seeing a real shift to other file types as well.
Can you explain why some of your most popular 3D models are fully completed and textured skyscrapers and such?
(MF): Many of our subscribers work in the entertainment industry. Production designers love our site. They can download models and quickly build a scene, a scene that may need readymade suburban homes or downtown skyscrapers. One film production designer has told us that he’ll be on location downloading models into a scene.
We also have comic book artists who subscribe. The FormFonts models are used to create the background in SketchUp. The background is made quickly and with accurate perspective. The artist chooses their perspective, and then the background image is taken over to Photoshop or printed out and used on a light box. The artist then uses the background image as a template upon which to draw using their own style.
You have 3D objects representing real manufactured objects. Are these executed through partnerships and if so how are they established?
(MF): We’re working with a number of manufacturers to develop their 3D product catalogs. We’ve built lighting catalogs as 3D models for Prandina, an Italian lighting company. VODE lighting of Sonoma, California, has links on their website to FormFonts. A potential customer of VODE can download their models for free. Another manufacturer is O’Hagin’s Vents who we’ve recently started working with.
We are also currently in discussion with several major BPMs (Building Product Manufacturers On the FormFonts website you’ll see many manufacturers represented. Often manufacturers see their product model on our site and then upon the manufacturer’s request, we will gladly place a link from their model on FormFonts to the manufacturers’ website. This typically results in our being hired to make the full virtual product catalog.
How popular are you material textures? And do you have any real manufactured representations?
(MF): On average there are about 1/10 the number of material textures downloaded as models. The tile-able material textures have things like tile, rock, granite, grass and etc. We have 2D pictures of real people and tree lines. We are just starting to work with manufactures on providing material textures.
Can you explain how your service works? What is the best arrangement for the individual and what is the best arrangement for the small or mid-sized architecture firm?
(MF): FormFonts is a subscription service. An individual person pays $199 a year and can download up to 30 models and 30 textures a day. We ask that companies subscribe to as many FormFonts subscriptions as they have people using the content. Each person needs their own named subscription. A small company can either sign up for multiple individual seats or a corporate account. The corporate account increases the limit of models and textures downloaded each day, gives the company the ability to uploaded their own content along side that of the FormFonts’ content — only the company can see their own content — and the corporate account has what we call P-MOD. It stands for Priority Modeling On-Demand. .
What is P-MOD or Priority Modeling On-Demand? Who uses that?
(MF): P-MOD stands for Priority Modeling on Demand. It is an upgrade from our content request service. Subscribers can request that we make a model or texture. We try our best to fulfill the request in a timely manner, but there’s no guarantee. With P-MOD we guarantee that the model will be delivered within 72 hours.
Form Fonts Sample - 2
Are there many corporate accounts using the private mode to have you guys host their models up on FormFonts?
(MF): We have a few, but I wouldn’t say many. The issue is that finding and organizing content and properly adding metadata, et cetera, is a non-trivial undertaking.
What does the future hold for FormFonts 3D? Where do you want to take the service?
(MF): Before, when I talked about the polymorphic idea behind FormFonts I mentioned BIM and rendering styles. In addition to developing BIM, we’ll continue becoming an integral part of the design process, on to construction documentation and building maintenance. As the virtual world becomes more like the real world you’ll see FormFonts be part of it from AEC to entertainment.
Thanks Marc for talking to Architosh about FormFonts 3D.
(MF): Thanks for the opportunity.