Remember when we were very young and learned to color pictures with Crayola coloring crayons and we would struggle to stay in the lines? In a nutshell, Piranesi gives us the tools to easily make invisible boundaries so that we can paint and color without worrying about staying in the lines. This process can happen a number of different ways depending on how you arrive at a Piranesi file.

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As we've already discussed Piranesi's file format saves unique information in the raster image beyond just the RGB values for individual pixels. If you use a program that can save a scene in the EPix (EPX) file format then it will possess these attributes inherently. If you import a DXF scene into Vedute then you can use Vedute to create the EPix data. Additionally, you can take a raster image into Piranesi directly and define depth and material assignments to geometry's. A New File Assistant walks you through the steps of using an existing image file and provides tools for assigning depth, view type and most importantly, determining the proper scale of the scene represented in the image file. (see 006)

Painting Effects

While the scene of the lobby above (see 003-004) still looks very digital the real magic of Piranesi lies in its painting effects. Like the London scene shown at the beginning of the review, you can apply basic painting effects in a series of steps. Painting affects allow you to do transformations to the image using a variety of raster textures and alpha raster textures. Piranesi offers options that allow you to overlay grain onto textures which in affect produce an image as if it was originally drawn or painted on a traditional canvas or paper.

For urban designers one of the nicest paint rendering effects offered in Piranesi is the Edge render action. It produces a classic silhouette drawing which one could then paint over or leave as is. (See 007) This is a very practical and stylish application of 3D data from a model. There is also a wobble effect (sometimes called or referred to as wiggle line effect in other programs). This process transforms the outline silhouette to a shaky hand drawing. (See 008)

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Piranesi is useful to the artistic processes inherent in daily duties of architects, planners and urban designers but what if your CAD or 3D program can't directly export to their file format? Informatix has included a program called Vedute that essentially imports 3D model data from other systems and saves it to native EPX (EPix) files for Piranesi. It can also produce the 3D panorama data. Any program that can produce a DXF file can produce data that can be passed eventually to Piranesi via Vedute.

Closing

Piranesi has grown in popularity very quickly precisely because it has no equal and fills a niche that has long been ignored. Many CAD programs now export directly in EPX file format, so that users can model in their favorite CAD program and then render and paint in Piranesi. Programs such as Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, which have traditionally fulfilled that role, are now appearing less useful to this process once a designer has a copy of Piranesi. On the Macintosh, CAD programs such as ArchiCAD and VectorWorks can produce output for Piranesi, as well as 3D programs like formZ and SketchUp. Some programs utilize a plugin while others can save directly to Piranesi. We anticipate seeing even more 3D modeling and CAD programs save to Piranesi over time.

Piranesi isn't a replacement for actual artistic talent so people that don't have much in that department shouldn't get too excited. However, there are really so many different looks one can produce with Piranesi that even a moderately talented designer—could over time—establish a very mature and sophisticated artistic style in their work. What's most exciting about this program is its ease-of-use and how those with traditional hand drawing and painting skills—who have often been turned off by computerized rendering and attempts at photorealism—will find Piranesi a computer program that speaks to them directly. For those who have been looking for a more painterly approach to rendering or the chance to develop a special style of rendering all your own, Informatix's Piranesi is a must have program to add to your digital workflow. ---- ANTHONY FRAUSTO-ROBLEDO , Editor-in-Chief

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