Butterick’s Practical Typography is an excellent, free, web-based guide to typography.
You should begin with “Typography in Ten Minutes”, which gives you five basic rules for typography.
After reading that, try “Font Recommendations”, the “Summary of Key Rules”, and reading through additional topics of interest from the table of contents.
Read MoreThis text is adapted from John Krygier and Denis Wood’s Making Maps (2011, Guilford Press).
“Effective type in [landscape representation] requires understanding the basics of typography. Of particular relevance are kerning, tracking, leading, and alignment. Careful design of type will make your [representation] more functional and beautiful.”
Kerning
Kerning adjusts the spacing between particular pairs of letters to make them look uniform and less distracting. (Compare to monospacing.) Kerning is automatically adjusted with most digital type placement algorithms in drawing software, but can also be set by hand.
+ Evaluate type on your representation that may need kerning.
+ Kerning is more important for larger type sizes.
Tracking
Tracking changes the spacing between all letters.
+ Avoid negative tracking (scrunched-up, hard-to-read type) in most instances.
+ Sometimes increase tracking slightly for a more open, airy feel in a block of text.
+ Increase tracking by using upper-case letters to label area features.
Leading
Leading adjusts spacing between lines of text.
+ Evaluate type on or around your representation that may need leading.
+ Maintain a consistent leading for similar features labeled on a representation.
+ Avoid reducing leading to reduce the space utilized by a block of text; use a smaller type size instead.
+ Avoid excessive leading within labels or blocks of text, as that may result in such labels being read as multiple labels.
Alignment
+ Avoid left-right justification if it causes distracting spacing problems. (A jagged right edge is generally more visually pleasing than crisp edges with distracting spacing in-between.)
+ Ragged right alignment is the norm, but too much ragged is distracting.
+ Use hyphenation sparingly in text blocks (note that hyphenation is often on by default in InDesign), and avoid it entirely on annotations and labels.
+ Ragged left alignment is difficult to read in blocks, but may be used for annotations referring to symbols or features to the right of the annotation.
This text is adapted from John Krygier and Denis Wood’s Making Maps (2011, Guilford Press).
Ongoing formative evaluation is as simple as asking yourself whether the representation is achieving its goals throughout the process of making the representation. Formative evaluation implies that you will “re-form” the representation so that it works better, or maybe even dump it! It is never too late to bail if the representation is not serving your needs. It is a good idea to ask others to evaluate your representation as well: What do you think of these colors? Can you read the type from an appropriate distance? Does what is most important about the representation actually stand out?
Ask yourself:
+ Is this representation doing what I want it to do?
+ Will this representation make sense to the audience I envision for it?
+ How does the representation look when printed, projected, or viewed in the final medium, and what changes will make it better?
+ Are the chosen scale, framing, coordination system, and/or map projection appropriate?
+ Do the layout of the representation and interpretative annotations, including the legend, look good? Could they be adjusted to help make the representation look better and easier to interpret?
+ Does the most important information on the representation stand out visually? Does less important information fall into the background?
+ Is the representation too general or too detailed, given the intent of the representation?
+ Do chosen symbols, hatches, and patterns make sense? Are they legible?
+ Is the type appropriate, legible, and is its size appropriate, given the final medium?
+ Is color use logical and appropriate, and will the chosen colors work well in the final medium (printed, projected, etc.)?
+ Do I want a series of simpler representations, or one more complicated one?
LAR 5304G Digital Landscape Representation II: Static, Dynamic
Assignment 05: Animation
Description
Building on the narrative outlined in your storyboard (Assignment 03), use the native animation and atmospheric simulation capacities of 3ds Max to represent motion through space and/or the passage of time within the study landscape.
Workflow
+ Set up a path constraint for your camera in 3ds Max. (See tutorial 9.1 in Cantrell and Yates.)
+ Make additional modifications to the movement of the camera as desired.
+ Adjust the length of time for your animation to 900 frames.
+ Output the animation as a .avi file using the Render menus. (This will take the computer a while.) See also tutorials 26.3 and 26.4 in Cantrell and Yates.
Deliverables
+ One short animation with a clearly-considered narrative intent.
+ format: .avi animation file, 30 seconds/900 frames @ 480×270 pixels
+ Consider in particular:
+ The relationship between camera and target
+ Zoom and focus
+ The different kinds of camera movements outlined in Cantrell and Yates Ch. 9
+ The speed with which the camera moves, whether consistent or variable
+ Camera height
+ What is included and what is excluded from the viewframe
+ Whether you will use a single tracking shot that lasts 30 seconds or splice together several shorter shots from various positions
+ Whether atmospheric effects such as the settings of the daylight system or fog remain consistent or are variable across the animation
LAR 5304G Digital Landscape Representation II: Static, Dynamic
Assignment 04: Site Systems Section-Perspective
Description
Using the terrain model constructed in earlier assignments as a base, produce a section-perspective cut through the study landscape and annotated to describe the function of a relevant site system, such as hydrology or sedimentary flows, particularly as that site system interacts with the proposed constructions of the study restoration project.
Workflow
+ Prepare the section-perspective as a view in 3ds Max.
+ Do any additional modeling necessary for the accuracy of the section-perspective in Rhino or 3ds Max. Import to 3ds Max if necessary. (For instance, you may find that the levee section generated by surface deformation using the DEM is insufficiently accurate for the purposes of the section-perspective, suggesting modeling the levee as a separate object.)
+ Add materials and lighting in 3ds Max as necessary.
+ Output raster rendering(s) from 3ds Max/MentalRay.
+ Annotate the rendered section-perspective in Adobe CS (Illustrator or InDesign). See the “Z-Axis” lecture slideshow for examples of annotated section-perspectives.
Deliverables
1 Section-Perspective: a single representation containing both a section through a critical portion of the site and a perspectival representation beginning seemlessly at the location of the section cut. The section-perspective should:
+ show the material conditions of both landscape context and constructed object through the use of materials in 3ds Max
+ be realistically lit using the daylight system in 3ds Max
+ be annotated to clearly describe the functioning of the selected site system (such as hydrological flows), particularly along the z-axis and x-axis (i.e. in section)
Sources
Throughout every assignment for this course, you are expected to demonstrate good sourcing practices, for all visual, written, and intermediate products. This means both tracking your sources as you research and properly sourcing on all presented products. Sources should be clearly attributed directly on drawings.
Location: 601 Prince Street
Time: We will begin at 7:30 and finish by 10:30.
Prints: All drawings assigned thus far (except animations, which only Mandi will have at this point) should be printed and pinned up. The short edge (minimum dimension) of prints should be at least 24″. (For Intermediate Assignment 03: Storyboard, all of the storyboard frames should be arranged and printed on a single sheet of paper, as described in the assignment.)
Schedule: Each student will have at most five minutes to present, allowing a minimum of ten minutes of comments. To ensure that we finish on time, each group should be fully pinned-up at the start of the scheduled pin-up time (e.g. Group 1 should be fully pinned-up at 7:30).
Group 1
07:30 Brian
07:45 Mahkam
08:00 Lama
Group 2
08:30 Yasaman
08:45 Dasha
09:00 John
09:15 Mandi
Group 3
09:45 David
10:00 Eliana
10:15 Navid
Notes:
1. I recommend carefully reviewing the instructions for each assignment to make sure you are producing drawings which meet the requirements of the assignments. Your grades will depend on doing so. If you have any questions or are uncertain about what a part of the instructions means, email me. The assignment instructions are:
Basic:
01 Detail Plan
02 Section-Elevation
03 Perspective
Intermediate:
01 Network Plan
02 Axonometric
03 Storyboard
2. In general, I will be looking for drawings that are:
+ Beautiful
+ Creative
+ Selective and judicious in deploying color, texture, and lineweight to emphasize important aspects of the landscape being depicted.
+ Clearly annotated — particularly in drawings such as perspective and storyboard where annotation is often not used.
3. For intermediates, given that we have focused in class thus far primarily on working in Rhino and 3ds Max, it is particularly important that you not only output renders from 3ds Max, but also overlay those renders with additional information in Adobe CS to produce finished drawings.
4. After Thursday, you will need to submit your work to me digitally by placing it on the server. (We’ll go over the location for this when we meet Thursday.) Once I have your work, I will give you interim grades and feedback on the drawings. You will have the opportunity to revise your drawings based on the comments you receive at the midterm and the feedback I give you. (Final drawing submissions will be after the final review.)
Read MoreLAR 5304G Digital Landscape Representation II: Static, Dynamic
Assignment 03: Storyboard
Description
Produce a storyboard that uses sequential movement through the space of the model that you have constructed for your axonometric drawing in order to produce a narrative reading of some aspect of the study landscape.
Workflow
Students will place a series of cameras in 3ds Max, render scenes from each camera as rasters, and compose a storyboard using those rendered scenes in Illustrator or InDesign.
Deliverables
1 Storyboard: a single board composed of a set of perspective images, arranged to convey a narrative reading. This storyboard should:
+ have between 8 and 16 frames, clearly labeled so that the viewer can understand the intended sequence of viewing
+ have a narrative logic that focuses on some relevant aspect of the study landscape, such as the experience of exploring the study landscape on foot, the movement of a material like water or sediment through the study landscape, the tectonic logic of components of the restoration project, or the operational logic of components of the restoration project.
+ include an axonometric key diagram that shows the spatial path of the perspective sequence
+ include labels, technical annotations, construction lines, and illustrative notes as appropriate to clarify the intent of the storyboard
The storyboard may make use of the device of explosion (as employed in the axonometric) if this is helpful for conveying the intended narrative reading.
You may also consider making use of stop-motion animation in constructing the storyboard, which can be facilitated through the judicious use of layers and cloning in 3ds Max.
Sources
Throughout every assignment for this course, you are expected to demonstrate good sourcing practices, for all visual, written, and intermediate products. This means both tracking your sources as you research and properly sourcing on all presented products. Sources should be clearly attributed directly on drawings.
Schedule
06 Receive Assignment 03
07 Rough draft of Assignment 03 due
08 Though class will not meet, you should be close to done with Assignment 03.
09 Critique
Read MoreHere is a PDF with good instructions on procedures for saving a Rhino model as a .DWG and importing it into 3ds Max.
Read MoreLAR 5304G Digital Landscape Representation II: Static, Dynamic
Assignment 02: Axonometric
Description
In this assignment, you will produce a large-scale axonometric representation of your study landscape by constructing a terrain model, place one or more constructed landscape objects into that terrain model, adding materials to both terrain model and landscape objects, and, finally, exploding and annotating the axonometric as appropriate in order to explain tectonic, scalar, and functional relationships within the study landscape.
Methodology
An axonometric drawing utilizes a form of parallel projection which is not orthogonal to the object(s) of the drawing, so that all three dimensional planes (x, y, and z) are visible in the drawing. Unlike a perspective projection, the scale of each dimensional planes is preserved throughout the drawing, though the scales of the three dimensional planes are not necessarily identical.
Workflow
> Download Digital Elevation Model(s) from online data sources
> Produce cropped and aligned .TIF files from both the DEM and aerial imagery using ArcGIS
> Use the “displace” modifier in 3ds Max to transform a simple plane into a terrain model
> Map aerial imagery onto the terrain model in 3ds Max
> Model one or more constructed landscape objects in Rhino 5
> Import the object(s) into 3ds Max and place them appropriately within the terrain model
> Map materials onto both the terrain model and constructed objects in 3ds Max
> Set up basic cameras and lighting in 3ds Max
> Render an axonometric from 3ds Max
> Annotate and adjust renderings as appropriate using Photoshop and Illustrator
Deliverables
1 Axonometric: a PDF file outputted from Photoshop or Illustrator at the conclusion of the workflow. The axonometric should answer the following questions:
> What is the topography of the study territory? (Answer by showing topography through the terrain model.)
> What constructed landscape object(s) have been proposed in CWPPRA restoration project plans for this territory?
> Where will those objects fit within the study territory? (Consider using “exploding” techniques to clarify this.)
> How will those objects function, particularly in relationship to important material flows (similar to Assignment 01)?
Sources
Throughout every assignment for this course, you are expected to demonstrate good sourcing practices, for all visual, written, and intermediate products. This means both tracking your sources as you research and properly sourcing on all presented products. Sources should be clearly attributed directly on drawings.
Schedule
03 Th 2.06 Terrain Model
04 Th 2.13 Objects
05 Th 2.20 Cameras & Lighting
Receive Assignment 03: Storyboard (Assignments 02 & 03 will be executed in partial parallel)
06 Th 2.27 Materials & Surfaces
07 Th 3.06 Work Session
XX Th 3.13 Spring Break
08 Th 3.20 CRITIQUE
Covering Assignments 01, 02, and 03.
1. Download Digital Elevation Model(s) from online data sources
2. Produce cropped and aligned .TIF files from both the DEM and aerial imagery using ArcGIS
A. Create a new ArcGIS map.
B. Place your DEM(s) in the map. If necessary, merge DEMs.
C. Zoom ArcGIS to the approximate boundaries of the area you want to model.
D. Set an appropriate and ‘clean’ scale (for instance: 1:20,000) for your output from ArcGIS. Remember that default scale in ArcGIS is meters:meters. (This is fine.)
E. Use File > Export Map to save a .TIF file, at scale and cropped to the region you are interested in modeling. Under “Options” > “General”, set resolution reasonably high (i.e. 150-300 dpi) and check “Clip Output to Graphics Extent”. Under “Options” > “Format”, set Color Mode to “8-bit Grayscale” and Compression to “None”.
F. Add “Basemap” > “World Imagery” (or another aerial image layer) to the ArcGIS file, and repeat step E, ensuring that the bounds and scale of the export remain identical.
3. Following the instructions in Tutorial 18.4 “Creating a Terrain using DEM Data and the Displace Modifier” in Cantrell and Yates, transform a simple plane into a terrain model and map aerial imagery onto the terrain model in 3ds Max
+ In step 5, note that you will sometimes want to scale down the plane (and thus your terrain model) relative to real dimensions of the area you are working with, particularly when you are working with very large regions. For instance, if the region you are modeling is 100,000 m x 100,000 m, you might create a plane that is at 1:10 relative to the region (10,000 m x 10,000 m). This can help avoid creating models that are too large for the computer to handle at reasonable speeds.
+ In step 10, note that the strength value should represent the total distance between minimum and maximum elevations, not “the height of the highest point in your terrain”. This will account for models that do not start at elevation 0.
+ After step 10, you may find that your terrain model is extremely bumpy or jagged. You can fix this by gradually increasing the “Blur” value on the Displace Modifier. (Generally, a value between 2 and 4 should be sufficient to smooth the model. Lower values are desirable as they will reduce distortion in the resultant terrain model.)
+ For steps 11-14, you may need to refer to Tutorial 15.1 “Creating a Standard Material in 3ds Max” in Cantrell and Yates.
Read More