Abvent ships Twinmotion 2016
Originally posted on 20 October 2015. Scroll down for details of the official release.
The developers of real-time visualisation tool Twinmotion have released a teaser for the upcoming 2016 release of the software, adding support for Google Earth topology, photogrammetry and point cloud data.
Originally created by French architectural visualisation studio KA-RA, Twinmotion is now developed in partnership with Artlantis creator Abvent, which released Twinmotion 2015 earlier this year.
Under the old numbering system, Twinmotion 2015 would have been a 3.x release, which would make Twinmotion 2016 the old Twinmotion 4.
So what can Twinmotion do?
Twinmotion imports hero models in a range of standard 3D file formats, including FBX, DWG and DAE, plus SketchUp and Cinema 4D’s native SKP and C4D formats. There is also an export plugin for Revit.
Users can create background environments from a library of stock models and textures, and assign lights.
Atmospheric properties – including clouds, rain and snow, and ambient lighting based on geographical location and time of day – can be adjusted via slider-based controls.
There are also brush-based systems for editing topography or adding animatiable vegetation to a scene, and a Bezier-based system for pathing animated crowds or traffic.
The software also includes a basic camera editor and a set of standard post-process effects.
New features in Twinmotion 2016
To that, the 2016 release will add the option to import topology data from Google Earth, and to generate 3D environments from photogrammetry or point cloud scan data.
There is also a new standalone viewer application, entitled BIMmotion; and a new phasing system, showing the stages of a building’s construction tracked in a BIM process.
The update also adds support for games controllers – the video shows both Xbox One and PlayStation 4 models – and reworks Twinmotion’s system for simulating seasons.
Other changes include new library objects, selective clay renders, and a clip-management system.
Updated 3 November 2015: Twinmotion 2016 is now shipping for Windows 7 and above. It costs €1,650 (around $1,870) for a single licence, or €2,450 ($2,780) for a team licence.