Using Twinmotion with Rhino

What is Twinmotion?

Twinmotion is a real-time visualization tool, which can be used for making life-like renders using rhino, archicad, revit, sketchup and fbx.

Getting started

Direct link page

Downloading twinmotion and plugins

First download ‘Epic Games’, this is the launcher for twinmotion. Create an account using your TU Delft account and then install twinmotion. Make sure you close rhino before downloading the necessary plug-ins. You can download the plug-ins using this link:https://www.twinmotion.com/en-US/plugins. You can also see how to download the plugins on this site. When everything is downloaded, restart twinmotion and epic games.

Getting started: For this example, we’re using a rhino model. Make sure you have rhino open when importing. Click import -> click import direct link. Set ‘keep hierarchy’under ‘collapse’. Using direct link allows you to edit your rhino model while working in twinmotion.

Synchronize button

Now go to your rhino model and go to ‘datasmith’ and click ‘synchronize’. Your model should now appear in twinmotion. It is also possible the synchronize button appears without using datasmith.

Did you synchronize but you can’t see your project? Go to ‘scene’ in twinmotion by clicking the triangle in the upper right corner. Click on your project and click ‘f’ on your keyboard. If your project is underneath the ground level, you can lower the ground level in twinmotion or you can lift your design in rhino. You can also remove the ground level surface.
Does a shape not convert to twinmotion, this is because it is a surface instead of a polysurface. You can use 'extrudesrf' to extrude the surface.

Materials

Scaling materials in UVW repeat

Changing materials in twinmotion

Is your material the wrong scale when rendering your project? Follow the following steps:

Rhino: Select the problem area in rhino and go to the properties panel -> texture mapping panel. Change the numbers under ‘UVW repeat’, this scales your materials.

Twinmotion: Open the library panel by opening the little triangle in the left upper corner. Select materials, then drag the material to the selected area. If you hover over the materials,you should get a preview. After adding the material,you can use scale to scale the material. You can also change the reflection, color, glow etc.

If you want realistic looking grass, look at 'landscape and vegatation'.

Vegetation and landscape

Terrain sculpting options are on the bottom

Landscape: if you want to edit the landscape, you can drag the the preffered landscape into the model. You can sculpt the terrain to your liking. 'Sculpt terrain' is visible in the box on the bottom of the screen.

Vegetation: Placing directly: You can drag trees to selected areas to create the wanted effect. Scattering trees (fast forest): Select context -> vegetation paint. Drop different kinds of vegetation to the surface.Then select the paint brush and start painting.

Did you accidentally paint your building? Press ctrl+z until it is gone. Then select the area you DO want to paint. It should be highlighted on the right side of your screen in 'scene'. Select the three dots, then select ‘isolate on/off’ now you paint the selected area. When you’re done you select ‘isolate on/off’again.

Static and Animated objects

Here you see the walking people, materials, trees and static humans all together

Static object: Under objects you can select several different types of object to bring your project to life. Just drag the objects to the right surface.

Animated objects: under objects you can add doors that open automatically when walking through them. You can also add water and running water. This is also by dragging them to the right spot. You can also add static humans under 'characters'.

Walking people: Go to 'context' -> 'paths' -> 'character path'. Select the pen tool, set several dots on your design. Make sure you make a closed circle. Then you'll see walking people in your design.

Placing your model in existing spaces

Placing your design in existing places

Do you want to place your model in the center of Eindhoven or Paris? Select ‘context’ -> ‘urban’ then select an area on the map using the rectangle, then select ‘grab’. This may take a while. There will probably be buildings on top of your design, you can delete these by selecting them and clicking delete.

Weather

You can see your model in the winter

Go to 'settings'-> 'weather'. Change the weater to rainy or snowy or just sunny.

You can also change the sky by going to skydome, then selecting one you think will fit with your weather type, drag it to the design. You can also go to 'settings' -> 'location' to set you location and time of year. This way you'll have a january sun instead of a warm july sun in your snowy design.

Exporting

Piture: Select ‘media’select ‘image’. Twinmotion makes a snapshot of your current screen.

Video: open video and select create video, make different screens and twinmotion will automatically make a smooth video when you export.

Exporting: Select the images and videos you wantto export and select ‘start export’. This may take a while.

Watch out: you are in 'media mode' when you start piture or video, you need to close media mode before you can make alterations to your model.

Example Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_klG_djKOJY