Advanced Guide to Twinmotion

Import CAD drawings of the Barcelona Pavilion into SketchUp—a plan, site plan, sections, and elevations. The drawings came from a PDF conversion so measurements are approximate; Radu works with the travertine floor grid (roughly 1100mm modules) to keep dimensions consistent. Set up layers/tags for drawing overlays and begin massing out walls, roof, and major elements.

Over an hour of detailed SketchUp modelling. Trace the floor slabs, extrude walls with proper thicknesses, model the reflecting pool, and build the iconic cruciform columns. Group elements logically—the Barcelona Pavilion's simple geometry means you can focus on precision rather than complexity. Radu shares workflow tips on keyboard shortcuts and component organisation.

Geo-locate the model to Barcelona's actual coordinates for accurate sun paths in Twinmotion. Add 3D terrain and surrounding context using SketchUp's geo-location tools. Final geometry cleanup and material colour assignments prepare the model for Datasmith export.

Tour of Twinmotion's interface and the two import methods: Datasmith file export (shareable, standalone) versus Direct Link (live connection to SketchUp). File formats supported include FBX, OBJ, SketchUp native, and Cinema 4D. Import the Barcelona Pavilion and explore the scene graph organisation, transform tools, and viewport navigation.

Apply materials from Twinmotion's library—marble for the travertine, glass, chrome for the columns. Adjust tiling, roughness, and reflectivity. The pavilion's mix of transparent, reflective, and matte surfaces makes it ideal for understanding how material properties affect renders. Also covers creating simple custom materials for edge cases.

Paint vegetation using brush and scatter tools. Adjust density, scale variation, and random rotation to avoid the "copy-paste" look. Add 3D grass to the lawn areas surrounding the pavilion. The pavilion's reflecting pools and minimal landscaping mean vegetation has to be convincing—every tree shows.

Twinmotion's asset library categories: nature, transport, urban, interior. Many objects are pre-animated—people walk, cars drive—and activate in video renders and VR walkthroughs. Place the iconic Barcelona chairs, add entourage figures, and organise assets in the scene graph for easy selection and editing.

Epic Games acquired Quixel, so Megascans assets are free with Twinmotion. Browse the library for photoscanned rocks, debris, vegetation—elements that add realism where Twinmotion's standard library falls short. Apply Megascans materials to replace or supplement existing textures for higher fidelity surfaces.

Animated characters and vehicles move along paths you draw in the scene. Create a walking route for visitors approaching the pavilion, or a vehicle path on the adjacent street. Adjust speed and spacing. These animated elements bring video renders to life—static images don't show them, but walkthroughs and animations do.

The longest lesson covers geo-located sun position, sky and background settings, and artificial lighting for interior and night scenes. Add fog for atmospheric depth. The Barcelona Pavilion's famous play of light through the onyx wall and across the reflecting pool makes lighting setup critical—get it wrong and you lose what makes the building special.

Section planes let you cut through the model for technical drawings or interior views. Reflection probes improve accuracy in specific areas—useful around the pavilion's chrome columns and glass walls. Also covers measurement tools and the outliner for scene organisation. These utility features separate polished presentations from basic renders.

Set up camera views with proper focal lengths and aspect ratios. Batch render multiple images at once. Export formats include PNG, TIFF, and EXR for compositing. Video export settings cover resolution, frame rate, and codec. Panorama renders create 360° images for VR viewers or web embeds.

Install the Datasmith Twinmotion Importer and Twinmotion Content plugins from Epic's marketplace (the content pack is 30GB+). Import your .tm file directly into Unreal Engine—materials and assets transfer over. The UE5 editor offers more control for those who want to push quality further or create interactive experiences.

The Path Tracer calculates ray-traced lighting with accurate reflections, soft shadows, and global illumination. Toggle it on with R key. Adjust samples per pixel and light bounces—higher values mean cleaner images but longer render times. Compare Path Tracer output against the standard real-time engine to see the quality difference.

Adam Morgan covers Lumen—Unreal Engine's real-time global illumination now available in Twinmotion. Unlike Path Tracer (offline rendering), Lumen calculates GI in real-time as you navigate. The updated interface puts ambience settings in a new location. Quick scene setup demonstrates Lumen's quality for interiors using a Corona Interior course model for comparison.