Twinmotion for Beginners

Tour of Twinmotion's interface and introduction to Tadao Ando's Koshino House—the 1984 Japanese residence we'll render throughout the course. Import the SketchUp model from 3D Warehouse and set up five camera positions matching ArchDaily reference photography: three interiors and two exteriors. Adam's key tip: avoid the live link plugin and stick to simple imports.

Simplify your material palette in SketchUp before importing—assign obvious colours like pink to external walls so you can track what's been textured. Apply materials from Twinmotion's basic library, then explore Megascans integration for photorealistic surfaces. The course project uses Ando's signature concrete, so material authenticity matters here.

The four artificial light types: area lights for supplementary window fill (like a studio photographer), omnidirectional for room fill, neon strips for under-cabinet lighting, and spotlights for wall wash effects. IES profiles from real lighting manufacturers create accurate light falloff. Model your own downlights in SketchUp and make them emissive in Twinmotion.

Twinmotion's asset library organised by category—home (living room, bathroom, kitchen), city (bins, planters, street lights), and the often-overlooked decals section. Decals project textures onto surfaces without disturbing the material beneath: graffiti, stains, water leaks. Imperfections equal realism. Also covers particles for fire, fog, and water effects.

The Populate tab unpacked: character paths that animate people walking through your scene, vehicle paths for moving cars, and the foliage Paint and Scatter modes. Paint bamboo and trees around the Koshino House perimeter, adjust density and age settings, then organise assets into folders via the Outliner. Also covers Lumen vs Path Tracer rendering—Adam recommends Path Tracer for finals.

The Media section handles all your export types: still images, video clips, panoramas, and panorama sets. Set up 16:9 aspect ratios, configure 4K output, and apply effects and filters including the useful Blueprint mode for diagrams. Quick overview of the export workflow before we dive deeper in the rendering lessons.

Match your renders to real Koshino House photography. Fix the hallway flooring material, add ceiling lights from the library and make them emissive, frame shots with proper aspect ratios, and tidy up geometry gaps where floors meet walls. The scene development process: self-critique against reference images, then iterate until the render holds up.

Before/after comparison showing progress from mid-course renders to polished output. Add grass density with multiple scatter layers—different grass types plus clovers for variation. Create a Photoshop backdrop image to add depth behind the trees (so you don't see empty sky through vegetation). Small touches that separate amateur renders from professional ones.

Path Tracer settings explained: samples per pixel increase by powers of two (256→512→1024→2048), with 1024 being the sweet spot for professional output. Denoiser helps but can lose shadow detail at low samples. Max bounces set to 10 for good global illumination. Also covers video rendering with Lumen for faster turnaround on animation clips.

Set up four panoramic views at eye level—two exteriors, two interiors. Panoramas capture 360° of the scene, so think about the full environment rather than just what's in frame. Create a panorama set, drag your views in, and export to Twinmotion Cloud. The result: an interactive virtual walkthrough you can share with clients via a simple web link.