Perfecting the Sketchup modeling workflow, discovering a new iconic building from F.L. Wright, eventually visiting the Jacobs House 3D model with Unreal Engine. Overall a simple project on paper, with a few technical and architectural lessons along the way to get to the end goal of realistic animation renders.
To download the 3D model :
All the 3D base files associated with the Jacobs House model are available here in CG Trader. The native format is Sketchup 2022 with components and layers well organized, modeled in real world scale with pretty close accuracy.
The impulse of the Jacobs House project
Recently going through a ‘Greatest buildings of the 20th Century’ book, I saw a bunch of projects from a certain Frank Lloyd Wright, big surprise. In the middle, this small house from his, the Jacobs House, caught my attention.
I’d always heard abouth his famous prairie style house, and this one had something special about it, a sense pf both simplicity and a completeness. I learned later that the Jacobs House, builti in 1936, was considered the first of his Usonian Houses, a blueprint of success for dozens of future projects.
Forget the Falling Water, the Guggenheim (for now), I’m diving into the Jacobs House. I knew it once I saw it, I am going to build in from scratch on my screen. As I would built the house brick by brick on my plot of land, if only I had one that big.
This would also be my opportunity to visit, in my own way.
Getting started with the Jacobs house
A a starting point, I only could find a few 2D floor plans and section that I retraced on Autocad and scaled right. Plus a ton of photo reference of the house, interior and exterior shots, glaning all the details to try to eyeball it the best I could after. Detailed process in the step-by-step later on.
Final results
Final animation tour edited with a little bit of music to get an all around feel for the Jacobs House in a 3D Unreal Engine set up. Trying to get a little bit more realistic in the renders while still playing with the camera moves of this virtual home :
Small galleries of still Unreal Engine renders, once the cameras and HDRI lightings have been set up. Using level sequences, movie render queue and png exports :
Making of the Jacobs House 3D model: step by step
Getting back on my now usual M.O., trying to get faster as well on each step, you how we do :
- Setting the objective
- Making a reference image library with Pureref
- Drawing the 2D base in Autocad
- Sketchup file set up: units, base image, scale
- Modeling using components and layers, efficient scenes
- Choosing the textures (Megascans Library from Quixel Bridge)
- Final touches in Sketchup : materials and UV mapping
- Export Sketchup file into Datasmith
- Importing Datasmith into Unreal Engine 5.1 project
- Material assignment and Foliage building in Unreal Engine
- Fbx import for the house furniture
- Cameras and renders from Unreal Engine, screenshots
- Stepping back and improving the scenes little by little, just by looking at them
- Choosing the final shots and rendering level sequences with movie render queue
- Da Vinci Resolve to transform png sequences into video file
- End result : HD video renders of the main parts of the Jacobs House
1. Setting the objective : rebuilding the Jacobs House and make it justice 
2. Making a reference image library in Pureref 
3. Drawing the 2d base in Autocad 
4. Sketchup file set up : aligning the plan and the elevation 
5. Modeling in Sketchup using components, layers and scene workflow 
6. Choosing textures from the Megascans Library : wooden planks high resolution for the walls 
7. Final touches in Sketchup : materials and UV mapping, furniture placing 
7. Easily checkable in an Enscape render such as this 
8. Exporting Sketchup file with Datasmith plug in 
8. Exporting Sketchup file with Datasmith plug in 
9. Creating project in Unreal Engine 5.1 : importing Datasmith scene 
9. Geometry OK, UV and textures OK, just the diffuse though 
10. Adding foliage (Megascans library) in Unreal Engine 
11. Fbx import for the house furniture, standard UV mapping from free 3D assets to be found online 
12. Renders from Unreal Engine, setting up cameras 
13. Office shot first draft 
13. Stepping back and improving the shots by adding little elements : office shot final version 
14. Choosing the final shots : opening on the garden 
14. Camera zooming in slowly 
14. Rendering the level sequences with movie render queue 
15. Da vinci resolve to transform png sequences into video file, better resolution and control 
End result : video renders, edited, of the Jacobs House
Conclusion
In terms of scale, this wasn’t the scariest Wright building to model, but still a very interesting one to dive into. The Skecthup workflow is now pretty dead on, and the bridge between Sketchup and Unreal via Datasmith is beginning to take form.
A lot of back and forth between Skecthup and Unreal on this project will hopefully take less time on the next one. This Skecthup-Unreal connexion and the specificities of Datasmith exporting will need a special article.
Roughly 35 hours of work between the first (virtual) brick and the video render, gives a good enough idea of how long it takes to get from a simple 2D base to a pretty realistic and lived-in 3D environment.
I’ll come back to Wright later, but for now, onto the next one,