Bill R. Johnson CTE Center and Crowley Collegiate Academy

Bill R. Johnson CTE Center & Crowley Collegiate Academy

Visually communicating Crowley ISD's vision for future facilities.

Role

Experience Designer
VR Designer
3D Designer
Cinematographer

Contributions

Animation Compositing
Motion Capture
Revit to 3ds Max
Virtual Tour

Team

Experience Design Department

Collaboration

VLK Architects
Crowley ISD

Tools

3ds Max + V-Ray
Revit
Syntheyes
After Effects
Premier Pro
Illustrator
InDesign
Photoshop
Drone
360 Camera

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Context/Background

Overview

The Bill R. Johnson Career Technology Education Center and Crowley Collegiate Academy is a collaboration effort between VLK Architects and Crowley ISD's community to create an innovative environment for learning. Crowley ISD wanted to update its community about the facility's progress as well as communicate their vision of the future for educational spaces.
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Responsibilites

Composited and composed 3d scenes using 3ds Max, Syntheyes, After Effects, and Premier Pro.
Coordinated between design teams in Revit to translate the project into 3ds Max so the Experience Design Department could fulfill their tasks.
Managed and lead setup for the project before rendering.
Provided 360 photos and drone footage used in 360 virtual tour and animation sequence.

Opportunity/Challenge

How might we..?

How might we communicate Crowley ISD's vision of creating new innovative educational spaces to its community?

Solution

Multiple digital experiences to emphasize Crowley ISD's vision.

Animation sequences, rendered photorealistic imagery, 360 virtual reality and a 360 virtual tour are used to realize the city of Crowley's vision of its latest educational facility under the challenges of COVID-19.

Techniques

Animation

The animation showcases the potential use of spaces designed by both the community and architecture design teams.
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Brand identity application was also incorporated into the project to give the space a more personalized experience.
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Brand Identity for Bill R. Johnson CTE Center

3 different options for background wall colors

Photorealistic Design Options

Interior spaces with alternative design options were rendered in order to facilitate the design process during the design and construction phases. This alleviated the risk all stakeholders involved in a project of this scale.
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These images also became marketing material to present to the community as updates on the state of the facility's progress.

Immersive 360° Virtual Reality Imagery

360° rendered imagery and the use of a virtual reality headset became a viable solution to immerse the clients in various unbuilt spaces, thus serving in the design phase of the project.

360° Virtual Tour

A virtual tour was created during the construction process to update all stakeholders during virtual presentations. Parties who could not physically travel due to COVID-19 restrictions also benefited from this virtual tour.

*Link unavailable to outside parties due to student/campus safety.

Outcome

From the digital realm to the physical world.

Not only was the Crowley ISD community updated on their future facility, but the techniques used were useful to various stakeholders involved to fully realize the project into the physical realm.
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Final Construction

Reflections + Conclusion

Lessons Learned

Presenting how a space will be used helps illustrate the scale of spaces to an audience unfamiliar with an architecture background.
In-person job site meetings became less frequent due to COVID-19. The virtual tour could inform construction and design teams - making the chances of job site injuries less likely as well as COVID-19 exposure.
Some clients needed an extra level of immersion to buy in on design decisions. Using 360° VR imagery proved useful for such an instance.
Various artifacts created throughout the design process could be repackaged as marketing material to tell the story of the efforts made by the stakeholders to further communicate the message that could resonate with the community of Crowley ISD.
360° photography is a new skillset that can be offered as a service to clients. This furthers the expertise in the field of digital experiences for the experience design team.