Inventory and Analysis of Newtown, Ga.
Part II

By Jordan Bates, Jacob Lange and Brady Richards, MLA students, University of Georgiaa

The base map is divided into quadrants in Photoshop to preserve high resolution of the image, then later reassembled in SketchUp.

The second in a two-part series, this article is an exploration into the process developed by three University of Georgia MLA students in generating a multimedia video presentation as a means for site inventory and analysis. (www.landscapearchitect/research/article/11618)

As was described in the previous article, the video presentation that documents the Newtown community sought to define the physical, environmental and aesthetic characteristics of the site, while simultaneously expressing the community’s well-established cultural fabric. In doing so, the students created a final product that was used as a design tool. Also, the accessibility of the video format composes a narrative that can be used by the community to assert their viability within the context of greater Gainesville.

 

The narrative text is added to video using Adobe Premiere Pro.

The process began, as do most inventory and analyses, with the collection of design resources—site maps, aerial photographs and GIS data. In addition, the students compiled video footage, photographs, audio samples and conducted resident interviews. The collection of diverse resource materials required extensive formatting combined into a single, consistent composition. At this point the students decided upon a video presentation, yet they still needed a method for combining the abstract and conceptual inventory maps with the tangible and illustrative video footage and photographs to give the analysis a human context.

They chose to represent the inventory and analysis mapping through a combination of animations and stills created with Google SketchUp. SketchUp generated color-overlay maps consistent with traditional methods of site analysis. The three-dimensional animation capabilities provided an interface for seamlessly combining the analytical maps with video footage from the site.

Premiere's real-time video editing interface provides four video tracks and three audio tracks. The program allows a combination of diverse media formats.

Furthermore, the three-dimensional quality allowed for more telling representations of spatial relationships in and around the site.

To create the SketchUp models, a base map with specific site and contextual analyses was created. The first step was to get a map that showed the comprehensive land use composition of the city of Gainesville. The students turned to ArcGIS. Using a data set comprised of parcel ownership, streets and railroads, they exported the map to AutoCAD and combined individual parcels into larger masses that had the same land uses. Seven distinct land uses were deemed essential in understanding Gainesville’s urban composition and performing its spatial analysis: residential, industrial, commercial, governmental, open greenspace, churches and the junkyard. Each polyline that constituted a land use was assigned to its corresponding layer.

The final step in creating the base map was to export the DWG file into Adobe Illustrator so that the designated layers created in AutoCAD would be preserved and each could be easily applied with a color overlay corresponding to their land use. After converting the Illustrator file into a PDF, the base map was ready to be inserted into SketchUp.

Raising masses from the base map helped to emphasize land use locations and patterns. These were exported as jpegs into Premiere and placed into the film narrative.

Resolving the Resolution

After the initial insertion of the PDF into SketchUp, it became apparent the resolution was poor and lacked the readability necessary to be used in the final video presentation. When a two-dimensional image is imported into SketchUp, the program will automatically downsize the image to the default size, 1200×1200 pixels. The original base map was 3500×2700 pixels. The solution was to first open the PDF in Adobe Photoshop where the base map could be divided into four equal pieces. Those pieces were then saved individually as separate jpegs. Those four individual jpegs were then inserted into SketchUp and reassembled on the ground plane of the model. The result was a much improved resolution of the base map that would be used for all of the video’s animations and stills.

With the base map in place, land use masses were raised in their corresponding colors to make the map more legible and emphasize the location of each use. Seen consecutively, the relationships between these uses became clearer and more understandable.

These were then saved as jpegs to be later assimilated with other media. In concert with these still map images, SketchUp animations were employed for orbiting panoramas to further understand Gainesville’s spatial relationships. An animation path was created by selecting vectors in virtual space and having the program connect them. These two visual devices, still and animated maps, created a simple and engaging format to be melded together in the video’s next step.

SketchUp animations provide a better understanding and representation of spatial relationships.

Putting It All Together

Having all resources in usable formats, the students then stitched them together using the intuitive Adobe Premiere Pro. The Premiere interface is a time-line driven video editing program. Photographs, animations and video files were placed in a desired chronology and linked seamlessly together by visual segues and text options within the program. Music, ambient sounds, interview voice-overs and commentary by the students themselves were superimposed to heighten dramatic effect and emphasize certain paramount issues. The edited footage of the neighborhood with the inventory/analysis maps by themselves gave a flat representation of the Newtown site. With the addition of sound and music, a dynamic interplay between the place and the emotions it evoked was created.

Communicating important ideas and information between client and designer is a paramount issue. This innovative format succeeded in clarifying many issues that are esoteric to those outside the landscape architecture and planning fields.

Furthermore, the designer’s duty to his client does not end upon completion of the project. Now the residents of Newtown possessed a powerful marketing tool for advancement of their neighborhood in the political forum. This, combined with superior legibility, makes the video format an avenue to pursue when dealing with inventory and analysis of this nature.

Check out the video at: www.ced.uga.edu/index.php/degree/list/cat/mla.