Paying Tribute: Rendering a Veterans Memorial in Visualize

To honor those who have served our United States Armed Forces this Veteran’s Day, I’ve modeled the Anthem Veterans Memorial, located in Arizona, which has a unique feature that is perfect to demonstrate the scene lighting and animation capabilities of SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional. To do this yourself, read our tutorial and watch the full demonstration in our video!

Athem Veterans Memorial in Anthem, Arizona

Anthem Veterans Memorial

Let’s start with a brief review of this special memorial. The five pillars of the Anthem Veterans Memorial represent the nation’s military branches and are arranged in Department of Defense order of precedence: Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard (above image, right to left). On the ground at the front of the shortest pillar sits the Great Seal.

The Great Seal

The Anthem Veterans Memorial holds a special secret. Each pillar has an elliptical opening that slants downward toward the Great Seal of the United States. Each year, on the 11^th minute of the 11^th hour on Veteran’s Day (November 11^th), this unique design allows the sun’s rays to align with the ellipses and perfectly illuminate the Great Seal at precisely 11:11 AM. Fascinated by this unique occurrence, I’ve replicated this special moment using animated lights in SOLIDWORKS Visualize. Here are the steps:

Step 1: Set Up the Model

Import the SOLIDWORKS model of the pillars and ground into Visualize
Import flag .OBJ models to supplement the pillars with the flags of the US military
Add decals to represent the Great Seal and the seals of our military branches
Add and modify appearances of the models

Step 2: Set Up the Scene

Apply an HDRI environment that illuminates the model from a single direction
Rotate the environment to illuminate the model from the back of the tallest pillar
Add a back plate

Step 3: Add the Light

Add a new directional light from the Scenes tab
Relocate the light’s position behind the model to mimic the position of the sun
Relocate the target position of the light to align with the elliptical holes and illuminate the Great Seal

Step 4: Animate the Light

Move the animation timeline to five seconds
Right-click the light in the Scenes tab and select “Add Keyframe”
Move the animation timeline to zero seconds
Relocate the directional light to the side of the memorial for the starting location of the sun
Right-click the light in the Scenes tab and select “Add Keyframe”
Assign the frames per second in the animation timeline
Move the timeline between zero to five seconds to confirm the proper shadow alignment

Step 5: Render the Animation

Open the Output Tools window
Enable the Animation tab and Animation Options
Select Movie Format and Frame Range
Enable the Render Options tab
Assign the Size, Resolution and Render Selection

Paying Tribute

Finally, I’d like to pay a special tribute to a few people. First, my grandfather Henry Poitras, an Army Veteran who served in the Korean war (featured below) and is now living in the Rhode Island Veteran’s Home in Bristol, RI.

Veteran's Day Tribute

Next, I’d like to dedicate this blog to all of my veteran coworkers. I work alongside some of the finest men and women in the country, and many of them have served our country before their time at TriMech.