Exploded Axonometric Illustration Blueprint Style Tutorial

Sometimes it’s ok to go back to the basics. So with this short, and very easy tutorial we tried doing that. This will help you spice it up a little bit and avoid having the same stuff. So watch along how we did this exploded axonometric blueprint illustration.

If you want to skip these steps and just watch the video tutorial, click here. Or follow along with the steps below!

Final Exploded Axonometric Blueprint style illustration

Open 3D model in Revit

Open your project in Revit and put it in 3d view.

Put it in line mode, then select the displacement tool.

Start selecting the elements in the model, with the displacement tool, it will give you the option to move it sideways, up or down.

Make sure to be organized when moving each element. After this, export this file as a pdf file in big size.

Import to Photoshop

Import your file to photoshop, create a new background layer, and adjust canvas.

Now we are going to separate each layer from one another, using the lasso tool, we are going to select each layer, then pressing ctrl + shift +j, which will separate each digram into a separate layer.

Since we are going to do an illustration like a presentation board style, we are going to copy the layers to put them in different sizes on the sides.

After adjusting the primary elements, we are going to add a new blue background layer. Then we will erase all of the whites of the model, using the color range, selecting the white we can change the color.

Now going to each layer, pressing ctrl + I, it will invert the selection and make the black lines white.

Creative part

The key here is to be organized, so we start adding a color code for each element. In this case, the walls are going to be white, the floors are going to be dark blue, and the interior walls are going to be light blue.

Use the lasso tool to select the outside walls, and start coloring them white.

The key in this type of illustration is to have a monochromatic style, so if you are working with blue, let it all be in the range of blues, please don’t add any reds, or yellows.. haha

Remember that for every new color that you are going to use, create a new layer.

After finishing the color code for everything, we copy the ground layer and put it on the side a lot bigger, so this way you can show and see the detail. We also copied one more time and made a compact version of the whole diagram.

Add texture

We wanted to give this illustration a grungy type look, so we downloaded a grid brush and started painting the grid, or you can just google search a png grid and paste it.

We just noticed that in SIB we love textures, especially grunge textures, if you don’t know where to download them, you can visit the sites here.

After pasting the grunge texture, press ctrl+ shift + u to desaturate, then use the multiply mode. Adjust the brightness and contrast of the image.

Using the pen tool with a dashed line, start making some projection lines, to “tie” all of the exploded axonometric together. Make sure they are not too thick or too thin.

After these small details, you can see the illustration coming along, of course, we added some text to have some info to each drawing. Make sure you use an interesting font, find some cool fonts here.