What is cooking guys? This week I’m excited to be sharing some technology tips for you home improvement enthusiasts out there. I’m actually going to dedicate this week’s episode to an app that I absolutely love using to help me design and visualize my space. The app is called Interior Design for iPad made by Black Mana Studios. As a note, I get no monetary compensation for promoting this app, I just like it so much that I had to share. The reason why I like this app so much and opted to use it over some of its competitors (all of which I own by the way), is due to its simple design and powerful user interface. In one app you are able to visualize and design with ease.  If you recall in episode 4 I spoke about the before and after of my kitchen with pictures of the before and after. What I didn’t share with you was my design in the app. Below is an image of my first design for my kitchen.

Now this was my first version. Again if you go to episode 4 you’ll get an idea of what the kitchen looked like before. The kitchen actually looked very similar to the one above except on the left we opted for a desk over more pantry space. I designed this kitchen with the app in just under a few hrs. There is a 2D interface that lets you draw the rooms and then you can zoom in for a 3D view. I liked this app so much that I contacted the CEO of Black Mana Studios to give them a virtual high five. I spoke to Aki who runs the company over there and Aki told me about their newest generation of software called Tap Glance. This is a relatively new tool that helps you create a 3D almost real life render of your design.

The design above was later modified to more accurately reflect what the kitchen looks like today. Below is a picture of the design in Tap Glance. They opted to use Tap Glance over Interior Design app because it has higher detailed models and materials. So here is what my design looks like in Tap Glance.

The purpose of Tap Glance is it takes an image like the one above and converts it into a real life looking picture. So Aki helped me render this image and here was the result

When I saw this rendered image I was nearly taken a back. I had to look closely to determine if this was really a shot of my kitchen or a high quality 3D render. Now to give you more perspective, here is what my kitchen actually looks like today.

The image is almost bang on. You may notice some subtle differences like the vent cap or the crown moulding but otherwise i’ve never seen a more realistic render of any space in my house like I have seen with Tap Glance.

So for those who want to get a real life image of what your vision could look like, Tap Glance is a great solution. For others who are looking for a simple 3D design to visualize space, Interior Design app is  still a great choice.

A big thanks to Aki over at Black Mana Studios for introducing me to Tap Glance and providing some visuals for our audience to see. Also congrats to them for having strong rating for the Interior Design app in the app store.

If you want to find out more about Tap Glance, you can visit them online. For any questions please don’t hesitate to send me a note at [email protected]

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