Topic: usage of lumion free version for project allowed?

[Carloh]

hello,

i would like to ask if i can use the lumion free version for a university project, in which i have to present the results of the project to a city mayor. i'm not getting money for this and the results are not to be executed in reality. does this fall under "commercial use" or can i do this?

greetings
Carl

[Gaieus]

In my personal interpretation this would definitely not fall into the "commercial" category. "Non-commercial" is not only "hobbyists" but also educational licenses are generally non-commercial, too.

You use it, work with it, present it (imagine that a presentation is also when it is your professor who then evaluates the results) and all. Everything except making money with it.

[Carloh]

that's what i thought, but i guess i should wait for a comment from the lumion staff.

Another question: would it be permitted to cut out the watersign from the image?

[Architect JM]

...  unfortunately no ... you can't remove it, I mean you could but is part of the Lumion brand to show that you are using Free version of the program.... you need to keep the watermark.
 

[Gaieus]

I'd also say you are not supposed to touch that watermark. But since it's a university project, I do not really think there's too much shame on you not to buy an expensive program to present to the major (or if he does not like that quite subtle watermark, he can always buy you a full license I presume)

[Carloh]

in fact i am planning to buy lumion...but since the version 3.0 is on its way and the semester is now already over and next semester starts late this year i thought i should wait till the new version appears. would be pretty stupid to buy version 2 when there is almost no project left i can work on and in summer hollidays i won't have the time just to play around with lumion and then have to pay again to be up to date in the beginning of the new semester.

[Gaieus]

That's fine - but we are now talking about your current situation. So trust me and go ahead with your university project as it is now. Use Lumion to present it to the mayor (but keep that small watermark - he will be understanding...)

[Carloh]

okay...thank you very much Gaieus for your adivse

[Morten]

I would lean towards Gaieus' interpretation as well.

On the Lumion Free page, the developers state that:

Lumion® Free was made so you have a chance to see for yourself if Lumion® really is as awesome as we think it is. So please note that Lumion® Free is not for commercial use or any other potential source of income. It is only for internal showcases, for learning Lumion and for importing your 3D models so that you know that the pipeline works.

That being said, if you weren't planning on using Lumion for commercial purposes later in 2012/2013, an Educational license would be more suitable for your situation - another benefit is that it has fewer restrictions than Lumion Free.

Incidentally, we'll have an announcement regarding Educational versions as soon as we're ready to release the next update, and I'm sure that will be of interest to you

[poulet_noir]

Hi,

I discovered Lumion last week and have to say that it is an astonishing piece of software. Given that I can use it on a 7yo PC running XP is quite an achievement!

I'm interested in using Lumion to create backdrops and other large-scale scenes to use in conjunction with a budget animation program called Moviestorm. These are non-commercial just-for-fun projects. However, the Lumion watermark is rather intrusive, particularly when some scenes would have it and others not.

So my question is: would it be an acceptable alternative if I added a big "Made with Lumion Free"  snippet at the end of the movie? Here's a 30 sec example of what I had in mind:
Lumion1

The alternative might be to contrive a watermark overlay that could be used on the entire movie.

All feedback gratefully received!

[Morten]

Hi poulet_noir, it's kind of you to ask.

Unfortunately we still require that the Lumion FREE logo is displayed in the top left corner of the rendered Lumion movie. The fact that Lumion FREE is quite powerful erodes the commercial licenses that our customers are paying for, and the Lumion FREE logo is an important way to distinguish a commercial license from a non-commercial one. If we didn't have the logo requirement, we would be forced to reduce the feature set in Lumion FREE even further, since unscrupulous Lumion FREE users (not you obviously ) otherwise could compete with customers who had commercial licenses.

I hope you understand.

http://lumion3d.com/free/
"It is only for internal showcases, for learning Lumion and for importing your 3D models so that you know that the pipeline works."

[poulet_noir]

Hi Morten,

Yes that's perfectly understandable. Would you be happy if I had the watermark (even in non-Lumion shots), but contrived to move the watermark further into the corner?

I appreciate that this might not be acceptable either, given that it might imply capabilities either that Lumion does not have or that Lumion can perform much better than what's om screen.

Hmm, I think I've answered my own question! Time to start saving up for the Full version 

Cheers,

Poulet

[Morten]

I'm sorry but we can't make any exceptions, Poulet.

If we start to bend the watermark rule on a per-case basis, we would inevitably end up having to restrict the use of Lumion FREE in different ways. That being said, it could be worse: Having a logo in the corner is less intrusive than a full screen watermark, right?

So if you want to use videos made with Lumion FREE, you will still have to display the logo, so that it's clearly readable in the original, non-cropped video.

P.S. Thanks again for actually asking - I wish more Lumion FREE users did that.

[nimanikroo]

why is the watermark not on the top left like mentioned above? i used to have the watermark for the free version on the top left, however after the new download the watermark is all over the page...i too cant really show this for educational presentation being that the entire page is now watermark.

i was fine with the top left logo...have i downloaded the wrong edition of free lumion? where is the download or what settings do i need to get rid of the entire page of watermark and change it for the top left watermark edition?

[Morten]

i too cant really show this for educational presentation being that the entire page is now watermark.

Hi nimanikroo, if you're a student, I would recommend using one of our educational versions of Lumion. Only Lumion Free has a full screen watermark to prevent people from using it for commercial projects.