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3D Architectural Renderings
The purpose of architectural renderings and what's involved in the process.
While architectural renderings have been around for many centuries, computer-generated 3d architectural renderings is a relatively new field still in its infancy. If you do an Internet search for 'architectural renderings', you could easily pull up a hundred thousand results on the topic. The sheer number of results can be overwhelming. In this article, I will try to answer some of the most common questions regarding this field as well help people's understanding of this process and art form.
My Background
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| My 'Heart Grenade' illustration. |
Before I go into detail and you ask yourself, "who is this person?", I would like to explain a bit about my background. I started off in the late 90s as a graphic artist in Boston, Massachusetts. The "Dot Com" boom was just taking place and the Internet was just becoming very popular. Having graduated college with a liberal arts degree in '96, I started exploring various careers related to the graphics industry. This included web design as well as illustration work. However, part of my problem was that I couldn't find solid employment during that timethe more I freelanced and contracted, the less people and companies saw me as a reliably "permanent" employee, and some just 'assumed' that I would jump at any other opportunities that presented themselves.
As a result, I forced myself to learn many different software technologies and programs to remain "gainfully" employed. I had originally wanted to enter the field of game design and development, and started investigating various 3d applications on my own. The learning curve turned out to be very intimidatingI made plenty of "wrong" turns without having proper schooling within this somewhat fledgling field. I had to rely a lot on the various 3d forums to help get the answers which I was seeking. And along that path, I made many helpful online friends and acquaintances which persist to this very day. Some of these friends happened to be incredible artists in their own right, so I had the great fortune of being surrounded by an amazing amount of very talented individuals.
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| One of my "architectural renderings." |
Eventually, I hit a solid period of unemployment and used this time to further refine my skill sets. My skills were actually becoming more advanced than many people who took formal schooling in a related field. A few friends from the forum decided that it would be a good idea to have me create a website portfolio representing our artwork since I had the website skills to do so. From there, I would become the marketing and advertising persongoing out and trying to obtain new clients that would support our efforts. My company, Lunarstudio was born.
This turned out to be a very difficult start at first. The majority of those "phenomenal" artists turned out to be (to put it kindly), somewhat unreliable. Some of them were on the other side of the world and the time difference was always an issue. Than of course, even with those that had a mediocre grasp of english and so language often presented a barrier. Others had full-time jobs and needed to know well in advance before a project began. Others didn't even care about the quality of work unless it was for their own personal portfolios. Then of course came issues of finances. Everyone wanted a completely equal share for their amount of work, whereas they didn't see how much of my own finances I needed to recover from computer equipment, telephone, advertising, brochures, business cards, website hosting, etc. The list went on.
So in the end, I was left broke and "stuck" holding a website all by myself. Christmas was around the corner and I wanted to buy a few gifts for relatives but couldn't. On top of that, I was broke and about to lose my apartment. Out of desperation, I placed about 200 cold calls to various architects and developers around the Boston area without knowing at first what to say, and how to "speak" the language of architects and interior design. I probably sent out close 500 emails within a month's time as a follow-up. Out of the 200 phone calls and 500 emails, only one respondedit was the very first company I had called.
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| One of my first few major projects. |
I broke even financially, but that one job kept me afloat for a few more months. And following that came a few more additional projects and clients. My own Lunarstudio portfolio grew, and I was eventually able to finally "break free" from the unreliable people I had originally started out with.
Now it's almost 10 years later, and I've developed some steady clients over the years as well as plenty of new ones.
And as the portfolio grows and people have come to appreciate my services, I encounter more and more fascinating projects, each presenting their own intricacies, challenges, and character.
To see additional examples of my architectural renderings,
please visit my website at:
www.lunarstudio.com
Who Does This Work?
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| A 3d kitchen interior. |
Who does this work? Architects, students, 3d artists, companies, and even some hobbyists. Most of the time, rendering work involves professional 3d artists and companies that specialize in the field. Students tend to venture into other avenues after graduation and lack the "real world" experience (no offense to the students out there) that a full-time 3d architectural artist has. Hobbyists generally try a program out occasionally and give up frustrated once they realize how difficult the field can be, plus they often lack the formal training and often have other, real world priorities. Architects are often too busy with the actual design work itself to be "bothered" by the intricacies and costs of renderings themselves.
Really skilled 3d artists can produce very realistic results. Lesser skilled 3d artists tend to have works that appear more cartoon-like because they don't have the knowldge and understanding of the more advanced programs. On the other hand, a skilled 3d artist can probably turn a "realistic" image into a painting as well.
The larger Architectural Rendering, or "Arch Vis" companies tend to employ teams of people of which each individual specializes in certain aspects, almost like an assembly/factory line. These different aspects may involve lighting, architectural modeling, furniture modeling, texturing, animation, post-production (improving an image or animation after its been rendered out), music, and even compositing (green screens and superimpositions.) Most of these people have a general understanding of the overall process, but often cannot produce high quality results in a short time-frame all by themselves.
The computers used for the more realistic and advanced production often are quite powerfulmore powerful than most computers you can buy in a computer store. On top of all that, in order to stay competitive, you often have to invest in the latest software applications to get the work done. This often involves 3d programs such as 3D Studio Max (perhaps the most common 3d program used in this line of work) and third party rendering plugins such as Vray. You may need to purchase expensive model libraries containing people and furniture to help get work done even faster. Then you will probably need post-production applications such as Nuke, Photoshop, or After Effects. To summarize, it gets VERY expensive rather quickly. Plus they need to update everything every few years.I find smaller companies on the other hand tend to be more accommodating and tolerant of changes. If their work is of a higher quality, it generally means that those individuals may have a greater understanding of the process from an individual standpoint. And since they are smaller, they can quickly upgrade their workflow (process), software and hardware to the latest technologies since they don't have as many seats to purchase all at once.
Due to these high costs, the average person and student very rarely gets past the learning stage of very basic programs. And unless an architecture firm is big, flexible, and can afford the various manpower, software, and hardware internally, it's often more efficient to send the work to a professional or company that specializes in this line of work.
A Comparison between Larger and Smaller Architectural Rendering Firms:
Large Firm Pros:
- Professional service.
- Sometimes presents a higher quality although I've seen bad results.
- Generally efficient.
- Can afford some services and techniques a smaller firm cannot afford such as green screening paid actors, and custom-made music. But all of that comes at a high cost.
Large Firm Cons:
- Often unacommodating to changes without additional billing.
- Sometimes they're inflexible about changeswhich is bad during a design process.
- Sometimes the quality is bad due to an older workflow.
- Very high costs due to operations.
- Often not used extensively during a design phase due to higher costs.
Small Firm Pros:
- Can be professional or more personal.
- Can have a more personal, stylized look and feel.
- May present a higher personal investment in the quality of an image or animation.
- Can be very efficient due to adaptability to new techniques, software, and hardware.
- Significantly Lower costs than a larger firm.
- Since they're generally a lot less expensive, it's more practical to use them during the design phase.
Small Firm Cons:
- May be less professional and perhaps even untrustworthy.
- Someone with the overall higher skillsets are generally more difficult to find.
- I would say it's a mixed issue regarding quality. You either get really good or really bad.
- Can be inefficient if lacking the expertise.
Who Purchases Architectural Renderings?
From my experience, mostly developers followed by architects and then interior designers. The occasional business owner may want a rendering for various purposes, but their requests are few and far between. General real estate agencies for homes may even be lower on that list because it cuts into their profit margins. |
| An earlier project that I created for a developer. It was to be used for zoning as well as marketing. |
The other purpose that I've known developers to use it for is for town zoning and permits. They are often used as presentation pieces to show a community what they envision a neighborhood will look like once a building or site is built. It is much easier for a general community to look at a rendering of a building than having to pour over blueprints, sketches, and drawings.
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| Work I did for SMMA that required a lot of interior design planning. |
As for its use in general architecture, from my own experience most architects will avoid this step if possible as it is an additional "luxury." A lot of architects that have been working on a project can already "see" or have a good idea as to what a space will look as they are the ones who have come up and studied their own plans. Often when I am asked to work on something from an architect, the architect intends to present a rendering to their clients instead. Their clients may be general business owners, marketing departments, or even their developers.
On the other hand, if the architecture firm has interior designers working on an interior, I often find that the interior designers gain a lot of use out of interior renderings. It gives them an additional tool to plan and change spaces around.
How Do You Learn 3D Architectural Renderings?
I actually had a mother call me not too long ago asking this very question. Her daughter showed her some examples online and wanted to get started in this line of work. Before the mom dished out money in an effort to help her daughter, she had a few questions which I gladly answered to the best of my ability. I have to give her creditshe was a very smart person for calling up and investigating the pros and cons. |
| An example of a Sketchup model. |
Then she asked if I knew of any educational programs or schools that would teach her this line of work. I told her that most of the people I knew that were good architectural rendering artists were mostly self-taught and/or had gone to school for 3d. However with architecture, architectural schools may teach the basics and perhaps even advanced coursesbut in order to really excel in the 3d aspects you have to be willing to move beyond the classroom and really "dive" into learning the rendering field. Some architects do eventually learn 3d rendering, however most of the architects I've talked with over the years that have had some experience tell me that it's "too much hassle" and that they're too busy designing versus actually having to bother render.
When it comes to larger companies, as I said before they often operate on an "assembly line" type of pattern. You may have an actual architect that knows his CAD very well or even SU. But after a building or interior is modeled, it is then passed to someone else who textures the scene. From there, someone may populate with entourage. Another person might work on the lighting. And after that, it may even be animated which involves another complicated skillset, and so on and so forth.
Now, do any of those individuals learn the process through on the job training? Yes, I'm sure with time they all learn bits and pieces, but very few people may end up knowing the entire process thoroughly. And if they do, they're either exceptionally smart or have been working in the field for quite some time.
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| A 3d model I created. Taking 3d classes in general can teach you skills that go beyond architecture. |
As for myself, I'm self-taught in 3d mostly from reading forums and tutorials online. Many years later, it's still a constant learning process in order to stay viable. I have a good idea as to reading blueprints and drawings, but I'm definitely not an architect and never plan on calling myself one. An architect is skilled in the areas of codes, measurements, design, and other standardsit's a very intense and in-depth field of expertise which requires professional guidance. When it comes to something simple to medium in complexity, I can often create a building or interior. However that being said, my main architect who is also an architectural modeler works about 3-4x faster in creating building structures and knows the right questions to ask when he sees something out of the ordinary.
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| Something with a lot of smooth curves is an example of what we call "organic" modeling. Simpler 3d applications are often limited in this area. |
I think it might be too much to expect for one person to understand all of these different areas of expertise. There are some people that I have met which understand almost all the facets, but I think they are very rare and some of them are quite gifted intellectually.
Either way, this process is not a simple "push of the button." If it was, we would all be out of a job right now. It takes someone that really wants to learn and is dedicated to the process, or after so many years, you will be out there looking for a new career (which I hear all of the time.)
What Programs are Involved?
Presently, you can buy basic "3d home" and "architectural design" applications at stores for relatively inexpensive pricesmaybe $50-$250 US, but most often, they are incapable of producing realistic-looking results and often have a 'cartoonish' look to their images. They may be even very difficult or complicated to use and may not even do what you expect them to. On the other hand, they may be perfectly suitable for home use.One of the most common and free programs people are currently using is Google's Sketchup, available for download from here:
http://sketchup.google.com/
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| A Sketchup model. |
However, Sketchup also has a fair share of negatives as well. It produces less realistic imagerybordering on a cartoon look and feel. It also has a learning curve that one needs to be familiar with. It also cannot model "organic" shapes as wellmodels that have smooth curves and faces. As an end-result, there is a stark contrast between a highly realistic (photorealistic) rendering and a rendering done using SU. But both can serve different and often useful purposes which I will go into later.
A higher end program which people commonly (and traditionally) use in this field is 3D Studio Max from Autodesk. It has a high purchase and startup cost which can range in the thousands. Most of the time it is supplemented with a third party rendering plugin called Vray (also quite a bit of cash per seat) which in the right hands, can turn a model and scene into a realistic 3d rendering. In the past few years, Autodesk has shipped its third-party plugin which is similar to Vray called Mental Ray with 3D studio Max. Both "plugins" require additional training and expertise - both with their own sets of pros and cons. These software applications are considered "professional" 3d tools.
The 3D Studio Max website:
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=5659302
The Vray/Chaosgroup website:
http://www.chaosgroup.com/en/2/index.html
Then of course, you will need models of furniture, plants, people, cars, etc. You could take on the task of modeling everything yourself, but this takes a lot of time and expertise as well. But there are model libraries which are available, and those quickly add up in costs too, but often shorten your development time.
Additionally, you will probably need another graphics editing application such as Photoshop to further refine your images after they are processed. As you can see, the costs of being involved in this field can run extraordinarily high. And if you start to add on people, you will also need to multiply those costs.
Differences in 3D Programs and Overall Image Quality
Programs for architectural renderings can be divided into two groups of purpose. One is modeling, and the other is the actual rendering process. You can make an elaborate model, but yet it may not turn out/render looking realistic. And the inverse also holds true.Modeling program differences:
Non-professional to medium level modeling programs (such as Sketchup):
Pros:
- Sketchup is free (depending on the version.)
- Relatively low learning curve compared to other, higher-end programs. But learning curve is still high.
- Fast and efficient in skilled-hands.
- Almost instant results.
- Easier to implement changes during the design phase.
- Free downloadable model library on the Internet.
Cons:
- Non-realistic output. Shadows, lighting, reflections, and textures do not look realistic.
- Not always presentable for marketing presentations.
- Lack of decent animations and tools.
- Difficult to make "organic" and complex shapes.
- Has a fairly consistent "Sketchup look" to all of their images.
- Can be less precise when it comes to furniture modeling, etc.
- Can be limited by available model library in certain areas.
- Added difficulty for interior creation
- Lighting interior scenes is more difficult.
Professional Tools:
Pros:
- High-end animation capabilities and physics.
- Access to realistic third-party rendering applications.
- Realistic lighting, shadows, reflections, and greater texture control in skilled hands.
- More variation in artistic styles.
- More powerful display engine for larger scenes.
- Can be highly accurate in skilled hands.
- More lighting and shadow control.
- More control over "organic" model creation and model manipulation.
- Different model libraries are available.
- More control in general.
Cons:
- Higher costs of software and hardware.
- Higher level of training needed.
- Can be extremely slow to process realistic imagery.
- Additional model libraries often cost money (although you could import Sketchup libraries - they just tend to look fake in comparison.)
- Changes to realistic-looking imagery is a slow process and often incurs additional costs.
Rendering program differences:
Non-professional to medium level modeling programs (such as Sketchup):
Pros:
- You may desire their particular look and feel.
- Less subject to critique due to their lack of realism.
- More suitable for a project in the stages of design.
- Fast.
- Sometimes free.
Cons:
- Unrealistic lighting conditions.
- Unrealistic reflections.
- Lack of global illumination.
- Inaccurate overall representation.
Professional Tools:
Pros:
- Realistic lighting conditions.
- Higher level of lighting accuracy.
- Higher level of reflection quality.
- Better representation of textures and materials
- More accurate overall representation and realism.
- More suitable for final renderings and presentation.
Cons:
- Can be very slow to process.
- Has higher overall costs and investment.
- Takes a considerable amount of time to learn.
- Realism can be subject to higher levels of scrutiny.
Operating Costs for Artists and Rendering Company Owners
Assuming that you're business is completely legitimate, then your costs are going to be high. With a single freelancer/contractor, running the operation will incur heavy expenses and for companies, you are just multiplying that expense for each person you hire. These expenses may include business registrations, insurance or articles of incorporation, accounting, general office expenditures (rent, electricity, heating, etc.), computers, additional computer hardware, software, salaries, travel and food expenditures, and taxes.A freelancing example:
Let's just use an average architectural rendering freelancer in the US as an example. He or she may charge $50/hour for his rendering services. Sounds like a lot? Not at all. In fact, it should be more than double that amount. A professional plumber or electrician would charge you double that for his or her time. And before some of you readers get on my "case" about precise figures or estimates - keep in mind that this is only an example.
Let's take that $50/hour example and just assume 1/3 is taxed by the government. That leaves the freelancer with roughly $36/hour. Assuming that the freelancer works 52 weeks out of an entire year and 40 hour weeks, after taxes that would come out to $74, 880. It's not terribly bad for an individual of a modest income, but it's also not great considering how much skill is really involved. Plus the sad reality that I find is that most freelancers are "lucky" to even work half that amount of time over the course of the year. And when they do work, they're often staying up late hours and working weekends. So while they are charging for 40 hours of work per week, they may be actually putting in upwards of 65-80 hours on average when a project comes in with deadlines. So in reality, they may be only taking home $37, 000 since "technically" they've only worked half that period of time.
Couple those figures with a single high-end computer that may run around $5, 0000 and software program that could run $5, 000 easily every two yearsso really that's $10, 000 spread out over a period of two years. Let's just use a figure of $5, 000 year for the software and hardware. Now we are down to $32, 000.
And since they are freelancers, they are using higher levels of heating during the winter, cooling for the computer(s) during the summer, and much higher electricity bills over the course of a year. Plus chances are they have to have a pretty decent Internet connection, cell phone plans, marketing and advertising budgets, etc.some of which can be "written off" as business expenses.
All said and done, a freelancer might consider himself or herself "lucky" if they get to work from home and make $30, 000/year performing this very complicated work. In reality, it would be more reasonable if a freelancer could charge more than double that amount, or $125-$150/hour. I've heard of architecture firms which in fact bill out their architects services around $125/hour in order to stay reasonably profitableso that is an appropriate rate.
One more thing I should add (that I left out of this rough/basic equation) is that in order to have a higher level of quality for renderings, an artist may actually use several computers to work together for processing. This is what we call a server farm and usually they are also high-end computers with various software installed on them as well. So maybe now you can see that my suggestion of someone asking for $125-$150/hour is not completely unreasonable.
A business example:
Take the business owner plus each employee and more or less multiply the costs mentioned above. And from what I've seen, most employees will have two decent computers sitting right at their desks. A starting wage may be under $20/hour US. A very proficient artist on the other hand might make upwards of $75, 000/year. Now you also have to throw in full-blown office expenses which could easily run over $10, 000/month in rent alone.
The costs of operating, just like any other business can be very highso much so that I could easily write an entire chapter on this topic alone.
Architectural Rendering Costs
This is perhaps the single most important question people have on their minds when they call me. First, they typically look over my lunarstudio.com architectural rendering portfolio, decide that they may like my style, then they want to know how much a rendering will cost and how long the process will take. I've found that from firm to firm, the answer varies due to overall operating expenses and various methods of calculation.
I've had a fair amount of few friends and colleagues that charge per square foot for a still. So the larger the building you have, the more an architectural rendering will cost to produce. This method never made much sense to memostly because I've had medium-sized yet complicated homes, and large industrial warehouses that were nothing more than a gigantic square made out of aluminum. So it never made sense (to me at least) to charge solely by the size of a structure.On the opposite end of the equation, I've heard of some really large and well-known rendering firms charge a flat-rate of $10, 000 per image. I'm not certain if that includes the building models and custom furniture as well, but the price-tag should ideally (I would imagine) support those items.
As for my method (without giving out too much information), I've always estimated based on an hourly rate multiplied by how long I think a project will take to model and render. Then I also consider in discounts if a client requires multiple images and/or animations. I also do take into consideration if the client is a returning client. After I charge for the actual model creation based on the investment of time, I take into consideration additional modeling including furniture, plants, people etc. Then I have to consider the actual computer processing time itself. My method always seemed fair. Perhaps to some people, simply throwing out a high number works for them, but unfortunately, I haven't quite reached that point without sending people running for the doors.
As for animations, each firm has it's own equations. Some individuals may only have one computer and send their scenes to a professional rendering farm (sometimes composed of several hundred computers that work in tandem with one another.) Medium to large companies may have their own rendering farm in-house. Either way, animations generally require more modeling, additional optimization techniques, are of generally lower quality than a still image, and require different sets of expertise. From talking with people, many firms charge first by the model, then give a flat rate per second of each animation. It's not unheard of to hear firms charging $300 per second of animation.
| A LunarStudio 3d Animation |
| An example of a 3d architectural animation by LunarStudio. |
Last but not least is outsourcing. Being listed in one of the top spots on the entire Internet for the field of architectural renderings, I get spammed (and even called) daily with proposals and requests from people in other countries. The business of outsourcing graphics work as well as programming skills has become a lucrative, multi-billion dollar industry. Our work is easily transmitted digitally over the Internet, so our service-based industry is a prime-target for people seeking "easy" money versus companies that have to deal with shipping tangible products.
When it comes to outsourcing, I tend to have a very cynical and somewhat negative view towards it because of my own personal experience, which I will talk about below.
Outsourcing Graphics and Architectural Rendering Work
I realize the temptation is there. I'm not oblivious to it. Even when I first started out, I had to consider the profitability. I figured that if I "didn't do it, then somebody else would" and that was my justification. The math at first glance seems very simpleobtain a decent-sized paying job and essentially become a broker by establishing a partnership with an overseas company which works for pennies on the dollar.My own personal experience:
Since I had already had friends from the forums in other countries that were talented artists, outsourcing was a "no-brainer." I'd get the jobs and manage them remotely. I was the "go to" person. However, it didn't quite work out as planned.
Instead, the first small job turned out to be a nightmare of epic proportions. I spent a huge amount of time landing my first client. Once I got all the files, I had sent them over to a friend in Mexico while I worked on other items.
Later on, I logged into messenger and noticed he was offline which was very unusual. A day later, the same thing. Two days later he was still offline. After about four days, he finally reappeared after I sent out a flurry of panicky emails, and he told me that they "had a power outage." And so being generous by nature, I gave him the benefit of the doubt. I let him continue until it got closer to the due date. Finally, I got dragged into creating the scene myself while having to work on other stuff. Later on he told me, "what's the big deal? It's for someone else anyways - not like it's your portfolio..." After that, I never used him again.
Another time, I was planning to work on my first really big job with a "professional" architectural illustrator out of New Zealand who had the "portfolio" to back himself up. I worked out a fair rate and sent him all of the files. He was supposed to start on it. Two weeks passed and I assumed he was making progress on the project. I asked if he "had any images to show" to which he replied, "sorry, I've been busy but I'll get to work on it."
A week passed by and I wrote him one more time asking where the project stood. He said, "sorry but I had to fly out to Hong Kong and I lost my laptop with all the files on it."
"You WHAT?!?!"
"Sorry man. I can't work on it. It was too much work anyways." So again, I gave this guy the benefit of the doubt and ended up working on it myself with a very short deadline looming over my head. About a month later, I sincerely asked him out of genuine concern, "did you ever manage to get your laptop back?"
He replied, "what?"
"Your laptop - you said you lost it."
"I don't know what you're talking about..."
And that was the last time I ever attempted to work overseas with anyone. I had been bitten twice in a row by two "friends" who had awe-inspiring portfoliostwice was once too many times and I wasn't about to put my head on the line for anyone after that point. And besides, I had my own reputation to start thinking about.
On being solicted for work from other countries:
As I stated before, I'm in the top spots of various Google searches for my industry. I get petitioned several times a day by foreign "companies" looking for me to outsource work. I also get hammered by resumes from all over the world, and of all different types of backgrounds.
Over the years, I've seen some really "bad" things come out of a lot of other countries. Since I'm active on various forums, I pay attention to other artist's piecesespecially artwork which stands out or has some semblance of an individual's character and style. In a lot of these foreign portfolios, I'm always constantly seeing my fellow colleague's pieces being stolen by people in other countries and passed off as their own work. I've even seen my own work stolen and passed off as their own pieces.
Just recently, I clicked on a solicitation which was sent to my inbox. It opened up a webpage that was an almost identical copy to my own website, Lunarstudio which I had spent year after year refining. I was incensed about this and fired off a cease and desist letter.
In their portfolio, they had some pretty remarkable remarkable images. However, a few artists that I contacted also noticed that this firm posted "ready made" stock scenes which are available for purchase from one popular modeling company on the Internet. To inform and warn the readers and potential consumers here, you can open up one of these "ready made" scenes and essentially hit "render" and out will pop the scene in its full glory.
However, the same lighting setup cannot be easily applied to other scenes and modelsoften it will lead to unrealistic results. Also, it is no guarantee that the individuals posting these "ready made" scenes on their websites or within their emails can model, read plans, or are even remotely efficient with this process. Just be aware that there are a lot of these copies found floating around the Internet and many people are trying to pass this work off as their own.
The other question that arises from "catching" these people, is that if you can't trust them to rip off my website, and post a "legal" scene which they "could" have purchased, where did they get the other work from? Is it even theirs?
And if that isn't enough to make you paranoid or wary, another artist pointed out that when the page loads, a tab briefly shows Chinese characters before switching over to english. However, the "owner" of the website had his company as being listed in Florida. When I ran a Whois lookup on the Internet to see who owned the domain as well as who was hosting the website (I really wanted them to take the site down), it all came back with Chinese addresses.
It just so happened that earlier today, I spoke with one of the top copyright attorneys in the United States in regards to one of my regular illustration pieces being sold on the Internet. When I mentioned "China", he said "stop right there. That's almost impossible to get your work removed or to recover damages."
One more thing I should mention is that if someone is charging $400 for a rendering, most of my colleagues would be in agreement that there is no way they are using legitimate software. The operational costs of purchasing the software simply doesn't "add" up. The work and time involved is too much to be charging so little. By hiring these firms, you are really putting the software industry itself at risk.
One company's negative experience with outsourcing:
I was recently approached by a local Massachusetts company to provide them with an estimate. They had sent a previous rendering over to me and mentioned that they were going to make some updates to the building. I was wondering why they were contacting me, because to be frankly honest they already had a pretty good rendering on their hands and I was surprised they were even looking elsewhere.
The woman who I was speaking with said, "well, we had that rendering done in China."
"If you don't mind me asking, how much did that cost?"
"Oh I don't mind, it was $400."
"Wow... what was the problem?!?"
"It actually turned out to be a lot more than $400. They're on the other side of the world even though we were working with a US based broker. During the process there were a few changes, and each time we had to go through one person to get to another. And then they're on the opposite side of the world so we would have to wait another day before getting the changes back. And then of course there would be miscommunication, so we would require additional fixes and changes. Something that we thought would take a few days ended up taking a few weeks. And when you start to add in our own hours trying to manage it, it quickly becomes a lot more than just having it done locally..."
Apparently, she was one of the lucky ones.
A foreign job application gone awry:
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| One of my images that someone used in their portflio. |
One other thing I wanted to make note of, besides people copying my work (as well as that of others) within and outside of the US, is that I also receive a lot of resumes and offers to freelance. I had one resume that was submitted a few months ago from the UK. I always look over every resume, but I primarily look at the applicants images and can usually determine rather quickly if someone's skills meets my requirements. Within his .pdf portfolio, I noticed two of my very own images staring back at me.
Of course I was upset at first (I think understandably so), but after a day things had settled down. He had apologized profusely (after being caught) and promised to mend his ways.
The Future of 3D Architectural Rendering
I've personally spoken with some of the geniuses (and I use that word very reluctantly) that single-handedly changed the entire graphics industry (it's really a small group of people, all things considered.) They have shaped the commercials you see on TV on a daily basis, the movies you see at the theaters and on DVD, and the images you see online. They have in essence shaped the way you and I see the world.All of them laugh when you ask them if they ever think it will get to the point where most of this work is "instantaneous." While computers become more powerful year after year, they are still not powerful enough to produce a realistic-looking scene easily. In fact, it often takes a farm over computers to produce a realistic image within a reasonable amount of time.
Add to this, all the recent talk of "cloud computing"processing information remotely over the Internet to a mainframe or series of servers and having less reliance on the processing power of a computer directly in front of you. I run a gigabit network at gigabit speeds (1000 megabits per second) with multiple computers processing a scene all at once. Currently in the U.S., we are lucky if we can get Internet speeds past 35 megabits per second. Cloud computing and a less powerful computer locally will not lead to that "idealization" of creating a realistic architectural rendering scene any time soon.
Even if computers could get to that point where you press a button and a scene is produced instantaneously, there is still the aspect of artistic style which you have to contend with. And if that isn't enough, there's always interpersonal and communication skills you have to develop on top of having to run a business effectively.
Summary
I hope what I have written has helped some of you understand a little bit more about the rendering process as well as what obstacles architectural illustrators face on a daily basis. I speak with people all the time, and most people are unfortunately under the impression that our artwork is simply a "push of the button."Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, it can be a royal pain in the "ass" (pardon my language, but I really can't think of a more polite or honest way to phrase it.) I hear of fellow artists looking for new careers on a daily basis. They're currently struggling in a tough economy while facing local and international competition and pressures. Many of them aren't getting paid nearly enough of what they deserve for their technical expertise and knowledge. They are anything but your "average" artist.
I also hope that I didn't scare of any future talent that is thinking of entering the field. I love what I do, and can often work from the comfort of my own home. I love graphics and the learning process that goes along with it. I love some of the freedom it gives me. And also love working with others in the process of creation. There's a lot of satisfaction of producing something "with your hands." But don't ever fool yourself that it is an "easy" path to take. 3D graphics in general involves a lot of work if you are to become successful at it. I know that I am still working on the "success" part of that equation, but after putting my thoughts down on this article, I'm seriously reconsidering raising my rates...
-Charles
Charles Leo
Artist/Owner
Architectural Renderings by Lunarstudio
http://www.lunarstudio.com
p.s - If you have any questions or comments, I'd be happy to hear from you.
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