12 Reasons to refuse to Render!
Marc Joseph, from Young Architect, has written a post about one of those tasks you should try to avoid at all cost in order to make your life easier: 3D Rendering.
He wrote down 12 reasons why you should avoid rendering in your office:
1. You Will Lose Track of Time
You can really get lost in your modelling. A whole work day can go by without you even realizing it. Worst of all, you can spend hours on a task that you expected to take a half an hour. In the end, you will find yourself staying later into the night while your coworkers punch out at 6.
Seen at Young Architect. More reasons after the break.
2. More Demands on Your Time
There seems to be a very unfair expectation that employers have on the amount of time that it takes to complete a digital model. I have seen employers consistently assign a brand new 3D model to be completed and rendered for print in a two day period. While that may not seem like a short amount of time, we can easily forget that a considerable amount of time is going to be spent tweaking the vantage points and materials. Also, the employer will inevitably be requesting changes to the design or look once they see your progress prints.
3. The Employer Doesn’t Have Knowledge of the Software
There in lies maybe the biggest problem. Most of your supervisors will be older and have not been personally exposed to modelling software. They often feel as though computers have made things more instant or automated, when the truth of the matter is that computers have really just complicated things.
So as mentioned above, the employer will give you these assignments and constantly make changes to the model before you are done. Often times, the changes that they request will require near full remodels, so they can really be detrimental to getting renderings complete. This brings me to my next point
4. You Will Find Yourself Re-doing Things Over and Over
As you present various schemes and changes to your clients, you will find that you will have to model the same things over and over again. It is not unusual to have to go through 3-5 different drawing files in one day.
5. You Have to Sweat the Details
Aside from actually constructing the forms that make up the building massing, you also need to concentrate on those tedious details. Reflections, shading, material colors, mullions… you name it, are all items that must be coordinated into your rendering in order for it to come off as a believable form. Clients have little capacity for imagination and you really need to paint as clear of a picture as possible. The details are going to take up most of your time.
6. You Are On Your Own: No One Else Can Help You
Unfortunately, digital models practically have individual signatures embedded into them. What I mean is that it is easy to tell that one person modelled one drawing and another person was the author of another. When you are presenting multiple schemes, the same person really needs to be developing each one. It is the only way to deliver a professional presentation to a client. This means that none of your colleagues can help you out with the work load.
7. You May Have Knowledge in One Software But Not Another
There are so many different 3D software out there. I could name nearly ten of them but there are constantly new programs coming out that trump the others. I personally was used to using Formz when I came out of school. My first firm used 3D Studio Max and expected me to hit the ground running. I ended up having to learn the new interface while trying to keep up with my assignments. This led to longer nights at work that I would have rather spent back home of at happy hour.
8. You Lose Your Personal Space
Because your boss will be wanting to make those changes, he is basically going to be sitting on your lap and punching holes in your LCD screen. They just get sucked into your computer screen while you are still sitting at your desk! They will be putting their faces 3 inches away from your screen so they can inspect your work and you will most likely get familiar with the smell of their breath. To make matters worst, they will just stand there while you are frantically making their changes, even though it may take you 10 minutes to do so. You really just have to sit there and take it because its hard to tell your boss to buzz off.
9. You Won’t Be Working on Important Tasks
So while you are making pretty pictures, your friends in the office will be doing real work. Creating presentation images is indeed important and you will still be a valuable member of the team, but, in the end this won’t amount to anything more than an image that makes your client “oooh and ahh.”
10. You Will Learn Less
This is similar to the last point. While you are modelling, you won’t be doing any detailing, space planning, or structural coordination. Really, you are going to be missing out on all of those “important tasks” that will make you a more complete architect. There is no 3d Modelling section on the exams.
11. You Will Be Under-appreciated
Because you won’t be involved in those other tasks that really result in a final set of working documents, your contribution won’t be recognized as much. 3D modelling is expected to be a simple automated process and the crazy amount of time you pour into your assignments will be diminished by your employers high expectations.
12. Professionals Do It Better
Seriously, they do. You could spend a solid month on a model and it won’t look as good as when a professional renderer works a day or two on the project. You don’t have the skill-set or the digital library to trump the professionals. From personal experience, I have seen a professional rendering firm model the entire Dubai Waterfront Development overnight…from scratch. These are the images that you have probably seen for a few years now, including the early images of the new world’s tallest building. That’s right, they were done in a span of one night! Could you possibly compete with that?
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64 comments »
oh god. tell me about it.
it IS NOT fair for any employee to torture him/herself to finish whatever 3d model and renderings their bosses ask them to finish in like “by tomorrow.” Sometimes, personally, I feel really disturbed by the fact that some bosses just never respect employees’ own personal time and believe it’s O.K. to make them work overtime over and over and over and over and over… again. I believe it’s structure violence.
renders are important too, you just can’t leave’em out of the picture. it’s just a complementary tool for your work to look good… and a good way to see the spaces, colors, materials, light, textures etc….
guilty? get a life
This is definitely from a small firm, that is still just using modeling for cool visualization. Get the team into a BIM environment, use the model for your documentation, have the entire team in the same model, and don’t just use it for disposable renderings. That will solve most of the problems listed above…….
I totally agree with this. I worked as an intern last summer at a firm that never did renderings and 3d models as a part of the design process. Once I showed them I was capable of the work, that was all I got to do all summer, with consistently unreasonable deadlines.
Although they are most definitely an important part of a display, I feel that you can illustrate your point just as well with properly planned screen shots of your work. I personally use Rhino 3d, and using just colors and a few textures, can show my design sufficiently, granted not at a professional level.
Yes, its really a hard point to explain, im working in visualization at a firm for a 1 year, and its really hard, sometimes they want the finished images in an impossible time, or sometimes they dont understand that theres have to been a cowork at the same time with the other members of the studio, for save time and havent had to rework over and over again, and when they dont like the style, and have to change all the images its a little frustrating, but over all of the reasons above, see what you could do and a finished render, its priceless, well priceless with his respective money jajajaja. Greetings from Mexico.
Yeah, about BIM program like Revit. It’s nice but I’m not really sure whether that actually saves time and quality. accurender in Revit isn’t so appealing first of all and Revit, in my own term, has not yet developed enough to adopt all projects out there.
i really feel what this dude is saying. i went through the same experience. one day after 53 hours straight work (no kidding)in an office, the main architect still wanted me to make some changes to the renders (there was only half hour to finish the presentation so the fed ex guy can take the all the stuff and send it to korea) , i was a real zombie , and i had to hide in the bathroom for about 45 minutes, because the muthafucka was looking for more changes to the perfect renders!!!, from that minute, i am the biggest fan of any bim software in the market , and , fan of illustrate or any vector perspective renderer in the market + photoshop. simply and powerful… no realism at all, if someone ask if i know how to make a really nice render (i am a really expert in 3ds max rendering and illumination), i just say … NO!!. i only know how to use bim modelers , but nothing about photo real renders. no more bullshit.
If you can’t model, don’t start rendering! Learn modelling at home please (or atleast learn to work with that program)..
And yes its hard to find a program that fits your needs for the actual outcome..
Wow, this is a terrifying thread if only for the scalding clarity of its vision of the state of architectural practice.
The entire meme where the profession closest to pure creation is reduced to cubicle-dwelling psychobabble IS the problem. The reason not to waste time on rendering is that they are inherently a waste of time; nothing more than an idiotic bit of purple smoke to dazzle and idiotic client into building an idiotic building.
Of course, a professional render studio can generate a simulacrum of the Dubai waterfront in a day. Is this surprising? Have you ever seen the Dubai waterfront? It looks in real life exactly like the tissue-paper digital dystopia that it is; design as an extended process where the PLM system is king.
Having worked in technology for 30 years I can assure you that this was never the intention. No, these are the unintended consequences.
If you don’t like doing renders then go do something else. Build a house. Go work for Habitat for Humanity. Go to New Orleans.
If you became an architect because you love the profession then don’t let a computer program destroy a passion as it has mostly destroyed architecture.
Terry Glenn Phipps
Avoid at all cost? Propose an alternative. If you can’t visualize your work, you can’t present it. Sounds like 12 excuses to me.
That must be the most ridiculous article ever published! All of those 12 points are just the steps you have to take WHILE you learn to render or modelling. Once you can do it, then you don’t cry in such miserable way. You could say the same about building models or drawing in 2d “he made me trim the line again”! …
No question that Marc Joseph is part of “Young Architects” and not “Experienced Architects”. If he knew what he is talking about he would not forget that professional render’ studios lack the “architect eye”, and their renders might look real, but when an architect makes them, they just look better.
1. You Will Lose Track of Time -> as long as you make it to the deadline, no big deal.
2. More Demands on Your Time -> If you don’t like the challenge, apply to Blockbuster or similar…
3. The Employer Doesn’t Have Knowledge of the Software -> That’s why you are capable of talking and communicating with your boss! Besides, if he knew you would get the job either, so better like that.
4. You Will Find Yourself Re-doing Things Over and Over -> …which is the way to do better stuff, no project comes out from the first attempt.
5. You Have to Sweat the Details -> Here I think you are just using a bad software, try moving away from sketch up…
6. You Are On Your Own: No One Else Can Help You -> If you aren’t good enough to deal with the work, go back to the studies and you’ll find what you are missing!
7. You May Have Knowledge in One Software But Not Another -> Then learn the next one, you monkey! One software won’t help you for 50years until you retire!!!
8. You Lose Your Personal Space -> If so, Mr Joseph you have some serious lack of personality, stand up for your space!
9. You Won’t Be Working on Important Tasks -> that will only happen if you are not better than the rest on doing stuff, you’ll be always spot out for what you can do.
10. You Will Learn Less -> If you rule your learning by what you said in point 7, no wonder!
11. You Will Be Under-appreciated -> that is because of your lack of self confidence, only. A good render will be very appreciated and you too because you did it!
12. Professionals Do It Better -> already answered to that.
What an annoying article to publish!
Lets not forget that most of the times the information provided for modelling and rendering is also very sketchy and the expectation is that the person working on it has to fake it in order to get the ‘right’ finish. My advice is for new graduates to resist the appeal of such tasks – yes it is great to produce great money shot images and knowing that this may be what wins it, but in reality it can be very frustrating and rob you of far more creative and interesting activities. Being a good computer visualiser or modeller does not make you a good architect, so don’t let the gloss expose you as superficial and unsubstantial.
half as many reasons to do renders :
1 : It’s the future culture of architecture.
Architecture will be conveyed to others, like clients, through renders in the future. It will be the culture of architectural communication. Clients, cities and their populations will speak about renders, it will be the primary discussion topic of unrealized architecture. People will be better at it in the future then they are now.
2 : Make a focused sales argument.
Yes, architects work as sales people too, -even by phone, but more often through creating excitement about specific ideas that they think are important by models and images as representations of what is to be real. Renders enable you to create something like a painting, a culturally charged piece of communication. Don’t just put scooby doo in the perspectives you make, but use charachters that create tension, and make it a shitty-weather day that still somehow is facinating. Renders are not supposed to be about happy people.
3 : Develop your project spatially.
If you have some understanding and experience with photography, working in a digital model gives a similar spatial experience as working with a camera. The parameters are the same, you are using FOV and you are working with creating a two dimensional representation. Move in space with a camera every now and then, and your model will be worth more.
4 : Save some time
Working in simple models is all good, but it’s possible to sketch in digital modelling too. Renders don’t have to look good, but imagine for example working with array in a physical model as opposed to a 3d model. You can render more valuable images than you probably would be capable of creating inside a house.
5 : Professionals can only create still images.
Shiny professional renders look like they are postcards. Good renders or model images from good architects look like they hold the potential of a storyline. Read the un-famous Jeff Wall / Herzog book, and you will look upon image creation as something professional render companies are shit at. They never put an imagined timeframe into the picture, it is always dead. Something ealse cannot happen in the architecture it conveys. It is about happy people. Have you never seen a pretty picture of a winter beach ?
6 : It can make you talk more.
Most times when renders are created, the project is at some physical stage, and the “rendering part” of the work consists of building up a model and picking some telling standpoints in the model. Rarley or never, even professional architects discuss what the renders are supposed to tell about the project. How can it best be told ? A lot of architects have fixed ideas about what a render is. Rarley is it challenged. Why is it so heavily used, and so often not discussed ?
My advice to everybody working with renders, is to not go for a fixed idéa, but to use the render like a sketch is used, for discussion. Often the model is superior in communicating architecture, but it is not necessarily good for everything.
I would also encourage the initial writer to consider all his colleagues working with what is refered to “less important” or “less appreciated”. To me, the discussion and the premises given for creating architecture with clients and the like, is equally relevant for the subject of architecture, as drawing a beautiful energy-efficient-cost-saving window detail.
What exactly is important in architecture ? There is no answer but ones own.
Draw a perspective by hand! You don’t need to slave at a computer to represent the spaces of a project. Hand drawing is a lost art in the field of architecture. Look at the great Architects from the past 100 years – Frank Lloyd Wright, Meis, Le Corbusier – they all hand rendered and still made amazing buildings. Computers are not necessary to make architecture today. They have just become a crutch.
When you have no clue about rendering,then get another job.Ii is all about learning fast,about learning from your mistakes,then the job get much more easier to accomplish(and sooner).So if you are a looser,do not render.pay another guy to do it for you,and the costs are greater.I agree with Mikebdesign”Sounds like 12 excuses to me.”
i dont think people get it:
rendering = processing data!
if your data (model) is buggy…
then its tedious and time consuming!
today everything is data driven…
architects are like newspapers
they just dont get it, yet
An alternative would be building an nice handcraft model in an adequate scale and maybe shooting some nice pictures and pimping them up in photoshop. that would at least solve the problems in points 3, 4, 6 and 8. Greetings from Austria!
i do agree! there’s thousands of ways to make nice images without use a damn rendering program. just leave 3dmax to the pixar guys!
p.s. Andru u r a douchebag. I bet that u can’t project anything good and u save ur ass doing nice images with nice lights or colors just to hide how stupid is ur work!
u r a fake architect!
and that young architect is member of the young christians “kill technology and progress” club?
pfff….
computers make it easyer and faster and NOT the other way around! wake up!!! if some are incompetent as to USE it efficiently as a TOOL that does not mean it is bad and should be deleted.
If some made it be more then just a tool its theyr problem.
Its about speed and competition – efficiency and visualizations are a very usefull tool if put in the right hands!
PS: to render is ok. To render “in your office” has a very good point as in not to. Agree with that part.
Number 9. is the best :)))))))
This all sounds like a frustrated cubical workers journal.
ok, time to cool down! each one should do what he/she can and likes best.
aye. ur right. it just sounds to me very bad when people think to be good architects just cuz they can do nice images.
if u can use photoshop U R NOT a photographer.
As an architect, absolutely agree.
that’s why i refuse to do any rendering after graduate
1. can you DO architecture?
2.a. NO -> you can render, sketch, build models, take pictures, whatever.. you still CAN’T do it.
2.b YES -> you can render, sketch, build models, take pictures, etc. Whatever you do, it will show. Real architects always find means to present their ideas, the others always find excuses.
(this being said i have to admit, that even though i know rendering is nowadays a part of the architects life, i would rather have someone do it for me :) )
Why are people still so scared of technology? Rendering is an obvious waste of time if you don’t integrate it into as part of your design process: you don’t have to come up with perfect visualisation at every stage of your creative process but if you follow your work in 3D, the final result can be pretty easily achieved.
Some of the 12 points maybe valid but some others sound like lame excuses to me. It’s obviously a waste of time if you don’t know what you’re doing! Computers are just tools, the end result depends on who is using them….
as someone who used to be an intern… i can tell you that this article is pretty true. i have had renderings published in newspapers and magazines for projects that i’ve worked on and the principals could’ve cared less, other than the publicity. people doing “real” quantifiable (billable) work will get recognition.
when you render (or build a basswood model or draw w/ graphite or ink) you are making a representation of what you are proposing. i don’t think there is a right or wrong means of representing, it really depends on the content and what you want to evoke from that representation. and as an architect, you should be able to understand the differences of each and implement the most complementary to get you point accross.
I think most of these points are valid (and amusing), however I have found that my strengths in visualization have led to me getting to design schemes and be involved in their conception rather than detailing them. Frankly I’d much rather spend most of my days at work designing, visualizing schemes and hopefully winning competitions than worrying about window and door schedules. Frankly “billable” work = not fun work.
I will no (su)render
I’ve worked at several smallish firms where design progresses well into DD through constant digital modeling (non-BIM). I agree that producing photo-real porn for developers is a waste of time. If you’re lucky to find yourself at a design firm that doesn’t need constant gloss for spec-projects, being a quick and capable modeler (provided you can design) will actually put allot of power in your hands. It’s all about screen-prints, lots of them.
I build 3d models almost everyday. And I work in projects too, in the design, in the structure, in everything.
When the deadline is close enough, I can build a simple model and render it in a single morning.
You MUST know how to use the right software for your needs, that’s it. I’d never write a project’s text with AutoCAD text command, so as I’d never choose Maxwell render for a 10 minutes render.
It’s a lot since I don’t stay till late working….
You can pay me for your renderings, if you want to! :D
although I am a student, I can agree. It is silly to spend a week before the project presentation learning how to adjust materials to get a nice viz. Personally, I think it is necessary to present the project as good as it gets, but the photo-realistic viz is not the way, nice doesnt mean neither detailed or realistic. You can save a lot of time by rendering a very raw viz and then adjusting it in photoshop. it doesnt look perfect, but the rendering time is shortened from 2 hours to 10 min (on my comp) and it has the sketchy-feeling in it
There is something called a pencil. You should try one sometime!
“I prefer drawing to talking. Drawing is faster, and leaves less room for lies.”
– Le Corbusier
If you actually believe this article to be true:
- You may be in the wrong career. There’s nothing wrong with that.
- Or at least you may have a bad attitude about your career.
- You may not be using the right software for the job.
- You may be being forced into a 3d rendering production position against your will. Smaller offices tend to be less compartmentalized and designers design as well as render.
- You may need to pay your dues. Senior level positions offer more in the way of design to production ratio.
- Tell me again why there is no one to help you? You are never on your own. That’s a very defeatist attitude.
Take a class. Or get a new job. Don’t whine. This is presented in such an absolute way that you sound totally convinced. That’s depressing.
wow, Mikebdesign, how dare you judge people that they are in the wrong career just because they agree to someone’s opinion. If you are expressing your opinion, be rational not an ass.
i second archdork… and i agree with the article to a point… most firms do not construct 3d models to the point that you can take it into 3ds max, rhino or maya. they are geared towards the final output: construction documents. while this may be decades behind technolgy, it is the state of the majority of architecture firms. if you are capable of producing and understand what it will take to get a rendering complete, more power to you. but most firms do not understand this… they will not understand why some detail is not modeled or why a color is off, leading to more work for the renderer. i believe that if one does agree to do a rendering that they do all they can to make the higher ups understand what is involved and also how powerful the computer generated graphic can be to the overall design process. for example… a comprehensive digital model may only take 10% more time to produce than a line drawing or aec object drawing. but from that model you can produce elevations, sections, plans, renderings and even details, offering a huge savings in time versus drawing each component separately. but again, most firms do not operate this way yet… i believe we are on the cusp, but it is still a few years out. and until a firm decides to go that way, as some are with bim, the modeler/renderer will be asked to do tedious work with little relative value to the project’s bottom line… if you have the ability and desire to render you should let your boss know and argue how it is a benifit and what can be done to make it easier and how the technology can affect the design process and not be an irrelevant piece of eyecandy.
Archdork: I agree my position may come off as harsh, but not irrational. When I was in design school, I found that the people who whined about the process brought everyone down. As the saying goes: “A poor craftsman blames his tools”. People with a bad attitude about the craft and the process are the first to be culled from the group in academic institutions.
The process of 3d modeling and rendering is integral to the contemporary design process. There are some firms who specialize in and insist on doing hand sketches as opposed to doing any 3d. That, however has changed from the norm to a specialized cottage industry.
I think this article is written as gospel from a newcomers point of view, and reads as a bit naive and unenthusiastic about an endeavor that if done right should be quick, satisfying, and necessary.
this kind of articles makes me feel this site just as a pre-professional site, it lacks the real architecture spirit….sorry, but it’s true
Mikebdesign is right – clients have changed from the days of Corbusier, and while romantic, there is a process of visualization that is at a global competitiveness harbored by the cost effectiveness and graphic qualities of companies like Crystal CG. This is reinforced by the emphasis on digital tools of the entire team in the contemporary office, and the priority of candidates that are digitally inclined.
No offense, but this is a reality that is only expanding in the field.
AGREE TO THE MAX.
But the whole problem with rendering now is that the client all demand it, and the shinier the better! So even if you did want to escape it. You can’t D:
Young starting architects, beware of being branded as “the newbie with great 3D skills” when you entered into your new firm. While it might seem awesome to be valued at the start, you’ll soon discover you spend your days rendering impossible 3D after 3D dictated by your boss (and yes, I have seen more than one boss who loves to hover behind newbies while they design)…
I’m not saying I don’t agree that technology IS a tool supposely help architects to visualize throughout the process of design. I was more concerned about team dynamic. I’ve been working in several different offices in other countries with different scale/size (as small as 4 people to as large as over 100 people) Every place I worked, architectural projects are team works of course. Each team member has assigned tasks. If you are outstandingly better at 3d modeling and rendering than any other team member, you will be the one most likely get in charge of 3d modeling and rendering. Because architecture practices are not artisans, they are business, business seeking for profit.
Many of new graduates tend to have better and faster rendering/3d skills than seniors and that’s why young architects fresh from schools usually end up doing renderings. They probably won’t be doing design as much as they expected and wish to, one reason maybe because all projects have certain schedules. you finish one model/rendering and would like to try your own idea, you might just run out of time. Or your boss/project manager will keep you busy working on a new model/rendering. Yes, I agree with you that good rendering should be conceptually crystal clear and quick, also they should put more effort/passion in terms of work ethic but there’s got to be a limit, I personally think.
If architects are working as a team, it’s not as same as freelancing individually. I’m not even talking about how flash images should or should not be or whatever the architectural spirit is, I haven’t put any of my thoughts on those issues above. I just couldn’t think that your comment “being in the wrong career” is fair for those young architects who are pushed to be in their position because of their skillful-ness and the structure of design practice.
I agree with this article to a point.
It was said that an architectural practice is a business. Consider how much a professional charges per rendered image and compare it to what a young architect straight out of varsity gets paid. Where i work the salary i get paid i equivalent to the cost of 3-4 renders. Now i am expected to do my normal work load and still do these 3-4 renders just for my salary?! I don’t think so. And on top of at a impossible deadline?
Ask the person who wants the rendering to pay for their real value and they quickly reconsider it.
Is not funny how if the professional guy says it will take 3 days you are expected to do it in a couple of hours just before the deadline and they stare at you in disbelieve when you tell them it is not enough time.
I have found that the only way i will do renderings is as a private job on the side. It is the only way to dictate my own terms and deadlines.
At the end it is a means of presenting your design, be it a scale model a freehand sketch, a 3D model or whatever.
It is about the design and the architecture, what you use to present it is just the tool of your choice and you can say one software is better than another if are producing great results. And believe me there is no ‘one’ software that can do it all.
I see so many ‘amazing renderings’ out there but when you really look at them there is no substance, there is no design, there is no architecture. Oh wait but they got that chrome material and reflection in the glass so ‘realistic’ who cares…
Still, it’s somehow amusing how people don’t perceive rendering, CAD, and all computer based software as tools as much as the pencil was for Corbu. Drawing on a piece of paper requires as much knowldge as it does drawing by CAD or render a model. It seems that a lot of people implies you cant fuck up using graphite based tools. I also see many good drawing where there nothing but a nice piece of …drawing. Architecture is substance not drawing. You can get it right through CAD or through pen and paper, as much as you can fuck it up in both ways. Tools are tools, they are not the essence of architecture. As much as visualisation is just a means to get your idea across, often to the untrained eyes.
I am worried when people equate the architect to a good illustrator. It helps to draw obviously, expecially being able to fix your ideas through sketches but it’s not the quality of your drawings that make your architecture. Unless you are Aldo Rossi :) LOL
I thinking the best part of the job is rendering. U need to break down your work. Model then render models in clay form. Get this approved. Texture model(s) then render for approval. Add lighting then render test images for approval before setting final render up. This is the work flow I use, and by doing so allows for corrections at certain points in the project. It also lets the clients see how far the project is.
My opinion is if you don’t want to learn all aspects of 3D Graphics that’s fine, but don’t complain when someone else has a better job cause they spent more time learning all aspects of their trade.
South Africa
photorealistic renderings are nice, but…are they necessary? really, sometimes the most simple sketchup outputs (of course with customized settings) look better then photo-realistic renders.
Personally, I think the best thing is a real scaled model. Even the best-looking viz is still 2d :)
GGD said – “12. Professionals Do It Better -> already answered to that.”
It’s the best answer for this.. Rendering is a Tool as any other used by architects.. if you can and you are good at.. do it.. if you are useless with modeling and rendering.. maybe you can draw it.. but maybe there will be in future someone who says the 12 points for not spend in drawing.
If your firm can do rendering, is like a man trying to seduce a woman, he has more “weapons” to do it.. it is the same in business if you can do it you can use it.. how many renders have us seen here in archdaily.com that are not as good as “Dylan Cole Studio” (http://www.dylancolestudio.com/) but are good enough to set the idea, to sell the project..
Complain about rendering is like complaing about driving.. “Pros” always do it better.. so “the ones like Schumacher are the ones that only must drive?”, Hope is clear.. if you drive.. is a tool for moving.. you need a car.. an expensive, or a cheap, you can be good or bad, but if it works it is good. But if you want to compete against the real “pros” you need to be far beyond good. The same in architecture and rendering.
rendering is comlpetely missunderstood
rendering is a process of linking data
for analysis…
today lightning is the most easy to
do…thats why you refer to rendering
as lighning.
why not render out the energy which a
building recieves during each season!
you could render that into your model
so that you can judge space better.
why not expose your model to physics
like hurricanes and earthquakes.
because its difficult to do`?
As a registered Architect who has been unemployed for several months now, please please take this article into your firm and explain to your boss why you wont be participating in any future renderings. Then you will have plenty of time for those renderings in your portfolio while you look for a new job.
I have to say this article is the worst thing I have read in a long time about what it is to be a young professional. The position of entitlement from which these complaints are made is irresponsible and will delay advancement in a professional setting rather than advance it. I’ll take this point by point.
1. God forbid the day passes by while you are engaged in a task that is so captivating your whole day passes by. It sunny outside too.
2. Is this a serious comment? Are you not paid for your time?
3. That’s you chance to shine. It’s probably one of the only things a young architect is better at than their boss. Changes to the work are the same as redlining CD’s, what’s the problem?
4. That’s called a design process.
5. Understanding how a building goes to gather and occupies its site are the two most important things any architect can learn. You don’t work out the details because your client can not suspend their disbelief; you work them out because that’s what separates an architect from a hobbyist. Sweating the details, be it a rendering or CD’s, is the task a young architect needs to learn and ingrain in their process for any work they may undertake.
6. That’s just not true. Maybe someone doesn’t know the software or compatible software but there are so many things that go into a rendering it rarely comes out of one program ready to go. One rendering can have numerous tasks shared by a team of people.
7. Wait. You had to learn something new? That’s just unfair. It’s so hard, really. Good point.
8. The smell of their breath? How about saying ‘I’ll make these changes right away, come back in 10 minutes and I’ll show what I got’. Or continue with the cuddies argument.
9. The skill to illustrate your idea is an important one. Would you rather review those detail references you’re sweating or coordinate a finish hardware spec or count sheets or pick up redlines for the third time? If you can’t appreciate the process of making pretty pictures you’re really missing a beautiful part of creating the physical expression of architecture.
10. You are missing the point of the 3d modeling task. You learn how the building engages it site, how 2d drawings translate into 3d form, major structural systems, landscaping, understanding of basic civil issues, finish selection, not to mention vetting conceptual design and figuring out what works and what doesn’t.
11. That’s just not true. Even the oldest boss remembers the time it takes to render in graphite, pen or colored pencil.
12. If someone can do something better then you, it’s just not worth doing.
I hope someone has the good sense to delete this whole editorial.
It’s true, It’s better to leave the renderings to the guys who only do that.
It leaves more time for the architect to do his/hers job and at the end of the day the renderings look good because they were done by professionals.
If you don’t have a passion for rendering you’r doomed :)
You have to be able to visualy express your product as good as possible to win.
On the other hand I’m all too familiar with the story: an ANALPHABET in 3D asks for an awesome looking render in no time, hocus-pocus stuff. He does’n know the necessary effort requaired, he won’t be able to appreciate it or recompensate for it, nor allocate time and resource (man-hours load). He knows 2 things : 1-he needs the renders in no time; and 2- if he pushes you maybe you’ll be able to do it.
Let’s face the options:
a) you don’t do it coz it’s too little time for too much work and you have other stuff to live for (like running after ciks, drink beer and discuss the future of humanity with friends). output: you’ll take all the blame for the failure, like it’s your fault that 3d doesn’t appear instantly from poor 2d.
b) you do it poorly, fast minimalistic stuff. output:again you’ll take the blame for practical failure and risk overnight remakes for no good whatsoever regarding the finish product
c) do it properly, against time am odds, changing the change of the change and then going back 5 steps, you know, proper f**k. output: you live one more month in that miserable office, reading articles about how successful and awesome your boss is (guess how good you’r gonna feel about yourself, and just wait till the next deadline…)
So this is a NO-WIN situation. The only way to win from this is to make clear the conditions for doing a proper render (if your able to do one in the first place): moooooooooney and a deadline for modifications. (don’t forget you have the boss by his balls, he needs the renderings).
otherways just avoid at all costs. only pain and sorrow involved.
As for me – as and architect – I tend to see images and glimpses of a real building in my head. Then I have to try and transcribe some of these into an organic building by rough sketches, cardboard assemblages. After that I think modeling in Sketchup is invaluable in providing feedback since you can view and shape the building at so many levels. You can make so many cool images from a textured sketchup model and also adding creative touches in Photoshop. These models still have an open ended creative possibility conveyed. Beyond this you can render more realistically and quickly in SU with Podium or IDX Renditioner ( I just discovered!)
In my opinion this should be developed by the architect in design or someone working with him. The client should be in on the progress and only then should the CD’s or BIM model be detailed. If your BIM software is flexible like I have found Archicad to be – then you can quickly convert that SU model into Archicad for further work.
This whole problem is occurring because Architects are not designing in 3d to begin with and the project progresses so far in a vague way in 2d before the 3d ‘experts’ are called in. Oh! and then they finally see what they have been working on all along and are surprised. Then they want changes.
We live in an amazing age to have a tool like Sketchup and that process blows away all the old 2d methods in my opinion. Be thankful and show the architects how stupid they are to not design in 3d. There should be no excuses.
As a student, i would have to say that renders are part of what we learn, but this has to be learned on our own… no techers to give us tips, etc… so thats kinda frustrating when you get into a studio critics day, and all your getting criticized about are your damn renderings (theyre not showing things, too dark, not realistic enough, etc, etc, etc….) what about architecture…. what are selling the packaging, not the product…
Rendering 3d shouldn’t be the final say (too bad it is) and is not worth THAT much stress and time. In 20 years these images will look like…
A perfect render can impress to a client but can not convince them.
its not a crime to enhance the quality of ur works..
I’m a professional 3D/visualisation guy at an architectural practise. It is absolutely the best setup to have. This article is somewhat ludicrous. We have the technology to see the building before it is built, like we had pencil sketches before then, and the reason this guy presents for not doing them? – they take too long! This is, like all newly introduced technology, something for the new architect to learn, not to reject.
Having said that, it is better to have someone dedicated to the task, because as you point out, it’s time consuming. As for the Dubai thing – that’s on account of them having warehouses full of people paid $1 a day.
Originally Posted by AJLynn @ CGArchitect.com
“You’re all missing the point. This article isn’t for aspiring 3D guys, it’s for junior architects (the most underappreciated form of life). Junior architects don’t want to get better at rendering. They want to become senior architects.
The way to do this is for them to practice working on architecture, but senior architects keep giving the junior architects rendering work (which is not architecture work) to do. The better the junior architect gets at rendering, the more rendering work is assigned, until it becomes almost impossible for the junior architect to do real work. The rendering work is unappreciated because the senior architects don’t consider it real work, thinking it’s something a computer does and not something a skilled junior architect does.
The best approach for the junior architect is to pretend not to know how to render.”
Just wanted to share this post so you all can understand the point of this article
This isn’t good or bad. It’s just the way of things. Nothing stays the same.
so true! but to those who like rendering:
http://www.rendercatalog.com
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