Photorealism in Renders: Enhance your ArchViz projects

I am Marc Poncelas, Professor of 3D Graphic Design at CIPSA. In this post we are going to talk about Photorealism in Renders.

You will also discover a very interesting topic for the field of Architecture:  how photography can help improve your ArchViz or rendering projects.

The latest trends in 3D Graphic Design for 2019 indicate an increased demand for photorealism in renderings, especially in the field of architecture. Learning photorealism, animation, and virtual reality techniques will be the best investment in this sector for 2019.

What is ArchViz?

We’ll start with a little basic introduction: What is ArchViz?

ArchViz (Architectural Visualization) is a variant of 3D modeling that consists of creating hyper-realistic images of architecture focused on representing how a project will look before its construction.

It differs from the Render concept in two points:

1. In ArchViz the image is created entirely by computer, it is not combined with other materials.
2. Rendering is used in different sectors: Advertising, Cinema, product presentation… ArchViz is used specifically in architecture.

The Hyperrealistic Trend in 3D Graphic Design and ArchViz

Ever since the first render engine was produced, industries have always had one goal in mind: photorealism. In recent years this imposition has increased exponentially and has become a trend.

But why has photorealism become a trend?

Like any form of art, it has gone through different stages and artistic eras. In the early 1300s, the Renaissance appeared as the first hyper-realistic art form of the modern age of art. Later, it was distorted and looking for a more artistic objective, until arriving at the current modern art.

The same is happening in 3D graphic design. Currently, we are in a phase of hyperrealism. The current trend is to push the limits of rendering engines in order to create a completely computer-generated photograph, without the use of a physical camera, that is perfectly identical to an original photograph .

But… what does photography have to do with all this?

In this case, photography must be understood as the cornerstone of any of our projects, whether they are with a camera or not. The reason for this is simple: almost any reference we use for a project will start from a photograph; either to see details of the model, its location, or to check what type of material it is made of and how we can represent and reproduce it.

Keep in mind also that cameras are not linear when taking a picture. What we see through the viewfinder will not correspond identically to what we see on the screen or on our computer. And this happens because manufacturers tweak the color and contrast balances to optimize the image and make it more visually appealing.

In a render, we would achieve this effect through post- production or with a LUT that equally represents the color and contrast settings of our camera.

If there is the possibility that we are the photographers and we do not have to depend on an image from the internet, the situation changes. They increase the possibilities to improve our work until we achieve truly spectacular effects for the project we are working on.

The advantages are obvious:

1. At first, we will no longer have the doubt of whether what we are seeing and trying to reproduce has some kind of additional edition that could alter the perception of reality.
2. Second, we will have all the configurable parameters of our camera. Therefore, we can also reproduce them in our virtual camera of the render engine.

Other aspects to take into account and that are essential to do a good job is learning to work with framing and composition .

You have to think that these two factors are what really make a project attractive, be it photography or rendering; Keep in mind that a bad approach to these factors can throw away many hours of work well done.

If you need to learn photorealism techniques for your ArchViz projects, contact us and a study advisor will inform you without any commitment of the 3D modeling courses you need.

As you have seen, photorealism in Renders is clearly on the rise. I hope that the information on how photography can help improve your ArchViz projects has been useful in guiding your studies in Architectural Visualization and 3D Graphic Design.