The 13th A+Awards invites firms to submit a range of timely new categories, emphasizing architecture that balances local innovation with global vision. Your projects deserve the spotlight, so start your submission today!
Architectural modeling software and computing hardware have both advanced to such a degree in recent years that the potential for hyperrealism is only limited by a rendering artist’s technical capabilities and their eye for a well-crafted composition. The process has become a recognized art in its own right: talented rendering specialists such as Peter Guthrie and Alex Roman (creator of the extraordinary CGI film “The Third and the Seventh”) are almost as well known as the architects themselves.
Using some particularly striking examples from Architizer’s project database, we take a look at some simple ways you can add an extra layer of believability to your renderings — and fool your viewers into thinking they are looking through a window into the real world…
1. Stay in Focus
One of the most effective ways to give your rendering the look of a built work that has been photographed is to perfect the camera settings within your model. Emphasize particularly striking elements within the frame by tweaking the depth of field, which also helps trick the eye into perceiving three-dimensional space within a two-dimensional image.
Commissioned by Henry Goss Architects to visualize Staithe End in Christchurch, New Zealand, Peter Guthrie utilized this technique to add real depth to his interior shots. Note the blurred table in the foreground and the hazy courtyard in the background, which throws the varied textures of a quirky designer chair into the spotlight.
2. Embrace Your Imperfections
As all realists know, there is no such thing as perfect — and good rendering artists celebrate this fact with subtle disruptions that bring their creations closer in line with our imperfect world.
Great examples can be found by looking closely at internal renders of Igor Sirotov Architect’s House at the Lake: note that the rug is slightly wrinkled, adding a believable irregularity to the fabric. Furthermore, the cushions on the sofa have been unevenly distributed, lending the space a more informal, more realistic appearance.
3. Gain Night Vision
Capturing a visualization at dusk can show your architectural creations off to the maximum. The soft glow of internal lighting emanating into the twilit sky can lend your image a seductive, ambient atmosphere. The key here is to stay true to your rendering engine: add lights with wattage to match the real world bulbs, make sure to include all surrounding fixtures, louvers, and shades, and let your graphics card do the rest.
Strom Architects envisioned this private house in Suffolk, United Kingdom, after sunset, including underwater lighting that illuminates the swimming pool with supreme realism.
4. Master Your Materials
When modeling the raw materials that make up an architectural proposal, it is important to consider details beyond the surface texture: how firm are your sofa cushions, and how might this affect their appearance in a rendering? Are the edges of your marble countertop really that sharp or would a bevel help them appear more real? Did you remember to model glass with the correct thickness and opacity?
Peter Guthrie has mastered that last material, showing realistic glass balustrades in the highly contemporary House Hafner by Hornung and Jacobi. Modeling glazing with the correct thickness also allows light to refract through it in the most accurate way possible.
5. Weather the Storm
In the fictional world of architectural visualizations, it can be tempting to show our site at its best with sunshine providing nice, sharp shadows and pristine, external textures. However, a little postproduction to introduce some more extreme weather conditions can help heighten atmosphere, add character, and create a more believable vision, to boot.
With many projects situated in the far north, BIG Architects frequently illustrate how its proposal will shine, whatever the weather. The Greenland National Gallery is lent a particularly dramatic backdrop in keeping with the wild beauty of its natural context.
6. Show Your Age
Another effective way to bring your renders one step closer to reality is to utilize textures that give materials the appearance of age. Ask yourself: how much will that timber deck silver over the years? What effect would a few thunderstorms and snow showers have on this exposed concrete? Just how much might this Corten steel cladding rust?
For his conceptual renders of Chair House, a residence proposed for a cliff edge over looking the ocean, Igor Sirotov was not afraid to illustrate his concrete elevations with water stains that would naturally occur over time.
7. Be as Untidy as You Please
If, like me, you are a fan of minimalism, you will know that one of the biggest problems with the genre is the impracticality of living with it. The moment you bring in your worldly possessions, that utopian vision of clean surfaces, unbroken sight-lines, and pristine space is smashed forever.
For render artists, though, this truth can be used to make an imagined environment infinitely more believable. For the Nanthala Outdoor Center in North Carolina, visualization studio Renderbucket added a couple of scatter cushions, an imperfect pile of books, and worn leather chair to create that relaxed yet stylish lived-in look.
8. Get Back to Nature
The setting of a building is often its biggest selling point, and, if your design sits in a picturesque context, it pays to give the surroundings as much attention as the architecture itself.
A particularly striking example of scene-setting was delivered by Peter Guthrie and Strom Architects with their renderings for The Quest residence in Swanage, England. The artist chose to illustrate the building at one of the most beautiful times in the year — the fall — and made sure to include a healthy scattering of fallen leaves upon the driveway for an authentic autumnal aesthetic.
The 13th A+Awards invites firms to submit a range of timely new categories, emphasizing architecture that balances local innovation with global vision. Your projects deserve the spotlight, so start your submission today!
