The Art of Rendering: 5 Realistic Styles and the Future of Visualization

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Architectural visualization: It’s a harsh mistress. We are seduced by it, but sometimes it leads us astray. While modeling, rendering and post-production capabilities are always increasing, the realism that we see in renderings is not always proportionate to our ability to produce it. In other words, some renderings don’t even look try to look real anymore; they are often dramatized until they look like science fiction or a romantic painting.

There are examples of realistic visualization, however. One of the best is the recent Unreal Paris, a tour of a digitally modeled Parisian apartment. The video was produced with Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 4, their latest game-producing software. The hyper-realistic video weaves through a very nice looking apartment. The towels in the bathroom are the only thing that really gives it away.

IKEA uses 3d modeling to produce their catalogs, so that they don’t have to style every single shot in real life. They can re-arrange and swap colors or patterns more easily, plus it saves them on cost. Their realistic images look just like the real thing when it arrives at your house, er, after you assemble it! Ironically, IKEA is proud of their print catalog that you can hold in your hands.

Of course, there is also the epic “The Third and The Seventh,” an animated film about a photographer who travels taking pictures of some iconic architecture, including the work of Louis Kahn. The Exeter Library is exquisitely detailed, and looks as real as the original. The lighting and materials are scaled back in this film, giving it a more honest, deadpan quality.

Oculus Rift does not offer a fully realistic immersive experience yet, but it has potential to make the experience extremely realistic. IrisVR, along with design industry veterans McBride Design, have teamed up to develop new software — Rift Architecture — for architects and designers to integrate plans and drawings into Oculus Rift, the virtual reality platform that has been purchased by Facebook. Oculus Rift’s headset is a next-generation gaming and entertainment media platform, designed to create a heightened sense of immersion at the average consumer price-point, elevating the industry beyond a screen-dominated experience.

The work of Joakim Dahlqvist is not realistic in the traditional sense, but that’s precisely the point. Forgoing post-production, they do not real and indeed they do not try to look real, yet the way they are rendered makes them look like models on a table. The implications of the uncanny objects is a direct rejection of the over-romanticized, over-processed renderings of today.

We are thrilled to announce the winners of Architizer's inaugural Vision Awards, the world’s biggest awards program dedicated to the art of architectural representation. Sign up to receive future program updates >  

Enjoy this article? Check out the other features in our series on “The Art of Rendering”:

Methanoia Reveals the Story Behind Architecture’s Most Striking Visualizations

When Architectural Visualization Gets It Right: Victor Enrich’s Surreal Art

7 Magical Demonstrations of Hyper-Real Environments

Alex Hogrefe Creates Stunning Architectural Visualizations Using SketchUp and Photoshop

How Technology Will Revolutionize Architectural Representations

Striving for Real-Time Photorealism in Architectural Visualization

Create a Stunning Watercolor Visual Using SketchUp, AutoCAD and Photoshop