How many times have you looked at an image of a house or a commercial building and tried to zoom in to see the textures and colors? Has the quality ever bothered you and led you to change your disposition towards the entire project?
Photorealistic product rendering is your ultimate modern-day solution to such a shortcoming. Put clearly and simply; it is the process of creating a 2D or 3D image with the help of Computer Aided Design (CAD) softwares and tools.
These images distinguish themselves from traditional images captured by cameras in certain respects. The level of detail and texture is the most important distinguishing factor.
The article below details everything you need to know about photorealistic product rendering, as well as practical tips and tricks on how to implement this technological milestone for our architectural firm.
Let’s dive in!
Overview of Photorealistic Product Rendering
This section is designed to help you build a solid understanding of the basic concept of photorealistic product rendering.
We have tried our best to cover the basic definition, scope, and tools needed to create a perfect rendering for your next big project. Keep on reading to discover exciting possibilities of bringing a positive change to your process of design and presentation for prospective clients.
What is Photorealistic Product Rendering?
Let’s give you a simple analogy to work with. Photorealistic product rendering works almost like a mirror, reflecting the textures, lighting, color palette, design, and interior of a real-life architectural landscape.
This process and final product allow architects and other stakeholders to visualize designs accurately and comprehensively, with little to no margin for errors.
In terms of lighting, artificial and natural daylight stimulations are used to mimic real-life lights and subsequent shadows. The texture of the materials, including their roughness and softness, are similarly curated to create a final photorealistic project.
Software and Tools
You may wonder what goes into the making of such a highly anticipated design. Well, just as technology has made everything else seem easier and accessible, specific tools and software can be used to create photorealistic product renderings.
Lumion, V-Ray, Corona Render, Enscape, and Blender are some of the excellent sites that allow you to create 2D and 3D Photorealistic immersions of the highest quality with fast processing output times.
The platform you ultimately end up choosing for the final rendering will depend on a number of factors, including time, budget, client specification, editing options, and the detail and scope of the project itself.
Techniques of Photorealistic Product Rendering
There are several key techniques that make the process of photorealistic product rendering easier to navigate.
For example, Ray Tracing is a technique that allows the editor to control the way he/she interacts with other objects in the scene, producing photorealistic shadows and reflections.
Similarly, Ambient Occlusion helps to create soft shadows in crevices and spaces where light does not hit directly. Global Illumination seeks to highlight areas that receive indirect light that bounces off surfaces.
You may already know the Depth of Fields. It is a camera technique that focuses the camera lens on areas of interest and blurs out places that are out of focus. Post-processing refers to adding technical details and adjustments to the rendered image to refine and perfect the final output.
Photorealistic Product Rendering: 5 Steps to Creation
Our comprehensive guide below has effortlessly adhered to and categorized the entire process of creating photorealistic product rendering for architecture in five simple and easy steps.
If you are confused about where to begin, follow the step-by-step process enlisted below to discover how you can improve your firm’s prospects and portfolio.
1. Gather Necessary Resources
Consider for a second that you are to begin making a sketch or 3D model of a building physically. What will happen if you start without gathering the necessary tools and materials first? What if you forget your sketching pencils?
The answer is utter chaos. To avoid such a haphazard turn of events, we advise you to gather materials, inspiration, and client feedback as your starting point. Do not make the mistake of thinking that since the process is virtually online, you can skip this step.
Mood boards, in collaboration with clients’ references and demands, come in particularly handy and useful. An inspiration board will prevent you from losing direction and focus.
Next, gather design files and documents, including elevations and floor plans. Similarly, collect reference materials, color palettes, photographs, samples, and any other physical or digital assets provided by the client.
Although you may already be in the habit of doing so, as a reminder, don’t forget to study the geographical location and contextual landscape of the setting for your model. This is extremely important and should not be overlooked under any circumstance.
2. Create a 3D Model for the design
Just as how you would sketch on paper or build a 3D model manually, you need to create a 3D model of the design on your chosen online platform.
This software must support computer-aided design. Pay close attention to dimensions, measurements, scale, and overall proportion of the architectural design, as this can significantly discourage the client if done incorrectly.
You may want to create 3D models of products within the building, such as furniture, plants, and their decoration, especially in the case of interior rendering.
For exterior landscape rendering, it is essential to include an overview of the surrounding landscape, vegetation, neighboring houses or estates, and optimal weather conditions.
The model should be clean and sharp, tailored to the client’s demand and satisfaction factor. Avoid making it overly complex and messy, as this can indicate weak skills.
3. Materials and Textures
Once you have built a basic model of the architectural project with an appropriate layout, it is time to add a photorealistic impression of materials, textures, and colors to the space.
This is a very crucial turning point for your photorealistic product rendering as it can make the final product look close to the original or far from the original.
Different materials used are glass, concrete, metal, wood, tiles, and fabric. Pay close attention to each material’s prototypical qualities, including transparency, reflectiveness, glossiness, and surface, to add visual realism.
Textures allude to scratches and grain impressions that can be touched and felt. This is a plus point for those resorting to photorealistic product rendering, as such rendering can imitate physical textures with the help of specialized software.
To further make the 3D model or image look realistic, add bump maps to add surface-level details. Once finished, UV mapping will be used to scale and align the textures and materials inscribed on the 3D model itself.
4. Add Lights and Shadows
Perhaps the most crucial step after the creation of the 3D model itself, adding lighting and subsequent shadows, will make your model look ten times more realistic and close to real life.
Lighting can be natural or artificial. The type of light you use will depend on client preferences, the geographical landscape, the weather, the interior, and the aesthetic of the space. A beach house, for example, needs more natural light than a commercial building.
To imitate natural sunlight, use High Dynamic Range Imaging or HDMR technology for close-to real-life sky imitation.
Software such as Global Illumination can be used to create a light bounce effect and the way light reflects off of surfaces, creating dark and soft shadows.
Lastly, check to ensure that the overall model looks highly realistic and balanced. Make sure that the lights and shadows complement each other in perfect scope and harmony. Lighting should seek to reflect the aesthetic and mood of the space and, therefore, should be consistent with other design components.
5. Final Touches
Adding the final touches, whether to a painting, piece of writing, or recipe, is crucially mandatory for any artwork of monetary or aesthetic value.
To make sure that your photorealistic product rendering is free of defects, employ specific post-processing techniques. These include editing details such as color correction, adding additional effects, adding animation, sharpening, filters, and reducing noises.
For rendering, use the software mentioned earlier (V-Ray, Corona, etc.) to render and produce the final image. Adjust anti-aliasing, resolution, and sampling accordingly. The final image can then be downloaded in any format of choice, such as TIFF, JPEG, or PNG.
Consult once again with clients and designers on the team before sending off the final product. You may want to make necessary adjustments during the post-processing phase of the product rendering.
By accurately and consistently following the above-mentioned steps, not only will you be a step ahead of your competitors in the field, but you can also help impress your clients and build long-term customer relationships with high returns.
The Usefulness of Photorealistic Rendering for Architects
Whenever a customer is in the process of deciding whether to buy a particular product or not, they always tend to weigh its benefits and challenges, or in other terms, its usefulness.
To find out whether to invest in teas and software for photorealistic product rendering for your firm, read below and navigate through the list of benefits and challenges listed by us. These will help you make an informed decision and possibly clear out some queries regarding the subject.
Benefits of Photorealistic Product Rendering
Below, we have outlined the primary and often overlooked benefits of photorealistic product rendering for architects.
Visual Identity
Branding for an architectural firm is just as important as any other marketing strategy. A considerable proportion of any branding strategy relies instinctively on the brand’s visual identity, in other words, how the brand is perceived by its target customers.
By creating stunning photorealistic renderings of your architectural product, you can hope to polish your brand’s visual identity by presenting an excellent portfolio.
These images can further be used on other social media and marketing platforms to increase your firm’s reach and cultivate a passionate and engaging target audience.
Relationship with clients
How many times have you canceled an order because it took so long to arrive? How would you feel trying to get in touch with an unresponsive firm?
It is not uncommon for prospective clients to grow impatient or skeptical of the design process, especially if it is time-consuming. Therefore, it is essential to communcate and keep them updated at regular intervals to avoid any doubt.
Photorealistic product rendering can help you do just that. With the help of a click, you can send client unfinished results, invite them to be a part of 3D animations, and see a realistic manifestation of their original vision.
Hence, you are sure to build strong connections with potential long term clients and entrust them to choose your services over and over again, which saves both time and money as opposed to attracting a new client from scratch.
Creativity
Architects are creative geniuses and intellectuals. As you may be aware, an artist is excited by the idea of creatively venturing after a new design or inspiration without the restriction of time and space.
Product rendering through computer-aided designs allows you to do just that. In a virtual environment with a ton of options to create, edit, and improve the product in the process, architects can safely bring even the most unusual of ideas to life.
Saves Cost and Time
In this digital age, producing a high resolution, photorealistic product rendering requires little time and money. You may initially have to invest in software, but once they are in consistent use, the cost decreases over time.
Building physical models is a highly tedious task that requires days of endless patience, time, and expense. However, not only are 3D renderings and images relatively quicker to make, but they can also be used for a multitude of purposes, including business presentations, portfolios, social media content, and website fronts.
Challenges of Photorealistic Product Rendering
Creating photorealistic product rendering is not as easy as it seems on the surface. It has some challenges attached to its selection, which we have discussed below.
Technical skill
In order to achieve and maintain realism, it is imperative to be well versed in the ways of rednering software and relevant technology.
If you are not apt in such skills, you may have to hire certain professionals for the job. You can also outsource the rendering portion of the design; however, it will be costly.
Additionally, realism in design takes a lot of work to imitate and achieve. Architectural firms have been known to achieve such results, but a successful output is the result of trial and error, built over time from experience and expertise.
Client Expectations
As with everything, even technology has its limitations, the extent to which it can display specific designs. Even if you manage to create a virtual impression of a highly complicated model, it will be extremely challenging to bring that design to life in real life.
Clients may ask for unusual designs and make complicated requests, which may be tricky to deal with. Therefore, keep these things in design during client negotiations and before agreeing to the final contract.
Software Drawbacks
If not chosen wisely, the software can glitch or slow down. This will not only impact the quality of your work but also delay the rendering process.
As we discussed before, clients are usually discouraged by late submissions and responses. Ineffective software can have a deteriorating impact on client loyalty.
Therefore, invest in high-quality, multi-core processor software with a higher RAM. Consider using a combination of various different software tools and update them regularly to avoid any inconvenience in the near future.
Conclusion
As we have seen, photorealistic product rendering has its own drawbacks and plus points when it comes to architecture and design. You can conduct further research and dive deeper into the subject to figure out if you need to incorporate this model into your day-to-day workings.
Overall, photorealistic product rendering is an excellent tool to increase your designs’ visual appeal and clarity compared to paper sketches and physical 3D models. These rendered images can then also be combined to create a VR-integrated reality with animation.
Clients who live abroad or are unable to travel on a regular basis will find this form of product rendering extremely useful. This will in turn, allow you to increase your reach and extend your target audience across borders.
Therefore, make sure to experiment with photorealistic product rendering, and let us know what you think!
FAQs
Q. How long does it take to make a photorealistic rendering of a product?
The length of time differs for each model. Properties relatively minor in size will require less time. A minimal interior will have fewer elements to create than a maximalist interior. Therefore, rendering can take from a few hours to several days, based on the details and scale of the project.
Q. How can I adjust client revisions during the rendering process?
Client revisions are a bit complicated to process, especially during the later or final stages of the rendering process. The best solution is to clarify client requirements at the very start and use real-time rendering tools.
Q. What is the future of Photorealistic Product Rendering?
Some of the trends that have started surfacing in the architectural industry specifically are sustainable simulations, real time rendering, and VR-Integration. The goal is to increase realism, quality, and accessability.
