Urban Voyage's 3D Blog

3D rendering and architectural visualization has come a long way since Urban Voyage started over 10 years ago!

The first 3D yacht renderings we produced were of a viking ship, it also had realistic sailing dynamics – with a few water issues! Rendering technology and speed has increased dramatically making high quality visualization accessible to more businesses for more applications.

The reasons behind producing high quality virtual images can be many – including to sell or communicate an idea, to promote a new development, to communicate visual aspects to a client, to gain resource consent, to generate attention in the media or simply because it aids in the design and development process. Renderings, also known as photo-real 3D illustration, is the art of creating virtual images or animations that appear so real one cannot tell the difference between a photo and something made by 3D Graphic Artists.

When Urban Voyage is contacted by an Architect, Developer, Advertising Agency, or similar we go through our unique process of understanding the intent, purpose, goals and objectives of the project. This provides the background to help us find the ‘essence’ and ‘spirit’ within the architect’s plans. To begin we work from hand sketches, 2D drawings, CAD files and sometimes 3D models are provided to us which makes our job a real pleasure. The process starts with modeling from the plans to create the base model, once the base model has been approved by the customer, we work through creating realistic textures, surfaces and ‘materiality’.

Views are then chosen based on particular features or aspects that need to be shown and this normally involves producing quick 3D renderings to get the general feel for camera and scene placement. We consider the camera’s field of view (camera to subject distance and focal length of the lens), crop factor, framing, perspective distortion, and other important factors. When the client is happy with the view, the Urban Voyage team proceed to ‘dress’ or ‘stage’ the environment, similar to what happens on film sets (just virtually). These objects can be famous design furniture, modern art or other elements that help create warmth and depth within the scene.

Next we produce pre-final digital versions of the images to a standard which is close to the final result. Any last aspects or details are addressed and then rendering of the high-resolution and HD animation begins. Rendering is done using our rendering farm comprised of high-end multi-processor CPU “slaves” with large amounts of RAM. Once high resolution 3D images are ready, our team complete the post-production process which involves color-correction, image touch-ups, exposure and light levels, photo-matching, adjusting sharpness and adding environmental elements.

The final result is a 3D rendering like the one below (recently completed by Urban Voyage).

Typical uses or CGI (computer generated imagery) are still renderings, walk through and fly through animations, virtual tours, panoramic renderings, light and shadow studies, renovation renderings, marketing images, etc.

Urban Voyage is currently offering very competitive pricing for 3D architectural rendering and visualization – please contact us today to discuss your requirements.