Can a Photorealistic 3D Rendering Change The Way a Space is Designed?

by Paul Odett on 10/21/10 at 11:12 am

An interesting thing happened on a recent project where we were creating a number of photorealistic renderings for a new hi rise in Honolulu, Hawaii.

We were on our way to creating some really nice and very hi quality still renderings and our client was really liking what they were seeing.  The fact our client had put a lot of time into designing very cool spaces and using really modern materials and furniture was certainly helping our goal of creating highly realistic imagery for these spaces.

One particular space that was emphasized was the Lobby area of the condo building, which is a space where people could hang out and read their mail, relax on the comfortable couch’s and chairs and just talk or read.

Once we delivered the first review image of the Lobby space I remember our production team talking about the fact the client wanted to make some significant changes to the space as it relates to wall materials, furniture pieces, lighting fixtures and a whole host of other small design changes.

The detailed and realistic looking rendering we created per the design and specification package really looked great, yet it was just not sending the right vibe for the space as the client had hoped for and something needed to be changed.

We then determined that what we would do is add some additional dollars to the rendering budget and create a “design slush fund” so to speak and start playing around with different colors, furniture schemes, lighting, mail room design functionality, art work, etc.

What happened was a standard process for creating a rendering was now taking on a new life of helping our client and their design team get closer to meeting the vision they had in their head.  By leveraging our team and further enhancing the space through an iterative 3D rendering process, the lobby was reborn and was now coming into its own.

After much iteration, the final rendering was complete and the overall space was essentially done, at least in our computer it was and now just needed to be finalized in the design drawing package and then would be ready for construction.

My thought for sharing this was that although the original plan was to create a nice rendering of the lobby per the client design package, our flexibility in process allowed our client’s team the choice to shift to more of a design review process.  Our client found great value is using our capabilities to design as we go and in the end had a product in their hands that was ultimately what they wanted and all prior to starting construction.