To create a successful architectural rendering takes creativity, patients, basic art theory knowledge, and many other skills and disciplines. To create a successful 3D computer generated architectural rendering takes the same above mentioned skills and disciplines, along with several new ones.
If you haven't noticed, most creatives are not very technically gifted and most technically gifted are not very creative. Of course, these are generalizations, but tend to hold true. You need a unique person to create a successful 3D computer architectural rendering, because you have to be both creative and technically minded.
In this post I'll be talking technology. So, if you are only a creative thinker, this will probably confuse you. For you technical guys, it'll be candy.
Recently, I dropped a small fortune ($6,500) on some new hardware. A fortune is relative, but it was a fortune to me. Like any successful business, you have to invest to stay competitive and relevant. After about a year of investigating, I finally pulled the trigger on a new computer. This is what I purchased:
Dell Precision T7910 36-Core Dual E5-2696 v3 Max 3.8GHz 128GB RAM EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 06G-P4-4995-KR 6GB
The Dell precision T7900 is the most powerful, to date, computer they make. The processors are not available to the public and they don't get any faster. About every aspect to this computer is EXTREME! From the 2X 36-Core processors, to the 128 GB of RAM, and the 6 GB video card. EXTREME!
Why such an EXTREME computer? Simply, I can create better 3D computer architectural renderings for my clients. I am a creative, which is about 80% of what it takes, and now I have the EXTREME hardware to create things faster. Not only can I do things faster, I can do things better, because I don't have to wait so long for the computer to compute and I can use that time to be more creative.
When you are looking for an architectural illustrator, please ask about their hardware. If they are working on a 4 year old laptop, please reconsider them as your choice. I have seen some beautiful work from some people who use inexpensive hardware, however, things take very long to complete and there are a lot of shortcuts that need to be taken. Small changes, for the most part, are a big deal, when you have limited resources. With limited resources, there are simply things you can't do; things that make an image EXTREME!