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Bobby Parker 6/27/14 Bobby Parker 6/27/14

Free Cutout Images of Trees and People

Would you like to download some free cutout images of trees and people? Well, now you can! The guys of a studio called Vyonyx, just made available a lot of these images for download. Besides the trees and people, they have free textures too.

All you have to do is visit their website and choose the images to download, no registration is required. This is a very good resource for architectural visualization!

Did you enjoy this article? I would love to hear your thoughts, so don’t be shy and comment below! Please don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS-feed or follow my feed on Twitter, Google+ and Facebook! If you enjoyed the following article we humbly ask you to comment, and help us spread the word! Or, if you would like, drop me an email.

Bobby Parker 6/26/14 Bobby Parker 6/26/14

Pricing Yourself

Pricing yourself is one of the biggest hurdles every creative professional must overcome.
Why is money so scary? Is it because we don’t like it? Don’t be silly, of course we like money.
It’s because we don’t know our value.

What’s your income?
To come up with a price, look at what the market will pay you based on your education, experience, and skill set. If you don’t know, you can find the median salary within your industry and city at indeed.com/salary.

Here are some examples:
• Architectural Illustrator in NYC: $68,000
• Graphic Designer in Houston: $57,000
• Photographer in San Francisco: $30,000

Let’s say we’re the Architectural Illustrator in NYC making $68,000 per year.

Architectural Illustrator: $68,000 per year. He simply needs to slice off the last 3 zeros from his salary. If you could make $68,000 per year, just pitch $68 per hour as a freelancer. Again, this is a simple starting point, so you can just throw out a price off the top of your head. Always be prepared to negotiate.

As freelancers and creative professionals, we constantly have to negotiate our price. If you learn how to master the art of negotiation…it’ll help you in business and in life. Nothing is written in stone. Your “price” is not pre-determined by the Greek gods. You can pitch the high day rate first, which is $680. If they try to negotiate a lower price, now you know how low you are willing to go: $544. We’ll round up to $545. Don’t be afraid to ask for more.

“In business as in life, you don’t get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate””

— Chester L. Karrass

Remember to have fun! Believe it or not, negotiating gets to be a lot of fun with practice.

Bobby Parker 6/25/14 Bobby Parker 6/25/14

Rendering Fundamentals with Rhino and V-Ray with Dave Schultze

Before you can showcase your 3D designs, you need renders of your work that really pop. Learn how to render with Rhino and V-Ray in this course, which includes three fun sample projects: a penguin with glasses, a retro TV frame, and a funky birdhouse. First, author Dave Schultze shows how to install V-Ray and demystifies 3D concepts such as global illumination and raytrace rendering. He demonstrates techniques for rendering quickly with both Rhino's built-in rendering and V-Ray, and explains how to customize materials, enhance them with texture mapping, and add realistic surface textures using bump and displacement maps. Along the way, Dave shares insider tips and tricks on rendering, while showing how to get the right lighting for your scene, use color correction tools, and render with the V-Ray frame buffer.

Topics include:

Why use V-Ray?
Installing DR Spawner
Understanding 3D terminology
Activating V-Ray
Adjusting quality settings
Get quick previews with the material override
Understanding lighting types
Exploring materials in the Material Editor
Creating your own materials
Texture mapping materials with bitmaps and procedurals
Saving time with V-Ray presets
Getting the right size for your render with output settings
Working with environment lighting
Strategies for working with cameras and camera settings
Ensuring accurate color for your scene with color correction
Rendering tips and tricks

Bobby Parker 6/17/14 Bobby Parker 6/17/14

2014 CGarchitect 3Dawards Film Festival Teaser

2014 CGarchitect 3Dawards Film Festival Teaser from CGarchitect on Vimeo.

On July 5, 2014, CGarchitect will be showing some of the best submissions to our 2014 3Dawards at the Mundos Digitales Conference in La Coruna, Spain.

Bobby Parker 6/13/14 Bobby Parker 6/13/14

Thomas Kinkade - A Lifetime of Light

A Lifetime of Light - Online Exhibition
Experience this complete presentation of Thomas Kinkade's prolific 30 year career as America's Most Collected Artist. From his published works, we have prepared nearly 500 images; just click on an image to advance chronologically or use the links below to skip to a particular year.
Enter A Lifetime of Light

An American Artist - The Thomas Kinkade Life Story (video)
From his boyhood home in rural Placerville to becoming the renowned Painter of Light, Thomas Kinkade walked a focused path. An American Artist reveals the experiences and inspirations that influenced the artist...From the memories of family, teachers, mentors, and friends, here is the life of the man behind the art. Play An American Artist (57 min. video)

Bobby Parker 6/10/14 Bobby Parker 6/10/14

10 Commandments Color Theory

Make Your Projects More Enticing With Color Theory

Color combinations can be difficult to get right.

When matching with clothes, it’s easy. But for projects, ad campaigns and posters, the millions of colors to choose from can be overwhelming. Working under a tight deadline forces many people to choose safe or dull colors that lack substance.

For those who are not well versed in color theory, there’s this infographic.

The diagram shows brief descriptions of the foundational colors of the rainbow and indicates when and how to use them properly. The best part about the infographic are the samples. Since all of the samples are on one visual, making comparisons of color combinations can be quick process.

If you don’t know where to start in using the guide, start with the questions and work your way from left to right.

Explore more visuals like this one on the web's largest information design community - Visually.

Bobby Parker 6/6/14 Bobby Parker 6/6/14

Breaking Out of a Rut with Stefan Mumaw

Ever feel like you're in a rut? Most people in creative fields have experienced a rut, whether it manifests as a lack of ideas, follow-through, or enthusiasm. Sometimes it's just boredom that comes with routine. Stefan Mumaw designed this course to help you identify the type of rut you're in and its cause, and then break out of it with a series of short-, mid-, and long-term creative nudges. From techniques to get you thinking alternatively to life-changing educational opportunities, the course serves to bust every level of creative rut with actionable ideas and encouragement that's designed to get you back on the path to creative success.

The course is more resource than classroom, designed to be something you can return to each and every time you feel stuck on a project or stalled in your career. Come back anytime you need help taking a creative leap forward.

Bobby Parker 6/5/14 Bobby Parker 6/5/14

Fast, Good or Cheap. Pick two.

Below is The Designers Holy Triangle! When creating a project, clients must choose only two out of the three options. They can't have it all. It's a reality of life, clients must deal with it. Architectural Illustrators must deal with it.

Good + Fast = Expensive

Choose good and fast and we will postpone every other job, cancel all appointments and stay up 25-hours a day just to get your job done. But, don't expect it to be cheap.

Good + Cheap = Slow

Choose good and cheap and we will do a great job for a discounted price, but be patient until we have a free moment from paying clients.

Fast + Cheap = Inferior

Choose fast and cheap and expect an inferior job delivered on time. You truly get what you pay for, and in our opinion this is the least favorable choice of the three.

Bobby Parker 6/5/14 Bobby Parker 6/5/14

Foundations of Drawing with Will Kemp

Anyone can learn how to draw. Success comes down to three things:

Shape: By focusing on the shapes of the objects (and more importantly the shapes betweenthe objects) you can view subjects with a whole new outlook and focus.

Simplicity: You'll get better results by concentrating on simple subjects and drawing techniques that will still prove powerful when used together.

Structure: A structured approach makes drawing easier to master.

Each chapter in this course is built on these three principles, combining drawing theory and practical examples with worksheets and drawing assignments. Will Kemp brings his passion for teaching and infectious love of drawing together in these lessons. You'll learn about line, value, tone, negative space, and perspective, and come away with the confidence to start making drawing a daily practice.

This course was created and produced by Will Kemp. We're honored to host this training in our library.

Topics include:

Materials you need to draw
Drawing theory
Framing your composition
Using the picture plane
Creating contrast
Using negative space to create more powerful compositions
Creating form from shadows and light

Bobby Parker 6/3/14 Bobby Parker 6/3/14

Create Depth in Your Architectural Rendering

Ever wondered how artists get that awesome sense of depth in their architectural renderings? It's all about perspective and, here is how you can apply this to your own architectural rendering.

Color plays an important role in perspective renderings!

Once you understand the color part of your perspective, you’ll be able to create stunning architectural rendering with ease.

When your rendering recedes three essential things become apparent.

Background = Neutral (and bluish) and Foreground = Saturated
Background = Less contrasted and Foreground is = Contrasted
Background = Cooler and Foreground = Warmer

This is how the eye naturally sees.

Bobby Parker 6/2/14 Bobby Parker 6/2/14

Exterior Architectural Rendering Camera Settings

Follow These Composition Tips:

Use a high f-stop - (such as f-16) to keep your entire rendering in focus. This will ensure that every part of the building in your frame will be sharp.
Use the rule of thirds to line up the horizon with either the top or bottom third of the frame. Following this basic rule of composition will draw the viewer in.

The water is more important, so the horizon is sitting on the top 1/3rd

The sky is more important, so the horizon is sitting on the bottom 1/3rd

Bobby Parker 5/31/14 Bobby Parker 5/31/14

GRID Virtualized Graphics Acceleration

Take the free GRID test drive and experience virtualized graphics acceleration delivered from the cloud.

Experience the NVIDIA GRID Test Drive from the comfort of your PC. It only takes a few minutes to register and you get immediate access to the secure NVIDIA Test Drive site. Once there, you have 24 hours to experience some of the most demanding applications running from the cloud.

You will see how NVIDIA GRID:

Delivers a better experience for remote desktops and applications
Can run graphics-rich applications in a virtualized environment
Handles complex graphics files and images

Important note: the Test Drive is for North America only

- See more at: http://www.nvidia.com/object/trygrid.html#sthash.qQrgZHGt.dpuf

Bobby Parker 5/30/14 Bobby Parker 5/30/14

Coolorus 2.0 for Photoshop®

Coolorus is a Color Wheel Panel for Adobe Products (Photoshop and Flash) and all native Mac apps that uses native Apple color picker.

Coolorus is for creative people who would like to improve workflow as much as possible. Reducing clicks to the minimum, learn about Color Relations, Gamut Masks and the power of triangle HSV representation.

Bobby Parker 5/30/14 Bobby Parker 5/30/14

Learn How To Use Your VRay Camera like a DSL.

Shutterfly’s New Interactive Guide Teaches the Basics of Capturing Better Images

There’s no such thing as too many resources when it comes to learning how to render out an awesome image. And here to prove this statement is a neat little pseudo-interactive web guide put together by Shutterfly for those among us who are just starting out. Called How to Take the Perfect Photo, this web-based guide is a simple-but-efficient tool for anyone looking to get a bit more .

Use these tips to create a better composition in your 3DSMAX scene.

Bobby Parker 5/28/14 Bobby Parker 5/28/14

The Right Perspective And Field Of View

By watching the tutorial below, you’ll be able to see how to make subtle changes to your images when using wide angle, long focus, and zoom lenses in order to truly be the master of what you capture.

Bobby Parker 5/19/14 Bobby Parker 5/19/14

V-Ray Mag - Issue 1, 2014

Get an in-depth look into the world of V-Ray with the new V-Ray Mag Issue 1, 2014.

VRay Magazine

Bobby Parker 5/19/14 Bobby Parker 5/19/14

Think About Symmetry With Your Light Source

Lighting has three main purposes:

an illusion of depth (modeling).
Create a mood.
Normalize (or, conversely, emphasize) the subject's features.

Once you’ve worked out your composition and thought about the symmetry of the objects within it, you’re going to have to consider where your light source is coming from. Research has been done into which direction of lighting people respond to best and guess what? People generally prefer paintings lit from the left. Of course, this doesn’t mean you can’t have your light source coming from the right if you want to (and we’ve experimented with both), but you might just find your rendering will work better in some cases if you have it coming from the left.

45 degree Lighting or Rembrandt lighting

Now here’s an interesting one. Researchers looked at more than 1000 European portrait paintings produced from the 16th until the 20th century and were surprised at what they found. Almost 60 percent of the time, the subject had their left cheek turned towards the viewer.

Why is this? Some analysts think it’s all to do with our left-right preferences again and our instinctive love of symmetry in art. It’s not always the case though, and it looks as if social standing has some influence on whether it’s the left or the right cheek that’s facing the viewer. For example, academics such as scientists are often painted or photographed with their faces inclined to the right.

Bobby Parker 5/15/14 Bobby Parker 5/15/14

B'Safe Commercial Tornado Shelters

Although not my typical client, but a returning client nevertheless, this was a nice project to work on for a few days.

Here, are some illustrations that I completed for B'Safe Commercial Tornado Shelters. Although they might look like simple boxes, sitting on some grass in the field, they were a bit challenging to make look natural.

Attention Commercial and Industrial! The B'Safe Commercial Tornado Shelters stand as the best compliant and engineer certified shelters in the industry and provide your safest solution for protection when the weather turns deadly. B'Safe© Commercial Tornado Shelters are now available for PURCHASE.

...and we deliver anywhere in the United States!

Bobby Parker 5/14/14 Bobby Parker 5/14/14

13 Things you shouldn't do in Architectural Renderings

13 Things you shouldn't do in Architectural Renderings

Andrew Price created an awesome list of the "13 Deadly Sins of Architectural Rendering"

There are 13 things that you should not do, and 13 things that you should do in architectural renderings.

Those things are:

Too Bright- You do not want to have too much sunlight in a room. Having too much light can drown out the entire room. If you have nice designs and too much light in that room, you may not be able to see the designs. Having shadow is good, as it can show designs better sometimes.
Too Many Colors- In each room of your house, you should never have more than 3 different colors. Having too many colors can take away from the beauty of the main colors of your walls and or designs.
Neglecting Composition- Composition is very important. You should pay close attention to the photography and the frames as well. Coordinating them to the design of your room is crucial, as you do not want to put a photo and picture frame that does not match good with the color and design of the room they are in.
Wide Lenses- It is better to use a tighter frame when you are trying to capture a scene for a room. Using narrow lenses can take away the important things out of the scene.
Too Diffused- Texture is important to have for every room, as you want a little bit of reflection, but not too much. Just a little amount of gloss is good, but you do not want to have too much as it can leave oily hand prints on the walls.
No Focal Point- You will want something such as a nice fireplace or a nice artwork piece that will draw attention to viewers so that the room can have the added focal point.
Tilting The Camera- You always want to make sure that you hold the camera in the middle of a room, when taking a picture, so that you do not cut off the edge of a picture, or have the upside or downside of a picture.
Personality- Your interior scenes need to have personality, as no personality can make a room dull and boring.
Boring Ceilings- You are going to want a different visual scene for the ceiling, as just a plain texture can make the entire room dull. Wallpaper, or ceiling fans are great to have for the ceiling.
No Nature- Having trees and plants gives the outside of your home personality, and makes it attractive for the viewers. It also helps to give a story behind the home, and a relaxed atmosphere.
Low Visual Interest- Texture, patterns, contrast, and colors are important. Putting a plant in front of a plain colored wall gives the room texture. You can also put a piece of artwork in front of the wall, but you do not want to go overboard.
No Harmony- You want to be careful to not pick out furniture that will not match or look good together. You have to pay attention to the whole scene.
No Point- Always makes sure that you have something that will be eye catching, and attractive to a room. But make sure that the architectural renderings go in contrast with the room as well.

Don't make these mistakes in your architectural renders :) Watch the Full Introduction to Architectural Rendering: http://www.thearchitectureacademy.com/fe/51372-introduction-to-architecture

Bobby Parker 5/11/14 Bobby Parker 5/11/14

If you want to learn about lighting, start with a camera.

What I learned most from was a tiny manual camera. I learned so much from adjusting the f-stop, changing to different lenses. I have a digital camera now, but I use manual settings. I think it’s really, really important. Changing one setting can screw up an entire photo. If you’re always using auto settings, it’s hard to learn.