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Bobby Parker 10/11/14 Bobby Parker 10/11/14

Getting the Color Average

One of the most difficult parts of any architectural rendering is getting the colors correct. Typically, I receive a swatch, photo, or a web link. Now, people tend to see things as they remember them being. Our brains have a way to filter things out. For example, white snow is actually bluish, due to the sky, but our brains filter out the blue and shows us white because snow is white after all.

When I receive a color sample I crop out everything that isn't part of the material and I take an average sample. If I want snow to look real, I can't just apply a white material, because the snow isn't white; I have to create a bluish material.

In Photoshop go to Filter, Blur and select Average

Now, I can use Photoshop's Color Picker to get the average color and build my material from there.

I hope this helps you when you are creating your materials from a sample. If anything, you can show your client the actual color and not the color they think the sample is. I have had clients insist that a color is one thing, when in fact it is something totally different.

A photorealistic architectural rendering is only successful when you successfully recreate a reality. If you would like your snow scene to look real you'll have to make it blue.

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Bobby Parker 10/9/14 Bobby Parker 10/9/14

Stix & Stones Pizza

Interior architectural renderings are both fun and challenging, which makes for an awesome project. Here, is a series of images I did for a Chicago Architect. Like all my work, comments, suggestions, and questions are not only welcome, they I encourage them.

Technical:

3DSMAX Design 2015
V-Ray R2.5
Photoshop CC 2014

Bobby Parker 10/2/14 Bobby Parker 10/2/14

Hyper-Realistic CGI Model of a Man

“Here’s something I just whipped up over the past decade. Well, I started it about a decade ago, but have been giving it some more attention recently.

I intend to continue refining and perfecting it indefinitely, for use as the basis for whatever humanoid characters I may need in the future. In this instance I’ve given him an Anatomy Tools inspired makeover as a detail test for my newly revised 3D workflow. It’s a bit rough in places – that’s what tests are all about.”

— Artist Chris Jones

“Ed” is a hyper-realistic CGI model of a man created by artist Chris Jones that was built with Lightwave,Sculptris, and Krita software and composited with DaVinci Resolve Lite. Jones is keeping track of his progress and answering questions about the project on a NewTek forum, and has posted a few test videos showing his work so far including Ed’s eyeball, the area around Ed’s eyeball, and Ed’s face as a whole.

Bobby Parker 9/27/14 Bobby Parker 9/27/14

Mountain Retreat Architectural Rendering

“Wow!!! You never cease to amaze me! These look amazing.”

— Architect

A wonderful home at the base of a mountain. It's a white craftsmen style home, which I was asked to illustrate.

VIEW THE CARRIAGE HOUSE 3D RENDERING GALLERY →

Bobby Parker 9/25/14 Bobby Parker 9/25/14

Evermotion Editor's Choice

Editors’ Choice: Daily selection of works published in Evermotion Forum Galleries picked by Evermotion staff.

Bobby Parker 9/24/14 Bobby Parker 9/24/14

3D Studio MAX 2015 Base Scene with Exposed Lighting for Architectural Visualization

Yesterday, I received a Tweet requesting "an empty stage with exposed lighting for architectural visualization."

Below is a download link, to a 3DS MAX 2015 using V-Ray 2.4 scene, with my basic setup, which is optimized for an exterior architectural rendering and visualization.

Most importantly, if you have any questions about this basic architectural rendering setup scene, feel free to post a comment.

Bobby Parker 9/24/14 Bobby Parker 9/24/14

The White Shake House Architectural Rendering

3DSMAX, V-Ray, Photoshop + Time = Photo Realistic Architectural Rendering

The ABEL-FERRIS White Shake House Rendering. I was asked to illustrate the "White Shake House" from CAD files to a warm and welcoming 3D Photoreal architectural rendering.

This home took 1 day to model, 1 day to texture, 1/2 day to render and 1/2 day dedicated to post production (color grading and color correction.)

“I reached out to Bobby to commission this render for my father’s property.

Looks really great! I have a feeling Bobby can do this in his sleep He probably already does.”

— Owner's Son

Bobby Parker 9/23/14 Bobby Parker 9/23/14

Evermotion Editors’ Choice

Editors’ Choice: Daily selection of works published in Evermotion Forum Galleries picked by Evermotion staff.

Bobby Parker 9/23/14 Bobby Parker 9/23/14

4 Reasons Not to Outsource Your Architectural Renderings

Many problems come to the forefront when outsourcing work to foreign countries.

First, the difficulty lies with the difference in time. Shanghai, China is thirteen hours ahead of Dallas, Texas while India is ten and a half hours ahead. As a patch, some of these companies have a representative in the United States. This does solve the problem. Their representative is only around to answer phones and does not do any of the work. Now you are involved in a game of passing information from one person to another before it is received by the person that is assigned your work.

Another issue rears its ugly head. You are probably thinking that since we are off cycle, things will be completed faster. Instead, they take additional time. One day turns into two and before you know it, you are weeks behind.

The second issue is the language barrier. There is no question that the representative speaks English. There are still difficulties to overcome when attempting to have your 3d rendering completed. Edits and changes have to be translated. As we all know, the true meaning can easily get lost in translation. Forget about the direct meaning of the words you speak. What about the delivery? Have you ever made a wise crack or sarcastic comment to a foreign customer service representative only to have them take you seriously?

Third, their culture is different. All of the pictures in the world will not change that fact that your outsource work will be completed by somebody from a completely different culture. Styles are difficult enough to keep up with when living in the Continental United States. Your architectural visualization piece may be accurately represented, but the landscaping package will have a peculiar look. Now you are relegated to driving neighborhoods and photographing exterior architectural visualization groups.

Finally, how much time do you have? It takes time to manage a team from a foreign country. I bet your time is worth more than any potential savings could possibly make. Imagine saving $200 and spending an additional three to four hours. That is imagining also; odds you are not even going to save $200 on an architectural rendering. Your 3d illustration will require a lot of time and effort to complete.

Delays caused by the difference in time zone, lack of English as a primary language and language translation for the working staff eliminate any perceived value. Add in time delays and now you’re starting to have a problem. You will have to save a lot, because, the extra management time will make the project time consuming and difficult. You will have to work hard for every nickel you save, if you save any money at all. Take any difference in fee structure and couple it with the extra management time and aggravation and you suddenly have a project that is more expensive to implement. In many cases, the time delays alone are substantial enough to create difficulty.

Fulfill your architectural visualization needs of a company that resides within the United States. You will benefit with reduced management, time and aggravation. Your architectural illustrations can be completed economically without outsourcing.

Save time, money and aggravation by having your architectural visualization project completed within the United States.

Bobby Parker 9/20/14 Bobby Parker 9/20/14

Negotiate Your Hourly and Project-Based Pricing

If you’re an architectural illustrator, doing freelance by the hour, you are going to have to determine your pricing structure. For example, do you charge by the hour? What’s a reasonable rate to ask? Are you better off charging clients on a project basis?

Here are some tips for calculating your hourly and project rates and how to negotiate pricing with your client.

1. Determining Your Worth

Before you submit a quote for any work, ask yourself these questions:

What is the market rate for architectural illustrators in your location?
How experienced are you? Not just as an architectural illustrator, but as a home based business? Being awesome at architectural rendering is good, but being able to meet deadlines, exceed expectations and above all, being reliable, are essential qualities for an architectural illustrator.

What rate are you willing to accept?

2. Calculating an Hourly Rate

If you’ve been a salaried employee all your life, making the switch to self-employment requires a change of thinking. Some companies may be tempted to coerce you into a rate that reflects what they’d be willing to pay a salaried employee. But self-employment brings its costs and credit to you. Your rate should reflect this, as well as your expertise.

If you are used to being a salaried employee, here’s a good rule of thumb to follow when determining an hourly rate:

Divide your former salary by 52 (work weeks); then divide that number by 40 (the number of work hours in a week). Then mark it up 25-30%.
Your mark-up covers both your value and experience, but also takes care of our business costs such as networking, selling, and other administration, not forgetting your self-employment tax obligations and healthcare insurance costs.

3. Calculating Project Rates

Many clients will prefer to manage their costs and ask for you to rate your work as a fixed project fee. This can also work to your benefit if you price it right. However, it can also work against you, especially if your client is new, and the project scope creeps beyond your original expectations.

The best way to calculate project rates is to spend some time scoping out what you’ll deliver. Use your knowledge of your work methods and familiarity with the subject matter to structure your time commitment, for example:

Research: 2 Hours
Produce gray scale model: 8 Hours
Two rounds of edits: 2 Hours
Add color and lighting 8 Hours
Two rounds of edits: 2 Hours
Final render: 2 Hours
Total: 24 Hours @ $x hourly rate = $x

Remember, you don’t have to put this calculation in front of your client, but it gives you a useful framework for covering your costs and delivering within scope. Don’t forget to add a caveat to address that any work done over and above this scope of work will be charged at an hourly rate

4. Negotiating Your Rate:

Negotiation is hard to avoid and can often shed light on whether this is a client that you really want to work with for. If you are confident that your pricing reflects your value and the market rate, being haggled hard on price can get a relationship off on the wrong foot. Likewise, being locked in at a low rate can quickly devalue the relationship from your perspective.

So, when it comes to negotiating, be prepared to stand your ground but be willing to compromise. If you foresee further business here, try to be flexible.

5. What About Retainers?

If a client starts to send a lot of volume your way, retainer-based pricing can be advantageous, even if it’s at a lower hourly rate than your advertised price.

A retainer is a fee paid for a pre-determined amount of time or work (usually within a month) and is often paid up-front. A retainer agreement can deliver the benefit of predictable work and income while giving your client the reassurance of having you on “stand-by” and a clear view of monthly costs.

Many architectural illustrators charge the full retainer fee, even if they don’t work the entire hours allocated. If you value the relationship, steer clear of this; instead, roll unused hours over to next month.

Good luck!

Bobby Parker 9/19/14 Bobby Parker 9/19/14

The Wood Paneled Cigar Room

Here is a small, but wonderfully warm space, for Z Feng Architect and Company out of Chicago, Illinois. It was a fun project and I think it turned out great!

Autodesk® 3ds Max® Design
V-Ray® for Autodesk® 3ds Max®
Adobe Photoshop CC

Bobby Parker 9/17/14 Bobby Parker 9/17/14

Marvelous Designer 4!

We are excited to announce the official release of Marvelous Designer 4!

Marvelous Designer 4 includes new features that are outstanding,
such as Quad, FBX importer and Symmetric Editing.

Highlighted features

Quadrangulate
Symmetric Design/Editing
FBX Import
1 to N Sewing
Basting (Tack, Tack on Avatar)
Normal Flipping
Layer Clone
Wrapping Arrangement
Scale Rotation Pivot
Multiple Selection

Detailed videos are available at Learn > New in MD4 and, MD4 manual is available at here.

Price

For pricing information, please visit MD Pricing page.

Users who purchased MD3 during Open Beta period get free upgrade to MD4.
Existing MD3 users get 50% off on their upgrade.

→ MD2 users are not eligible for upgrading price.

Bobby Parker 9/10/14 Bobby Parker 9/10/14

RealCamera Motiva

Needed libraries (could be already on your system):

· DirectX9 March2o09 (or higher) Download
· Visual C++ Redist 2008 (needed) Download
· Microsoft .NET framework 3.5 (needed) Download

RealCamera Motiva is a free real-time post production tool, developed by Motiva, which mimics the behavior of real cameras and films, based on studies of the Computer Visualization Laboratory at the University of Columbia. All calculations are performed by the GPU, which ensures maximum speed. To understand its features, please watch the videos.

Bobby Parker 9/9/14 Bobby Parker 9/9/14

All about Gamma & V-Ray

Lesson by Ciro Sannino | More about: Vray News

Contents:

VIDEO IN HD / Narrated / 28 ‘
MAX FILES to download with all V-Ray settings
Gamma output with 3ds Max 2014
Gamma uotput 1.0 and 2.2
Migrating from one configuration to another
Advantages and disadvantages
Successfully save images to 32bit
Duplicate the frame buffer with success
Batch render and render elements

Gamma and configurations

Compensating renders with gamma curve has always been a very hot topic. The reasons for this offsetting is required are already discussed in my book “Photography & Rendering with V-Ray“, so now I will focus on technical and practical details that will allow us to finally dominate all aspects related to the topic “Gamma”.

After it has started, click the “X” to view it in full screen:

GAMMA CONFIGURATION 1.0 :

Script: fileoutgamma = 1.0
Color mapping> Gamma: 2.2
Color Mapping> Mode: Color Range Mapping and Gamma
sRGB button to display preview / disabled

GAMMA CONFIGURATION 2.2 :

Script: fileoutgamma = 2.2
Color mapping> Gamma: 2.2
Color Mapping> Mode: Color Mapping only (no gamma)
sRGB button to display preview / enabled
This configuration is the default in V-Ray 2.4 and V-Ray 3

Both configurations produce the same result, with the difference that the configuration GAMMA2.2 facilitates saving images to 32bit and management of 3ds Max Frame Buffer and batch render.

FILES & TRAINING:

Download the package containing the scene set in 2 configurations:

Download Gamma Pack
Buy the book Photography & Rendering with V-Ray
Subscribe to the Online course: Learnvray and 5SRW method

Note: A “mismatch” window appears when we open a file with output gamma set differently from your system.

Bobby Parker 9/6/14 Bobby Parker 9/6/14

V-Ray Film & VFX Showreel 2014

We'd like to thank the amazing artists and studios whose work we feature here in our 2014 VFX showreel. Every year we are inspired by what artists bring to V-Ray.

Bobby Parker 9/5/14 Bobby Parker 9/5/14

3ds Max 2015 - work faster with new tools

Looking to take a deep dive into what Autodesk® 3ds Max® 2015 software has to offer? Then this session is for you.

Technical Specialist Chris Murray will show you how to get things done faster, with new layout tools, efficient scene management workflows and rendering tools, and other powerful additions in 3ds Max 2015.

Want to find out more about 3ds Max 2015 and how to get access to the latest features with Autodesk® Subscription? Check out the 3ds Max product center for more information.

Bobby Parker 9/4/14 Bobby Parker 9/4/14

Bluetooth® Multi-Device Keyboard K480

Published on Sep 3, 2014

A single keyboard allows you to type on anything! The Bluetooth® Multi-Device Keyboard K480 is a unique keyboard for your Windows, Mac or Chrome computer…that also works with your Android or iOS mobile devices. With a flick of a switch, you can change typing from one device to the next. (Bluetooth wireless device required)

Bobby Parker 9/4/14 Bobby Parker 9/4/14

The Message Teaser

Simply amazing work from from INDUSTRY VISUAL EFFECTS. The first video is the teaser and the second video is the breakdown... all computer generated!

The Message Teaser from INDUSTRY VISUAL EFFECTS on Vimeo.

Message Shot035 Breakdown from INDUSTRY VISUAL EFFECTS on Vimeo.

Bobby Parker 9/3/14 Bobby Parker 9/3/14

Norman Foster - Art Quote

“The pencil and computer are, if left to their own devices, equally dumb and only as good as the person driving them.”

— Norman Foster

Bobby Parker 8/31/14 Bobby Parker 8/31/14

iToo Software Giveaway

The 5th 2014 blog birthday giveaway is here! iToo Software will give one of you lucky followers a chance to pick between a Forest Pack or RailClone 2 License. You will also have the chance to win either one by sending a 3d render/s you made using one or both plugins to create an amazing visual. The image you’ll submit here could also work for Grant Warwick’s giveaway.

Founded in 1999 in Spain, iToo Software is a 3D software developing company, and creators of Forest Pack and Rail Clone, plugins for Autodesk® 3DS Max® and 3DS Max Design®. Their main objectives are customers´ satisfaction with their products, providing a high quality software and personalized support.

Forest Pack is a plugin for 3d Studio Max, designed to give a complete solution for creation of vast surfaces of trees, grass and plants. Forest enables you to combine billboards, high poly meshes and proxies, and using Mental Ray and V-Ray native shaders, create scenes with virtually unlimited number of objects and polygons.

Some of its features are: camera clipping, tint maps, clusters, tree editor, falloff curves, animation support, integrated library browser and much more. Working as an advanced scattering tool, Forest can be used not only for plants, but for any scene that include vast distributions of objects as: rocks, buildings or crowds.

RailClone 2 is a 3DS Max plugin for parametric modeling based on custom geometry parts, definable by the user, and a set of construction rules. This new concept of modeling lets you to build complex and realistic structures for Architectural Visualization, Civil Engineering and Interior Design.

The software includes a full library of preset models to create Fences, Railings, Barriers, Handrails or Walls. RailClone is not limited to a fixed set of primitives, you can use any geometry from the scene and define your own parametric structures.

iToo Software, are still offering a 15% discount on the purchase of Forest Pack Pro, RailClone 2 or the new Forest Pack + RailClone Bundle.

Don’t miss the chance to get one of my favorite plugins during this great deal ending on August 31st come midnight (GMT+2)!