Bobby Parker 1/22/21 Bobby Parker 1/22/21

Ferguson House Rendering

Introducing the Fargus House Rendering!

Here is how I started my architectural illustration journey. My parents hired an architect to design their house, and they loved the 2d elevations they were being sent; however, some things after being built, not so much. During and after high school, I worked construction, and I started sketching people's houses, showing them to the homeowners as we built, and they inevitably made changes along the way because of the sketches I was providing. It became a passion, and I started to understand that people were spending their life's savings, going into things blindly without 3d drawings.

The architect for the Ferguson House sends the owners to me to show them how their house will look, which is why I do what I do.

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Bobby Parker 1/19/21 Bobby Parker 1/19/21

Main Street Phase II

Often, people approach me for commercial renderings, saddened that it looks like I don't do commercial stuff. Oh, but I do, and I do just as many commercial renderings as residential renderings. Most of my commercial renderings are under NDS's, so I can't share. I need more on my portfolio page, but there usually isn't any confusion once I explain.

An NDA is a contract through which the parties agree not to disclose information covered by the agreement. I am always entertained by how close some people hold their design to their chest and others don't. I often get the architect refusing to give the developer, my client, pdfs to even provide a quote. If you were to look at my hard drive, I have 1000's drawings, and I have never entertained the thought of sharing anything with anyone, and believe me, people have asked. I get emails from people seeing a rendering on my website and reach out to me asking for the drawings… really?

The Main Street Phase II renderings aren't under any kind of NDA, so I can share. Actually, my contract says that I can share my work freely, so I am not sure how it works with an NDA.

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Bobby Parker 1/16/21 Bobby Parker 1/16/21

301 Border Street Renderings

Welcome to the 301 Border Street Renderings. Since these were quite the process and spanned over several months, I thought I would Google 301 Border Street to see if they are marketing it yet. I found a project, but it wasn’t this one, and the architectural renderings were, can I say, not good. I am sure nobody thinks they are good, but I am sure whoever was in charge thought they were fast and cheap.

I am not sure what happened, but there was a time where quality was king. Every project has a budget, and sometimes that funding isn’t a lot; however, you should compromise and do less quantity and more quality. If you can only afford one awesome image, run with it. A bad rendering can only hurt you and won’t help.

Having said that, I think these turned out great, and I am sure it’ll help the developer sell his units in record time. His money was well spent. If you skimp on marketing, where else do you skimp? People are smart and will figure that out.

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Bobby Parker 1/13/21 Bobby Parker 1/13/21

SiNi Software - Layer by Material

SiNi Software is a developer of 3D plugins that minimize your time doing the tedious and boring stuff allowing you to focus on the creative work you enjoy.

Here I show you how I clean up a Revit file in 3DS MAX by using their layer my material script. I have used their Forensic for a while, and it has been indispensable. I saw that they had a trial for their suite of plugins, so I went for it, testing it out, and fell in love. Almost all their scripts can be replaced with free ones that you can find around the web. However, these are all in one excellent package. No more searching down updates, finding scripts that are no longer being supported, or not getting any support for bugs. MAX has also become a bugger when it comes to stability. I find myself resetting it monthly, which means I lose all my customization; I was spending the better part of a day rebuilding my customization every time I had to reset MAX.

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Bobby Parker 1/12/21 Bobby Parker 1/12/21

Composition Tips

What makes an excellent architectural rendering? Well, what makes a good anything? In art, it is about composition. We look at a picture, piece of art, or rendering, and either we like it or don’t. Most people don’t know why something is pleasing to look at, but yours can be if you follow some composition theories.

A couple of tools I use are PhiMatrix Golden Ratio Design and Epic Pen.

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Bobby Parker 1/11/21 Bobby Parker 1/11/21

Brick 2.0 (OmniTile)

A while ago I posted a video on how I do my bricks in 3DS MAX. I no longer use the plugin I showed for part of the process, so as promised, here is an update, using OmniTile.

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Bobby Parker 1/7/21 Bobby Parker 1/7/21

Glass Tint in Post-Production

In post-production, I work on the overall image first. I want to create the feeling, and that is done with color-grading and tone-mapping. Once that is done, I dial into specific areas of my image, like in this case, the glass. If I warm the whole picture, my glass gets warm, but I want to retain that blue tint you get from the sky on a sunny Summer's day.

In this quick tip, I show you how I add some blue back into my glass.

The name of the game is subtle. Repeat that 10 times, no really, repeat it over and over. Almost no effect I apply is 100%, and if I think it looks good, I usually drop it down more.

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Bobby Parker 1/5/21 Bobby Parker 1/5/21

Bayview House Rendering

The first completed project of 2021!

Two years ago, the family and I took a trip to Houston, Texas. Why Houston? The kids never flew; I wanted the trip to be memorable, so I looked for the least expensive flight, and Houston won. Man, was it hot! We drove to the golf, which is the closest the kids have gotten to an ocean, and we took the scenic route back to Houston. On our way back, we saw a ton of these houses on stilts.

I request CAD files, but sometimes I get Revit or Sketchup files. In the case of the Bayview House Rendering, it was a Revit file. Sometimes clients want a discount if they provide the model and the answer is usually no. Flipped normals, double geometry are two of the many issues with these 3d models. They are not necessarily modeled poorly; they are just not modeled for my needs, and to fix things, sometimes take longer than modeling from scratch. The industry joke is, no discount if you provide a 3D Model, I will charge you more.

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Bobby Parker 12/31/20 Bobby Parker 12/31/20

Plombon House Rendering

The final project of 2020! I have a 1/2 dozen to be completed, but this is the last completed rendering of 2020.

Everything out of this architect’s office is fantastic. They are a local design/build firm, and they own their style. Like anything, if you are laser-focused on doing one thing really well, you can become a master. If you are looking for a lake cabin or something with the up north feel, let me know, and I’ll hook you up.

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Bobby Parker 12/29/20 Bobby Parker 12/29/20

3004 Belmont Blvd Rendering

On my blog, I share a lot about renderings (duh!)—both the artistic side and the business site. I have written about how I quote and don't give a number without seeing the project information. Some send me a vague description, and others send their plans and elevation; however, I need many things to get an accurate number. I don't think people are trying to lock in a low-number, knowing their project has some hidden obstacles (most projects have hidden obstacles), but I am sure some do.

Somehow 3004 Belmont slipped through the cracks with things that would have majorly changed what the project would have cost to be illustrated. Often materials are not ready, and I'll get a description like "exterior will be brick," as with this project, but brick with stone mixed in, in very particular places, changes the equation in a big way. Also, I don't think people switch and bait often, although I have seen it. 3004 Bemont's original submitted documents had a simple landscape plan, and updated plans got pretty specific, with a dozen particular tree and bush species.

My contract addresses these things. However, I rarely push the contract card, and I try to roll with the punches until I can't roll anymore. When these kinds of things happen, I remind my client that the request is called scope creep, and usually, people understand. In this project, I mentioned the scope creep, but I let it at that, and I continued with the project without making a fuss.

When a project is quoted, the number I give is what it'll cost. Like a lot of business models, they come in low, knowing they'll make their profit in markups. I don't do that. I understand that projects will creep, and I also understand that people have budgets. It would upset me going into a project with one number budgeted, knowing that whoever I hire dang well knew that the number will go up. Projects do creep, and I will, at some point, create an addendum, but that is when my time isn't being respected, and they are the ones trying to play the game that I refuse to play on them. This is when they know the number quoted will not cover the cost if the hidden things were revealed when the project is quoted. Having said all of this, 3004 Belmont is a small reminder to be on guard because, although this project didn't, some project's scope creep will be malicious and bury you, messing up all your other projects and cost you more than just money and time.

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