Bobby Parker 2/24/21 Bobby Parker 2/24/21

Better Luminosity for your Architectural Renderings

Architectural renderings are both a science and an art. The building of the 3D model is pretty straightforward and nonsubjective and is the science. Adding texture and materials, the same, for the most part, is a science. Composition, which includes light, shadow, and camera location, plays a significant role in fundamental art theories. Post-production is art at its best, and it is where most fall short.

Some might think post-production is just a place to fix mistakes in the rendering. Most might brighten or darken their image or apply a warming filter and call it a day. If you are like me, you try to be a master of your craft; you always learn ways to improve that craft. If you hire a professional illustrator, they'll probably have some research and development budget, which I do, and that money is allocated for learning new things. There are other types, too.

The person who hasn't changed the way that they work for decades, and you can tell.
There is also the person sent to an annual seminar, which is usually a vendor's event, and it is agreed to so they can get out of the office for a day.

People like me, learn daily and only keep things that work and make our craft better. One thing I have used over the years is a Photoshop plugin called Lumist 2. This plugin uses science to apply art. it'll look at your image, classify the image into ten luminosity levels, and it'll allow you to apply artistic effects based on that science.

Live Tone Map: The Total Map changed the way we edited images and gave us deeper insight into our light. With the new, faster Live Tone, the Total Map updates in real time as you work. It works exactly like it sounds. Lightened your image? darkened it down? Live Tone shows your changing tones so you can decide how to use them.

Perfect Select: With these tools, you can choose any part of the light and apply it instantly to any layer, group or intelligent effect. Select Zones, skin tones or colors and apply effects and layers fast with the beautifully designed non-destructive vertical editing system developed to give you better results.

Effects, One Clicks and Silver: The next generation of Lumist’s Color Luma. Detailed color control for specific areas of your image. Live Tone showing that one spot that is just a bit off? Luma Painters can fix that, no problem. Need actions for Silver? Or maybe a quick, powerful one click? All here, and you are gonna love’em.

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Bobby Parker 2/22/21 Bobby Parker 2/22/21

Medline Supplier Renderings

Create an experience that feels like home.
Today’s residents want a safe, happy and healthy environment—a place where they can comfortably age in place.
Quality healthcare products. We’re here to help make a difference for your residents. And your bottom line.

Medline reached out to me again to create some more interior renderings showcasing their products. They wanted rooms that would be in medical facilities to feel warm and look homey. All the furniture and soft goods are from their catalog, even the shampoo bottles in the bathrooms.

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Bobby Parker 2/18/21 Bobby Parker 2/18/21

Hampstead Mews Apartment Rendering

My images get shared often, and they wind up across the globe. I have an equal amount of foreign clients as I do domestic ones. I usually get kudos for my renderings; however, our American architecture gets ripped apart from my over-the-pond friends. When working on this project, I thought about a project I did for an England client a few years ago. The Hampstead Mews Apartment Rendering has that European flavor and low-and-behold; Hampstead is an area in north London, England… kudos to the architect because they nailed it!

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Bobby Parker 2/18/21 Bobby Parker 2/18/21

Bayview II House Rendering

Here is a little project that I just sent off. It is actually a variation of another house I posted a few weeks ago. This one has a crawl space.

I received a Revit model, which I cleaned up and modeled over. Sometimes it is easier to start modeling over, but in other cases, like this one, I used some of the models and modeled problem geometry over.

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Bobby Parker 2/4/21 Bobby Parker 2/4/21

Bruce Southwest House Rendering

I am always excited when I am asked to work on a piece that’ll be published. The Bruce Southwest House Rendering will be posted in next month’s Dwell Magazine. I’ll be sure to update the link when the project goes live.

“Bravo! These are great!!”

— Architect

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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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