Rendering as a Service

[glorybound]

I thought I would share something interesting with you guys. Over the past week, twice I was told that people never heard of this kind of service, architectural renderings. First was an internet lead. A home manufacturer was about to lose a large order because the design staff couldn't convince the purchaser that they can make a trailer home with some curb appeal. The manufacture company hired some architecture students to produce some drawings, but it failed. They had one last meeting, which was a Sunday, two days after they reached out to me. I produced the images (can be seen here) and they met. Monday I got an email telling me that they got the contract!

The second time was, I saw a very poorly done rendering on LinkedIn. I saw that the daughter of a friend liked it, and I knew that she works with the company the originally posted it. I reached out to the daughter, asking her to forward my information to the original poster, and she did (I don't ever reach out like this, but I saw an opportunity in knowing someone inside). She works for the builder and the house designer posted the image. I got a call the next day, from the architect who was the original poster, and he said that he never heard of this kind of service. Now, his answer was a little wonky. He said that if he ever wants to add too the services he provides, he would definitely look me up. My thought was, maybe you can sell your house plans if you provided a nice image, but I just thanked him for keeping me in mind. I could tell that he didn't get it!

My point is, if you are like me, we think that the industry is saturated. I follow Arch-Viz guys on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter.., so that's all I see. But, the fact is, most are 10 years behind. Most haven't seen the CGI stuff from IKEA, or follow some of the best illustrators in the world found on this forum. Anyway, I thought I would share.

[Spikeadeliv]

Hi

I had a similar, but polar opposite experience, 4 years ago I was employed in a very large UK archi company, I was told (by a top director) that my work needed to improve a lot (although external suppliers couldn't understand how my quality was so good in the time I was given to do the work, fellow 3D'ers) and the same person also said, " well anyone leaving uni (architects) can do what you do", plus I was on 2 months notice of redundancy.
Within a week the top man in the office AND chairman of the northern region had to ask me to do some CGI's, the office was 150 people with a good 20 or so archi uni leavers/nearing leaving, none of which could do anyway near the quality needed !!! I was told most only do the Max part of their studies to get the necessary marks ?
Priceless !
PS I had another funny situation, I use SolidRocks and was showing a young archi trainee who was interested in 3D Max/VRay how you can have a little preview of the render, she then told me a few days later she had spent 5 hours in Max one evening, on the interweb and looking thru all the manuals she had on 3D Max for the option to turn on the preview window, she didn't realise it was the SolidRocks interface, bless, LOL

Spike

[rjohnson33]

I follow Arch-Viz guys on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter.., so that's all I see.

Yep, I think this tends to give a highly exaggerated impression of the general quality of work provided out there. If you regularly visit your render engine's forum along with CGArchitect, Ronen Bekerman, well know 3D artists etc. then you're seeing some of the best and most committed talent that is available. I find, for my part at least, that this is a world apart from the Arch-Viz work that I have literally seen provided by other workers to my own clients - or the odd CGI billboard that you walk past (I cannot remember seeing a good one). I often think to myself when a client seems very happy with something I've produced - you know, 'oh great, this is looking like a photograph' - well I could show you Bertrand Benoit's website (which I won't) and then you might be a lot less content with me . They just don't know that work of that level exists.

[glorybound]

I realized, several years ago, that I'll have to get a lot better because you can do okay stuff out of the box (Revit, ArchiCAD).

It seems that when someone looses their job, they become a photographer, at least lately. Yet, I know a guy who makes a six figure income being a photographer. I think you have to be good at what you do and be a good salesmen. We have to be someone that they"ll want to work with and trust. I try to under promise and over deliver, which keeps them wanting to work with me. I have a camera, but I'm not a photographer. I have seen some of the work that this guy does, and they are good, but to most they are just photographs. Why does he make six figures? Maybe his work is better, but it is probably a lot more than just his work.

Currently, there are thousands of firms that still use 2D CAD. Heck, I know some that still work on paper. Most architects work for themselves and can't bother to spend hundreds of hours behind a computer.... There is still a good market. I drove about 200 miles yesterday and saw dozens of builders and architect; all potential clients. Some of us don't sleep until it's right, regardless of what we are getting paid for it. Who wouldn't want to hire someone who is always going to give more? That's value!