Janet Hetherington looks at how advancements in technology are providing new ways for architects to design, plan and build the places where we live, work and play. Includes a QuickTime clip!
If you have the QuickTime plug-in, you can view a clip from an award-winning visualization from Neoscape by simply clicking the image.
Architecture can be defined as the art and science of designing and erecting buildings. Todays architects are using an exciting blend of old-world craftsmanship and new-world technology architectural visualization to plan new buildings, bridges and much more.
Its pretty tough to find any project these days that is not visualized in 3D in both the concept stage and for the final marketing imagery, says Jeff Mottle, president and ceo of CGarchitect.com, an online resource focused on the needs of architectural CG artists and lighting designers.
Whether its the Disney Concert hall, the freedom tower or the next Olympic venue, all have been visualized, Mottle says. By far the most published and well-known architectural imagery are those done for the freedom tower in New York City.
For better or worse, new 3D technologies whether for visualization, computer-aided design, modeling and manufacturing, or structural analysis and design are fundamentally changing how architecture is taught, thought of, designed and built, observes Alexander Ware, architect and company director of Archimation, an award-winning architectural practice and digital media company. Much of the impact is still potential, but the will is certainly there, and is highly visible in many contemporary architectural projects, both built and not yet built.
The challenges differ only in scale or approach, but not in kind. The purpose of the visualization Who is it for? What is it for? the composition of the image, lighting, camera movement in the case of an animation all these factors contribute to the success or failure of architectural visualization.
Art and Technology
I think there have been a number of advancements in our industry that have really contributed to the development of the field photorealism and more recently, a return of the art, adds Mottle. One might expect to hear about some new technology, but I personally feel these two have contributed more to our field than anything else.
Computer-generated architectural visualization really only started to become popular in the mid-to-late 90s, although traditional architectural illustration has been around for literally hundreds of years. In the early years of CG visualization, too much emphasis was put on the tools and the technology. Clients and professionals alike were captivated with the ability to make changes quickly and to see their projects come to life, despite many visualizations being less-than-inspired pieces of artwork
The application called Lightscape set the stage for our industry by allowing users to create truly photorealistic imagery and subsequent third party photorealistic renderers like V-Ray, FinalRender and Brazil R/S brought photorealistic rendering to the masses. It is hard to find an architectural project being done today that is not visualized in some way with computer graphics, but I feel its only been in the last few years that the focus has turned back to the art of visualization.
Its relatively easy to create a photorealistic image these days, but creating a captivating image that conveys emotion and tells a story about the architecture requires someone with both an eye for composition and the ability to paint with light. Photorealism advanced our industry to where it is today and ironically it also brought the art back into visualization.
Ware agrees that the architect or the artist at the computer, creating the visualization, is a vital part of successful design. Archimation only hires architects, he suggests. They should be able to abstract 3D information in 2D space, and should have an analog or architectural understanding of light (and not just 3D lighting), color/form/composition (in addition to materials/textures skills), and should ideally be able to draw (and not just model/animate)!
The Architects Tools
As in days past, the choice of the right tools is important for todays architects. There are many suitable hardware and software setups for architectural visualization, with software being the more critical component, Ware insists. But even here there are many choices from surprisingly simple but powerful software such as SketchUp to advanced modeling software such as Rhino, or modeling/rendering programs such as SOFTIMAGE|XSI.
The hot buzz word in the industry today is BIM Building Information Modeling, Mottle says. While it still has a ways to go before its universally adopted, BIM will become mainstream and the big industry players like Autodesk are pushing to ensure that happens. In fact, their message is adopt this workflow, or become obsolete.
Mottle explains that, conceptually, BIM is a software modeling solution that embeds intelligent data into a 3D model. Everything from building materials to construction details all become part of one central model, he says. This same model can be used for everything from construction document, plans, and facility management to 3D models for final marketing visualizations. As the technology and adoption become more widely adopted, the 3D model will be the center of everything as it relates to architecture, including visualization.
Mottle says that while 3D has long been a skill reserved only for the most technically savvy 3D specialists, new tools such as SketchUp, recently acquired by Google, and @Last Software have made huge inroads in the architectural industry.
@Last Software made conceptual design modeling a task that almost any architect or designer can perform, Mottle notes, They developed an elegant and truly unique modeling paradigm that is simply to learn and use and is at the same time powerful enough to conceptually design event the most sophisticated buildings.
As for hardware, Mottle says that with the advancement of third-party photorealistic renderers, architectural visualization artists need as much horsepower as they can get. Most professionals stay on top of the latest technology and upgrade often. Other than subject matter, there really is not a lot of difference between professionals in the architectural industry and their counterparts in the entertainment and gaming industries.
When it comes to creating architectural films and animations, hardware is just as important and there are many large firms who have internal farms with hundreds of processors.
All of this talent and technology produces images that are incredibly detailed. In the field of architectural visualization, the advances in rendering programs using easily mastered image-based lighting have created an ultra-realism in renderings that is breathtaking in its quality while at the same time sobering in its generic approach to the problem of visualizing architecture throughout the world for different cultures, cities, etc., says Archimations Ware.
Ware also sees other advancements in the way technology is being used. In the field of architecture, new materials research (for example, energy and light storage in building materials) and lighting applications (for example LEDs), and new ways of coordinating the highly complex process of planning and managing the design, construction and management of a building are two key ongoing developments, Ware says.
Design Visualization
New York firm IOMEDIA put visualization techniques to good use when it created a visualization of two main theater lobby spaces the ticket lobby and the concession lobby for Loews Cineplex Ent. Loews wanted to develop a vision of a new and unique theater that would be used as a prototype for every theater across the U.S. Loews and the Design Architect had never seen the proposed design in three dimensions, and they wanted to experience what moviegoers would experience.
IOMEDIAs visualization allows the designers to experience the scale, materiality and lighting of their design. They had the flexibility to make changes to the 3D model, which could then be incorporated into their drawings and plans before the project began construction. For the client, the ability to show their suppliers and contractors the layout and amenities of the space in three dimensions proved far superior to trying to explain them verbally or through two-dimensional artists renderings.
As the design continued to evolve around the visualization process, IOMEDIA chose to render the scenes in separate animation passes, in order to be able to accommodate changes to the design throughout the course of the project. This technique allowed IOMEDIA to keep the visualization process cost-effective while allowing ample opportunity for flexibility and creativity. Elements of the design, which had been finalized were rendered into a full scene, and more complex and unresolved aspects were modeled and rendered into separate layers of animation, which could be composited into the base animation.
To produce the final video, IOMEDIAs post-production studio edited the new animation into the existing Loews theater trailer to create a presentation tool that was re-purposed by Loews for use as a marketing and sales tool.
Building Architectural Talent
It takes talent to undertake such designs talent that itself is worth building and developing. CGarchitect.com hosts the AVC (Architectural Visualization Competition), now in its second year, as well as the Architectural 3D Awards and an Industry Scholarship.
Last year some wonderful undiscovered talent was put front and center as a result of the AVC competition, says CGarchitect.coms Mottle. The challenge has changed slightly this year in how its run. We had a public call for entries, but this year we have an individual and a team category. Judges selected five teams and 15 individuals to compete in this years competition. There will not be any elimination rounds and there will only be three challenges.
Mottle explains that three of the challenges are based on a brief of a real project created by architect David Exline for a nature dome theme park in Japan. The project proposal was 10 years old, but was a great base for this years competition, Mottle says. The three challenges are an interior, an exterior and an animation of the nature dome. The winner will be determined by the highest total score.
The winner of each category will be awarded more than $20,000 in prizes.
Our judges this year are made up of the six of the top studios in the world, Mottle continues. The first challenge just began a little over a week ago, but the results are expected to be phenomenal. This year approximately 50% of the competitors are from China, who are considered to be some of the best architectural visualization artist there are.
The top three finalists of last years competition were Zhu (Yiran) Tianyi (China) in first place, Olivier Campagne (Netherlands) in second place and Niall Brown (Australia) in third place.
The annual 3D awards commence with an open call for public entries, after which judges evaluate and score each image based on a rigid set of predetermined criteria. CGarchitect.com presented its second set of 3D awards. Last years AVC competitors served as judges and selected the best animation and still image of the year. Neoscape of Boston, took first place in both categories.
The CGarchitect.com Industry Scholarship began in March 2002 to encourage the advancement and development of the art of architectural visualization. The scholarship is awarded once per academic year to students who demonstrates outstanding achievement in the field of architectural visualization and has developed new and/or original techniques to present architectural works though digital means.
In 2003, CGarchitect.com and ARTVPS awarded more than $2,000 in cash and prizes to Jan-Ruben Fischer. The 2003 scholarship was well received and our winner Jan-Ruben Fischer won with some great imagery from a virtual photography project, Mottle says.
This years deadline is June 1, 2006, and young architects are sought and encouraged to submit work.
While the scholarship focuses on digital design and delivery, the new breed of architect needs to be more than a technician. The artist is playing a much bigger role in our industry now, Mottle says. Photorealism has become commonplace, so if you want to stand out, you need to study those that came before. Studying photography, film, painting and traditional illustration is required to really understand how to engage the viewer with proper composition, cinematics, color and lighting.
Although its not strictly necessary, an architectural education is the one attribute that most companies look for in their visualization staff, advises Mottle. It really helps if you understand how the industry works and how a building goes together to be an effective architectural visualization artist.
The second most sought after attribute is the it factor those that have a very good grasp on the art of visualization. A good handle on the software and production techniques is also valuable, but in most cases that can be taught.
Architectural Vision
Architectural visualization provides exacting representations of buildings and structures as seen through the eyes of the architect. No one uses paper these days to design an architectural project, Mottle says. It all starts in CAD and usually makes its way to a rudimentary 3D model during the conceptual stage. This is usually a requirement to get public and planning approval for a project and to ensure the design evolves the way the architects envision.
In this early stage many projects go back to the drawing board and though countless rounds of revisions before a project is every brought to life, Mottle says. Visualization and conceptual 3D models are used a great deal in this part of the planning and design process.
The ability to move complex data fast, and the now ubiquitous high-quality renderings, mean every architecture firm and client has the ability to see and judge their not-yet-built design to an unprecedented degree, adds Archimations Ware.
As an architect, the most visual and immediate impact is in the form architecture is taking freed from a grid implied or dictated by history, tradition or traditional construction methods, all manner of shapes (blobs, blobmeister architecture) are being created in computer software, visualized and occasionally even built for clients who appreciate the ideas and forms, Ware says.
Ironically, observes Ware, the complex forms require a great deal of old-fashioned skilled craftsmanship to build.
Janet Hetherington is a freelance writer and cartoonist living in Ottawa, Canada. She shares a studio with artist Ronn Sutton and a ginger cat, Heidi.
