STEP 02 – Basic 3D Model

Some clients, especially if this is their first time working with a 3D Studio, start to panic a little when they see the first ‘test’ renders of their project. They aren’t the prettiest, basic flat gray finishes without any substantial lighting. There is no real detail at this point, just the bare bones.

These ‘test’ renders are to make sure I’m heading in the right direction and to get some of the basics signed off without the sometimes overwhelming detail that is to come in the next steps. At this point we want to make sure the camera view is right or camera path of an animation moves the way we want (so I only add detail to the areas that will be seen) and key elements of the design are as the client thought they should be. It’s surprising just how different something can look in 3D as opposed to the initial 2D plan and elevations or concept sketch.

Client feedback is key to getting things done quickly and correctly throughout this whole process, so being able to isolate the focus on particular elements of the 3D imagery as we move along can help to avoid confusion or even missing those little things because there is too much to look at all at once.

STEP 03 – Adding the Lighting and Finishes

So far so good, now we can start adding in some of the detail.

Lighting is very important, whether it’s a product in a softly lit studio, an interior with the sun streaming in or even a moonlit night scene, the right lighting can bring an image or animation to life, so it’s important to get it right from the start.

At this point I’ll also start texturing the main elements of the scene, adding the right finishes to the walls, the carpet with the proposed pattern or even the fire engine red car paint to the concept product. I’ll also look at adding a few larger items of detail eg. large furniture or cars etc.

Again client feedback comes in and once I get the ‘thumbs up’ I move onto the next step…

STEP 04 – The Finer Details

Now that the project is coming to life and the client can see they aren’t going to be getting a gray image with box furniture, like in Step 01, for their final product. I can now start adding in some of those things that make the 3D imagery/animation come to life… the clutter!

Sure I could produce a product that looks near perfect but that’s not how things are in real life, in order to make something look real I need to make the scene look lived in and less sterile (unless of course that’s what the client wants), which means adding in the clutter or finer details. Those things that are always there but most of the time we don’t notice them (or is that just a guy thing?) things like books on shelves, food on a bench, plants and trees and sometimes even those little flaws or details in furniture like creases or scratches. Nothing too drastic so your product looks like it has had a family of 12 living in it or it’s been run over in the driveway half a dozen times but just enough to look, well, realistic.

Once again client feedback at this point will be focused on these new details that I’ve added because everything else was given the ‘OK’ in the previous steps.

STEP 05 – Final Product and Post Production

On the home stretch now.

Depending on the final output, this part can take quite a while. To give you an idea, a project that needs an image for basic print like a magazine or brochure could take anywhere from 40mins – 4 hours for the computers to do their thing and render out the image (depending on the detail in the scene). Then a render that needs to be printed larger, like one I did recently for a wall mural in a media room, can take anywhere from 10-24 hours or more.

For an animation it’s a little different, I try to keep the time per frame fairly low (since an animation is simply a sequence of images played one after another at about 25 frames per second). I have never had a client who has had the time for their project to give this final step 2 months to produce the final animation. (Here is the rough calculation: 1 min animation is  1500 frames: render time at say 60mins per frame would be 62.5 days of rendering 24/7) Of course if the budget is there, the scene can be sent to a Render Farm and be completed in a fraction of the time. But in most cases we are all watching the dollar in our projects right?!

So keeping the frame times down will give a realistic time for the project to be completed. Once I start this stage I can’t make any other changes without have to stop and start all over again, you could imagine watching your final product and having elements magically turning into something else because it was changed half way through the rendering process.

Now as good as the 3D software is that I use, it doesn’t always give me the final look I’m after. So instead of spending hours trying to tweak and test I’ll take the image or animation and make those changes in post production software like Photoshop or Fusion for example. That’s where I can give it the finesse and the unique look that makes the project stand out and be noticed.

STEP 06 – It’s all over, until next time…