Rendering House Architectural Illustrations » Residential

A hometown project

Stephen — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 14:53:22 +0000

Although we work on projects across the country (and even outside of USA), we always enjoy working on local projects. Here is one that is just a few miles down the road from our office. The president of the Home Owners Association of Holly Glen got a very positive response from the HOA meeting.

Next Stop: Norfolk, VA

Stephen — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 15:43:34 +0000

Our client, Bonaventure Realty Group, needed some quick renderings to show off their new project in Norfolk, VA. Cox, Kliewer & Company, the architectural firm from Virginia Beach, worked very fast in completing the preliminary design so we can wrap up the renderings. You can also see the current site.

Sometimes, I would like to do some site visits….

Stephen — Fri, 15 May 2009 17:29:03 +0000

Nearly all of our projects do not require site visits. We work with clients around the world simply by email, phone, and Internet. This is great for productivity and keeping cost low for every project. However, sometimes, it would be nice to do some site visits with locations like Belize!

Here is the location of the project: www.sapphirebeachbelize.com

Color Adjustments

Stephen — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 17:23:42 +0000

One of the many wonderful elements to illustration is definitely color. One service we often provide for architects is showing the many options of color palettes for the design. The challenge often lies in having all the different parties agree, with stakeholders ranging from architects, developer, city council, marketing/advertiser, etc.

In addition, what looks good on a color board or even color fan may not look good as an illustration. This is largely due to the need for the rendering to “pop” and have a punch. In the real world, the colors need to blend and be more subtle.

Of course, there is the perennial problem of making sure we are all looking and talking about the same colors. Monitors and printers are often not calibrated or synchronized. In addition to that, color samples from the manufacturer’s website sometimes also appear wildly different than tangible color chips. Colors scanned also suffer data or quality loss.

Overall, color changes may require many iterations but at the end, we always end up with a satisfied customer. Below are two project, one commercial and the other residential, showing the many (sometimes subtle) color choices.

Picture Perfect!

John — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 20:09:34 +0000

Sometimes you’re ready to market a property, but the property isn’t ready to be marketed. Construction, the season, or poor landscaping can hamper the photo. Other times, you may want to show what an ugly building could look like with different colors, textures, or landscaping. Here’s where photo-editing could save the day.

With your guidance or design plans, we can dress-up the building with our huge library of plants, skies, and building materials. We can even computer model some un-built or renovated architectural features. Photo-editing is a great way to spruce-up your property for its glamour shot or it can be an excellent design tool for existing-home makeovers.

Success with Clayton Homes

Stephen — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 20:20:43 +0000

In 2007, just as the single-family builder are experiencing the a slow down, the factory-built sector is swamped by the same factors. Fortunately for us, we have been working with one of the leaders in that industry, Clayton Homes. Builder magazine May 2008 (National Association of Home Builders) ranked Clayton Homes first for 2007 Manufactured House Builders and second for Modular/Whole-House Panel Builders. Our relationship started a few years ago, when Clayton Homes wanted a new look for their marketing in the Internet and print. Although they had photorealistic renderings in the past, they wanted something that would help them differentiate from other builders. We had shared with them our different styles and after some deliberations, they chose our Enhanced Photoreal Style – which offers warmth but still holds details. Another reason Clayton Homes chose us was because, regardless of rendering styles, we can handle high volume and were always able to meet their deadline.

SearStone (Cary, NC) – Growing With Our Clients

Stephen — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 17:39:49 +0000

SearStone, schedule to be completed in 2009, is going to be a vibrant new senior community in Cary, NC. We started working on this project 6 years ago with the developer on just the site plan but the marketing process has really taken off in the past 6 months. Working with multiple architectural firms, the design process has gone back and forth with the final design reverting back to the founder Bill Sears’ original vision of the green mansard roof with the flared eaves.

Here are some images from concept stage to final design that we worked on over the last 9 months:

Parade of Homes 2008

Stephen — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:50:14 +0000

Over the past couple of weeks, we had been busy with this project of creating renderings and floor plans for 55 houses for the Home Builders Association of Fayatteville 2008 Parade of Homes. These homes range from condo units and town homes to starter homes and large luxury homes. Although we had only two weeks to complete the entire project to meet the deadline, we actually were able to complete the whole thing two days ahead of schedule.

We typically prefer CAD files as they are the cleanest and offers the most flexibility. But with this project, we primarily worked from photocopies of plans. In addition, we accepted large D size (24 x 36) print, which we scanned ourselves. To avoid the risk of “garbage in, garbage out”, we had to clean up many files and sometimes start from scratch. Here are some examples:

Before:

After:

Turning-up the Volume on House Renderings

Stephen — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:16:00 +0000

Over the years, we have worked with many clients, especially national and modular home builders, who wanted to create a new look for all their house plans to help differentiate them from their competitors. These opportunities give us the chance to show our ability to provide many different illustration styles, all completed in-house, with the same quality and quick turnaround time – often with volume discounts. Once complete, it’s nice to see consistent art work throughout the printed brochures and website.

Actus Lend Lease – From “Virtual Sea to Shining Sea”

Stephen — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:42:59 +0000

We have been working with Actus on several military housing projects for a few years now. It is a pleasure to help develop improved military housing for the families of our armed forces. These projects took us to many bases “virtually” around the country including:

Camp Lejeune (North Carolina)
Fort Huachuca (Arizona)
West Point Academy (New York)
Fort Wainwright (Alaska)
Army Hawaii Family Housing (Hawaii)
Fort Knox (Kentucky)
Beaufort (South Carolina)

For these projects, we provided aerials, streetscapes, clubhouses, entrances, interiors, and floor plans. Here are some examples showing the various regions of our beautiful country:

Hawaii

Camp LeJeune

Fort Huachuca

Fort Knox

Fort Wainwright

West Point