Hey guys

[Anonymous]

I found about this forum about 2 weeks ago and I ve read a few of the threads, admittedly not that many of them though. This is my first attempt on a rendering with ArchiCad 9 and I m really impressed so far, albeit worried cause it takes a lot of setting up to get a good quality shot. I saw that swaping between different angles required calibration of lighting. But, anywho...

This is my attempt. Tis a kitchen . This is as good as I could make it, with the help of this forum and of the ArchiCad help file.

Any suggestions or comments, like: you suck, change proffession or the likes...?

[Anonymous]

Of course Dwight and others have much more to say on this than I, but you should expect that quality rendering will always require a bit of time. Remember that getting a good result require not only good design, but proper lighting, appropriate props and entourage, careful material selection and application, and so on. Essentially you have to be Architect, Lighting Consultant, Decorator, and Photographer; and this assumes you have already figured out what story you want to tell with the images.

Dwight's new (Lightworks in ArchiCAD) book will give lots of help with getting better renderings, but don't overlook his earlier book which includes lots of cool, cheap tricks for getting good stuff without losing your sanity.

And don't forget to try the sketch renderer for schematic phase work. It is often best to give the client something loose and sketchy in the beginning.

[Dwight]

Thanks for the mention, Matthew. I'm just in from giving a seminar in Edmonton. We leave for the Monday seminar in Las Vegas tomorrow. Got to see that cirque du soleil.

Konnos' rendering seems like a fine start.

Comments that my book would offer:

1: There's no such thing as white: all light should be tinted in a combination of yellow and blue.

2: Likewise with surfaces: make those scalded white surfaces beige and rough with the Displacement Class Shader "Rough" (Parameters: Scale 0.01 Amplitude 0.01, 1,1)

3: Lose that cheesy pine texture - it comes from trees even bigger than the ones that grow in Canada.

4: Apply roughness to the ceiling, too. (0.02,0.02,1,1)

5: Directly uplight the ceiling with a tilted window light.

See how much more colorful this example is - also from my book. (Thanks Nik Valentine). It uses colored light to create dramatic effects.