AUGIWorld Magazine - November/December 2008 - (Page 13) Personnel The issue of personnel is one that is specific to the needs of the rendering pipeline required by the firm. The scale will determine whether you need an IT person or whether you can get away with having a multi-talented runner. Formal education, in some cases, is outweighed by the ability to produce. Architectural visualization is something of a “show me” industry, relying heavily on what you can do and what you have done. In general, the ability to produce extremely high-quality renderings efficiently is enough to supersede post-secondary educational expectations in most circumstances. Informal educational programs and materials such as DVDs, books, online courses, and tutorials are quickly becoming industry-specific with regard to educating employees in a more directly usable way. Rendering specialists are also learning the best way to engage the architect as well as to learn the technical aspects of the industry in order to facilitate better communication all around. We shouldn’t expect that a visualization specialist be an architect, though conversely, the architect can be the visualization specialist. The real expectation is to create images that do justice to the design and convey the intended message, period. Degrees/ diplomas or other relevant work experience in the architectural industry can only be considered an advantage—especially in communication. Industry trend It seems apparent that building information modeling (BIM) is indeed the primary direction in which architectural visualization is heading. With rendering tools within the BIM programs constantly getting better as well as tighter integration with stand-alone rendering and animation software, it is unsurprising that the architectural visualization industry is expanding and growing rapidly. More and more architects will possess skills in visualization. On the low end, the quality of the rendered images in architectural rendering will excel, while at the high end they will feature an increase in special effects and storytelling to convey the overall experience of the design. Rendered images and animation will be called upon to paint a picture of a day in the life of the architect’s vision. Green screens, storyboards, camera tracking software, creative compositing, and a host of other tools will contribute to the Hollywood-type thrill ride that takes us from concept sketch to marketing and advertising media. Barriers to entry Building an in-house rendering pipeline for architectural visualization is not only attainable for medium and large companies; small and single-person operations can achieve it as well… Even though setting up a rendering pipeline is fairly easy, there are barriers. The severity of the barriers to creating an internal rendering pipeline are mostly related to the scale of the render farm as well as industry competition. Hardware costs are high on the list of barriers since an increase in hardware creates a cascading effect with respect to other required resources. Additional software licenses, IT/visualization personnel, energy costs, upgrades and maintenance, office space, etc. all become a factor with an increase in hardware. Industry competition is another important barrier. With the highly specialized architectural rendering studios out there, sometimes it is illogical to complete the rendering in-house at a higher cost and a longer timeframe. Some industry practices such as outsourcing also present a barrier insofar as it drops the cost and turnaround time, making it a hard decision, for some, to do the renderings in-house. That’s a wrap Building a rendering pipeline is attainable for all companies, regardless of size. A clear vision of what you require from your render farm and workflow, as well as some forethought as to what you may need in the future, is definitely a must. Talented personnel and capable software and hardware are an imperative if successful imagery is to be created. There is a certain freedom that comes with being able to generate your own renderings in- house. Why not give it a try? Dwayne D. Ellis is the lead 3D computer animator at Hrycay Consulting Engineers, a firm specialising in motor vehicle accident reconstruction. He is also the founder of Lifeseyes Studios and can be reached at dwayne_ellis@yahoo.com. 13 Nov/Dec 2008 http://www.bluebeampdfrevu.com
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