What is the future trend for rendering?
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This might not be the right forum for this... but I would love to have a discussion on where we see the future of rendering going, as far as a career. I am a fairly new renderer on the scene, and my work is starting to show real promise. I am now getting paid to render, but the market I have started in is too small a town, so we are moving to a large city to continue being able to work in the field of rendering. Here is the question...
It seems that many architects and builders are now going in house for their renderings... is this an accurate picture? Is the future for what we do, when done as an independent contractor or firm, bright? If we want to make it in this field, do we go for the corporate position, or can we stay independent? I would love to here from both employed and self employed individuals, and those that have been in this field a long time and have seen trends come and go.
Thanks!
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Spunky,
I have been rendering for a few years now and have rendered both as a individual (contractor) and I have just recently been hired on full time with an A&D firm. I tried doing it on my own for a while but could not support enough work to make it happen. I think what you will find is the bigger players have a rendering staff on board while most smaller companies do not have the funds or work to staff a full time person(s). That being said the big push is a LOT of outsourcing. Even really large rendering firms such as Spine3D are outsourcing there work strictly on a financial principle. Going overseas and getting someone to render images or animation for $10 an hour is something a good renderer will not touch here in the states. I would never work for that and either should anyone else worth their weight in rendering. I think it is a sad practice but one nobody can stop. Looking at it from a business end money is money and if the work can be found cheaper people will typically tend to go that way.
As far as rendering trends in software, the big thing is real-time rendering such as "Hypershot" (http://www.bunkspeed.com). We use their software for ALL studio renders and it is fantastic but takes a beast of a machine to run a render (not a preview) even though their "minimum requirements" do not state that. I am currently running a dual proc MAC Pro with 32 gb of ram and it does a nice job with Hypershot but beware of what you will need if you go with them or any other "real time" rendering software.
There re site you can go to to find out what a renderer or animator should make but it really depends on location and what the employer is willing to pay.
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I am not a professional renderer per se, but I have produced renderings at work (architecture firm) and a few free-lance jobs. From my limited experience over the last few years, it seems the rendering software is getting easier to use and more affordable. Also, many cad programs are now offering rendering programs built in, or the ability to easily work with a separate rendering program. Given those factors, I think renderings are moving more and more in-house. There will probably always be the occasional need for outside professional renderers, though.
One area I think will probably grow (and this is just my guessing) is in non-architectural computer rendering - film, product illustration, gaming, etc.
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@kwistenbiebel said:
I think for being successfull in that area you need a good combo of both artistic as technical skills.
Probably knowing 'just' sketchup and its render engines might be too limited.I think thats where rendering freelancers are going to find their niche. Anyone can turn out a quick podium render, but to produce quality goods its takes artistry.
Similarly i reckon we'll see a decline in photo real rendering in a few years time, and people will start heading back to a more stylised method of presentation.
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@daniel said:
One area I think will probably grow (and this is just my guessing) is in non-architectural computer rendering - film, product illustration, gaming, etc.
I agree. If you want to be a professional independant Viz business, you need to be able to offer more than what the average render guy can provide. (maybe also product viz etc...)
For the real prestige architectural projects that might mean having an extent knowledge of video editing, image processing, web building etc.. as well.
I think for being successfull in that area you need a good combo of both artistic as technical skills.
Probably knowing 'just' sketchup and its render engines might be too limited. -
I think there is both a trend for more 'in house' rendering as there is a trend to use independant render services.
It depends on both the quality of work that is provided as the local situation.Here in Belgium, only the real good quality render people keep on working as an independant service. Most of them (there aren't that much top level services) take on international jobs as well.As an independant you need to spread your PR tentacles and promote yourself as in any other business and your work should create your name and fame.
There are lots of mediocre render services (everybody renders nowadays) but I can't imagine them being lucrative and very often those people do rendering 'at the side' (for instance young architects earning some small extra money with it).
The other tendency (Belgium) is that the larger architecture firms try to attract people with render and presentation skills for in house work. For the real important prestige projects they might turn to the high quality independant services (including making of pro animations etc...).
I think if you are really good, you can do both ways and you can make a living out of it (actually that goes for all things: being good at something always pays of when you are persistent).
I just described the Belgian situation,things might be different elsewhere but I can imagine things to be similar in some other places.
When really going the independant business route, I suggest you try to provide more than just rendering stills and try to incorporate making animations and other means of visualisation in your provided services. Maybe even provide web based project viz.
Personally I do Archviz work 'at the side' while doing architecture projects as an architect so I don't consider myself as a full independant service, although I must say I like doing some Archviz work as it is refreshing.I think I might miss the real architectural design work though, if I would aim for a full time render service.
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As a freelance illustrator/render artist I have noticed a lot of projects taken off the contractors table and done in-house or shipped east.
I am based in the states and competing with the east on price is impossible, and the fact as mentioned above that modeling and rendering software is becoming easier to master and thus most medium to large firms are opting to do all their visualization in-house.
If I were to rely only on architectural renderings only I would starve, besides my modeling contracting work (that’s 3D modeling NOT ramp) I also do project animations and some game and film work.
I see the future of rendering going beyond the flat 2D representation, I see animation as the next big thing, as when all firms are rendering their projects the best will need to up the game and animating a walk through or fly over would normally take yonks to achieve not to mention the software requirements and learning curve. Now as computers get faster and stronger and software gets cheaper and easily available animation becomes more accessible to the masses.
I also see web viz becoming a big thing as Biebel suggests, with lots of flash based animation, interactive content and 3D PDF style visualization., This is where I suck!
I recently turned down a full time position with a relatively well known architectural firm to run their viz dept, at the time my thinking was that I’d get bored as I needed to play and experiment and working day in and day out on the same genre would stifle my abilities and drag me down. That reasoning may still be valid today but starving because of a shrinking market might make me reconsider. -
That hypershot blew me away! I can't help but feel that those that want quality will pay enough to keep us alive. I love to render, I do it in my sleep, so I am hoping I can do what I love for a job. We are moving to Boise Idaho, which is a larger market than here in Utah, but I am interested in hearing more about where you think we should concentrate our efforts in order to not only keep up, but keep solvent.
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Spunky, you should check out the work of Tinane (I'm sure I mispelled that, sorry Tina). She works out of Maine or something and does work all over. I saw quite a few of her renderings that she did for various homes in the St. George area, including Kayenta, and something for the Ence's. I'm not necessarily suggesting that you don't move, but I tihnk you should look outside your area if possible. Some of these renders can be done from many many miles away. Just some thoughts,
Chris
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Im not sure if I am experienced enough but here is my opinion anyway. The market around me (pittsburgh, pa) does also seem to be moving towards architecture companies doing their work in house. That is how i got my new job actually. And my girlfriend works at a drafting company that does 3d work as well but they seem to be hurting a little. Am I gonna say that there is not any work out there, no, not at all. You need to make contacts. As for the industy getting easier and more accessible to the masses, this is true with programs like SU, but if you have the artistic ability and willingness to continuously learn, you will be able to make it. Lets not fool ourselves, this is artistic talent. Sure anyone can model if they want to but it takes skill and a good eye to really sell an image and make it convincing. Just think, if you are fairly caught up with programs and just the industry itself, you are ahead of the game. Yeah the programs are getting easier, but having the head start makes you so much more versatile and able to learn knew programs as opposed to somebody picking this stuff up just right now. If you want to be in this industry, you can be. Its a game of learning just as much as doing actual work.
And as far as the future...I dont know if anybody watches this but I watch this show called NextWorld on the discovery channel and they were talking about being able to digitally send models to firms or customers and they would have something like a mat on a table that recieves the information and constructs and actuall model of particles or whatever right in front of them on a conference table or something. They could literally touch this model, make changes, and send off to wherever they want. Real physical models....it was amazing. I may be getting ahead of myself, but it was awesome. It was like having a digital piece of clay.
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Acrually this is a topic that is raised again and again on another forum that is dedicated strictly to digital architectural renderers. Everyone there is in the field so that is a good place to search for and read the discusssions:
see the CGarchitect site and in particular these threads discussing the very subject:http://www.cgarchitect.com/vb/6184-future-architectural-visualization.html
http://www.cgarchitect.com/vb/30609-lets-source-our-projects.html
http://www.cgarchitect.com/vb/23988-changes-our-industry.html -
@spunky said:
It seems that many architects and builders are now going in house for their renderings... is this an accurate picture?
Taking in consideration that most architecture school (I would imagine all of them) are exposing their students to cg.
Most office in the near future would be able to do in house 3d renderings. Now, it's up to you to make sure that your renderings are so far superior and marketable, that they will rather hire you than have them done in house.
leo
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Chris...
I used to do design and put work through Tina as a graphic designer. She is the one who actually got me interested in doing this. I was fascinated. She moved to Maine a bit ago, but originated here is Sunny St. George. She had excellent watercolor renderings. I can't help but wonder if she moved to Maine to get to a bigger market. She did a smart thing though and kept a satellite office open here, at least I think she has a sales rep. She has this market pretty sown up. St. George not only has some strange politics to it, but the builders and developers are hurting. She has history and base here that I don't and that probably makes all the difference. I am moving to Boise as soon as we sell the house so that I can get a better foundation under me and hopefully not be so close to other renderers.
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@errror404 said:
@spunky said:
It seems that many architects and builders are now going in house for their renderings... is this an accurate picture?
Taking in consideration that most architecture school (I would imagine all of them) are exposing their students to cg.
Most office in the near future would be able to do in house 3d renderings. Now, it's up to you to make sure that your renderings are so far superior and marketable, that they will rather hire you than have them done in house.
leo
To expand on this, it is important to emphasize "exposed". This means they are only given cursory exposure to this technology and never get very good at it. Combine this with the experience they will get on the job doing CG (which will likely be very little as employers are more interested in billable time), they should not be of much concern. I get samples from them that show only a basic grasp of the art.
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Interesting topic. Just last night I was talking to a website designer. He was telling me about a competitor that can only be described as a middleman. He gets all the work done by an outsourcing firm in India that have a tariff of fixed fees. He then adds on a healthy margin for himself but is still able to undercut UK firms. Surely sooner or later there will be a major problem with a service like this as the artists are not having any communication with the clients.
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Sounds like a classic case of 'you get what you pay for.' A firm in india with no client contact is never going to be able to produce a brilliant site for the client, as they simply dont know exactly what the client wants.
But then if all you want is a clean generic site its probably quite a good option.
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