PRINCIPLES OF PHOTOREALISTIC

RENDERING IN ARCHITECTURE
Human visual perception plays a huge part in decision making and it is always better if an architectural project
is pleasant to the eyes. Architectural projects get approved and funded faster when architects make all revisions
to designs before construction which would reduce costs and save time.

This stage requires time and effort. The processes in this stage are:
Scene-lighting settings: Picking the color scheme and the resulting image. This step is
needed for the setting to get an effective and photorealistic look.
Creating and adjusting the lighting scheme for the scene: The model will not look
attractive without the proper lighting. This step is very important and can’t be
underestimated.
Selecting and adjusting of materials for the project: The materials that are used in the
process of 3D visualization determine the color scheme of the final image.
Preparing of the texture map and other objects: The creation and usage of texture maps
and maps of the surroundings and some other objects.
Adjusting the visualization parameters: The success of the project depends on the quality
of this step because it is the main criteria for approving the project. Professionally
constructed and effective 3D visualization will only attract the clients’ and investors’
attention to the project.
Elaborating the results: Correcting and elaborating the results of the visualization.
It requires a highly-skilled professional to get the quality of 3D visualization we aim at.
As only a visual appealing and standard project can achieve the desired results.

TIPSTO RAISE THE QUALITY OF RENDERING

 Colors. One mistake that is committed is to render with very saturated colors, in
reality the colors are rather low saturation. In the configuration of the materials or
the render tries to lower the saturation of the colors, unless you want to emphasize
some element or material that you want to excel.
 Color temperature. Here are many mistakes made especially in night renders, we
must adjust the temperature of the color in the artificial lighting in such a way that
it resembles the characteristics of light intensity of reality, since otherwise we run
the risk of illuminating our render erroneously .
 Sparkles and glows. These optical phenomena give a lot more quality and realism
to a render, try to give a few touches of glow in elements to which the light of the
sun arrives directly. In renders of sunsets it is very well the glow, better known as
“flou effect”.
 Contour Smoothing. A characteristic of renders is its sharpness in the contours of
objects, in photoshop we can only blur the contours of the elements, we should not
apply the smoothing throughout the render because it will create a blur effect that
will distort everything.
 Noise. The noise in the post production is important, because it allows us to make
our renders look more like a photograph and they allow to “dirty” a little bit the
clarity of the render left of the computer. We must put very low noise levels, this will
undoubtedly bring greater quality to your renders.
  Filters. The filters give us pre-set lighting settings and color management, if you like you can
use some that allow you to modify and go “playing” with the lighting intensities and saturation
of colors.
 Information. In post-production you can include all the informative elements you need to
present in your render, such as: Logo of the company or yours as Architect, project name,
client name, date, etc.

APPROACH IN ARCHITECTURAL VISUALIZATION

Composition
Finding a good composition is one of the hardest parts, much the same as a most important
one. For me it helps a lot to start with classic compositions like a central perspective and so
on.

Focal Length
Try to avoid using a focal length shorter than 30mm. I often use something between 35mm to
55 mm.

Wide angle is being criminally abused in arch-viz since we are always tasked to show as
much as possible in a single image. I’ll remind you that we do have super powers inside the
CG Matrix, and so we can see through walls by cutting them, hiding them or use camera clip
planes. This will help avoid the distortions of a wide angle focal length by allowing us to go
back and narrow it down.

Modeling and Shading

Considering modeling, it is more of a general statement that I want to make here, rather than
a technical manual or something like that. You really should aim to get your models as
accurate as possible. Get the general proportions and the the fine details right and that will do
the job.

You should really force yourself to a certain minimum level of detailing, but do consider
the visibility of such details in the final images you will make. Time permitting, I would
always suggest doing as much detail as possible so you can later explore any view you like
without any limitation.
 Natural Lighting
One thing that is important to address though, is the issue of controlling color and lighting
angle / diffuse. In the image below for example, it worked best using three planes slightly
slanted, deformed by a noise modifier with a light-material applied to simulate the light I
wanted to reconstruct from the original photo.

Only this way it was possible to get the really subtle shadow-gradient on the wall and the
round part behind the staircase.

Color Balance

To get a balanced feel, of the whites in a scene, you should take care that only the very
brightest spot in your image goes up to almost complete white. The rest of the whites in your
render should range around 190 -220.

You also should try to let the darks play a role in your image. Always remember to make it
look balanced and not have too many overexposed or underexposed areas.
The main thing that is really is important to pay attention to here and understand, besides the
world being reflective, is that the world is also a very grey place.

That might sound a bit depressing, but it is not meant to come across like that… It is just that
it is all shades of grey (some say 50).

The distribution of
dark and light areas in your image is a very relative thing too. You shouldkeep that in mind.
The following image shows quite well what happens with the same grey placed in different
areas of the image. Notice the area within the gradient… the grey square looks like having a
gradient itself.

REFERENCES:
Post Production Architectural Rendering Tips (2018) – arquinetpolis

Architectural Rendering -vrender.com

PHOTOGRAPHIC APPROACH IN ARCHITECTURAL VISUALIZATION -
ronenbakerman

PANGASINAN STATE UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE

AUTOCAD 02

RSW: PR-01
“PRINCIPLES OF PHOTOREALISTIC RENDERING IN
ARCHITECTURE”
DATE DUE: Jan. 31, 2018

DATE SUBMITTED: JAN 31, 2018

 AL-SHAMSI, KHALID ALI SAIF L.
STUDENT

ARCH. ZALDY F. CORPUZ

INSTRUCTOR

PANGASINAN STATE UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE

AUTOCAD 02
AL-SHAMSI, KHALID ALI SAIF L.
STUDENT

ARCH. ZALDY F. CORPUZ

INSTRUCTOR