Sets of architectural blueprints that include floor plans, sections, elevations and details will usually be given to a client or potential investor to communicate a building design. An architect's drawings will consist of all the vital information required to construct a building, but to the layman, these technical drawings may seem daunting, confusing and hard to grasp. This is where architectural visualisation is of great significance. It communicates a design in its purest and most simplistic form. The ability to create photo-realistic visuals of how a specific development will look, long before construction has begun, acts as an invaluable marketing tool. 

The largest home-building companies all over the world rely on photo-realistic architectural illustrations, such as those supplied by myself at Arch3D, to help sell properties months before construction has even begun. The most common formats available to help promote a development include fly-through animations, which will consist of an animation taking you around the potential new development and single images, often referred to as computer generated images or CGIs. 

My services as an architectural visualiser are also commonly used in order to help obtain planning permission of a potential development, building or building extension, as an impressive photo-realistic visual of how a development will look is far more likely to win over the planning officers vote as oppose to a set of black and white plans alone, which are likely to be misinterpreted.  

The first step of the process involved in creating a fly-through animation or computer generated image involves producing a 3d computer generated model of the building. The most popular programmes that are used in the industry to create 3d generated models include Autodesk Autocad, Revit and 3D Studio Max. The architects plans, including a full set of floor plans and elevations are sufficient to create the model. If these are unavailable, hand sketches or even photographs can be used. The next step, and usually the most time consuming, involves adding materials, texture and lighting to the scene. This will really bring the image to life and add a photo real quality to the image or fly-through. Once this step is complete, the final stage, known as post-production, involves a few final tweaks in Adobe Photoshop, where people can be superimposed into the image and minor alterations can be made to colour balances, levels and curves, settings that any Photoshop users will be familiar with.