RENDERS
Twelve images by MIR Bertrand Benoit and JVA examine 3D rendering since 2005 through framing atmosphere materials and architectural storytelling.
The history of 3D rendering is not a straight line from crude images to perfect photographs. Work made two decades ago already had narrative intent; recent images can still derive their strength from material precision. What has expanded is the range of choices about what should feel credible, remain suggested or even stay ambiguous.
Twelve images by MIR, Bertrand Benoit and JVA Renders let us trace that shift without pretending one example stands for an entire era. We look at camera, detail, atmosphere and sequence—and at older choices that remain alive in recent work.
How to read this comparison
The selection allows us to observe changes and continuities within one author’s work as well as connections between authors. It is not a statistical sample of the industry or a controlled comparison of two versions of the same building. Architecture, commission and purpose vary. We therefore discuss visible choices, rather than a general decline of photorealism or a date when the whole industry had achieved it.
Dates have different meanings too. MIR assigns years to works in its retrospective; Benoit’s articles provide publication dates. JVA’s older images survive in a PDF with metadata from September 2021, without a creation year for each render. Current projects were consulted in October 2026; Epicon and The Mukaab also list 2026 in their project information. This distinction prevents an archive or publication date from becoming an unsupported production date. [1–9]
Our visual reading considers framing, light, colour, materials, people and signs of use. Software is included only when the author identifies it. An imperfect texture, blur or particular atmosphere cannot establish how an image was produced.
MIR in 2005 an experience was already being selected
In Malmø Concert House, steps and groups of people occupy the lower part of the frame. Above them, the architecture is read through broad surfaces and a shadow cutting across the space. Much of the attention goes to being there: sitting, meeting and sharing a stepped public space.
The restrained palette and distribution of figures bring the image close to a graphic composition. This does not prevent us from understanding scale or recognising the space. The interest lies in the relationship between geometry and occupation. Greater surface detail could change its appearance, but its purpose already extends beyond that increase.
The example qualifies any history that reserves art direction for the latest phase of rendering. The selection of what mattered was present in 2005. Technology could improve; the point of view was already an editorial choice.
MIR in 2009 a view from a train
The window frame occupies a substantial part of the image. The tower remains recognisable beyond it, while tracks and foreground suggest movement. The viewer is not looking from a camera suspended in an ideal position, but from a specific place during a journey.
The obstruction supplies information. It places the building in a setting that people pass through and suggests that its presence might be perceived for only a few seconds. Complete visibility of the architecture is exchanged for a particular situation. The partially visible figure reinforces the observer’s position without becoming the main subject.
Its relationship to more recent images seen from a vehicle, such as Epicon, is revealing. The narrative idea is not new. The landscape, surface treatment and atmosphere of the journey change.
Bertrand Benoit in 2011 precision also creates a point of view
The kitchen of Chicago Loft presents a different priority. Lateral light, distinctions between surfaces and the weight of the steel structure create a convincing photographic appearance. No human action is needed to understand the scene. Light and material sustain attention.
Benoit describes a scene prepared for V-Ray 2.1 and 3ds Max 2010 or later. This is specific technical evidence, not proof that realism had been solved for every project in 2011. The image does show that highly credible representation existed alongside more graphic or narrative work by other authors. [2]
Selection remains important: camera position, moment of light and the relationship between kitchen and mezzanine. Precision does not remove authorship. It can support a restrained image whose story is the imagined physical presence of the viewer inside a space.
MIR in 2014 the landscape takes up the frame
Chartres uses a vertical format to give the sky a large share of the image. The building sits close to the horizon; a figure seen from behind introduces distance between us and the architecture. Field, trees and sky establish a low-contrast atmosphere.
The image communicates a relationship with the site before providing a complete description of the object. The figure establishes a way of looking rather than illustrating a programme of activities. Vegetation also does more than fill the edges: it organises depth and places the building within the landscape.
There is an informational trade-off. Some facade details are harder to read, while the intervention’s scale in a broader setting becomes clearer. Within a presentation series, that difference can justify pairing the image with a more descriptive view. One frame need not fulfil every function.
JVA’s archive the building and its everyday setting
In H110HC House, a view from the garden makes the concrete volume and its relationship to the glazed ground floor readable. Trees introduce irregularity and depth; outdoor furniture and objects beneath the upper volume suggest ways of staying in the space.
The image explains architecture through a relatively broad view, while keeping it connected to use. Surfaces show variation, vegetation avoids rigid symmetry and interior lighting stands apart from the outside environment. These choices help establish a believable inhabited place.
Comparing this frame with a recent urban scene requires acknowledging a different project. It would be inaccurate to attribute every difference to the studio’s evolution. The useful continuity is that both garden and street can provide a situation from which architecture is understood, as well as visual context.
JVA’s archive intimacy is not a recent invention
The Jacqueline frame includes fragments of sofa and furniture. Mouldings, sculpture and material differences provide enough information to recognise an atmosphere without seeing the entire room. The crop approaches what someone might encounter while sitting or moving through the interior.
This use of detail is already in the archive. A current image of a cup on a terrace therefore cannot prove that earlier work consisted only of general views. The comparison allows us to examine how the same device develops: a fragment can describe decoration, imply an activity or connect moments within a series.
Here, soft light and material relationships establish the atmosphere. An absence of people does not make the space empty. Furniture retains a bodily scale and an expectation of use.
MIR in 2020 realism can support an almost abstract image
Fashion Museum is organised around a clear contrast: white architecture against blue sky and water. Reflection doubles part of the composition and small figures supply scale. Few other signals compete with the geometry.
Water and light provide credibility, yet the overall effect is almost abstract. The image does not need to add activity, furniture and vegetation to become an artistic proposition. By reducing context, it focuses attention on the rhythm of the volumes and the relationship between surface and void.
Its place in this sequence matters: a later image can be less anecdotal than one from 2009. Evolution does not move in a single direction towards more people, objects or events. Narrative intention can also work through silence and reduction.
Bertrand Benoit in 2023 detail as memory
In Garden Loft, the camera approaches an armchair and leaves the dining area in the background. Light reveals subtle differences across wall, floor and upholstery. A recognisable scene does not depend on an exceptional event.
Benoit explains that he reconstructed an apartment he did not buy and that the result captures how he remembers it. He also identifies 3ds Max 2019 and V-Ray 6 GPU as the scene’s tools. This combination matters: personal memory and a photographic appearance can support each other. [6]
Compared with Chicago Loft, the selected frame gives proximity to an object greater weight. This is a comparison between two images, not evidence that the author’s whole practice moved from general to intimate views. The more consistent connection is care for light and materials. What changes is the attention that care invites.
HAAUS Bustamante a series between street and terrace
The urban view of HAAUS Bustamante places the building on a corner with trees, traffic and pedestrians. A bus cuts across the foreground and a bicycle brings the scene closer to pavement scale. The volume remains readable, while context has a presence of its own.
Unlike H110HC House’s garden, use here belongs to a network of urban movements and activities. That difference partly follows the architecture represented. The shared visual device is to let the surroundings explain how we encounter a building, rather than treating them solely as a background.
The terrace changes scale. A cup on a table suggests a pause; the curve of the balustrade links the foreground to the building’s form. The scene makes a relationship between interior, exterior and city imaginable without reconstructing the entire facade.
The two views work together: one situates the project in the street and the other offers a close experience. Jacqueline shows that the detail has precedents. Here, we can analyse its role in a sequence alternating description and use. That reading offers more than classifying each image separately as photorealistic or artistic.
Epicon in 2026 the journey organises the view again
The windscreen in The Last Objects introduces dirt, reflections and a visible edge between camera and landscape. Towers appear in the distance, at the end of a route. The image constructs an arrival rather than a frontal inspection of architecture.
Its connection to MIR’s train image from 2009 is clear: a vehicle determines the viewpoint and the building is understood through that situation. In Epicon, marks on the glass and the warm landscape treatment intensify the impression of an experience exposed to its surroundings.
The traces do not document a real journey or a built intervention. They belong to an independent conceptual study whose architectural context the authors identify. This distinction matters: narrative force does not establish the feasibility of the represented intervention.
The Mukaab in 2026 a surface can contain a story
The Scar reduces the scene to an encounter between concrete, metal and floor. Pores, joints and marks become prominent because light and framing make them visible. We cannot see the whole station, but we can imagine physical proximity to its architecture.
Irregularity serves a purpose beyond demonstrating a texture’s quality. It suggests contact, exposure and time. That time is a visual construction: it does not establish actual ageing or allow us to assess material performance.
Both this image and Benoit’s 2011 kitchen rely on convincing surfaces. Their emphasis differs: light helps us understand an interior in one, while the fragment proposes a material history in the other. Credibility remains at work even when the main object is no longer shown in full.
Repeated devices and changing functions
The comparison does not reveal an orderly replacement of realism by art. It reveals shared devices serving different functions. A vertical format can open space for the sky or bring us closer to a facade; a precise texture can describe a finish or suggest exposure to use. Art direction depends on the relationship between device and purpose.
| Device | Earlier examples in this selection | Examples from recent portfolios |
|---|---|---|
| Frame locating the viewer | MIR’s train window in 2009 | Epicon’s windscreen in 2026 |
| Detail and proximity | Jacqueline interior in JVA’s archive | Garden Loft armchair in 2023 and HAAUS Bustamante terrace |
| Credible material | Chicago Loft kitchen in 2011 | Concrete and metal in The Void Station in 2026 |
| Reduced information | Chartres’ expansive sky in 2014 | The Scar fragment in 2026 |
| Setting with a role | H110HC House garden and furniture | HAAUS Bustamante street traffic and terrace |
People do not necessarily become more numerous over time. Malmø already organises a collective scene in 2005, while some recent examples contain no visible figures. Vegetation also has more than one role: it can indicate scale, filter the view or connect a building to a landscape.
Colour follows a similar pattern. Chartres’ restraint and Fashion Museum’s intense blue belong to one author but serve different interests. These cases cannot establish a single contemporary palette. They do show a shared decision to concentrate attention rather than letting every element compete equally.
What tools enable and what they do not decide
Technical development broadens the possibilities for revising a scene. Unreal Engine 5’s April 2022 release presented Lumen as dynamic global illumination responding to changes in light and geometry. This is evidence of technical capability, not an identification of software used for the images in this article. [10]
AI-assisted finishing offers another route. In his AI Finishing test, Benoit examines detail improvements and errors introduced when processing renders. The test distinguishes enriching an appearance from preserving what is represented. A more complex-looking surface is insufficient if the intervention changes important geometry or objects. [11]
Neither capability decides where the camera should be, what to conceal or how two images in a series relate. Tools can facilitate iteration without automatically producing a narrative. An aesthetic cannot identify a tool, and these JVA images should not be attributed to a process their project information does not document.
What it means to move beyond photographic appearance
The idea that photorealism was achieved halfway through the journey raises a useful question: once a scene is credible, what does further detail contribute? The answer depends on purpose. A finish may demand precision; an arrival may need distance; a place to stay may be understood through a fragment.
The history observed here has no single finishing point. Artistic composition was present in 2005, a journey in 2009 and convincing photographic appearance in 2011. Recent cases do not remove these priorities. They combine and develop them in different settings, from commercial series to conceptual research.
When directing an image, the useful question is what we want a viewer to understand and remember. We can then decide what must be precise and what can be suggested. Storytelling in a render gives light, framing and signs of use a role. Realism retains value when it supports that experience and becomes one of several criteria for judging an image.
The implication for a studio: technical progress does not require showing everything. The control acquired over years can serve an omission, an arrival or a single detail. Evolution also means knowing what to leave out.
Sources
1. MIR. Mirseum, retrospective and entries for Malmø Concert House, Project without a name, Chartres and Fashion Museum. https://www.mir.no/mirseum
2. Bertrand Benoit. Chicago Loft (full scene), published 11 December 2011 and updated in 2014. https://bertrand-benoit.com/blog/chicago-loft-full-scene/
3. JVA Renders. English portfolio PDF, September 2021 metadata; pages 6 and 14 for archival images. https://jvarenders.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/jva_portfolio_english.pdf
4. JVA Renders. H110HC House, current project page. https://jvarenders.com/projects/h110hc-house/
5. JVA Renders. Suite Jacqueline, current project page. https://jvarenders.com/projects/suite-jacqueline/
6. Bertrand Benoit. Garden Loft, published 5 July 2023. https://bertrand-benoit.com/blog/garden-loft/
7. JVA Renders. HAAUS Bustamante. https://jvarenders.com/projects/haaus-bustamante/
8. JVA Renders. The Last Objects · Epicon. https://jvarenders.com/projects/the-last-objects-epicon-neom/
9. JVA Renders. The Void Station · The Mukaab. https://jvarenders.com/projects/the-void-station-mukaab-riyadh/
10. Epic Games. Unreal Engine 5 is now available, 5 April 2022. https://www.unrealengine.com/blog/unreal-engine-5-is-now-available
11. Bertrand Benoit. AI Finishing. https://bertrand-benoit.com/blog/ai-finishing/
