The 2 main factors affecting the price of 3D rendering

Published on by juanverdagueraguerrebehere

) 3D RENDERING WORKS

Within the price of 3D rendering, the main cost is the labor required. They can be hired from freelancers to studios, in which case, three professionals are usually involved in a 3D rendering project.

  • Project Manager / Creative Designer (Senior)
  • 3D Artist / Modeler (Junior or Senior)
  • Post-processing/ Photoshop Artist (Junior or Senior)

By far the most significant labor cost component is the 3D Artist, who can work alone or within a studio, so we focus primarily on the role of the 3D Artist.

WHAT DOES THE 3D ARTIST DO IN THE 3D RENDERING PROCESS?

To create a render, a 3D artist needs:

  1. Understand the customer's plans and intent.
  2. Create the model using 3d software.
  3. Texturing the model.
  4. Configure the illumination.
  5. Configure the cameras.

For more details on these steps, click here for our basic 3D rendering guide.

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WHAT INCREASES LABOR COSTS FOR 3D ARTISTS?

The work involved in a 3D render is not as straightforward as you might think. Skilled 3D artists can create what may look like an extremely detailed scene in a short period of time using the tools at their disposal. On the other hand, seemingly simple scenes can take much longer.

For example, a large and very accurate aerial view of a forest could be created very quickly using public topographic data and various automated processes. However, it could take several days or weeks to model a single piece of equipment, to exacting standards, such as an electronic device with complex circuitry and wiring.

Aerial rendering of a public building in the mountains to explain post production work
Aerial image of Cerro Ala Delta, Salta - Argentina

In many cases, the process can be accelerated by using items from our libraries, such as furniture, automobiles, people and finishes. The main factors affecting labor are the level of detail and the number of unique elements required.

POST PROCESSING IN 3D RENDERS (LABOR COSTS)

Once a 3D rendering has been calculated, most studios employ a Photoshop artist/graphic designer to retouch the image. Post-production can be a minor or major part of the process. Some studios render a basic scene and then do the detail in Photoshop, taking a more minimal approach to post-processing. A studio might not do post-processing, but some color adjustment or retouching is almost always required.

) RENDERING TIMES

Rendering time is the amount of time it takes a computer to create an image. Render time is directly related to how realistic the image is and how much detail it needs. However, there are many tricks to create details without adding a lot of rendering time.

As a consumer, you should not be overly concerned about rendering time: that is the job of the rendering company! as well as providing the information necessary to understand why some projects cost more and take longer than others.

WHAT INCREASES RENDERING TIME?

Depending on the rendering software, the number of light sources can sometimes significantly affect rendering times; therefore, exterior scenes can be rendered quite quickly. Another factor is scene detail. The industry term for this is poly-count, which refers to the number of polygons used to model the scene. For more information, you can refer to Wikipedia's 3D modeling page here.

A common element that significantly increases detail and therefore rendering time is foreground vegetation. Background vegetation should be optimized with similar techniques using billboards or sprites. In addition, curved surfaces tend to require much more detail.

REDUCTION OF RENDERING TIMES

The most important thing you can do to reduce rendering time is to reduce the number of revisions required by providing detailed drawings and specific comments. Each time you need a revision, part or all of the image must be re-rendered, so fewer revisions result in less overall rendering time. Reducing revisions can save you money in the long run: at JVA Renders - Architecture visualization, we generally offer lower prices for repeat clients with whom we know we can work efficiently.

The other most important factor in render times is resolution. This comes into play much more when creating animations, however, it can still be a factor when creating still images.

Clay render of a JVA image renders in progress to see the modeling of the elements prior to rendering
Clay render - Lonely Forest Project

EFFECT OF HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE ON RENDERING TIME

With constant improvements in computer hardware and changes in processing software, still image processing time is becoming less of a factor in price. However, the rendering time of animations is still a very relevant factor in their production cost. Learn more about architectural animation services here.

Want to know more? Here we leave you:

BUDGETING STRATEGIES - BY IMAGE OR BY PROJECT

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