Visualizing Projects Photo-Realistically
"That's not what it looked like in the picture!" exclaimed the upset client during the final walkthrough. Does this sound familiar to you? Have you ever had the experience of a client not being satisfied because they had something different in mind than what you designed and delivered? Well, if any of this rings true, read on.
The biggest challenge facing professionals is effectively communicating their designs and other solutions to clients and those less familiar with their craft. The proper use of photorealistic project visualizations help to avoid the many possible ramifications and legal pitfalls professionals face when presenting project simulations to clients.
Tapping the Potential
As was discussed in my previous article Putting the Alpha Channel to Work, context is perhaps the greatest gain computer graphics have to offer the professional community. When you can "picture" what something is going to look like, you've communicated!
Yet, no picture exists in a vacuum, they are all set in some "environment". The degree of clarity of this environment is a reflection of the medium. The accuracy of the results ranges oftentime from subjective to downright fanciful. If you want the most accurate or photorealistic simulation, then digital imaging technology is the best choice.
No other form or medium of communication comes close to supplying accurate representations of a design proposal. Beyond capability, the speed with which you can achieve these results is unparalleled.
Doing it Right
Manually drawing and rendering even one perspective of a building can take hours, if not days! With a Computer Aided Design (CAD) system, this is reduced to moments, with as many views as you want! In the time it would take you to build even one perspective, you could have generated thousands - all far more accurate.
Within minutes, digitized photographs of your site or other contextual background can be imported into your rendering.
Next, comes aligning the 3D CAD model over the site. That can be a little tricky. Here's a few important points: Be careful to accurately record your camera and target X,Y,Z points while onsite (usually relative to a 0,0,0 point established on the CAD site plan base sheet). The second point is noteing your lighting conditions. Include location of the sun or other sources of lighting at the time the picture was taken. Also note atmospheric conditions. How hazy it is? Are any clouds are present, etc. It would even be a good idea to take photometer readings of the lighting conditions.
Calibration and Displays
Calibration, calibration, calibration...I can't say it enough. Calibration of your monitor is a good place to start, as are any other input and output devices. Always run tests to establish the color fidelity of your equipment.
Just as important is the calibration of the realistic texture maps or materials files which will be applying to the existing rendering or simulation model. It is concievable that you may never actually see the texture map, instead applying it as a file name distinction to a vector polygon, and render straight to the output device.
This is why calibrated images are just as important as calibrated equipment. Most of the rendering software defaults to a 5,000 degree Kelvin lighting source calculation for computing surface color and reflections from texture maps, etc. Therefore, when purchasing or making your own photo-realistic rendering images and materials libraries you need to know that they are color calibrated under this lighting simulation default. Deviations from this color calibration will likely cause extreme dissimiliarities between what the initial CAD rendering looks like and the finished real world rendering.
Here is how that usually happens. If the color of your texture map looks as it would under the FINAL lighting conditions specified in the model, you will inevitably get an over-compensated coloration for the scene. This is mainly due to the fact that within your CAD application rendering algorithms are already making compensations on the imagery for the lighting you've chosen and the default 5,000 degree surface color.
So, to avoid this color over-compensation problem, we must go back to the original image capture. Color reference points can be included with the subject matter. These so called "color checkers", like those from McBeth, can be photographed along with the subject matter. This will provide you with the necessary data to shift an image into the 5,000 degree color range. The image essentially will appear as if you took the picture outside on a clear sunny day. Which means, you must do just that!
When done correctly, a site and its materials maps will yield a very correct understanding of the context, both color and spatially. Bringing your CAD model together with site background images and photorealistic texture surfaces and objects will create very impressive presentations!
Generic Samples vs. Actual Materials
Since this technology is "sooo goood", it can readily pass off a fake as the real thing. Just ask money counterfeiters! Even though you can photograph the real thing, it is best to NOT say that is what it is. In other words, be as accurate as you can, but don't call it that!
Don't tell the client that this siding is "Model Number such and such". Just tell your client that it is "representative of the material specified" or it was "chosen to accurately represent the material". Similiar to generic labels, you can't get pinned down later if the look doesn't match up. Because lawyers are a fact of life, and because this technology is "sooo goood", it is smart to be nebulous!
People will come to expect that your rendering or simulation looks like the real thing, because of their video and television conditioning. People are used to expect that when something looks like it had been shot with a video camera, THAT IT ALREADY EXISTS! The unconscious mind believes the scene exists as shown in the picture, because it is reminiscent of a medium that, up until recently, only existed after the fact.
The positive effect of this is what closes sales. If people see what is perceived as already after the fact, then they will come to accept it as done, or fact. Nothing else could possibly satisfy the communication gap more effectively than creating reality in this manner!
Disclaimers
As a closing caveat, always have some language somewhere in your presentation disclaiming any responsibility for the accuracy of the renderings and simulations. It might be something like "while every effort was made to accurately represent this design, no warranty is given for this simulation matching the completed project. Viewing these images means that you understand and agree with these terms." As with all things legal, these suggestions are not intended to provide legal counsel and you are advised to seek an attorney for proper guidance in your specific situation.
Whenever you start down a new branch of business, in this case providing renderings and computer graphic simulations in addition to your other activities, it is sage advise to give a short call to whomever handles your companies legal matters. Ask them to provide you with a short statement or a modification to the one above.
Have this be part of the "title page" information so that it is always up-front, similiar to shrink wrap license agreements on computer software. That way, while your taking them back to the future, you can relax, knowing that the tough part is in your past.
© 2008 Realworld Imagery Inc.
