szaryk

Every one knows (or very well should be aware of) the basic principles of art & design: rhythm; balance; proportion; emphasis; and, unity, colour, texture, shape, unity.

But what do you think are the principles of architectural illustration? What makes a pleasing image? Are there any standards one shall abide by? Is there a guide for starter's out there?

Post your thoughts, and the process in which you go through to make a pleasing image.

STRAT

you sound like a university teacher. i'm sure there are principles, but everything i do comes perfectly natural. i dont think i've ever once thought about them. i just draw.

i certainly wouldn't teach them. for me, it's an ability one must already posses.

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AJLynn

There are so many different styles and types of representation and goals your representation could have, I think the only principles that are generally applicable (and I bet I could find people who would disagree even on these) are composition and quality of the application of whatever technique you're using.

3D_IC

composition, depth, colour, detail, etc, but i agree with Strat in that its very hard to teach if you haven't already got it.

afterglow

agree with first couple of comments..

composition, natural artistic talent and software ability would have to be the main factors, but personally i think composition is the key.

as an example, you see a lot of chinese artists producing beautiful images yet they don't even touch GI.

what i see as a problem with the quality of most of the work posted on this site (no offense to members) is that the images just look like 3d renders as opposed to beautiful images. when you see an arch viz image that really blows u away, it's usually a combination of 3d and 2d.

if u were to study anything to become a good arch viz artist, rather than focus on 'vray settings' i would study the work and techniques of some great digital matte artists.

nicnic

For me the single most important thing is to have some artistic intent, be creative in some way take some liberty and exagerate things like a artist would when doing watercolours for example.

Dont get caught up in the technical crap.

Be original and inventive, it will make you stick out better than having perfect command of Hpsh Subdivs and QMC sampler ever will.

(sorry steve just read yours pretty much the same as what i think!)

Macpod

that sounds awfully like Beaux Art. While im sure something with the above qualities(subjective matter in itself) will look nice btu i dont think architectural visualisation necessarily needs them to be good.

The most important thing for me is SPACE. Spatial principals are what i look for in architectural visualisation. The rest is icing on the cake. Too much icing spoils the cake though.

mahorela

man there are some skips on this site now.

I'm not sure I completely agree with the aforementioned comments about how it comes completely naturally and should require very little concious adherence to design principles. My first work was crap for so many reasons but as time went on I learned more about design (particularly for interiors) and I gradually improved. This was through working hard and concentrating on harmony of colour and shape and also through improving my technical abilities. I like to think that I worked at it and am still working and improving. I agree that some things are natural (colour sense, eye for detail etc) but who here can honestly say that their first work is as good as their most recent in any way......technologically or from a design standpoint. We are all working on improving our work through design principles whether we do it conciously or not.

Macpod

haha. yeh, didnt realise it. its like the bloody commonwealth games down here.

Justin Hunt

And to add another one

Study the old master painters on how they delt with composistion, light and colour and subject. Those same principals apply to rendering, the only difference is the is no paint to dry.

Do a simple exercise of rendering a sphere on an flat plane. Play with the lighting and camera to find out how many ways you can make that scene different. Its simple and fun but also very intuitive.

JHV