Impression of Autodesk 2009 and the danger of CG Arch industry disappearing

[aaron-cds]

gone are the days when architects HAD to rely on 3D visualisers for this stuff, whether it was good bad or ugly. Nowadays most of them ARE quite happy with low level stuff because generally thats all they need.... enter sketchup.

 

This is exactly why a majority of my clients aren't architecture firms. When I get hired by a marketing company or developer, they're coming to me because they need a certain quality level that their architect can't provide. If I didn't stand out, I wouldn't get hired. So, as a "freelancer" or sole-proprietor, whatever you want to call it, if you don't stand out it's the end because the in-house button pushers are catching up with software that's easier and easier to use every year. That's all people are saying. It's definately ridiculous to say that all in-house artists are inferior. I was never trying to imply that.

[Mat@MDI-Digital]

FlytE, I agree totaly.

 

I think it would be nieve to think that this kinda thing is not a threat of somekind. Just take an objective look at where the industry is now and where it was 10 years ago, and try to imagine what will be in 10 years time. As soon as Sketch-up (for example) is able to render close to 75% "real" in real time (which I can see happening in 10 years no problem) then some of us (probably me) will not be needed.

 

it would also be nieve to think we will always be in work because we have an artistic eye, simply because not all arch visulisations require and artistic eye, sometimes (almost all the time with the work I do) they just require a not particualy intresting visual that shows the building from the other side of the street.

 

this personal is my worst case scenario, I would not be suprised if this did or didnt happen, as FlytE points out, if you stay ahead of the compition, or offer services that others dont, we should be ok.

Edited May 16, 2008 by Mat@MDI-Digital

[mahorela]

I've had a good look at the software.......it's slow......real slow....but it will get faster and the ease of use and quality of the solution is pretty damn good.

 

I'm working on a piece of animation at the moment for high end luxury apartments.......using lots of displacement, bubbling spa water, animated backdrops, helicopter footage matchmoving and matchmoving into nodal pans, character animation, tree and plant animations, compositing techniques and some liquid dynamics. Not to mention HDRI lighting and on certain scenes physical cam+sun and sky.

 

Am I worried about architects doing what I do?.................no.

 

I'm just going to focus my attention on animation, personally I hate doing stills......boring

[taran0]

i think we are also overlooking realtime engines, with the onset of powerful processors and more powerful graphic cards realtime engines are getting scarily close to rendered images, with the added ability of being able to walk around and open a door and maybe even talk to the receptionist and see people walkign aroudn using the environment in real time.

 

the future is realtime, just look at the game engines, crysis can render realistic outdoor environments with foliage in a fraction of the time it takes to do it in max and you are actually designing in realtime, while the sun is setting and the clouds are moving and the waves are moving and the leaves are swaying at the wind speed you just set.

 

i recently created an island in crysis, it took me a fraction of the time it would have taken, and i could change things on the fly no rerendering.

 

taran

[Justin Hunt]

realtime as a presentation tool is great, however the amount of work involced to put that together is just not realistic for 90% of the work we do.

 

With the deadlines we work to (let alone the budgets) its going to be a while before its mainstream.

 

jhv

[andy shand]

the future is getting work done to a deadline and to the spec.... i can build a brickwall but im gonna hire a bricky ...hes better than me and quicker.

[YOHKOH]

I work in house at large and successfull Architects in the UK.

 

My personal view is that whilst many of the architects here are more than capable of producing decent renders,they are still architects, with that job to do.

 

Just because they can do the visuals doesn't mean we, as a company are going to resource for them to do it.

 

I do a lot of design development work and I can see this dropping off in the near future as we move on to Revit and a fully working 3d environment.

 

However the work of selling a scheme will still be mine. It cannot be justifiable for an architect or even trainee to spend a morning taking well thought out site photographs, or to spend an afternoon getting the settings just right for the shade of Anodised aluminium they have chosen.

 

I am capable of doign an architects job, as I have done in the past but it is no longer my role to do so. Just because I can, doesn't mean my bosses want me to be drawing details and putting together planning applications. If architects want to do full visuals then they should become visualisers.

 

In turn, as a visualiser I am pushing to diversify my knowledge and skill base as much as possible. We should be pushing the technology and producing better work than anyone else in the office to justify our existence. If they ask for a still visual, do an animation as well to go with it, comp in some video soudn track. With some creative thinking there is a hell of a lot we can do to market the profession.

Most successfull work is the work which wins fees. Whether it be making the client say "wow" or getting a project through planning. We have had on more than one occassion a client saying "I'm sick of seeing all these cartoon images (sketchup) I want to see what it's going to look like." Clients these days a savvy to the quality of what can be produced. They are certainly not going to settle for some half baked "magic render button" image.

 

Sorry for length, but I actually think the advancment of technology is very exciting. I pushes us into new areas. As costs goes down on high end equipment there is no reason we can't be editing video and producing really amazing interactive presentations.

 

I take the view that whilst younger architects might be snapping at our heels, we should be making the big VFX houses worry.

Edited May 27, 2008 by YOHKOH

[demo1417]

One computer can replace the work of a million regular people, but one million computers CANT replace the work of an extraordinary guy.

[tayrona]

I always keep in mind Nils Norgren's (neoscape) philosophy about visualizations....

standard renderings and animations (one button) are good to understand design, to preview, to process.... but... should they cause an "emotional response"?

Could an architect (who is involved in his own design, worried about materials, technical details, functionality, prices) create "emotional visualizations"?

I dont think so......