Architectural Visualization with Blender 2.

Small guide to photo-realistic renders.

Learn tips and tricks to help you deliver professional Arch-Viz
images!
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
CLICKABLE

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Cover page – 1
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Table of Contents - 2
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About this Publication - 3
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About the Author - 4
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Modeling - 5
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Lighting - 18
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Materials - 24
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Camera and Rendering - 31
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Post-Production - 38
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Renders - 44

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 About this Publication
Congratulations, for downloading this eBook.

Like the heading is saying, this is a "Guide” and it’s designed to

give you some of the useful information I gather using over
the years Blender in Architectural Visualization.

This was made to be as accessible as possible to beginners but

it can be an advantage if you have some prior experience with
Blender.

This guide will cover what I interpret as being the basics, which
is essential to get you a good foundation to make excellent
renders.
For more advanced settings, I advise you to visit my site at
www.archvizblender.com and look through some of the
tutorials that I will be making available there.

Likewise, we also advise you to visit the BlenderArtists Forum

where you can find many resources and useful tips and tricks
posted by fellow Blender users.

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 About the Author
Architectural Visualization is my passion!

I'm a 3D Artist with over 16 years experience making

Arch-Viz. Feature Article - Architectural Visualizations in Blender
http://blendernews.org/xe/Feature_Articles/10223
I worked from small family houses to big projects with
multinational Architects, Engineers and Contractors,

I started using Blender from version 2.4 and rapidly

turned into my main tool. Not because it was free but
because it was awesome and with version 2.8 it just got
better!
Thanks to Blender I even got my work featured in some
cool places and I thought that it was time to give 3DArtist - 76th issue

something back to the Blender community!

I really hope this ebook helps you getting the most out
of Blender in Architectural Visualization.

Eduardo Câmara The Art of Blender - Volume 1

Eduardo Câmara
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01
Modeling
Modeling
Overview of the scene
This scene is very simple. Just one room.
I model it specific for this ebook to show some of the
techniques I use in my Arch-viz work.

Scale and origin

Be sure all geometry is correctly scaled and is positioned
as close as possible to the Origin. A Physically Based
engine such as Cycle Render must have accurate
geometry in order to give accurate results in lighting and
materials. Water can not look like an ocean if it is placed
in a sea the size of a teacup. Strange things happens
when geometry is abnormally distant from the origin, or
if objects are not “real world” size.

Normals
Be sure that your normals have the right orientation.
Reversed normals can result in odd reflections during
rendering.

Tip: In Blender 2.8 we have on the overlays a new face

orientation view mode. Turns all face with normals
facing you blue and reversed normal red.

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Modeling

Background
The backdrop was a simple plane with a PNG file (alpha mask) of an skyline photo.
Emission node simulates bounce light from the sun and the texture was desaturated for more realism.
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Modeling
A good model is the foundation of a good render. We will talk about
how Post-Production can take you render to the next level, but
putting icing on a bad cake, still makes a bad (if prettier) cake. Good
detailed modeling is particularly important for objects in the
foreground. But be careful, adding too much detail on something
you would never see is not better; it will only make your render and
model navigation slower.

There’s a balance to be struck between adding massive amounts of

detail to everything, and adding hardly any. The closer you are to the
model, the more detail you need. Similarly, objects further away from
the camera need less detail. 3d games engines have components
which have different levels of detail, which are switched on and off
based on the distance from the camera. The fully-detailed trees with
all the leaves and branches turn into 2d billboards when they are
distant.
When working out how much detail to add, you also need to think about exactly what you want to achieve. The more realistic you
want to get, the more detail you need to add, but the longer your scene will take to render. I think that for most people, a simple
principle is to use only as much detail as you need.

It takes a little time to work out what this is, and it is different for most people. Generally people tend to render a particular type of
scene for a particular purpose, so once they get an approach they are happy with, they will tend to use the same approach for every
scene.
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Modeling

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The modeling was very simple. I started with a plane with the dimensions desired for the room. Then just
extruded the plane with the height of the room and deleted the top and bottom faces.

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Modeling

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Applied a solidify modifier to get the thickness of the walls.

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Modeling

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For getting the opening of the windows I placed two cubes with the dimensions I needed
where the windows will be and In the object panel change the Viewport display to Wire.

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Modeling

Then select the walls and added a Bollean modifier to each of the cubes in Difference mode.

This modifier stack allows me have the configuration of the room in a non-destructive
Tip: mode which makes changes to the design a lot easier!
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Modeling

The rest of the model was done with standard mesh modeling.
For architectural modeling Blender comes with a great addon
called Archipack. Try it out. It will make your life easier!
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Modeling

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Sharp Edges=unrealistic
Always bevel the edges of your object in order to catch the correct highlights. Even a knife has bevel edges if you
look close enough.
In Blender 2,8 there’s now an Bevel shader node that can be used for faking the rounded
Tip: corners at render time. Like bump mapping, this does not modify the actual geometry, only
the shading is affected.
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Modeling

I added furniture and props from my library. Working in ArchViz is about getting good results in a limited time-frame.
Working with clients doesn't allows you to build every single piece of furniture from scratch.

Tip: on-line where to get good free and paid models.

Build a decent library that you can go to. Model what you can but there are many places

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 “Hard work without talent is
a shame, but talent without
hard work is a tragedy.”
Robert Half

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 Key Takeaways
1)Make the modeling as non destructive as you can using things like
modifiers, instances and so on.

2)Build a good library. There are many sites online to get good models free
or paid. Be aware that the quality of models may vary in this sites.
Some sites:
BlenderMarket
Evermotion
Chocofur
3DSky
Turbosquid
3DWarehouse

3)Always bevel your objects!

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02
Lighting
Lighting
The main source of light was a HDR file. There are vendors all over the world distributing and selling HDRI images for
use in 3D rendering — some free, some paid. Here are some recommended sources for HDRI images:
HDRI Haven
HDRI Skies
Peter Gutherie Skies
Dosch Design
Poliigon

These backgrounds/skies contain realistic luminance and tonal data captured directly from real-world environments.
Image-based lighting is a versatile, realistic approach to natural lighting, and lets the user easily test a number of
different lighting scenarios to choose the one that showcases the project in the best light,
Trying out a different sky and background is as simple as choosing a different Instagram filter. Your reflections,
shadows, and color palette always remain in harmony, because everything is driven by the HDRI background.

The real-time preview in Cycles lets you rotate the HDRI to control shadows and adjust exposure so there are no
surprises at render-time.

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Lighting

HDR

Rotation of Backgound for

the HDR the camera

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In this particular case, I wanted the HDR just to illuminate the scene but didn’t want to see it on the window. So I
added a simple blueish color background just for the camera to see. This is controlled by a Light Path node mixing
the two backgrounds. The bottom one is what the camera see’s.
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The position of the HDR is controlled by the Mapping node.

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Lighting

In this case I didn’t use any artificial lights for two reasons:

Realism - Renders with both the sun shining and loads of artificial lights result in an evenly lit space, but it is not realistic
for a residential interior; you don’t usually turn on the lights in your house when there’s sufficient natural lighting around. In
design terms, it completely kills the dynamic of the scene and negates the impressive effect of natural lighting. You need
both bright and dark areas in your renders if you want impressive images that strike the imagination of your clients.

Render time - The more lights, the longer the render time. A few won’t be a problem, but at some point it will help you
with your tests if you limit the number of light sources.

Compensate with the gama/exposure sliders.

When using artificial lights, place them in locations and with similar power as they would be found in real life. Avoid using fill
lighting. Use light powers that are realistic and set radius of light objects to real world size. Remember that incandescent
lights are typically quite orange-yellow compared to the default white. Use the real-time preview to help quickly visualize
the behavior of the changes you are making to your light object.
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 “To light a candle is to cast a
shadow.”
Ursula K. Le Guin

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 Key Takeaways
1)Best results comes from starting as simple as possible
2)Most of my ( daylight ) scenes are lit by single light source, Sun/Sky
system, or image based HDRi environment.

3)Only add additional lights once you have very specific look in mind that's
not achievable simply.

4)First add these lights emulating reality as we know it, placing them in
fixtures, in studio setup (reflectors, barn doors, soft boxes, etc..)

5)Only as last option and scarcely, I use “fake” light sources, invisible area
and point lights if I didn’t get desirable result others or if situation
requires.

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03
Materials
Materials
Let’s get down to materials.
Like models and HDR there are plenty of sites where we can find good textures and
shaders.
Sites like
www.poliigon.com
textures.com
sketchuptextureclub

Building good materials is a time consuming task so I try to keep mine as simple as
possible as you will see in the next pages.

Remember. Change any pure white surface to be 92% white. Any pure black surfaces to
be no more than 90% grey. Any other pure or fully saturated colors no more than 92%
saturation. Fully saturated colors do not exist in the real world and will result in longer
render times and rendering artifacts, odd colors, or noise do to too many light bounces
and extra calculations.

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Materials

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In Blender we have a new Shading tab that let’s you work on your materials and get a good preview in EEVE. The
preview will not be 100% correct in Cycles but you can fine tune with some test renders.
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I use mostly the Principled BDSF shaders for all materials and tweaked them a little bit to achieve satisfying result.
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Add surface imperfections to a base material but don´t go overboard.

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Materials

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A good way to save memory, specially if you are going to render in GPU it’s to use only one map per shader.
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The roughness and bump map can be obtained using a Separate RGB node to obtain a black and white map
that you can further tune with a color ramp.

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Materials

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Using the Principled BDSF is very easy to construct van miriade of materials
quickly like metals.
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As a bonus for keeping the materials simple it’s more likely that they are also
compatible with EEVE.
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 “I have always appreciated
those who dare to experiment
with materials and
proportions.”
Zaha Hadid

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 Key Takeaways
1)Find good textures.

2)Beware of the color saturation.

3)Use Principled BDSF.

4)Add surface imperfections to a base material but keep it as simple as

possible. Here’s a Poliigon tutorial on that:
https://help.poliigon.com/blender/basic-series/part-2-surface-imperfections

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04
Camera and Rendering
Camera and Rendering
For clients I like to use High resolution for my final renders, something like 6000x3000. It can take some time to
render, but rendering almost 3 times the size will help reduce the grain of the reflective surfaces when the image is
smaller.

Rendering larger than you need might sound superfluous, but the final image will look much cleaner if you render
at 2x (or greater) resolution and then scale down and with a bonus that you can zoom and do vignettes of
particular areas from the image without loosing quality and need to re-render.

Of course rendering at a lower (normal) resolution is completely fine if you don’t want to render over night, or
don't have time.

Render at least in PNG format 16bit but if you could go to EXR or HDR 32bit you will have a lot more to work with
in Post-Production

Hide non-essential geometry. Non-essential geometry increases processing time and rendering times. Any
geometry in the scene that does not contribute to the final rendered image should be hidden or placed on a non-
visible collection before you begin rendering.

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Camera and Rendering

The first step into rendering we’ll take is to set a point a view.
Framing the view is a crucial part of any great render or photography. Setting the view early in
the rendering process allows you to focus on exactly on what you see, thus saving a lot of your
precious time. It will also allow you to reduce potential model complexity by not modeling parts
of the model you wouldn't see but would still increase render time.

Think like a photographer. Like most things rendering, framing the view is an Art. There are lots
of tutorials on the web about photography framing tips that are totally relevant to rendering. The
rule of thirds is a great starting point.
Using the right camera is crucial. I usually start with the preset of a full Frame 35mm Camera with
a 43mm Focal Length. This is closer to the human eye and then I fine tune from there as the scene
requires.
It’s important to let the subject breathe, don’t zoom to much on your subject, give it some space
and context.
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Camera and Rendering
TESTING QUICKLY
Professional work flow for test render images is to first choose lowest render settings
and lowest resolution for image size. This greatly increases speed of work flow and
testing. Increase quality and render size as needed as the project progresses.

Rendering Settings for the scene

I always try to have a good amount

of light bounces in the scene
especially if it’s an interior scene.
You can only have good photo-
realistic renders with good Global
Illumination.
Don’t compromise quality in Light
with shortcuts like the use of AO.
Do that only if it really can’t be
avoided.
That’s also why I try to not have
Clamping or if it’s has to be, only
Clamp the indirect light since that’s
almost all the time the main source of
fireflies.

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Camera and Rendering

Rendering Settings for the scene

Use Filmic in the color management

settings. It provides better control for
the highlights and shadows of the
image while giving a photographic
look.

Expose your scene correctly.

You can learn something about this in
this tutorial from CGCookie:

12 Blender ArchViz Workflow Tips an

d Tricks

Use Denoise, It can dramatically

speed up high quality visualization by
accurately predicting the final
rendered frame and removing noise.

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 “Every viewer is going to get
a different thing. That's the
thing about painting,
photography, cinema.”
David Lynch

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 Key Takeaways

1)Think like a photographer

2)Don’t sacrifice the quality of the GI (Global Ilumination).

3)Use Filmic and expose your scenes correctly.

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05
Post-production
Post-production
Post processing will help us fine tune our lightning and framing. We don’t have a lot room to work in but the subtle changes
can make the difference.
You are only as good at Post-Prodution as your eye training and experience allows you to be. There is no definitive setting or
"recipe" that will make any render look great. Every render is different and although you may keep the same workflow, it
always need to adjusted to the image. Your eye is your only gauge, and the more you practice, the better you will become.

It is very easy to ruin your render with post-processing. Like all things, begin slow, make subtle adjustments and don’t over do
it. Train your eye with photography, cinema, and practice.

Another advice I can give is: Let it rest. When I work on important visualizations for my clients, I do the best PP I can, and then
come back to it the day after. It is particularly important when doing photo-matches where lighting, colors and perspective
have to match perfectly to look convincing.

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Post-production

This is my basic Post-Production setup.

I used an RGB Curves with a S curve to give a bit more contrast to the scene. Then I desaturate a bit the all image. Next a
Sharpen filter to make the image pop a bit.
Then a bit of lens distortion and chromatic aberration. Next a bit of bloom and vignette.
After all that I did a bit of color grading adding blue to the shadows and orange to the highlights and voilá. It’s done!

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Post-production

Raw Render

Tip:
The effects in Post-Production
should be very subtle. If they
are noticeable they will ruin the
image.

Post-production Render

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 “Architecture is a visual art,
and the buildings speak for
themselves.”
Julia Morgan

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 Key Takeaways
1)Without a good base render, PP will not save the day!

2)Always use Filmic. It provides better control for the highlights and
shadows of the image while giving a photographic look.

3)Be very subtle in the effects.

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06
Renders
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 If you liked this

Could you do me a favor?

Share it and tell people to register for more tutorials and freebies at

www.archvizblender.com

Thanks!

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