3D Blueprint Tutorial
Yesterday, while watching golf, I saw a commercial that folded paper out of a book into buildings that turned into a town which then grew into a city, etc. The commercial caught my attention not only because of its execution and concept, but also because the...
HDR Part II
I'm increasingly becoming more interested into architectural photography. However, I'm less interested in the clean, flawless photos, and more about learning new, unique techniques and abstracting the images, similar to my approach with architectural...
Years of Architecture Training Finally Paying Off
I've been designing my wedding invitations this weekend and figured I could kill two birds with one stone and try to get a post out of it as well. After all, I have been attacking these things like an architectural design project so it seemed to make sense....
The Textorizer & Rasterbator
If you haven't discovered them already, there are a few websites that have been around for a while that let you apply unique "filters" to images. Both are equally easy to use, and provide many parameters to adjust the final outcome. I'll admit, I find this kind...
Quick Tips: Image Softening
As with many of the other tips in this series, this tutorial adds a last minute "kick" to an architectural illustration. What is nice about this process is that the contrast is increased, but at the same time, the sharpness is decreased providing an interesting...
Quick Tips: Vignetting
Vignetting is something you see a lot in photography, and it works just as well in architecture illustrations. The idea is simple, the edges of the illustration are darkened to “frame” the image and draw attention to the center. If there is a lot going on in...
Quick Tips: Grunge
This tutorial looks at some grunge and sketch overlays to add a little artistic styling to an architecture image and break away from the “fresh from the rendering engine” look that too many architecture presentations have. Sometimes, illustrations need a little...
Quick Tips: Color Overlays
Layer blend modes in Photoshop are something that I use for every rendering I do. I often will add a color overlay to change the mood of the illustration and provide cohesiveness to the different elements of the illustration. This process is quick and the...
Quick Tips: Adjusting Levels
Adjusting the levels is similar to adjusting the contrast, but gives you more control. More importantly, it adds depth to an image and punches up the color just a bit. The process takes seconds, and is something I do at the beginning and end of post processing....
China Villa Rendering
I have just finished a few architectural renderings this past week for a really exciting villa design located in China. I started out the illustration as a daytime scene, but decided to take advantage of all the glass and go with a dusk scene. I put a ton of...
Portfolio Creation Part 3: Adding Text
I take text pretty seriously. I think of it as an opportunity to enhance a portfolio page. The odd thing is that I really only use a few different fonts with arial being used about 75% of the time. However with that one font, it seems that text can be...
Portfolio Creation Part 2: Initial Setup
After preparing the study model for the portfolio page, this next video discusses the initial setup of the Photoshop document, as well as some basic techniques used to add illustrations. It is important to note that the image size and dpi used for this...
The Third & The Seventh By Alex Roman
If you have not seen this video by Alex Roman and you're a student of architecture, watch it now. A buddy of mine in grad school showed me this video in the thick of thesis. The video has become a huge source of inspiration and has influenced most, if not all...
Part 1: Model Pic Editing
There is nothing better than a nice model pic. However, I didn’t always use proper lighting or a good camera when I first started to document my stuff. This study model is a good example of something that I was never expecting to use in my portfolio. The model...
Portfolio Introduction
Below is a quick overview of my thoughts and opinions on Architectural portfolio development. I won’t go into the more tactile possibilities of origami portfolios, lasercut plexiglass covers, etc. These are sure-fire ways to make your work stand out. However, I...