Blogs | Visualizing Architecture

The “Wet Street Look” Tutorial

by Alex Hogrefe | Oct 31, 2010 | Styles / Effects | 7 comments

The night renderings for the Jindu Project posted a couple of weeks ago had a cobble stone street that was Photoshopped to look wet. Adding a reflection such as this adds a bit more excitement to the image compared to leaving it flat. I have always liked...

HDR Experiment

by Alex Hogrefe | Oct 25, 2010 | Break Down | 7 comments

A little off the subject of rendering, but this past weekend, I explored HDR (high dynamic range) photography. While I’m not a professional by any means, a problem I’ve always had with photography was my inability to reproduce through the camera,...

Pool Rendering: Workflow Videos

by Alex Hogrefe | Sep 29, 2010 | Break Down | 14 comments

While these videos aren’t full on tutorials, they still walk through the my work flow of creating this illustration. As you will see, 90% of my time was spent in Photoshop. Part 1 looks at applying textures. I used the Sketchup model...

Jindu Rendering

by Alex Hogrefe | Sep 20, 2010 | Break Down | 9 comments

Below are a series of screen shots taken last week as I worked towards the final rendered image of the Jindu Pavilion. An interesting challenge with this shot was creating realistic ripples in the pool while still maintaining a high level of reflectiveness....

Honduras Renderings

by Alex Hogrefe | Sep 7, 2010 | Uncategorized | 9 comments

I’ve recently been working on some renderings for a new project at work located in Honduras. In an attempt to avoid a computer generated appearance, these renderings experiment with multiple techniques to realize a more artistic painterly look. I’m in the...

Have Some Kahn

by Alex Hogrefe | Jun 29, 2010 | Uncategorized | 2 comments

I spent some time in New Haven, CT this weekend and was able to get some pics of the Yale University Art Gallery designed by Louis Kahn ...

Sold-Out Crowd

by Alex Hogrefe | Jun 22, 2010 | Fundamentals | 11 comments

Over the weekend, I put this video together showing the work-flow of one of my final thesis renderings. Its not quite a tutorial, but still does a decent job of showing the steps I used to create the crowded atmosphere. If the video does not appear or has been...

Moving to Boston

by Alex Hogrefe | Jun 14, 2010 | Uncategorized | 1 comment

I have recently started working at a firm in Boston and am really liking the city so far. I’m still trying to get use to Dunkin’ Donuts on every corner and the crazy traffic. Here are some pics from the last week, mostly taken downtown. ...

Kerkythea Clay Rendering

by Alex Hogrefe | Jun 13, 2010 | Over Time | 53 comments

This tutorial explains a technique I used a lot in grad school to get really fast renderings for studying building forms. Materials are not necessary in the 3-D model which is the case many times early on in the design process. If the video does not appear or...

No-Render Night Illustration

by Alex Hogrefe | May 14, 2010 | Over Time | 49 comments

This tutorial will explain a way to create a night scene with lights, using only Sketchup and Photoshop. I typically use this style when I need to quickly light a large building with many windows. Inserting hundreds of lights though a rendering program in a...

No-Render Quick Daytime Illustration

by Alex Hogrefe | May 13, 2010 | Over Time | 49 comments

This tutorial will create a daytime rendering by exporting images from Sketchup to Photoshop. This means no external rendering programs are needed. This rendering is not meant to be realistic, but instead, provide an option for quick artistic renderings without...