Architecture is one of the main fields in which professionals use Blender 3D for showcasing their work to their clients. There are thousands of visualisation tutorials and online classes, and hundreds of amateurs that make a living from 3D architecture. But there are just a few that distinguish themselves as skilled masters in this industry. We wanted to find out what it takes to become such an expert.
Attila Balogh has more that 10 years of experience in residential building architecture, interior design and 3D visualization. His complex work speaks for itself, and his answers shed light on how he creates his projects.
Marius Iatan: How did you start working in the 3D architectural visualization field? What would you say it’s the most challenging aspect of 3D visualization for you?
Attila Balogh: I started working in 3D back in 1996—in those times I used 3D Studio Release 4 for DOS! The most challenging aspect for me is to reach realism—it was a challenge at the beginning when software and hardware was more limited. Nowadays the tools are much more sophisticated, but expectations are much higher as well.
Marius: You freelance architectural visualization projects for other architects, and you are an architect yourself. How different is working on the visualizations for your own designs?
Attila: When I work on my own designs I start modeling and making draft images from the very beginning. I helps the design process and, as I have more time to test viewpoints and materials, the final renders can be better as well. But there is a danger of it: with the images you can convince yourself that your design is good—it’s harder to keep your critical attitude.
The Guest House, by Attila Balogh and MM Works, Hungary
Marius: Are the customers having different expectations from archviz now, compared to 5 years ago?
Attila: Today it’s easier to achieve realism in images with new software and hardware. So it’s became ‘standard’—if you want to be up-to-date you need to develop your techniques every day. On the other hand I don’t really feel that clients are looking for new techniques as interactive visualizations, 3d printing or animations. They seems to be quite conservative and prefer traditional solutions as having just single images. But personally I think that it’s worth to deal with these techniques as they can be more popular in the future.
Marius: How much do you rely on Blender in your work? On your blog you mention using YafaRay, Cycles and V-Ray, do you have a favorite?
Attila: I used to make many modeling work with ArchiCAD in the past. Now I mostly use Blender for all of the modeling and of course for rendering as well.
At the beginning I used YafaRay with Blender as it was more or less the only render engine which provided GI which is essential in architectural CG. Later as Cycles became more and more usable I decided to try it. Now Cycles is my main tool for rendering.
I also have plans to try V-Ray which is may be the best render engine for archviz and as the exporter became an official add-on from Chaos Group (thanks to Andrey Izrantcev) it gets more and more interesting.
Image by Attila Balogh and Vogt Architecten Bda, Germany
Marius: How much post processing do you use in finishing an image? What do you think of blender’s compositor?
Attila: I do the most of the work in 3D but I like to add some final touches in post—it can really boost realism and also add style to the image. As I work mostly on static images I use the compositor less —it ‘bakes’ all the changes into the image and I like to have the possibility to change the image any time after rendering. So I use separate photo editing tools where I have more flexibility.
Marius: If you had to choose your favorite project so far, which one would you pick?
Attila: It is hard to tell. But I still like the most the interior which was my first attempt to use Cycles. I had enough time to work on this and the images came out quite nice. Many people liked it and it was published in the book ‘Art of Blender’.
Attila Balohg’s first work in Cycles, was featured in Art of Blender book.
Marius: What type of inspiration do you use in your work? Can you mention some sources (online as well as offline) that others could benefit from?
Attila: I have many online sources. Among the obvious ones: Blender Nation and Blender Artists I check two tutorial sites frequently: Blender Cookie and Blender Guru. Both of them have a course for architecture—you need to purchase them, but I think they are worth the money. I also visit ronenbekerman.com. It’s not Blender based but worth to check. There are many very high quality works and many ‘making of’ worth to take a look at it. And I must mention my favourite: the site of Bertrand Benoit—it ‘s crazy stuff. Also, a very good site dealing with the graphical aspects and post-processing is Alex Hogrefe’s page. All of them are a good source of inspiration and learning.
Marius: Would you like to add a message for the Blenderheads interested in the architectural field?
Attila: If you are interested in contemporary design, architecture, photography, light and composition it is a very interesting and challenging task to make some architecture visualisation—for a real project or just for your own entertainment… And last but not least, a big thanks for the Blender team and the community for this excellent piece of software.
Ma maison—newest work form Attila Balogh, first time published on RenderStreet
