Do you worry about your renderings not looking so realistic especially when running on a PC with no graphics card? These are handpicked tips tips that i found to be working for me in enhancing my architectural render realism.

1. ARC. UMAR BAPPA

2.  While there is no right or wrong software for modelling
and rendering, there is always a software that suite us,
such that makes work easy and passionable.
 Sometimes, the software may favor us but not our PC,
making a decision is what I am talking about here!
 This is an inevitable step for most of us, especially
those starting out on a PC with a poor hardware with
no graphics card, there must be a limitation!

3.  I love modelling with Sketchup because it is a 3D
oriented software simple to use, but the problem is that
Sketchup lags on my PC and will always slow my work
down!
 Secondly, I have less interest in Revit and consider it
difficult to use, but the software favors my PC and will
run smoothly without any problem.
 Now I am left with two choices
• Buy a good PC and continue using Sketchup!
• Learn Revit, exceed my limits and continue with it.

4.  Same goes with the rendering software, I was using
Vray 3.6 for Sketchup and it was quite good enough,
so before I turn for Revit, I reviewed its version of Vray,
I found out that the software is strong, beautiful and on
top of all that IT IS SIMPLER TO USE THAN THAT OF
SKETCHUP!
 I went on to learn the new Vray’s interface in Revit
which takes me some time, because at that time you
could hardly find any tutorial on it except on Chaos
group YouTube Channel.

5.  I have made some quite number of lovely renderings
until now, and God willing, I will make a course here on
Udemy which shall be “Vray for Revit Complete
Guide”.
 Inside the course, we shall see how to use Vray’s
individual tools in Revit.
 How to set and do an exterior day/night render.
 How to set and do an interior day/night render.

6.  Light color shades are believed to make renderings
simple yet elegant, welcoming and cool. They receive
less heat into the built environment, making them a
good choice in design of both interior and exterior
spaces.

7.  Choosing light colors in the interior however, depends
on the type of space, flooring material, color of
decorative elements and ultimately choice of the client.
Light colors in interior space creates more visual
space.

8.  Darker colors are bold, sometimes look awful and they
absorbs more heat when used in finishing of a built
environment. The color which absorbs heat the most
out of all the darker colors is black.

9.  Dark colors also emit infrared light when there is no
light shining, thus cooling the building off when it does
not have light shining on it. This explains the reason
why it is preferred in a colder area.

10.  Colors some architects use are as follows:
 White, milk, gray, light yellow, light brown and light
pink.
 Some also used darker colors but to a considerable
amount when the need arise!
 Some designers prefer mixing light colors with darker
colors in their works, using black and white colors on
different faces of a model may look nice!
 Sometimes darker colors are being used in a design
that is to be built in a cold environment.

11.  Organic materials or textures is an undeniable element
for any realistic render. It enhances and beautifies the
whole building and the environment in your project.
 Some organic materials you should consider using in
your project includes the following:
 Dirt/Sand
 Cracked textures/Flaking
 Grass and stains (Decals)
 Stone material
 Wood

12.  Example of organic material maps, which could be
downloaded and put to use in a model as jpeg images:

13.  Example of organic material in renderings: here, use of
organic material is demonstrated in the finishing of the
walls and columns.

14.  Example of organic material in renderings: Use of
stones as finish or wooden finish as demonstrated
here gives your renderings a natural look!

15.  Example of organic material in renderings: Use of
organic material is demonstrated in the landscaping of
the building only.

16.  Creating a complex environment which has too many
elements or very strong color could steal the emphasis
from your building.
 Such design will put emphasis on the other elements
rather than the building itself.
 It is better to have a moderate but beautiful landscape,
than to have an environment that overshadows the
building.
 In some cases, camera placement is a factor which
can be considered as the agent of emphasis that make
a building to stand out and vice-versa.

17.  This is an example of building NOT STANDING OUT
 The landscaping is rough and the camera focuses
more on the landscape!

18.  This is an example of buildings NOT STANDING OUT!
 Emphasis is given to the sit out, while the main
building is left out in the mist!

19.  This is an example of buildings THAT STANDS OUT!
 Clear, realistic rendering with a good camera angle
and a beautiful landscaping.

20.  Things you should consider:
 1. Consider moderate Landscaping (unless you are a
landscape architect) .
 2. Natural/Soft landscaping should not be less than 50
percent out of 100 percent of all landscaping in your
project.
 Avoid components with strong colors like yellow or red
cars in your environment only when that is necessary.
 Consider blurring the behind of the building or simply
add aerial perspective or fog to add more realism to
your work.

21.  Example of wrong use of scale and proportion in
design:

22.  It is totally accepted if you exaggerate an element of a
building like columns in order to create an emphasis
but don't overdo it; any other component should follow
the law of scale and proportion.
 Improving the size and proportion of two things will
bring more realism to your renderings namely;
 a) Components/Families:
Components like doors, windows, trees etc. Should be
observed carefully, when importing ready made
families, check the scale and proportion very well, and
when creating them, make sure they follow the building
code of your locality.

23.  If families are too big, consider scaling them down to
an optimal size and when they appear small, consider
scaling them.
 In softwares like Sketchup you can simply do that by
clicking on the scale tool or by simply pressing "S" on
your keyboard.
 To scale a family component in Revit, first double click
on the family component to enable the "family edit"
check the scale factor on edit type to adjust the scale.

24.  b) Texture :
Is the No. 1 element of render realism in any software,
and every software has its unique way of treating
textures within it. The quality and resolution of the
texture map alone doesn't equal to realistic rendering
but the;
 Scaling used
 Positioning and
 Repetitiveness of the texture

25. Original Texture Applied
Without Resizing Texture
Original Texture Applied
And Resized.

26.  However, this doesn't apply on flat textures such as
water, plain glass and all matte wall paints which can
be applied without resizing.

27.  High quality textures when used in their right places
would stand out beautifully.
 More especially when they are scaled up to meet the
average size of that texture in a real life like we
mention in tip 5.

28.  I was once using low quality textures in my models,
this has help me out badly, I produce awful renderings!
 Software like Revit and Sketchup have their inbuilt
material assets packed with several hundreds of
textures/materials but what if:
 You don't find a certain material
 You don't find it very realistic
 You used their materials much (obsessed), and want a
different texture maps.

29.  There is actually two solution to solve this when you
don't want to use that;
 a) Use the inbuilt texture material inside your rendering
software like lumion, or Vray assets, they are packed
with great looking realistic material.
 Below is an illustration of the asset browser inbuilt in
Revit and Vray’s own asset browser.
 They are all packed with wonderful materials but I
personally prefer the materials inside of Vray’s asset
browser!

31.  b) Download custom high quality textures from the
web and used it in your works. There are several
websites that provide thousands of realistic textures for
architectural, motion and graphic designer and CG
artiste. While some are paid textures, some websites
offer for free such as;
 Sketchuptextureclub.com
 Pinterest.com
 Unsplash.com
 Photoshoptextures.com
 Texturehaven.com

32.  Adding a realistic background like HDRi map is
important, but consider adding some models beside
your real work, an example is a block model and some
trees.

33.  In this example here, we have a beautiful house with
green roof, it is beautiful but the introduction of other
neighboring elements add to the realism of our
building.

34.  Now let's talk about landscape, which is the body of
elements made-up of natural and man made features.
 If you are an architect who doesn’t specialize in
landscaping, there are many websites ready to inspire
you, one of these website is Pinterest.

35.  I have seen some beautiful models whose beauty was
degraded due to lack of landscape, it must not be
professionally designed, a simple landscaping will do.
 Things you need to fix:
 Buildings in background
 Unity of color of grasses
 Eliminate the gray Albedo
in softwares like Vray for
Revit or for Sketchup.
 Add landscape or a custom
environment to your model.

36.  Elements of realism and details are believed to be a
great driver of great renderings since time immemorial.
They over-exaggerate how the model looks producing
a surreal renderings!
 If you are an architect or simply a designer, you should
tolerate every single bit of details which you believe will
add value to your work.
 You can always get inspiration from those renderings
you love, more especially from your role model in the
design industry.
 Some of the elements described as elements of render
realism and photorealistic renderings are as follows:

37.  1. Good Camera Position/Angle
• Learn about different camera angles you like from
other peoples rendering or your role model, try it in
your next project.
• Starting from orthographic view, perspectives (one
point, two point, 3 point, bird’s eye, ant/worm eye
perspective) e.t.c
• This may vary from software to another, but almost
all the conventional modelling softwares in use
today have its unique camera tools.

39.  2. Fog and Aerial Perspective
• This effects creates mist or fog, which increases the
more the distance behind your model increases and
vice-versa making details behind the model partially
visible.

40.  3. Lense Flare and Motion Blur:
• These effects have been tested and they have
proven to be a driver of photorealistic rendering.
• It is usually applied in Photoshop and other photo
manipulation softwares.
• Though motion blur is usually used where the object
is in motion, using motion blur around a building
stipulates that the camera was the thing in motion.
• Imagine a camera man taking a shot of a beautiful
house while sitting at the back seat of a taxi in
motion.

41.  4. Scattered Environmental Details
• Do you remember the plug-in in Sketchup; Skatter?
Well this are the elements you need Skatter to
scatter them around your model. This elements
include:
• Stones
• Logs
• Leaves
• Birds
• Other 3D components

42.  You could do this in either Vray (if you use Vray for
Revit or Sketchup) or Photoshop.
 Photoshop is an ultimate tool for photographers,
graphic designers and architects. It can be used to add
more details and effects to your rendered image, this is
called post rendering.
 I personally loved working with ”Vray correction tool”
for my post rendering.

43.  If you use high grade rendering software like Lumion or
Enscape, you may not need to do any post rendering
after the first rendering being carried out in the
software.
 Such is the advantage of these softwares, but they
need a good hardware to run on a PC.

44.  We don’t steal design but can adapt to a style of
rendering we see online or from our colleagues, do you
ever have a role model in the design industry whom
renderings you love? Why not try modelling after his
models or simply copy his style?
 Model from your own concept and use a finishing
(texture) based on his or her configuration
 Post your renderings online or in your school forums,
ask peers to criticize your work, and outline what they
think you should address in your rendering.

45.  There are some useful YouTube channels you should
know about, these channels produce wonderful models
and rendering guide for designers who love modelling
and rendering. Below are some of the YouTube
channels:
• Rendering Essential
• KG Studio
• Caad Needs
• Architectural Inspiration (Minh)
• Balkan Architect

46.  Upgrade Your PC.
 More faces more realism less faces less realism.
 Think out of the box; don’t be afraid to try new methods
and style of a render.
 Always visit websites like Pinterest to get inspiration.