端午节，Duanwu Festival, or Dragon Boat Festival arrives before the intense wave of summer heat. It is one of the four grandest traditional festivals in China, falling on 5th day of the 5th month in Chinese lunar calendar. The other three are Chinese New Year, Mid-Autumn Festival and Qingming Festival.
AIMIR is having a 3-day holiday from 3 to 5 June, and will resume working on 6 June.
“Activities of the 12 Months: The Fifth Lunar Month”, court artists, Qing Dynasty (1644–1911). Picture courtesy of the National Palace Museum.
As the fifth lunar month arrives before the harvest season, people around the nation enjoy some rare leisure time. We get a glimpse of the month’s prosperity through the exquisite portrayal of the folk lifestyle by a painter in the Qing Dynasty. Hope you enjoy the traditional Chinese architecture in it as well.
What Do We Do?
In tradition, there will be Dragon Boat Racing in most part of China, especially the southern part. A team of people works the oars in a bid to reach the destination before other teams. Due to the pandemic, racings are cancelled in most cities this year, but we can still appreciate their training during this time of the year.
Now, it has turned to be a sport event not only held in China, but also observed in Japan, Vietnam, USA, Canada and UK, etc.
What Do We Eat?
Zongzi! Zongzi is a pyramid-shaped glutinous rice dumpling wrapped in reed leaves. It has various fillings. In north China, people favor sweet filling, while the south salty. For example, you can find sweetened bean paste, fresh meat, egg yolk, or jujubes in the fillings.
Why is the Dragon Boat Festival So Important?
During the festival, we have various traditions that believe they will help us ease diseases, prevent epidemic and ward off evil spirits. In addition to its memorial meaning, there is some actual use. Originally, the festival was set close to Summer Solstice, when pests, other poisonous animals and germs start to become more active, so people took measures to prevent the diseases and epidemics from happening on that day and later evil spirits were also added to the list to be prevented. Many of the customs have been handed down till today.
Tianyu Peninsula is a luxury apartment in Guangzhou, China. Located along the riverbank of Zhu Jiang, or Pearl River, Tianyu Peninsula has spectacular views of the river and the beautiful garden along it.
Jeremie from MKD Design Studio is assigned to design one of these luxury apartments. As our valuable client, he turned to us and asked for 3D images to showcase his vision. This place promised to be a true pleasure to live in with its elegant and comfortable interior design, and he needed these images for the upcoming interior construction project.
Now, let’s see how AIMIR’s 3D renderings were created and then helped win his clients’ heart!
The Scope of Work
Jeremie wanted 10 interior views to demonstrate his design of this luxury apartment “Residence K”.
Five living room renderings: to showcase the living room with different camera angles. This is a living room with a stunning river view. So the renderings need to show off its harmony with the spectacular neighborhood.
Three bedroom renderings: showing the unique-designed rounded wardrobe, the open bathroom, and the bed.
One study rendering: to show the study area where the owner can work while enjoying the river view.
One kitchen and dining room rendering: demonstrating the kitchen, dining table and wine storage area.
Since the task was clear, let’s see how they were accomplished.
The References
For interior 3D renders, the references are crucial. He wanted to reveal the comfort and elegance of this apartment while demonstrating its function and spaces.
The floorplan which shows the general layout of the apartment and proportion of spaces, especially the furniture and fittings’ layout. Jeremie had prepared both the 2D and 3D floorplan.
The furniture listing template lists all the details of furniture, including sizes, locations, suppliers, reference images, and their corresponding code on the floorplan. This way, our 3D artists could get a better understanding of where to locate these furniture.
Furniture listing template.
Floorplan furniture mark.
Texture and material board expresses the detailed finishes of each part. The design includes a variety of rich materials including peddle stones, leather, concrete and wood. Each room is unique with some interesting color and material combinations. To illustrate this clear, Jeremie shared an elevation.
Site photos took from the window of each room are ready to fit in each view.
The amazing river view from living room.
In addition, he shared his preferred mood and color: cozy with boutique colors, warm lighting and soft finishes, to create a welcoming and comfy space for homecomers.
The Workflow
We started with the model. Because Jeremie had complete the SketchUp model, the first thing we did was to convert the model into the Corona Renderer and fine-tune it.
The next step was to proceed with filling the scenes with proper furniture and décor. With the help of Jeremie’s furniture list, we quickly get the accurate pieces at the precise locations.
After setting the lighting, we shared the model drafts to Jeremie.
A bedroom view from the bathroom in model stage.
When the model was confirmed, we moved forward to the finishes. After studying the elevations with textures, the scenes were rendered using Corona Renderer with the right finishes. After that, we sent the drafts to Jeremie and got his comments. This is one of the camera angles:
In Jeremie’s opinion, we had to:
Keep the tile texture same with the kitchen;
Add more plants in the left corner and behind the shower room column;
Change the shower room wall texture to pebble stone;
Change the bathtub material to a more brushed texture.
Like this, Jeremie commented on all ten images. After all these comments were corrected, our 3D artists proceeded to the post-production stage. We rendered the final images in 4K and delivered to Jeremie within the promised timeframe.
Final Results
The final images are as below. We played our rule as 3D visualizer to bring this design to life with the infusion of color in each room.
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It was a smooth and pleasant experience working with Jeremie. He is always so patient and well-organized throughout the process. As a consequence, our 3D renderings unveil the full potential of this luxury apartment, and play a vital role during construction. We believe this apartment will a big surprise for its future dwellers.
Looking for CGI images or animations for your project? Contact us for professional architectural visualization services now and we will take your project to next level with high-end photorealistic 3D renderings!
CGI studios provide 3D rendering services to achieve an informative and visually impressive presentation. 3D specialists serve as architects, graphic designers and visual artists, creating 3D works which are widely used in marketing, reporting, media, commercials and so on. For instance, 3D house tour is a very popular service in the building industry. However, such services are considered “expensive” or “overpriced”. Do they really deserve it? If you’re thinking the same question, or are hiring a CGI team, here are six reasons why 3D rendering services are well worth the cost.
What are 3D Rendering Services
3D artists create 3D renderings with their professional knowledge and under the help of highly-advanced software. To achieve this, they create renderings by using high-tech computer tools, while equipping themselves with related knowledge and skills.
In fact, their work duties range from 3D modeling to giving architectural design suggestions. Doing renderings comes first, but there are also lots of details to fine-tune, for example, the overall planning of the whole project and the confirmation of a small detail. 3D rendering can vary from simple to extremely sophisticated, and the final works can be in various forms such as 2D, 3D, animation, virtual reality, and so on.
Not in the traditional way, 3D rendering services are highly involved in art and design. For instance, a good architectural 3D rendering studio is a place gathering veteran 3D artists and project managers, who are extremely familiar with architecture, design, and visual art knowledge. It can be obviously seen that they devote their countless time and energy to career success. As the saying goes, “No pain, No gain”. Their high income is actually down to earth and sensible.
They are Equipped with Professional Knowledge
To create a 3D rendering work involves various aspects of knowledge and skills, so it takes a long time to handle it well. To be qualified for providing such professional services, 3D artists are undoubtedly immersed in this industry. They have to make great efforts to acquire knowledge and master skills, which should take months, years, and even decades. This requires them to invest a fortune in education and courses for such a long time. Therefore, it makes senses that their services are worth the price.
They Spend a Fortune on Software and Hardware
“If a craftsman wants to do good work, he must first sharpen his tools.” High-quality CGI works are necessarily supported by expensive 3D rendering software, which can be quite costly beyond your imagination. The price ranges from a few thousand dollars to tens of thousands of dollars. Nevertheless, they cannot even begin to learn and master how to create renderings without software, let alone start a career as a 3D rendering studio.
In addition, powerful devices and computers are equally important, because they enable rendering software to run smooth. Indeed, 3D rendering requires a lot of graphics, RAM and processor strength for the reason that it is a complex creative process.
Also, the more 3D specialists strive for flawless renderings, the more they will need better software and hardware, and thus the more money they will spend. As a result, such efforts are worth the high return. After all, no one want to reap little rewards of all their heroic efforts in their education, knowledge, skills and equipment.
They Keep Learning
The feature of 3D renderings means that 3D architectural visualization studios must move with the times. They are exactly such a group of people who tirelessly keep learning and improving themselves. Despite the education experience in university, they still learn more about rendering software, because there always exist those parts they are not familiar with or even don’t know about. Beyond that, practice makes perfect. They can only handle sophisticated and demanding projects when they acquire more knowledge, practice enough and facilitate their skills.
There are not so Many Professional CGI Studios in the Market
It may surprise you, but yes, excellent 3D ArchViz studios are few and far between. As mentioned above, they need a lot of time and effort to complete their education before becoming qualified to offer 3D rendering services. Meanwhile, it also requires a certain amount of initial capital to equip themselves with technical software and hardware. These two points alone have discouraged some people from this field. Not to mention, it makes people feel tired and exhausted to do such a challenging and demanding job. Therefore, it’s nothing wrong with “high price”.
They Help Improve Clients’ ROI
To put it a simply, 3D rendering services accelerate the recognition of the design and sell more. A good 3D rendering can realize an informative and visually impressive presentation, which greatly improves the appeal of the designs. It enables clients to attract more customers and make a deal in a quite efficient manner. For customers, using this service is a one-time investment in exchange for a long-term return. Any time they want, they can use the finished rendering for samples, promotions, portfolios and so on.
Overall, we hope this blog has articulated the reason why 3D rendering services are “expensive”. In short, 3D specialists not only invest their time and money to pave the way to start this career, but are also committed to guarantee satisfying services. If you hire a 3D artist, you will know he really shows the best value of your cost.
AIMIR specializes in providing professional architectural visualization services. If you need photo-realistic 3D renderings for your vision, please feel free to send email to us at info@aimircg.com. We are ready to offer you assistance and expertise at any time.
International Competition for Conceptual Planning and Urban Design of Jiangxi Xinfeng High-Speed Rail New Town will be launched soon.
Xinfeng is the largest county with the most population in the area adjacent to Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (hereinafter the Greater Bay Area) in Jiangxi Province. It’s known as the merging area among the three provinces of Jiangxi, Guangdong and Fujian. Now it acts as the frontier communicating with the Greater Bay Area, an important junction node of Jiangxi and Guangdong the Grande Canale (planned), occupying an important strategic position.
The opening of Ganzhou-Shenzhen High-Speed Railway in 2021 brings an enormous historical opportunity for Xinfeng County. Ganzhou-Shenzhen High-Speed Railway is an artery that connects the North and the South, the opening of Ganzhou-Shenzhen High-Speed Railway is of great significance to promote the deep integration of the Greater Bay Area, extend the radiation-driven function of Pearl River Delta region, and implement the national strategy of “The Rise of Central China”.
In order to fully integrate into the Greater Bay Area as well as play the role of an integration forerunner, the 15th Congress of the Communist Party of China of Xinfeng County proposed that Xinfeng should integrate into the south and communicate with the north, and make good use of the enormous historical opportunity of the opening of the Ganzhou-Shenzhen High-Speed Railway. The green hills and clear rivers including Gushan Mountain and Taojiang River should be relied on. Advantages of Xinfeng should be fully taken, including its proximity to the Greater Bay Area, its large population and territory, strong developing energy and good industrial base. High-Speed Rail New Town aims to deeply integrate southward into the business environment and modern industrial system of the Greater Bay Area and become a bridgehead city of the integration. It shall also connect northward with the main urban area of Ganzhou and finally achieve overall development. It strives to depict a new page of Xinfeng as “the hometown of oranges in the world, the source of Beijiang River, the example of integrating into the Greater Bay Area, a city with ethical citizens and abundant resources”. The goal is to make full use of the policies for the revitalization of Central Revolutionary Base Area, and become one of the cities with the best business environment merging into the Greater Bay Area in the central and western regions of China.
In this context, hosted by Xinfeng County Natural Resources Bureau, co-organized by Shenzhen Position Spatial Culture Development Co., Ltd., International Competition for Conceptual Planning and Urban Design of Jiangxi Xinfeng High-Speed Rail New Town will be launched soon.
Location of Xinfeng County
Location of High-Speed Rail New Town
Competition objectives
Take the demonstration area of industry-city integration in the Greater Bay Area as a development goal, and create a new engine to integrate with the Greater Bay Area as well as an innovative highland:With the planning combining with the superior ecological environment of Gushan Mountain and Taojiang River, the city will improve the industrial structure, public services and commercial facilities and develop modern business, headquarters economy, talent cultivation, creative entrepreneurship and ecological tourism. Combined with the planning of the Greater Bay Area, it will construct a high-tech innovation zone, an area gathering high-end elements, a waterfront ecological zone with “one river and two banks”, and a leisure and recreation zone in Gushan Mountain to create a preferred place for industrial transfer from the Greater Bay Area.
Construct a landscape belt with the characteristic of “one river and two banks” as well as a beautiful and ecological city with mountains and rivers:Promote the comprehensive development of tourism and explore the landscape and cultural resources on both sides of Taojiang River. Taking Taojiang River as the central axis, designers need to create a landscape belt with the characteristic of “a river and two banks” and finally form a tourism axis. A modern ecological High-Speed Rail New Town needs to be planned to create a high-quality urban environment with mountains and rivers for introducing industries and talents.
Improve the future integration of industry and city, and construct High-Speed Rail New Town as a new model of transit-oriented city:The planning needs to consider the connection with the current urban space, industry as well as the long-term development space. High-Speed Rail New Town shall be planned by means of regional integration, river-city integration and transit-oriented development.
Xinfengxi Railway Station
Taojiang River
Wetland park on the north bank of Taojiang River
The South Bank of Taojiang River
Gushan Mountain Scenic Area
The Jiading Old Bridge on Taojiang River
Gushan Mountain and Old Town
Project overview
Xinfeng is known as “the Hometown of Navel Oranges in China”, with a beautiful natural ecological environment and the superior ecological structure of “three mountains and two rivers surrounding the city”. The 8-km-long ecological shoreline along Taojiang River is an important ecological showcase area of the city. High-Speed Rail New Town is located in the south of Xinfeng County, which will be an important area for the future development of the main urban area of Xinfeng.
Conceptual Planning Scope: The total area is about 2064.08 hectares. The area is enclosed by Nation Highway 105 (East) in the east, Daqing-Guangzhou Expressway in the west, Nation Highway 105 (South) in the south and Gushan Mountain Area in the north.
Urban Design Scope: The total area is about 1095.86 hectares (including 117.55-hectare water body area of Taojiang River). Urban Design Scope includes the ecological shoreline of about 8 km on both sides of Taojiang River, the reservoir area within Gushan Mountain Area, the area north of Taojiang River enclosed by Ganzhou-Shenzhen High-Speed Railway, Xinxiong Avenue, Yingbin Avenue and Yanjiang Avenue and the area within about 0.5 km from the southern bank of Taojiang River.
Conceptual Planning Scope and Urban Design Scope of the Project
Partition Map of High-Speed Rail New Town
The project site includes Taojiang River and its ecological shoreline on both sides, the area north of Taojiang River, the area south of Taojiang River and Gushan Mountain area. The spatial structure and infrastructure of the site need to be improved. The ecological wetland on the northern bank of Taojiang River has been completed. A number of important landmarks, transportation buildings and cultural buildings have been put into use in the area north of Taojiang River, but there is still a large area in need of planning and construction. The area south of Taojiang River is currently undeveloped and remains as a long-term development site. Currently the area south of Taojiang River is dominated by a large amount of farmland, private houses and national public welfare forests.
https://720yun.com/t/44vkbqr7rpb?scene_id=94220698Panorama of High-Speed Rail New Town (Taken at an altitude of about 250 meters above Xinfeng Bridge, Xinfeng County):https://720yun.com/t/44vkbqr7rpb?scene_id=94220698
Construction Situation within High-Speed Rail New Town
Location of Construction Projects within High-Speed Rail New Town
Transportation Planning within High-Speed Rail New Town
Competition rules
The competition adopts the method of open solicitation, divided into three phases: Open Application Phase, Schematic Design Competition Phase and Final Presentation Phase. (During Schematic Design Phase, the co-organizers will organize a mid-term presentation, in the form of online presentation. The shortlisted teams need to submit their design proposals and make a mid-term presentation to the host.)
Open Application Phase
Each applicant should submit only 1 concept proposal. Pre-qualification Review Committee shall review application materials submitted by the participating teams including the concept proposal, experience of the chief designer and the team (Open Review), and comprehensively determine 6 shortlisted proposals without ranking to enter the next phase by voting. 2 alternative proposals with ranking will also be determined.
Design Competition Phase
The shortlisted teams submit complete conceptual design according to relevant requirements. Only 1 design for each team (consortium) shall be submitted. Scheme Review Committee shall evaluate the design schemes (Open Review), and fully listen to opinions of the host, then determine 3 ranked winning proposals and 3 unranked Excellence Awards by voting. (Before the scheme review meeting, a mid-term presentation will be organized in the form of online presentations, in which the shortlisted teams will submit their design proposals and make a mid-term presentation to the host.)
Final Presentation Phase
The top 3 of the shortlisted teams will enter Final Presentation Phase. The host shall choose one of the teams to be responsible for follow-up work to optimize the planning and design scheme.
The competition results will be announced on project homepage and other platforms after confirmation by the host, for 3 working days.
Application requirements
Applicants must be domestic or overseas legally registered companies or organizations. Two or more legal persons, parent companies, wholly-owned subsidiaries and their holding companies with the same legal representative shall be regarded as the same applicant and shall not apply for the competition at the same time.
There is no qualification requirement. Design teams composed of professionals in urban planning and design, landscape design, architectural design, positioning strategyare encouraged.
Consortium is accepted, withno more than 3 members (1 leading member+ 2 members). Consortium members shall sign the Consortium Agreement legally and specify the leading member and work distribution. Each member in the consortium shall not apply for the competition alone or participate in another consortium in other names with other enterprises or institutions.
Foreign enterprises or institutions that do not have branches or staff in China must form a consortium with domestic design institutions to participate in the international competition.
Individual or team of individuals are not accepted.
Designers participating in this international competition should be the registered staff of the application company. The chief designer should be a designer who has led several projects of the same type and must be truly responsible for the project. The chief designer should participate in the whole process of this international competition including but not limited to the site visit, Q&A sessions and scheme reporting (including video conference). If it is found that the chief designer does not match with the person submitted in the application materials during the international competition, the host has the right to cancel the qualification. In order to ensure that the designers have an accurate understanding of the background and relevant requirements of this international competition, at least one of the main designers should be a native Chinese speaker.
Competition bonus
For each shortlisted applicant, if the deliverables are determined by the Scheme Review Committee as meeting the design requirements of the competition, the host will pay the corresponding bonus (tax inclusive) according to the ranking results determined by the Scheme Review Committee as follows:
1 Winner, award of RMB 3,600,000 (tax inclusive) (about US$534,900), including 300,000 (about US$44,500) for the service fee which shall be paid by the winner to the co-organizer (tax inclusive)
1 Second Prize, award of RMB 2,300,000 (tax inclusive) (about US$341,700).
1 Third Prize, award of RMB 1,800,000 (tax inclusive) (about US$267,400).
3 Excellence Awards, each award of RMB 1,300,000 (tax inclusive) (about US$193,100).
The fee for follow-up integration and optimization work is RMB 2,000,000 (tax inclusive) (about US$297,100).
Pre-registration
The official announcement of this competition will be issued in late May. We welcome all design teams to pre-register. If interested, please scan the QR code or visit the link below to fill out pre-registration information. The pre-registration deadline is 17:00, May 23, 2022 (UTC+8). We will inform pre-registers by email once the official announcement is released.
The project homepage will provide documents for download and updated information of the competition such as Q&A and addendum.
The announcement is published on AIMIR’s website now. If you want to know more following details regarding to this competition, please feel free to contact AIMIR. What’s more, you’re more than welcome to touch base with us if you need architectural visualization.
MKD Design Studio is a Shenzhen based architectural design studio which delivers unique design solutions and creative contents leading in the market trends in China and across the globe. Jeremie, the founder of MKD, was looking for a reliable CGI team to create 3D renderings for one of his latest projects.
The project is a set of three villas and the round-shape building in a mountain plot. It is a project which had been shortlisted in a vacation house competition in Huizhou, China. Because he had a bad experience working with a team, Jeremie was looking for a CGI team who were able to deliver stunning visual language to the tenderee.
3D image done by the previous team. Jeremie doesn’t like all of them.
As a result, our 3D images helped Jeremie to win the competition. Today, we’d like to share the story behind this tranquil getaway house in the woods of Huizhou.
Before Production
Jeremie is a professional and well-organized architect, because the information and materials he sent was just amazing. He really knows how to brief.
What we need to start a 3D rendering project immediately:
Design: CAD plan, 3D model, or concept sketch.
Camera angles if decided. We are happy to suggest some if not.
Reference images.
The way to deal with surrounding context if exists.
Texture and material boards.
Landscape plan.
Other supporting information and materials.
In fact, our team is able to start the project with the model only. Other materials can be sent through later. However, if all of the above materials can be provided, we can start the creation immediately!
What Jeremie shared in the first place:
3D model: Rhino model to be transferred into 3ds Max.
Camera angle: Six confirmed views by Jeremie.
Site photos for photo-composition: When it came to the way of dealing with the surrounding context, Jeremie decided to use real site photos instead of other methods. In this way, the natural scenery would be presented in a real and vivid way. So he took the photos with the view he wanted the building to be demonstrated.
Reference images: A bunch of 3D images were sent through for us to study the effect he was after.
Previously-done images that he doesn’t like.
Now, let’s begin the production!
During Production
#1 Model Confirmation
Basically, we will fine-tune the model and screenshot the desired camera angles, and then share them with you for confirmation. In this stage, a Model Stage Confirmation Letter is required to sign before moving forward to the next stage.
It is totally understandable that you want to revise the design a bit sometimes. But this letter guarantees both you and AIMIR’s rights by confirming the model first.
For this project, we carefully fine-tuned the model, found the camera angles, and sent them to Jeremie for confirmation.
#2 Texture, Material and Lighting
We asked Jeremie if he had a material board for the building, and also the preferred mood for each view. Jeremie organized them promptly.
Not only the mood for each view was provided relatively, but also the materials of the building and the landscaping were clearly listed. This is a perfect example of how to give reference information. Thank you Jeremie!
After we processed the model with the instructions received, it was time for renderings and post-production.
#3 Rendering and Post-production
At AIMIR, we sometimes combine these two stages together in 3D rendering working process. This is because if we send an image with rendered effect but without post-production, most clients will feel weird at first sight.
Because Jeremie didn’t want any people involved in the scene, we needed to pay all of our attention to perfectly demonstrate the relationship between the building and nature.
Some comments from Jeremie.
The Final Delivery
In 9 days, Jeremie and us worked together and got the final images on time. We were so glad to hear that the competition went well. He is such a lovely client to work with. We really love working with him. Now, let’s enjoy these villas in the woods.
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Three months later, Jeremie brought us another project. It was an interior project for a luxury apartment in Guangzhou. We will share the story with you soon.
Are you looking for a reliable CGI team to visualize your vision? No matter it is for getting approval by authority, or for entering a competition, or marketing your property, AIMIR is here to help! Founded in 2006, we are a professional architectural visualization consultant for architects, designers, real estate developers and manufacturers. Talk to us about your exciting project now at info@aimircg.com, and we will bring your structure to life!
