“How can you guarantee the quality of your works?” probably is one of the most frequently asked questions when our project managers are exploring the possibility of working with architects and designers. The quality of the 3D rendering works should be the top concern for anyone who uses this service. Quality is all about what the client gets out and is willing to pay for. In the architectural visualization industry, there is one more concern that the quality should not only be “good” but also be “consistent”. This is because the majority of the Architectural Visualization projects request more than one images.
As a professional architectural visualization studio started from 2006, AIMIR deeply understands that our clients’ satisfaction differentiates our brand from our competitors, lower the bar to collaboration, and gives our clients a sense of confidence in our services.
So, what is AIMIR’s Quality Control system? How does it guarantee our services and works? Today we’d like to share our comprehensive quality control system which help guarantee our services and protect our clients.
AIMIR’s Services
First things first, you need to get an idea of what we provide before knowing how to guarantee you during and after the process.
AIMIR is a professional Architectural Visualization studio founded in 2006. We are a team of highly creative individuals delivering realistic visualization solutions for architect, designers, real estate agents, developers and constructors. Despite the wide range of ArchViz, we typically offer:
3D Rendering Services;
3D Animation Services;
Virtual Reality Services;
360 Virtual House Tours;
Interior Rendering Services;
Exterior Rendering Services;
2D/3D Floor Plans;
3D Modeling Services;
3D Product Rendering Services.
With so many visualization services, we’ve built a strict and conscientious quality control system. In this way, we’ve delivered over 8,500 projects to the world and reached over 98% client satisfaction from 2006.
AIMIR’s Quality Control System
In 2006, we created the quality control system to guarantee our services and works. The system was gradually improved and completed a couple of years after. We’re confident to say this QC system has been tested and is able to cope with various situations. Of course, we will keep refining and improving it when we confront with more situations in the future.
In the following paragraphs, we’ll introduce the QC system from these aspects:
Quality control during production;
After delivery services;
Free-trial system;
Regular internal reviews.
Let’s start from the first one and see what we do to guarantee the quality during production.
#1. Quality Control During Production
As we all know, there is no standard quality measuring tool to assess a 3D visualization work. Or, let’s put it another way, most 3D teams have their own unique styles. However, there are still some key factors determining a “good” visual. The general judging rules of details, composition and creativity are just a start. There are more to learn in our blog Eight Ways to Spot a Good Rendering.
At AIMIR , no matter big or small scale, each project has a project team when the project starts. In the team, there is a project manager who is in charge of the overall project progress; a team of 3D artists who take care of your project production; and a production director who will supervises and manages all facets of the production process.
QC during production network.
The above image shows clearly how the project manager, 3D artists, and production director collaborate with each other and respond to the client during production. As you can see, when a client comments on the work, it won’t go to 3D artists directly. What happens is that our project manager sorts out the comments – normally there won’t just be one – and send them to the 3D team.
To guarantee the comments are seen and revised, 3D artists have internal check before sending back the visuals. And the production director is there from the beginning to end to supervise the production and give advice when necessary.
#2. After Delivery Services
Final delivery of the project is not the end. We never disappear and reject to reply emails after a project is completed. Actually, we understand the nature of architectural design industry that the design may need to change. At the same time, we love to maintain a long-term partnership with our clients rather than one-time collaboration.
With this in mind, we’ve developed our after delivery services, namely:
Summary of the project;
After the final delivery of each project, the project manager summarize the process of the project from both the good and bad sides. In general, the project manager goes through the whole project process and comes up with what we did to help this project and what we need to improve next time.
Survey of the experience;
Meanwhile, our clients may take the chance to fill a Client Satisfaction Survey. It is a survey that they can rate our service and provide any possible feedbacks. In the survey, we collect different aspects of feedbacks, such as the communication, attitude, integrity of the works, delivery performance, and many other factors.
AIMIRers deeply believe the quality feedbacks can enable a company to continuously improve service quality and client satisfaction by encouraging clients to complain. If a client experiences a service failure and does not say anything, we have no knowledge of the problem at all. And not only does a company have an unhappy client, it also have no idea that a problem exists. This is why we encourage our clients to voice.
By summarizing the project progress, we learn what improvement needs to be done. And by taking the survey, our clients have the window to voice the happy and unhappy experiences. This in turn help us to realize the undiscovered issues.
#3. Free-Trial System
As one of the oldest tricks in the marketing textbook, offering a free-trial still holds a good chance to influence the clients, in particular, in the 3D visualization industry. Unlike the FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods), 3D rendering services has its unique and unreplicable final works that differentiate one project from another. Therefore, it is not easy to just browse the portfolio or reference works and make the final decision.
We fully understand this, and that’s why we introduce a free-trial system. This is for some new clients who haven’t worked with us before, and are hesitating whether we’re able to create the idea CGI works for their project. If our clients are satisfied with our services during the trial period, they’re ready to pay for the full service and will bring new projects in the future on a regular basis. And that’s exactly what we want to see, because again, we hope to collaborate with long-term partners that trust each other.
#4. Internal Reviews
Review is always the best way to look back over the past for evaluation. In order to achieve the best result and keep our team at the same page, we hold regular reviews.
Monthly Review.
Every month, our 3D artists and project managers sit down and go through any possible issues from the past month. In the meeting, most of the topics are about the difficulties during the production of projects. And it is a great opportunity for 3D artists and project managers to open communicate any questions.
Emergency Internal Reviews for a Particular Project
This is not a regular thing. We only have this kind of review meetings when irregularity. For example, an emergency happens due to a project, and the problem is over the capacity of a project manager. At the time, the project manager, 3D team, and team leader will sit in a room brainstorming a solution.
Actually, we also have reviews with our clients and partners. It’s usually on a yearly basis. We love our clients and partners to help us improve and keep our architectural visualization works quality.
Conclusion
This is a general introduction of AIMIR’s quality control system. It helps erase the concerns of our future clients and guarantee the quality of our services from 360 degree. At the same time, we are ready to face any future challenges (because time changes and problem arises) and perfect this system to guide our clients a safe, fast, and quality 3D architectural visualization experience.
If you are interested in talking about our quality control or 3D rendering services, please contact us and we’ll get back to you within 12 hours!
A year and a half ago, AIMIR published a blog discussing both merits and disadvantages between freelancers and 3D rendering company. Since the subjects are changed from what’s themed then, this article would be analyzing the Pros and Cons between the in-house team and outsourced CG companies. Hopefully, you can conclude with the best choice for your own company.
AIMIR itself has established a public image as a professional CG company and service supplier and has successfully served a great number of clients who also internally own their in-house visualizers and technical team. Years of experience working with them has rendered us aware of something much deeper. Basically, we’ve come to the conclusion that general situations that drive people to outsource projects can be listed as: the small scale of the in-house team, lack of available professionals, limitations in streamlining the working process, and poor project management. The worse part could be the ever-changing recruited visualizers, who may differ tremendously incompetence and therefore, trigger quality fluctuation.
Judging from the above, AIMIR as a professional 3D rendering company, becomes a better alternative and the merits are self-evident. To break it down:
First and foremost, CG companies have developed their own managing system which narrates a clear division of work between team members, who are also closely linked by active communication. Apart from such a working environment, AIMIR has also benefited from its well-tuned working process and methodology that underpin a fine production for every project. To guarantee smooth production, there is at least one project manager, one 3D artist, and one modelist who would be involved in every assigned project.
Secondly, well-established CG companies have stood the test of various projects. This has prepared them with valuable insight into understanding the true needs of the client and resolving issues that emerge during the production. Below is a diagram showcasing AIMIR’s quality control system that’s strictly followed, which greatly secure the quality before sending over the final renderings.
Thirdly, general services and production are of high efficiency. 3D rendering company will provide adaptive solutions such as by doubling manpower or adjusting the schedule flexibly when dealing with urgent projects as well as other issues. To keep the project running 24/7 to make sure 100% on-time delivery. Here is an article that serves as strong evidence to support the efficient workflow inside AIMIR. How AIMIR secures 100% on-time delivery?
Fourthly, outsourcing becomes a must sometimes. Almost 95% of the in-house teams of architectural or design company can’t finish the job when their clients ask for a video walkthrough presentation. Forest Island Animation, one of AIMIR’s individually accomplished projects, successfully wins over our clients’ hearts.
Fifthly, in-house team may be overpaying redundant personnel considering the unsteady project influx. In this case, outsourcing is an effective way to save such cost.
It seems however, CG companies have completely outshone the in-house team. Is there any way that the latter could turn the tide? Well in some aspects, in-house team do boost obvious advantages, if we consider them from the client standpoint:
No time difference; Simultaneous synchronization
Internal real-time/face-to-face communication
No extra charge for capricious modification
Lower cost in paying personnel when the project influx is steady and saturated
What’s covered above is a general analysis of the Pros and Cons between outsourcing and insourcing. Overall speaking, merits and downsides are interconvertible in a specific context. The core mindset is: Weigh the benefits and cost and Choose wisely.
AMIR wish that all clients can witness the smooth progress of their projects, and be captured by the beauty of 3D architectural visualization. If you are looking for a professional CG company, please feel free to contact us a line anytime.
All clients who have cooperated with AIMIR before know how we conduct quality control, and make sure each and every project runs smoothly. We are glad to see a majority of clients choose to continue working with us and we are thrilled to see they are satisfied with our services. But how did we achieve all that? To break it down, we wrote this blog so as to provide some insights for our clients into it, which we believe will even enlighten our peers a little bit.
Before commencing the project
Before we start working on the 3D rendering, we will fully communicate with our clients to understand their specific requirements on quality and detail and judge whether we could fulfill their expectations through elaborate assessment. This is the prerequisite for a smooth delivery. Regarding other details, we will send clients a checklist with regard to the following subjects in order to deepen our understanding of the project:
Views-Confirm the view angles and total amount of renderings
Architecture Design-Confirm the object’s design
Terrain & Site Plan-Confirm the surroundings/context
Landscape-Confirm the landscaping details
Mood and Quality-Confirm the mood and quality
Other Key Information：
Site location– To help us learn the local conditions (climates, vegetation, etc.).
Project function– To help us understand the function of each area.
Use of the images -to understand if it will be used for Marketing, Competition, Report, Bidding, Fundraising, etc.
People– to understand the request of race, clothing, age, and other special requirements
Sun position or direction of light – to understand if the lighting is from Front lighting, side lighting, back lighting, etc.
Design highlights– to understand the main ideas of design. To help us understand what client wants to convey through the renderings.
The aspect ratio of each image – to understand if there is any specific request to apply to 16:9, 4:3, or other sizes etc.
Project ongoing
We will start the 3D renderings basing on the checklist as mentioned above and each round of update will stick to the following crosscheck processes:
Internal Check: Feedback received and sorted out firsthand by the project manager -> 3D artist’s first modification & review->Project manager second review >3D artist’s second modification ->Production director’s final check;
External Check: We will send over Crosscheck file where we go over each comment, marking ‘done’ on corrected ones, and remark unsure revisions if there’s any and then reach out to clients to confirm the uncertain comments as shown in the following picture.
During the process, we will categorize the following situations as anomaly and react accordingly with speed:
– The same comment has shown twice, the project manager will keep a close eye on it, making sure an effective two-way communication between the technical team and clients.
– The same feedback has shown three times or more, the project manager will report this situation to the production director, find the cause, come up with a solution, and clear all confusion;
– Client complaint, the project manager will report this to the production director or CEO, we will hold a/multiple special conferences gathering the technical team members and project managers who in charge of this project, in order to solve clients’ problems precisely.
After the final delivery
After each successful delivery, our CEO will send a Project Survey & Summary to our clients for feedback onthe experience of working with us. On our side, the project manager will sum up this project with its pluses and minuses, analyze them, and come up with an action plan accordingly. The gist is to pave the way for better cooperation in the future as we resolve other similar problems and improve our services.
Not all project can be completed without any hiccups, however, we at AIMIR is not afraid to face them, and we will never evade them. We’ll always live up to our promises and frankly inform things that we couldn’t achieve. The survey will help us spot the problem fast, connect with our client, actively seeking improvements, and work out solutions. After all, satisfying our clients and help them earn a good result is our ultimate goal. It is close scrutiny and consideration of every feedback and team effort that wins us many heartfelt compliments from our clients. Now you should know why many clients choose to work with and offer reorders to us: it’s simply because we are a trustworthy and professional team and handing your projects to us means you can set your heart at rest.
If you like our 3D renderings or intend to work with us, please don’t hesitate to contact us! We are open for further discussion for this topic as well. Let’s talk!
