If you are looking at one or more renderings for your exciting project, there might be one issue bothering you occasionally: What should I do about the surrounding context? If you’ve been paying attention to rendering works for a while, you may notice that there are various ways to deal with this issue. AIMIR has a couple of articles concerning this issue, which published in January 2019and August 2020. Today, we will bring this topic to the public and discuss it again with our experience and works gained during the past years.
What is the best surrounding context for your project? Let’s get to know all four methods and then take it from there.
1. Grey massing / blocks
Workload and expected time consumed: ★★★
Additional cost: ★★
Accuracy: 50%-80% of the original site
Recommend: ★★★
As one of the most common methods, using grey massing requires less time and work and in some cases, the rough model can be achieved in a short period of time. There are two ways of gray massing:
Simple grey blocks, to show the surrounding context.
Rough model blocks, to show the surrounding buildings’ rough structure, height, windows, etc. without specific details.
Of course, the rough modeling is more time-consuming and costs more than the pure grey blocks.
2. Using models from existing library
Workload and expected time consumed: ★★
Additional cost: No additional cost
Accuracy: 20%-40% of the original site
Recommend: ★★★★
Refer to the street layout and density of the surrounding in the Google map, but use the existing models from our library. The most similar buildings will be selected and put in the backdrop according to the google map.
3. Photo composition
Workload and expected time consumed: ★★
Additional cost: No additional cost
Accuracy: 100% of the original site
Recommend: ★★★★★
It’s a highly recommended method for clients who are after 100% veracity of the original site. With its amazing effect and easy-to-operate, photo-matching is the fastest way of getting the ideal results. It will require you to provide the drone high-resolution images that match the same camera angle and mood as the renderings.
4. Modeling
Workload and expected time consumed: ★★★★★
Additional cost: ★★★★★
Accuracy: 99%-100% of the original site
Recommend: ★
This is a complicated way of presenting the surrounding context of your project. To model the surroundings exactly based on the google map, which requires your side to provide the high-resolution images of each building. It is nearly 100% accurate as of the original site, but it is the most time-consuming and costly method at the same time. Normally, we don’t suggest using this method especially in high density city center or any other special needs.
Shortcut
If you are looking at the most efficient way within an urgent deadline, photo composition and grey modeling are the best choices.
If you are looking at the veracity of the original site, photo composition and modeling are the best choices.
If you have a limited budget, using our library is a good choice. You can go with photo composition for more accuracy of the site, but there are certain requirements for the photo and normally they are taken by professional photographers, which in turn is another cost.
Of course, there are also cases of combining these methods which can include grey masses and photo composition, photo composition and modelling, or modelling and grey masses. This blended option can be a great choice for those who are looking for cost-effective solutions or who need balance of the whole image rather than highlighting the main building design.
This is a typical example of using photo composition and grey masses. The photo makes the site real, and the grey masses of tall buildings nearby assist the project stand out.
Have you found the best solution for your upcoming project? AIMIR is here to help anytime! Please feel free to contact AIMIR at info@aimircg.com or comment below.
How to make your design impressive and eye-catching? This is a long-lasting issue that many architects are striking to find an answer. Photorealistic 3D rendering helps the architect to communicate their design in a visible way and present the future property in already existing surroundings. This is a long list. But how to choose the right backdrop, especially in the aerial view, is the topic we will talk about today. Now, let me ask you a question, have you ever struggled in handling the surrounding context when you’re making an aerial view? If this problem crossed your mind, this article will have the answer to your question.
In many years of making 3D architectural visualization, AIMIR has collected many commonly asked questions in the rendering process, and write this article based on our expertise and experience. Here is the previous article that introduces the 4 ways of handling the surrounding context,4 Methods of Dealing With Context Buildings In Architectural Visualization. It will give you a basic idea of how we often dealing with the surrounding. But in order to make things more understandable, we add more details and make some improvements. Read up to find out!
How to choose?
I am sure after reading the article above, you already have a rough idea of what’s the difference of the surrounding context. Next, we’re prepared a chart with details and recommend level for each solution, which may be helpful for you to decide what’s best for your project.
Photo composition
Using existing Building from the library
Rough model
Modeling based on google Map
Recommend level
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
♦ ♦ ♦
not recommended
Description
It’s a highly recommended method for its amazing effect and easy-to-operate. It will require you to provide the drone high-resolution images that match the same camera angle and mood as the renderings.
Refer to the street layout and density of the surrounding in the Google map, but use the existing models from our library. We will put the similar buildings in the backdrop according to the google map.
To model the surrounding based on the google map by using the rough model, which will show the building’s rough structure like general structure, windows, doors etc…but without specific detail.
To model the surroundings exactly based on the google map, which requires your side to provide the high-resolution images of each building. It’s a complicated and time-consuming method that will lead to additional fees. Normally, we don’t suggest using this method especially in high density city center.
Workload
♦ ♦
♦ ♦
♦ ♦ ♦
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Working duration
♦ ♦
♦ ♦
♦ ♦ ♦
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Additional Fees
no additional fees
no additional fees
♦ ♦ ♦
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Similarity
100%
20%-30%（just the location and height as same as the google map)
60%-80%（just the location, height, and exterior shape as same as the google map）
100%
Effect
As you can see that the effective and efficient way is photo composition and using the existing model from the library. But if you’re looking for 100% similar to the reality surrounding, the best choice is photo composition. Not only because it reduces the workload but also presents the best visual effect among the other three options. Frankly speaking, the last one is the modeling based on the google map. It will take a long period to complete the surrounding, if you’re working on the masterplan, it might take a month to finish only the surrounding.
Case sharing
Recently, we are working on a complex project. Everything goes well except for the surrounding context of the aerial view. As usual, AIMIR has offered the best option to save our client time and energy. But our client can’t provide the surrounding composition for us due to the expensive drone service and he wants to use the exact same buildings as the reality for the marketing presentation. Finally, we came up with a makeshift to solve this problem.
For the aerial view, we are offering the conjoint ways of rough model + the existing model from our library to handle the surrounding. See the screenshot below: The distant view is using similar buildings from our library, which are placed in the right direction as same as google map yet the building’s shapes are not exactly the same as the real. The close shot is the rough model made based on the Google map. We will model the shape and layout as same as the reality. Our client is very happy about this solution and the final 3D renderings. (Because of the confidentiality of this project, we are not allowed to release the full image.)
distant view
close-up view
The way of handling the surrounding texture caused by many elements that need to be considered and well-executed while complementing it in a perfect way. If you’re interested in our 3D rendering service, warmly welcome you to contact us. We are always flexible to deal with the problem whenever it occurred in the rendering and meet the different demands of our clients.
