A lot of expert 3D rendering projects have similar requirements: create 3D models, apply textures and colors, rendering happens, have some final touch-ups done, and deliver the image. The basic workflow is almost exactly the same regardless of the project, but there can be plenty of different details in each step depending on what the client needs.
Take exterior rendering, for example; one client wants to have a complete aerial view, while another only needs a plain white background. Both projects result in a photorealistic visualization of an exterior, but the latter should be more affordable and quicker because it involves much less work on your part.
Cad Crowd has experience with working with a wide range of projects – big and small – and we understand what it means to find the best balance between quality, budget, and timeline. Let’s take a look at some strategies you can use and how outsourcing 3D rendering projects can give you the boost you need.
🚀 Table of contents
Cut rendering costs
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Whether or not you realize it, there are plenty of opportunities to save money (along with time and energy) in every project. No matter the objectives, chances are you can implement these cost-saving strategies for yourself and your clients.
Define the project outline and strategy ahead of time
The main idea behind having a clear project outline is to avoid doing unnecessary work. You’ll find that taking just enough time (at the beginning of the project) to craft a detailed plan can save you from getting a lot of headaches in the days to come. The outline keeps your workflow organized and streamlined. Furthermore, it helps you realize some project requirements that might not be clearly apparent.
Example: you’re working for a client who wants a complete set of 3D visualizations services for a product page. The client specifies that the set should include multiple static renderings and an interactive product viewer. If the static renderings include six images (viewed from the front, back, right side, left side, top, and bottom), it seems like you only need to stitch them together for the viewer. As you create the project outline, you come to realize that the product viewer must use full rotation, so the object can be seen from just about every angle, including the corners. Thanks to the outline, you can now manage the workload better; as in, you can plan for the viewer while working on the static renderings. A more manageable workload means quicker completion time and an overall better cost-efficiency.
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Make a list of everything required for the final image
Think about the image format, resolution, and viewing angles for the final image. Having a clear vision of the final image can help you identify potential cost-saving strategies during the modeling, texturing, and UV mapping works. Let’s say a client wants to have some close-up shots of a furniture product. This means you need to get all the details right with the materials, carvings, wood grain, fabrics, and even nailheads. All of those require extra work during the modeling process. If the client has no need for close-up shots, you can spend less time creating details on the 3D models. And at the end of the day, the rendering should cost less money as well.
Example: a product visualization project needs several renderings to showcase the object in different color variations. Each of them needs to show the object in a specific combination of finishes and colors. The client mentions that the final images will be placed in the corner of the scene, so they’re pretty far away from the camera position. Since there are no close-ups to focus on the finer details of the object, you can afford to create fewer texture maps and spend less time on modeling virtual materials. Furthermore, the lack of close-up views allows you to use a “medium” quality render setting – as opposed to an optimum one – to save time and cost, without sacrificing quality.
Work on similar tasks first
Now that you’ve defined the project outline and listed everything you need for the final images, it’s time to group similar tasks based on their categories. When you’re working with a 3D rendering service from scratch, you have no option but to shift to different mindsets as you go through the workflow stages. The most common groupings would look like this: 3D modeling, UV mapping and texturing, rendering, and post-processing.
You’re not focusing on textures when you build the 3D models, and you couldn’t care less about lighting when applying textures. You may have to switch between software packages as you progress, so the grouping helps you stay focused on the immediate tasks at hand. This forces you to actually complete a big portion of the job before moving to another. Grouping similar tasks brings about the sense of accessible workflow, preventing you from wasting too much time going back and forth between different phases of the project.
Example: let’s just say you’re hired to do a rendering project for a brand-new product. The client’s marketing team wants you to deliver a dozen renderings. Half of them are based on different prototype models, and the other half are reserved for the final production version. The first phase has to go through a rather cumbersome and lengthy process of submission, refinements, revisions, and approvals for each model. The client ends up paying $50 per render, mostly due to the modeling complexities. Now that the final version is ready, you need to deliver the remaining six images. But since these renderings are all based on the same model, your workflow is more manageable as you can group similar tasks together for all images. The project is much more time-efficient now, and the client ends up paying $35 per render.
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Take the 90% rule as a guideline
No matter what software you use, the hard truth is that 3D rendering can’t reach perfect lifelike quality in many cases, especially for large architectural objects or natural sceneries even for large architectural firms; it’s always either lacking or over-the-top. It might not be a problem for small objects like a tree, a rock, a glass of milk, a smartphone, etc. But when all those objects are put together in the same frame, complexities arise in terms of lighting, shadows, perspectives, reflections, and so forth. At some point in your rendering workflow, the amount of time and effort you put into the imagery becomes no longer effective. It’s as if you’re trying to improve something that’s already as good as it’ll ever be.
You might as well stop just as soon as you reach the 90% photo-realism mark. Any attempt to improve the rendering beyond that point will probably take a much larger investment no client is willing to consider. Unless you’re working as a CGI professional on the next Hollywood blockbuster, no one really cares if the fabrics in the upholstery don’t shine as much as they should.
Example: it’s not a secret that cloth is a challenging material to render. It has a depth of texture quality and comes with subtle reflective properties. In a close-up rendering, most artists will focus on the stitching and seam lines to create easily noticeable focal points and distract the audience from the tiny imperfections. You should be able to deliver a 90% realism for around $200; to get the next 10%, however, you might have to charge the client 5x higher, because you need to work 5x as hard to achieve it. For practical purposes, the additional 10% isn’t worth the extra investment. It takes away a big chunk of the work on your part, and helps the client save money.
Make use of CGI library
Most expert 3D modelers and render artists are paid on an hourly basis. If you can finish the job sooner than expected, the client gets more affordable prices, and you can move on to the next project quickly as well. One of the most time-consuming tasks in a 3D rendering workflow is the modeling part, especially if you have to build the model from scratch. But this isn’t always the case. When the circumstances allow, you can use (purchase) ready-made models from 3D assets marketplaces at affordable rates. Of course, you still have to modify them to make unique pieces. Modeling might take you 3–4 days for a relatively simple object, but purchasing a low-quality model and then improving it to good quality can cut the workload to a great deal.
Example: a new client asks you to build a rendering of a kitchen. The final image must include all the appliances, lighting, fixtures, a countertop, a cutlery set, and so forth. It should come as no surprise that there are hundreds if not thousands of 3D assets out there for all the things typically found in a kitchen. If you have to create every model, from knives and glasses to cabinetry and appliances, it’ll take at least a week just to get the first phase of the project done. 3D assets marketplaces have all the models ready for you. Some are high quality, while others are barely passable; each is priced accordingly. Pick a good balance between cost and quality so you don’t have to spend too much time on improving it, yet you still come up with 3D models of respectable quality. Some marketplaces even sell ready-made 3D scenes.
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But how is it made?
While no two CGI renderings are exactly the same, the workflow almost always goes along the same steps.
Gain through understanding of the brief: an effective way to ensure time efficiency (and also reduce production cost) is to learn all the information provided by the client in detail. This is where you can properly estimate how complex the project will be and how long it will take to finish everything. Accordingly, you’ll be able to determine how much to charge the client because a more intricate project costs more money.
Create the geometry: whether you’re making a CGI for a small desk or an entire residential area, you need the 3D modeling services first. You build a grayscale model (sometimes also referred to as a clay model). Your focus should be on dimension, shape, and proportion. Everything else, including textures and colors, are not the main concerns here. Grayscale models are your first deliverables. You present the “textureless and colorless” models to the client for approval before moving forward to the next phase. Ideally, you build several models to showcase the object from different viewing angles. If the client wants revisions, you make the required changes and resubmit the models until the client gives the green light to proceed.
Every revision means a delay in completion. Not to mention, you need to spend more time working on the same models twice or more. The good thing is that you can minimize the possibility of having to revise the model multiple times by, once again, gaining a good understanding of the project brief in the first place.
Apply textures and colors: now that the grayscale models are approved, it’s time to apply textures and colors. But you can’t just slap some assets onto the surface of the models. You need to do some UV mapping first. Basically, you divide the surface (of the model) into multiple elements; each element must be “unwrapped” or transformed into a flat plane. And then, you apply the textures or materials and colors as needed. Doing it on a flat plane makes sure that the surfaces are laid evenly so you get realistic-looking patterns.
Add lighting: the whole point of rendering is to make a computer-generated image as realistic as possible. To do that, of course, you need to add some lighting as well. This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to paint lights and shadows on the image. Instead, the rendering software usually offers various settings for light directions, angles, sources (natural or artificial), and intensity. Remember that some materials and surfaces interact with light in their own distinctive ways. For example, glass is translucent, so it refracts and reflects a certain amount of light. Solid objects with shiny surfaces, such as polished metals or wood, can have reflective characteristics to an extent as well.
Render the image: once the models are ready and the lighting is configured, the actual rendering begins. It’s a fully-automated process with minimum user input. Rendering software can create a single static image or a series of images in rapid succession to create the illusion of motion.
Post-production: The rendering process can take anywhere from just a few minutes for a simple image or many hours for a complex one. When the rendering is done, the only thing left to do is to enhance the visuals through post-processing services. Compared to modeling, post-processing involves relatively simple tasks like adjusting the contrast, hue, saturation, etc. The idea is to make the image look vibrant without losing its photo-realism effect.
3D photorealistic rendering services itself comes with several different methods, such as real-time and ray-tracing, and each can affect the final image quality.
Cad Crowd can help
There are many aspects of a 3D rendering project where you can improve cost-efficiency without sacrificing quality. Just because you provide rendering services at affordable rates, it doesn’t necessarily mean you deliver poorly executed visualizations. Reducing cost isn’t always about cutting corners, but making the most of every penny. And if you’re a client looking for quality 3D rendering services, look no further than Cad Crowd, where thousands of independent, talented, professional render artists offer custom services for every budget.
Give Cad Crowd a call today to get your free quote.
