As the name suggests, a walkthrough is an act of walking through an environment. In the case of 3D walkthrough animation, the audience goes on a journey to have a better view of an architectural project like a house or building of any sort. The main purpose is to give the client a better view of the object in its entirety, including the interior. For a walkthrough animation to be effective, it needs to highlight the living space inside the house, and it must be designed to let the audience enjoy everything from multiple points of view.
It is a virtual demonstration of the architectural design, created so that clients and investors can capture the overall atmosphere of the structure as well as the surrounding environment. Professional architectural design services may use premium CAD software to generate 3D renderings of a system seen from multiple viewing angles. Renderings can be still images that depict the living space and surrounding areas in a hyper-realistic fashion. Private property owners may take advantage of the same method and use it as an advertising piece.
Developers in search of investors will need convincing material to secure funding, and 3D walkthrough animations certainly fit the bill. Not every homeowner and developer is skilled enough to use CAD software and create the renderings on their own. That’s why they need professional services.
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What a 3D walkthrough animation can do
While people may not need an elaborate reason to like something, they will often second-guess themselves before purchasing. This is where a 3D walkthrough comes in. It provides a clear overview of the commodity on offer with a very detailed visual representation. Although this is only a digital file, a walkthrough gives clients a better understanding of what they’re going to get. A significant part of that judgment is comprised of the following components.
Strong appeal to emotions
Despite a client’s best attempt to make a sensible purchasing decision, their final say is heavily affected by emotions. A well-crafted 3D walkthrough animation evokes the experience of living inside the house surrounded with sets of furniture pieces, lighting, bathroom fixtures, kitchen appliances, and the colors of the walls. Architectural 3D modeling services can even use an animation that contains some contextual elements yet to be constructed. The possibilities are endless, which is a good thing because every client has a personal preference.
Contextual elements may include a playground complete with toys, a living room equipped with a full-blown home theater; an outdoor swimming pool with slides on the sides; bathrooms with modern or minimalistic design, and so on. Animation contains moving objects, so the walkthrough may feature a vehicle exiting a garage or a sprinkler system in action.
An Interesting neighborhood
The neighborhood where a building is located is also a selling point. One can say that a house is part of a neighborhood, but it’s also true that a neighborhood comes with the house. If a client eventually decides to purchase the house, then the same client becomes a part of that neighborhood. People buy houses not only for the design—the address is equally important.
They can order a house to be constructed in a certain architectural style, yet it’s nearly impossible to ask for a specific layout of the neighborhood. The architectural planning and design service can show people engaging in various activities around the residential complex. For example, families playing in the park, parents taking their kids to school, security officers on guard, public transportation, or people having lunch.
Realistic virtual experience
Having a 3D walkthrough as a form of product presentation takes clients on a virtual journey filled with a hyper-realistic representation of the architectural project. Part of the experience is to be inside the house—and in some cases—interacting with outside objects. In the hands of a professional, a 3D walkthrough animation can give clients a near realistic experience of being inside the house as if they’re on a tour.
An architectural animation artist can build an animation either from scratch or based on an existing design, even if the house has not been built yet. Clever usage of various viewing angles delivers the kind of footage that looks like it was recorded by a proficient camera operator. An animation can even clearly show certain corners that would otherwise be tricky to shoot. It helps a great deal if the animation also contains realistic sounds for moving objects, such as running water, closing/opening a garage door, flicked lighting switches, door bells, wind chimes, and so on.
Lasting first impression
There is no denying that a 3D animation is visually appealing, which ensures a powerful first impression. An effective presentation lingers on a client’s mind. It makes them talk about the content over and over again, even long after the walkthrough is over. Assuming clients are impressed the first time, chances are they will remember the experience for a long time. Just like a video recording, a 3D walkthrough animation is a digital file. If necessary, each client may take a copy in case they want to view it again.
Saving the file on the cloud is even more practical. Each time they play the animation, they once again feel the same emotion and experience. A professional 3D modeling service can make the animation as simple (or complex) as you need. It can be a straightforward video or one with a detailed explanation of each section. Some actually prefer creating VR experiences that clients can play on their own devices.
Why hire professionals
Once the walkthrough is ready, it’s easy to operate. You can just play it and let the animation do all the work. The process of creating the 3D animation is, however, not as simple. Unless you’re an adept CG artist or have a team of animators, it’s best to hire a professional 3D architectural visualization service for the job. Hiring an experienced service can bring many advantages that are worth every penny.
Quality animation
Thankfully, there are dozens (if not hundreds) of services willing to help you build a 3D walkthrough animation for all sorts of purposes, including architectural projects. With an abundant supply of skilled CG artists, you are provided with some great options in every price range. For the artists, on the other hand, the competition is fierce. Professionals now use only the best software to ensure a superior quality product. A reputable artist always tries to put their best foot forward to impress every client.
Quicker turnaround time
It all depends on the size of the project, but having a professional CAD design service working for you allows for better time management. Because someone else is working on the animation, you have the time and energy to work on other aspects of the architectural project. The team may still contact you for input and approval, but it takes much less time compared to having to create the animation yourself. Even if you have confidence that the team knows what they’re doing, an important characteristic of professionalism is that they invite you to the table.
Cost saving
As always, outsourcing is an effective method to save money when you don’t have an in-house team to get the necessary task done on time. Instead of hiring several employees and keeping them on your payroll, a project-based 3D walkthrough animation service is a cost-efficient workaround. There are no overhead expenses.
Flexible marketing tool
Assuming you have multiple architectural projects in progress, and each is not that much different from the other, you can create animations for all of them using a single base file. This is an over simplification of the process, but the principle remains.
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An animation is created from scratch and possibly modified every now and then. Rather than creating a new 3D walkthrough for every architectural project, it perhaps is easier to alter the existing digital file. And if you work with the same service as before, the task gets much simpler as well.
Higher profitability
Now that you have lower overhead expenses and flexible marketing tools on your hands, the profit margin for every project also increases.
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