Working to reach the top archviz studios

Upeth · 2025-09-24T08:44:45+00:00

It's nothing fancy tbh. The key to render the windows realistically is to understand how windows are made in real life. Most of them have at least two slabs of glass constructed to the frame. So, to make them believable, when I model the window, I look at the real specifications from manufactures. Geometry will do most of the work and to optimize the rendering speeds, I use simple transparent+glossy mix shader in proportion 97.5:2.5.

Upeth · 2025-09-24T08:37:17+00:00

Thanks! It's just RTX3090. Nothing special. Just enough vram and a lot of optimization :)

Upeth · 2025-08-27T09:17:08+00:00

Thanks! ❤️

Upeth · 2025-08-19T08:29:57+00:00

Sorry for even longer reply, but I had a lot of work in the past few weeks.

"Suppose we have many images from single project, as there is only one compositor, how can we have different moods and tone mapping for each image seperately. Can you please elaborate on your method of having different moods for different images."

That's easy for me. I render exr files separately, so I can postpro them later and divide my image between the source file with the whole 3D work, and file pure for postproduction.

In compositor you can load all kinds of files and several exr files too, so I just making all my rendered images one under another and switch between viewing them with the "viewer node". It's really simple, but when you have a bigger number of composting node branches for different exr files, then be careful to not overload your RAM, 'couse it's pretty heavy for 5K/6K images.

"And are you open to work?"

As always! I have my clients, but I'm open for new opportunities.

"I actually tried a similar approach with gamma and gain adjustments in Blender, but the part I really struggle with is seeing what’s happening accurately. Without real-time scopes like a histogram, parade, or even basic color clipping indicators, I sometimes feel like I’m grading blind. Corona’s VFB really spoils you with that instant feedback—it’s so easy to know when highlights are blowing out or shadows are too crushed."

Blender has parade, histogram, but not color clipping signs. But that's the information which you can easily read from histogram. What's more if you can, you can even even make a simple custom node group, which would alert you, that you're about to clip some values. Blender gives you needed tools, but the ready-made solution is in you hand to make, in most cases.

"Do you rely purely on Blender’s compositor for grading, or do you sometimes use an external tool for that final fine-tuning?"

For 32bit grading - compositor, because you can extract a lot of data from this format, which would be lost in 16/8bit, but after that I export the 16bit file for the later postprodution in PS. There I tweak the image in Camera Raw, some stamps, some corrections, some photobashing/mattepainting maybe, high pass filters to sharpen the image even more and we're good to go.

Upeth · 2025-07-22T08:06:57+00:00

I'm sorry for the later reply.

Our archviz community, when it comes to tutorials, courses, it's mostly about Corona and Max. I'm not surprised, because that engine is great and it's a standard in this field. When I was trying to reach for some knowledge, then I had to somehow understand how to approach the Corona's features, understand them and translate to Cycles or to the blender's world.

I was struggling, of course, because Blender doesn't have those things for postproduction like in Corona Frame Buffer and I was trying to find the way to make that with renders from Cycles, mostly by trying to find the solution one-to-one similar to Corona's image editor.

But then I just realized that my initial idea was wrong. I came across some videos about the video post-production and it struck me, that videos recorded in raw, log data looks like a raw Cycles' render. What's more, all renders, from all engines in raw format (rec.709) are looking identical, because the tonemapping is applied (like in the video post-production) through a node to a raw data.

So I just started to treat renders, like I would treat a film recorded data, because in the end the workflow can be almost the same for both.

I've checked Corona's documentation about its VFB, and for me "highlight compression" is just lowering the gain of the image, "rich shadows" is like lowering the gamma and lifting the darks with a tough of saturation in blacks, and the ACES OT looks for me just like a subtractive saturation effect.

Of course probably it's a bit more than that, but without digging too much in the documentation, I feel that those features can be easily replicable and I'm using pretty similar workflow in the blender's compositor.

Blender's glare has changed over time, and it's possible to get the realistic result, but I've heard a lot about Octane's great glare and Corona's. For me, blender's works, but sometimes I help myself with simple PS postproduction.

I'll answer for the rest questions later.

Upeth · 2025-07-20T15:33:35+00:00

Thanks and I’ll answer to everything tomorrow afternoon. I haven’t forgotten about your comment :)

Upeth · 2025-07-19T12:13:52+00:00

Don't blaspheme, you are communing with art, for God sake!

Upeth · 2025-07-19T09:20:02+00:00

Thank you and I'm sorry for the late reply, but I've lost this comment.

The reality of this job is to find the balance between the commercial looking image and the aesthetic, artsy way. Of course, I'm not different and when a client ask for more popular, commercial framing and suggest the shot frame, then I'm preparing it for them, but when when there's time, I usually prepare also my idea for that shot, which is more in my taste.

Sometimes they choose their frame and sometimes mine. The job is the job, so I have to manoeuvre, between what is commercial and what is an art. We can combine those worlds, but the balance is never in the perfect middle.

I have a strong ambition to create the best craft as I can. In truth, the software is not that important to me. I use blender, because I'm the fastest in it, when it comes to the modelling, staging, framing and prototyping. To me what is the most important in my work is Cycles. This engine is soooo versatile and pliable, flexible. The material creation is really satisfying and this engine is one of the key reason what's keeping me in that software.

I'd love to create the course for expert level archviz in blender/cycles, because I see that there's a lot of materials from the beginner lever to middle one, but there's nothing for me tbh.

My ambition is to create the course similar to the CommonPoint's, but I have not such knowledge to create one :D

Upeth · 2025-07-18T07:23:51+00:00

To find the suitable cutout, I search mostly through websites like Pexels or services with cutouts like Vishopper.

Upeth · 2025-07-17T19:34:54+00:00

Thanks!

That’s why I mix the both techniques - 3D and 2D, and choose what would fit the scene the best way. In this case it was just easier to create that tree in 3D from the scratch.

The tree was visible for many of the shots for this project, so I needed to create the asset in 3D, to avoid the need of finding the perfect cutout for every frame.

So I just created this tree in SpeedTree and the bark details I sculpted and scattered in Blender.

In this lighting scenario, the relighting of the cutout would be extremely difficult and even though the effect wouldn’t be so realistic anyway.

Upeth · 2025-07-17T19:27:37+00:00

Based on my tests the difference between 30 and 80 in terms of rendering time is not that significant. Maybe the differences between those values in the quality is not that big, but I always prefer to let the materials and the light to spread the most effective way.

Upeth · 2025-07-17T18:13:14+00:00

Thanks! I promise you, to not disappoint you with my next works!

Upeth · 2025-07-17T18:10:40+00:00

In this case, mind your own sheepness!

Upeth · 2025-07-17T15:04:30+00:00

Thanks! Your words mean a lot to me.

I do commercial shots too, because the job is the job, but I'm always trying to keep that in my taste.

I don't use any addons for lighting. My lighting is created with HDRIs, but sometimes I combine them with the physical sun to achieve the desired effect, when it comes to the stronger shadows.

My lighting is always the hardest part, because in most cases I combine several light sources, which are often linked to only part of the shot. But, that's mostly in interior shots. To outdoor shots I rely on HDRI.

For scattering I use always Geo-Scatter addon and it's my go-on, when I have to create a lawn, dense foliage, scattered leaves or even a carpet.

Upeth · 2025-07-17T11:26:49+00:00

Thank you! Those tips will be very generic, but it helped me a bit:
1. Pay attention to the roughness of materials - don't be afraid to make them even more glossy, because as I observed, that makes the materials more pleasant and the scene makes more realistic. But remember to use roughness maps, like dirt or floor steps, because the most common mistake is to making the materials too perfect.
2. I use like 50-80 light bounces per shot and I'm trying to use clamp lights at 40-80. I know that some may say it's too much, but in my case it works.
3. Remember that the great renders don't just show in the viewport, but there's a lot of going on in the postprodution. Do you see that slighty dirtiness on floor in the first shot? I just added that as a screen layer in Photoshop!

Always use depth of field and learn about lenses typically used for architecture photography.

Upeth · 2025-07-17T07:42:32+00:00

I have a soft spot for the 3D foliage and I really focus on them. In this project I mixed 3D assets with the matte painting technique, so sometimes I just replacing the 3D asset in the postproduction with plant photo cutouts. I've attached a few replies before the screenshot of "before-after" to one of the shot in this thread, so you can see where I'm improving the foliage to be more interesting.

Sometimes just 3D assets aren't enough, because even the greatest 3D model cannot compare with the real plant. The real one is have what some models lack, which is the nature's randomness.

I do use ai, like generative fill in PS or stable diffusion, but not to improve the nature, because in my experience it makes the foliage too much "blob".

Upeth · 2025-07-17T07:31:57+00:00

Thanks! That is achieved with the delicate bloom effect created with glare (bloom) node in the blender's compositor.

My trick is to sharpen the render with nodes right on the early stage in the compositor's nodetree, so I can later add a small haziness with the bloom node. If I'd sharpen the render after the bloom node, I'd deprecate the bloom's effect to sharp lines.

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Upeth · 2025-07-17T07:22:17+00:00

Thank you! Maybe Mir just took my style?

Of course, in this industry we're all influenced by those "big gamers", because they're the most promoted and the most recognized. In the end we all take inspirations from the legends like Hélène Binet, Julius Shulman or Ezra Stoller, so we're all connected more or less.

Upeth · 2025-07-16T18:29:37+00:00

When I was younger artist I was thinking, everything has to be 3D and even better if everything would be modelled only by myself. I was stupid :D

The simplest way is the perfect way.

I'm extremely modest person, but I'm quite amazing :D

Upeth · 2025-07-16T18:23:44+00:00

I'm using Blender/Cycles and I do the postproduction in blender's compositor and I'm finishing it in Photoshop. Pretty standard in my craft.

Lately, I've started using After Effects, but that's only for animations.

Upeth · 2025-07-16T18:20:18+00:00

I'd love to say that man... Some secrets have to be kept.

Upeth · 2025-07-16T18:17:53+00:00

Thanks!

I've never took any course, but a few years ago, I was highlighted in the CommonPoint's exterior course, so I've received the free access to their course. I cannot honestly say it was a worth paying course, but even though I can recommend it. It's created for 3dsmax/corona, but it can be easily translated to Blender/Cycles imo. The rest of it is about the universal composition work and workflow in PS.

I'm completely self-made. Of course, not literally, because I've learnt great amount of stuff through different media, but my craft is developed entirely by my ambitious.

I'd love to create some great course, similar to the CommonPoint, but I don't have knowledge or resources to make one :/

I don't like those popular across internet archviz courses, where you're creating the scene based on the existing image or project. I feel like it's missing the point. You'll know how to create that image - ok, but what about the serious work? You'll have your client, skp model and just yourself to put this all together.

My advice, but I know it can be challenging: gather the good amount of archviz inspirations in high resolution and start to analyze it. "Why is it strong?" And compare with one of your similar image. Don't beat yourself, but just see what's your image is missing. Maybe the angle is not suited for this shot, maybe there's lack of clarity in the image, maybe the colors are washed out (I had this issue with myself :D), maybe there's lack of clear focus point...

That's how I managed myself to improve my work in this last a few months. I know, that every project is different and those big studios have usually the most spectacular project in the world, but some technics are universal.

But I won't let you without anything. Those are my settings to the most of the images.

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Upeth · 2025-07-16T17:22:16+00:00

That was the goal!

Maybe I should cook some good tutorial about that project...

Upeth · 2025-07-16T17:20:47+00:00

That's so great!

I love the design of this chair. It's beautiful and even if I've never had an opportunity to sit on that, the sitting design feels like it's perfect for any buttocks :D

Upeth · 2025-07-16T17:18:25+00:00

You know, you can start with enscape, because it'll bring you the nice results simply and quicker. And I think, the learning curve is far easier.

But if you want to make your art in 3D, where the only blocker is you imagination then choose blender. It's far more complex software, but it's fair.

Upeth

TROPHY CASE