Working on making my dream come true

Since I was a little girl I have been passionate about architecture and, even more, about interior design. Giving life to an open space and imagining that it will later be inhabited by people who will live their stories within it is something that I find lovely and very motivating. I have always been very interested in computer-aided design, and it is something that I have always been very good at. That is why, when I discovered architectural visualization, it fascinated me, since I believe it is an art that comprises all my passions. The Chinese philosopher Confucius said, "Choose a job you like and you will never have to work a day in your life." So, after years of putting aside this dream of dedicating myself professionally to this field due to lack of time, not to escape from my comfort zone, for fear of possible failure, among others, I finally found this school, The Factory School, I allowed myself the luxury of dreaming and dedicating my efforts towards my dream, and I decided to get involved on this new way that I hope will lead me to make it a reality. Until then, I had only “tinkered” with the 3D Studio Max software for years, but had never taken the time to get to know it and control it with ease in order to achieve photorealistic results, which is the kind of visualization I am interested in. So now it is the time to show you my experience at The Factory School and the best projects I worked on and chose to exhibit.

I considered my entry in The Rookies dividing my work into two large and very different projects, which I started working on, as said, in my master's degree at The Factory School; a commercial one, since the challenge in this case, I think, was to see myself capable of modeling and developing a medium/large-scale project, since if I manage a project like this, I think I will have more ease in smaller projects, and an exterior project, in which I would be able to unleash the most artistic part and give some of the images a more dramatic essence, in order to prove to myself that I am capable of creating any kind of image, although I really want to be focused on the interior visualization.

Habanera

Madrid (SPAIN), by Proyecto Singular.

All this being said, I'm starting by presenting the commercial project, entitled Habanera, based on the real project of the restaurant, carried out by a Spanish studio called Proyecto Singular.

Here below is a general view of the project, its environment, and the modeling of the building.

The premises is divided into two floors, and each of them contains different areas, which include a small bar, with mostly turquoise tones, a large dining room on the ground floor, and a small Cuban-style patio where you can listen to live music, and where you can breathe a fresh and clean environment thanks to its abundant vegetation.

On the upper floor, we again find another large dining room, divided into different areas as well, all open, but differentiated by the type of furniture used in each one.

I wanted to be very faithful to furniture design for the simple fact of learning to manage this type of project in which the supposed client can request very specific furniture. For this reason, if I could not find the reference for the specific piece of furniture, I would create my own model based on existing models and modify certain aspects until achieving a design as similar as possible to the one required.

In the case of Teka wooden chairs on the patio, for example, I myself modeled the cushions that cover the design in Marvelous Designer, also to practice with this software.

I also did the same, modeling in Marvelous Designer on the upper floor, on the awning-like fabrics on the ceiling, and on some other elements.

On the other hand, in the case of fabrics, since I have advanced knowledge of Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, I did not want to put limits on my resources and, basing their design on the references of the project that I got from the Internet, I myself reproduced the patterns of the original fabrics in Illustrator so that, after adjusting them in Photoshop, I could use them as textures in the materials of all fabrics in the project, and thus prove to myself that I will be capable to handle any challenge that I could find along the way in future projects.

Coastal Pavilions

Tasmania (AUSTRALIA), by Liminal Architecture

It is now the turn of the second project, titled Coastal Pavilions, a tribute made to the real project, designed by Liminal Architecture studio, and located in Australia.

I chose this project for several reasons. One of them is, despite the simplicity the environment and the building transmit, due to the complexity of the organic shapes that the modeling of buildings has since this could raise many questions at the modeling level that I could investigate in the course and thus learn to solve this type of problems in any possible future project. Another reason was that the environment also seemed quite complex to reproduce, as well as motivating, since with that landscape, I would be able later to take very special shots, which is what I wanted to get with this type of project. In addition, it was also providing an opportunity to learn how to control the Forest Pack plugin in depth, which made it even more interesting, if possible.

The project consists of 10 practically identical pavilions, located on the stunning east coast of Tasmania, Australia. These pavilions, with a quite organic design, as I have already mentioned, are mostly dressed in wood, which gives it that warm appearance, and a lot of glass, which gives it a lot of visibility to be able to fall in love with the fabulous views of the sea. Their design makes them blend in with the natural atmosphere that surrounds them.

Pavilions are located at a considerable distance between them, not too great, but enough so that said distance, together with the amount of vegetation that surrounds each of them, give each pavilion that privacy that a client wants when they go to a place as dreamy as this, to be able to enjoy your stay on the generous terrace that they have too.

The access to each pavilion is made up of a network of walkways, which I modeled in RailClone, a decision that comes from the need to also practice with this plugin, which made me learn the basic operation of the tool and helped me gain some ease in its use.

For the lighting of the project, I have diversified the resources, combining images in which I have used some HDRi, to achieve more complex shadows, with others in which I have illuminated with VraySun and VraySky, to be able to exactly adjust the direction and position of the sun, in addition to achieving various effects in the environment such as the Aerial Perspective, which I think is an essential resource for this type of image, since it gives it a plus of atmosphere and dramatism. With the use of this tool, I have managed to learn to control a lot of parameters so that I can achieve the desired effect at all times.

Additionally, I created different moods for some of the images, so different feelings can be felt during its observation.

In the post-production of these images I have learned to take the most of the multimatte and render elements, and I have learned to configure them correctly in the software. As in all learning, the trial-error factor is essential. When I finished and began to edit, I began to realize things that I had not included, and I have created my own procedure to take into account in future projects, to avoid leaving important things behind, at the same time I have streamlined my way of solving this type of casuistry when I wanted to select something and see that it did not have the matte created. Also with the ZDepth elements, as I have found it is a very important thing to include because it gives you so many possibilities a posteriori.

I realized that with this whole process, I have improved my skills in the post-production process, my effectiveness and resolution, and my handle of Photoshop, so I'm very happy and proud about this as well.

As it is a fairly heavy scene, I have subdivided the project into various XRefs, also learning to manage this kind of situation. By doing so, I have realized the mistakes made, and how I can improve my procedure in future projects, to achieve a more effective workflow.

In conclusion, with these projects, I have tried to show the world the great learning that I have done this year, the problems that I have learned to face, and the challenges that I have seen myself capable of achieving. For all this, I feel very happy and fulfilled, and even happier to be able to present it here, and await your kind comments. Any constructive criticism will always be welcome in order to continue growing and finally be able to dedicate myself professionally to this. In that way, definitely, my dream will have finally come true.