What’s the difference between a competition architectural perspective and a visual designed to sell a real estate project? The architectural perspective is used by architects to convince the project owner and win a contract; whereas the promotional visual is intended to seduce the end customer. Unfortunately, real estate developers tend to use the architectural perspective for marketing purposes – an all-too-common mistake…
So how do you transform a streamlined competition architecture perspective into an eye-catching visual without breaking the bank? Simply apply our method for “recycling” competition photos: adding life to visuals by inserting characters.
To illustrate our point, we’ve chosen to show you a project we carried out for La Commune in collaboration with Pierre Descubes, who was responsible for the architectural perspectives. For our part, we inserted characters and objects to give a second life to the visuals.
Recycling an architectural competition rendering: inserting characters
Real estate agents and advertisers alike will tell you that for a customer to fall in love with a property, they need to be able to imagine themselves in it. But when the property hasn’t yet been delivered, and the developer wants to start marketing it anyway, photos of what’s already there aren’t enough. In such cases, an architectural perspective is essential.
Many developers will be tempted to use 3D competition visuals created by the project’s architect. This is totally feasible. But can we do better? In fact, architectural renderings are generally very uncluttered: a car parked in front of a building, two or three blurred characters to liven up the image a little, vegetation to add a little life to the whole…
Under the guidance of its communications agency, La Commune turned to us to liven up the competition’s architectural perspectives. As you can see above, the result speaks for itself: inserting a character into a visual adds a completely different atmosphere.
Inserting a character into a visual: why use the services of a studio?
Many websites offer extensive libraries of characters or objects to insert into an existing visual. So why use our services to insert a character into a visual? The answer can be summed up in three points:
- Save money,
- Saves time,
- Guaranteed results.
After all, these clipped image libraries are relatively expensive: between €300 and €500 per thousand photos. Then you’ll have to spend a lot of time identifying the objects/characters to insert from the extensive library – without necessarily being sure of finding the right photo. You’ll then spend several hours inserting these characters into your visuals.
But are you sure you’ll get the result you want? Not everyone can achieve a professional result. You need to know how to use filters, play with luminosity, beware of shadows and take perspective into account.
In the end, by using a qualified service provider to recycle your architectural competition perspective, you won’t have to mobilize staff who may not be familiar with all the techniques, you’ll stay within your budget without unpleasant surprises, and you’ll get a result that’s identical in every way to what you had in mind.
Inserting a character into a photo: maintaining a coherent atmosphere
For this character insertion in a visual representing a space destined to become a living and cooking area, our customer’s watchword was to create a friendly, family atmosphere.
We therefore chose to add objects such as dishes and glasses – since this space is destined to host restaurants and guests. Inserting people into the photo involved adding groups of characters: a smiling woman in the foreground, a couple at a table playing guitar, people at a table having lunch, a group of people in the background, etc. You’ll also notice that the photo appears to have been taken by a group of people.
You’ll also notice that the photo looks more real than the usual competition photos. That’s because we’ve taken care of crucial elements like the shadows and reflections of the characters inserted into their environment. For this exercise is more perilous than it seems: you have to choose characters whose shadows on their faces correspond to the angles of the lights on the visual.
By now you’ve grasped the difficulty of inserting characters into a visual. You have to spend a lot of time looking for the right characters to convey the desired atmosphere, retouching elements so that shadows are consistent, applying filters when necessary, and so on. This dexterity is not within the reach of every designer.
Would you like to recycle your architectural visuals to make them more appealing to the general public? Contact us today to discuss your project.
