Animation in Architectural Design

Over the last few decades, architectural presentation has undergone major developments. With the advent of computer-aided technologies, the architect’s hand drawings have gradually given way to highly sophisticated architectural design software capable of creating these presentations through CAD (Computer Aided Design) and BIM (Building Information Modeling).

In the early years of computer technology, two major industries took advantage of this computing power. The film industry saw the potential of using computer-aided visual effects in movies to create convincingly realistic effects and sci-fi environments.  The Gaming industry saw massive potential in using computers to create a more realistic and immersive gameplay experience.

It is only in recent years that the use of videos have increased in the architectural industry, due to a few factors:

1. Reduced Costs: Early days of video production was very expensive and needed a large crew of people and equipment to produce a film. Over the years, with the advancement of technology, the use of digital software has replaced conventional methods of video production which have led to reduced resources required in the video production process.
2. Decreased Production Time: With the advancement of technology in both hardware and software, the time required to create videos have drastically reduced. Increased access to on-demand computing power has helped in speeding up the production process. This has allowed the video production process to sit within the timeframe of a construction project – making it a viable option to use to present design ideas to clients and investors.
3. Improved Computer Technology: Computers in the early days were not powerful enough to be able to easily convert computer drafted models into photorealistic videos. Computers today are much more powerful and able to handle the complex nature of today’s design and build process. The ease and access to “off the shelf” “ready to use” computer power like cloud rendering etc also help speed up the process.

Emerging modeling and rendering software that are user-friendly along with improved power of the modern computer and lowered cost of production have made creating videos more accessible and more affordable. Today’s digital film making technology allows for relatively more flexibility in the production of the film at lower cost vs the olden days of video production which were cumbersome and expensive.

The computer graphics industry has recognized the potential of integrating CGI technology with these CAD tools to produce ultra-realistic 3D videos that can immerse us into architectural projects that are still in their design phase.

Our team at DJIS Visual Media Services specializes in Photorealistic Visuals – Hyper-realistic Still Images, Interactive 360 Virtual Reality, and Videos of buildings that have not been physically constructed yet. Send us your hand sketched drawings, your architectural plans, your mood board, and our experienced artists will redraw them as high-quality renderings which you can use for approval permits and pre-construction marketing.

Our team at DJIS Visual Media Services would like to show you some of the work we did last month. Hope you enjoy viewing them as much as we enjoyed creating them. Please contact us at 678-999-2706 for any Drafting or Visualization Requirements.

Until next month!