Archinect
anchor

3D Renderer/Firm for the "Gherkin"

SHR

Does anybody know the firm that rendered the famous Swiss Re Tower by Foster? It was a view through the street...

 
Jan 22, 06 7:15 pm
trace™

I do know, they had an entire article in 3D World about the process...give me a few to think about it

Jan 22, 06 8:35 pm  · 
 · 
trace™

they're good, but not one of the best, imho

Jan 22, 06 8:43 pm  · 
 · 
Online

Who do you think is the best?

Jan 23, 06 12:13 am  · 
 · 
spiderdad

those 2 guys fom london that do the H&M renders... they did the china stadium, etc... the bald guy and the tall guy.... i know that doesnt help.

i'll get back to you.

Jan 23, 06 1:17 am  · 
 · 
Peru
http://www.smoothe.com/index.html
Jan 23, 06 3:30 am  · 
 · 
trace™

Ah, you are correct Peru, it was Smoothe that I was thinking about.


Who is the best? It's all subjective, so I'll avoid a direct answer. It depends on what you are looking for, what the target audience is (for example, if it's a competition entry or a marketing package to get buyers to pay before construction begins - HUGE difference in what people will go for and two completely different audiences, something developers seem to get more than a lot of architects - Image Sells).

Ironically, (this taken from a new Arch Record) the renderings for H&M de Young museum were unacceptable to the fund raiser, so they were not used.

That's another disconnect that I see - architect's think that their renderings are great. While some are interesting from a diagrammatic and perhaps 'beautiful' (again, subjective), they stink when portraying an image of what the actual building will really look like. This may not be a big deal in some cases, but in others where fund raising or preconstruction sales are crucial, it's important issues.

Fine with me, though, as it keeps my business growing.

Also, I should note, that images don't have to be perfect photoreal. There can be come artistic interpretation (like French's Arte Factory that make beautiful images for a certain clientele) and I think there are more firms working towards doing something more unique (as I am with my company).

One of the problems with the larger companies, like Hayes Davidson, perhaps even Smoothe, is that they are slow to approach the more artistic size. I suppose it's due to the larger size or maybe the lack of creative direction (I worked as a contractor at a large firm a while back, and this was a huge issue there - no creative direction and very slow to react or change). They play it 'safe'.

Time will tell, but I see my profession rapidly evolving (a good and exciting thing).

Jan 23, 06 8:32 am  · 
 · 
trace™

Spider - it wasn't two guys in London that did the H&M Stadium rendering, fyi

Jan 23, 06 8:45 am  · 
 · 
French

trace is right, we did it. It was a very hard work to set the model. Thanks for the correction trace.

Jan 23, 06 11:39 am  · 
 · 
spiderdad

I stand corrected, trace....

I read a small article in RIBA journal titled, ''Image makers to the stars'' sometime ago....

it was these two guys who headed a firm in London, that did renderings for the likes of H&M, Zaha, etc...

i dont think they did conventional developer stuff, seemed to be 'arty'.

does anyone know who im talking about...?
FRENCH: these guys weren't from Smoothe, were they?

Jan 24, 06 5:04 pm  · 
 · 
.nl

Took me five minutes to come up with the name but here it is:

the two guys in London that who did the H&M Stadium rendering

Jan 24, 06 7:22 pm  · 
 · 
spiderdad

yeah, thats it--- Thanks .nl!!

Jan 25, 06 2:42 am  · 
 · 
French

So spiderdad, .nl, where do I see their Stadium renderings? Are these the rederings for the Beijing Stadium or another one?

Jan 25, 06 5:28 am  · 
 · 
spiderdad

French: I'm confused...

I thought you said, it was Smoothe that did the renders for beijing...

Intially I thought it was these guys - Netural- that did the Beijing renders, but doesnt look like it. In fact, their portfolio doesnt show that many "architectural" projects... (I did the see Munich stadium by HdM).

I dont know if you just wanted to see the renders - if that case that case the official competition site is still up and running (might need to try refresh a couple of times)...

http://www.bjghw.gov.cn/forNationalStadium/indexeng.asp

its got all the entries but to be fair, none of the other stuff really stood a chance.

Jan 25, 06 5:53 am  · 
 · 
French

artefactory did the renderings for the Beijing stadium (so I know them enough, since I worked on it), and I didn't know who worked on the Munich Stadium renderings, but thanks to you guys I've found out. I was confused too, since I didn't know which stadium you guys were talking about. Know it's all clear.

Jan 25, 06 6:30 am  · 
 · 

Block this user


Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?

Archinect


This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.

  • ×Search in: