General Marketing Objective
Determining what needs to be accomplished in any given project is dependent on what you are going to be using it for. Our rates vary, whether you need a render of a single for a magazine or newspaper to whether you need a whole animated presentation on DVD.

Time Factor
Every project has some sort of time constraint and we may need to tailor your presentation to suit the time available. The project could alternatively be based on the release of different types of media or spanned across several phases. We found that it is best to sort out these time frames in the initial stages of production so that we don't promise what can't be delivered.

Pricing
In order to provide you with a detailed breakdown of what is being charged for each component of work, all our prices are kept uniformly. Submissions can then be analyzed in order to subtract or add other components and compare prices. Multiple versions can also be submitted in order to accurately establish what level of service you will need.

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Architectural Plans & Sketches
The start of the process involves getting the cleaned up CAD drawings(.dwg format) from the architect, with all the information irrelevant to our process, removed. It helps to have the various plans, elevation and cross-section views to be all the same scale to avoid having to align them once in 3D space. If these are as close to the origin as possible (0,0,0 in the CAD application), it also avoids confusion later on

Design Colors and Finishes
To properly recreate reality, and portray exactly how the final product will look we need to create every surface to perfection. Labeled sample boards from the interior designer are always very useful as we can get a proper look and feel for every surface and texture, but photographs work just as well and of course the more the better. Colour palettes from paint manufacturers can also used for us to match them as closely as possible

Interior Furniture
Your interior designer can supply us with an exact brief of what they would like in the room. We will then match our extensive library of pre-built models to the ones in the brief as closely as possible. This is done merely as a time saver and to meet deadlines, due to the time consuming nature of having to build ever piece of furniture from scratch. If it is however imperative that a specific piece of furniture is needed we can build it. The brief has to be very complete and through, as any changes or additions after the initial issue will be charged for by the hour.

A brief of the furniture from a interior designer isn't a must have though, as we at Skyscape Visualization can use our experienced skills to fill the room with furniture to suite any given theme.

Landscaping
The client will rarely have a final landscaping plan at this early stage of the project. This isn't a problem as long as we can get a rough indication of where the major landscaping areas are and we will then proceed to use our library of tree's and shrubs to fill in these areas to create the final image.

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The modeling phase begins by bringing these 2D CAD elements into 3D to line them up and start creating usable 3D geometry off the plans. A brief as to what exactly will be seen in the final presentation is always helpful at this stage, as less or more detail can be added into the areas where needed. Other 3D objects can also be brought into the scene, such as furniture, light fittings or even artwork - all to the architect/ designers specifications.

Some architects actually build there own 3D model, or parts of it, 'in-house'. In these instances it can save a lot of time in the modeling phases to have copies of these sent to us (usually .dxf format), taking into account that they are of a high enough and usable quality.

At this of production, the models will usually be in a grey scale format or wire frame. This is not the final product but a rough outline of how the final model will look without the proper lighting and coloured textures.

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The lighting/texturing phase is where the real artistry comes in. Samples of the paint/tile/brick/woodwork are needed at this point to get the surfaces looking realistic. Each of these material samples are adjusted in 3D to make sure that the light interacts with that surface in the correct way.

For exteriors, the lighting system we uase is a skylight or a daylight system where the time of day can be adjusted to accurately simulate where light and shadow would fall at a given time in that day. Global Illumination rendering is used to scientifically determine the diffusion, reflection and refraction of light needed for photo-realism. HDRI(High Dynamic Range Images) of the area can be taken on site to replicate the real world lighting scenario, especially important if the 3D model is to be re-inserted into an image or footage of the surroundings.

Interior lighting can be achieved with a combination of using IES (Illuminating Engineering Society) lighting and 'natural' skylight for day time scenes. IES is an industry standard where the exact specifications of the lights can be replicated for use in the computer generated environment.

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The last phase is to setup a virtual camera, whether static or animated (for fly-through's) and to render the scene. Depending on the complexity of the 3D set this can take anywhere from a few minutes to a number of hours to render a single frame. Our 3D creation can then be digitally composite into a photograph of footage of the location to look as if it has already been built in the real world.

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Still Images
If we are only preparing 3D still images, or what is commonly referred to as just "renderings", then you will receive high resolution images that you may pass to your advertising agency or any marketing consultant you see to complete the campaign. Each architectural 3D image can be e-mailed to your or anyone else. If they are free to call us to arrange them.

Animated Fly-through's
If we are preparing 3D virtual reality animations, or "fly-though" videos then you have some choiced as to how they are delivered, all of which require some degree of "authoring". The original submission would have listed what type of authoring we are doing for you, or you may have another company set to do this.

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