Rendering Pro - Alessio Herbert

Alessio Herbert is an Architectural technician at Italian design firm Marano s.a.s. S.t.p, a firm that offers everything from the design and development of architectural and structural systems, to development for reducing energy consumption. As communicating design concepts and presenting multiple design options for clients is very important to their process, Alessio employed a lot of rendering work in the cloud.  Hear what he has to say about how he built up his design skills, his favourite techniques, and how he uses cloud rendering for Revit:

Tell us a bit about the company you work for, your professional background, what you do, and where you are located.  

I’m a British national currently working in Italy as part of the team at Marano s.a.s. S.t.p, a design practice located in Cinisello Balsamo, province of Milan, Italy. The firm was founded by Surveyor Dante Aurelio Marano, a professional with over 20 years of experience in the sector.  We provide a number of services, including design / development and detailed design of architectural and structural systems, both for new construction (industrial, residential and commercial sectors) and for existing building refurbishment and/or restoration. We also do everything from furnishing design to energy consumption reduction projects.

When did you discover and start using the “render to the cloud” feature in Revit?

When the “render to cloud” function became available in Revit, my colleagues and I started using it immediately and were impressed by the speed at which it could render large complex models.  At the time, I had built this Revit model that was over 1 GB, and it had become too complicated and time prohibitive to render using Revit’s native renderer on my local computer. With cloud rendering, it came out quickly with better quality results.

Your renderings have received a lot of positive feedback from other users in the gallery. Tell me about your “Apartment Refurbishment” project, and your “Chateau Monfort – Milan” project. What were the project details (where was the site located, what was the purpose, what were the requirements)?

The Chateau Monfort project is a 5-star hotel located in Milan, Italy.  The project involved a complete renovation of a disused 1902 historic residential building to transform it into a luxury hotel. The hotel itself consists of 77 individually themed rooms on five floors above ground, and two basement levels, one with a spa, fitness center, and pool, and the other with hotel services. Our firm dealt with design team coordination, programming and cost control for all activities carried out on-site (construction and installation). I created all the construction phase drawings and 3D modelling for the building using Revit, which allowed us to identify and resolve all plant integration, structural, and aesthetic problems prior to the construction phase. This helped us reduce the on-site execution time and costs for our client. The 3D renderings allowed the client to see the designed elements prior to production and allowed quick decisions to be made during the design process. The published renders show the entrance lobby and what used to be its internal courtyard, which is now covered by a glass cupola.

The “Apartment Refurbishment” project is a refurbished residential apartment currently under construction in Sesto San Giovanni, Italy.  The brief was to modify the existing layout of the apartment to be better adapted to the young client’s lifestyle and personal tastes. The speed of the cloud rendering feature allowed us to give the client multiple proposals for the space very quickly and on request (some of which I published to the rendering gallery) and to achieve a final design that both appealed to the client and fell within the budget.

Can you tell us a bit about your techniques and the processes you used to create and produce such masterful renderings? 

I try to model everything as realistically as possible (bar soft furnishings which, with the five current basic modelling tools in Revit, are virtually impossible to model with any realism, so I import those from 3DsMax. I would challenge anybody to make a realistic looking cushion with these tools and would like to shake their hand if they can).

Rather than using bump maps, I prefer to model the bumps. My tiles, for example (floor and wall) are single family elements with modelled recesses to emulate reality. I use bitmaps provided by suppliers that the client choses for materials, and rarely use the ones provided in Revit’s library. 

I usually set up a view with eye height and objective at the same level so as to keep vertical lines vertical, and I use both natural and artificial light to illuminate the scene. I ensure the building is correctly located and orientated (for sun settings) and brighten or dim artificial lighting to taste, then go through a process of ‘render to cloud’ using basic settings to check materials and the position of furnishings and generally the effect of the shot. Once I am relatively happy with the render in draft format, and have also further regulated the exposure in the cloud, I will produce a final image for the client.

What were are the challenges you face in your design process?  What were some specific challenges you faced on the Chateau and Apartment projects? 

Sometimes when modelling, I find myself hindered by the fact that you cannot draw a line in Revit less than 0.8mm long. I prefer to draw text and logos inside Revit rather than using Decals, so I hope this is something that can be added in the future.

For the Chateau Monfort project, my challenge in the modelling process—due to its complexity—was to keep the file size under 2GB and to give the client and other professionals updated images, 3D’s, and plans as quickly as possible.

For the apartment, the only challenge was to meet all the client’s requirements with the budget available.

What was your favorite part of these projects?

On the Chateau Monfort project, my favorite part was having the opportunity to model a building of this nature and then seeing the drawings become reality on-site.

Anything else you’d like to add?

I would like to thank the users of the A360 rendering community who have taken the time to look at my work, like, and give feedback and comments. 

Comments

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