CompuServe Messages

>>How do you convince architects or architectural firms that computer >>generated renderings or animations will help them? You've got me! I've been trying in-house (the architecture firm I work for) for about 3 years now. I do some great rendering/animation, they say "that's really great," they use the stuff in promotional/interview presentations, but will they ask me to help them visualize a project they're designing? Hah! (Although, that MAY be starting to change — I think I've spent so much money on 3DS & accessories that they've decided that using it is the only way to recoup their investment!<g>). Seriously, architects, for all their protestations to the contrary, are a very conservative and tight-pursed lot. They like tradition — and tradition is hand-drawn renderings and hand-built models. You can make all the arguements you want about how spending the same money and time on a 3D model vs a hand-painted rendering gives you infinite points of view and easy change-of-form-or-materials, etc, but their eyes just glaze over and they say, "but I like the 'artistic' look of a hand-rendering" (never mind that their goal is SUPPOSED to be to convey the design accurately and successfully to the client). Also, people (clients too, although then the term "people" has to be used VERY loosely<g>) like to have something physical, and no matter how cool a video tape is, a model is cooler. I think that computer visualization is gaining ground, and certainly it doesn't replace hand-drawings/models in ALL situations, but it's a long, slow battle that you just need to keep waging. Oh, and one more thing… Architects are highly competitive creatures. Once you, as an independent artist, break through with one firm, and the other firms see that firm x is using computer-generated visuals, the others will be beating down your door.