Great architectural rendering companies and 3D rendering services
Great architectural rendering companies and 3D rendering services

Architectural rendering and 3D model building is no longer something you do with your free time in your grandmother’s basement where you can heedlessly explore your digital passions. Not long ago, being a rendering artist made the jump from hobby to profession, and dedicated companies are starting to crop up to close the gap between demand and supply the professional design world has found itself struggling with. There are a lot of firms and offices out there in need of quality presentation graphics but lack the resources, personnel, or in-house technology to make their drawings consistently good.

The following 3D rendering companies have made it their mission to provide less-than-equipped design and architecture firms with the tools and 3D artists to elevate their work through rendering services, website reconstructions, competition graphics, animations and more. You could call them “consultant’s on-demand,” but that would be selling short the breadth of knowledge and experience - not to mention the quality of work - provided by the specialised firms.

When the Ghostbusters are busy, or if your problems don not have anything to do with ghosts and more to do with computer graphics and rendering, these are the people you are going to call!

Brick Visual

The team of artists and technicians at Brick Visual are off-the-charts talented. Take a few clicks through their website and tell me I’m a liar. The still images and fully rendered animations that emerge out of this full-service visualization firm are simply breath taking. They help architects and designers imagine their designs in glorious life-like presentations that do better to show you the purpose behind a design than the actual building might. And it does this all before the first yard of dirt is taken out of the ground. Brick Visual hires people with backgrounds ranging from architecture and art, to computer engineering and business development. They are as diverse a group as the images they produce, investing heavily in understanding the history of design and architecture to better convey the context behind their visualizations.

The results speak for themselves. Brick is the “creme dela crème” when it comes to 3D rendering companies. They provide state of the art 3D rendering services and do not pigeonhole themselves into any particular style. While they know how good they are at their craft, they also know they work for you and will do whatever it takes to deliver the product you are looking for. If you need to up your 3d rendering and architectural visualization game, trust me when I say Brick Visual is the first place to start looking.

Ronen Bekerman

You need to look no further for the face of Ronen Bekerman than the name behind the domain. Ronen is a talented 3D visualization artist who freelanced most of his career before starting a blog dedicated to helping people achieve the artistic and technical success he enjoyed over the years. At Ronen Bekerman you’ll find a massive collection of tutorials, lessons and tips in addition to showcases of the world’s most incredible 3D rendering work to help elevate your own game. Ronen specializes in providing the latest 3D rendering software techniques and lessons in 3ds max, Maya, Cinema 4D, Modo, SketchUP, VRay, Maxwell Render, Corona Renderer, Photoshop and more. Much of the blog is community driven, and invites artists to post content and tutorials to the site as it grows more robust with information - some of which is absolutely free.

With so many architectural rendering companies focusing on promoting their own brand, it is refreshing to see a dedicated blog to helping people get better. It is not to say Ronen doesn’t use his platform to gush about his own design firm, Polytown Media, but at least he veils it in a thick layer of experience and information he is happy to share with the world. His gift goes beyond his art as it evolves into teaching.

Easy Render

Easy. That’s the word that comes to mind when describing the experience of using this premium 3D rendering service. Easy Render connects design firms with talented and experienced rendering and visualization artists from around the globe. They take the painful - and often rage-inducing - process of finding and hiring visualization help by connecting you directly with the people who will do the work and do it fast and do it well. You can peruse portfolios and hire people within hours of starting your search. There are very few job search websites that specialize in connecting architects and designers with the best 3D artists in the world, and even fewer that make it so simple.

In addition to providing this valuable 3D rendering service, they are also a visualization company that has an active blog with helpful information about the state of the world of artistic rendering. The help doesn’t stop at 3D rendering either. Easy Render will also connect you with experienced students and practitioners of architecture that are masters of model making and product prototyping. Also, Easy Render was founded by a Swiss Architect. I’m not sure you will ever need any further street credit than that.

Power Rendering

They are not the flashiest mailbox on the block, but Power Rendering is all business and results when it comes to providing 3D rendering and visualization services. They are a rendering company that, much like the aforementioned Brick Visual, turn out professional grade renderings and animations and sell them to those in need of an artistic kick in the pants. They boast a team full of architects and designers with over 30 years of experience in the construction industry. This should be enough to entice any firms looking to bolster their portfolio. Too often, outsourcing design visualization work can result in loss of conceptual fervour and intent because it was done by someone who has little experience practicing architecture. Power Rendering is a rendering company who prides itself on the construction experience of its 3D artists.

Why is this important? Because not all rendering artists are created equal. And because architects have an easier time trusting rendering artists with a background in architecture because, well, that’s just how their brains are wired. It’s the same reason they prefer to work with contractors who have a design background. Above all else they understand how important it is to preserve the integrity of the design. Hiring a rendering artist who understands this intimately helps neurotic design professionals sleep a little bit softer.

SketchUp

You might think it weird to include a property owned by Google on this list. Not to mention the rendering and modeling purists who scoff at the very idea of using SketchUp to model something rather than the more complicated but capable likes of 3DSMax, Rhino, or Maya. But you cannot deny the effect SketchUp has had on the design and architecture industry. Sketchup has turned everyone into a 3D modeler, and is a quick(er) way for design professionals to test their work against their understanding of space in three dimensions. It’s easy. It’s fast. It’s robust. And most importantly, it’s free!

I’m sure you have your doubts, but Google Sketchup is absolutely a rendering service. In addition to providing the tools to let anyone begin constructing things in digital three dimensions, it’s allowed Google to populate its Earth with nearly every building on the planet. This in itself is a tool used by architects and renderers alike to get real image data available for use in their design drawings.

Turn up your nose if you want for stooping to such gutters and alleys, but I would be remiss if I didn’t include something that’s helped me so much over the years. I pack SketchUp proudly in my utility belt right next to my moleskin notebook and my black fine tip le pen. It’s a valuable design tool and has come into its own over the years as a genuine rendering service. However, like I always say: haters gonna hate.

RenderStreet

Not all farms are for chickens, corn, and toothless old men in tobacco stained overalls and frayed straw hats. This farm has its eyes on the cloud, and provides users with the computing power necessary to shell out realistic renderings for firms and offices who are still wrestling with Windows Vista. RenderStreet is a 3D rendering company with a dedicated server farm that will quickly render your scenes - whether they be still images or animations - with relative easy. No more set it and forget it scenarios that have your renderings turn and burn over three days while you wait helplessly, hoping you got the lighting right and the materials on point. RenderStreet will give you results quickly and professionally, letting you tweak your scene before closing your eyes, grinding your teeth and hitting “print.”

RenderStreet is so accomplished, they even work with film studios producing 3D animated movies and shorts. When these studios don’t have the processing power and technical know-how to hit their deadlines, RenderStreet swoops in and gently carries everyone to the promise land. Their mission statement leans on speed and precision, which is exactly what you’ll get if you enlist in their valuable 3D rendering service.