If you find yourself the frequenter of architecture and design blogs looking at pretty pictures of designs, past, present and future, you have probably wondered who the people behind those beautiful images are. Where do they come from? How did they get here? How are they able to exercise the imagination of the viewers to see what is possible through design and construction? Well, even if you have never wondered any of those things, I am here to reveal the humans behind those images and why they are the way that they are. Understanding the soul might help you better understand the art itself.

So…

Who is the 3D Rendering Artist?

The 3D Artist is just that: an artist.

He colours and paints and sculpts and forms just like any artist might, though his medium remains entirely trapped inside the digital fortress. Behind the life-like images he bestows upon the planet are an intricately organized and infinitely long row of ones and zeros. His tools are Photoshop, Rhinoceros, VRay and AutoCAD, and other powerful 3D rendering software used by architects and designers and to use them properly he must remain sharp and practiced in the ways of the mouse and keyboard.

The 3D Artist is a student.

She studies light, shadow, form and shape. She understands colour and adjacencies and depth of field. She knows how people occupy space - how they move through it and perceive it. Behind every high-resolution 3D image is years of education. Not only of the powerful 3D rendering software and tools required to construct such masterpieces, but of the human condition and what is desirable and what is not. The 3D Artist has mastered composition and perspective, framing and angle. She studies her subjects with a watchful eye in order to replicate what we see on a screen to what we see on a sunny summer day on the Champs-Elysées.

The 3D Artist is humble.

An often overlooked but essential cog in the design/build machine. He WOWS clients and secures commissions. He never asks for praise or money or fame because he does what he loves to do. The 3D Artist breathes life into something that is not yet alive. He works overnight and on weekends. Not because he does not have other things to do, but because the project, and consequently his reputation, will suffer if he does not. He is a ruthless and dedicated working artist who refines his craft to get better and do better work, not to make more money. He gains notoriety only by virtue of thousands of hours of digital labour, not because he pursues it.

The 3D Artist lives in a two window studio apartment in Brooklyn because it is required of her. She needs to be close to the fire but cannot afford the suit required to keep her from burning.

The 3D Artist isn’t a leader, at least not yet.

He does what he is told because he understands his place within the machine. But because the 3D Artist works hard and is dedicated to being the best, he emerges a leader of people who started just like him. The 3D Artist designs businesses, offices and firms, and brings them to life, he uses colour, and brings realization to structures and spaces yet to be discovered.

The 3D Artist fills her apartment with inspiration and motivation.

She knows what it takes to be the best but also knows she isn’t quite there yet. She hastily flips through issues of Architectural Record, Dwell, Print, I.D., How, and Digital Arts in search of the next thing that will elevate her own work. The 3D Artist tears out pages and tapes them maniacally against her exposed brick living room wall. She stands and stares at the wall for 10 minutes before she leaves and 10 minutes before she goes to bed to make sure she inspires her days, along with her dreams.

The 3D Artist has friends and colleagues and co-workers and they are all the same people.

They go out for a drink at 9pm after staying late and do not talk about their work. He takes a break to be a real human being, because in the end that is what he has to be in order to truly capture the essence of experience and perception. The 3D Artist has a wife and is talking about having kids. He knows that losing himself in his work means losing his ability to be good at it. He carefully balances his life. Or at least tries to...

The 3D Artist chose to be a 3D rendering artist because it is art rooted in reality.

She’s able to explore the possibility of life without dealing with the bureaucratic encumbrance that is the architect’s burden. The 3D Artist assists the architect, because that is her job, but does so doing solely what she loves about the industry and not what she must do to succeed. She is awarded the luxury of being free to push the physio-emotional envelope of what is possible in real space. This is the essence of her art and the foundation of her passion.

The 3D Artist loves the physical world, but only in such a capacity that he can replicate and enhance it.

The 3D Artist went to college to be an artist.

There she discovered the possibilities of working in the digital world. It allowed her to build things and understand them in three dimensions before producing accurate and precisely choreographed 2D representations of that model. She could make anything become anything, and that is why she studied advancements in computer technology alongside her work as an artist. The 3D Artist was always an artist, but never before had discovered a medium that truly spoke to her. The versatility, flexibility, and possibility of digital art lended itself to undiscovered potential, not just with her but with all people. The limits she saw were a little bit less limitless.

The 3D Artist gives architecture a sense of place.

He adds trees and benches and cars and people and air and clouds and colour and sun. The 3D Artist provides the real context that someday a building will actually have to coexist in. He is necessary to the architect because he never lets him forget about what happens outside the design. The 3D Artist isn’t close to the design of the structure, rather the situation it finds itself in. He grounds the architecture in reality, and because of that has a great sense of importance and worth.

The 3D Artist is a magician, a trickster who will make believe you into thinking something is real. She is a hoaxer and a liar. The 3D Artist suspends disbelief and reroutes perception. But she does so in good humour, not to be malicious but to tease the senses and tickle the imagination. She wants the world to be filled with “what if” and not just “what is”…

The 3D Artist wonders about Da Vinci and Van Gogh, Picasso and Rembrandt.

What would those masters of line and space be able to accomplish with the knowledge of today’s technology? Would they have confined themselves to stone, pigment and pencil if there were so many different avenues of production to explore? Would they have been 3D rendering artists too? The 3D Artist wonders if 300 years from now someone just like him will be wondering about him. What would he have been able to do with the future? He wonders this.

The 3D Artist wonders the same thing

Often she thinks about where she has been and where she is going. She takes the subway to and from work every day, but she won’t forever. Someday she will be listed among the top artists00 in the world. The 3D Artist does not want to be a 3D rendering artist, but just an artist.

She wants the profession to be respected among the fine arts because her art is more than just a replication or a recreation of someone else’s work. It is a creative interpretation of things in space. There is art inherent in what she does, and she wants the world to know it.

The 3D rendering artist is all of these things and more. They are the behind the scenes lifeblood of a host of design and architecture firms, and as such should not be confined to always hiding behind the curtain. Here at Easy Render we understand the value of the 3D Artist and their profession, which is why we promote them. Know them. Love them.

Make them a part of what you do and see how far you can elevate your work with the help of a passionate group of international artists.

You will not be sorry you did!