Making Of: “Fellowship” rendering

Kirk Fromm is a internationally recognized architectural illustrator and leading provider of NPR (non photo-realistic) renderings, using a combination of both traditional and digital techniques in his workflow. 1. This project was commissioned to show the impact of a theatre addition on an existing senior residential facility. The following images show the development of the first illustration of the series. The image below shows the original SketchUp model that the final rendering was developed from.  The trees were painted in Photoshop using custom brushes and then imported into SketchUp as png’s.  Other landscape was kept to a minimum in the model, as it will be added in Photoshop. I am not covering the Maxwell (setup)settings in this “Making of”.

1. Original SketchUp Model Before Render

2. The face of the theatre will largely be in shadow much of the day, so we went with an early morning view to get the right light. A few test outputs were run in Maxwell Render, adjusting for sunlight settings.  The image below is the output that was chosen for the final.

2. Maxwell Render Final Output

3. Here, the base model is overlaid with preliminary sky and entourage to spark discussion.  Also, an important hedge was added to separate the residences from the roadway, sketched in on the right.

3. Entourage Added

4. Setting aside the entourage for the moment, details are added to the buildings.  Linework was extracted from the SketchUp model (output at around 7000 pixels across to get finer lines) to add metal roof and panel divisions.  Shingle textures are added to roofs in overlay mode to preserve light/shadow from model.  Sky was embellished by painting over areas and adding texture and “dots” to achieve a softer look.  Lastly some additional trees/plantings were added in the background.

4. Morel Detail and Additional Trees and Planting Added

5. Photographically based grass elements are added for texture in the foreground, along with shrubs along the right.

5. Shrubs and Photographically Based Grass Added

6. Additional planting elements are added in the foreground, along with some color adjustments to warm up the middle of the rendering.

6. Additional Planting Added

7. In the final illustration, additional texture and detail is added to the plantings, and the final entourage is added.  Color is added in overlay mode to intensify the sky and ground colors.  Faint watercolor textures are added (from a combination of various watercolor paper scans) .  Once everything is done, a final copy of the image is made, processed with high pass filter, and added at the top of the stack in overlay mode to add a crisper look to the final.

7. Final Image

Thanks for reading.

Kirk

Kirk’s other making of  here at SketchUpArtists can be found at this link.

To find out more about Kirk and his work please visit his website here.