Colour rendering – the old fashioned way

My KLC colour rendering course proved to be one of the best so far, from that school. While being happy with the results, I am asking myself to what extent this beautiful old fashioned way is still relevant, now that we live in the world of virtual reality, photo realism and more.

But first – the course: we started with a quick session on light – and had to quickly render a perspective representation of a sitting corner – sofa, armchair and a table. Reminded me strongly of my years preparing (and failing) the architecture entry exam in Sofia. It is then that I had to master shadows through the medium of black pencil. I think this training from 20 and so years ago still shines true, somewhat – so judge for yourselves: one is the example handed to us, and the one with the date in the corner is my try.

Relevance to my current work: must try it, alongside Sketchup. The softness of light, the artistic touch, the ability to bring 3 dimensions to a page – I am in for it. Just don’t know when…

Next, we rendered a floor plan – I am definitely impressed by the change it makes, when we project shadows from our flat furniture setting. Extremely relevant and easy to bring to my current work, again, I am glad to share. It is of course the painfully familiar setting of my project 1, by now. I can see a difference between this and what remains in a plain flat floor plan!

Next we moved to surfaces – hard and soft. To me it was also the introduction to all the magnificent products and brands – promarkers, copic pencils, china white (not sure about this last one)… just let me realise how little I knew about the business of rendering – the old fashioned way.

Naturally, the tutor being a seasoned professional, delivered fantastic results (had I wondered). And now, with aspect of relevance to my project – I must say, the requested investment is enormous. I don’t see myself getting properly equipped soon, unless I become a professional renderer, or rendering becomes a hobby! The latter has better chances than the former – but, as with other hobbies of mine –  I want them to be productive. And a rendered design, is just another picture (might be quite beautiful though), when it is not intended to happen.

Another application I can think of – and in the light of my recent IKEA book-case dilemma – is it going to be a viable solution, if I would just bring my set of pencils and markers to the store, and try to reproduce the colours on paper, in the absence of real samples to take away? Actually, it is awkward that nobody has thought of it yet, or maybe they have but the results are not public?

So, in a perfect world, I’d be able to know which materials to buy specifically in order to test one IKEA colour on my floorplan and perspective drawings. Googled the subject, and world is not yet perfect. But what a business opening this could be?

As exercise for hard cover, we did rendering of tiles. Probably one of my least relevant skills, because I do not see dark tiles in my current project.

Soft furnishing turned out to be more of a challenge – we had the exercise of light and shadow where pleats had to be repeated – very proud of my curtain reproduction here-under. Then, the trickiest of them all – how to reproduce a pattern? I think, this is particularly relevant and a genuine challenge to computer generated images, because there is this real human analysis of what a pattern feels like when seen from a distance. I have a lot to practice, but feel overall quite challenged by this one.

As for the difference in colours: the hanging part was "corrected" by the tutor, so the colour appears to be smoother. The top remained as done by myself - pleats are more prominent, but the trouble with it is that my strokes are too artistic...so another dilemma for the rendering business, what is more relevant - represent the colours or the texture?

Am I missing on something from the course? Surely, and plenty of things, but prefer to leave empty spaces so far, so that you’d have your chance to discover rendering for yourselves. A big question for the future, and do share how you feel about it: is there a rivalry between old fashioned ways and computers? Are they complementary? Have you got preferences? Which one is easier to learn?

I think I’d use them in a complementary way, for my next project – I’d like to customise some of my existing pieces of furniture and make them compatible with what will come next to my home. My mind is set on a method which still has to be discovered in Belgium (O’verlays), but in a nice twist of destiny I came across a shop which just might be able to replace and upgrade that… so, stay tuned!

Also, another topic for the near future is going to be a u-turn towards measuring! Now that my 4 identical shears are ready, they do not look the same on the seemingly 2 identical windows. Did I survey the site in a wrong way? Is there a proper technical explanation for it? The physical world of interior design is full of mysteries!

Pin colours and textures to the drawing board – in SketchUp

When I finished the last post, I had a set of nice colours, in the form of a sample board, nearly ready-to-deploy floor plan, and some colour dilemmas.

SketchUp offers quite a lot for visualising those issues, because it is possible to draft the floor plan, produce a 3D model, and match colours and textures.

I attempted just that, the result is still not impeccable, but a nice progress towards a solution cannot be denied, so bear with me!

For a start, I will ask you to briefly revisit my mobile sample board, and get reintroduced to colours. I like it so much that they effortlessly blend into one another. So, if I have to define the furniture challenge in more words, it is – will I be able to introduce contrast and make it work?

Then, I will share with you a couple of embarrassments: as you know from previous blogs, I have my 3D model, but it was really basic. It is with this model that I attempted to fit in the furniture as I had drawn it on the floor plan.

In the first attempt it is already obvious that things do not look good: the sofa is not going to be red, it is possibly not this variety of sofa – I only got it from the 3D Warehouse, because it fits. Then, the bookcase models do not have any doors – a disaster since it is those doors I wish to match to the colour scheme! Last but not least – environment is all wrong – the floor and walls, and doors – all the wrong colours.

An attempt for a quick remedy was the same thing in black and white – slightly better, for the sake of balancing the volumes, but not quite there yet.

And finally, as soon as I have some time on my hands – I start research and experiment with the ‘colours and texture’.

Have a quick look at a “before” floor plan! My first target are the tiles – a very easy match because they are available on the manufacturer’s site Lovelies. 

A jpeg is downloaded and then matched to my SketchUp model of a single tile – with rounded edges and grout included. I am very proud of the individual result, but the creation of the complete floor proves to be difficult – I end up slicing every tile just like the tilers did. And when you are newish to SketchUp – is quite time consuming, trust me!

Two obvious setbacks with the exercise:

-      The black edges of every tile make it look unrealistic

-     In the programme the tiles look darker and pinkish, whereas in the room as it is they are more like marbled off-white

For the remaining surfaces, it is so much easier – I simply create JPEG files for wall – exact paint on fibreglass, bathroom door and of course – heavy natural wood door.

The JPEGs originate from the sample board shot – so I am helpless to deal with colour discrepancies. For the improvement exercise, I will find those colours on sites, as I previously did, or I will need a crash course in Adobe Photoshop! Just now, doors and walls look pixelated, as they never would in real life! On the other hand, and what is so positive from the exercise – when put together, they convey better the overall colour feeling of the room.

Another aspect I’d like to improve in Sketchup is the stark contrast between the walls of same colour in light, or in shadow – another parameter I need to toggle in Sketchup.

Finally, I’d love to improve the look of the natural wood door – which is pixelated. It is also the exercise of sticking an image to a surface – so I use my door image straight away – the trouble is the proportions don’t fit and I would not know yet how to fix those! Again, is it a case for learning more on Sketchup, or shall I take the deep with Photoshop?

In conclusion – much as I am proud with the result, I admit there is so much more that can be added to improve the photo-realistic qualities of my model. In addition to those already listed – I’ve seen a video on YouTube, showing how models can be literally converted to elevations, and show rooms in great detail. In fact, you should have noticed that skirting and corniches are missing from my room.

Now, before I return to some real-life decoration issues (I have some curtain sewing scheduled for the weekend), I’d like to urge everyone out there to share their experience in colour rendering!

In fact, I am very happy to announce that I am booked for a colour rendering course with KLC, so the topic will soon be continued!