Need to Improve Your Landscape Presentations?
Are you a landscape architect who designs public and outdoor spaces? Do you struggle with showcasing your projects to their full potential? Or would you like to transform how your landscape design is viewed?
As 3D artists who have experience working on landscape architecture projects, we know these problems. We understand how hard it is to translate specifically landscape projects into quality and storytelling 3D landscape visualizations.
Find out how to show off your landscape designs and ideas to your clients, future users, and professional contractors, as well as how to find a 3D industry professional who can deal with 3D images created for landscape architecture.
Sustainability Image of the Future for Sweco / Design & 3D portrait rendering: RNDR
Choose an Experienced Professional Contractor
You may think that any type of 3D studio will create and answer all your landscape design presentation problems. However, you should choose one who is particularly skilled at 3D world production that is relevant to your professional niche.
By combining technology with the creative skills of our experienced landscape professionals, you can bring your designs to life at the desired quality and effectively communicate your vision to a broader audience.
Click here to read what other landscape architects have to say about us.
1st Prize Architectural Competition / Interior Garden of Fietsznfabriek Haarlem, Netherlands / Designers: Paul de Ruiter Architecten x LAP Landscape & Urban Design / 3D portraits: RNDR
Why Elevate Landscape Design Using CG Tools?
These days, nature is very much needed in presentations to contrast clear architectural lines with dense foliage, which creates the needed value in the overall architectural project design. It’s not just greenery, it’s the synonym of sustainability and an ecological attitude. This is especially important in locally orientated presentations; this is why, when choosing your landscape rendering studio, it is good to know if they have a CGI artist who is also a landscape architect onboard. Without this knowledge about trees and shrubs, hardscape materials, and textures, the final renderings may end up looking unappealing and won’t give your design the correct representation it deserves.
Benefits of 3D Landscape Illustration
From simple projects like revamping a private front yard or garden to complex ones like urban masterplans and site landscaping, reliable landscape design renders can illustrate your landscape design in appealing 3D illustrations. Among all the other project presentation tools on the market, they seem to be the most efficient.
Inner Garden of Vondel en Zwaan in Netherlands / Architects: FSD x Rijnboutt / 3D portraits: RNDR
#1 Inclusive Communication and Design Process Tools
3D visualizations are not only a communication asset but also a design tool that allows for the inclusivity of all parties involved in the design process. They give stakeholders the ability to quickly envision your design, saving time and energy that would otherwise need to be dedicated to explanations.
With one simple click, you can open your set of landscape design visualizations which are far easier to understand than technical drawings. You simply present to your viewers the components of your design in a second and involve them in the designing process. 3D renderings are definitely a user-friendly and useful tool, which easily aid in presenting more complex features.
Additionally, you can demonstrate a few design options and discuss them, like in the rendering above to allow users to visualize the Vondel de Zwaan project.
Kloos Alblasserdam / Design and architecture: FSDx Bosch und Sablersx Van Aken / Architectural exterior visualization: RNDR
#2 Need for a Research Tool and Places Designed for People
Landscape 3D renderings can also help you learn more about the final users of your landscape designs, especially when taking part in the participation process. By producing 3D images of their future space, it is easier for your audience to grasp the design and landscaping ideas in comparison to showing them technical drawings from your Google Drive.
You can communicate with your client easier and better understand how they will use the finished outdoor space. This is a great way to build a relationship with your audience and understand their requirements for better creation of a landscape design tailored to them.
Ural Forest: 20ha of Inner City Multifunctional Public Areas in Ekaterinburg, Russia / Landscape design: Sztuka i Partnerzy x ARUP/ Bird view landscape rendering: RNDR
#3 Boost Your Vision Through Storytelling Landscape Visualization
Landscape visualizations have the ability to tell about your landscape project through visual storytelling and help users to visualize designed space. That is why, as landscape architects, you should choose a rendering studio that uses visual storytelling to showcase different design elements, highlight unique features of the landscaping design, and create a more engaging experience for your clients and their audience.
#4 Highlight Strengths of Your Design Ideas
3D Landscape illustrations give you the opportunity to showcase landscapes, plants and trees at different times of the year or day for your clients and wider audience. Plants and greenery are a complex world that is worth exploring in order to show how it affects the design features and how they change throughout the year. Landscape 3D renderings have a great set of tools to achieve that and help users visualize the project’s strengths.
#5 Easier Decision Making
By knowing how a finished landscape looks in real life, a homeowner of a garden or final users of a public space can better decide whether it should proceed. Because of this, 3D illustrations offer a high level of quality support among all landscape design software and are user-friendly as well.
Hoefse Hout in Netherlands / Architects: FSD x OZ/ 3D portraits: RNDR
Problems Faced While Working on Plants
Producing 3D landscape visualizations does not only have positive aspects. Some negative aspects come from the fact that most CGI artists are simple graphic designers or architects and do not have expertise in outdoor space or landscape fields. All softscapes, including plantations and greenery like trees, shrubs, perennials and more, need specific knowledge in order to visualize them correctly.
The same comes with hardscape and landscape design knowledge. These features can be tricky and hard for 3D rendering studios without the expertise of a landscape architect on staff. CGI artists who are architects may lack familiarity with the types of plants, cultivars, trends in materials, and the appropriate scale to employ for them.
Additionally, 3D libraries often do not contain all species of plants or textures for surfaces. To assist in such cases, our studio furnishes substitutes via a database featuring a selection of comparable plants, cultivars, and other elements of design.
Architectural Competition / Zwolle, Netherlands / 3D portraits: RNDR
Let the Plant Life be Shown Like It Is Designed
In order for your landscaping rendering to be effective, it is important to show plant life correctly on renderings. Imagine you are passing a project to a 3D studio and they change your local cultivars into some generic species. Your design then loses not only the autochthonic plants but also the ecological overtone and idea created by the designers. A feature that was supposed to be the focal point becomes a major flaw.
By selecting the correct species with a rendering studio, you will be able to show the viewer a better picture of how the final outcome will look. Like one of our clients says: “RNDR is the first 3D studio that addresses our main need in landscaping projects to show the exact planting and materials. With every other company, we had great difficulties in this area. With RNDR we are sure that the species, as well as the seasonal subtleties, will be shown in the final outcome.”
That is why we know how important chosen plants are. By adding certain types of plants that are native to the area or region, you will be giving your design a more ecological approach and feel. This is especially important if the landscape design is being done for a specific place and even more so when trying to visualize public spaces like parks, squares, etc., as showing local, natural vegetation can completely change your sustainable attitude and help you win more projects.
Architectural Competition / Interior Garden of Zwolle, Netherlands / 3D portraits: RNDR
Use the Power of Seasons to Extract Designs’ Unique Features
Time variability along the seasons is a unique feature of landscape design. 3D visualizations can express these features almost as just as you see them in real-time. Why should you lose such an opportunity?
The best way to present your projects is by using different times of the year, like summer, spring, winter, and autumn in different scenes. This allows us to show how plants not only grow with time but also how they change over the year.
Different color compositions of tree leaves, grass, and flowers can paint many stunning images in 3D. Taking advantage of this unique feature can be a game changer.
Showing different seasons or growth of plants is a more complex process. Producing such 3D illustrations takes more time and resources because each scene is built separately. But these problems should be left to the rendering expert studio that you work with.
Duiven Competition / Designers: Bemog Projektontwikkeling x LAP Landscape & Urban Design x TVA architecten / 3D portraits: RNDR
Intrigue Your Audience by Using Storytelling
One way of using 3D visualizations is to intrigue your audience through visual storytelling on 3D landscape visualizations. There are a few ways of using this method while designing your visual communication on 3D illustrations. Each landscape design is different and each visual story created on landscape rendering will be unique. That is why it is worth showing design features though the storytelling methods on your renders.
By creating a 3D landscape illustration, with characters and objects that interact, you can create a vivid story that immerses your viewers in the narrative. This type of storytelling allows you to create an entire world, complete with your vision, characters, and settings. Through this type of medium, the users can explore the environment as if they were physically present in it.
Additionally, by incorporating elements such as lighting effects or intriguing landscape design characteristics into your 3D landscape visuals, you can further enhance the immersive experience for your viewers. That is why you should use storytelling to elevate your landscape architecture presentations while designing 3D images with a professional rendering studio.
You can read more about storytelling landscape visualization in this article, just click here.
1st Prize Tender / Middenblok Nieuwegein – Lotus The Green Collective, Netherlands / Designers: LAP Landscape & Urban Design x Klunder Architecten x Trebbe Wonen B.V. / 3D portraits: RNDR
How Do We Manage Landscape Rendering Creation?
We like to go into depth about our projects and capture your landscaping project. While discussing it, we refer not only to our expertise and checklists but also to our 3D visualization library to help you achieve the best results. If needed, we design custom models, use pre-designed templates, or utilize photorealistic textures to improve the design process of 3D visuals and reduce the limited features of tools we have.
If you are asking what is needed to start our work, the answer is “whatever you have.” We can work from models, or from plans, sections, or simply reference images. We can also propose design as needed, based on your guidelines. A personalized checklist is provided, detailing all requirements before the design begins. And at each step of it, you are guided by an experienced project manager.
While discussing the type of plants, we try to get as many details from the client as possible when they play important roles in the projects. Once we receive information about the plant species and cultivars, we search for them in our model libraries. If we do not have the exact plants, we try to propose a similar species of plant. If the exact plant type is critical, we apply them in postproduction or find another way around it to achieve the best result.
We can also work with more freedom and creativity if you did not have time to finalize the design. Having general guidelines like hardscape references, biotic material, plants, color, or general image references allows us to capture the main features of your outdoor design vision.
Working on the images references and types of biotopes pictures without a provided landscape design / Bird Paradise, Marker Wadden in Netherlands / Architects: lab03 x Joustra Reid architecten x Maathuis Projecten x Newbouw x Derix Houtconstructies / 3D portraits: RNDR
Landscape renderings are an invaluable tool for any architect or designer. They help immensely to better communicate and articulate your landscape design ideas to clients, final users, experts, and laymen alike.
Choose Wisely Whom You Work With
Present your landscape design on renderings without any compromises. Rendering services are much more than just creating another plastic image from a machine. That is why you should choose wisely who you work with.
Interior Garden of Vondel en Zwaan in Netherlands / Architects: FSD x Rijnboutt / 3D portraits: RNDR
Want to Know More?
If you’re interested in learning more about the artistic 3D illustrations we create, we have a variety of projects on our website available for viewing, just click here.
We also invite you to add us on social media for more about the creation of architectural CGI through digital tools:
Let’s Create Meaningful 3D Landscape Illustrations Together!
Published on April 4, 2023
