Portfolio Creation Part 2: Initial

Setup
by Alex Hogrefe | Apr 10, 2011 | Portfolio Vol. 2 | 5 comments

After preparing the study model for the portfolio page, this next video discusses the
initial setup of the Photoshop document, as well as some basic techniques used to add
illustrations. It is important to note that the image size and dpi used for this portfolio is
based on personal preference. I provided this information as a reference. My hope is

that others will use this information as a jumping off point to explore sizes that fit their
style and expression.

The Big Picture: Beginners Guide

by Alex Hogrefe | Nov 1, 2015 | Fundamentals, Uncategorized | 27 comments

I have a lot of content on this site and when I redesigned it in 2014, I made an attempt
to organize the info so that everything was easy to find. However, I understand that
people just starting out may still find this site difficult to navigate and not know where
to begin. Even the software I use isnt abundantly clear because half of my tutorials use
Kerkythea while the other half uses V-Ray. This post is long over due and will be my
attempt to provide some clarification on a lot of questions that I get. It is also help those

just starting out to know which techniques to focus on and how to most efficiently use
their time learning arch viz.
These steps are ordered in such a way as to get you creating the best images in the
fastest time possible. If you were looking to do this professionally or churn out really
high end images, I would shuffle some of these steps around and put a higher priority
on 3D model texture and render settings. However, this website is widely used by
students and architects who dont do this professionally and are looking for speed and
simplicity. These steps are more or less how I started out and what I believe is the best
path for most.

1. Fundamentals:

The barrier to entry for Photoshop is much less than that of render software. You can
iterate and experiment at a much faster rate which is crucial to successful viz. With
rendering software, it is too easy to get sucked into the endless search for perfect
render settings and waiting hours for images to kick out. Below is what I suggest
starting out with:

1.1 Photoshop Layer Management

Before starting anything, get a basic idea of how to setup a Photoshop file. This will save
you a lot of headaches later on when files start to get big and complex
Layer Management Tutorial

1.2 Landscape/vegetation
Landscape and vegetation are some of the trickiest things to get right in arch viz. This
area has taken me the longest to get right and I am still experimenting with techniques.
Adding Grass Tutorial
Landscape Tutorial
Repeating Trees Tutorial
Water Reflections Tutorial

1.3 People
Almost every arch viz image will have people in the illustration and this is one thing that
3D software still does not do well. Therefore, it is important to master adding people in
Photoshop and knowing how to handle the different lighting situations.

People Shadows and Lighting Tutorial

Stadium Crowd Time Lapse

1.4 Skies
Skies often take up a large portion of the image and set the tone early on. Make sure to
get these right.
6 Tips for a Perfect Sky

2. Atmosphere:

Once you have a good grasp of the Photoshop fundamentals, atmosphere then becomes
a priority. The next series of tutorials are simple in technique and very fast to
implement. As simple as they are, they go a long way into giving life to the image.

2.1 Color Overlay

I use color overlays on almost every image I work on. The tutorial uses an extreme
amount of color but even a small amount goes a long way to setting the mood of the
image.
Color Overlay Tutorial

2.2 Atmospheric Fog

This is something I see may people ignore and is something I lean on a lot to get the
mood of the image just right. This very quick technique also gives an image a ton of
depth.
Atmospheric Fog Tutorial
Foggy Wharf

2.3 Adjusting the levels

Sometimes, all an image is missing is for the levels to be adjusted. This is similar to
adjusting the contrast, but gives more control.
Adjusting the Levels Tutorial

2.4 Image Softening

If after going through the steps above, the image is still lacking something, give this
technique a try. It only takes a few seconds and could be what your looking for.
Image Softening Tutorial

3. 3D Rendering:

To get to the next level of visualization, you need to learn some rendering basics.
Rendering software like V-Ray and Kerkythea take 3D models and bounces light around
them to generate more realistic lighting conditions. However, early on, it is not
necessary to know everything about rendering software. Instead, I think of it as just
trying to generate a decent base image so that I can get into Photoshop as fast as
possible. Later on when you decide to do this professionally, you can dive deep into the
settings. For now, its about learning how to create a few different lighting conditions
such as interior scenes, exterior scenes, dusk/night scenes, and cloudy day scenes. One
last note, I have tutorials on both V-Ray and Kerkythea. Kerkythea is free and works well
with Sketchup. V-Ray is a much more robust program that is somewhat expensive, but
works inside of the Sketchup interface and can produce professional results. I currently
use V-Ray for all of my renderings.

3.1 Clay Model

This is the most basic of renderings. A clay model rendering is a rendering with no
materials. I use clay model renderings all the time because they are fast (no materials
to render) and are great to diagram with. Most rendering software has an option called
material override that will allow you to replace all materials with a simple grey
texture.
Kerkythea Clay Model Tutorial
V-Ray Basic Settings (Global Settings Tab)

3.2 Simple Base Renderings: V-Ray

As I said above, this is my rendering software of choice. Its simple to use right out of
the box and has many advanced features that integrate perfectly with Sketchup.
V-Ray Basic Settings

3.3 Simple Base Renderings: Kerkythea

If you are looking for a free rendering program, go with Kerkythea. It integrates well with
Sketchup and is easy to use.
Kerkythea Shadows Tutorial
Kerkythea Interior Night Rendering

4. Controlling Light Manually with

Photoshop:

There will be many times when you cant get rendering software to do what you want it
to do and you have to figure it out in Photoshop. It is really valuable information to have
and will get you out of many jams, especially with presentations the next day.

4.1 PS Ambient Occlusion

Simply put, this term refers to adding shadows in corners where geometry meets. By
understanding this concept, you can add depth and realism to an image that is lacking
both. It can also be used on diagrams or model image exports that havent been
rendered.
PS Ambient Occlusion Tutorial

4.2 PS Window Light

It can consume a lot of resources to add a ton of lights in a rendering program. Often, it
can be faster just to paint in the light in Photoshop.
Window Light Tutorial
PS Night Scene Tutorial

Quick Facts:
For clarification (because I get these questions a lot) here are some quick facts about
my workflow and software that I use:

Modeling: Sketchup.
I use Sketchup for all of my modeling. I have used Rhino, 3D Studio Max, Revit, Form Z,
but have always come back to Sketchup. I prefer it because of its speed. No other
software allows me to model as fast as I can in Sketchup. It also seems to be a universal
software known by everyone. The majority of clients Ive worked with, not only in the
U.S. but also worldwide, either work with Sketchup or are familiar with the program.

Rendering: V-Ray.
While I was in school, I used Kerkythea and created several tutorials during this time. It
was a free program and was easily accessible to anyone who visited my site. Last year, I
switched to V-Ray because I needed more features and a higher quality output. V-Ray is
not free but is still a valuable program if you can afford it. V-Ray works within Sketchup
and isnt a stand alone program like Kerkythea.

Post Processing: Photoshop.

For all editing and post processing, I use Photoshop. There is free software like Gimp and
Photoshop Express that you can use as a replacement, but nothing beats the real thing.

Resolution:
This can range based on the needs and how it will be viewed. In school, most of my
illustrations were about 2,000 px wide but this was several years ago. Times have
changed and so has hardware. Today, I am now rendering at 4,500 px to 5,500 px wide.
I think for students, because of hardware limitations, 3,000 px to 4,000 px would be a
good size to aim for. All images made for my website in the past year were rendered at
4,500 px or higher on my laptop.

Time:
I try to keep rendering times to about 3 to 4 hours (using my laptop). This is easy to
accomplish if you are not using displacement maps and really high render settings.
Once in Photoshop, I typically spend between 4 to 6 hours. This includes adding people,
trees, ground plane, skies, and lighting effects.

If there is anything that I missed or any questions you have, send me an email through
my about me page or leave a comment. I see this as an evolving document that will
grow and change over time, especially in the quick facts section.

Photoshop Layer Management

by Alex Hogrefe | Oct 26, 2014 | Fundamentals | 43 comments

Architecture visualization is notorious for producing complex and messy PSD files.
Sometimes, its the little things that can make a big difference and in my opinion, layer
management is one of those little things that many people dont put enough emphasis
on. Properly managing your layers in Photoshop can lead to better efficiency, a more
editable file, and in many cases better looking illustrations. Over the years, I have

moved toward a system of building up Photoshop files. This system may not be perfect
for everyone but has streamlined my workflow and has lead to cleaner looking
illustrations.
The problem with PSD files is that they can quickly get out of hand. Many of my
Photoshop files that I work on easily exceed several hundred layers. Being careless
about naming files or not properly grouping them may save a little time in the
beginning. However, once you are several hours into Photoshop, the time wasted trying
to find the right layers or make changes far exceeds the time saved at the beginning.
Not only that, the image itself will start to get messy and unrefined since it becomes
difficult to mask layers and control lighting.
I put together an illustration that takes into account a lot of the different types of groups
that I typically use in my PSD files. Obviously, the specific groups change from
illustration to illustration depending on the type of image, but for the most part, the
overall structure remains consistent.
One other note, I am in no way saying this is the right way to organize PSD files. I am
sure there are other ways and even better ways to do this. However, this system works
well for me and provides a good amount of flexibility depending on the type of
illustration I am working on.

Groups, Masks, and Adjustment Layers

Groups
One of the keys to a clean Photoshop file are groups. Groups are folders in the layers
palette that contain one or more layers. Groups allow you to collapse many layers down

to a single line allowing you to navigate between several hundred layers quickly. One
more big advantage is that you can apply masks to groups which is useful for editing. A
group can be created by clicking the folder icon at the bottom of the layers palette.
Layers can then be dragged into the folder one at a time or several at a time.
Masks
A big part of working efficiently and keeping your files extremely editable is by using
nondestructive methods to edit your layers. The idea is to edit the illustration in a way
where changes can be reversed later on down the road.
If youre not using them already, masks are essential for nondestructive editing. I have
talked about masks on this site only a few times because they can be difficult to
understand at first. However, they are a life saver when it comes to cutting out
backgrounds or removing parts of layers. Masks are exactly as they sound allowing you
to mask or hide parts of the layer similar to erasing. The difference being the mask can
be removed later to bring back the area of the layer that was erased. I talked about
masks more in-depth in my Hatch Patterns Post about midway through.
Adjustment Layers
Just like masks, adjustment layers are nondestructive and allow you to adjust things like
levels, contrast, hue, etc. to several layers at once and also reverse the adjustment at
any time later on down the road. Adjustment layers act like real layers allowing one to
adjust the strength through opacity or even apply a mask to the adjustment. I dont use
these too much but have found them really useful from time to time.

Organizing the Layers

Above is a screenshot of the layers palette for this illustration. You will quickly notice
that everything is grouped. Having everything grouped allows me to collapse all layers
and move around the palette more easily. It also forces me to really think about the best
place to locate layers so that finding them later wont be so time consuming.

1. Base Files Group

The Photoshop process begins with several images exported from both Sketchup and a
render engine such as V-Ray. These images often include the base rendering, a
reflections export, refraction export, line work, ambient occlusion pass, z-depth, Alpha,
among others. All of these layers are placed in the BASE FILE group. These layers
represent the core layers from which everything else in the Photoshop file builds off
of. Once these layers are compiled, a mask is applied to the group to remove the sky
and background elements using the Alpha layer.

2. Sky Group (Below the Base Files Group)

After compiling the base files, I bring in the sky. I like to do this early on because the sky
plays a big role in setting the tone of the image. It can impact the coloring and mood so
figuring this out first gives the image good momentum. I will often combine several sky
images to get the exact look I am going for. Because I masked out the BASE FILES
group, I can simply drag the SKY group below the BASE FILES group and shift and scale
the location until I get something that looks good.

3. Background Group (Below the Base Files Group

and above the Sky Group)

Along with the sky, I bring in the background elements which includes the surrounding
site buildings and landscape not modeled or rendered. The background information
comes from many places such as the client, Google image search, or Google street view.

4. Ground Plane Group

The ground plane consists of road textures, sidewalk textures, and green areas such as
grass. At this point, the entire image has been tweaked and a good base is in place.
From here, there will be a lot of detailing with light, cars, people, and trees.

5. Interior Group

In the case of this illustration, there is a lot of glass and interior information. I like to
keep this a separate group instead of making these adjustments with the BASE FILES
group. The reason being that this group houses all things interior including people,
furniture, and lights which can sometimes add up to a ton of layers. The advantage of
keeping all of these layers in one group is that I can use one master mask to cut out
mullions and define the windows.

6. Tree, People, and Car Groups

Now that there is a good base, sky, and ground plane, I begin inserting, trees, cars and
people. Each category gets its own group folder. Within each one of these groups, there
is a subgroup for shadows. I place all of the shadows in a subgroup so that I can control
the opacity of all of the shadows at once instead of dealing with opacity individually.
This is also important when two shadows overlap. Since it is the group controlling the
opacity, shadows overlapping inside the group will blend together instead of overlaying
on top of one another.
In many situations, I will have multiple groups of trees and people. Sometimes there are
trees in the foreground covering everything and sometimes there are trees in the
background behind buildings. This requires separate groups to avoid complicated
masking placed in different areas of the layers palette.

7. Effects Group

This group is always at the top of the layers palette and contains layers such as color
overlays, sun glare, fog, and overall adjustments. Introduction of this group varies, it
sometimes happens early on in the process or not until the very end. However, this
group is one of the most important in giving the illustration character and atmosphere.

9. HDR/Plugins Group

Occasionally, I will tweak the final illustration using some plugins/filters like Topaz Labs
Adjust to bring out some detail and refine the coloring. This involves copying and
merging all of the layers (ctrl+alt+shift+e) to get a single layer that the plugin can be
applied to. I keep this group at the top so that I can lower the opacity and lessen the
effects of the plugin if needed.

To clarify, most of my illustrations follow this structure with some minor deviation
depending on the illustration type. For the purpose of this tutorial, I carefully named
every layer but in the heat of the moment it is not always possible to take the time to
perfectly name everything. I do however make a point to thoroughly name groups in all
caps no matter how bad the time crunch. The point is to have a solid system in place
that ultimately leads to a more efficient workflow and that produces cleaner work.