Archviz Low Poly or High Poly?

The_Silent_One

Hi all,

If say your goal was to create a photo-realistic render (not real time) of an interior scene would the objects in the scene need to be high poly or low poly? I understand that when making anything for games you would model the high poly, retopologize to create the low poly, unwrap, texture and then render. What approach is used for archviz? 

musashidan

For offline Archvis still rendering anything goes. You can use any kind of modeling/texturing approach and even do a lot in post if you like. As long as the end result looks good then your workflow can be whatever you like. Most Archvis artists don't bother with UV unwrapping and may even just use a lot of stock models.

The_Silent_One

Thanks musashidan, your answers have been consistently helpful.

musashidan

No problem, mate. Glad I could help.

minev

Yes, I support that approach, for offline rendering, if it looks good > it is good. Workflow is not designated. Surely it is always convenient to have less geo, smaller file size when handling/rendering/sharing the file, but that's just a comfort issue. 

I work a lot with interior scenes coming from offline archviz artists and can't help to notice unnecessary over use of subdivision values on models though. 

musashidan

minev said:

Yes, I support that approach, for offline rendering, if it looks good > it is good. Workflow is not designated. Surely it is always convenient to have less geo, smaller file size when handling/rendering/sharing the file, but that's just a comfort issue. 

I work a lot with interior scenes coming from offline archviz artists and can't help to notice unnecessary over use of subdivision values on models though. 

Agreed. Obviously good workflow practices/organisation/common sense still apply, but the often strict approach to a production pipeline doesn't. And you're right about the unecessary use of subdivision, probably a lot to do with individual habits.

The_Silent_One

Thanks minev, maybe this is why it was so hard to find a specific workflow for archviz when doing a Google search. Some don't unwrap, only use high poly models and than there are others who do the complete opposite.   

musashidan

You can pretty much do whatever suits. Unwrap or not. Use procedural texturing, basic uvw mapping or triplanar maps, or even overlay textures in post. Model using any methods you like. Subd, boolean, chamfered boxmodels, decimated sculpts. Whatever gets it done, mate.

The_Silent_One

Yeah, I'll probably use procedural textures and unwrap where necessary.

yukonwanderer

I used to model in sketchup of all things, export to 3d max for rendering in mental ray, at which point I just did a very basic box mapping over the entire model, set up my tiling textures, rendered, then did a lot of post in Photoshop.

The_Silent_One

I'll definitely be using tiling textures.