How 8 Archviz Professionals Started Their Careers in 3D Visualization
From their very first attempts at extruding faces, to where they are now, check out how these archviz professionals turned their hobby passions into careers in 3D visualization.
‘Broome Soho’ by Daniel Diaz Del Castillo
Daniel Diaz Del Castillo
Founder & Director of Arqrenderz
“I started with 3D very early on, in the second year at university, when a friend introduced me to SketchUp. At that time computers were slow and I didn't have much money, so it was a rough start, but I fell in love with CAD design. It was so simple and easy to show your ideas to others, and I’ve always loved computers, so it was like home for me.
I started with plain SketchUp, then came V-Ray for SketchUp, developed by a third party; the software was a little buggy and, at that time, SketchUp was a 32bit app, so if your project was over 3.2 GB of ram it would crash. There was a lot of tinkering and optimization to be done in order to have a working project!”
Paco Barruguer
Freelance 3D Artist
“I started with 3D in 2017, when I worked as a graphic designer and we commissioned 3D videos of product installations. But a lot of the time, the products were modified and we needed to change the videos, so I decided to learn how to use 3D software so we could change them.
I discovered Blender and instantly loved it. Nowadays, I'm constantly looking for archviz images for inspiration; mostly real photos. I love being able to choose different ideas from these images and combine them in a single 3D scene.”
‘V60 House’ by Helmy Ardiansyah
Helmy Ardiansyah
Freelance Architectural Visualizer
“I started my journey as a 3D artist when I was in high school. One day, I went to my friend’s house and found a book about 3D modeling and rendering a Dojo in 3ds Max. I thought it was very cool, but at that time, I didn’t have a PC capable of running 3DS Max, so I found an alternative software called Swift3D and started learning the basics.
A few years later, my father bought me a new computer and I started to learn 3DS Max and V-Ray from some books (YouTube was not a thing at that time!).
After I finished high school, I continued to study architecture in college, which is when I developed more interest in architecture and 3D visualizations.”
‘Island House’ by Paweł Pęcherzewski
Paweł Pęcherzewski
3D Artist at Poliigon
“Getting into 3D viz was an accident. It was the end of 2013; I was randomly watching some NVIDIA Tech Demos on YouTube and got really interested in fluid simulations. That's how I found Blender and decided to try it out.
As I found my way through the basics, I started watching more of [Poliigon founder] Andrew [Price]’s Blender Guru tutorials. I eventually saw the Architecture Academy 1.5 trailer, which really inspired me, even though at the time I couldn't afford the course, so I was trying to learn it using free knowledge and resources. Which was slow. Really slow.
I got my laptop in the summer of 2014, which was a huge deal for me - I could do a lot more using it. By 2015, I knew Blender well enough to start making some really simple architectural scenes.
Around that time, I noticed the trend of archviz in the Blender community. Since there was an ongoing house renovation at my place, I decided to help my parents out with some basic visualizations of the wall paint colors and patterns. That was probably the turning point for me; something I’ve always liked about 3D is the ability to take an idea that’s only been in your head and bring it to life, to show your thoughts without describing them.
In 2018, I got into freelancing and got my current PC, which I upgraded later on...and that's when everything started coming together, to lead me to where I am today.”
Darko Mitev
Senior CG Generalist at Brown Bag Films
“I started my career 11 years ago, in a small VFX house in Macedonia called Fx3X as a junior artist. Since it was a smaller studio, most of us were generalists, and we had to learn modeling, texturing, rendering and even a little bit of compositing. After that, I jumped between a few different studios, doing commercials, VFX, animation and VR projects, and in 2017, I moved to Dublin, Ireland, to work for Brown Bag Films, where I am currently working as Lead Character Modeler.”
Adam Skovran
Freelance Creative Designer
“When I was working for the Amazon Devices team in Europe, I met my good friend Piotr Kojtek. He was proficient in Blender and seeing him creating these amazing projects looked like straight up black magic, so it caught my interest fairly quickly.
I first learned about Blender in 2014, but I remember getting started with it was so confusing - it took me a couple of years (and nudges from Piotr) to get familiar with it enough, until the real learning could start. By May 2017, I had completed my first render (of course it's a donut render).
My first contact with the Blender community was through Blender Guru, and Gleb Alexandrov's Creative Shrimp. I remember looking with awe at the Renders of the Month, and the design challenges, and just trying to figure out how on earth these people could create those images in Blender, when the best I could do was extruding the default cube's faces. It really seemed impossible. But this curiosity to unlock the power of Blender was definitely one of the major driving forces these past couple of years that helped me get to where I am today.”
‘Brick House’ by Artur Szóstakowski
Artur Szóstakowski
Archviz artist & Founder of Megatecture
“It all started during my college years, when I was studying architecture. It was really basic at first; I was only using REVIT’s Mental Ray to render my projects, but the visualizations were good enough for college designs.
After I graduated, I started working as an architect in several firms; there, I discovered I could make a living by delivering high-end architecture visualizations to clients. That idea, and the dream of freelancing, quickly took over. I started learning Blender after work and on weekends; it required very high levels of discipline, but soon paid off after a few months when I began to win some contracts through workmates.
When I finally had so many projects that I could freelance full-time, I decided to leave my architecture job...and I’ve never looked back.”
Duy Phan
Senior 3D Artist at Binyan Studios
“Things started back in my high school days when I got too addicted to drawing imaginary comic scenes. My mom discovered that I designed and drew the little buildings I put in my images so she encouraged me to study architecture.
Having to portray and represent my ideas glued me so tight to the chair; it made me ask the question, “how do I convince the project viewer to explore my work further by showing powerful images, just like all the legendary architects and visual artists do?”
The more I refined my project images, the more it helped me to realize my path as an archviz illustrator.”
