Hi-res, Hi-realism boat design renderings

[Alik]

2SC1: Good renderings, and extremely nice wooden powerboat!

 

[JonathanCole]

I find it interesting that so many of you have a viewpoint which is against realistic imaging of boats. In the architectural world, realistic, detailed, ray-traced images are completely the standard for architects. And this is for buildings and interior design, where people have enough experience to use their imaginations. With marine vessels there are so many possible variations, because the structure is self-contained, that it would seem to me to be more useful to have realistic images than in earthbound architecture. I think the problem is that there are very few people who know how to do it, and the one's that do are quickly grabbed by the big firms. The process of course , starts from CAD, but takes it several steps further, with texture mapping and ray-tracing. So clearly it is a process that is time consuming. But most of that time is spent on CAD which has to be done anyway. I have been looking for realistic, texture-mapped, raytraced renderings of boats but have found very few. Even in Rhino's gallery the stuff is very low-grade. Here is a drawing from Nicola Delungo, I believe it was made in Rhino.

 

[Alik]

Probably You are right, but our target is to build the boat, not to make a picture of it.

 

[SC1]

Im also believe a good rendering sells better than only a top/side view construction drawing.

 

[JonathanCole]

Alik wrote:
Probably You are right, but our target is to build the boat, not to make a picture of it.

I see it a little differently. Unless you are building a very small boat or you have years of your life to give to a larger one, then building a boat will be a process that require a collaboration of many people with many skills. When you build a large boat, it needs collaboration of those with the funds who are not necessarily technical people. You have to convince them to invest their funds in a project by showing it to be a good one. That is where illustrations can help.

I know there are many members who are only interested in the way things have been done traditionally. However, there are lot's of great new tools evolving and I see no reason that the boat design community should not use them. I believe the opportunity is there for an enterprising designer to specialize in the computerized development of marine concepts. If it can work for Boeing, it can work for boat design.

 

[Alik]

2SC1:
Drawing can look like this also... Not realistic, but can see all technical details. I mean black one.

 

[JonathanCole]

Here's a pretty good rendering from Peter Neceda, a student at Westlawn School of Yacht design.

 

[JonathanCole]

2SC1:
Drawing can look like this also... Not realistic, but can see all technical details. I mean black one.

Sure, that is a good illustration of the boat that is pictured. The elevations give detail. Having the second picture showing her on the water adds another dimension that helps the buyers to visualize it in the marine environment.

 

[SC1]

2SC1:
Drawing can look like this also... Not realistic, but can see all technical details. I mean black one.

Nice, as much technical info as possible can be good, but for the "normal" boat buyer it is important to imagine how their new boat will appeare floating.
Like car buyers , they are not so interest about how suspension and exhaust system looks.

 

[Alik]

Nice, as much technical info as possible can be good, but for the "normal" boat buyer it is important to imagine how their new boat will appeare floating.
Like car buyers , they are not so interest about how suspension and exhaust system looks.

Agree, but some customers would like to know everything. I really like those.

 

[Eric Sponberg]

I find it interesting that so many of you have a viewpoint which is against realistic imaging of boats. In the architectural world, realistic, detailed, ray-traced images are completely the standard for architects. And this is for buildings and interior design, where people have enough experience to use their imaginations. With marine vessels there are so many possible variations, because the structure is self-contained, that it would seem to me to be more useful to have realistic images than in earthbound architecture. I think the problem is that there are very few people who know how to do it, and the one's that do are quickly grabbed by the big firms. The process of course , starts from CAD, but takes it several steps further, with texture mapping and ray-tracing. So clearly it is a process that is time consuming. But most of that time is spent on CAD which has to be done anyway. I have been looking for realistic, texture-mapped, raytraced renderings of boats but have found very few. Even in Rhino's gallery the stuff is very low-grade. Here is a drawing from Nicola Delungo, I believe it was made in Rhino.

In my opinion, the business of the general architectural world is very different from the marine world. People need buildings, but they don't need boats. There is A LOT more money available for building architecture than there is for marine architecture. If we all had sugar-daddy clients, you would see more renderings. But how many yacht designs are really commissioned every day, compared to how many buildings designs are commissioned? Ours is a paltry, small field.

Not only that, buildings by and large are squarish, they sit on land, and they don't go anywhere. A boat or yacht, on the other hand, is much more than a house in its functions--it has to have a fairly specific shape--something that will move through the water properly, it has to float, stay upright, and move at speed and actually perform. So there is a whole element of physics that has to be applied to the design at hand, and the designer and the rendering artist have to have some semblance of what will actually work on the water.

So in marine design you have a much smaller field that is much more complicated, physics and science-wise, than in building design. If we designers and our clients could afford it and we had the talent at hand, you'd see more of it. But the realities of the marketplace have allowed us to progress only as far as we have. Certainly the bigger yacht design houses have the talent in-house and the clientele to support it. The rest of us don't, and we will likely hire it out when the need arises and the client is willing to pay for it.

Eric

 

[MikeJohns]

Yes on big projects. Architects compete against each other vigorously. Presentation becomes a marketing arms race. They do this for free knowing they get less than 1 in 10 of the contracts they compete for, but knowing that the winning contract will reimburse them for all that effort on the missed commissions. Look at the effort they put into scale models as well.

A more direct parallel with architecture would be run of the mill urban home design where no-one would play a tender game and you approach a single designer/architect who finalizes the design on nothing more than 2d sketches.

Pseudo-realism is fun but not necessary.

 

[JonathanCole]

Effective renderings do not necessarily have to have ray-tracing for super-realism. They can effectively communicate design ideas as a realistic sketch. Like the one from C. Gorby Bradford, below.

Then of course there is the highly realistic ray-traced rendering such as the Lamborghini Murcielago pictured. Both of these styles of rendering sketches and design ideas are very effective for engaging the imagination of the customer.

 

[Pedigree Cats]

Artists

The "Judylan" power cat we just launched was built by using the Artists conception, very little was changed to the clients wants and needs (hardtop added) An example was submitted of what the artist thought I ment when I said "Take my CTS and morph it into a power catamaran and lets see what we get."
Concept artist are where we start. In today's world, clients do not want what their neighbor has or drives. In our 32 years of building multihulls, we have never built the same multihull twice. Showing up shortly on our web site, will be our latest project, based on a design started by the Designer and now will have a concept artist work with the client (me personally) and create what I think my cat should look like. Designers just don't have what it takes to create todays demands, look at the cars of today, most created by "Transportation concept artist" A lot of them from the Pasadena school in California.

 

[Alik]

Most of people use cars, houses, furniture, some utilitary things every day... Not all of them know too much about boats. Same with artists - most of them can draw houses, furniture, etc., but only very few of them are usefull in boat design process.