Guidance on Archviz Portfolio

#1

What does a potential employer want to see for an entry position applicant in archviz? I have no professional experience and I’ve given myself a month to develop a portfolio and start applying for places. I have just been working 2 years as a graphic designer and resigned after realising I’ve been a tad stagnant with my career.

I’m a very capable modeller, but given how time consuming modelling is, I’ve thought of making interior scenes with high quality assets bought online and sprinkling in some custom furniture to show I am capable. Is that considered bad practice for a portfolio? I feel like composing well arranged scenes with great lighting might be more important here, but I could be wrong.

Well-informed advice highly appreciated! :slight_smile:

#2

…I’d suggest reposting here for further relevant guidance specific too your need:

http://forums.cgarchitect.com/

#3

Ive hired my fair share of archviz staff and the things I usually look for are camera heights, lens choice, scale, detail such as window panes/thickness, door frames, skirting, cornices, texture, composition, color grade and interior design/placement of interior props. You can and should buy all the furniture models you need to showcase your architecture skills - the point is understanding how to interpret drawings well and fill in the gaps (as you often need to know how real things are built and they should appear this way such as 2mm gaps between floorboards or joinery, etc). Great lighting, tonemapping and uvw timber the correct way, one of the biggest junior mistakes is not paying attention to the direction of the wood grain.

The rest comes with experience but id say at least 6 different images as a folio with different lighting styles and furniture design to match the buyer is a good start. In terms of furniture design think of the area the apartment is being built, if its near a beach and you have young 25-30 couples looking to buy make sure your tone palette and furniture choice reflects this - im sure coming from a graphics design background you probably have a good grip on this concept already so that will come in handy for logical design choices you will make.