A thread I posted on the Vray forum website:
The visualisation industry has changed a lot over the last 10-15 years. There are so many more people advertising CGI services than there once were. As has also been said before a number of times, a business like ArchVis can be very cheap, almost free, to set up. You can download dodgy software, sit in your bedroom/study/bedsit with a £1000 PC and a couple of £500 render nodes and churn out half decent renderings quickly. These people can charge peanuts for their work as it doesn’t take much to cover their (non existant) overheads. Where we might charge £3000 for an image, these guys can charge £250 and still be more than happy!
I think if the industry was like it is today when we began, I would never consider setting up an ArchVis company – I can’t imagine starting up with an empty portfolio and no track record. The only thing that keeps us in work is reputation, a broad client base and the quality of our work. Pricing projects has never been more difficult than it is now – you’d think after 10+ years, this would have become easier.
It has often been mentioned that part of our job (as high(er) end visualisers) is to educate our clients in what a high quality visualisation is. Whilst true, 90% of the time, you don’t get the opportunity to educate the client as they have already made their decision based on the lowest bid.
Added to these difficulties is the fact that generating good images has never been easier. Software like Sketchup allows a large chunk of the ArchVis client base – architects – to create their own images in house that are adequate for many purposes. Vray itself allows very quick and high end exterior images to be created by sticking a Vraysun and sky into a scene and clicking render! 10+ years ago, we were using light rigs comprised of 100 or more spot lights to give a GI ‘look’, and extra fill lights here, there and everywhere to give the effects that we needed. Only in post production were glossy reflections even contemplated, as rendering them in scene was slow beyond belief.
These are tough times for us all I’m afraid, and it is very hard to give the cloud a silver lining.
“Stand your ground men/women! Don’t cave in to the scum who use hooky software! Stiff upper lip!”
(not much of a battle plan, I know!)
