Architectural Rendering & Visualization Services

Five kinds of image cover almost every architectural brief. Most projects combine two or three of them.

Selling homes off-plan? Launch sets, 3D floor plans and virtual staging are covered on real estate rendering.

Working in the Gulf? See our projects in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh.

Exterior rendering

The building in its setting at a chosen time of day: street level, hero angle, dusk. The core of planning packs, brochures and site hoardings.

How much do 3D architectural rendering services cost?

Exterior views start at £1,000 per view and interiors at £550 per view. A single family home needs fewer views than a high-rise, so the budget scales with the shot list rather than the building. Send the drawings and you will have an estimate within 1 hour.

Interior rendering

Lobbies, amenity spaces, show apartments and typical units, lit and furnished to the specification, so buyers and tenants see the finished space.

Aerial and masterplan views

The whole site from above, for masterplans, multi-building schemes and anything where the layout is the argument.

Photomontage and verified views

The rendered building placed into drone or eye-level photography of the real site, camera-matched for planning boards and permit reviews.

Architectural animation

A moving camera around or through the scheme. Exterior fly-throughs, aerial and masterplan films are on our architectural animation page; eye-level films through the interior are 3D walkthroughs.

Do you produce property CGI for marketing as well as planning?

Yes, and usually from the same 3D model. Property CGI for the sales campaign (hero exteriors, aerials, lifestyle interiors) and planning-grade images for the council share one set of geometry, dressed differently for each audience. Building the model once is where the saving sits, so brief both uses together if you can.

Every 3D architectural rendering job runs the same seven steps, whether it is one house or a masterplan:

1. you send the drawings and the brief;
2. the estimate comes back within 1 hour;
3. we agree the camera positions on the plan;
4. you approve a clay model, grey and untextured, so geometry and angles are fixed before materials;
5. we send draft renders with materials and light;
6. two rounds of revisions are included;
7. you receive the final images in 4K, up to 8K for hoardings.

One to three stills take 5 to 7 business days. Exteriors start at £1,000 per view and interiors at £550 per view; the estimate prices the exact shot list.

Light set by the market, not by habit

A residential scheme sells on how it feels to live there, so we light it for a warm evening, keep the small imperfections in concrete and timber, and place people at the edges of the frame. A commercial scheme sells on access and presence: cooler, sharper light, the building read against its neighbours and the skyline. The model is the same; the brief decides which version you get.

Can you match the render to a specific photo of our site?

Yes, this is called Photomontage. A beautiful building in a void is useless for planning applications, so contextual accuracy is a critical part of our approach. We camera-match the 3D model to your drone or eye-level photography of the actual site, so the building sits in its real-world context. This provides a 'Verified View' often required by local councils, planning boards and permit authorities. We match the virtual sun position exactly to the time the photograph was taken, ensure shadows cast correctly onto neighboring structures, and blend vegetation smoothly. This level of detail reduces friction during the approval process, preventing the common objections regarding visual impact or neighborhood character.

Do you handle large-scale urban planning projects?

Yes: city blocks, masterplans, aerial views, master-planned communities and multi-tower developments. The challenge is scale. Traditional rendering pipelines often choke on the sheer amount of geometry. We use proxy workflows and instance scattering to manage billions of polygons without slowing down iteration times or compromising detail. This allows us to populate entire neighborhoods with 3D trees, cars, and people, creating a bustling, vibrant environment rather than a ghost town. We can show you the project from a satellite view to understand the layout, and then swoop down to a balcony view to understand the resident experience, all within the same consistent visual fidelity.

The Iterative Advantage

We understand that design is fluid. The render is often the first time an architect sees their vision 'for real.' This often triggers design changes. Our workflow is designed to accommodate this. Because we work non-destructively, we can update the underlying architecture while keeping the lighting and landscaping setup intact. This agility means we become a part of your design development team, helping you spot clashes or aesthetic issues before they become expensive on-site change orders. We don't just document the final design; we help you refine it.

Verified views and AVRs for planning

When the ask is planning evidence rather than marketing, we produce verified views to a surveyed, documented methodology: AVR 0 to 3, camera-matched from recorded viewpoints. If a case officer has just asked you for one, we wrote a plain-English guide to verified views and AVR levels.

To deliver results that stand up to the scrutiny of 4K screens and VR headsets, we deploy a modern technology stack that aligns with the 2026 industry standards for high-fidelity visualization.

Primary Production Software

• Autodesk 3ds Max: The industry backbone for high-poly architectural modeling. It handles complex geometry with stability and precision, allowing us to ingest detailed BIM data without data loss.
• Chaos Corona & V-Ray: Our primary rendering engines for still imagery. These path-tracing engines simulate the physical behavior of light, calculating global illumination, caustics, and subsurface scattering to achieve true photorealism.
• Chaos Vantage: real-time look development on camera and light, so a lighting change is reviewed in minutes; final frames render in V-Ray and Corona.

Support & Post-Production

• Forest Pack Pro & RailClone: These parametric plugins allow us to generate vast, realistic landscapes and complex architectural details (like fencing, balustrades, and roads) procedurally. This ensures that even background elements have high-fidelity detail without manual placement.
• Adobe Creative Suite: Photoshop and After Effects are used for the final color grading (LUT application), compositing, and atmospheric integration. This is where the 'digital photography' happens, adjusting contrast and mood to match the artistic direction.

Hardware Infrastructure

We operate on a hybrid rendering pipeline. Our in-house workstations utilize the latest NVIDIA RTX architecture for real-time viewport feedback. For final high-resolution output we render on our own farm: six nodes, each an AMD Threadripper with an RTX 5080. This infrastructure guarantees that we can deliver an 8K resolution marketing image or a 60-second 4K animation without bottlenecking your project timeline. We maintain strict data security protocols across all cloud interactions, ensuring your proprietary designs remain confidential.

We have optimized our workflow to integrate smoothly with architectural and development teams. We function less like an external vendor and more like a specialized arm of your internal team.

What files do I need to send for an exterior rendering quote?

Ideally, architectural drawings (CAD/PDF), a 3D model if you have one, and a schedule of materials. We accept a wide range of standard architectural formats. The most common include AutoCAD (DWG/DXF), Revit (RVT), SketchUp (SKP), and Rhino (3DM). If you are in the early conceptual phase and do not have 3D files, we can model directly from PDF plans and elevations. Reference photos for the desired mood, or 'Mood Boards', help us align on the aesthetic direction (e.g., Nordic Minimalism, Industrial Chic).

Communication & Review

We believe that static email chains kill creativity. We utilize visual collaboration platforms like Frame.io for video feedback and Miro for image markups. This allows you to click directly on a render and leave a comment like 'Change this cladding to timber' or 'Reduce the specularity on the glass.' This eliminates ambiguity and ensures that our revisions are precise.

What is the difference between 'Clay' and 'Final' renders?

Clay renders are grey, untextured images used to approve the camera angle and building geometry. Final renders include all materials, lighting, landscaping and post-production. Between the two, projects run through defined milestones:

• Clay/White Card Mode: To sign off on geometry and camera angle.
• Color Draft: To sign off on materials and lighting.
• Pre-Final: For minor tweaks and detailing.
• Final Delivery: The polished asset.

How long does a typical exterior rendering project take?

A standard project with 1-3 still images usually takes 5-7 business days. Complex animations or large masterplans may take 2-4 weeks. We offer expedited services for tight deadlines.

Agile Flexibility

Real estate development is dynamic. Local authorities might request a change in building height, or investors might demand a different unit mix. Our pipeline is built to be non-destructive. By referencing external files and using parametric modeling techniques, we can ripple changes through the 3D scene relatively quickly. We establish a clear 'Change Order' protocol at the start so that if scope changes occur, we can handle them transparently without pausing the project momentum.

Upon project completion, you receive a package of assets formatted specifically for your intended distribution channels, whether digital or print.

Visual Assets

• Still Renderings: Delivered as PNG or JPEG files. Standard resolution is 4K (3840x2160), with options up to 8K for large-format billboards and site hoardings.
• Alpha Channels & Render Passes: Upon request, we can provide the 'wirecolor,' 'reflection,' and 'alpha' passes. This allows your internal graphic design team to slip visuals behind the building or adjust specific colors in the future without needing a re-render.
• Animations: Delivered as 4K MP4 files. We handle editing, color grading, and royalty-free music synchronization.

Documentation & Licensing

We provide a formal Transfer of Rights document upon final payment. While 100CGI Studio retains the right to showcase the work in our portfolio (unless an NDA is active), you receive full commercial usage rights. This means you can use the assets across all media types, social media, print advertising, TV commercials, and investor prospectuses, without recurring royalty fees. We also provide a 'Technical Spec Sheet' detailing the color profiles used (sRGB vs CMYK) to ensure your print partners reproduce the colors accurately on physical marketing materials.