It’s a lot different than petty plates that you do in school because this is actual practice. There’s a client involved, and you need to be keen on the details. The first thing I did was to review the contract documents and make a CAD drawing of the floor plan and interior elevations. This is to familiarize with the actual plan and to have a solid foundation in the 3D render. After this, I made a concept board to get the feel of the room and how it will look. At first this felt like such a tedious process, but all you’ve got to do is power through. The results are satisfying anyway.
Now that I have a solid foundation, it’s now time to start 3D modelling. As I’ve stated, I already know some basic SketchUp knowledge, enough to make a decent 3D model. When I finished modelling the walls, I can’t believe how much work is left to finish just this one room. I still need to model the bed frames and model the windows and doors, and it all must be exact in the specifications. My mentor also showed his standard of 3D modelling and I was really pressured to meet his standards. I didn’t know if I could meet the standards that are set. Maybe I’m not good enough for this? Nevertheless, I powered through again.
My mentor guided me all throughout the process like what things to put and how to make it generally better. When it came to the 3D rendering, here comes the bulk of the work. There’s a lot to do, and I didn’t know some of the stuff. I had to relearn and read some tutorials to get the 3D render right. My mentor also taught me things like the 45° FOV (field of view) and how it’s important to get the right view. He also taught me that the eye height should be 1.6m to match the view of the person. The lighting must be balanced and match the lighting layout in the contract documents. All these steps are repeated and repeated until I get to the final render.
My attention to detail has definitely improved because since the start, our hands-on mentor has scrutinized every corner of our product. It felt like every inch should be near-perfect if not perfect. I could use all these newfound skills in my next venture: thesis year. This apprenticeship program has made me a better worker and found my love for this career.