Entourage – not the hit show once on HBO – rather the people, plants, and cars in our Arch Viz world. This may not be as exciting as a discussion about a TV show but we’ll give it a whirl.
Entourage is a series of items that fill the scene. Used as props, these objects then provide scale and activate a scene giving it life. Imagine an exterior rendering with palm trees, fancy cars, and people dressed to impress. The entourage tells a story and already without seeing the rendering, you can guess that the setting could be southern California, West Palm Beach, FL, etc. Interiors also benefit from the use of entourage especially people. Even indoors, they too can tell a story of what’s going on in a space. There are times when the entourage doesn’t have a distinct look or theme but this is much more rare. In this scenario, we may just insert silhouettes of people just to show scale.
Regardless of how entourage is used or what the style is, what we know is that it is certainly preferred by our clients over all. But what clients often aren’t aware of is the consideration taken by arch viz firms involving 2D and 3D entourage options. Let me explain.
2D entourage is more frequently used in close up scenarios or the foreground where the entourage will require greater fine-tuning. This is because the lack of definition of 3D people is its downfall. 3D people, specifically, with all of the advantages of 3D are commonly used in the distance meaning they are in the background or the camera is not already focused on them. They are also good for an area that requires dense population like a retail space or another space where there’s a lot of activity going on and people moving around and/or sitting.
It used to be that 2D entourage was the only way to go. You had to find people or cars and trees and bushes online and you had to cut the backgrounds out of them in order to fit them into a scene. This is something we still do when using 2D entourage, but today we can do a lot with 3D entourage as well and skip the extra labor. 3D helps in speeding up the process of completing a rendering without having to do much postproduction work in Photoshop. It is much more sophisticated and realistic looking and is placed correctly while building the scene. Any camera angle can then be quickly selected and the actual render process can occur anytime. With 2D, this would not be possible. If a different camera angle is required, then entourage needs to be repositioned. Other items to consider are adjustment of direction, appropriate lighting, and appropriate shading to make the scene feel more real. This process of lightening and darkening is known as ‘burning and dodging’ provides a more realistic feel.
Did you know that whether 2D or 3D, the people inserted into a visualization piece are by far not an afterthought? Here’s what I mean. Each project likely has its own theme and therefore there are all kinds of things to consider when assigning just the right people to make the illustration realistic. First, it’s not possible to have a library of people extensive enough to cover any and all requirements. It would truly have to be endless. For example, we will not only need to identify the correct demographics of a person – the right gender, age, weight, height, family/individual, and skin color, but a host of other items must also be considered like: attire – should they be in uniform or business attire, wearing activewear, casual clothing, heels, tennis shoes, or flats? Activity too – are they sitting, standing, exercising, carrying a bag, wearing a backpack, walking a dog, having a drink, laughing with friends, reading alone, or are they gazing or pointing at something. Scale is another important issue. If the person isn’t the right distance from the camera, they are out. Next, if the person meets all of our requirements, let’s say we need someone college-aged, female, casual attire, and sitting so that we can insert her into a university commons area at a table reading a book, then she also has to be facing the correct direction and looking down at the appropriate angle. If these final two requirements aren’t met then the search begins again. Additionally, if we cannot use people already located in our library and are forced to google 2D people, for legal reasons if a face is recognizable it cannot be used. In this scenario, the next best scenario is to go stock photography websites.
People are only part of the puzzle. Landscaping and trees are significant too because they must be specific to the climate and geographic location. A recent scenario had us building palm trees to be the exact species of palm (represented by the length of the frans) to that location.
When you have a project needing entourage, think all of this through and we’ll help bring your project to life.