Pillar · Exteriors
3D exterior rendering
Exteriors are where lighting decisions show up first. Sun angle, sky turbidity, ground albedo, and camera height do more for a building shot than any material tweak. These guides cover the setups and post moves that hold up in a client review.
Tutorial · 14 min
Corona render settings for exteriors: the only setup you need in 2026
Denoising, tone mapping, and the three settings that quietly ruin most exterior skies. A battle tested Corona 12 setup, pulled from six years of production work.
Lighting · 11 min
Golden hour lighting in V-Ray: sun, sky, and believable long shadows
Why your dusk renders keep coming out orange instead of warm, and the two node change in V-Ray 7 that fixes it in about ninety seconds.
Breakdown · 18 min
Hillside villa, clay to final: a full render breakdown with pass by pass notes
AO, Z depth, cryptomatte, and the twenty minutes of Photoshop that did half the work on this 3ds Max hillside exterior.
Workflow · 15 min
Blender and Cycles for arch viz: a forest pavilion, start to finish
Cycles X, geometry nodes for foliage, and the render settings that closed the gap with Corona on this small brutalist project.
Breakdown · 11 min
Rendering pool water that looks wet: caustics, mesh, and refraction
The three settings that make pool water read as water and the two more that push it into cinematic. A dusk infinity pool breakdown for V-Ray and Corona.
Lighting · 11 min
Rendering snow exteriors: alpine cabins without the greeting card feel
Snow displacement, subsurface scattering on ice, and the fireplace glow that anchors the frame. A winter exterior breakdown in Corona.
Lighting · 11 min
Night exterior renders: illuminated facades without the flare crutch
IES profiles, deep blue sky exposure, and the interior reveal that carries a night facade. A working guide for commercial night shots.
Interiors · 10 min
Bedroom renders at dusk: the two light source composition
Sky in one temperature, bedside lamps in another, and nothing else. A quiet dusk bedroom study in V-Ray with a full lighting breakdown.
Workflow · 12 min
How much does a 3D architectural rendering cost in 2026: an honest price guide
Real 2026 pricing for exterior stills, interiors, animations, and packages, with the pricing logic that actually holds up on paid client work.
Lighting · 9 min
Getting fog right in exterior renders (without killing your image)
Fog is the fastest way to make an exterior feel like a real place. It's also the fastest way to make it look muddy. Here's how I actually use it on paid work.
Workflow · 8 min
The Photoshop steps I actually do on every exterior render
Not a comprehensive tutorial. Just the seven or eight things I do in Photoshop to every exterior before it goes to a client, in the order I do them.
Workflow · 8 min
Modelling landscape topography that doesn't look like a wedding cake
Most rendered sites look like the building is sitting on a stack of layer cakes. Here's how I actually handle hillside grades so the image reads as real terrain.
Lighting · 9 min
Why we light every interior at 3599K and stopped arguing about it
Picking one colour temperature for artificial interior light killed half our revision cycles. Here is the reasoning, the exceptions, and how to keep skin tones and timber honest at 3599K.
Interiors · 12 min
Rooftop terrace rendering: glass railings, planters, and city backdrop
Terraces are trickier than they look. The glass, the plants, the horizon line, and the sky all compete for attention. Here is how we keep them in check.
Tutorial · 11 min
Coastal house exterior: weathered wood, salt air, and the overcast sky that makes it
The best coastal renders do not chase sunsets. They learn to love a grey sky, wet grass, and timber that has been beaten by the wind.