You have to listen to your archviz client. It is normal to feel like running.

However, you have to stay calm.

It is more than advisable to follow an order to follow a method.

With that reason today I begin to tell you the method we have been using in GAYARRE infografia for more than 25 years.

Let us begin!

Listen to the archviz client at first … in order to not do it latter.

There are many types of customers and, consequently, many ways to focus an animation work.

The relationship with archviz client could be reason for another post. Psychology in dealing with the situation is fundamental. The experience guides me to understand how to treat each customer in each case.

My starting attitude is to explain to him that the more confidence he has in us, the more satisfactory the result will be. The works developed over 25 years give me the reason. In the works we have had more freedom have been successful for both parties. Equally I can say that, in those who have not received that confidence, with every decision of the archviz client, they have gotten a worse result.

Does it mean the customer can not help? Of course not. The customer can help and a lot. Even more, we must listen to it so we can do a great job. What happens is that this contribution must occur at the beginning of the process and almost never during it.

For this reason, we must ask the right questions in the precise moment.

The time for this is the second meeting with the archviz client, just after signing the contract.

For this purpose it is advisable to send them a questionnaire that reflects their needs and expectations. Let us transmit the aspects of the project that they consider fundamental to show.

There are many technical issues that we will address later but now I want to focus on the two extreme types of customer.

The “archviz client”

He does not know or like to delegate. He wants to control everything and, of course, in such a case, where investment is important, he wants to lead the process.

Kevin Spacey - House of Cards

You must make him realize that this is not the way.

You know how the audiovisual language, the times, the rhythm, manage the attention of the viewer, etc. and he does not.

We need you to help us but only at the beginning.

Your job is to convince him and get his trust.

Only then the work will go ahead. He does not know what the outcome will be but you do.

The perfect archviz client

It’s the one you should look for and find.

If he knows how to delegate, as he does with other aspects of the project (architects, structuralists, lawyers, …) and he has already experienced that the process is a team effort.

He wants to give his opinion at the beginning but let us do our work.

When the visualization project is finished and he sees the results, he will feel satisfied because he will feel part of the success.

There are only two ways to achieve this:

Having previously worked with him and, consequently, is knowledgeable of your results or, based on work done for others, verifies that the method has worked.

If this complicity does not exist, it is very difficult to achieve results.

Only an orchestra can do it

All visualization work for complex projects requires a coordinated team for their realization.

Herbert Von Karayan Director of Orchestra

Yes, I know, you are going to tell me that you are alone and you are able to carry out visualizations of very complicated projects.

I do not doubt it, but the work of animation is something else.

The tasks to be developed are multiple and many of them match those needed to make a static image.

However, there is a determining factor when launching to make a video: time.

The Deadline

I’m going to discover all the parts of the process and it is very possible that you will be able to develop each one of them, but you will have a problem for sure with the deadline. Even if you take out 20 hours a day, you will not be able to meet a reasonable delivery time for the client if you work alone.

Alice in wonderland

As you know, the visualization process, in a simplified way,

is based on the succession of tasks: modeling, rendering and postproduction.

If you can not overlap in time doing these tasks, you will not be competitive in this type of job.

Teamwork is essential to overlap tasks and shorten delivery times.

You should have, at least, 3 people in your team.

Spain's Paul Gasol (C) and team mates celebrate victory over Greece at the end of their EuroBasket 2015 quarter-final game at the Pierre Mauroy stadium in Villeneuve d'Ascq, near Lille, France, September 15, 2015. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier
Spain’s Paul Gasol (C) and team mates celebrate victory over Greece at the end of their EuroBasket 2015 quarter-final game at the Pierre Mauroy stadium in Villeneuve d’Ascq, near Lille, France, September 15, 2015. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier

One of them will be in charge of the modeling, the second of the rendering process, and the third of the postproduction.

Those are the three basic tasks.

The whole team must be very coordinated and be aware that, from start to finish, each of the other two team members may need your help. It is not real to think that each part of the process is closed and does not overlap with the other two.