Today, architecture, interior design, and property development are all fields that require high-quality and professional 3D visualization for the successful realization of their projects. Lately, 3D tours became a widely popular choice as they represent one of the best ways to showcase project ideas and plans.

Because of their powerful effect, 3D tours can often be the deciding factor whether the potential client signs the contract or not. 3D artists need to pay close attention to how they create and navigate this tool since it can cost them a fortune.

For that reason, we’ve put together a list of essential things 3D artists should keep in mind when making 3D tours. Continue reading this article to find out what they are, and your next 3D tour will be flawless.

Create a Logical Flow

First things first, let’s highlight the importance of a 3D tour that has a good and logical flow to it.

Imagine a 3D tour that starts in the middle of the house or building and jumps to different rooms and aspects in no particular order. This kind of presentation will undoubtedly put off any interested party because that kind of 3D tour is hard to follow and understand. By losing their attention, you’re giving them a strong motive to give up early.

To avoid this, think about a 3D tour like a regular walkthrough. It’s advisable to start from a natural point, such as the entrance. Then, make your way by logically ordering rooms and other features as they naturally appear in real life. Walkthrough mimic or imitation gives your clients a general sense of space and how the rooms are placed and oriented.

If you’re still unsure how to organize your 3D tour, make sure to find out what the intended audience is looking for and use that information to design a 3D tour that’ll be intuitive and easy to follow for them.

Additionally, adding a floor plan is an excellent way to ensure your clients get a better understanding of the space. With a visible floor plan, they can easily see where each room is located in comparison to the rest of the project.

Show All the Important Elements

Each 3D visual tour should be different as it’s made to fulfill certain desires and wishes made by the clients.

During the initial steps of the project, you should learn about your client as much as you can. Use photos, descriptions, color palettes, and different objects to build a mood board your client is happy with. It’ll help you get a rough idea about which direction they want to go in. Knowing your audience and what’s important to them is already half the job done, so don’t rush through this step.

The information you get in the prep phase can be very useful during the creation of a 3D tour as you already know something about what the audience wants or doesn’t want to see.

Make sure to note down what the client says, so you don’t forget to include the crucial features. Later on, a virtual tour can be an excellent means of communication to visually represent the client’s ideas and exhibit how you implemented them in the given space. Ensure the important details stand out and are visible during the actual tour.

You can do this by focusing on specific items or any other things the audience requires. Feel free to zoom in to the points of interest. This step will instantly elevate the entire experience and make every project unique.

Consider the Needs of Your Clients

Closely connected to the previous point, the prepping phase is important for yet another reason. Investing time to get to know your clients will also give you the advantage of learning about their needs and general lifestyle.

Don’t be afraid of asking questions since that’s the only way you’ll get concrete information you can use later on. Clear communication between the involved parties is crucial for the mutual understanding and success of the project.

Take into account what your clients asked for and consider their needs because then you can produce a 3D tour that emphasizes those features. Since the entire purpose of the tour is to build effective communication between you and your audience, it’s a great way to display how you approached their needs and habits.

For instance, if your clients are asking for a home office, think of different ways how you can utilize the entire space by placing working desks, computers, and cabinets and adding to a working atmosphere.

Choose details that fabricate a stress-free and calming environment. A plain and overly simple design can be pretty uninspiring while going overboard with details, objects, and colors can disturb even the sharpest focus.

You need to find just the right balance between the two. Exactly where that balance is will depend on your client, which is why you need to make the space both useful and pleasant to be in.

Functionality Should Be Present

Another key feature every 3D tour should have is functionality. Namely, a functional and easy to follow virtual tour can bring even the wildest dreams closer to reality, so a 3D artist’s job is to create a tour that will bring everything together and organize it neatly.

It’s no secret that a 3D project requires a lot of data, measurements, details, codes, and whatnot. Therefore, sometimes it can be challenging to include all of the critical information but maintain the ordered and sorted out tour.

If you’re dealing with such large projects, remember that functionality makes a world of difference in this case. Because you need to mention all functionalities of the property, such as the size of the land, type of property, as well as functional details about materials used, measurements, special codes, and more, using the practical features of 3D programs can increase the overall functionality of the tour.

You can set which functionalities to show and when so all the information is visible at a given time, but the appearance isn’t chaotic. For example, you can swipe over certain objects to show more details about them. Experiment with different features to see how they work with your tour and contribute to its quality.

Functionality is a perfect way to construct a 3D tour that will ensure a good user experience but provide the audience with all the necessary information. Just remember that not everyone is tech-savvy or a computer wizard, so some people will need a bit of time to learn how to navigate the 3D tour.

Add Exceptional Visuals

A 3D tour is so much more than a simple video showing the potential project. Creating a believable and realistic tour isn’t an easy thing to accomplish, and it certainly requires a lot of education, time, effort, and patience. However, the results are definitely worth it.

There are a few things you can do to make your 3D tour go from good to impressive. Although you may think no one notices small details, they add a lot to the final product. Use the power of advanced technology to add exceptional visuals to your 3D tours and create a “wow” effect.

The most important elements of exceptional visuals are light and shadow. While it will take you some time to fully understand and master the shadowing and lighting techniques, even a couple of basic steps completely transform the final product.

Without these features, the 3D tour can look completely plastic and artificial. It can even resemble a 2D model due to the lack of dimension, which will only decrease the quality of your project. Furthermore, it’ll be more challenging for clients to get a realistic picture of the project, leading to more significant issues.

All you have to do is pay close attention to where the natural light hits from, such as windows or open spaces, and highlight these areas. Then, insert shadows at the right angle to make the entire tour life-like.

Create a Whole Experience

Lights and shadows aren’t the only features you can use to make the ultimate virtual tour. In fact, the entire point of 3D tours is to generate a realistic picture of a space, so the clients can easily paint the picture of how the project will look like in real life and see whether they can imagine themselves spending time or living in it.

That’s why, as a 3D artist, your job is to create an immersive and completely positive experience. You can do this with several additions to your almost finished 3D tour.

For example, add vehicles in front of or around the property to display parking space. Moreover, add nature – trees, shrubs, flowers, and other plants – to make the scene warmer, greener, and more inviting. Then, add models of people and animals to completely elevate the entire experience and make the 3D tour more vivid and convincing.

If you’re making a 3D tour of the property interior, you can mimic house actions by adding people reading newspapers or watching TV in the living room, cooking homemade dinner in the kitchen, or playing with children in the kids’ room. All these elements will come together and make a faithful and authentic tour experience no one will be able to top.

Add a Walkthrough Around the Property

When making a 3D tour of the interior, don’t forget there’s more to it than just inside a house or an apartment. Your projects are never just about the house or building, so you need to focus for a bit on the exterior too.

Add a walkthrough around the property to show the clients what the project looks like from a different angle. More often than not, taking a look from the outside can give you and the audience an entirely new perspective on the entire project, which will create a desire to alter and change some details even in the interior.

Next, you can take them on a virtual tour to exhibit some significant features the exterior has to offer. Furthermore, it’s a great way to make the 3D tour feel complete if several buildings on the site are entirely independent of each other. The clients will get a rough idea of how big the additional facilities are and how far they are from the main building.

Finally, you can insert some of your ideas for the exterior, such as adding a pool, garden, balcony, driveway, relaxing area, outdoor kitchen, or playground. The possibilities are endless.

Consider Using AR and VR

Thanks to cutting-edge technology, today, we can do so much more than people doing the same job in the past could. Just 40 years ago, it was impossible to use 3D technology and today’s 3D artists bring masterpieces to life every day.

To make the experience even more exceptional and extraordinary, now 3D artists can use the power of AR and VR for their projects. Namely, state-of-the-art technology allows us to precisely see how a project will look like in a given area.

Simply by using contemporary technology, we can add computer-generated objects into the real world. The most surprising thing is that with AR and VR, the projects aren’t strictly focused on the visual sense – they can include auditory, olfactory, somatosensory, and even haptic sensory modalities.

Still, not everyone is familiar or comfortable with such advanced technology. For that reason, it’s best to communicate with your clients and offer them the option. However, we’ll see more and more of AR and VR in the future for sure.

Conclusion

To sum everything up, 3D artists who are making 3D tours certainly carry a lot of responsibility for the projects they embark on. So, they need to ensure they’re doing everything in their power to produce high-quality 3D virtual tours clients will be happy to experience and use.

By following and implementing these tips, your 3D tours will get a completely new and refreshed look. You’ll immediately notice the difference, and so will your audience!