Architectural Drafting...Might Just Be For You

The average person never really gives much thought to all the wonderful and beautiful buildings and structures they pass by everyday. Structures like old wooden covered bridges or the tallest of skyscrapers. Architects played a part in the design in both of these and all the structures in between. Architects helped evolve our past into our present and will push us right on into the future, changing the face of the world along the way. They help make our homes and schools safer and more functional as well as more environmentally friendly.

Architectural drafting is certainly a highly respectable career choice, especially for those with some artistic talent and a little imagination. This career could take you down many paths from small scale building design to redesigning entire cities. Your career as an architect could very well leave a mark that will stand for hundreds of years. Your designs could possibly be stronger tornado or hurricane proof homes that could save lives in the future…possibilities are endless.

As the focus on green energy and saving energy becomes more mainstream, architectural drafting will continue to be a very lucrative career choice. Cities are changing the way they want to look and operate everyday. Buildings that can provide their own power source and are self sufficient are saving tons of money. A draftsman that can incorporate this new technology in with eye appealing structures will never have trouble working again. Just imagine a school or business that has a brand new office or building…but has no electric bill each month. That money saved can be put somewhere else where it can be of value or do more good.

Often times as a community sees one business “go green,” others will then want to follow in their footsteps. Green oriented businesses are almost always looked at by their communities as “the good guys.” An architectural draftsman that can do this for a city or business becomes much needed an sought after. In today’s economy and market a businesses ability to change and adapt often means whether it will succeed or fall by the wayside. Sometimes design changes are needed to keep a business completed…this makes you suddenly pretty valuable.

To get started in the field of architectural drafting you will need at least a two year associates degree. This education will provide you the training and skills you need to get you on your way. Computer aided drafting (CAD) skills are a must for today’s draftsman. These skills will allow your work to be put into action by the engineers and contractors, without CAD training you will have trouble competing in today’s workforce. A two year degree in this field can open doors for you that you never thought possible, and take you places you never dreamed of. Keeping up with developing technology will insure you are on top of your game as opportunities unfold before you for years to come. Even as you gain experience in the field, taking a class or two down the road is not out of the question.

Being a good problem solver is a good attribute you will need as an architectural draftsman. Engineers often run into problems that they need help with, and you will be the one they will turn to for that help. Might be something simple like re-routing water lines or moving complete walls to make room for something else. The draftsman will be depended on to make these types of decisions quickly and safely. You may have a crew of lesser experienced draftsman working under and you will be the one they turn to when they have questions of their own. As you continue to grow and learn in your trade the opportunities for you will too.

A draftsman can expect to start with a salary of say twenty to thirty thousand a year. This often depends on where you choose to work. A smaller city will most likely have less building going on than a larger one. The area in which you choose to live and work should be carefully planned ahead of time. Many draftsman are okay with the smaller cities and a more relaxed way of life. Others however are not, they want to be in the thick of things and work on big projects, or even several projects at one time. For these more ambitious draftsman they often make way more ambitious salaries as well.

Most all community colleges scattered across the U.S. have a drafting and design program from which you can get your start. ITT Tech in Tennessee, Grand Rapids Community College in Michigan, Herzing University in Wisconsin, these are just a few of the options available to you. In only two years time you could be on your way to improving the world around you and enjoying a brand new career. Not only that you could design your own dream home and have it just exactly like you want it. Could be a conventional style home with all the trimmings or something completely modern that will be the envy to all that see it.

Yes the architectural drafting career is wide open right now and the future looks even brighter. A draftsman can literally draw the road to his future one sketch at a time. What an exciting way to approach life. A career that allows financial success and so many other satisfying rewards as well. Natural disasters often force communities and towns to rebuild and redesign. Architectural drafting plays a huge part in this process. The towns suddenly have need to be built back, not only quickly but safer than they were before. Being a part of designing things that make people more comfortable as well as safer has to be the ultimate satisfaction and reward.

Rendering Techniques - Hand and Computer Aided

Hand rendering techniques and teachings, have always been central to display graphics and visual arts design. Long before modern man ever arrived on the scene, hand renderings and drawings appeared on the walls of ancient caves, and were thought to represent our thoughts and imagination through artistic physical manifestations. This became the medium through which the art of drawing was first pioneered.

Along with the appearance of graceful flowing movements are the underlying intrinsic idiosyncratic imperfections of stroke and movement, which are characteristically inherent to hand renderings, exclusively. These designs cannot be exactly duplicated, nor precisely replicated, by any state-of-the-art rendering computer software produced today. In that sense, hand renderings will always be unique.

As long as human life exists, there will always be hand renderings, they are here to stay, and will never go away. Classical hand rendering are still broadly used in defined areas of artistic work. Some examples would be: historic renderings, public and private art, galleries and exhibit works, including a variety of advertising mediums, and the list goes on. Hand renderings will continue to be used in varying degrees. This is especially true of candid reality drafts, along with various sketch/drawing practices including hand cartoon/amusement (but not limited to). These and other mediums will continue to rely on hand rendering techniques. Some use both, in concert to create one-of-a-kind interrelated hybrid works for both true and existential production and design. Technology may experience greater inclusion and integration at a later date. However, purists do not wish to see any amalgamation or mixture of what many consider to be two completely separate worlds of art and design. So, from early Paleolithic cave paintings, to Fantasmagorie, to pixilation and Chinese Zoetrope, hand renderings whether new or old will always be part of the fabric of art.

However, with the advent of design software and advancements in animation/automation/modeling and display technologies and techniques, entire areas have opened up within technological realms that traditional hand renderings cannot begin to compare to. This is not to say that software/applications/programs are unable to come close to the artistic form that remains "hand rendering," however, the scale and metamorphic evolution of computer software and applications, open up an entirely new universe. A realm within a realm; inside a reality within itself. Something so spectacular and moving unlike anything ever created before on earth. That’s what technology and advanced software and computer rendered designs brings you.

Hand rendering techniques were long been believed to be a required core element in understand the development the art and specialization of advanced computer design, rending and modeling. However, with the immersion of computers and technology, the belief that one's skills be rooted or mired in hand rendering and its constituent components, has lost much of the footing it once had. When we compare the results of those who were reared within the world of hand renderings, versus those whose rearing was almost completely 100% computer application based, it appears any perceived disparity of skills that may have once believed existed, has virtually disappeared. The playing field is not only "even" these days, but those mired in advanced digital technology and computer application based modalities, believe those reared in a digital environment have surpassed the arts rudimentary beginnings.

Advancements in animation technology have completely revolutionized the nature of design visualization and expectations of clientele. What we are finding as the predominate theme within today’s business customers and professionals, is an expectation in which advanced cutting edge technological solutions are necessary for the production of their designs, concepts and projects. And, in a real sense, they have come to demand that “the best that technology has to offer” is the standard, rather than the exception.

Let’s take a look at a few active solutions:

3ds Max is one of the premier modeling rendering and robust animation packages around today. Some of the additional features of the product include subsurface scattering ambient occlusion which are variations of 3ds Max's shaders. This is a very powerfully designed software package that incorporate the latest advances in rendering modeling and animation techniques and has met with rave reviews from industry experts. Graphic designers, as well as engineers, visualization specialists, effects artists, game developers and architects are among a few that have greatly benefited from 3d Max. The functionality of composition coupled with display and rendering variations give artists and specialists infinite variations of designs.

Cinema 4D is another powerful and extremely diverse software solution's for designers, artist and other specialists with a need for stellar compositions and renderings on a professional level. Cinema 4D has successfully incorporated polygonal subd modeling that is combined with other features such as advanced textural, and lighting rendering techniques. Cinema 4Dt has been used by HHVISION to create stadium designs as part of the 2022 FIFA World Cup's advanced event planning and preparation committee, which is scheduled to be held in Qatar in 2022. Source files can be easily imported and integrated into Cinema 4D to render scenes of ultra high complexity, and with stunning visualization effects and accuracy. Utilizing Cinema allowed 4D HHVISION to not only come in ahead of the deadline for submissions to the committee, but provide a completed solution that it believes will have a positive affect and outcome on the committee's decision.

Maya is a third professional product for 3d animation and modeling. It is a professional application that has been used for visual effects in major motion pictures, game development and related architecture applications. The user defines his or her workspace which allows one to edit the or create scene elements which be saved in multiple formats. Scenes derive their element's from node-based architecture. As such, each individual scene establishes as its own attributes, and customization within multiple planes and dimensions. The final result is a networking platform whose nodes are interdependently based upon the action of one another.

When all is said and done nothing no hand rendering can compare to the visual animation, modeling and architectural design and the unlimited array of visual representations and values that computer art and graphics can produce. Hand rendering will also be a very basic classic art which possesses a character and charm all its own. It that vein, one hopes the medium will never cease to exist. However when advanced design is a necessity, and when speed is also an important factor, computer based animation, modeling and rendering cannot be touched, and will only progress and further evolve as time transpires.