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Elis Kostabi
Team lead
3Dstudio.co
3D rendering for architects
Outsource 3D rendering for competition entries, planning submissions and the frames a client finally signs off on. We model from your drawings and art-direct the set to the visual language your practice already works in, so the boards look like your office made them.
- One fixed price for the whole set in 30 minutes, from the drawings you already have
- Clay views first, so every camera in the set is agreed before anything is lit
- One visual language across a whole submission, 4K, full usage rights
We only take a limited number of projects each month, so every scene gets top quality.
1,247
Projects completed
13
Years in business
17
Countries delivered to
★★★★★
Rated 5.0 on Clutch · See our reviews
Architects, developers & interior designers
Working for 215 companies since 2013
125 of 220 clients came back
More than half of our clients have hired us again
Your house style, not ours
Most architects can name the studio behind an image at fifty paces. That is the problem, not the compliment it sounds like.
We take art direction from your back catalogue rather than from our portfolio. Send three to five images your last set should have looked like, and the hour, sky, palette, entourage density and lens are set from those.
A studio with a signature is selling you its signature: the same amber dusk and the same three people crossing the same foreground, on a school competition in March and an apartment brochure in June. Juries notice, and so do the practices you are bidding against.
Since 2013 we have worked for 215 companies in 17 countries on schemes with nothing stylistically in common, from timber cabins to city blocks. Holding a different visual language per client is the ordinary job here, which is why 125 of our 220 clients came back.
What this actually is
3D rendering for architects turns a coordinated model into the image a jury, a committee or a client looks at. The model stays yours; the light, material finish and context change, so the frame reads as your scheme, not a generic one.
Where it sits against in-house visualisation
Most architecture firms already run Enscape or Twinmotion in house for testing an idea at the desk. What gets commissioned out is the moment the image leaves the building and has to carry the argument.
Three meetings the set has to get through
01
A jury that sees twelve entries before lunch
A competition is decided in the time it takes to walk a board. The images must make the idea legible at a glance: what the building is, where it sits, what it is made of, and not look like the entry two boards along.
So the set is built around the argument you are making, not whichever view renders most easily. If the scheme is about a roof, the hero is about the roof, even when that camera is awkward to light.
02
A committee that sends it back
Consent is rarely one meeting. A scheme gets deferred, loses a storey, changes a cladding, and you have to show the same street from the same place with only that change in it. Two images made months apart cannot be compared, and somebody in the room says so.
So the camera is recorded with the scene, down to the coordinate and the hour, and the scene is kept. The resubmission comes back as the same frame with the change in it, keeping the discussion on the storey rather than the sky.
03
A client who wants to move the camera
Every project has the meeting where somebody asks to see it from the other side. It is a fair question, almost never asked early, and answering it late leaves the cost yours to explain, a poor position to argue design from.
Which is why the camera is settled first, on an untextured clay view, within days of the brief. On grey geometry a viewpoint is free to move, and by the time a frame is expensive to defend, that argument has already happened.
Four things a practice actually orders
Rarely a single image. A submission is a set, and it has to hold together from the first board to the last page.
Competition sets
The hero, the context aerial, one or two interiors and whatever view carries the idea, built in one pass so the light and palette match.
Planning and consent views
The scheme in its real street, from the viewpoints the case officer asked for, with context modelled rather than pasted in.
Client approval frames
One image per decision, cut from the scene that already exists. Two cladding options side by side, or one room at two ceiling heights.
Cutaways, plans and diagrams
Sectional perspectives, dollhouse cutaways and coloured plans, drawn off the same model as the renders so the two cannot contradict.
One house or a full city block, same process
Only the number of views in the set changes, not the process.
A single house or an extension
The commonest brief: one planning submission, two or three views, priced by the set rather than by the size of the building.
A terrace, townhouses or a small block
Enough units that the elevations have to read as one street, not four repeated houses stood side by side.
A mixed-use block or a masterplan
Aerial context, more than one typology in a single scheme, and a set built to hold together across the whole board.
A studio partner, not a render farm
European delivery, workable time zones
An Estonian studio working since 2013 across the Nordics, the Baltics, Europe, the UK, the US, Canada and Australia. Comments in the evening, a revised frame by morning.
Confidentiality as standard
Unconsented schemes, competition entries and unannounced launches are commercially sensitive. We work under NDA without being asked and never publish a project without permission.
You brief the artist, not a queue
No account-manager layer. Send the files, get a real number, talk to the person building the scene. Fewer hand-offs is why the first preview lands closer to right.
One consistent visual language
Across a set, or across years of repeat work, the light, materials and camera discipline hold. Ten freelancers cannot do that, and it is visible on page four of a brochure.
Three decisions worth making before we start
How many views the set actually needs
The hero usually carries the argument. Supporting views can often be simpler and cheaper without weakening the set.
When to commission the first image
A clay view works from massing alone, so waiting for a finished material schedule usually costs time, not accuracy.
Who signs off the house-style references
One partner approving the three to five reference images before the clay stage saves a rework later in the set.
Four stages, whatever you commissioned
Brief
Brief and fixed quote
Upload CAD, PDF, Revit or SketchUp files, or a photo of a sketch. We prepare the brief from your files, so there is no questionnaire. You get one fixed project price and a delivery date within 30 minutes.
Days 1-3
Clay model
We build the 3D model without materials and place the camera. The viewpoint, lens, height and time of day are agreed on this grey model, when changes are quick and cheap.
Week 1
Preview render
The same view with materials, lighting and surroundings added. You see it early, while the light and the finishes can still be changed easily. 2 revision rounds are included, and we keep refining until you approve.
Delivery
Final render
The approved image, fully finished and delivered in 4K, with larger sizes for print on request and full usage rights. Every further view in the set uses the scene already built, so each extra image costs much less than the first.
Six projects, six different handwritings
The light, the palette and the entourage were decided per project by different people, which is why these do not read as a series. That is the point.
What moves the price of 3D rendering for architects
Priced per project, not per image. This is what changes the number.
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How many views are in the set
One approval frame and a twelve-image competition board are different jobs, priced accordingly.
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How much context has to be modelled
A verified planning view with neighbouring buildings costs more than a scheme shown on its own.
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How ready your drawings are
A coordinated Revit or ArchiCAD model moves faster than a sketch that still needs interpreting.
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How compressed the deadline is
A competition date changes the order of work more than it changes the price.
Free guide
The Architecture Practice CGI Buyer's Guide
What moves the quote, and what to send to get it fast.
- What moves a competition or planning rendering quote up or down
- The exact files to send for a fixed number in 30 minutes
- How to brief your house style so the first preview lands right
- No budget dropdown and no discovery call before the number arrives
Opens the upload form. Send what you have; no sales call.
How we plug into your workflow
Practices send us work at every stage of tidiness, from a coordinated Revit model to a photograph of a sketch on tracing paper. Neither one slows the quote down.
What we accept
DrawingsDWG, PDF, Revit, ArchiCAD, SketchUp, Rhino or 3ds Max, or a sketch photo
SiteSurvey, site photographs, a map pin, and neighbouring footprints if you hold them
MaterialsThe specification or schedule, supplier links, or a board where the spec is open
House styleThree to five images the set should look like, from anywhere
ViewpointsMarked on a plan or described in a sentence. We propose them if not
What you receive
Clay viewWithin days of the brief, camera and sun settled before a material is built
Final frames4K as standard, print resolution on request, every crop from the one scene
RevisionsTwo rounds included, then refinement until you sign off
Usage rightsFull and unrestricted: boards, hoardings, portals, press, your site, awards
The sceneKept, so a later phase or next year's set starts from a built model
What else comes off the same model
Exterior rendering
Facades and streetscapes in real light and real context, at ground level.
Exterior rendering
Interior rendering
The rooms behind the facade, built from the same model and lit to match.
Interior rendering
3D floor plans
Coloured plans, cutaways and dollhouse views for the board and the brochure.
3D floor plans
3D animation
A flythrough or an approach sequence cut from the scene you already paid for.
3D animationQuestions from practices
The questions we are asked most before a project starts. Still unsure? Send the drawings and we will tell you what we would do with them.
Ask us directlyWill the images look like your work or ours?
Yours, provided you give us something to match against. Send three to five images your last set should have looked like, and the direction comes off those, down to the lens and entourage density. With no reference we propose a direction in writing first, so the preview is never a surprise.
Can you hold one visual language across a whole submission?
That is most of why practices come back. Every view is built in one scene, one sun, one material library, so the fourth image belongs to the same afternoon as the first. Split a set across freelancers and a jury reads the mismatch as carelessness.
We only have a concept. Is that too early?
Massing and a site are enough to start: a clay view comes quickly, a photoreal frame once materials are chosen. Where something is missing we name the assumption, on storey heights, roof pitch or the glazing line, rather than invent it.
Do you do verified views for planning?
We build accurate context views from the survey data and photography you supply, and place the camera at a coordinate, height and focal length you specify. A formally verified view has its own certification, so say so when you enquire.
We have a competition deadline. Can you work to it?
Often, but lead with the date. We take a limited number of projects each month, which is why a compressed schedule is possible. The hero is finished first, the supporting views follow. Competition work runs under NDA as standard, and if a conflict worries you, name it.
How many revisions are included?
Two rounds, then we keep refining until you sign off. The changes that matter land earlier: the clay view is where the camera moves, the preview is where light and materials move. By the finished frame, little is left to say.
Who owns the images, and can we enter them for awards?
You own them outright, with full usage rights and no per-use licence: boards, hoardings, portals, press, your website, awards entries. We keep the scene file, so a later phase starts from a built model.
How is it priced?
Per project rather than per image: one approval frame and a twelve-image competition set are not the same job. Send the drawings for one fixed number and a delivery date within 30 minutes. Further views cost less than the first.
Should we outsource this, or keep it in house?
Usually both, for different moments. In house covers testing an idea at the desk; outsourcing earns its cost when the image leaves the building: a competition board, a planning committee, a spec decision. The two mistakes we see most: outsourcing every view, expensive for images nobody outside the practice will see, and outsourcing none, leaving the one frame that has to win a room under the same pressure as everything else that week.
Can you work on a project in my country?
Yes. Everything here has run remotely since 2013: drawings arrive by file transfer, viewpoints are agreed on a shared screen, and the finished set goes back the same way. That is how work has reached 17 countries so far, across the Nordics, the Baltics, the rest of Europe, the UK, the US, Canada and Australia. Planning conventions differ, so say what your case officer or jury expects from a view and we brief to that. The time difference decides when in the day a call happens, not whether it can.
Send the drawings, get a fixed price for the whole set in 30 minutes
Concept, planning or competition stage, from a coordinated model or a sketch on tracing paper: one number, a delivery date, and a clay view within days of the go-ahead.
We take a limited number of projects each month.