What’s it like being a Senior 3D Visualiser?

Joachim Berger | Hands & Minds

Senior 3D Visualiser Joachim Berger translates technical data into outstanding images. One step away from real thing, they are vital to the design process.

“We show products that don’t exist yet, or never will. We do things that are impossible in real life. We quickly test variations. We simulate how materials move and objects operate. Our goal: translate data and technical details into outstanding images.”

What do you do as a Senior 3D Visualiser?

First and foremost, I keep the 3D Visualisation team running!

As a 3D Visualiser, I suppose you could say I am like a virtual photographer. When I start a render, I position the product, and choose an angle and perspective. I think about the background, and define which parts will be in, or out of, focus. I set the lighting too, which is a fun challenge to recreate what it looks like in real life.

Unlike a photographer however, I work in an “empty space”. Every render starts with nothing other than the 3D data of a product. No light, no background, no environment, no materials. Everything in our visualisations is built, textured, and shaded from scratch.

When all of this comes together, the final render will look more-or-less like we intended. Like with a RAW file in photography however, we still have to do some final corrections in post-production to make it really shine.

Describe your day-to-day work.

On the leadership side of things, I divide workloads in the team and assign jobs that come in. I also ensure that the quality of our output is the same, so I review and approve what every team member is working on; deciding also if something needs to be reworked.

As a senior in my creative field, I go to meetings and make sure my team understands what the client really wants from us. You can do a visualisation a lot of different ways. For example, does a client need their product to look super accurate, where you can clearly see what materials are used and how it works? Or is it more important that a product look more conceptual, in order to convey a particular emotion?

How would you describe the dynamic on your team, and how you work together with KISKA clients?

My team is set up in such a way that everyone can do every part of every job we’re assigned. Each one of us creates 3D models, shaders, and textures, and can hand over final animations and photorealistic images.

On the other hand, depending on the size and timing of a project, we may also split up a project so that we each do a part of the job. This approach is, of course, a lot more fun because we’re problem-solving and creating something together.

In terms of working with the client, we are more of an internal service. That means we don’t often have direct client contact. Our “clients” are more likely to be KISKA project managers or designers.

What’s the best thing about your job? And, the most challenging?

My favourite part about the job is that we never stop learning new things. First off, we keep up to date with new technology and software. We also are always observing the “real world” to understand how things should look in our renders. All of this helps us solve a lot when we start new projects.

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