At what resolution do you render?

[cuatro]

Hi,

A client is asking for some architectural (interior and exterior) renders. He needs them for an online brochure, but didn't give me a specific resolution. I was wondering at what resolution do you usually render in such cases. Would 1920*1080 be ok? Is there any standard for online work?

[tomislavn]

I guess the minimum for today's work should be 4K :) But if your client is happy with 1080p, why not.

[maru]

I would say this is one of the first things you should establish with your client. Is there some reason why you cannot ask him to clarify this?

[cuatro]

I already did, but they have no idea what they might need. They just know that they want to use it for web.
I believe that full HD would be enough for they intended use, however I was interested in knowing if you guys have any standard resolution at which you deliver your images.

[Frood]

Often enough clients do not know themselves what to request. 2 weeks later there will be that call "At which resolution can we get the images? Because now we decided to print a flyer".

So I would at least do something printable at A4 to A3 (3.2 to 3.6k or 4k as mentioned). For a web presentation they may want to use some crops depending on page design anyway.

Do no 1080, do 4k but deliver web resolution. If they later ask for a higher resolution, charge them for the hires version. For you this should only mean longer rendertime and a few MB more harddisk space in the first place, but no additional work.


Good Luck

[Nejc Kilar]

Personally I always render at a higher resolution whenever possible. So if the client wants it only for the web then I'll render 4k. If the client wants it on a flyer I'll render larger than what they need. This especially goes true for jobs where I use post-production software because I don't want to open up the file 1 week later and being slightly confused as to what all the layers do - and I try to keep consistent naming convetions for stuff but a minute wasted is a minute wasted still.

Ultimately I think you should definitely go over it with your client. You should try and figure out where they intend to use it and how big it has to be + plan a little contingency just in case and if you can afford it. I personally prefer the thing to be rendering an extra hour longer and I can then downsample it for web plus keep the original high-res but I suppose if I had 99 smaller projects in the pipeline all the time that wouldn't be a realistic goal. So I guess its up to you.

Frood also makes a similar point and I totally agree with him.

Also, keep in mind that "for web" means 1080 for some, 2560 for others and probably 720 for other others :D

[tomislavn]

After switching to 4K monitors myself... I figured how shitty anything else looks like even on web (even my own portfolio that I have started to update now) :D