We spoke with Will Rayner, founder of 10EightyTwo, to learn about how he got started in the industry, what the company specializes in, and how Corona fits into their workflow.
Learn about 10EightyTwo
What lead you to get into 3D?
I first came across the world of 3D whilst working at Foster & Partners. I worked there on various occasions during and after receiving my degree in Architecture. Whilst there, I was working on the Haramain High Speed Rail project in Saudi Arabia when I started to see some great 3D images being produced by DBOX. It was from there that I realized that working until 4 a.m. most mornings as an architect and drawing up technical plans for a train station just wasn’t for me, and I wanted to get into the fun side of architecture and begin creating the fine images DBOX were producing!
I left Foster & Partners and with no knowledge in 3ds Max, and tried my luck with DBOX, London. Within a couple of weeks I was hired by DBOX and all of a sudden I was working out in their New York office and starting my journey into the 3D world.
What have been the biggest joys and hardships with founding your own company?
The biggest joy has been that I was able to find and use my own style. I find that some companies have one way of working and so many projects look the same. For me though, being able to use various environments and techniques has been very pleasing. It’s also great being able to lead a project and take it our own way, as well as be involved a lot of the time with the interior design work, coming from our architecture background.
How did you come up with the name?
The name, quite simply, is a fascination with the numbers. There have been numerous events during my life surrounding the numbers so it was always a plan to have them involved.
What have been your favourite projects and / or achievements so far?
There have been many favorite projects. Our first large scale project was the King Fahad Hospital in Saudi Arabia which was a 7 image project and very challenging. Hopefully I can upload some of the images soon as it was an incredible design.
We love the private residential projects, as well as some large scale masterplans which are currently on going in the UK. I always thought it would be a tough market to crack as there are so many talented companies out there, but now it seems like we have our foot in the door and working with some great clients including Snohetta, Rockwell, Gensler, BMW and many more.
What projects are 10EightyTwo working on at the moment?
I remember the days when we started and we were trying to churn out 4 images in a week, at the moment we currently have 29 images on-going! Currently, one is a masterplan of Manchester – UK, which is split up into 3 large sites, so a lot of our time at the moment is spent on this. Another on-going project which is coming to a close is a cultural center in Brooklyn – New York working with BMW, and there is also a private Residential project in Indianapolis USA.
How did you discover Corona, and what lead you to make it part of your workflow?
I first came across Corona through Juraj Talčik who I followed on CGarchitect and Facebook. I was impressed with the quality of the images he was producing and intrigued by the speed he was mentioning. The hardest part was making the jump from V-Ray, but once we made it we didn’t look back. The simplicity of Corona is out of this world and the results are always more than what we expect – and with each version it just gets better.
I always found that with programs like V-Ray I was always trying to play around with settings to get different results and this was very time consuming. With Corona it is literally prepare the model, hit render, and watch it work. With V-Ray our workflow was around 60% model, 40% Photoshop; now with Corona it has changed to more around 90% pure render and 10% post production. In fact, with images that don’t include entourage/people we are literally adding just 2 or 3 adjustments in post production to get the final image.
What does Corona let you do that you couldn’t do without it? How has it changed the way that 10EightyTwo work?
With barely any post production now it means we can take on more projects, which is always fun. Corona is simple and fast. I have even managed to persuade several others to make the transition!
The industry can be very high stress – how do you unwind?
Being an Englishman in America I usually unwind by keeping up-to-date with my sport back home. At the moment, being an Arsenal fan, this can be very frustrating.
I usually try to get a round of golf in each week but since the birth of my first child 10 months ago this has been a little difficult. If I am not at home with my wife, son and English Lab I’m usually found either out on my bike or trying to develop my golf game. I have also just taken a role as coach to the town’s football team so next week I begin teaching American kids the European way of playing football, real football, not the throwing type!
What plans does 10EightyTwo have for the short and long term?
For the short term it is to simply to plough through the forever-growing list of images we have on our desks! With the current projects on at the moment the list will probably grow and take us into the new year. The long term future is to continue growing our brand and work with a lot more of the finest architects out there.
As it happens, I am currently looking for US based artists to join or even help out with the projects we have on so if any readers out there want to send across their portfolio, then please do! You can reach us at Jobs@10EightyTwo.com
Will Rayner
Website: http://www.10eightytwo.com/