To start an interior or exterior render I need four things: a plan with dimensions, at least one elevation or section (or ceiling heights if there isn't one), a rough idea of materials, and the camera angle you want. That's it. Everything else, furniture models, light fittings, a perfect 3D file, nice reference boards, I can work without, or fill in myself and show you at the first preview.
The reason I'm saying this so bluntly is that a lot of people wait two or three weeks "until the drawings are finished" before sending anything. Usually the drawings were good enough on day one.
The four things I can't start without
Here's the short list. If you have these, I can quote and begin.
- A dimensioned plan. PDF, DWG, a scanned hand sketch with numbers on it, all fine. What I need is wall lengths, door and window positions and widths.
- Heights. Ceiling height, window sill and head heights, and for exteriors the roof pitch or ridge height. An elevation or section covers this in one sheet.
- Materials, roughly. "Oak floor, white walls, dark grey kitchen fronts, brass taps" is a perfectly good brief. Product codes come later, if at all.
- The view. Mark an arrow on the plan where you'd stand with a camera. If you don't know, tell me which wall or feature has to be visible and I'll propose two angles.
Missing heights are the most common gap. People send a beautiful floor plan and nothing vertical, and I end up guessing a 2.6 m ceiling that turns out to be 3.1 m in a converted loft. That changes the whole feel of the room, so I'll always ask rather than assume.
What I can do without (and how I fill the gap)
A 3D model is nice but not required. I model from 2D drawings most of the time, in Blender, and for a typical apartment interior that modelling is part of the normal job. If you do have a SketchUp, Revit or 3ds Max file, send it, but expect me to rebuild parts of it: architectural models are often built for drawings, with walls that don't quite meet and furniture blocks that look fine in plan and terrible in a render.
Furniture specs are optional too. If the brief says "a large grey sofa and a round dining table for six", I'll pick suitable pieces from my library and you approve or swap them at the first preview. Do you need the exact sofa? Only if you're selling that sofa.
Lighting fixtures, the same. I'll place sensible ones and you correct them.
Mood boards are useful but people overthink them. Three photos you like, from anywhere, tell me more than a 20-page board. Last year an interior designer sent me a single Pinterest screenshot of a kitchen with green fronts and said "this, but warmer". It was a better brief than most of the long ones I get.
What slows a project down more than missing files
Here's the counter-intuitive bit. Incomplete files rarely cost much time. Contradictory files do.
When the plan says the window is 1.8 m wide, the elevation shows 1.4 m and the client's note says "make the window bigger", I can't model any of those with confidence. Same with three versions of a plan in one folder named final, final2 and final_USE_THIS. I'll stop and ask, which is the right thing to do, but it costs a day of email.
So before sending, delete the old versions. One plan, one elevation set, one material note. If something is still undecided (say the floor is either oak or polished concrete), tell me it's undecided and I'll render the more likely option first. Changing a floor material at preview stage is a small revision. Rebuilding a wall position is not.
One more thing that quietly costs time: renders requested before the layout is agreed with the end client. I've rendered the same kitchen three times because the island moved twice after the homeowner saw the first image. It's billable work, but it isn't anyone's favourite way to spend a week, so if the plan is still being negotiated, a quick clay render or a 3D plan view first is often the cheaper path.
How this maps to price and timing
The published prices assume I'm working from drawings, not from a finished model. An interior render starts from EUR 250 per camera angle, and an exterior from EUR 450. Three or more renders combined get 10% off the render subtotal, and the minimum order is EUR 200. Two consolidated revision rounds are included.
So a typical apartment brief with three interior views comes to EUR 675. A house launch set with one exterior and three interiors comes to EUR 1,080. A furniture layout plan for a 60 m² flat, as a technical drawing, is EUR 300. Full details are on the architectural rendering prices page.
Timing: I aim to send the first preview within 3 business days of a complete brief. "Complete" means the four items above. If heights or the camera angle are missing, the clock starts when they arrive, not before. That's why I'd rather get a rough but complete set on Monday than a polished one on Friday.
Final images go out at around 4000 px on the long edge unless you need something specific for print or a listing site.
Interiors vs exteriors: different minimums
For interior rendering services the plan and heights do most of the work. Interiors live or die on materials and light, so I'll ask more about finishes, and about which time of day you imagine. A bathroom at 9 am with low winter sun is a completely different picture from the same bathroom lit by downlights at night.
Exteriors need more context. I want the site: where north is, roughly what's around the house (neighbours, trees, a slope), and the roof drawings. A house floating on a flat green plane looks like a model, and for exterior rendering services the surroundings carry half the realism. If you only have a satellite screenshot and a couple of phone photos of the plot, send those. They're enough for me to place the building with believable shadows and terrain.
Timber cabins and saunas are a special case: the joinery and cladding direction matter, so a section through the wall build-up helps a lot. You can see how much the cladding detail carries in the modern cabin exterior study.
What I'd actually send if I were you
One email. Attach the latest plan as PDF, one elevation or section sheet, two or three reference photos, and write five lines: what the space is, the main materials, which view, the deadline, and who approves. That's a complete brief, and with it I can give you a fixed quote within a day.
Don't wait for the furniture schedule.
Don't build a 3D model just for me, either. If you have one, great; if you don't, modelling from drawings is what I do every week, and it's already inside the per-render price. The people who get their renders fastest are the ones who send early and answer questions quickly, not the ones with the most complete folders.
If you'd like to check what's possible from what you already have, send your drawings through the quote form and I'll come back with a non-binding price and a list of anything I'm missing.