From an early stage, Blink Image were involved with the production of both marketing, planning and verified images for a new high rise development in the centre of Woking.

Initially, we were supplied with a set of sketch elevations and a 3D concept model that the architects had been developing in-house. The brief was to create four 'marketing-type' exterior images of the scheme within around two weeks. Our photographic team visited the site to shoot options for each of the required four views.

As the design was still in a state of flux, and the concept model didn't have the detail we require to generate convincing images, we opted to re-model the entire building in Autocad. In doing this, we were able to accommodate change as the designs were refined.

A key concept with modelling buildings on a scale such as this where the design will change is to break the building down into repeatable units, or 'blocks'. Knowing the floor-floor distances and the bay widths allowed us to create a block for each bay unit. This block is then repeated around the facades, and, when the module is refined and more detail is available, a change to one of those blocks will update all copies in an instant. Clearly, the ground floors and the uppermost floors are more bespoke, and these need to be modelled accordingly.

The 3D model was subsequently matched to the chosen photography, textured and lit according to the specification and to the time of day and lighting conditions of the base photograph, and accuratly matted into the context.

The planning authorities were keen to examine the visual impact of the tower from various points in the surrounding countryside, to a distance of up to around 10km. In combination with a team or surveyors, a series of 10 photographs from key locations were taken, and the exact position of the camera, together with around fixed 6-10 points within each shot were accuratly measured using GPS assisted survey equipment.

This survey point data was then combined with OS data, 3D model and the photograph to produce a set of accurate representations of exactly how the proposed tower will look from these specific points in the surrounding countryside. Any updates to the design were again incorporated in the 3D model and the impact of them was clearly visible. The entire VVM process was documented in full and submitted along with the images and planning application.