76 | Yes, Your Project (Probably) Can Afford 3D Visualization

76 | Yes, Your Project (Probably) Can Afford 3D Visualization

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In this episode (also on YouTube!), Sam talks about the ongoing discussions he has with project teams that question if they can afford 3D visualization.

TRANSCRIPT:
hello you again and welcome back to
beyond cat whether you’re joining me on
the podcast or now I’m trying to do some
more video recordings so this will be on
YouTube for those who want to come check
it out I’ll probably also put it on
LinkedIn so it’s great to have you here
as always today I’m going to talk about
the value of 3d visualization where the
heck should you ever consider spending
money on this sort of thing for your
project so I get in these discussions a
lot as I talk to people about 3d
visualization kind of why do we need to
spend money on this if we’ve never spent
money on this before and even with those
with that argument and there are some
valid concerns with spending money on
visualization and some people have had
bad experiences and I totally get that
and I have empathy for that position but
I’m still a strong believer that almost
every project could utilize 3d
visualization and if you’ve seen some of
the projects we worked on we’ve worked
on major system to system interchanges
and billion-dollar projects and you
might be thinking to yourself well of
course you know that that has the budget
to do this fly through animation or this
fully interactive visual experience for
that project but my project is just
complete streets you know my long
corridor or we’re doing a lane die
adding some trees and some some parking
and stuff like that and and so I I but I
can push back and say that I still think
that it’s valuable to to invest in
visualization even on some of those
projects the reason I say that I mean
people ask often they ask how much does
this visualization cost and the answer I
usually want to give as you know how
long is a piece of string and but that’s
not helpful
I mean that’s not the that’s not the
answer that they’re looking for and I
get it I mean when I’m looking to buy
something I want to ask some sort of
questions – so the first answer would be
we’ve done projects anywhere from $500
to close to $500,000 and everything in
between
and so a lot of that has to do with the
size of the project and kind of the need
of the project so yours you know again
you might be saying my my roundabouts
can’t afford a six-figure visualization
and your roundabouts probably doesn’t
need to spend six figures on
visualization but that’s why we have
different different offerings that can
be utilized for different projects and
so let me talk a little bit about how we
develop our estimate a lot of times it’s
just based on the data that we’ve had
all the projects that we’ve done and we
use that information kind of like a
contractor in construction we use that
information to develop our best man hour
estimate we break it down in a very
tight level individually by task and
this allows us to get as accurate as we
can and then we assign those tasks to
different levels within our organization
so like an artist a developer approach a
project manager and intern and and from
there those each have a billable rate
and so you know our average bill every
rate is different every level within
organizations a different rate but our
average rate could be somewhere between
it’s usually somewhere between 70 and 80
dollars an hour and so for these big
system assistant projects it’s gonna
take us one to two thousand hours
sometimes sometimes more if there’s a
lot more to it if there are different
phases and aspects like that so you can
kind of work backwards on the math where
that’s going to land you but that’s for
our fully interactive visualization and
not every project requires that as I’ve
often discussed and so we do the three
levels and if you go to civil FX comm
you’ll see that if you go to civil
effects comm slash portfolio I believe
that’s the right link if not you
can find on celeb XCOM you can separate
our portfolio pieces by levels level one
level two level three level one our
image photo composited renders sometimes
are just image renders we do these quite
a bit especially for small projects
these ones we can do you know 10 to 20
hours we can turn them around in two
days especially if the client provides
the image sometimes we have to go out in
the field and take that ourselves so
that a lot a little bit more effort
involved but that’s you know that’s a
very low-cost and quick turnaround for
small projects and it should be should
be utilized for it for those types of
projects the next level level two are
the flight through animations and these
we do less and less of because we’re
getting so good at the interactive
visual experience we just kind of have a
routine and a workflow down and so once
we get to that level where they want to
fly through animation will develop it
and will give it to the client but we’ll
kind of do it in our unity workflow and
then sometimes just send the client the
application so that they can see the
value of that because I mean the
difference between the cost between an
animation fly through animation and that
interactive experience which is level 3
is shrinking for us because we are
getting so many reps in on the on the
interactive visualization in unity which
we we try we’re so passionate about and
we tried to pride ourselves on so so
those are the different levels and
depending on not only a project size but
also the public impact of the project I
mean is this a project that the public
is going to care a lot about that
impacts a lot of businesses residents
and we were talking to an agency about a
project in a rural town and it’s a town
of I don’t know less than ten thousand
people and and I’ll bet there will be
way more public interest in that project
then in some of these big ones we do at
Las Vegas but the pod mean will be
jam-packed because even though the Las
Vegas has millions of people those
projects impact fewer people and there
are so many projects and the people are
so scattered around
they don’t know one project from the
next sometimes but when this small town
gets impacted this is you know the the
main street of the small town everybody
has impacted every single person and so
the the location the impact all these
factors are very important as far as
public outreach and so those need to
take be taken into consideration when to
determine when determining what type of
visualization is needed how much budget
to set aside and and also a lot of
projects already have public outreach
because they it’s it’s a requirement and
they spend a lot of time and effort on
door to door handing out flyers about
the project or ad buys or working with
the news agencies
they’ll have public information
officials and those those are all very
effective but those budgets can be you
know much bigger than the fees that we
charge and so when we when we talk to
clients about you know and they say well
where’s this money gonna come from
and again this conversation happens for
prospective clients or first-time
clients and so we explain to them well
you have a public outreach budget
probably already you know this is kind
of an augmentation this is giving more
tools to those individuals and to the
project manager and so you look at all
these factors size of the project
timeline of the project how long is it
going to take what development level is
is it on the public involvement the the
impact the businesses you’ve factored
all these things in to kind of determine
what level of public outreach you need
and 3d visualization comes in there and
back to my point about you know 3d
visualization projects have been built
without 3d visualization for thousands
of years and and that’s true but
visualization or a communication of the
projects has been happening forever so
the competition of what we do is often
the role plots that used to be on the
walls or sometimes still are for public
so that communication is happening
already this is the evolution of that
communication the money is being spent
on public outreach on role pots on
exhibits it’s already being spent this
isn’t like a new thing it’s not a new
thing to explain a project but it is the
waste that we’re doing it the utilizing
interactive visualization utilizing
virtual reality driving simulators these
sorts of things are a new application of
the visualization that’s been happening
for a very long time and so spending
money on visualization sounds new to
some people and I totally get that the
one thing that always makes me a
believer that that I’d never be like how
is this even a good industry like I
sacrificed my whole career for the
industry of visualization in
transportation and is that it is that a
good decision and the thing that always
keeps me coming back is that when the
clients when we work with clients one
time they always come back they always
want more visualization on future
projects sometimes it doesn’t happen
because they still gotta they still have
to get the budget they still have to
convince other people that they’re that
project may not justify or may not have
a public outreach component because it
doesn’t impact anyone but but I can’t
off the top of my head I can’t think of
any case where a client used us and
worked with us and said well that was
just a big waste of our money we’re
never gonna do this again I don’t know
maybe they said that internally could be
fair but as much as I can think of the
top of my head they would always they
always want to come back and do more and
that’s where the vast majority of our
work comes from is returning clients and
these are agencies these are individuals
within agencies these are these are
engineering firms that are hired as the
engineer the contractor to the agencies
each of these individuals they always
come back they want more they know that
we can sometimes help win projects by
working with them on the proposal either
by developing proposal graphics or just
being on the team showing that we’re
gonna provide that high level
visualization for the public outreach or
or they just want to make sure that when
they’re at that public meeting that we
deliver that same result that they had
on the past project meaning that we’re
on and that’s what I think about when
we’re doing a project I think about okay
if this project management manager had
this had to do the next project and
didn’t have visualization I want them to
regret that and make the decision that
they’ll always use the visualization
again you know that contrast between
okay I went to a public meeting with
civil effects visualization preferably
the interactive visualization because I
think that’s what’s most effective and
then the next one they don’t then they
see that contrast and they’re like yikes
that that was a big difference I want to
make sure that we we never have that
experience again so I totally understand
that the the cost of visualization I I
understand that projects haven’t always
used 3d visualization some firms have
never used it before some agencies have
never used it before but there is a
level of 3d visualization for the
project that you’re working on even if
it’s at a very small scale with photo
composites or a simple flight for
animation and the ones that use
visualization in my experience come back
wanting more because of the value that
it gave to them I was thinking about you
know some of these billion dollar
projects these hundred million dollar
projects and the impact that they have
to the public and I think that just on
that obviously visualization is valuable
but the right-of-way acquisitions you
know you interface with the public a lot
and if the project gets a negative vibe
then then that’s gonna create a lot of
friction and those those eminent domain
battles are super expensive they cost
millions and millions of dollars and if
you spend a small fraction of that then
you are going to create a better you’re
gonna be interfacing more fluidly with
the public you’re gonna have a better
reception and a lot of that’s gonna go
much more smoothly
hopefully shaving off some of that money
that inevitably happens in those sorts
of major projects with eminent domain
acquisitions so I can talk about the
value of 3d visualization forever
because this is what I do every single
day clearly but if you if you’ve had a
project and you haven’t used 3d
visualization I just challenge you to
think about using it on a very small
scale see how it goes and then go from
there you can learn more about our
visualization at civil FX comm again
connect with me on LinkedIn send me a
message and we can connect and talk
about that project but I appreciate you
joining me and I will see you next
episode