A Visit to Pixelcraft

Wednesday August 18th, 2010

Last week I had the great fortune of driving Bill’s car into the great city of Philadelphia to pay a visit to our photographer Roman Torres and his company Pixelcraft.

Actually, Pixelcraft is one half of an entity that also includes Moto Designshop—the staff are the same, but they assume different names depending on the nature of the assignment (like Parliament/Funkadelic, or the Holy Trinity). Moto Designshop does architectural design, and it is driven by the work of Adam Montalbano, Roman’s partner. Roman and Adam met at the University of Pennsylvania, where they were both getting master’s degrees in architecture, and they decided to go into business together.

Roman at one of his computers.

Pixelcraft’s emphasis is on a very unique combination of computer-generated (CG) design, architectural photography and digital retouching—and it’s a specialty that grows out of Roman’s experience. He was born in Chicago, but his family quickly moved to Mexico to start a school. Roman told me that as he grew up in Mexico, spending much of his time playing sports, he acquired a spirit for competition. Then his parents sent him to Chicago, where his sisters were already living, to go to school.

By the time he reached grad school, Roman had immersed himself in the world of architecture; “I saw the power of imagery,” he told me. At the same time, he had ambitions that went beyond the structure of the field. By the end of grad school, Roman said, “I knew I didn’t want to be an architect in the traditional sense.”

So Roman decided to draw on his other interests and skills; “I’ve always had a bunch of hobbies,” he told me, showing me the technological workstations in the office, which he had built himself. Though he had no formal training in computer graphics or photography, he decided to use his knowledge of architecture to produce images of buildings and designed spaces.

The relevant skills here were the rendering of architectural models in 3D and the retouching of photos of spaces that were not true to the designer’s vision. For Roman this retouching is not a matter of producing fictional images, but rather “maintaining the integrity of the design.” Architectural firms need images for record-keeping and for competitions, so the integrity of the design is a major priority. What’s distinctive about the service that Roman began to offer through Pixelcraft is the “hybrid of traditional compositing and CG.” Elements of the image would be produced in 3D in order to reflect “real-time effects on the subject”—for example, the effects of light and shadow, which would not show up in an ordinary two-dimensional composite.

An excellent illustration of this practice is an image that recently appeared in Philadelphia Style. The designer commissioned Pixelcraft to take a photo of a beach house, but was unhappy that the plants in the front had not grown in. The house itself was occupied and not available for further photography. Roman told the client not to worry about the lack of vegetation; “we can do it later,” he said.

The image below (click for a larger version) shows the photo with markings of all the points to be corrected.

This next image shows the 3D design process.

And here’s the final version—it looks totally different, even though the painstakingly crafted changes are subtle.

The reason this kind of work is exceptional is the knowledge that Roman and his team can bring to the project. The three people in the office—Roman and Adam as well as the third team member, Melissa Shilling—all have an education in architecture. Their division of labor depends on the project. Roman works as creative director and handles the technical side; this, he admitted, is “where my geekiness comes into play.” Melissa has the role of a producer, organizing projects and evaluating them with a critical eye. Adam provides the design perspective.

The really important aspect is still the architectural background. “We understood the way architects envision their ideas,” said Roman. “A lot of it comes down to materials and how different materials relate to each other.”

By including photography in their services, they are able to apply this knowledge of design to the whole process, putting together a highly accurate representation of the original design ideas. “I think the skill-set is pretty specialized,” Roman told me. “What’s unique about the way that we do it is that we can take the process all the way from the beginning to the end.” Throughout their history Pixelcraft has appreciated the fact that these services bring them “demanding clients—clients with a vision,” who request work that has “artistic merit.”

Roman explains the imaging process.

The complex abilities of PIxelcraft have allowed the company to respond to the recession by allowing for greater “diversification,” as Roman puts it. CG and retouching are often considered a luxury by architecture firms (as well as those in real estate and engineering, which might also require these kinds of images). To respond to this reality, Pixelcraft now offers stand-alone photography; their work with CG has gained them a reputation for producing unusually stylized images. “That has allowed us to come onto a new turf,” says Roman.

The work of Pixelcraft is one expression of Roman’s inventiveness. Alongside his design work, he has taught at Drexel, the University of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia University—and he teaches subjects, like 3D design, that he never took a class in. Still, Roman confesses, “architecture’s the one thing that I’ve never been able to let go.” It’s an approach that combines rigorous formal training with an instinct for creativity—a career for all of us to envy.

-Asad Haider