CET Designer Entries

I’ve mostly finished uploading most of my 2021 works in my print on demand sites. I felt like I could finally tackle this blog. So I’ll start with my lowest draft post.

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The program we use in my work is Configura’s CET designer. Our company participates in the CET rendering contest every year, hoping for another win. I previously participated last 2019 and was a finalist. Last 2021 I participated again, but sadly did not get into the finals. The photo above was my render. I was basically going for a luxe tropical office vibe. Pretty happy with the results even if I didn’t get in. I didn’t get to participate this year due to my schedule. But maybe next year?

Also blogging feels so weird again after a long time. I don’t mind having no readers. This is just a diary or a journal of sorts to look back on memories anyway. Okay. Let’s tackle the rest of the drafts.

Configura CET Rendering contest

Configura, the company that created CET Designer (the one that we use for our work) annually holds an international rendering contest. I participated last year and submitted two renderings – one for the office category and another for the kitchen category.

My works were accepted as finalists!

A night scene since I thought everyone would be submitting day scenes. My imaginary office worker works overtime.

I kept trying so many methods in making that counter glow. It failed haha.

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Sadly, I didn’t win. But I find it comforting that I got in the finalist round on my first try. I’m also happy to know that most of the winners were from our office. So, yay!

Will I participate this year? Not sure yet!

Will there still be a contest this year? Yes! I heard registration will open on May 4,

Let’s Eat Kanin

Another long overdue post! A few months ago, the owners of Huggle Hub Food and Drinks contacted me again to consult with an interior renovation of their restaurant. They did a re-branding of their restaurant and I happily obliged.

The final design.

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The existing space looked like a dental clinic due to the pure white interiors. It was supposed to have varnished wood accents, but the contractor just painted those over SIGH. Since my proposed interior design was only less than 50% accurate, this was the chance to remedy the interior design of the restaurant. However, they had a limited budget for the renovation. I proposed a bunch of options for them to choose from.

Different wood accents and a reuse of the grass tiles.

Adding grass tiles on the ceiling and wood accents for the wall.

One of the ceiling design concepts.

Proposing a new concept doesn’t need to be expensive. A re-paint or additional accents would do the trick to make the interior design pop. This time also, I asked a reliable contractor (from Manila) to do the renovation for this project.

During the occasional Zambales visits, I also got a chance to take promotional food photos for them. ♥ This is also my role in our food blog.

Taco fries. ♥

Shawarma rice. One of their best sellers.

For their Unlimited chicken wings promo.

So, how does their restaurant look like now? BETTER! ♥

My camera phone couldn’t do justice to the way it looks now huhu. It looks SO GOOD.

Repainted the pendant lights. The L.E.K. lights were bought by the client.

Let’s Eat Kanin – Iba, Zambales.

Re-learning SketchUp & V-ray

In interior design, there are numerous ways to present your design to the client. It can either be free hand, 3D renders, or a combination of both. That would require knowledge in numerous programs not taught in college. (I’m not sure if its taught now, but back then we didn’t have this). One of the programs is SketchUp. It is a 3D modeling computer program that is useful for interior design. It has a free version called – SketchUp MAKE, and a paid version called – SketchUp Pro.

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SketchUp is my favorite program in 3D modelling. Here are the reasons why:

  1. It’s free to use. For beginners, the SketchUp MAKE will suffice. The 3D Warehouse 3d models are also free.
  2. I could import my plans from Autocad (in .dwg file) to SketchUp, scale it, and then build up the walls from there. (This is for Pro version)
  3. Getting models is easy. It has its own 3D Warehouse accessible from the program itself. There are also numerous websites that provides free/paid models in .3ds & .skp files.
  4. Customizable. I could use any photo I want and use it as a material in SketchUp. For example, if I don’t want to use the default wood textures in SketchUp, I could import a wood texture that I got online and use that.

With SketchUp, I feel like I’m just playing a game of Sims on my laptop. Here is a sample 3D model that I did:

To make it look realistic with all the lights, shadows, etc. You need to use a Rendering plug-in for that. I use V-ray for SketchUp for this. This is not free, but there’s a trial version so you could try it out & decide if this works for you. There are other rendering plug-ins for SketchUp, but I’m used to V-ray. Here is the sample 3D render in V-ray:

Post-processing in Photoshop.

It’s been a while since I’ve last used SketchUp. The time where I used it extensively was way back in 2012, I started relearning again last December 2016. Added that I’ve bought a new laptop the same time, I finally got the chance to render in V-ray since my laptop can finally render quickly. Back then, a simple render would take 8 hours, now it would take around 1-2 hours.

To learn more about SketchUp, here are some useful links:

To learn more about V-ray for SketchUp, here are some useful links:

I hope I’d improve my SketchUp & Vray skills this year! So I could make tutorials and teach others as well. ♥