Visualizing vision with Vizcom

For one of the Render Weekly's prompt—Birdhouse—I made these visuals using Vizcom (majorly) and other tools.

Context:

I wanted to try something different. I started hunting for ideas, scrolling through Pinterest, building moodboards, and shortlisting a few directions like:

• A birdhouse inspired by the traditional Indian (Gujarati) bird feeder ‘Chabutro’

• A terracotta birdhouse with patterns inspired by Kolam art

• A ¾ cylindrical birdhouse that could be mounted on a corner wall

• A birdhouse made from straw, etc.

But I had to drop most of these ideas. They felt more like handcrafted objects. I wanted to make something that could be mass-manufactured and reproduced.

Then came the idea of a transparent birdhouse. It felt fresh and had a good balance of form and function. So I decided to explore it further. This post shows my process of developing that concept.

(Side note: For my personal projects, I like designing things that are fun, clean, lighthearted, and make people smile. That philosophy sits quietly underneath this project too.)

Intention Behind the Design

The idea of making a transparent Birdhouse came from a thought—what if we could watch birds even when they’re resting inside their nest? Transparency gives you that peek into their world.

When I looked online, I couldn’t find any good transparent birdhouses. And the few that existed felt lifeless—no character.

So I thought, what if I use acrylic to make a clean, simple, and cute birdhouse? Some questions came up:

• Would the birds get disturbed by the transparent walls?

• But then again, birds often nest in open places in nature too.

• Would transparency make it look too sterile? Maybe, but reflections and lighting could actually add to the beauty.

I wanted to:

• Hang it from above, so it always stays at a height. Ground-based ones looked too much like post boxes.

• Keep it open to nature as much as possible.

• Add small accents of colour for a bit of charm and personality.

Design

Ideation:

Once I had a direction in mind, I started with quick sketches to build the concept.

Ideogram turned out to be a great tool at this stage. It gave me good variations and high-quality images. I used it to experiment and define the visual mood for the environment and setting.

Thought behind the design:

To give it a cosy and familiar vibe, I shaped the birdhouse like a simple home silhouette.

I added sheet metal mounts for strength and to allow hanging.

I also added a small wooden rod for birds to perch on.

Most birdhouses online felt like artificial replacements for natural nests. I didn’t want that.

I wanted this to be more of a “roof and wall” around a natural nest—not a replacement.

Transparency also keeps the birds connected to their surroundings, not cutting them off.

Visualisation

I had a clear mood in mind and wanted to generate AI visuals that matched it. Here's what I tried:

Strategy 1:

I made a quick CAD model in Rhino and uploaded it to Vizcom, along with a basic text prompt.

Results? Not even close to what I wanted.

I tried sketching over it, changing the background, playing with prompts—but it didn’t work.

Strategy 2:

I created a custom image palette in Vizcom using visuals made in Ideogram.

The results improved slightly in terms of mood, but Vizcom struggled to interpret elements correctly—like the bird, nest, transparency, and metal parts.

The outcomes were weird and unusable.

Strategy 3:

Now I decided to go one step further.

I made a rough render in Keyshot—nothing fancy, just a low-fidelity version with all the basic elements: bird, nest, transparency, background, etc.

Then I uploaded this image to Vizcom.

The results? Exactly what I wanted.

The lighting, reflections, and material feel were way better. I repeated the same process with different camera angles, and Vizcom delivered consistently.

Towards the end, I noticed some inconsistencies and minor tweaks that could have made the images even better, but I got a bit lazy and decided to roll with what I had.

Let me know what you think of this process.

And if you’ve tried something else with Vizcom (or any AI tool) that worked better or faster—please share! I’d love to learn from your experiences too.

Thanks for reading.