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When Robert Kenfield launched DreamLife Design Inc. in 2005, he looked for a way to set his Vancouver company apart from the competition. At the time, real estate visualization was a relatively young and largely fragmented industry.

Most of the players were focused on only one part of the visualization experience — either the 3-D images, the animation or the software itself. Mr. Kenfield, who has a background in environmental design and architecture, wanted to set up a studio that could deliver all three of these services.

DreamLife uses architectural drawings to create 3-D renderings of residential or commercial real estate developments. These images can be animated to produce videos for viewing on the Web or TV, or can be combined with interactive software so that prospective buyers can "experience" the space on a computer screen.

Visualization tools have elevated real estate marketing to new, virtual dimensions. Condo developers, for example, can now invite clients to interactive showrooms where the buyers can "walk through" their acquisition (altering colour schemes and kitchen cabinetry as they go) before the shovels are even in the ground.

Mr. Kenfield brought his company along slowly, gradually taking on more complex projects and perfecting the technology. Within two years, the 12-person company was juggling about a dozen projects at a time, mostly for local residential developers and marketers, including Sotheby's International Realty Canada.

These projects were all small to medium-sized, however. "I knew we needed a recognizable name to catapult us to the next level," he says.

When Sotheby's connected Mr. Kenfield with Vancouver-based developer Delta Group in early 2007, he saw the opportunity he'd been waiting for: a contract to provide visualization services for the residential portion of the $400-million restoration of the Hotel Georgia. "We knew it was a signature project that was going to help us grow our company," he says.

After making his pitch over the course of a few meetings, Mr. Kenfield submitted his bid, along with a handful of other companies, including the project's architect, and waited. The architect had the advantage of already being close to the project, but they were only interested in handling the renderings, which meant Delta would still have had to hire different suppliers to do the animation work and integrate the presentation into one interactive software package.

"It took a little bit of convincing that our approach was the right one," says Mr. Kenfield, explaining that Delta was initially overwhelmed by DreamLife's one-stop approach. In the end, however, the integrated solution won out, and DreamLife was awarded what was then its biggest (Mr. Kenfield will only say it was worth three times the value of any of their previous jobs) and most complex project.

The Hotel Georgia's 48-storey residential tower included 12 different units with a choice of two colour schemes, and DreamLife's job was to bring every one of these options to life. "We're talking over 100 renderings and 13 animations and individual short films," Mr. Kenfield says. Until then, a typical DreamLife project had involved only about 20 to 40 still images. Another challenge was the time frame: The job had to be completed in three months. "This was the largest project we'd ever undertaken, it had to be done in the shortest amount of time, and it required the greatest amount of detail and creativity," he says.

Failure to meet the client's expectations on this job would be a huge setback to DreamLife's local reputation, which Mr. Kenfield had worked hard to establish. "You don't want to overpromise and underdeliver," he says. "That would hurt our brand."

Meeting Delta's deadline "put our systems to the test," he says, explaining that DreamLife didn't have to shelve any of its 12 or so other projects, but instead focused on the individual phases of each job. "Let's say half our projects were in stage one and the others were in stage two, which allowed different people to work on different phases. If they'd all been in the same phase at the same time, it would have been a problem."

Before making his bid to Delta, Mr. Kenfield had consulted with his designers and production team about their ability to manage the workload. "I knew we could deliver on time and also create a project that would be incredibly glamorous for the client."

Mr. Kenfield and several of his staff (who include architects, graphic designers, interactive Web designers and a video production crew) clocked 80-hour weeks to get the job done on time. "This technology is becoming more and more widespread," Mr. Kenfield says. "But the level to which Hotel Georgia has it is at the top of the world. There are very few projects that have this level of visualization that give you such a complete understanding of the project."

After completing the Hotel Georgia project in June, DreamLife Design secured an even bigger and more complex job with the Ritz Carlton Montreal, which they completed in October. "Hotel Georgia showed marketers and developers what we are capable of producing," he says. "It's just an awesome project." Mr. Kenfield has since started discussions with major developers in Dubai and Singapore. "Hotel Georgia opened my eyes to the appetite that exists for our type of services," he says.

DreamLife's cash flow is in good shape, too. Mr. Kenfield has doubled his staff to 25 since completing the Hotel Georgia job. And he has recently established a Toronto office that he hopes will serve as a gateway to more projects in Eastern Canada and the U.S. East Coast.

This was the track Mr. Kenfield wanted DreamLife to be on all along. "I believe we would have gotten to this point without Hotel Georgia," he says. "This just got us there faster."

• Connect with Robert Kenfield

  Mr. Kenfield will take your questions on his experience Friday at 1 p.m. ET. Click here  to submit your question.

• Expert insight

  "If companies [like DreamLife] can stay in business over the next year, then there's potential for great growth, especially if the technology gets better and they get the costs down," says Brad Lamb, who operates a boutique brokerage specializing in urban properties, primarily condos. He has sold over 14,000 properties for $4-billion in sales. He will talk about the place of real estate visualization in the industry in an online Q&A and also take your questions. Click here for more.

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  Know a business that has experienced a big breakthrough? We want to hear about it. Email: nhulsman@globeandmail.com.