Walkthrough, flythrough or 360° tour — which does your project need?
Architectural walkthrough, flythrough or 360° virtual tour? What each one is, what it does best, what drives the cost, and how to choose.
“Can we get a walkthrough?” can mean three quite different things, at quite different prices. Here is what each one is, what it is best at, and how to choose.
The architectural walkthrough
A film that moves through a building at roughly walking pace and eye height: arriving, entering, and moving through the main spaces the way a visitor would. It answers one question — what is it like to be there?
It suits interiors-led projects, premium homes and apartments, and design presentations where the sequence of spaces is the idea. Shorter is better: a walkthrough that lingers where a person would linger and cuts where attention shifts holds an audience far longer than one that glides down every corridor.
The flythrough
A film with an airborne camera: approaching the site, circling the building, revealing what surrounds it — the water, the park, the station, the skyline. It answers a different question — where is it, and how does it sit?
It suits towers, masterplans and precincts, and any project where the location is the selling point. Flythroughs and walkthroughs combine well: fly in, land at the entry, walk through.
The 360° virtual tour
Not a film at all, but an interactive set of panoramas the viewer controls: look in any direction, move between rooms, switch finishes or views where the tour allows it. It answers the question buyers ask after the film has done its work — can I check it for myself?
It suits display suites, project websites and buyers comparing finishes or floor plates, and it keeps working long after a launch, because people return to it.
How they compare
- Who controls the camera: in a film, you do — the story, the pace, the music. In a tour, the viewer does.
- What it is for: a film creates desire and gets shared; a tour lets a serious buyer verify, and converts.
- Where it plays: films lead on social media, launch events and the top of a website; tours live on the website and the display suite screens.
- What drives the cost: a film is priced by its finished length and by how many spaces, animated people or water it needs — our guide to what architectural animation costs breaks it down. A tour is priced mainly by the number of viewpoints and how interactive it is.
Which to choose
- A design presentation or planning meeting: a short walkthrough or a set of stills; a flythrough if the argument is about context.
- An off-the-plan launch: a film for attention, a tour for conversion, and stills for print and signage.
- A luxury residence: a walkthrough, graded and scored like a short film.
- A masterplan or precinct: a flythrough and aerial stills, with the first release highlighted.
Tours for off-the-plan buyers in NSW
In New South Wales, off-the-plan buyers have a 10 business day cooling-off period in which they can pull out of the contract. The NSW Government also notes that fixtures and fittings sometimes turn out different from what the buyer imagined, or from what was in a demonstration display.
Both point the same way for a tour. Render it to the finishes in the contract, and make it easy to revisit from home: the questions a buyer asks during cooling-off are the ones a good tour answers.
Sources, checked October 2026: NSW Government, Buying property off the plan.
One model serves all three
Stills, films and tours can all come from the same scene. Commissioning them together costs less than commissioning them one by one, and everything in the campaign matches — the same light, the same materials, the same grade. Our films are delivered at 4K or 8K, at 30 or 60 frames per second.
See architectural film and interactive and virtual tours, or send us your drawings for a fixed quote within two business hours.