to sky or not to sky

[Travis Schmiesing]

this is very much a work in progress. it still nees entourage, background buildings, more antialiasing, view adjustments, and lighting tweaks among other things. what i am wondering is what are people's opinions on this sky. typically i use skies that are only dramatic in the sense that they are nice shades of blue that you only get on a few days of the year, at least here in ohio. ..and maybe a few whisoy clouds. i typically away from using skies that might be to powerful for the image. in other words, detract to much from the building, afterall, the building is what you are supposed to be looking at, not how nice of a day it is, or how pretty the sky is.

anyway, i was thinking about using this sky....

is it to much?

i know the horizon is a still a little high. i will fix that tomorrow.

i had an email saying that the brick is still to orange, but they didn't say anythign about the sky. i won't ask their opinion, but there is a good chance they wil let me know tomorrow.

[TJ Gardner]

I think the only problem with it is that it might be a little too dark. I dont mean that in the figurative doom and gloom dark, I just mean brighten up the image map to match the other lighting in the scene. other than that, there is no problem with a dramatic sky.

good luck.

[david pinnington]

i agree too dark a sky for the scene lighting
try one of my ways for adding a sky
in photshop put in a clear blue sky to and adjust levels to suit then overlay via screen mode the clouds image skies(s) and adjust opacity to suit
result = parametric sky that you can balance to suit your lighting
i use this pretty much on all my stills these days and having a library of "skies to go" you do this pretty well in the same time it takes to drop in a fixed jpeg

there are plenty of good sky sites

here is one of the better
http://www.lfgrafix.com/grafix/home.html

cheers
3dp

[Lambros Potamianos]

I agree, a bit dark. The sky you chose is not that dramatic. Bear in mind though that you would do better in feng-shui image terms if there were less clouds over the building. The client would subconsiously appreciate it more. Just a thought

[Ernest Burden III]

That sky does not work in the composition. You have three main 'puffs' of clouds, one over each corner tower of the building. It almost looks like smoke coming from them. Then on the lower right the shape of distant clouds licks up the perspective line of the building top, causing a 'run out' situation.

You could have a cloud shape build large over the back right corner to balance the mass of the foreground portion, or you could use some linear clouds to offset the linear horizontal lines of the building's center. Which way you go would depend on what aspects of the design you want to either feature or play down.

But if you go with a strong brick color you may be better served by a largely cloudless sky, using its color/shade to play against the building graphicly.

Also, the view is a little bit too high, probably. Lowering slightly will make the roofline more interesting, and make the foreground easier to put in. Since you don't have cars and people yet its hard to tell, but I think you are at about 12' or more above the ground.

[Tim Saunders]

i used to use similar skies fairly often, but then i started seeing some of the images that come back from our photographers for our firm. i noticed that in all the photos that were taken on days like this you didn't get very contrasting shadows and they just didn't look as good as the photos that were taken on brighter sunny days. yes we can control the shadows however we want, but if thats the way they are in photographs, in my opinion they should be the same way in renderings. that being said, the right scene can easily call for an overcasting sky with rain clouds. but this is not one of those scenes.

[Travis Schmiesing]

ya, i knew the sky felt to dark, but i far to often when i try to lighten a sky in photshop, i wind up blowing out the clouds, so i thought i would try leaving it down. i often feel that i make things brighter than what they need to be.

still a work in progress...

well i did these 2 composits before i left the office for the evening. ...not that you ever really leave, you just go home, and kick the computer back on. i went with a sky with less action, but still a little cloud disturbance in the distance.

i am not completely sold on this sky either though. when i was leaving the office it was about an hour to an hour and a half before sunset. which is about the same angle as the sky in this image. the sky was a brilliant cyan blue. a lot more intense than what i am currently showing.

i am rendering high res version tonight, and am going to photocomp the rest of the trees and entourage in the morning. this round will not have much of a foreground, but this project will go through multiple rounds, so maybe it will have a foreground next time.

i have until 10:00 to decide on the sky.

ernest.. i am not so worried about the horizon. i have a building to drop in behind the trees that will cover horizon in the photo.

i also adjusted the view lower, moved to the left, and began adding a few trees, car, people, ect.. the truck is a little large in thsi image. the truck is tucked way back under the trees. the medical center always has a white truck parked out front for some reason. it was placed there to make them feel a little more comfortable.

[Travis Schmiesing]

...and out the door. maybe next round i will add some foreground, though it is mostly parking anyway.

[Travis Schmiesing]

i used to use similar skies fairly often, but then i started seeing some of the images that come back from our photographers for our firm. i noticed that in all the photos that were taken on days like this you didn't get very contrasting shadows and they just didn't look as good as the photos that were taken on brighter sunny days. yes we can control the shadows however we want, but if thats the way they are in photographs, in my opinion they should be the same way in renderings. that being said, the right scene can easily call for an overcasting sky with rain clouds. but this is not one of those scenes.

this is the only photo shoots i remember seeing in our portfolio that had an abundance of clouds in the shot. you really spend a lot of time starring at the clouds, and not at the building. which may not be a bad thing in some cases.

[Kalle Eliasson]

chg - sweet work! I really like how they turned out... yes, they would have been even better with more details/landscaping and stuff infront of the building, but they look really good as they are too!

nice post-effect, really helps the images in this case. and great reflections in the windows...