Hampton Inn - CC needed

[RyanSpaulding]

CC needed on this building. What would make the image pop better? More people? Ect. Thanks!

[Jorbu]

The green canopy seems to be over saturated. It just stands out too much, not enough contrast and depth.

I think another thing that could help is to add more sky. It just seems like it was cropped down too much.

The people in the parking lot don't really seem to be walking towards or from anywhere in particular. A few more people would help.

Overall, it looks good.

[Tbonz]

Shadows look a bit crisp for the lighting, and the lighting seems a tad too dark IMO.

[Scott Baumberger]

Overall it has a pretty good feel, but still needs some work. The lighting is pretty good, although it might be more interesting to put the sun off to the left (if that's possible). Right now the sun seems to be almost directly behind the camera. Some other comments:

If you can, move the camera down to eye level - more like 5' off the ground instead of 20' or so. This will help the composition significantly and reduce the amount of entourage required to fill out the scene.

Definately some more people will help - for a hotel you want to make sure the people are reasonably upscale. The couple in the foreground is more casual than you'd probably want to see. I'd go for more business people and maybe some shopping people to round it out. A doorman at the entrance would be good too - anything you can do to help sell it as a hotel will make the rendering more interesting.

Either way, level the camera so it's a 2-point perspective instead of 3.

The foreground tree at right center is unfortunate - either move the camera or tree so that it's not blocking the entrance.

Pull the camera back to give the building a little more breathing room at the top and left side and the pink wall at the right edge is weird - I'm not sure what's going on but it looks like it is slightly transparent.

Get some light in the windows at the first floor - this is making the building seem uninviting.

Fix the tiling on the brick.

Shadows from trees & people don't seem to match the lighting on the building. Watch the lighting on the people too - it looks like they're lit from the left, but the rest of the scene is lit to the right. In this case, just horizontally flip the map in photoshop. With the other couple (closer to the entrance towards the right) you should adjust the levels so they don't stand out so much - right now that's the brightest spot in the entire image.

Glass is good, but maybe a little dark. An environment map / reflection map would help a lot. A little more interest (some lights, just a hint of color inside) at the elevator tower would help too.

As mentioned before, the material on the green canopy and awnings looks really plastic - try to get more differential between the sun & shade sides. You would also see some highlights at the corners and at the roof seams. This would help give that large surface some texture and break up the scale a little bit. Also, the underside of the canopy at the top of the tower looks like it's going full black - try to lighten that up a bit.

Finally, I think the birds at the top left are distracting - maybe if you were showing more sky they might work, but as they are now it seems a little forced.

OK that's all I can see - sorry if I've been too picky. Hopefully this has been helpful to your effort. I'd really like to see your final version - Good luck!

[RyanSpaulding]

Some of what you're mentioning is client-driven.

 

I'll definitely work on MY version more. Thx for the comments.

[Allen]

I think the canopy and other similar parts can be fixed by doing a couple of adjustments to your materials.

 

1. Lower the saturation (already mentioned)

2. Add reflection based on incidence angle to the camera (fresnel effect). the more parallel to the plane of the camera, the more reflective the material will become. As the surface becomes perpendicular, the less reflective. Use a gradient control if you have that tool available to you. For metal I usually use about 5% at 90% (perpendicular) to 80% or more at 0%.

 

Try it out and see how it looks. BTW, this same thing will affect glass, but in the case of glass it will also affect the transparency channel inverse to the reflection channel. (90% or perpendicular - 95%, 0% or parallel - 0%)

 

Though subtle, you'll be amazed at the difference fresnel makes.