new school

[mskin]

cnc please.

[jtroupe]

First off, the modeling looks pretty good from this vantage point.

 

First thing I would change is to have the ground beyond the school extend out, so it doesn't appear that the earth ends. To avoid having just an open field you may tilt the camera more to have a better shot that eliminates more of the background.

 

Second, your shadows don't match up to where the sun angle is. There are some going in different directions. Are they done in photoshop or in the rendering? Also make sure that the denisty of the shadows in consistant. The ones if the forground look darker than the ones in the background.

 

Third, I would re-axamine your materials and lighting. The materials look flat and the lighitng isn't doing much to accentuate the building's architecture. Also, the grass and the trees don't match. You have really light green grass wich makes the trees almost look dead.

 

It also appears that the walls in the middle of the school are picking up a little too much color from the ground. Not sure what's causing that, but I would take a look at it.

 

Finally, you might try looking into changing your camera angle. It seems that a more interesting view would be looking through the parking lot at the school. That will give you more of an opportunity to add some people and cars which will really bring it to life.

 

Oh, another thing I just noticed is that there appears to be a huge ball in the middle of the image. Not sure what that is.

 

I hope that these comments will be helpful.

[mskin]

Thanks for the comments.

 

I often struggle with these overall site images in terms of what to do at the edge of the proporty. I have often played with the thought of showing the top of a boats sail, or perhaps a monster guarding the edge of the earth. i think the camera angle will make a difference, and maybe i should take a look at what some other people have done to soften the edge to abyss....

 

The shadows are generated in max. im using a daylight system, wich i must admit, i have little knowledge or control of. The funkyness of the shadows may be a result of the uneveness of the terrain (causing the appearance of not being a uniform direction), or the fact that the shadow casting tree plane is angled toward the sun (slightly above horizontal to the grownd) to generate fuller shadows... this may be a mistake.

 

I also agree, materials and lighting are certainly my weakness. I struggled with both quite a bit and am in the process of refining them, however all my moves are experimental rather than based an knowledge or experience..

 

And by the way, the big ball is a satellite dish or something that is attached to a tower above the silo in the foreground. perhaps i need to make my poles thicker so that relates better.

 

Thanks a ton for your comments. It means alot to have another eye look at your work. I love the critical nature of the feedback recieved in this forum. much more helpfull and productive than "hey, looks good"

 

much appreciated.

marek

[mskin]

here's an update.

[jtroupe]

The background definitely looks better. Shouldn't a school have a neighborhood to support it? Great job.

[Ricardo Eloy]

Very nice evolution. Just be careful with the floating trees.

[mskin]

Rick, I agree. My trees do seam to levitate despite the time and spent trying to place them directly on the ground. I know there must be a better way. one of the things i noticed about the marlin trees i used, is that there trunks are rarely centered in the bitmap. I did not spend the time to correct this and as a result, the shadows seam to shoot out from the side of the trees... im hoping to corect this.

[mskin]

Here is another update. Been working on the water feature and eperimenting with grass. Will probobly photoshop the tree shadows, and am hoping to reduce some of the reflection on the glass.