Dig'em up

[TAKA]

Hey guys

This is a project http://www.geocities.com/aamine/tourism.html i've done last year (2nd year in architecture school). I ran across it today and since i was kinda free i decided i'd use it to enhance my exterior rendering skills (still a beginner in exteriors). As u all know, it's a WIP, and i need ur feedback to enhance it.

Basically it's an information center with a display room (the volume on the left - it's 1/4 of a cylinder).

There are a few things already i don't like about this picture:

The car looks like a bad cutout (it was rendered separately from the scene and composited in Photoshop. Yet i used the same light angle without radiosity.....i tried working with the colors in photoshop, desaturating them maybe, but it doesn;t look right. i don't know how this metallic look should be in this scene)

Another thing is the textures. except for the cylinder volume, the grass, floor and road, all textures are flat (no bitmaps). Why? well i don't know what sort of textures to use with it, and second of all, i get a weird bump/texture in the shadowed areas (that receive indirect illumination). So any suggestions for textures to use or why i am getting this effect would be great.

Finally, the road (asphalt). Does anyone know how to make a good road texture. As u can probably see, i used a falloff map in the diffuse channel of the asphalt, thought it would give it some depth, but it doesn;t seem to work.....

How do i make the road dirty, what kind of dirt maps should i use?

 

So many questions...hop i'm not confusing you guys.....if you can help in any way i'd be grateful (i am alreayd for being able to show you my work)

 

Thanks again

 

[ August 08, 2002, 07:35 AM: Message edited by: TAKA ]

[quizzy]

I can't see the picture... it won't load.

[Ricardo Eloy]

Hi, Taka!

I like your image. It's clean, and the design looks good, too.

I wouldn't worry about the building textures. They look good, even though they're flat. The only thing that bothers me here, besides the asphalt) is the sidewalk. It seems to be in the same level as the road, and the texture is a little awkward. Another thing here: it simply ends (on the left). Consider working on that.

About the asphalt, take an existing bitmap (tons of them on the net) and work on it using Photoshop. You can make a large texture with all kinds of dirt, marks and stains. A nice asphalt texture never repeats itself, so make a huge texture you can apply to any of your projects.

 

Two more things: the glass is not reflecting the car (try not to modify its color later, it's hardo to get good results), and the proportion looks a little odd. Maybe you should use something around 16:9...

 

rgds

Rick

 

[ August 08, 2002, 08:10 AM: Message edited by: Rick Eloy ]

[matt_vinoir]

take that car out!!! It really detracts from the overall image. Looks like a cheap trick. Let the architecture do the talking.

[TAKA]

take that car out!!! It really detracts from the overall image. Looks like a cheap trick. Let the architecture do the talking.

matt, i know that, and i said so in my post, and although it looks better without the car, i wanna put it so i can learn how to render such objects (ie. cars)... it's a 3d model, so how can i make it look right ?(it was rendered separetly without radiosity, with one directional light. How about post processing in photoshop? anyone got any ideas?

[nisus]

hi taka,

 

a good trick to make this composite invisible in ps is to start levelling your layer contrasts in *B/W. Once your contrasts match, you can tackle the colors. The basis of this trick is to level contrasts and color seperately for more/better control.

 

To work in grayscale-mode without losing color information, convert your image to Lab and switch on the lightness-channel only.

You can also add a black or white layer *BM=color to the top of your image.

 

rgds

 

nisus

 

*B/W: Black and white = grayscale (or is it greyscale?)

[Cesar R]

grayscale

[HeDaCoM]

i wanna put it so i can learn how to render such objects (ie. cars).

what do you want to learn? architecture? or computer graphics? get out that horrible car of that image please :???:

 

[ August 09, 2002, 08:04 AM: Message edited by: HeDaCoM ]

[quizzy]

I agree, get that car out, its far to realistic for the building behind it...

 

Learning moment: always use the same detail in the surrounding objects as you did in your buildings, or even better: less detail, so those things won't distract you of what its all about; the architecture..

And if you dont have those less detailed models of cars, you can allways blur the model a little, the picture will be more dynamic also...

 

rgrds

 

quizzy

[matt_vinoir]

sorry taka didn't mean to give such a blunt resoponce!! I'll try again...

 

take that car out!!

[TAKA]

Originally posted by matt_vinoir:

sorry taka didn't mean to give such a blunt resoponce!! I'll try again...

 

take that car out!!

Your wish is my command Matt, but still i had to test how it would look like with some motion blurring. You can see the updates here. Please tell me what u think (everybody)

 

Thx for all ur feedback guys, u're the greatest (some of u already know that )

 

rgds

 

TAKA

[STRAT]

Originally posted by nisus:

hi taka,

 

a good trick to make this composite invisible in ps is to start levelling your layer contrasts in *B/W. Once your contrasts match, you can tackle the colors. The basis of this trick is to level contrasts and color seperately for more/better control.

 

To work in grayscale-mode without losing color information, convert your image to Lab and switch on the lightness-channel only.

You can also add a black or white layer *BM=color to the top of your image.

 

rgds

 

nisus

 

*B/W: Black and white = grayscale (or is it greyscale?)

i totally agree nisus. this is a good tip for ppl compositing.

[matt_vinoir]

much beter taka!. Road looks convincing and i like it a bit dirtier. It doesn't look old but a touch more real. Generally all the colour levels match which is something i guess you subconsiously notice if its wrong.