My first urban scene

[Brian Cassil]

This is the first urban image I've done. It's not quite done yet as I'm awaiting comments from the client. I plan on adding a little motion blur to some of the cars, messing with the sky, and darkening the back building some to make the left edge of the focus building read a little better. Now would be a good time for crits though since I will be doing another version of this. Credit goes to Scott Buckner for modeling the building lickidy split!

 

[Chad Warner]

Look's good so far. Where's it at? I would darken the building to the right also, it looks too much like sky.

[Ernest Burden III]

Sometimes tech moves in interesting ways. The image took a really long time to load. It painted top-down. I was already reacting to the top half, then I saw the bottom half. My goodness!

 

The bottom half is perfection. Leave it alone. It has the feel of a good tempra rendering. The tonal balances are right, cars and people are positioned in just the right places. The outfielder can get some rest.

 

The top half is being too photoreal, and in doing so revealing a slight lack of detail, especially in the foreground building and the one to the left of the 'hero'. You should play with contrast on those, and making them darker. Use a sky with either no clouds (probably best) or one with nicely defined clouds, preferably horizontal ones. These will need to be reflected in the shiny towers to the right. I find that tall building too dark, but I wonder if it was lighter it would be worse. You'll have to try. Find something--cloud reflections or better yet building reflections--to take out the light glazing of the way-back buildings. You need to stop the perspective.

 

work of Richard Beahr:

 

[Ernest Burden III]

And where's the reflection of the 'hero' in the big, blue tower?

[Brian Cassil]

Look's good so far. Where's it at?

 

Thanks, it's in Philly.

 

Sometimes tech moves in interesting ways. The image took a really long time to load. It painted top-down. I was already reacting to the top half, then I saw the bottom half. My goodness!

 

The bottom half is perfection. Leave it alone. It has the feel of a good tempra rendering. The tonal balances are right, cars and people are positioned in just the right places. The outfielder can get some rest.

 

The top half is being too photoreal, and in doing so revealing a slight lack of detail, especially in the foreground building and the one to the left of the 'hero'. You should play with contrast on those, and making them darker. Use a sky with either no clouds (probably best) or one with nicely defined clouds, preferably horizontal ones. These will need to be reflected in the shiny towers to the right. I find that tall building too dark, but I wonder if it was lighter it would be worse. You'll have to try. Find something--cloud reflections or better yet building reflections--to take out the light glazing of the way-back buildings. You need to stop the perspective.

 

 

Thanks for the great comments as always. I'll make them happen.

[Tim Nelson]

Hey thats a pretty nice urban illustration. Oh, why does that sound so familiar? I really like the foreground too. Very well done. I think it's going to turn out just lovely.

[Brian Cassil]

Hey thats a pretty nice urban illustration. Oh, why does that sound so familiar? I really like the foreground too. Very well done. I think it's going to turn out just lovely.

 

LOL! You miss it don't you.

[Tim Nelson]

Hey I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss it a little bit. Working for yourself is a fun, albeit extremely time consuming occupation.

[gfa2]

Wow Brian...really nice. I guess the thing that hit me right off the bat was the reflections on the tall building on the right. Something just doens't seem right...the sky or other surrounding environment reflections, not sure. But it is very cool.

[jophus14]

Really nice image. Is everything in the scene 3D? What software did you using to create this scene? The sky reflection on the left side of the main building looks really strong, is that how it's supposed to look?

[alfienoakes]

Really nice image.. Good composition. Good lighting..

 

I just feel the foreground, that is in shadow, is just a touch too dark.. it looks almost sinister..? Like in "independence day" when the huge alien ship cast a shadow over the city when it moved in..

 

But I like it.. looks good..

[Tim Saunders]

I love the compo. ie, placement of cars, people, trees, camera, etc. Your materials on the cars are spot-on! Maybe it's just me, but it seems like the indirectly lit areas are too lit. I would think if there are that many tall buildings around, it would be a bit darker down at the bottom 30-40 feet. I realize this is a crit contrary to what Earnest is getting at (which isn't relating to realistic effects), but I assume this isn't one of your npr attempts. It just looks a little fakiosity, no gi effects in the shaded areas. All except for the building on the front left-that is.

 

I wouldn't want to turn it into a Cebas vs Chaos battle by any means, but maybe that effect is a challenge to get from Final Render?

[Brian Cassil]

Really nice image. Is everything in the scene 3D? What software did you using to create this scene? The sky reflection on the left side of the main building looks really strong, is that how it's supposed to look?

 

Yes it is all 3D. Photomontage was not an option here since I could not visit the site. I did this in max with final render stage 1 R2 which just came out. (I'm loving it btw!). As far as the reflections go, yes they were meant to be strong like that but maybe the glass could be darker now that you mention it.

 

Really nice image.. Good composition. Good lighting..

 

I just feel the foreground, that is in shadow, is just a touch too dark.. it looks almost sinister..? Like in "independence day" when the huge alien ship cast a shadow over the city when it moved in..

 

But I like it.. looks good..

 

But I love that independance day look! Actually the client thought it was a little dark too so It's now a tad brighter... a bit to my dismay.

 

I love the compo. ie, placement of cars, people, trees, camera, etc. Your materials on the cars are spot-on! Maybe it's just me, but it seems like the indirectly lit areas are too lit. I would think if there are that many tall buildings around, it would be a bit darker down at the bottom 30-40 feet. I realize this is a crit contrary to what Earnest is getting at (which isn't relating to realistic effects), but I assume this isn't one of your npr attempts. It just looks a little fakiosity, no gi effects in the shaded areas. All except for the building on the front left-that is.

 

I wouldn't want to turn it into a Cebas vs Chaos battle by any means, but maybe that effect is a challenge to get from Final Render?

 

Well, imho GI is overplayed too much in many CG renderings. This has intentionally subtle GI partly because that's just the style I'm shooting for here, but also partly becuase this image is being used for design study as well as marketing. FR is plenty capable of doing smooth detailed GI (especially the new version!).

 

I've applied many of the comments here to the final version. I struggled with how to render the tall glass building because it needs to be there (obviously) but without dominating the scene. I think it's a slight improvement.

 

[skana]

Hey Brian,

 

Did you use Bionatics' trees here?

[Tommy L]

I know ill get shot down for this, but Id intruduce a little 3rd point perspective. I find that on corrected images like this, the tall building look a little unnatural. Kind of stretched and looming. Just knock that cam correction down a little. And I agree the tall glass building needs a little work, a sneaky gradient into the mix somewhere perhaps, transparency as well.

Good job!

[Ernest Burden III]

I hate the third point. But funny you should mention it... Richard Beahr will tell you that all of his renderings of really tall buildings (and he's done a lot) are subtle three-pointers. He keeps the base vertical but tapers the tops ever-so-slightly.

[Brian Cassil]

The only time I ever use 3rd point perspective is if I'm doing something where I'm trying to amp up the drama of a design, and then I'll make it very obvious. Almost a fine art style image. If it's just striaght illustration (like this) I'm dead set against it.

 

Interesting take on the slight taper at the top. I suppose that could be done with the warp transform in PS. I'm afraid I'd get laughed at though!

 

Here's a slight modification. Not as reflective glass on the focus building and a little different on the tall building as well. Better?

 

[Guest nazcaLine]

He keeps the base vertical but tapers the tops ever-so-slightly.

 

i knew it!!!back to my old hand made drwings age, i had the same problem making tall buildings. they looked so deformed at the top. only solution was taking the perspective points far away, but you needed very long rulers and table.

i remeber once i met a very experienced profesional perspective drafstman. he told me about "the magic point". he used what it seemed to be a simple one point perspective for interiors, but used a second point VERY far away, so it added a very subtle perspective effect. very interesting indeed. i tried to used it on my own but never could: you needed a very large table and ruler! my table was only 1.20 meters wide...

 

Eduardo

[Tim Saunders]

I like the changes, especially the darker building behind and to the left of the "hero". Somehting I just notices that I didn't notice before. On the reflections of the tallest building, the clouds look like they are perfectly overlaid in front of the image. Are you using "screen" type environment mapping rather than a sphyrical or sylindrical? It is noticable because at the edge of the building, the cloud looks attached to the cloud in the reflection.

[Tommy L]

Haha, I knew it get shot down quicker than a fat pidgeon. But I stand by it. Just a ickle, ickle bit of 3rd point.

[Ernest Burden III]

but you needed very long rulers and table.

 

I've got that.

 

The artist who's work I posted for comparison--Richard Beahr--developed a special 'perspective T-square' thing that he had a metal shop fabricate out of aluminum for him. It allowed correct drawing to those far off vanishing points without the super-long rulers. Sometimes I used to have to tape a thick illustration board to the end of my six-foot drafting table to extend the reach to a VP.

 

There are a few other points here but I'm going to have to draw over this picture.

[jsf]

Brian,

 

I hope you don't mind but I took the liberty to crop the image.

 

Your eye keeps moving up and out of the frame with the composition you have. This building is a mid-rise, it will never be up in the sky with the big boys. Just put the focus where it should be, in this case, in the center of the page.

 

[Guest nazcaLine]

sure it improved a lot to me.

the focus is now on the "hero", as ernest suggested.

 

Eduardo

 

PS : ernest...a 6 foot drawing table (1.80m) wow...that would look like a surgery table!!!! i don't know how you call it in english but, in spanish, there was something called a "tecnigrafo", a ruler sliding from the upper part of the board, with a mechanism like a mechanical arm. the ruler could displace freely all around the board, and rotate any angle.

i always wanted to have one of those!!!!

...until i bought my first computer in 2003....at 28 years old.

[Ernest Burden III]

in spanish, there was something called a "tecnigrafo", a ruler sliding from the upper part of the board, with a mechanism like a mechanical arm. the ruler could displace freely all around the board, and rotate any angle.

i always wanted to have one of those!!!!

 

A parallel rule, or known by a popular brand-name, a Mayline

 

The drafting table is oak, and was my architect/renderer father's before I grabbed it.

[Brian Cassil]

Brian,

 

I hope you don't mind but I took the liberty to crop the image.

 

Your eye keeps moving up and out of the frame with the composition you have. This building is a mid-rise, it will never be up in the sky with the big boys. Just put the focus where it should be, in this case, in the center of the page.

 

 

I wouldn't have minded you doing this except that now the client has suggested the same exact thing... that means that a clients suggestion on an artists rendering may have some merit which to be honest with you is a little disturbing to me. There are some other minor changes to the design as well. So I will be re-rendering this anyway.

 

I suppose the reason I left it so tall was I liked seeing the step back in the foreground building and the longer aspect ratio... as well as it would be easy enough to crop if I needed to.