Residential exterior realism....

[selos69]

Hi all,

 

First post woo!

 

Ok, so I'm a 5th year Architecture student in Australia. My knowledge of V-ray and Max are self taught and as a result, pretty basic. Up until now, most of my renders have been conceptual so there was no real need to have an in-depth knowledge of vray lighting, materials etc. However, my last assignment is going to need to be as realistic as possible.

 

The assignment consists of many small/medium scale residential apartments/houses. I've bought evermotion archexteriors vol. 1 to aim in helping me with materiality and lighting to no avail (i can't seem to get the same results with vraysun etc). I've search this forum many times and found very helpful and confusing tutorials on sun/sky etc etc

 

My renders tend to look flat, and generally unrealistic with regards to lighting & foliage in particular, i try to copy the settings of the physicalcam and sun/sky to my projects/test projects and it basically looks like shite (i would upload but im not at home for several weeks).

 

What I'm after is perhaps a tutorial that focusses from beginning to end of a residential project. Sort of like the tutorials on 3dtotal.com Im hoping you guys can point me in the correct direction, or share settings for different scenarios that you've posted. Anything would honestly be a great help!

 

Thanks in advance

 

P.S. I have attached some images that relate to what im after

[PAWUK]

Hi Chris

Know what you mean, been trying on and off for awhile to match the exterior shots, hit and miss. Finally decided to order Chris Nichols DVD Global illumination seems to be the one to get by all the comments on the site. Also getting the interior one

 

http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/dvds/cni01.html

[Geoffc]

I've only been doing some 3d work for about a year now, using max and vray. My day job is a full time architect.

 

Anyway, this is what I've learned to get away from the 'flatness' (although I still have miles to go):

 

The further you pull away with your camera angle and try to fit the entire house in like a standard elevation, the less realistic it will look. This is especially true with exteriors. If you notice, most of the evermotion and other good work on these forums tend to be somewhat up close to the subject and with dramatic perspective angles. Very similar to photographing an actual house.

 

Next, try and pick up some of the subtleties of the archexterior materials. They tend to be quite complex, but using one or 2 of their tricks really helps making your materials go from a flat bitmap to a realistic looking object.

 

As far as modeling, use whatever software you'd like, but keep in mind the realism starts with the 2nd and 3rd layers of detail (and beyond). Objects such as gutters, downspouts, 3d roofing, door handles, etc. Our eyes start to believe the image more with these many every day subtleties added.

 

And finally, and of course the most important, is the lighting. Still very tough for me to master. Very tough. That being said, the method I like to use now is simply a target direct light with a bit of sun color, and an hdr sky in the environment slot. The more dramatic you can make the sun(direct light) angle and intensity (with hopefully the matching sky), the more realistic your render. I use the hdr sky so I can save my render to .exr format. I then take this into photoshop, and go to Exposure where I can adjust the exposure, gamma, darkness, etc. This adds a good control over your final image. It also must be said, that many of the best images you see have been doctored and colored in photoshop after being rendered. In the Archexteriors 2 pack they show you both versions of their render.

 

Don't feel bad, each time I get all excited and decide I'm going to use the vray sun for a project, I end up deserting it yet again, lose 10 hours of my life in the process. Perhaps its just me though.

 

btw, the 2nd and 3rd renders you posted are quite amazing imho, compared to any work I've seen here or elsewhere. Keep those in mind to work up to in the long run, not your first project.

[JonRashid]

Another tip is to embed your model into the photograph rather than place on.

Match the lighting to the photograph - it helps if there is a strong tint to the photograph.

If the original image has foreground objects keep them in it adds to the realism of the scene.

Reflections should at least give the impression of being from the scene

Be aware of the resolution of your image. A soft focus background doesn't always look like depth of field.

[Gothic]

Where are the shadows of plants and trees?

[jophus14]

Those aren't his images, he was using them as a reference.