Tim Nelson Posted December 24, 2008 Share Posted December 24, 2008 This is the project I'm currently working on. It's a little out of my comfort zone because I am not really used to these types of scenes. While this is a commercial project, it does have a bit of a residential feel to it. And because the architecture is pretty simple I am trying to make this an exercise in the surrounding environment, lighting, composition, & all that junk. I still have a lot of work to do on it, like fill in the forest, finish the grass, get better foreground trees, light the interiors, and some other details. If it was just a normal daytime shot I could get away with pasting in 2d trees, but for this time of day I am better off going 3d to try to capture all the nuance of light & shadow. The front projection of the building is intentionally the brightest, and will have signage there when its finished. Any comments & suggestions welcome! Oh, I forgot to mention that I am going to try to work some autumn color into a few of the deciduous trees. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kippu Posted December 24, 2008 Share Posted December 24, 2008 love the lights and the mood you are going in for ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amer abidi Posted December 24, 2008 Share Posted December 24, 2008 great start.. focus on grass, roads and curbs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Homeless Guy Posted December 24, 2008 Share Posted December 24, 2008 Those are among the nicest Onyx trees I have seen someone create. Is this all 3d so far? ....you are getting a really nice darker area on the trees above the roof line that helps give depth, and make the building pop. In general, it looks like the perfect size project to experiment and push yourself on. I am looking forward to seeing more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
innerdream Posted December 24, 2008 Share Posted December 24, 2008 (edited) So far so good. It looks too saturated imo and the sky doesn't match the sun angle - the sky looks like mid day and the sun is at a late afternoon or early morning angle. Edited December 24, 2008 by innerdream Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Nelson Posted December 24, 2008 Author Share Posted December 24, 2008 Thanks for the comments so far. Amer: What would you do for the curbs and roads? I will probably paint on the road a little bit, but I'd like to hear your suggestions. Travis: Thanks. I've been seeing a lot of fantastic work with Onyx being done, so it's pushing me to try to do better. And yes, so far this is all 3d, with only some photoshop adjustment layers. Of all things, the hardest part has been finding a good solution for grass. I spent at least 2 days messing around with different methods, including displacement, vray fur, and clumps of proxied grass. By far, the best results were the proxies, but the sheer number of them made Max stall for minutes on end whenever I tried to render or move them. I think maybe my grass clump was too small, and too many polys. I want to try it again with some optimized grasses. Robert: Thanks for the suggestions. I think I agree with you on all of them. The sky shouldn't look like that, but I put a color correct on the vray sky and changed the colors a little bit, which is linked to the background. I will definitely change it later on. I'd say the rendering is maybe 60% done right now. So I have been using a few images in particular as inspiration for this project. 1) Is a set of renderings from Alex Roman of ThirdSeventh on cgtalk, my hero. His natural landscaping is probably the best I've ever seen in architectural applications. 2) Is a rendering from Art Associates, Inc. I really love the fall foliage in this one. 3) Is a painting I saw yesterday when I was watching the Gnomon Color Theory tutorials. The use of colors and value create such a strong image. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Nelson Posted January 6, 2009 Author Share Posted January 6, 2009 Hey Gang, Here's an update. I'm still working on the forest. Doing anything with trees seems to take me forever. To accelerate the process I grabbed a forest image from cgtextures and mixed it in with my render. It still needs better blending, but I think its a nice shortcut. I'm not too proud to use 2d! The foreground grass still needs more work, I'll probably lay a photo over that as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Homeless Guy Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 This makes me want to start a new project. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gus_Rayvus Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 nice squirrel! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Nelson Posted January 6, 2009 Author Share Posted January 6, 2009 That's Bert! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad Warner Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 nice squirrel! You beat me to it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
innerdream Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 Bert please come home...Tim's no good for you! Looking good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Nelson Posted January 7, 2009 Author Share Posted January 7, 2009 Here's a small update. I liked the red tree on the right, but it was overpowering the building. So I made all the trees only yellows and oranges, letting the building bring in the red hue. Hoping to have this all done in the next couple of days. edit: actually the one on the right is still kind of reddish, but not so much as before. And I think the blacks, especially at the bottom, are a little too strong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fran Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 Nice! I love the squirrel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ky Lane Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 Nice lighting and trees! Think some nicer reflections might be in order tho? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Nelson Posted January 7, 2009 Author Share Posted January 7, 2009 Nice lighting and trees! Think some nicer reflections might be in order tho? You mean in the glass? Probably right about that. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Nelson Posted January 7, 2009 Author Share Posted January 7, 2009 I'm not sure if I'm going to do the tree on the left or not. I don't have a good high res 2d tree, and it'd probably take me another day to max a decent close up one in Onyx. Any final comments? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfa2 Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 Love the bloom through the trees...and the leaves on the ground. Very nice for a simple building. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horhe Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 How about a tree branch and some leaves to the right top of the image? It would contradict the car a bit and help focus more on the house itself IMO. Besdes there is a shadow from a tree there on the grass anyway. The squirrel is a nice shot, wonder if youre going to keep it in the final image? You could paint up it a little bit with a little brighter highlight from one side, could make it pop a little bit more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Nelson Posted January 8, 2009 Author Share Posted January 8, 2009 (edited) I agree it needs something more for the foreground. Seeing this 6 hours later, during night time, looks a lot different to me. Now it looks a little too bright and washed out to me - I don't have very consistent lighting in my office so maybe that has something to do with it. I think I'll spend a little more time tomorrow with plantings...maybe smaller ones in the foreground would work. I really want to make the most of this... Edited January 8, 2009 by Tim Nelson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horhe Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 (edited) I just revised all the progress images in this thread and I seem to have missed the tree and the part where you mention the tree (duh) but nevertheless the tree at the beginning was too big, and most of all it was in the way of the house, I was thinking before maybe something smaller, perphaps a branch sticking out just a tad. And I was thinking of inserting the tree in the left and not in the right corner. No more writing posts after little sleep for me. Nice that the shot is focusing on the enviroment and on the building. Edited January 8, 2009 by Horhe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nic H Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 looks really good, i dont think its too bright or washed out - looks perfect on my monitor. id be wary of doing a frankllyodwright branch in the foreground, but im not sure what else but it needs something. love the dog walking in - also more animals! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHE Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 It is looking great Tim. I really like the overall mood you have achieved with the lighting and colors. I would also like to see something else on the foreground. It would be great if you could add a couple more cars to the parking lot. -E Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Homeless Guy Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 I agree it needs something more for the foreground. Maybe it needs less of a foreground. The horizon line is directly in the center of the page. Maybe try a version where the camera target is shifted up with a vert corrector so that the horizon line is 1/3rd from the bottom. This way you have less of a field of lawn, and more room for sky. Not sure if it is exactly what it needs, but it might be worth a quick look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Nelson Posted January 8, 2009 Author Share Posted January 8, 2009 It is looking great Tim. I really like the overall mood you have achieved with the lighting and colors. I would also like to see something else on the foreground. It would be great if you could add a couple more cars to the parking lot. Hey Che, good to hear from you. Thanks. I don't agree too much on the cars comment - I tried adding another and it quickly becomes overbearing. Working on the foreground stuff now though. Maybe it needs less of a foreground. The horizon line is directly in the center of the page. Maybe try a version where the camera target is shifted up with a vert corrector so that the horizon line is 1/3rd from the bottom. This way you have less of a field of lawn, and more room for sky. Not sure if it is exactly what it needs, but it might be worth a quick look. Too late to re-render, but wouldn't the same thing be accomplished by just cropping up a little bit? I can do that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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