skogskalle Posted April 1, 2004 Share Posted April 1, 2004 Hi everyone! This is a follow-up project to the one in my "office building exterior" thread... Its the same house, but now the client wanted some pics of the nature behind the house. so the important thing here isnt the building (I cant really change anything on it) but the trees/foliage/rocks and stuff... 3dsmax4.2, lightdome fakeGI, and a tiny bit of photoshopping... My client already seems happy with it (she is very easily pleased) but I really want this to look GOOD (in a wow-sort of way) , so please - crits n comments! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STRAT Posted April 1, 2004 Share Posted April 1, 2004 the landscaping does look good. but as you probably realise, it looks more like an evironment out of a computer game. the foliage and trees are fine, but the rocks are too regular. too slab faced. they look very sculpted and artificial. i'd up the poly count in them and add a nice appropriate displacement modifier to them, to 'natural' them up a bit. also, look at the fakiosity, it needs to be more contrasty - the rocks look like they're hovering on the path. but as it stands, if i were the client, i'd be happy too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IC Posted April 1, 2004 Share Posted April 1, 2004 Strat just beat me to the rock comment. I'd also put in some kind of transition material/dirt where the ground material meets the rocks. Big potential for a nice image! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skogskalle Posted April 1, 2004 Author Share Posted April 1, 2004 thanks guys! I agree that the rocks look too low-poly (and kinda poor)... But its not supposed to be "naturally formed" rocks... They blasted away a part of the hill when they made way for the house so I think the rocks should be sharp. I applied some meshsmoothing at first (which looked better) but my client prefered it this way. =( Never worked with dispacement-maps before, but Ill have a go now, and see what happens... about the fakeosity... I definetly see what you mean with the rocks hovering above the ground, but how can I avoid this?? (this is something I allways have a problem with) There is no ambient light in the scene, and the lightdome-lights shadows are all att 1.0 density black. would it help to simply increase the shadow-map size?? Ill try to make a smoother transition from ground to rock right now. (maybe that will help them from hovering away too?) thanks again! Ill post an update later today or first thing tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
William Alexander Posted April 1, 2004 Share Posted April 1, 2004 Cool, You need some fissures in the rocks at the creases and or across the faces. Creative recesses may add to the poly counts and soften the Cg monolithic feel. WDA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skogskalle Posted April 2, 2004 Author Share Posted April 2, 2004 update...: meshsmoothed the rocks and added a noise map as displacement... not too happy bout the result so far, but I guess its better than the low-poly style of my first pic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IC Posted April 2, 2004 Share Posted April 2, 2004 I think the rocks are much better but they look like Hollywood set props. (Don't really know why.) The shadows help too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STRAT Posted April 2, 2004 Share Posted April 2, 2004 did you try upping the shadow map density? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skogskalle Posted April 2, 2004 Author Share Posted April 2, 2004 "I think the rocks are much better but they look like Hollywood set props" I know... I dont have a clue of how to make them look real though... Ill try to improve the mapping to see if that helpes (theyve got some serious streching here and there) STRAT - nope. The density is already at 1.0, and setting it higher wont make the shadows darker (its a weird 3dstudio thing). I think you can make them darker someway - I read about it in smoke3ds tutorials some time ago... Ill have a look and try again. The lighting setup is exactly the same in the two pics I think.... wda - you lost me there Im afraid. (forgive a non-english dude). what do you mean with fissures? small plants? or just more detail to the rock? thanks again guys! If I have the time Ill work some more on this during the weekend, and post an update on monday... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skogskalle Posted April 4, 2004 Author Share Posted April 4, 2004 Heres an update. New (and hopefully better) lighting, with stronger shadows. Tried to make the transition between rock and ground smoother. The client also made some design changes (the elevated ground, and the green area next to the rocks... which isnt grass, but something else which I have no clue of what its called in english... the swedish word is "mossa" ... but I guess thats of little help =) oh, I had to change the rocks again, cause the client didnt like the displacement-mapped ones... Everything is still a bit computer game-ish... but I guess Ill have to live with that. thanks for your help, and if youve got more crits - keep em coming! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STRAT Posted April 4, 2004 Share Posted April 4, 2004 much much better. the line between grass and path is a tad regular/fuzzy for me, but that be a minor point. when you stand back and look at the image as a whole you see it's a great peice of cg art Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joseph alexander Posted April 4, 2004 Share Posted April 4, 2004 Wouldn't you get some yellow/orange refracted light off the rocks? Try a big Rect. light focused on the building and path, very low orange/yellow setting to mimic the color bleeding that you'd from the light hitting the rocks. that might help. -joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
William Alexander Posted April 4, 2004 Share Posted April 4, 2004 skogskalle, Sorry, fissures=cracks between the rock layers, also stress fractues from blasting cutting. see attachement wda Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skogskalle Posted April 6, 2004 Author Share Posted April 6, 2004 ok, heres another update, and this is the final piece. (although, I might try to improve it for my portfolio) Unfortunatly the client didnt like the green stuff on the lower part of the rocks (which I personally thought was the coolest thing in the whole image) so I had to get rid of it. Also had to change the transition between the path and the grass area... what to do, what to do?... the client is allways right. Strat - thanks for your kind words! I know there are lots of stuff I could improve in my work, but I feel that Im getting better and better all the time, much thanks to you and all the other awsome people roaming around in this forum. your help is very appreciated. joe - good idea... I dont have time to try it before deadline (tomorrow morning, and I really need to get some sleep tonight), but if I continue working on this image for my portfolio Ill definetly use some colorbleeding. wda - no worries m8 =) And thanks for taking the time to draw me a picture... I see what you mean now, and youre right - the rocks could use some "fissures". once again - deadline tomorrow, but Ill try to improve the rocks later for my portfolio. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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