Dealership exterior

[Jape]

Hey all, modeled this for an school project. Its not yet finished but i would like some crits. There are some problems with the parkinglot lines that don't show up completely, dunno why, but needs some attention. Its about my first (almost) finished project, so be gentile on me

 

Also there will be more entourage put in, but first i want the building to be perfect, then ill proceed with some more entourage...

 

hope you like it..

 

[Brian Cassil]

If this is your very first finished project you should be feeling pretty good. I like the camera angle and how the clouds lead my eyes in toward the building. I also like the glass.

 

Things to work on:

 

- Overall, the lighting is much too dim. Especially considering such a nich bright sky in the background.

 

- Except for the glass the materials are too flat. By that I mean the window mullions should and grey (metal?) should have a little variation and maybe even reflection to them.

 

- The concrete texture is tiling way too obviously.

 

- Although I do like the reflection in the glass, it would look much better still if you were to model a little of the interior, through a couple of cars in there along with some lights and actually be able to see through the glass some. I know this is some work but it would really pay off.

 

- Something else that takes some work is perfecting how asphalt is done. I may not have the best method but what I have done is take a few overhead pictures of roads, then render an overhead view of my scene (to use as a template), and photoshop the road photos onto my rendered overhead scene and then map that onto my road geometry. I've included an example here.

 

- I also think it would be nice to see more sky and less asphalt.

 

You already said you would be doing more entourage so I won't comment on that but that is a big part in any good rendering.

 

Good Luck and keep us posted!

[Jape]

Thx a lot for your tips Brian!, helped me out a lot.

 

-Ive increased the lights a little bit, first i just used a skylight and a direct light but the light tracer is killing my render times (2 bounces, 150 rays, Adaptive undersmpl on, rendertime 4h48m on a 800mhz:( ) So now i added two fill lights on the right of the building and under the balcony. but maybe it can still be a bit brighter (or maybe some Photoshop work)

 

-As far as the textures, im still not that good at texturing, made a new texture in PS for the asphalt, just as you said but as i couldnt find a good photograph (or the time to take one myself) i just used standard max asphalt texture to paint it on my plain, along with some lines. But its a bit blurred so i guess i sould up the res a little.

 

-Pavement looks a bit better but still not perfect. (Curb is totally wrong btw, think i accidently applied a wrong texture)

Will be working on the rooftextures tomorrow i hope, tried some standard metal mats but is not giving a good result. im trying to give it a little subtile blurred reflection, think that works best, but all stand metal materials indeed all look too plain.

 

By the way the glass was giving me lots a problems till i stumbled upon one of ted boardmans articles wich was REALY helpfull, ill post the link also in the tuts forum!

 

http://cadence.advanstar.com/2001/0901/3d0901.html

 

Still lots to do on the interior and entourage...

 

Thx again for your tips, i think my last render is indeed a bit better..

[Brian Cassil]

That's a nice improvement! You addressed the materials well, especially those on the building itself and the walkway. I would agree that the lighting is still a little dim. I've never used light tracer myself so I can't comment to much on ways to improve that but I will say that there is no way I could live with render times that high! If you don't have a rendering plugin I would try switching to radiosity, or maybe even using fake GI. You can try this link to download a very nice script for creating dome lights:

 

http://www.cgarchitect.com/news/newsfeed.asp?nid=968

 

Go to the maxscript link and then download the e-light. Says it's for max 3/4/5 but I know it works for 6 also and I'm pretty sure it will work in viz 4 as well.

[Jape]

Thx again for your kind advices Brian, i've completed it a bit on vacation, its still a tad too dark i guess, i did use that e-light plugin, very handy script, beats the hell out of creating domes yourself! very fast and simple. I do have mental ray (max6) though im still learning. But i will be leaving scanline, cause mental ray GI is so much faster !!, tried a test and it really rocks.

 

Still need to work on the textures, especially the pavement, its not really satisfactory but it works...

 

As i dont want to get stuck on one project im calling this finished and gonna work on a new one, much more fun, and this time ill try Mental Ray GI...

 

anyway here it is... (posted it in finished forum also...)

 

Jape,