Very NEWB: I don't know where to go from here

[markschlanser]

So I am doing a rendering for an architecture building and I am not sure what to even start tweaking and where to go about it from here. Attached is my main image and my rendering settings.

 

Besides Vegetation, clouds, and reflection plane for the windows, where do I start o get this more photo real?

 

Is it with the materials?

- The stone looks a bit tiled and I can edit this with the UVW editor right?

 

 

I do not have a trained eye yet so not sure even what to look for that's making it look really plain. Any words of wisdom advice would be amazing.

 

Thank you, you guys do incredible work on the images I see around here!

 

Mark[ATTACH=CONFIG]47429[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]47430[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]47431[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]47432[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]47433[/ATTACH]

[AubreyM]

Textures are paramount and I think you need to look at some tutorials on making vray materials. Good quality hi-rez textures are a must to get a good result. This is an invaluable reference for Vray http://www.spot3d.com/vray/help/200R1/ , don't be afraid to experiment, you will learn a lot.

Don't try to compensate poor textures with higher render settings, it won't work. If you have a budget I would recommend ArrowWay textures, if not CGtextures and a few other places have good quality images, you just need to hunt around.

[markschlanser]

Thank you for the words of wisdom and the link. I know there is a lot of courtesy with posting and the general what should I do's are frowned upon, I just didn't know where to even begin to look but have been learning a lot about materials, mapping etc. I have some of the arroway textures but haven't tried any CG Textures. Do you use any from the varymaterials website at all?

[AubreyM]

Never, well not anymore anyway. A lot of those materials (at least in my experience) cause a lot of headaches, some have the subdivisions over 100!

I might look at one to see how the effect was done but I always create my own. Seriously, don't look for the easy way. There are no shortcuts if you want to get good at this. Read tutorials and play around with the settings to see what they do, you will learn a lot more. You will learn nothing if you just use some materials downloaded off the net.

People here don't mind answering specific questions, but the "what should I do's" do get ignored for the most part.

[markschlanser]

Hey Aubrey,

 

So this weekend I spent quit ea bit of time learning about materials and learning by simply playing around. I can now, for the most part look at the image and kind of see things I can tweak and have an idea on how to accomplish it. Attached is where I am today, I think I have made progress in the good way but have a long ways to go and learn still. I have been reading so much about Gamma and the linear work flow etc. but am getting a really washed out image out of the render. My settings are 3ds Gamma LUT set to Enable, Gamma 2.2 Affect Colors and Material editor, bitmap input at 2.0 and output at1.0. When I import a bitmap, I set all images manually to 2.2 and my render settings are set to reinhard burn.22 and gamma 2.0 Does this sound correct? How are people getting the nice rich, deep true colors out of a render?

 

I think the material maps are better, not quite sure what else to tweak with them, they are scaled, bumped etc. using the UVW map modifier.

 

I am not going to insert some people for scale, not many and learn about exporting elements and putting it all together in Photoshop! Do you have a recommendation on people to place post in ps?

 

I appreciate the advice and taking the time to check this stuff out.

 

http://flic.kr/p/bLfDRc

[jlns]

Here are some great tutorials for Vray and Photoshop.

 

http://www.photoshoppostwork.com/fe/20727-vray-bonuses

[AubreyM]

Sorry Mark but I can't view the image, it tells me I don't have permission to view it.

I have links to some good tutorials but not for doing people in post. If I come across one I'll post it for you. There are lots out there, a quick search should get you some results.