Making my work suck less!

[Jason Matthews]

I know I am new to the discussion, but I do see real talent in your work. As mentioned previously, composition is key to any image. I would also suggest that details can make or break an image. For instance, the forth image posted above has a wood wall that is the edge of the building. The brain knows that the wall is not perfectly flat and that it has texture, yet the edge of your wall is like a knife blade. By articulating the wall a bit, maybe with a bump map, actual model adjustments or even in post, it should help blur the edge a bit more and make things feel more realistic. In the last image, put something of interest behind the glass so that you are not just looking glass at nothing. The top of the grey wall looks odd as well. Finally, the glass door and storefront, just seems unrealistic. It may actually occur that way in the pictures, but I think you should take the artistic license and change it. I know that some of these things are not major, but just as in real photography, staging is very important and the eye will naturally find the things that don't quite make sense.

 

I will also add that doing images like this for a paying client may impact the way you work. Sometimes you have to pick your battles so that you can maintain your profit margin. Hone your skills here and they will become second nature on all projects.

 

Looks great!

[Creationtwentytwo]

Thanks for the kind words, Jason.

 

I'm starting to think that I'm just at a point with my CG work where improvement does become very difficult, and the ratio of effort:reward starts to diminish compared to at lower quality levels. I'm not saying I'm great by any means, but I'm confident to say that I'm not a beginner, where improvement is very easy and comes very quickly.

 

What I mean by this is outlined quite well in a book by Seth Godin called The Dip (which I must read again!), it suggests that when you're starting out with something, you improve at such a rapid rate, and see great returns on your investment of time and effort, but as the level of skill increases, the amount of improvement you see with increasing levels of effort seems to go down. It's at this point that many people quit, and probably where a lot of my feelings are coming from right now. Prevailing through this will inevitably result in great rewards, but it's very tough. I'm not gonna give up, though, despite sounding like an angsty teenager at times.

 

I agree about paid work though, I will probably have a very different view when I've got a few projects under my belt. Personal projects can be a real pain with regards to having nobody but yourself to please and no strict deadlines in place. Of course you can impose pretend deadlines or limitations but it's never quite the same as a client who wants his renders yesterday.

Edited July 19, 2012 by Creationtwentytwo

[Guest calumreid]

The building is a bit boring, so not the best project for your portfolio, but many people cant afford the luxury of picking and choosing decent projects (as i have found out on placement) so many clients will provide you with mundane jobs, so I'm not that bothered about a good render of a boring building. One thing i would suggest is that you ditch or swap out the render of the stairs. Its not an informative view, all it tells us is "this building has stairs" (me and my classmates got slaughtered about this stuff in reviews at uni), so maybe pick a more informative view or just drop one render, more isn't always better =] As for the quality of the renders...i would be chuffed if i was at that level, no matter what other people said haha but alas i am still learning, so i am yet to reach your level

[Creationtwentytwo]

Yeah good points, Calum.

 

With regards to personal projects, how do you guys choose them/come up with them?

 

I tend to scour Archdaily but often find that either a)I'm put off by the scope, since I just envision weeks and weeks of work modeling some of the bigger ones, and b)oftentimes there's only a low-res floorplan available to model off of and not enough shots of the whole building to understand how it goes together.

 

I'm not comfortable designing my own buildings either since I kinda feel like I should leave that side of it to the professionals and as we've established, subject matter is important and it's unlikely I could design something that looks as good as what exists already.

[Justin Hunt]

I'd say rather pick a certain view and work that one up. Over time work up an other part rather than cramming it all in one go. As for being a boring subject, some of the most memorable images are those that the mundane and show it in a new and beautiful way.

 

You are right in saying that this is the toughest part in your progress, but it is important that you do break through it.

 

Print out your images and take a big, fat marker and scribble all your thoughts and markups on it , dont be previous be brutal. Then go back and rework the scene. Print it and mark it up again. Do this three or four times.

 

Then print both the first go and your last and do a comparison. You will be pleased to see the progress and improvement, which is a great motivator in its self.

[Nic H]

Yeah I can't help thinking the building is pretty boring, and those orange boards just look awful no matter how well I nail the texture. Bad choice of project.

 

Feeling pretty unmotivated again now, I got some feedback on the project from some local Architects and colleagues who said' it's pretty good but there are some clients who would prefer photorealism.

 

I don't think I'm ever going to get to where I want to be, and I don't appear to be dealing with criticism very well.

 

no no no dont get unmotivated - its so close!

 

i reckon with 1 hr of tweaking settings / and a bit of post work it would look 'finished'

maybe move onto a new project if this one is frustrating you. like i said its almost there and there are loads of good straightforward tips in this thread.