Rendering suggestions requested, especially splashing water.

[toms200]

 

I'm looking for comments and suggestions on this rendering. Its one of my first. Ignore the foreground material, I haven't modeled anything there yet. I'm also going the adjust the depth of field, so if it seems blury ignore that too.

 

One thing I'm strugging with is how to handle the fountain. It is intended to be a block of granite with a sheet of water flowing across it. The water is collected into a grate at the bottom of the block. Right now the grate is just a plane with an image on it. The intersection of the block and the grate doesn't work. Any suggestions on how to simulate water splashing onto the grate? The block also seems to disapear into the grass.

 

I've also burn't the edges of the brown pavers in photoshop to try and add some depth at the curb and wall. Is there an easy way to get the material do this automatically in the max material? It is a standard autodesk material.

 

Please point out any other obvious newbie mistakes.

 

Thanks,

Dave

[matthewspencer]

The granite block is simply too reflective, if you turned that down a notch it would stop it from disappearing into the grass, and make it more convincing where it hits the grate. Don't use an image for the grate, just model it in.

 

Try giving the water SOME thickness...even if it it's just implied. It should be a really thin rectangular prism instead of a plane. That way you can fillet the top edges, giving it depth. Not sure how your particular water shader works but either apply the water to the top face of the prism or just add your water plane on top of this prism.

 

The burning at the corners is not convincing. Can you throw in a bit of ambient occlusion? Or aim for more of an evening feel, to take the harsh sun lighting down a bit?

 

For water splashing into the grate, just photoshop it. Find water splash images and carefully integrate them. It's not worth doing in 3D.

 

I would also say that everything needs more fillets. Alot of the boxier objects are looking unrealistically exact.