WIP - Business center (interior)

[jensandersen]

Studio/Institution: Personal project
Genre: Other
Software: 3ds max, Corona and PS
Description:

Finishing touches on a project I have been working on the last couple of nights.

 

I am having troubles trying to "occupy" the top floor of the scene. I don't really feel like more people walking by is the solution and I am starting to think that I wrapped up the 3D modelling process a bit too fast. The angle of the shot makes it hard to find good objects to cut out and paste in.

 

Any ideas and/or general feedback would be great as always - thanks!

 

Raw(ish) render:

[Francisco Penaloza]

This will look very nice, I can see it already

personally I am not fan of too many people on the renderings, for me people are for scale reference only not to cover architectural fails

What you have, to me is enough, the only thing is the people at the bottom floor, I would just forget about them, they will look very distorted unless you want to put one single person close to the glass looking outside, so it is out of the extreme distortion area.

 

I think if you create some "fake" God rays coming from the skylight will give a nice touch, it can be very soft or strong, depending of your client.

What I think is more important in this image, is fix the darkness of the floor right in the middle, or frontal view, compared to the top the whole image ramp very drastically from bright to very dark. if you can balance that the over all image will look a lot better.

[CliveG]

I agree with Francisco's observations.

 

Plus...

 

I'm distracted looking for the Stegosaurus in the Jurassic Park scene outside, personally the exterior does little to enhance the realism of the scene.

 

But to me the bigger issue visually is with the most dominant elements of the scene, the glass balustrading and the timber effect facing - which are all so flat. I feel that you need to break up the reflections of these. The glass needs something like a very subtle large scale bump with a mapping change between each sheet of glass. http://www.ramyhanna.com/2013/04/break-up-those-panel-reflections.html (This would mean using something like PS Liquify very subtly on all of those people, when seen through the glass too) As well you could work on the glass settings generally which aren't providing you with a very realistic glass at the moment anyway.

 

I obviously don't know exactly what you were hoping to achieve with the timber plank stuff, but if it was a timber plank, then you should put some more work into that as well. Perhaps actually model the close up areas with something like floor generator (turned through 90 degrees) and look at the breaking up the uniformity of that too (I know it has lots of different diffuse tones but it's still too uniform overall) some reflection variation would add realism. Perhaps some artificial lights visible inside would sculpt the light a bit more and drag some more life out of the materials.

 

Comping in people is just so hard, I think it is very difficult for them not to cry out "CG" even when done by the best practitioners, this is also the case here... you'd probably need to work more on the matching the lighting of the people to the lighting of the scene.

[Amen]

I deleted the first reply, damnit.

 

God Rays +1

Kill the people downstairs +1

lighten up the lower right corner until the tree is green

your people are to evenly distributed, put a group where the bush and the woman are, put some in the upper left area, some in the upper right area, leave the sitting.

[arnoudschoofs]

on the angle: perhaps consider setting up your camera perpendicular to the back facade, since it's such an orthogonal building. Maybe try out a portrait format that emphasises the height of the atrium.

 

Further more You can add some more detail in the ceiling of the top two floors.

In such a business/office environment it's quite often heavily perforated with lighting fixtures, air conditioning, sprinklers, etc

[ryannelson]

I agree with Francisco. I'm not a big fan of too many people in renderings. I find it kind of funny how renderings are always over populated and surreal, whereas in photography you generally want to show off the architecture and keep it clear of anyone walking through.

 

It looks great so far but I think the weakness is in the shot. It seems like you're trying too hard to show *everything* in one shot, which for one: usually fails to deliver and for two: makes for a weaker image. It's a constant struggle! Have a look at Iwan Baan's photography, he's probably one of the top architectural photographers in the world and his scenes are SO simple and clear and beautiful.

 

I suggest re-composing, maybe even an orthogonal shot down the middle with a slightly lower camera (maybe around 1200mm high?) that shows how the two stair cases split? Also take out some people. I'm not terribly keen on "god rays" unless they're REALLY well done and very subtle, especially in new buildings. It has to add to the atmosphere and no one wants to be in a dusty new building... an old cathedral or library sure, but not a social space of a new office building.

 

Keep up the great work!

[jensandersen]

You guys provide some great feedback and advice to help me get better. So thank you.

 

Im not sure of the "people should only be used for a sense of scale" claim. I find it a (tough) balance between showing off the architecture and the life/use of the space. I will, however, clean up some.

 

The wood planks are actually done with floor generator, but for some reason bump and reflection maps were unticked... I might try increasing the gap or board width for some more variation.

 

Im not happy with glass balustrading, so I tweaked some settings and tried out Clive's tip on the bump map. I simply added a very large scale noise map and it is starting to look better.

 

I will model more ceiling detail, add subtle interior lighting and since I will have to re-render, I might as well try some new camera angles as suggested.

 

Now I can't help but wonder what would be the best use of my little spare time I do these projects in. What would I gain the most from, what is your experience with this dilemma:

- Should I just leave this project mostly as is and go on to a new project with new challenges and your advise in mind

OR

- would it be better to finish this work and put a (hopefully) better picture in the portfolio?

 

I remember reading a reply from Juraj in some thread to just get on with the next project as you learn more from that, but time and again guys also stress the fact to only have a few, but very high quality, portfolio items.

If only the day had more hours...

[philippelamoureux]

Should make the balustrade glass reflective...unless it's frosted glass maybe? Dunno the light setup but why not use a combo of hdri + vray sun? Also, since the outdoor scene is not too big, try making it in full 3d. Will add some depth to the image! It's not too long to make with the right vegetation/scatter plugins.

 

Jens, are you building a portfolio for freelancing or applying to studios/ arch firms? Just curious.

[jensandersen]

Yeah, the reflection of the balustrade did not act at all as I expected!

 

I started with some grass and scattered trees in the background, but found it was taking too long to adjust the look of the mats to make it fit. So did it with a couple of photos in post instead - still browsing for a better fitting bg.

 

Im still not sure Philippe. I'd absolutely love to do either. A safe way (as I got a 2year old devil spawn that needs food) would be to get some freelance work done in the evenings, while having the security of my current full time job and see where that would take me. I'd rather work in a arch firm and be surrounded by other creatives and experienced people to push my skills though.

- Im following along with your threads here on the site and hope your plunge in to the business setup is going well

[philippelamoureux]

Yeah, the reflection of the balustrade did not act at all as I expected!

 

I started with some grass and scattered trees in the background, but found it was taking too long to adjust the look of the mats to make it fit. So did it with a couple of photos in post instead - still browsing for a better fitting bg.

 

Im still not sure Philippe. I'd absolutely love to do either. A safe way (as I got a 2year old devil spawn that needs food) would be to get some freelance work done in the evenings, while having the security of my current full time job and see where that would take me. I'd rather work in a arch firm and be surrounded by other creatives and experienced people to push my skills though.

- Im following along with your threads here on the site and hope your plunge in to the business setup is going well

 

Yea I understand. I had the same dilemma. Finally decided to make a studio with a friend and do this while keeping our other job in the meantime, for security. I'm lucky tho, because I can do my viz on my other job's time :-) I have like 6-7 hours of ''free'' time on a 8 hours shift hehe. But yea I guess not having the opportunity to learn from other people in a studio is going to be the downside. Working for myself will be great I have no doubt tho! Good luck with your prpjects!

[jensandersen]

That is indeed lucky!

When a studio environment isn't possible, sites like this is priceless though.

 

Cheers, same to you!

[jensandersen]

Finally had some time to continue on this project. Here is the latest shot with minor PS tweaks:

[heni30]

Hey Jens - looking good. Only comments I'd have would be that railings look a little bland - more reflection maybe?

And I think they would be lighting by the world map - maybe some scallops on the walls?

 

Just saw the movie "Copenhagen" with that cute young girl. Every scene is like a post card - so "pretty".

They don't show the other 9 months of hibernation.

[Larissa Holderness]

I would add just a small amount of ambient occlusion in post to floor where the feet of the entourage touch the floor. It really helps bring the people seem integrated in. One thing that I struggle with, is the spacing between each person in the scene. Everyone has the same distance between them. Space them out more unevenly. Also, have them interact with the elements in the scene more, as well as with each other.