What am I doing wrong? My renders SUCK!

[joshhodgson]

Well then I don't get it.... if you're a professional illustrator and can draw anything, then why do you WANT to get a computer involved? The skill you say you have should be much more valuable than the skill you say you don't have.

 

There are a zillion threads here from people bitching about being priced out of the market. We're all under pressure from every spotty graduate living at Mom's with heaps of computer skills but little life / architecture / business understanding or from those in developing countries with low cost of living able to undercut us mercilessly and 90% of those who are pressurising prices in the industry wouldn't know what the hell to do with a pencil if you stuck one in their hand. Frankly I'm jealous of you, you're in the minority, the 10% - I can only draw stuff when there is a computer involved and would love the drawing skills of some of the genuinely talented people I've worked with over the years. You just need to find your niche.... don't necessarily give up on visualisation but perhaps you should have a look and think about the skills you have and how best to capitalise on them.

 

 

Virtually no one will pay for hand drawn stuff but still a bit of vector work out there which I don't mind as I can do vector programs just as easily as on a drawing board.

 

I want to learn Visualization because its like the 21st century version of Ilustration and hand drawn stuff is obsolete now. I was a Technical Illustrator once but now thats mostly visualization of 3D CAD models rather than illustrations. I occasionally do cutaway Ilustrations for books but its very niche and there isn't a huge amount of work out there.

 

I not going to give up just had a bad day and was frustrated. I've taken everyones advice and begun using photos trying to recreate the scene and lighting and my current scene already looks better for it. It is frustrating though to have a traditional skill thats rapidly becoming obsolete whilst struggling immensely to get to grips with its replacement.

[Justin Hunt]

being able to combine both your traditional and digital skills could be the very thing that would set you apart from the masses. I'd suggest going the stylized look. Take a look at http://vyonyx.com/ or http://www.arqui9.com/ , they have really carved out a niche for themselves with their look.

 

Arqui9 have some pretty cool tutorials too

[jervistuazon]

Have someone who does good rendering to guide you. I was same as you that relies on tutorials/seminars but that's all technical knowledge and theory, its really different when some is guiding you through the process.

 

My first impression from your renders is, you lack composition, improve your camera position and angle and play with camera fov, try to imitate the images/renders you see on the internet and try to imitate how they position their camera from height, angle and fov.

 

I think you should focus on improving your lighting, IMO it's the hardest part when doing renderings. No matter how good your composition/materials when your lighting sucks, everything sucks.

 

Try to focus on one aspect of rendering and learn from it, it seems you're doing different style/scene, from architectural to interior and product/ studio style renderings. Different scenes requires different approach try to learn the basics and move on from there. IMO architectural rendering day scene is the easiest cause you only need a good environment light and sun to light your scene. Start from architectural and when you feel you're getting the hang of it move on and try interior day scene.

Edited August 3, 2017 by jervistuazon

[joshhodgson]

Hi Josh - I've been a CG artist for about 8 years in the industry plus 3 years at university and have to say i'd imagine a lot of us fellow artists will have had these crisis of confidence about their own work from time to time - when i look at juraj and bertrands work i do get jealous with envy but they certainly do not know any magic 'secret' tricks to make their work better than yours - its about practice and patience - your work by your own admission is mainly made up by yourself which will always lead to scale issues unless you have found reference and base rooms and areas on real scales and dimensions - i think the main thing i would suggest is to maybe get yourself some work at a visualisation studio first before trying to crack the industry for yourself -- find a place that is willing to give you a chance to develop and learn the skills you will need to go it alone - although a lot of studios might not look too kindly on someone that wants to steal all their knowledge and then run off and use that info to make their own vis studio...?? i would suggest starting with some 'quality tutorials' leave grant warwick tutorials alone as i find he has over complicated a lot of things that just dont need the film and movie sfx process applied to them - he has one video that goes into depth about making a white wall for arch vis for christ sake!!! you really need to learn the basics first - create a realistic model - scales all correct - create multiple camera angles with correct camera heights and good compositions - and then render a white block version of the scene - using a basic environment light first - hdri or vray sky it doesnt really matter too much but get the lighting levels nice enough and bright enough but not burnt out - then try adding whichever internal lighting you need and develop a solid white render - then begin to exclude the larger areas of materials - e.g a dark floor that takes up a lot of an image - exclude this and see how it affects the image - you might need to add an override materials to stop the dark floor from influencing the GI calculation too much - and as this process develops the image should start to come together - try to get as much correct in the render as possible so that you dont have to over-do it in photoshop - you should only need a few basic levels and colour balance adjustments and maybe the odd raw lighting or reflection pass etc -- a guy at a place i worked at was just amazing at studying photography and references - find images in magazines and online photography - us the photoshop colour sampler to check ceilings and walls to see what colour and luminance they have and try to replicate that with your vray settings - theres a lot to learn and i think youve been a tad naive to think you can just jump into having your own visualisation company without having created anything worthwhile in the industry -- also i think the logo on your website is doing you no favours at all - in my honest opinion its dreadful at best and will probably hinder your efforts to attain work ... soz ... i hope i havent dampened your spirits too much and i felt i needed to say a few of these things because i dont know your age and it feels like i might have been where you are some 20 odd years ago - doubting my skillset etc etc - cheers

 

Thanks for the feedback I need honest opinions rather than yes men so I appreciate it.

 

I never thought of it as having a studio rather a freelancer with a website. In the illustration world there are large studios bit also lots of freelancer individuals who get enough work to get by without necessarily bieng the greatest illustrator of all time. I guess I thought the 3D Vis world would be similar. I thought wrong. I was 25 when I started this bought 3d studio, Vray ect thinking I could learn and become good enough to get some work to supplement my illustration. Looking back it was pretty stupid huge waste of money and pretty much the worst decision I've ever made.

 

At least I can repurpose the website to an illustration portfolio and use it to get more exposure in the illustration market.