A mixture of programs.

[sampowell]

This is my first attempt at a professional rendering. The client wants to see how a new building will look next to the existing. They both are very similar.

I modeled the new building (on the right) in AutoCad and established the control points for the existing building. Then I photographed the existing building (on the left) and built a model in Photomodeler, using the control points for orientation and scale. Also, I created some textures from the existing building for the new in Photomodeler. Then I imported both models into 3D Studio Max. I added the background, etc. and settled on a camera position. The file is rather large now, so I created another file just for the cars. Finally, I saved two bitmap files and brought them into Adobe Photoshop Elements. Then I added the people and text (not shown).

I know it must look rough, but next time it will go faster and I can spend more time on improvements.

I would be glad to have your comments in that respect.

 

Sam

[Brian Cassil]

This looks like a fairly typical beginner rendering. That's not an isult at all just an observation. If you are looking for honest crit on your work, you've come to the right place. My own work has improved by leaps and bounds since becoming invloved at CGA.

 

The main crit is the lack of interesting entourage. Its a little hard to tell at this scale but the building looks ok. I've found that lately I spend nearly as much time working on the surroundings of a rendering as I do on the architecture itself. The best thing to do is look at some of the stuff you see here and find what you like most, then try to replicate the look. Eventually you will discover your own style.

 

Lighting: It looks like you've used standard lighting in max which isn't necessarily bad but you need to at least make an attempt to fake Global Illumination. Try searching the forums hear for how to do that.

 

Textures: I'm not always the best at this myself but many of the textures are tiling quite obviously. creating discontinuities in textures is one of the most important keys to succesfull rendering. Try learning about how to mix textures to create less tiling and more interest.

 

Composition: Again, look at others work and you will see what really works best. Here is a great essay on composition.

http://optidigit.com/stevens/compotut.html

 

I hope all of this is usefull, and good luck.

[Jason Matthews]

Hi Sam. Welcome to the forum. I think you have a good start. In addition to Brian's comments, I do not think however that your view does the building any good. For one, you need to be closer to the buildings. This will not only limit the amount of grass you see but also show what is most important. Maybe set the camera at the edge of the pavement/grass. Sometimes when faced with not so good arhitecture, it is up to the cg artist to make it worth looking at. Maybe lowering the camera a little and widinging the feild of view will make thins a little more interesting. I would alos check out "Digital Lighting and Rendering" by Jermey Birn. It is a great book that is not program specific.

 

For the trees, make sure your material is set to "2-sided" so that all faces of the polygons will show up. Your grass is tiling a lot. You might want to use photshop or some other program and drop in a photograph for the grass.

 

I think before you try making the entourage, you should work on global illumination as mentioned by Brian. After you get good results, then start adding the fillers.

 

Good luck. Repost and remember, you have to learn to crawl before you can walk. This site and the people on it have helped me tremendously.

[sampowell]

Brian & Jason,

 

I sincerely appreciate your kind and learned comments. I read the essay and I ordered the book! And, I will keep trying to improve.

 

Thanks, again.

Sam