I'm very impressed. I agree that the rendering engine is significantly improved. The texture on this model looks particularly sophisticated. I'm sure it took quite a bit of work (not procedural?). -Kix

Thanks Kix, yeah the texture maps were generated in Photoshop from a ton of pictures I took. I work about a block from the Alamo so if I need a reference shot I just run over there and grab a few. One of our photographers went to the movie set north of Austin and brought back some shots about a month ago, so I have those to compare it to. I initially started this project in Lightwave but when I saw the improvements made in Carrara 3 I decided to switch gears. My experience in Lightwave's subdivision modeler carried over nicely to Carrara's and with this project I'm really digging deeper into Carrara's texturing system, it really seems heavy duty.

Wow, looks good:) lately i'm working on a similar project (a little italian corner) but it seems that your texturing skill is much better than mine. I hope to post something soon... TOXE

It's good and all, but I've done better.

Keep it to yourself then. :

Hey Robert: Great Work. The only critique I can make is that I see the textures a liiittle bit blurry. (Maybe you can sharpen the final image in photoshop) But other than that great work. How did you light t he scene? GI + a spotlight (for the shadow)? Good luck with the project. I would like to see the final image. Is this for a newspaper infographic? Good luck. fjv

Velarde: Right on both questions. GI with spotlight was used in this render and this will be a newspaper infographic. It may also be used as a web graphic too. Do you think any specific texture is blurry or is it over-all? TOXE: I think the texture I've seen you do is really great and the lighting set-ups that you employ are maybe the best I've seen used in Carrara. I only hope that my lighting on this project will come close. If the texturing on this project looks any good at all, it's probably because of the time I've put into them, probably just as much time as the modelling. By the way, some of the texturing on the above image still needs to be worked on.

Robert, I think it looks very good. Can you post an image of your spotlight and GI settings. I'm trying to learn GI, but getting stuck with long render times in open-space shots like this.

Thanks Robert... It's always good to receive compliments, especially when you receive it from a competent people and real artists. I don't see the hour to see this project finished:-)

Mateo, I'm not at the computer where I did the rendering right now, otherwise I'd post a screen-shot. I do remember turning on global illumination and indirect lighting and there was a long rendering time. I'm not sure you can get away with short rendering times and use global illumination.

Excellent work. The textures are gorgeous. Good luck with the project. Is the main wall one photoshop texture or is it a mix in the shader tree?

This is very impressive work in all respects! I will have to duck into your Forum more often to keep tabs on this and similar projects.

memaci: the main wall is one Photoshop texture with a bump map