I dont know if he is really famous or what, but Im re-producing a painting by Mark st. John, called cafe vogue. this is the main thing ive been working on the past couple of weeks. The file size is a beast, takes 7 or 8 mins to save , and crashed when I tried to render it w/ the cobblestone and towers. this is as far as the render got b4 i stopped to work on other stuff. please tear this apart and tell me what i can do to get it to look more like the painting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

heres the original by mark st. John---a really cool painting,(its called "Cafe Vogue" btw)this was the highest res veriosn i could find (im using the one hanging up next to my comp as reference)

Attached is a reference for everyone. WOW! The detials in the in the shop windows, flower beds, and that little vent grating just above "too bryce-ish" are amazing. Great textures. Just fantastic. Have you considered doing multiple renders ? Do the tower in it's own Bryce project, render, then bring in the tower on a 2D image object? As for the painting....(first of all, this is already pretty darn close, so these are minute detials) The shadows from the forground tree on th right (mostly out of frame) are more pronouced in the oringal. There's a trick in St. John's painting in that the wall on the left is painted with forced perspective that doesn't really match the rest of the painting. To help simulate this in "real" 3D, the window and blue store front could be a bit taller. Also use a wider FOV on the camera and push it in and down to compensate. That's a start anyway. I think the overall alignment of the left side needs a bit of tweeking. Have fun! PS: WOW! I just keep seeing more stuff. The lighting and colors on the tables in the courtyard is dead on!

Ooops. Just ignor my image. Excess baggage. Took me too long to type. :p (I get a little slow around 1AM) Have fun.

good start. Tree shadows need the be more pronounced. I know i am probably sounding like the broken record, but the zenith light system (http://www.renderring.com/zenith.zip) is ideal for this type of daylight scene. For the "too bryce-ish" sign you have, i suggest making ita terrainwith a very light displacement, or else make the bump map and specularity stronger on the square. For the tree back there, more leaves, smaller leaves, more branches/segment and no ambience.

make sure ambience of everythin gis set to zero. Light exists only where there is light, don't fake it with ambience values.

I think he may have meant the tree was too Brycish. If so, maybe try to combine two or tree trees into one?

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You might want to look at the pavement in front of the cafe. There isn't enough of it and it's upsetting the rest of the pic. In otherwords the whole thing wants to be moved 'back' into the scene to allow more pavement in the foreground. Sorry if this sounds crazy but I'm up to my eyebrows in meds thanks to a chest infection......

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Excellent work woodhurst! You've got so much detail in there already and I think what the others have said is all that's needing done. This will be a delight to see when you eventually get it finished and I can't wait to see it when it is. 8) Maybe to get a painted effect you'd have to work on it in post. Catlin

Awesome work, it really replicates the painting very well. I especially like the gratings and sense of 'depth' to this image. Keep it coming.

WOW great job! The only thing i saw was the corner of the sidewalk seems to curl up off the ground, and i didn't see that in the original... Maybe when everything is placed, add just a touch of haze for a slightly blurred look, (or PW it in) for a more of a painted scene...