Hey all, You've seen this image before. I've added some GI, more life, changed the sun angle, soft shadows, and more added effects. I have to run another render this weekend of it and am looking for some good CC before my final version is done. I'm trying to get the most realism I can. Thanks in advance. EDIT: I know the pots are missing flowers and the front flowers in front of the fountain are in the air (stupid ecosystem problem). That's part of the reason there will be another render. This is a WIP

If you're looking for realism, I suggest changing the sky - it's too clear and saturated with blue - especially in the top left corner.

Nice image. I especially like the motion blur on the silver car. I agree about the sky though - the clouds need some attention as well. The only other thing which stands out is a clear repeat pattern on the main brick texture - maybe it's just me, but it doesn't look quite right.

I think the sky is pretty fine as it is now. It's not unrealistic, it looks like what blue sky look like here in a springtime or summer late afternoon. Not all skies have to be hazy. Beautiful render and beautiful bulding. Did you model it yourself? I especially like the textures on it. In the top part especially, they show the right degree of weathering. Not too clean to be real, not too dirty to be a cared-for hotel. Also the composites of people and car are very nice. One thing I do not totally like is the building perspective lines. Although some "slanting" adds to the feel that this can be a photograph (with a lens distortion), there is a little too much of it for me.

Maybe I'm applying the bump wrong but these seem identical in bump. Basically, I'm getting no bump. It may have to do with HOW I'm doing it. When I import, mapping must be set to 'Faces'. I use the Basic Material Editor to load an image map and bump map in their slots (seems easier this way). I then go to Advanced Editor and choose 'Faces' for the mapping. I maaaaay be losing the association somehow from Basic to Advanced but Im a function editor peon and dont know how to add it via the Advanced editor. I almost looks like in the advanced preview that after I choose the mapping (Faces) for the color map, it doesn't change it for the bump map and I get this odd preview. Maybe it's not showing up because of this? Any ideas? Thx everyone for all your help btw. Appreciated.

Hi Ryan,

My problem with your pic is not with detail, but with a matter of composition..

You have 2 cars on the highway, and both are heading out of the picture. This tends to drag the eye towards the edges of the pic, to see where they are going, and of course, they're going to errrmmm... whatever can't be seen.

Suggestion: Rotate both cars 180 degrees (and since you're in a RHD area, change lanes) and try that. It might be an idea to slightly turn one of the cars so that it looks like it is waiting to enter the Inn's entry. That would further help focus attention on the Inn (which I suspect is where you want attention to be...)

Also the female(?) that's crossing the road is also leading the eye away from what should be the "focal point". Maybe have her(?) crossing towards the Inn?

Cheers,
Diolma

Message edited on: 12/06/2005 15:32 1st edit was to correct some typos. 2nd edit is to say: Great model! If all you're trying to do in the image is perfect it, then ignore everything above...

Message edited on: 12/06/2005 15:36

Diolma, Thx for the comments. I'm adding probably 2 more cars in the final to help with this. The lady walking was only positioned like that due to her shading/shadowing on the bitmap. I may still add more people too. I'm basically trying to get this as nice as possible so that I can render it over the weekend while I'm away.

With regard to the bump map - my understanding is that if you change the mapping for the color, it won't automatically change it for the bump. You need to go into the function editor to do that.

In the function editor, make sure 'bump' is selected and you should see a texture map node with your bump map in it. The little node above it is the UV coordinates node and if you select this you can change the mapping from Automatic to Faces.

I wouldn't have thought this would account for the lack of bump though. Are you using the same image map for colour and bump? If so, you might want to load the map into a 2D editor and convert it to greyscale, then increase the contrast. Save it back out under a new name and use that as the bump map.

No, it is. Anything I've imported from a 3DS does this when in automatic mapping mode. It makes sense that the bump wont show up either in automatic mapping mode! You are THE MAN!

Ryan, be aware that you may find the bump does not line up with the colour channel under some mapping modes...this is a recognised bug and down for fixing in the next update I believe. Cheers

Is the keystoning geometry on purpose? I guess it adds realism in a way, since it look like a photographer who doesn't have good equipment did the image. Architectural photorapher have view cameras with swings and tilts to straighten up buildings - or they do it in Photoshop. I agree that the cars and figures should point the eye toward the building. Also, more realism (or just detail) in the clouds would be good. Very blue sky is okay to my mind, as long as it's high in the sky. If you want realism, why doesn't the building cast shadows onto itself? Ah, i see when i look closer, a few places where it does. So, to my mind, the lighting angles are too flat. Need more drama with more cast shadows, which will also give more "form" to the forms, i think. Hmmm... how many light sources? The woman's and car's and tree's shadows don't seem to jive with the building's shadows - like the awning? They seem to be lit from the side, while the awning seems lit from above?

Have agree with JC on the shadows, there are both soft and hard shadows. The sunlight seems to be coming from direction of the road for some of the objects but from the topright for others (awning), also with the amount of shadow thrown I'd expect the light to be a little brighter. Nearly everything throws a shadow longer than she/he/it is tall, except the cars on the right, which have a shadows less than half the height of the car, otherwise the shadow of the white car would have hit the building.

I would suggest adding a building or wall (even a small one) to the left side of the image so it doesn't look like it is in the country, otherwise it's looking great!

I think this is a great wip, other than the objects positioning, I think this scene lacks shadows, probably because you used soft shadows. If you really want this scene to be the best possible, you need raytraced shadows ( about 75% only if you use GI, which I think is the case)with some softness (4% should look good, since you don't have a 100% black shadows). It will take a lot longer to render, and you'll need strong AA settings. I like the blue summer sky, but the clouds look stretched and unnatural, imho. Now about the bumpmap, I'm afraid you'll need to get to the function editor to correct that. If you change the color channel mapping mode, and if your bumpmap is a greyscale bitmap that matches your color channel, you'll need to change the bumpmap mapping mode in the function editor. It's very easy to do: in the advanced mat editor, control click the bump function, you land in the function editor, there you only need to click the output node right above your bitmap, and change the projection.