First decent looking scene!

solidshark91493

Going back to smaller things in modeling. Made some small paper lanterns and a "ocean" and im trying vray as well. 
Had someone help me correct the saved image with the gamma and it looks much better now! Now Im looking for advice on improving the scene in any way possible here instead of tech talk. 

Brian "Panda" Choi

Light the sky appropriately.

HappyCement

I think you should make those lanterns brighter

solidshark91493

Brian "Panda" Choi said:

Light the sky appropriately.

Thats some sound advice. Very useful. /s
As for the lanterns? I can give that a shot. 

Satotiga

solidshark91493 said:

Brian "Panda" Choi said:

Light the sky appropriately.

Thats some sound advice. Very useful. /s
As for the lanterns? I can give that a shot. 

They could definitely have been more specific but it's true; especially if it's this rendered image you're going for as a final product. You could add some of the lanterns already in the air, floating upwards, and if you give it a proper skybox - a few stars, for example - it'll definitely all come together even better. 

Doxturtle

Its a nice start, needs some polish though. Like the others have said, the lanterns are a bit dark at the moment. They look quite dull and don't really have that glowy appearance you'd expect. 

Something like this:



Also something I like about this image, the water is flat. In your image the water is choppy and it creates a chaotic image, which IMO is kind of opposite of the effect that lanterns create. When I see the image above it creates a relaxed mood. 

The silhouette of the surrounding landscape is something you could also adapt into your image, it stops it from feeling like an endless ocean and it gives it a bit of context.

I think you need to a work a bit more story into your piece. At the moment I look at it and I have a lot of questions, why are those lanterns there? What purpose are they serving? They are randomly thrown around this bit of water and it doesn't really draw me into anything specific. I keep referring back to that image because there's a lot of things that work well in it, it kind of has a twisting river-like formation to the lanterns. Maybe you could have a trail of lanterns leading to a focal point towards the background? 

If you do some googling you can find some nice examples and see what works and adapt it into your piece. For example:


The boat is a nice focal point.


The trail of lights leads your eye along the river.

Something like this would make a nice focal point, maybe surrounded by some of your little lanterns. 






Just some ideas

solidshark91493

Doxturtle said:

Its a nice start, needs some polish though. Like the others have said, the lanterns are a bit dark at the moment. They look quite dull and don't really have that glowy appearance you'd expect. 

Something like this:



Also something I like about this image, the water is flat. In your image the water is choppy and it creates a chaotic image, which IMO is kind of opposite of the effect that lanterns create. When I see the image above it creates a relaxed mood. 

The silhouette of the surrounding landscape is something you could also adapt into your image, it stops it from feeling like an endless ocean and it gives it a bit of context.

I think you need to a work a bit more story into your piece. At the moment I look at it and I have a lot of questions, why are those lanterns there? What purpose are they serving? They are randomly thrown around this bit of water and it doesn't really draw me into anything specific. I keep referring back to that image because there's a lot of things that work well in it, it kind of has a twisting river-like formation to the lanterns. Maybe you could have a trail of lanterns leading to a focal point towards the background? 

If you do some googling you can find some nice examples and see what works and adapt it into your piece. For example:


The boat is a nice focal point.


The trail of lights leads your eye along the river.

Something like this would make a nice focal point, maybe surrounded by some of your little lanterns. 






Just some ideas

Those are great ideas to implement. Im kinda trying to dabble in UE4 as well so maybe this would be a good idea for trying it out. Ill have to do a lot of research but Im hopeful. 
Might try something along the lines of the one with the boat and the one with the lanterns along the river. Ill need to texture the top half of the lantern and maybe try at making the little boat.

solidshark91493

On a quick side note, This is a simple model but its the first one ive ever actually completed. Probably because its so simple. And again could probably be better, but its low poly, looks good in engine (to me..) Its a high res screengrab from ue4.