given the complimentary color scheme i find my eye drawn a little too much to the green potted plant in a predominantly red scene, which is probably not desirable given there are so many more interesting assets in the scene.
i know you used the thread title in jest but it does suggest something of a direction for the scene, is this the house of a genuinely renaissance man, or one who pretends to it? most of the scene points to the former, in which case the most visible painting in the scene is pure kitsch, something i'd expect on the wall at the olive garden. for a man like that it's like taking picture of his lunch and then framing it. he doesn't think anything of a nice baguette and a red wine for a meal; someone putting that up on the wall on the other hand thinks it's special.
so go with a "picturesque" landscape, since you want to keep the frame the same size.
also i think you could push the storytelling here a bit more as well. to me the telltale detail is the solitary cigar. what if you use the scene to illustrate this person is so very cultured, but actually quite alone?
keep the two chairs in the foreground, but take the whiskey out of the second glass, and pile books on that chair, and a small stack of books near the foot of the houseowner's chair. perhaps more wear and tear on that chair, too, since it's the only one that ever gets sat upon. he would like guests, but never actually has them, so the second chair becomes spill-over for books he's reading but hasn't reshelved.
so yes. i would consider changing the pot color to something other than green because all my attention is drawn not to the center chairs and the (very nicely put together) table and cigar and whiskeys, but to the left, to a secondary asset.
-pot/plant color distracting
-upper left painting is kitschy
-use those great book props to tell a story in the scene?
anyway, pretty sharp work overall. most of my crits are compositional or minor in nature, which should tell you a lot. good work.
Great looking scene.. I think there should be a fireplace just behind where the camera is positioned, get some nice orange glow/shadows happening out from the foreground.
@ Gauss
Thanks for the awesome input. After reading your crit I was TOTALLY energized and excited to push this one a lot further. I suppose I'd gotten so caught up in tweaking things around that something like this didn't even cross my mind. It's funny too because right when i posted the screenshot the plant popped out at me as being out of place. I'm going to totally revamp the pot and plant, maybe a different type or have it dead with the leaves draped onto the floor. I figure that will change the leaf color without going too unnatural. I started filling up the 2nd chair with books last night and even tried out having a "cast away" type situation where there was a bust from one of the shelves propped up to keep the lone tycoon company. Thanks again for taking the time!
@ ae.
Shadows have been KILLING me on this one. I've been playing with the settings in the lights trying to figure out why they were getting washed out and I'm pretty clueless right now. I thought it might have been the lightmass bounce lighting so I pulled that down to 1 bounce and still nothing... and also to reply to jib1337, that was exactly the idea with my lighting. I have a low, orange light to simulate a fireplace casting towards to base of the chairs up, but I pictured awesome dynamic shadows fanning out from the legs of the chair and table. Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated, having the shadows in the foreground would add a lot to the scene.
Thanks again guys, I'll have some updates pretty soon and if any screens of my lights or light settings will help get to the bottom of this, let me know.
Very nice, I'd probably pull some of your lights down personally, darken the scene as a whole and then have those lights in the background just casting subtle spots down and perhaps even a warm light coming from behind the camera to simulate a fireplace.
Feels to me like there's too much ambient light in there. The lights themselves could all use some softening. If you're going for an "aged" feeling as in the era that you would naturally have a study like this (think of the time from the late 1800's ala "the time machine"). In that case, the lights would be all gas and would be pretty soft. You wouldnt have the rounded lights that you have at the back of the study either.
As it is, it reads a lot as "faux intellectual", which if that is the intention is good, but if you wanted a real intellectual you should think about what they would have in their study.
I'd be tempted to redo the rear light fittings to make them more like the ones on the left. Make sure to add some texture to the glass on the lamps so they look a bit discoloured (gas lamps burn carbon fuels so they discolour the glass).
I agree with the others on the "storytelling" suggestions. You've got a good looking model, but it doesnt tell me anything about the space right now. Why are the chairs where they are? Are they near a fire? in that case dim the rest of the room and throw some light from the fire a bit more. Reduce the ambient and have some really soft gas lights (which burnt more yellow if I recall) to pick out the opulence of the space. Pick a focus for the scene.
Just my observations of course. Could be completely not what you wanted.
Replies
given the complimentary color scheme i find my eye drawn a little too much to the green potted plant in a predominantly red scene, which is probably not desirable given there are so many more interesting assets in the scene.
i know you used the thread title in jest but it does suggest something of a direction for the scene, is this the house of a genuinely renaissance man, or one who pretends to it? most of the scene points to the former, in which case the most visible painting in the scene is pure kitsch, something i'd expect on the wall at the olive garden. for a man like that it's like taking picture of his lunch and then framing it. he doesn't think anything of a nice baguette and a red wine for a meal; someone putting that up on the wall on the other hand thinks it's special.
so go with a "picturesque" landscape, since you want to keep the frame the same size.
also i think you could push the storytelling here a bit more as well. to me the telltale detail is the solitary cigar. what if you use the scene to illustrate this person is so very cultured, but actually quite alone?
keep the two chairs in the foreground, but take the whiskey out of the second glass, and pile books on that chair, and a small stack of books near the foot of the houseowner's chair. perhaps more wear and tear on that chair, too, since it's the only one that ever gets sat upon. he would like guests, but never actually has them, so the second chair becomes spill-over for books he's reading but hasn't reshelved.
so yes. i would consider changing the pot color to something other than green because all my attention is drawn not to the center chairs and the (very nicely put together) table and cigar and whiskeys, but to the left, to a secondary asset.
-pot/plant color distracting
-upper left painting is kitschy
-use those great book props to tell a story in the scene?
anyway, pretty sharp work overall. most of my crits are compositional or minor in nature, which should tell you a lot. good work.
@ Gauss
Thanks for the awesome input. After reading your crit I was TOTALLY energized and excited to push this one a lot further. I suppose I'd gotten so caught up in tweaking things around that something like this didn't even cross my mind. It's funny too because right when i posted the screenshot the plant popped out at me as being out of place. I'm going to totally revamp the pot and plant, maybe a different type or have it dead with the leaves draped onto the floor. I figure that will change the leaf color without going too unnatural. I started filling up the 2nd chair with books last night and even tried out having a "cast away" type situation where there was a bust from one of the shelves propped up to keep the lone tycoon company. Thanks again for taking the time!
@ ae.
Shadows have been KILLING me on this one. I've been playing with the settings in the lights trying to figure out why they were getting washed out and I'm pretty clueless right now. I thought it might have been the lightmass bounce lighting so I pulled that down to 1 bounce and still nothing... and also to reply to jib1337, that was exactly the idea with my lighting. I have a low, orange light to simulate a fireplace casting towards to base of the chairs up, but I pictured awesome dynamic shadows fanning out from the legs of the chair and table. Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated, having the shadows in the foreground would add a lot to the scene.
Thanks again guys, I'll have some updates pretty soon and if any screens of my lights or light settings will help get to the bottom of this, let me know.
Ah I just saw that jib1337 said the same thing :P
Only crit is that the lightings pretty boring.
As it is, it reads a lot as "faux intellectual", which if that is the intention is good, but if you wanted a real intellectual you should think about what they would have in their study.
I'd be tempted to redo the rear light fittings to make them more like the ones on the left. Make sure to add some texture to the glass on the lamps so they look a bit discoloured (gas lamps burn carbon fuels so they discolour the glass).
I agree with the others on the "storytelling" suggestions. You've got a good looking model, but it doesnt tell me anything about the space right now. Why are the chairs where they are? Are they near a fire? in that case dim the rest of the room and throw some light from the fire a bit more. Reduce the ambient and have some really soft gas lights (which burnt more yellow if I recall) to pick out the opulence of the space. Pick a focus for the scene.
Just my observations of course. Could be completely not what you wanted.