Arch Viz Criticism.
polycounter lvl 10
Hello all,I need some professional evaluation of this render I am working on.I feel it doesn't look good and any suggestions on how the materials, lighting, and overall appearance can be improved. Please feel free to tear it apart. I really want to make sure it looks as realistic as possible.
I am using mental ray with final gathering only and arch and design materials in 3dsmax.This is a shot of an animation for my final year project.I am trying to get my animation to look as good as the Third and the Seventh.The splotches on the walls are there because I had to lower the settings to reduce render times as I check the materials and how they look with the lighting.The final render settings will be much higher. I am using only bump maps so far.
Any help will be deeply appreciated.
Replies
But if you need something.
Apart from the splotches which you pointed out about the lower settings.
I find the right side of the scene a little plain and grayish. Have you thought about adding an item/object to sit on that coffee table as it might help fill in that dull part of the scene to make it slightly more lively?
not sure if this helps in anyway.
1) It looks like your wood grain on the shelving is flowing the same way across every piece. Unless it was carved out of one giant piece of wood the grain is going to flow in a way that makes that piece the strongest it can. Even with particle board they wrap in a wood pattern that would flow like wood does. But honestly this just looks like you're too lazy to shift the UV's around...
2) All of the drawers are slightly open? Why? Who does that? It looks like it was done to spice up the scene but it doesn't make much sense. Maybe I'm just OCD about closing drawers? I'm always worried if I leave them open I'll spin around in my chair and carve out a huge chunk of my legs.
2a) The gaps in the floor look really big, like the chair would get stuck in them easily.
3) The materials on the books all look the same, like they came from the same place at the same time. If they are encyclopedias (do people even use those?) then why aren't they uniform in size/shape? Try to think about books, where they come from, when they are created how long they've been around. That chaos in their difference is what can really help give a room its character. Right now it's saying I can't be bothered to think about medium details.
4) The room doesn't look very lived in, it doesn't even look like someone took a bunch of things out of the room to stage a beauty shot, its just empty. Its surprisingly devoid of medium and small details. CG artists have a long history of pretending to be minimalists to get out of doing a lot of work, heh.
Some inspiration and the standard bar you should shoot for:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=121&t=318834
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LDVAjOiUnik/T51w9-F5O8I/AAAAAAAAAMA/pngfcR7QrgU/s1600/Loft_BlenderCookie_Arch_Viz.png
http://www.winzenrender.com/Bilder/livingroom_heide.png
http://www.mn3d.rs/img/arch/StudentRoom.jpg
http://www.cgarchitect.com/content/portfolioitems/2013/07/83264/dorm_room_08_large.jpg
http://kunchevarchdesign.com/public/images/upload/projects/big/project_13515777203.jpg
http://one.arch.tamu.edu/media/photologue/phlogphoto/cache/Toffer%20AIA%20award1%20copy_galleria_large.jpg
You are telling a story, you need to convey that. Right now you have:
"There was a room. It was kind of plain. The end."
It doesn't need to be flashy or even cleaver but you need to live in this room for a bit and create the things that would naturally be there as the result of a human using this space. If you want to get cleaver and make some kind of statement that gets some kind of emotional response from people, great but I don't think you need to pull that off for this project, but it would be cool and help give it that extra nudge from ho-hum student project to "this is awesome, you're hired!"
EDIT: Oh one last thing... Please for the love of all that is holy don't turn this into a crime scene by putting police tape all over and cover the floor in blood and a chalk outlines. Its the worst portfolio cliche I run into time and again. "I can't think of a story for my scene so MURDER!" /eyeroll
thanks, I wanted to make it my next project. Now I won't!
It's when people get stuck on how to detail a lifeless scene and decide adding crime tape and blood is the way to go, that it falls apart.
@ Mark Dygert Thanks for the reference materials u posted.They were very helpful.
@Imad - I know mental ray has its problems but if u learn how to use it properly u can tweak a lot of things to get what u want.Also in school here,we don't have Vray on the renderfarm which sucks. Mentalray, Renderman and other renderers can be used with it and since I am making an animation, I have to use mental ray and I am actually enjoying using it.
Any suggestions on how to make this better in terms of materials,composition e.tc.Feel free to tear it down.
Thanks.
EDIT: Is there anyway this thread can be moved to the 3d pimping & previews?I don't want to create another thread there for the same thing.I think I can get more feedback as my project progresses.The more mistakes I can fix due to my noobishness, the better.Thanks.