A little test render of a simple house

[Trantor]

finished it yesterday... I was training with VRAY for Sketchup
http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/8257/renderinternet.jpg

[toyota74]

Im not an expert at rendering but it looks good overall.The wall
texture and the grass look brilliant and the house is nicely
modelled..............the downpoints as i see it is the reflection
on the car and the house windows.

and finally where the grass meets the paving maybe needs
a kerb or something:)

[Trantor]

hi Toyota, thanks for the comment.

I completely agree about the reflection. In fact, Ive posted the image on some Sketchup specific forums, and there I mentioned the reflections issue myself. Ive not found a solution yet... I guess the only thing I can do to solve it (specially the car reflection, since the window one can be easily photoshoped) is to create a face behind the camera, with a street photo, to be reflected.

as for the grass meeting the paving... the paving actually is a little higher than the grass, but you cant notice from this angle. I dont know what a KERB is though :(

to me, a KERB is a german party where people drink lots of beer (not to be confused with Oktoberfest)

[toyota74]

http://www.marshalls.co.uk/transform/content/images/products/driveways/shots/kerbs8-large.jpg edge

i have no doubt that you will master rendering.just like you did with
sketch up e.g cobra

[Trantor]

gee, dunno. Curbs are not much used here to separate grass from pavement.

[tbite]

Well I am an amateur, so I don't know if my advice is counter productive.:haha: :haha:

but if you don't want to do a curb, what if you just created more emphasis on the displacement or bump map of the grass and pavement.

Since you're using Vray for Sketchup..well I haven't used Vray in a while, since my trial ran out, but I am pretty sure Vray gives you a lot of control over the degree of reflections, so just play around with the reflection IOR, I think that's what it's called I can't remember, but from what I remember you should be able to get a result.

I like using Vray and what I found was that reflections were one of the strong points of the render engine.

[Trantor]

well, I am not using bump nor displacement on the grass... in fact, its the strong point of this grass method I am using... very realistic but FAST at the same time.


anyway, I did two new renders... mostly, I fixed the reflections, but creating a low poly scene around, so it would be reflected in the car and the window
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_DDwl9lual2c/StTENj3xS-I/AAAAAAAAAF4/y3F5TzH4L4M/s1600/render03.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DDwl9lual2c/StT028ElttI/AAAAAAAAAGY/QgWqusCWUlU/s1600/render04.jpg

[toyota74]

the house windows look better,the light and shadows on the front
of the house are spot on -really looks like daylight.

For the car I think its reflecting too much white maybe from
the house or sky and plus its in shade and finally where the
grass meets the driveway still dosnt seem right where as
the pathway to the front door is good cos its more 3d...

just letting you know how my eyes see it maybe you see
it differently:)

[Mocholate]

The thing that sticks out for me is the grass edges. It looks so perfect except where it meets a another surface there are no grass blades contrasted against it. I think you could get the same effect with some photoshopped grass ?

[Trantor]

The thing that sticks out for me is the grass edges. It looks so perfect except where it meets a another surface there are no grass blades contrasted against it. I think you could get the same effect with some photoshopped grass ?

yes, thats a big problem with this technique... maybe if it was less realistic, you wouldnt care about the grass edges... seems like a case of UNCANNY VALLEY!!


EDIT: Mocholate, please tell me what you think now... I did some post-processing in PS... it was quite simple really... just used the smudge tool
http://img50.imageshack.us/img50/4795/render04gramaalta.jpg

[Rizzo]

Care to share how you did the grass and where you got the trees? This is a beautiful render!

[Trantor]

Care to share how you did the grass and where you got the trees? This is a beautiful render!

the 3d trees
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=6de18db14a5293be3ccbdf02fbce58da&prevstart=0

the grass is a technique I learned recently on a brazilian VRAY forum... anyway, find the best most hi-res grass image that you can find, but not a top down photo, but a photo taken from eye level with the grass horizon a bit over the upper half of the picture.

then make a material where that texture will be an ENVIROMENT - SPHERICAL... quite weird uh?? It wont work if you see grass surfaces from someplace LOWER than those grass surfaces (because in that case you will see the photo ABOVE the horizon!)

here
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/6760/infinitegrass.jpg

[Mocholate]

Sweet as, I was a bit shocked at the difference it made :cool:
Hopefully a similar technique can be applied in Kerkythea.

Only things i could pick out now is these;
-Rock edges look a bit sharp,
-Purple flowered plant is too symmetrical,
-The car !! what is that thing ??? :P
-Roof could do with some material that adds a bit of a weathering effect
-And the sidewalk should end in a full tile at the edge.

Don't get me wrong, I don't get that fussy with mine and can't do half of that stuff but some of yours are so close to perfect that they may aswell be made completely perfect !! :D

[Trantor]

-Purple flowered plant is too symmetrical

lack of better models at 3dwarehouse.

-The car !! what is that thing ??? :P

a Ford Ka with a 20' wheel :)

remember, cars in Brazil cust 2x-3x more than in the US because of taxes. Someone living in that small house will probably have a 1.0 liter engine car. (which custs about U$14k here)


-Roof could do with some material that adds a bit of a weathering effect

have no idea how to apply that in VRay sketchup. If the roof was a single surface, that would be easy. because its made of several components, any weathering pattern I apply will REPEAT from tile to tile, making it MORE unrealistic than leaving it without any weathering pattern.

-And the sidewalk should end in a full tile at the edge.

what tile? Its a single concrete surface now!


Don't get me wrong, I don't get that fussy with mine and can't do half of that stuff but some of yours are so close to perfect that they may aswell be made completely perfect !! :D

yes, the uncanny valley probably also applies to architectural renderings too :D

[toyota74]

The grass has made all the difference and like mo
said the flowers are a bit iffy.The potted shrub at the front
of the house looks good so maybe different shrubs would
look better than flowers.One other small thing that I see
is the dog seems too up against the kennel but anyhow
I think you should be happy with yuor scene...good job.

[Mocholate]

Bah, Perfection lays with consistency. Humans are just lazily inconsistent !.
Though your render does look professional, Thats what your aiming for i guess ?

I was talking about the crease in the sidewalk ? Whatever those lines are, I think they would look more practical if there was no half bit at the edge.

25k+ for a decent small car here yet we drive V8's :P
Fuel averages $1.25/litre - $5.50/gallon but we don't care hahahahaaaa

[Trantor]

$5.5 the gallon is how much in litres?