First "real" project

[zeitmeister]

Aaaalright... I'm starting!


- The pool water color does look ill; it should be more turquoise, healthier.

- Tiling of the floor on the left at the back is too strong, look for another texture... maybe something homogeneous.

- The hedges are looking too uniform.

- Your palm trees need something to grow in, they are just placed on top of the wood floor... think about notches!

- Palm tree leafs need to be reworked; look here and here.

- And maybe the most important point: Correct the perspective!
Your actual camera position does apply some kind of toy model impression to the whole scene. You sould lower it a lot at eye level.


Hope it helps!
You asked for it!

[madcoo]

Cheers ZeitMeister !

That's exactly the kind of advice I need !!!

[madcoo]

Hi everyone!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL !!!

Here are the latest pictures...

I'm still struggling with several issues, but little by little I'll get there...

I've got several questions:

1) I sent the files to a friend of mine. He told me that the tarmac and the trees/hedges look extremely dark, close to black. Does it look the same to you? In which case I'll have to lower my screen's brightness...

2) I think the point of view (chosen by the client) is not really right for the first view (with the swimming-pool) : it's way too high above, what do you think? (i already think ZeitMeister will agree )
I'm trying to get him to understand that a lower point of view (like the second view) would look better.

3) Clipping masks : I had a look on the web, it seems that this method helps a lot with integrating 2D background images in 3D renders. I had a look at the technique, it doesn't look much complicated... Do you often use it?

Well... as always, many thanks for you help!

[madcoo]

Hi!

I worked again on the project : I modified the colours so they don't look so "bright", and got rid of the hedges because they looked so "repetitive".

I think it's already better this way - what do you think?

[dcm]

its nice but try to use more contrast. Some glass materials, some phong,some textures,blueish sky and yellowish light inside the building...there is a lot of combinations how to achieve realistic look. For the first u need to play with materials !

look http://www.evermotion.org/vbulletin/sho ... hp?t=78186 or http://www.evermotion.org/vbulletin/sho ... hp?t=78200

[madcoo]

Thanks for your advice, as always!


Indeed putting some spotlights inside the building would help lots...

I'm also working on some bushes and flowers.

I much prefer the colours I used in the latest picture - less "flashy" so to speak - what do you think?

[madcoo]

Hi!

Just got the news that I'll have to do a very high-res rendering of the scene...

So far so good, but when I try to do a very high-res render Indigo says it doesn't have enough memory to be able to do it...

Is paying for an online-rendering service (Rebusfarm for example) the only solution???

[Doug Armand]

Hi!

Just got the news that I'll have to do a very high-res rendering of the scene...

So far so good, but when I try to do a very high-res render Indigo says it doesn't have enough memory to be able to do it...

Is paying for an online-rendering service (Rebusfarm for example) the only solution???

What is your system setup and how hi-res does the final image need to be?

It can sometimes be better to render your image larger than required but set Indigo's supersampling to 1 and downrez the final render, in Photoshop for example, to the required size. This can sometimes take less RAM that way and depending on subject matter can give good results. Just a thought

Also make sure you don't have Aperture Diffraction set on, unless you need it that is , as that can really use up RAM!

[madcoo]

Hi!

I've lowered supersampling to 1
=> render of 3200*2400 has started!!!
Many thanks!!!


My setup:
- WinXP 32bits
- Blender
- Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q9300 @2.50GHz
- 4Gb RAM

let me know what you think...

[Doug Armand]

My setup:
- WinXP 32bits
- 4Gb RAM

Well I beleive the reality is that Win XP 32 bits will really only let any one app access a max of 2GB - so even though you have 4GB installed - you can only have a max of 2GB for your rendering purposes.

I would suggest installing a 64bit windows OS - Win XP 64 is OK but Win 7 64 is better in my opinion. This will let you access more of that RAM. If your motherboard can take it upping the RAM to say 8GB would also, obviously , help a lot.

I'm afraid when you start rendering large sizes RAM is what you need the most really. There are other ways around this, like breaking the final image into smaller separate renders and then re-assembling in Pshop or similar, but they are not always that easy to use.

But lowering sampling should work - just be aware that anti-aliasing issues can occur using this method depending on your subject matter in the render.

[madcoo]

Yep, Win64 would help a lot.
I'll check if my hardware can support it.

How do you render only parts of your scene using Blendigo?
I thought you could only do it in Sketchup.
Of course I could just move the camera, but the perspective will change from one point of view to another, and it won't look good.

Any idea?

Thanks!

[Doug Armand]

Yep, Win64 would help a lot.
I'll check if my hardware can support it.

How do you render only parts of your scene using Blendigo?
I thought you could only do it in Sketchup.
Of course I could just move the camera, but the perspective will change from one point of view to another, and it won't look good.

Any idea?

Thanks!

In Blender get your mouse over your camera viewport and press & hold Shift +B. This should get you a crosshair. Drag a box for the part of your camera view you want to render. You should now have a red selection box?.

Now just render with Indigo as normal and Indigo should should just render the area you've selected. - at least it does for me
To remove it go to Blenders Render Scene tab, F10, and deselect the Border button.

[madcoo]

Wow!

I'm at work right now so I can't try it right now, but as soon as I come back home I'll try this!!!

If indeed it works, I'd be really glad!

Many many many thanks !!!

[Doug Armand]

Wow!

I'm at work right now so I can't try it right now, but as soon as I come back home I'll try this!!!

If indeed it works, I'd be really glad!

Many many many thanks !!!

assuming it works you - my pleasure and glad to have helped - let us know if you have any probs with it

[Doug Armand]

I've just done some testing - and even though this seems to work it probably won't help you.

It seems that while its true that using method does restrict the area rendered - blendigo stills exports the full size render, ie the full size but black with the selected region rendering, and this seems to use up just as much RAM.

I suppose restricting the area being rendered may have some benefit with quicker processing of selected area - haven't had time to check it - but for saving you RAM - don't think so.

I'll put up a request in the Blender forum to see if this can changed.