exterior scene

[strahlentherapeut]

Hello people,

I'm completely new here and I've spent the last few months through the matter somehow. Somehow it always continues. Nevertheless accumulate a lot to ask. It is the first time that I like-minded in touch. I've got some problems with exterior projects. Std render even after many, many things remain unclear 100: (
For comparison I have to work second the one with all matte materials (except glass and water) is very alive and dynamic. the other when a different scene with different lighting and camera angles, etc., but somehow lifeless. Seems like with wooden pegs drawn. Render settings up and down by trying. Then another scene looks completely realistic.
Almost as if one fails lux would own life and would decide itself as an image. : D

[jensverwiebe]

It´s like you already mentioned: the water is lifely and imho is the only thing in both images.

My recommendation:

You should elaborate your geometry a bit more, do bevel etc..

Second thing is giving more variance to the textures.
Use more different reflectivity, by using not only matte but perhaps also
(slight) glossy mats, give the textures variance in reflectivity or specularity over larger space too.
Thus the walls can receive and give back light in more ways.
Make youself sure what should perhaps the "focus" in your scene and emphasize.

A last thing: try make the sky more interesting.
Proposal: In the poolscene make the sky a bit more sunset.

Other scene could perhaps get a visible sun.

Personally i like mixing HDR worldmaps with sunsky to archive more realistic lighting
( as if your model is surrounded by realworld ). It can be clouds, but also a "landscape".

The images are well done principally, in a sense of architectural presentation.
If you want more "warmth" and reality, just keep in mind, nature is not perfect.

Jens

P:S: looks like you have a little alpha problem with your trees, could be due hybrid render ?
I would still recommed mlt/bidir classical render, this gives best results also with exteriors still.

[moure]

I totally agree with jens recommendations

Some simple things from my side too:
1. Your scene geometry is too perfect. That removes realism, try adding some noise modifiers, bevel your edges, "destroy" a bit your scene. Now everything is "boxy"
2. Your materials are also extremely flat. It seems like you have only used diffuse maps but not bump neither specular ones.
3. Your grass also ^. You could create some "real grass" by using patches of simple instanced grass. You cover your garden with instances and then randomize their size. IIRC there is an amazing arch grass example somewhere around in the forum.
4. As jens suggested use hdri lighting together with sun. Also create interior lights and the street ones. Put them in different light groups so as to control their gain inside lux. This way you can get day/night shots with one render or mix them all together for evening shots.
5. The leaves on your trees are all transparent. You have to use a transparency mask
6. Use more dramatic camera angles, as well as DOF. <-- That helps more than you may think
7. Use luxrender or post-production effects, like camera response filters, bloom etc.

I guess thats all for now, looking forward for your next results. Good start btw

[strahlentherapeut]

hello moure,

As for what the diffuse channels I can only agree. I'm not a fan of matte. Only in terms of the lower picture I have two versions. The pool with maier and sell metal, glossy, etc.
But I only have limited options what concerns the pc, lenovo t 61, on board graphics. So I can not even use a hybrid. I generally use metric. bidir. I have appointed 500 hours test render me behind what the pool scene terms. The geometry was intentional. In the one picture - bauhaus my project I've played with camera angles too. almost none of my works are in the standart angle. But from here it looked like the best. Sometimes less is more. What are the materials concerned, and now I get to my original problem was the case in this has no effect. Not really. Even the sunlight is a problem. I do all my works with all light options. With sun-glass and water is very noisy. Even architectural glass. special mirror. What concerns because heaven is my motto - no clouds clouds rather than bad. Landscape textures have been very successful with interior scenes of the window. But exterior and sky is a little tricky. On'm basically, after half a year before beginning.
I have dealt very closely with hdri. But it will not smart. I have a different exterior and interior scene that almost look like photographs. This is due to so many details that you have to deal with it very deeply. Therefore, I am also glad for any help: D Is not that all easy. Bloom has in the above pictures had no impact so great. I always try to statements by all eventualities. I generally agree with you and to jensverwiebe.
Just as there must be something that makes it look all at once for photography or goes in the direction. It has been something almost metaphysical. Suddenly it's there. And you notice it right in the first 20 minutes of your rendering. Maybe I'll get behind it: D

[Abel]

Jens and Moure have covered mostly everything, but if you ask me the most important issues are:

1. composition (including camera height)
2. reflections and glass transparency
3. lighting

In the first image, the brick garden wall takes up way too much space and attention. Furthermore, the hierarchy between the building is unclear: the one on the right is slightly closer by, but the one on the left receives more light and is not as close to the border. Because of this unclarity, ones attention is drawn to the space between the buildings, where there isn't much to see. Also, the placement of the lighting pole is unfortunate as it makes the shape of the building behind it harder to read. Moving it just a tiny bit to the left should help. But all in all I'd suggest using a radically different angle, for example by moving the camera in the garden of the house on the right (which would then probably need much more detail) and then looking more to the left. Also the camera position is pretty high compared to the height of the door and windows; lowering it could make the perspective of the buildings more dynamic.

The glass in the windows is looking quite unattractive; it would be nice if there was a nice reflection and it would also be nice to get at least a hint of the space behind, ideally with some furniture. I agree with Jens's suggestion to use hdri lighting in combination with a sun. The mood of the image could also get more interesting by using a lower sun angle; apart from the shadows that also tends to result in nice colours.

Finally some smaller issues: the bricks near the front door seem to be rather big and the mortar jumps out rather strongly. On the garden wall, the textures are not aligned properly. And the plants seemed to be placed haphazardly, obscuring vital parts of the composition (like the corners of buildings and the entrance). If you're using 2D plants, I'd suggest adding them in post production so that it is easier to experiment with their placement.

[b.!!]

Just a very tinny add...

An easy to fix problem is in the composition of your first image : half of the surface is showing repetitive tiles. By the way they are so clean, it makes one think of commercials or stuff related to disneyland where they want everything perfect and happy.

You can definitely add some life with image editor post processing : Add peoples, animals some foliage on the forground that would cover that big chunk of blue sky (like you were under a tree while shooting).
You can add light inside the rooms and people to say "something happens inside".
You can fragment big chunks of uniform tiled surfaces like the pebbles on the ground of the garden etc...

[strahlentherapeut]

I could have done what is clear to me is the cat on the wall until the car parked in the background: D (I unfortunately do not get smilies). I would also illuminated the people standing around, or not furnished innenräume.darauf it would go if they were illuminated. There is no lack of proposals well in the forum. I'm sure. especially as a beginner, I set certain limits in relation to roads sind.vorallem not tidy: D. Especially since a paved area in a development area is not very spectacular looks. And alpha maps will not as they should.
I wanted a simple bauhaus - architecture in most realistic scene.
However, the key idea with the deal I've also already got from portable. The sun's angle change. Google is full of pictures of the exterior scenes are very simple but effective set in scene. I think it's the art. I think are crucial incident light and camera. The camera angle is not due to the optical light, but from physical ones too would pass the one script in each scene, the optimal angle between the light source, object and camera calculates: D.