Thanks guys. Yes Rich this was on the new machine. Just a quickie while testing installs and such. 2 min. render. The model is one of Gabriel's on Form Fonts, the "Damaged Pacer". I used the "shadow catcher" technique and the background was an HDRI called Sunsetpeak, free but I don't remember where I got it .

great project/great images to explain it, Oli! It's so nice for school these days to have Photo-realistic rendering to help explain an idea, some times I think several projects I had in school would have critted much better if I had renderings like these to explain what I was going for. anyway - It's great to hear that crits are tough in school... I have been on many critique panels at different schools and these past few years have found they are getting so watered down that you can't even critique a student any more. any comment perceived as negative, and the other students jump all over you, or I had a friend (excellent designer with more than 20yrs experience and many award-winning designs) who was asked not to return because he had 'offended' a student. I mainly posted to say it's good to hear the crits are tough... trust me (as a once teacher and student with tough crits) - it's a good thing... and today with laser cutters and photo-real renderings at the touch of a button, you really get to concentrate on design.

I'm am not familiar with the terminology so I can't point you to a solution. All I know is the sickly blue light and lack of shadow detail is killing an otherwise very fine model.

Rich, There is cutting. Lots and lots of cutting. The pavers are all square and fit in a modular pattern. We overlay them out past the edge of the design and then mark them with flexible guides. They are all cut with a gas powered 14" concrete demo saw or my 14" gas powered table saw. See me cutting here -[image: 8Map_RS051.jpg] Pete, The term hardscaping around here is broad as well, although most homeowners tend to use it to refer to "dry" concrete installations and Masonry is used to describe "wet" installations. For example, the big trade show is Hardscape North America and it features almost exclusively "dry laid" pavers and SRW block. Also, no, it's not standard practice to install irrigation on new homes. It's all upgrade with a lot of thriving sprinkler companies in the area. They all come in a flush and blow out the lines before winter. Most builders don't even bury the downspouts....even in the homes pushing 7 figures. It's something they typically pay us to do!

@frv said: Tx, I visited your blog, nice work and also very nice links to other blogs. I see you are rather happy with SU 8. I haven't updated yet but wondered if there are any speedimprovements. I am actually doing an animation and wondered if it had any use to get the update. Francois Sorry for the late response. Thanks for the comments. Yes I am happy with SU 8. As far as speed improvements, no not really. There are many new tools for the pro version which I like and use quite a bit now. You can have both 7 and 8 running on your machine so go ahead and DL the free version and see for yourself if you see any improvements for your animations. Cheers.

similar scene with postprocess. [image: mBx7_mazda1.jpg]

one question. . . How do you people find the time to do all of this amazing stuff? Don't YOU PEOPLE HAVE JOBS?? i mean for cryin' out loud. . .you gurus are doin' speeder bikes. .. (there's that word again). .. gleaming nexorade spheres--or whatever the heck they're called. . .. I mean honestly. . . I stand in awe. . . AWE

@ken28875 said: Where did you get the little guys? The little boys are from 3D Warehouse

great work..makes me want to break out the top gun quotes... Slider: Goose, whose butt did you kiss to get in here anyway? Goose: The list is long, but distinguished. Slider: Yeah, well so is my Johnson.

Background over exposed

Nice work David. I think I understand what you are trying to achieve with this render .... 'unposed composition'? It works for me. I see so many 'dramatic compositions' and while they are normally excellent technically, they don't give that 'lived in' look for me. The wheely bin is a nice touch. I had to laugh when I saw it as there was a wheely bin outside my house in Ennis when the Google StreetView guys drove by BTW, attached is a slate texture that I use. I must try to mod this image to create a 'slate and a half' every second course .... the proper way to do things Mike [image: lRXa_blue-grey-slate_287.jpg]

@michaliszissiou said: Great taste indeed. excellent work! But I'm so familiar with the adobe suite, I really love illustrator but I mostly use it with the wacom pen. Thanks Michalis! Mate I'd love to get my head around illustrator though I find it so unintuitive. It is certainly WAY ahead of LO in respect to what can be achieved though for simple stuff like this logo it is really hard to beat LO for shear simplicity and fast workflow. In the Karrara brochure above, the architects supplied the floor plans generated from DWG import to Illustrator and then to PDF at between 200-300mb per plan and 9 to be used through the brochure I was stuffed as it ground indesign to a hault! The equal LO plan like those Marcus (d12dozr) did up for me recently generally weigh in about 50-60kb and SO clean! The example plan above if using image based furniture weigh in about 2Mb due to the raster inclusion. That said like you I'd still love to get my head around illustrator, only remains on the wish list for now!

@unknownuser said: Fun. I think what is missing is the idea of a nose of some sort. don't tell that to patrick star [image: patrick_star-4854.jpg]

[image: teaV_baza_police_station_sm.jpg] As Yogi Berra said, "Deja vu all over again." Your render reminds me of police headquarters in Baza, Spain. A nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.

Really fine way to take a standard desk and turn it into something quite pleasing. Great stuff Ross.

Thanks Oli, I like that one the best as well. Smart drop is a one click operation whereas Fur has more parameters that I honestly have not explored at all.

I love it, These textures on rocks are a photo combination, parts of my watercolors sometimes. Now watercolors again LOL. Its the horizon, the lighting on the see what doesn't look OK. You used a background image, not reflected material, thats why. This nice figure looks more convincing now. Try the higher definition rocks too. @unknownuser said: I only wish my real watercolour skills could get as good a result Your wish could come true, normally a watercolorist never uses white paint. This is a myth. I little bit of white with dark brown-black and lot of water for transparency is what gives these grey tones. A trick coming from the king of this medium. Dürer... and spray using your finger on brush ... Andrew Wyeth.

Great start; I have a couple of comments if I may. The brick at the top of the opening seems to be a half brick. The ceiling in the opening seems to be hanging brick, how do you plan on hanging that brick? The siding on the upper would typically have corner boards.

Very nice Martin That looks great and 10 minutes is quite fast.

Thank you for all the kind words guys...I have a few projects that I am working on now, but when I wrap those up, I will post some wireframe/SU views to give everyone a better idea of the post production work that went into a lot of these. I am glad everyone enjoyed my work and thanks for the comments.