Site Model

Mark · 23 Oct 2008, 22:19

My first time posting to the gallery here, so take it easy on me. Actually I would really appreciate any constructive criticism.
The model is a first pass at a site plan for a project in China. The image is straight out of Layout, which I found to be of much better quality than exporting right out of SU. The reason for that being that you can adjust the line weight in Layout.
I textured it with mostly plain colors, except for the trees for which I made a png material so they could have some transparency.
I used style builder to create the style with a hand drafted pen line. And I added a watermark mask that very subtly softens the image.

Enjoy,
Mark

sorgesu · 23 Oct 2008, 22:31

I don't have to take it easy on you at all. That is just gorgeous. Congratulations on a job well done.

solo · 23 Oct 2008, 22:42

Mark

Welcome to GSCF.

I love that image, fantastic work and very inspiring.

Daniel · 23 Oct 2008, 22:42

Welcome to the gallery, Mark. Very nice presentation. My one criticism would be the north arrow - the black color doesn't really go with the rest of the model, and it stands out too much. You might want to try a light or medium gray.

edit: Also, have you looked at adding some cars on those roads?

Phil Rader AIA · 24 Oct 2008, 01:25

Great image...welcome to the forum.

I agree about the north arrow. tone it down or just have it be white and let the shadows define it.
I agree with the comment about the trees there is a ruby called randor.rb or something like that created by TBD you can select all the tree components and apply the ruby and it will randomize their scale.
There is a fine line between monochromatic and fully textures. Your image starts down the path of fully textures but stops short. In that regard I wonder if it might benefit by making the flat roofs a darker color like they would be in reality. similarly I wonder if having some extremely low poly cars might ad a sense of dynamics to the image.

Just my 2 cents. But again it a great image and I look forward to seeing more of you efforts.

boofredlay · 24 Oct 2008, 02:58

Great work and I second the comments above.
Welcome!

tomsdesk · 24 Oct 2008, 03:03

Really nice indeed, Mark...thanks for sharing! (More please

tomislavm · 24 Oct 2008, 06:25

Congratulations !

linea · 24 Oct 2008, 10:10

Welcome Mark

That is a great model.

Jon

kevsterman · 24 Oct 2008, 10:40

I second everything said above.

Fantastic! Lets see more!

marked001 · 24 Oct 2008, 12:04

and i THIRD everything above! overall, its an awesome model + image.. welcome and keep em coming..

bubbalove · 24 Oct 2008, 13:20

I'm going to be doing a model like this shortly... thanks for sharing and giving us some inspiration!

Mark · 24 Oct 2008, 15:07

Well thanks for all the encouraging words, folks.

And thanks for the suggestions:
-North Arrow- needs to calm down.
-Trees - some scale variety would be nice. (I actually have that ‘randor.rb’ ruby already)
-Cars - yeah, would liven it up a bit, and I think give a better sense of scale.

And Phil, I agree that is a fine line of how far to go with texturing…

I got a couple more shots of this model that I will throw up here soon.

Mark · 24 Oct 2008, 15:29

Here are a couple closer in views.
I adjusted the Style for these views to have longer extensions and a thicker line weight in Layout.

The second one I had trouble getting all the sketchy lines to show up like I wanted. Layout seems to be real finicky sometimes about what it will show or not.

Enjoy.

Daniel · 24 Oct 2008, 16:23

They look great, Mark. Hope I'm not coming off too picky, but have a few comments:

Adjust the color of either the grass or the trees, as the two are blending together, especially in the second image.
That blue sky looks a bit cartoonish, IMHO. You might want to look at toning it down. Is that a backdrop? In perspective mode, SU should display the sky with gradation from top to bottom.
Add some more people to the first scene. I'm reading it as a public space, but it doesn't look too lively.

Keep 'em coming.

Mark · 24 Oct 2008, 16:35

NO not too picky, Daniel. Those are good suggestions.
That is a backdrop in the sky. I knew something didn't quite feel right but it didn't occur to me that I was missing the gradient that SU automatically puts in there.

solo · 24 Oct 2008, 16:38

That would make a great model for rendering using Vue, keeping the buildings simple but adding a realistic terrain and solid growth trees. considering rendering at all?

Mark · 24 Oct 2008, 16:51

Well, Solo, I would love to render it, but I have Zero rendering experience so I still need to take the time to learn how....

Daniel · 24 Oct 2008, 17:05

Pete, since most of the terrain is hardscape, why not just delete the SU trees and import it into Vue as is, and just add solid growth trees? I admit I haven't figured out how to model custom terrains in Vue yet.

tinanne · 24 Oct 2008, 21:43

Mark, I just love all these images. Really great! All the suggestions given are only going to make your images even better!