Deck and Pool

remus

Perhaps a slightly darker/more weathered texture for the decking. A displacement map might look good on the roof, aslthough im not sure if vue supporst them.

Overall very nice though, the recipient could hardly not be pleased

EarthMover

Thanks guys. Exactly the kind of advice I was looking for.

sepo

Diffuse glow too strong, saturation too high.

EarthMover

Toned down the glow and added a water effect.

sepo

Looks much better.... Like the moving water....(squirls?)

Gus R

Adam, here's my two cents.

Change the sky background to a bright blue that somewhat matches the pool water. The pool water would indicate a clear sky with a blue that is nearly equal to the sky.
Remove the flock of egrets. They look a little busy.
Figures could be replaced. The man's legs seems to be fading and the woman looks a bit flat and showing too much leg.
The glass effect at the turret doesn't match the rest of the house. The lower sliding door is also showing a grass reflection. Might want to add one step at the bottom of this door.
Use a greener grass for the field in the background.

remus

For the NPR renders: hide the lines beneath the surface, spoils the illusion somewhat otherwise. A bit more colour wouldnt go amiss in the first one, either.

EarthMover

Thanks Gus. I agree with everything you said. Not sure what's doing with the reflections. They all have the same material applied.

Sepo - water is done with this software - http://www.nufsoft.com/naturestudio.php Took 5 minutes including .gif export

The client wanted to see some NPR WC styles, so this is what I came up with. Straight SU outputs and PS layering. Any opinions on these?

EarthMover

Thanks Remus. Good advice....I'll try and lighten the lines a bit.

sepo

Thanks for the heads up

Gus R

That last NPR is really nice.

Adam, for the reflection materials, check your face orientation. You know, toggle to monochrome and see if all faces are white, etc. If the glass has a thickness to it I think the faces still have to remain in the same order.

EarthMover

Tried my hand at another NPR render using a different angle of the same project. This time I used a quick Podium output with some water reflection as my base and did a bunch of hand work and layer masking in photoshop. I wanted the final result to be legible, but dirty at the same time. Any thoughts....advice?

Raw Podium output

Watercolor render