Some comments please

gude

Hello everybody,

I made a rendering with sketchup and kerkythea for a friend and came here to hear some comments to make it better and more realistic,

Thank you.

ledisnomad

Hey, gude.

Nice start. I have three suggestions:

Details: The details of a rendering make all the difference. For example, in your second image, the red-brown siding doesn't turn the corner, but just ends. It would be more convincing if it showed some thickness, like in your first image. Similarly, the underside of your balconies need a ceiling with and edge that isn't razor sharp. In a rendering like this, a quick offset/push-pull on that underside could make a huge difference to show a little drip edge and ceiling.
Textures: Some of your textures are nice, like the red-brown siding. The sidewalk and white siding materials could use some work. I'd suggest for the two sidewalk materials to go a little more abstract/low-contrast. As for the white siding, you should experiment with a solid color and a bump map. (I never use pure white, which it looks like you may have used. My brightest white is 85% gray.)
People and trees: There was a thread a little while ago about adding people and trees and the general concensus was Photoshop 'em in. I find your people, trees, and cars a little distracting because they are not realistic. Just focus on the building for the rendering and add the people and cars in Photoshop. (Although, I've had pretty good luck with some SketchUp face-me people from the warehouse that have photoreal textures.)

Good luck! As I said, these are a very good start.

honoluludesktop

Don't know kerky, but to begin with:

Use a image of a real sky in the background.
Use people from photo images.
Bump your textures.

gude

Thank you!
Great tips so far,

I was trying to add people, trees and cars in gimp but how could i know their alignment angle in 3d space and how exactly i place them to similar location in different renders,

please tell me if you have a link of a tutorial on adding entrounage to render in gimp/ps
and one more thing what if i wanted to insert a real photo of the site as background is it possible just in sketchup?

honoluludesktop

Before you pp, place a sky in SU by Watermarks, use the same image in your render. You have to make your own or buy them, but here is a photo 2d face me image that you can use.

gude

Its not the Exact location but, Just to try i did it with gimp to have this,
I used artlantis to inset to site,

I'm now trying it with watermark in sketchup if i can have the same.

Thank you,

ledisnomad

The render placement in the photograph looks nice. You're right, it's not perfect but it's nicely convincing until you look at it closely.

As for a background sky image, you can place a sky image in Kerkythea, which I think would be the easiest and most accurate way of doing it. If you have trouble doing it, try the Kerkythea forum and some of the getting started documents there. They are very helpful.

To your point about placing people and cars, what I like to do is put them in my SketchUp model all on a separate layer. When I render, I turn off that layer. Then in Photoshop (Gimp would work, too) I open the render and place an export of my SketchUp model (same view, same size) on top so I have a reference for the size and location of people, cars, trees, etc. Then placing photo people is much more accurate and quick.

gude

@honoluludesktop
I just did it using watermark it so easy and fits perfect using same image as background in kt. thanks for the link of cutout resource.

@ladisnomad
Great technique, I haven't ever thought about using separate layer ... wow !

the only thing i'm missing in kt is controlling the brightness of background images, but i think i can put that in gimp.

Thank a lot Guys,

honoluludesktop

I typically blur, and lighten the background image before creating the watermark or render.