Looking for input

RoonyToony

Im the only drafter at a small company in Northern California. i work under a couple civil engineers that primarily specialize in commercial retail design, and petroleum engineering. Most of the drafting work that I have done over the past 5 years has been in AutoCAD doing floor plans, piping plans, site plans, details, etc. But because we are a small company, we take whatever work we can get, so the projects that I work on always vary. For the past year, i have been using sketchup for fun, and about 6 months ago we started to use it in the office for simple renderings or site/building elevations, and I really enjoy the different, more creative work. Sketchup has made it possible for us to get more planning work because we offer this service. the learning curve is great and it is now possible for me to create a nice looking model in a reasonable time frame.

A few of are clients have really taken a liking to my renderings and they have started to request more and more from us. Im posting this here because i would love any input ya'll have. Any criticism or suggestion on how to make my model look more professional. I havn't played around with renderings to much, but i think thats prob the next step. any recommendations on programs to use. Any good free ones?

Any input would be nice. please give it to me. you cant hurt my feelings.
Thanks

The SU file was to big to upload so here is the 3D warehouse link
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=47d215fe6c0ae7d3c8a04932b17782af

See the presentation tab, for the view that was presented to the client

remus

Thats some pretty good stuff youve got going there. From the looks of it you have most certainly got all the basics down.

In terms of stuff to improve on, id suggest adding loads of detail to foreground elements. For example rounding of the edges of the price display thing (your probably tutting in an annoyed fashion at that ) extruding a border around each of the prices would add a bit more visual interest.

As you mentioned i think rendering could add quite a lot to your scenes as well. A good place to start would be with podium ( http://www.suplugins.com/ .) Theres a trial version that lets you get the hang of the basics (but limits your renders to 500x500) and if you decide you like it you can upgrade to the full version for $195.

brodie

First of all I don't care what the building looks like if they'll give me gas for $3.08!

Beyond that...erm...let me nit pick at you with whatever comes to mind...

the grass texture in the front would be ok at a distance but being so close i'd find something a bit different. Maybe more realistic or maybe more fake but different. Real is easy, check out the components/materials forum sticky for places to go. cgtextures.com will probably have that. More fake might look better given that the other vegitation you've got isn't going for the realistic look. In that vein maybe a solid color desaturated a bit or an idea I've wanted to try is to use some prisma color markers to color some grass and scan that in and use it as a texture. Same as a solid color but it'd have some variation and more of a hand quality to it.
Look at some different skies. I've found a lot like the one you've got that come across a bit dull for some reason. See if you can find one (or make one) a bit brighter w/o too many big puffy clouds. This can be hard as people taking pictures of skies love big puffy clouds which can distract from buildings.
The pricing sign stands out a lot and probably shouldn't. I'm not sure what you're focus is but it probably isn't that. Part of the reason is that it's so close and it has so much detail but also it's the color. I'd edit the image to saturate the color more to fit in w/ the bright colors you've got. It looks to "real."
Camera position. If your focus is the building I think I'd reposition the camera and avoid the above problem altogether. I'd position the camera closer to the building a a bit to the left so that the hanging price sign is in the very upper lefthand corner of the screen (still edit the saturation btw). This gives you a bit of a perspective shot of the building and the sign shouldn't detract so much but you still have that hint telling you exactly what the building is. You could probably get away w/ changing the field of view from 35 to 40 too and be ok. Maybe see if you like 2 point perspective better or not too although I didn't see much difference.
Entourage. Play w/ different veggies, cars, and people. A lot of this is preference and the look you're going for. The default SU stuff isn't bad, it's just a particular look. Other stuff you might try... Try turning the cars and people into monotone colors (all black or all white) w/ transparency. This gives you a pretty cool rather professional look which comes across less cartoony. You can do the same w/ the trees as well (not sure it looks as good w/ the shrubs though). Check out the 3d warehouse for more shrubs and whatnot. There's lots of stuff on there.

just some thoughts. hope this helps some. In general, I'd say that you can definately do straight SU output as your final presentation but it takes some work. Make sure you're using the right tool for the right job. That means don't try using SU to go for realism. Instead emphasize the sketchiness. A 'rendering' doesn't have to look real to look good.

I'd also show this to some non SU people. I tend to be more critical of stuff that uses default SU stuff but that's partly a bias from having used SU for awhile now. To me it just screams "I used SketchUp!" but you've got to go to some other people outside of our little realm to get a more objective opinion on that sometimes.

-Brodie

Daniel

Nice model, Roony (or is it Mr. Toony?). Here's my two cents, for what it's worth.

Composition: The main subject of the presentation (usually a building) should be the focus, and all other elements playing a supporting role. In your presentation, the gas sign in the forground is the center of attention, with the convenience store, gas pumps, and background building playing second fiddle. If you have many different elements on one sight that you want to illustrate, you might try a series of images rather than trying to cram them all into one.

Entourage: I think it is very important to populate a design, especially a retail establishment; your client is going to spend a lot of money constructing it, and he doesn't want to see an empty store. Plus, it gives a sense of scale. You've got a few people, but I would add some more. Also, why are you populating the parking lot on the adjacent site - move them to this lot to illustrate it's parking, and to reduce the amount of visible asphalt (never a pretty sight). You might want to look at getting more detailed vehicles and maybe even 3d people components (the 2d silhouette people can be nice in some presentations though). If you find yourself using the same few tree and shrub components to populate an area, you can avoid the march-of-the-cloned-shrubbery affect by using the scale tool and flip command to give the appearance of variety.

If you don't already have one, get at the least a basic photo editor that will allow you to crop an image, so you are not limited to the SU image on your computer monitor.

Study other presentations/renderings, and not just SU or digital, and play around with different styles.

RoonyToony

Thanks for the input guys. I don't do a lot of renderings like this. I work as the only drafter for a small environmental consulting company that specializes in gas station design and environmental compliance. Most of the drafting i do is with civil 3d and basic autocad, but it is very nice to be able to use sketchup when needed. The only 3d rendering experience I had before sketchup was what little i did in high school using Autocad 2000. Because i don't do this stuff very often, and have never really considered myself very artistic, i have a lack of confidence when it comes to making something look good (for other people, i know what i like) and much appreciate the input from anyone else. these are all great ideas and i will make sure to implement them in my next rendering project.