It's definitely the eyes... they kinda look like painted caps. It comes down to subsurface light scattering or something, right? (I'm pretending I know what I'm talking about). Looking past that, the rest looks amazing.

Wow, good find.

Next step - to find a way of converting *.gsm and *.3ds files into sketchup files!

Stevebo, fantastic project. I'm loving the cleanliness of the layouts (I hate the super crowded grad boards).

Can you talk much about the perforated walls? I've seen the same thing done with concrete, but the builders claimed it was prohibitively expensive. In your wall, do you expect much heat loss?

I'm really curious about your use of layers and components. I try something new every time, and always find I'm flying by the skin of my teeth by the end. ...and that's just to create renders. You obviously need to keep things as neat as possible. Could you tell us about your layer and component strategy, if possible?

Perhaps angle the sides of the tiles? They might be too "sharp".

Health issues knocked me down, but I'm back for another try. The project itself was scrapped, but I'll still trying to learn something here.
On top of that, I think I'm going to continue learning the basics of 3d modeling and presentation before switching to a more powerful renderer.

If you give a mouse a cookie...

@Daniel:
Good to hear someone criticizing the textures. I wasn't hearing anything about them from the boss and coworkers, but now I know to find something better
I'm loving the idea of drapes and blinds behind the window. Really love it. It'll especially help hide the fact that this model is just a "shell". Thanks!

@mitcorb:
Would a small chamfer on the walls make a difference? How about on the wood?
When you say transition from ground to construction, are you referring to the flat concrete pad? For the most part, everything else is shrouded in grass.

@solo:
Correct on both counts. Poster sized images (how big?? Nobody tells me nuthin!), and as photoreal as possible. ...I've pretty well been asked to raise my game, ASAP. I like the challenge, but I think Podium can only go so far.

What do you folks find speeds up your modeling time the most? Would I be correct in assuming it's having useful components ready and at hand?

I've got a second image attached... it's a shit test render, but it's helping me see what a difference getting rid of the "floating in space" look makes. I... still need to implement all the changes everyone's suggested. If it weren't for all the work around here, I could get some work done!

You're right, that would make a world of difference.
I have three models to build (front and back), so I'll put them side by side for the next set of renders.
I suppose I should find some better Stucco textures, too. How does everyone else deal with the repeating textures issue? Find a site that makes giant textures, or build your own textures in photoshop?

Hey folks,
I'm working at an Architectural firm, where the boss has me creating high resolution renders for our client. The deadline seems flexible, so I'm hoping for some criticism.
I've got sketchup7 and Podium V2 at my disposal, as well as Photoshop (the source of the grass).
So what do you think? Be as brutal as you need to.

Unclebim, you've saved the day. Thanks a lot
I had checked the thread with the gigantic list of webpages with textures, but couldn't for the life of me find this very specific texture.
Things are looking up!

Loving the isometric "dollhouse" view.

Hey folks,
I'm looking for a stone veneer somewhat like this:
http://s57.photobucket.com/albums/g233/Icedkasz/?action=view&current=1190931521_countryrubbleaspen.jpg

Sketchup only has a low quality texture to offer. Can anyone help out?
http://s57.photobucket.com/albums/g233/Icedkasz/?action=view&current=model3.png

Needs more easter eggs!

Hey forum dwellers,

My boss recently asked me to create a .gif of our company logo, altered to look like a vegas sign, spinning atop a metal structure. Optimally I'd like to make this look photo-realistic. Unfortunately, Sketchup Podium doesn't allow for video. Can anyone help me out?

If you've worked with rendering gaudy neon lights, I'd love to hear about that too

Thanks!

Very cool, I love that canvas look. Do you have a renderer for that, or do you run it through photoshop for the effect?

A shadow cast by a building onto a 2d facing-forward tree is going to receive a boxy shadow across its whole face, trunk branches leaves and all. It would look incredibly fake and out of place. If anything, this design choice was probably intentional.

Assuming you're creating 2D media only (and not video), and want these shadows, explode your objects before printing the scene. Otherwise, someone might be able to point out a ruby script for you.

Upon a second look, that is indeed pretty weird.
What file format is the texture for the grey grass? Maybe switching THAT to another format will work?
I'm just shooting in the dark, though

Why think small? Soon google will have it's own cloud computing (wherein you use their servers not only for storage, but for processing). One could potentially log into google.com/sketchup, enter their password (with attached payed accounts), and run sketchup from any old crap computer, macbook or smartphone, since it would just be streaming video.
Google could take it one step further, and allow multiple people to access the same file at the same time. Once everybody's done, send it off to google's proprietary renderer, walk away, and every receives a .png in their email within an hour or two.

Sorry if that gets things too far off topic... a dumbed down online version of sketchup would be fantastic, if only for showing clients / friends / family what you're working on.

I seem to recall seeing forum threads covering this issue months ago, but I can't seem to find them now!

So I've got these burn edges on my render when I use Sketchup Podium V2. The columns, beams, and ceiling are all individual components. I used to use photoshop to clean up whatever burns showed up, but I've gotta find out what's causing this.