Hi there,

Half a day?! That's pretty damn impressive.

There is still room for improvement, but I don't think anyone can complain about the quality when your turnaround time is measured in hours rather than days.

I think it's great you can work that fast. The quickest turnaround I can manage for an image like this one would be 24 hours and that's only if I'm glued to the chair with no breaks in between. I guess that's one reason why I'm not doing well as a freelancer.

Did you use Podium? I think I recognise some of the elements that you used in the scene.

Regards,

Ken.

Hi Notareal,

Thanks for the tips.

Ken.

Hi John,

Don't worry about being nit-picky. Nit-pick to your heart's content as this is the type of critique I'm looking for. I'm thinking of going freelance so any tips anyone can give me can only help me perform better. Plus it prepares me for future nit-picky clients .

I actually updated the image before you posted your message. It's still missing the small details that you suggested, but I've fixed the windows and added curtains behind them. Hopefully you'll agree it looks better now.

Here's the image:

I posted this on the SU Podium forums and they said some of the same things you did. I guess it's times like these I realise how much I still have left to learn about rendering.

I'll be back with a new update some time in the (hopefully) near future.

Regards,

Ken.

Nice.

The only criticism I have is that in the first rendered photomontage image, the background scene seems to be set in cloudy weather, so your model should be lit accordingly.

The second one is flawless.

A pleasure.

Forgot to mention that you need a better material for the tiles.

Keep up the good work!

Hi John.

I guess probably because the second image looks a bit flat and lighting is blown out compared to the first.

I'm impressed with Thea so far, though. The ability to adjust things on the fly as it renders is also another plus.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback.

Cheers, John.

I think the windows just need to reflect something as well. At the moment, it's just reflecting the model space/physical sky in Sketchup.

But aside from that, I think you're right. They do look like mirrors at the moment. I'll tone the reflections down and add a bit more transparency. Maybe add a few curtains as well...

Thanks.

After receiving some helpful feedback from one or two posters on here (thanks, guys), I decided to redo the residential exterior I put up on the gallery some days ago.

Heres the link to the original: http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=51280

The main criticism I received was that the rendering was too flat, so I decided to see if I can do anything to make it less so.

Gone are the 2D trees which I felt partly contributed to the overall flatness of the image. In their place are some 3D trees and plants from Podium's paid browser content.

As well, I made the brick and slate roof tile materials more bumpy (went nuts with it, in fact) and put it through Podium.

Whole thing rendered quicker than I expected at 47 minutes on QMC settings, despite containing so many 3D trees and plants.

Decided I was going to make a real effort with GIMP and so I put in a sky, some background trees and generally messed around with the main render until I got something I was satisfied with.

Result?

It's still not finished though. The windows definitely need some reflections (clouds, houses, that sort of thing) and I might want to use something that simulates real grass. I just wanted to post this here first to hopefully get some more feedback on it so I can improve it even further before putting it up on the main gallery.

Critiques welcome as always.

Thanks, Bryan!

I am learning myself, but I'll have a go.

First of all, you should consider replacing the background outside the window. The quality of the background image you used isn't the best. I can see that you've used sunlight in your render, so the background outside should also be set in sunny weather. If it already is, consider brightening the image up a bit more.

As you say, you should fill it up a bit more with equipment like kettles, microwaves, fruit baskets and whatever else you would find in a kitchen. It looks a bit empty at the moment.

The tables and chairs look a bit small. A good starting point for the height of the table would be around 750mm.

And finally, if you are going to have sunlight coming through the window, I think it needs to be accentuated more than the interior lighting. Given the windows are quite large, there's bound to be a lot of ambient lighting from outside bouncing into and around the room.

Just a few of my thoughts. Hope it helps.

I decided to try out Thea and this is what I've managed to achieve so far in my first few tries.

I've included both the raw render and one that was adjusted in GIMP. I'm aware it's a bit overblown in the second pic near the window (not to mention it lacks a background image), but aside from that, I would appreciate any comments and critiques on these renderings.

As you can see, I'm using the trial version. I'm just trying out different renderers to see which one is suitable for me. I am thinking of doing freelance visualisation full time and I'm not sure Podium is the long term answer.

Hi Byran,

It must be the 2D trees. They were the only trees I had available at the time. When time allows, I will probably go back and redo the image and add some 3D trees and plants, maybe model a new fence to go with it.

Actually, I can't take credit for the design of the Biergarten. All I did was help to render it. Here are the rest of the renderings for the project:

Hi Chris,

Thanks for your comments. They were helpful and it is certainly something I can take into my next project.

Given the choice, I would have used a 3D model/fur plugin for the grass instead of a bitmap, but the trees were a pain to render as it is and I was afraid that adding even more polygons will increase the rendering time even more.

I always felt that there was something missing from the second pic, but could never really put my finger on it.

Thanks for your feedback!

Hi all,

I would like a critique on some of these renderings I've done. I did the house in my spare time and the Biergarten for a client in America. The client loved the rendering, but I would like someone who is a bit more qualified to give me their opinion.

I didn't actually do much (if any) modelling in Sketchup. Most/all of it was done in CAD and then imported over to Sketchup where I added materials, textures, etc. The end result was rendered using SU Podium.

I didn't do any GIMP post processing on the house other than sharpen the contrast a bit. For the Biergarten, I adjusted the colour balance to make it less blue, desaturated it slightly and upped the contrast.

Thanks for any feedback.