Exterior Night Render

[Chadwick]

Ok, so here is an exterior night rendering I did (with a little post process) which I think looks alright. Definitely could use some work. But what I am trying to do is give it a real sketchy feel. It seems rather difficult to do this when transparency exists in the rendering. Sketch lines will not follow contours 'inside' of the model. This is also a problem with Piranesi as it does not recognize when an object is transparent or not (I don't know how it could).

So, that being said, does anyone have any suggestions on how to achieve a sketchy look for an exterior night rendering?


I'll post another image after this one to show a day time rendering of what I'm looking for.

[Chadwick]

Here's the sketchy image....

[Dwight]

Its a photoshop trick.

I stole it from Gregory Georges book "50 Fast Photoshop CS Techniques."

It uses the Smart Blur filter to overlay colored lines on a blurred rendering.

Attached is my first go-around with your image.

It is also elaborately described with many other photoshop treatments on pages 160 - 177 of my book - the article called "PhotoDream."

Also: no photographer ever shoots a building in total darkness. He uses the magic light just after sunset to define the sky.

[Anonymous]

Yup, Photoshop is the right tool here. I get some nice results doing this:
1. rednder night scene
2. render sketch scene (Koh-I-Nor, thin black lines, best antialiasing)
3. in PS: remove white background from sketch, invert line colours from black to white (you can do that also via sketch settings - black background, white lines)
4. overlay sketch on render, adjust sketch transparency to match your needs, a bit of blur and voila.
5. you may also try to give your sketch lines blue tint.

Cheers

[Chadwick]

tigr wrote:
2. render sketch scene (Koh-I-Nor, thin black lines, best antialiasing)
3. in PS: remove white background from sketch, invert line colours from black to white (you can do that also via sketch settings - black background, white lines)
4. overlay sketch on render, adjust sketch transparency to match your needs, a bit of blur and voila.

I've tried this and the problem seems to be that I want to be able to see through the windows in the night rendering. The sketch render engine cannot create a sketch showing the lines on the other side of transparent objects (windows).


Interesting side note though, you can create an animation rendered in sketch mode. This was one of the first things I tried in Archicad and it looked like the music video from the 80's band Ah-ha.

[Anonymous]

The sketch render engine cannot create a sketch showing the lines on the other side of transparent objects (windows).

Sure it can, look at the attached sketch - it is some cabinetry with glass doors and you can see conturs of shelf behind (of course hatch lines is a different story).

Interesting side note though, you can create an animation rendered in sketch mode. This was one of the first things I tried in Archicad and it looked like the music video from the 80's band Ah-ha.

Sounds great, never thought about it, thanks for pointing this out.

[Chadwick]

I just wanted to say thanks for the advice and input. I got an image that I am really satisfied with thanks to your help. I'd post it but its got client info on it and I guess I have to keep that under my hat for now...

[Dwight]

You COULD just put black bars over the sign, like those men's magazines did over the eyes of the perpetrators back in the fifties.

[Chadwick]

I would but the sign is along that interior blue hallway and it would kind of ruin the shot... if you really, REALLY want me to though, I'll do ti.

[Dwight]

Okay. Or maybe you could flip it, then. No one would figure THAT out.