How Can i make this picture look more realistic?

[Aussie John]

Hi nik, My opinions
1)i think you have placed too much emphasis on the sky and as a result the image looks bottom heavy. Maybe a lower view angle might look more natural.
2)Some animation might be nice ( people cars to give scale)
3)the sun in the sky tends to draw they eye away from the building doesnt coincide with the general shadow direction.
4) the light is very cold and uninviting
I do wonder why you havent set the sun direction from top right to give some shadow articulation to the terrace side. This afterall appears to be the most interesting of the elevations

is it possible to get a real picture of the site to place into the background?

[Dwight]

It is a good thing you are wearing shades because I see you going to Hollywood with such A STORY!

So if you want movie lighting: CHEAT! Put big panels in the sky to cast shadows on your wolf-filled forest. Of course, in the new milennium, Little Red Riding Hood has a happier, less violent ending. When the wolf meets Little Red Riding Hood, she thinks "Hmm, a talking wolf. I wonder if he needs an agent."

Big Ball of light: They are actually using just that in my neighborhood - lot of film and TV here - have to get used to gangs with guns seen down laneways - A big white helium balloon becomes a sun, filled with light and easily tethered. Fantastic. So lose the sun and make your own....

With LightWorks, a variety of data maps can be overlapped and sized differently from one another so grass could look blotchy. Things get way better with LightWorks [tm].

Start making 3D trees with a 3D tree maker. Onyx has variety - [bring me a] shrubbery, too.

I often think of the story that you tell is the evening sun coming out after a storm - what would that sky look like?

[Dwight]

Onyx Tree Pro. Go look it up you lazy brat. Who picks up your socks, already? Just look at that mess in your room! Who do you think I am, your mother?

Pig Panels?
Big panels. Roofs [rooves?] walls. slabs. ArchiCAD pig objects. Whatever.

Big enough to cast shadows big enough to cover a forest. Geez. You'd have to find out for yourself, now wouldn't you?

Artists are good problem solvers. Get experimenting. Force those programs to give you your vision like I did. I had Photoshop crying and threatening to go home to its mother.
I never pick up my socks.

[Dwight]

Yes.MMmmmm.

[Karl Ottenstein]

wr1nkles wrote:
i am open to ANY comments.

You've got a story and a new viewpoint now ... but just one comment on the original image that I don't think anyone else mentioned: take a look at your viewpoint there and the sky reflection in the glass. Not much chance that sky would be reflected at that angle ... maybe a little in front if the house was on the edge of a cliff, but certainly not in the shaded area at right.

If you do the transparent-texture-to-fake-reflection trick, keep in mind that you can use different textures for different faces of the house ... so you can have several different glass materials, each with their own fake-o reflection texture. Of course, when you receive 9, you can leave these tricks behind. 😉

Good luck with your work.

Karl

PS You posted this to the "Working in ArchiCAD" forum ... next time (hopefully we'll see your work evolve), please post to the "Presentation - Rendering and Multimedia" forum. 😉
[Edit: OK, thank you, Djordje! This entire thread has been moved by moderator magic! 😉 ]

[Dwight]

Most improvement in illustration comes from the artist critically looking at his own work. Just like Karl noticed the impossible glass behavior - but who knows how physics behave in YOUR universe [is 'physics' plural? I know that my physique is singular...] - it doesn't take an expert to see what's weak in an image. You can do it too. [Hey, a deprecating joke at your expense. I'm so good.] Just look at the thing and make a list of what bothers you. Make the list get short.

A short note on obsession: My friend the model builder on Granville Island is Swiss. He has higher standards than the local architects. It is easy to get a job there. He gives very specific tasks the first day and fires you by noon if you don't have the jam to build models: intrinsic delight in accurate things made tiny.

An illustrator wants it to sing and that takes time and persistence. I render things ten times at least. Once they are "finished." What makes an illustration excellent is in knowing that once you are 80 percent finished, you are only 20 percent done. The rest is tweaking and problem solving. Like the model builder, if that isn't a delight for you, give up now.

Manic right now - look for dip by Friday.

[Dwight]

We keep promising a technical solution-more-or-less with the LightWorks aspect, but to learn Photoshop, the books by popular American writer Scott Kelby, especially his "Down-and-Dirty" series, are wonderful and funny.

Stop in for a free hour next time you are in Vancouver and I'll show you the ropes. That goes for anybody. [Anybody with as much enthusiasm as this guy, anyhow.]

[Dwight]

Krikey.

Canada equals wild meat.

We also have cariboo - tastier.

And muktuk. Dried boiled smoked beluga whale meat fried in its own fat.

Bring some frozen kangaroo, lad, we don't have any of that.