Take a look at give some advice on how to improve this rende

[Anonymous]

Hi

I have rendered this in Lightworks and would like some advice on how to improve this render.
It will ultimately become a billboard on site. It is still missing some louvers on those balconies and i will eventually photoshop it into the site, so ignore the pavement and the road.

For example how would I be able to get an environment into the windows facing the street? I usually do this in photoshop manually but maybe there is an answer?

THanks a lot!!

[Karl Ottenstein]

patricprz wrote:
I have rendered this in Lightworks and would like some advice on how to improve this render.
It will ultimately become a billboard on site. It is still missing some louvers on those balconies and i will eventually photoshop it into the site, so ignore the pavement and the road.

For example how would I be able to get an environment into the windows facing the street? I usually do this in photoshop manually but maybe there is an answer?

Hi Patrick,

I just did a few quick things in Photoshop to change the tone of the image some, and using some of the Graphisoft trees.

My first reaction is that the original image seems both washed out and too cool in color. So, I applied warming photo filters and adjusted levels to correct. But, in LW you want to adjust this in terms of the color (warmth) of your sun object and the intensity and color of your sky object.

To get some environment into the windows you can either make them reflective and then create an image on a big billboard for them to reflect, or you can add a semitransparent image of clouds (or something) to a custom glass material (the pre-LW solution). Various other options, too.

I erased the cutouts of the kids ... not only no shadows, but it looks like they will get killed by a car coming or going! 😞

Moire effect on top of low flat roof structure to right was probably due to a strange texture or not having antialiasing set high enough. (Dwight?)

The image seems a bit sterile, not just because of the lack of window reflection, but because of the massive road and the black areas that look like asphalt. You said you'd insert in the site later, so that is probably where these things make more sense! 😉 Here, the polygonal cut to the driveway and the black area scream (to me) for smoothness, vegetation (planter beds/grass/etc), sculpture and life.

(Are the concrete bases supposed to cut through the wood slats on the bench in the foreground?)

I did a number of Dwight's tricks (be sure to sign up to buy his book!), such as adding noise to the parking lot and road, which were too smooth, darkening the foreground a little with gradient fills, and adding a small diffuse glow as a final post process step. I don't care for the trees that I threw into the background, but did that just to add some depth. The lack of horizon kills the image now ... but your site insertion will fix that. 😉

A big message from Dwight is that an image should tell a story. I'm not sure what story you want to tell with this view...?

Anyway, everything that I did in Photoshop can be done with adjustments to LW materials and lights except for the gradient fill and diffuse glow ... and this was just some quickie adjustments. 😉

Have fun with it,
Karl

[Karl Ottenstein]

Patric,

I just looked at your shadows again, and it seems that you're not using the sun object and the sky objects. Each of these adds a lot more realism to the images by giving soft edges to the shadows (as opposed to washed-out shadows).

Karl

[Anonymous]

OK, I will follow your instructions. Lets see what happens.....
Now i have included sky and sun object .....

As i said before I will have to wait until it stops raining and take some decent site photos to photoshop the building in to...

What is the difference between the Sun in the LW settings and the Sun object?

P

[Anonymous]

A little bit further down the road:

[Karl Ottenstein]

Much better! 🙂

I think you still have your lighting "odd". Be sure to read through the threads in this forum, particularly messages from Dwight. For the best quality lighting and shadows, you want to turn the sun, ambient and camera lights OFF in the LW rendering settings ... only have lamps enabled.

Check the colors and the number of lights in your sun and sky objects. Note that you must rebuild (ctrl-shift-R) the model before changes will be seen by LW. (A bug or a feature, I don't know.) The more lights in your sun object, the more gradation there will be in the shadow edges. The more lights (latitude/longitude) in the sky object (a dome of lights), the smoother your ambient will be.

The "sun" is a single directional light casting harsh shadows. The sun object (lamp) is a collection of lights, several degrees (a parameter) apart, providing the simulation of soft shadow edges. [Of course, other rendering packages create soft shadows in different ways... but this is what we have today in AC/LW.]

Back to your earlier question about window reflections ... I just experimented and learned something new. If you have a background image, or use the LW settings to create a background (gradient, algorithmic clouds and other options in the settings dialog), that background will reflect in the glass. It does so almost as if you are seeing through the glass (at whatever angle) to the background image.

Since your last images include a background image, I'm surprised to not see reflections in your glass... perhaps your glass isn't set to be reflective, or your have reflections turned off in the renderings settings?

Karl

[Anonymous]

That was great advice. THanks. I will get on it asap and post the result. Thanks again karl!

[Anonymous]

This is how far i got so far... again please comment if you want!

By the way Photoshop CS2 is incredible, the new Vanishpoint tool is incredible.

[Rakela Raul]

looking really good.....
personally i dont like 3d people..too fake i think....i rather put all that later with photoshop or piranesi....while in photoshop i use the perspective thing to straighten the walls..looking vg congrats

[Anonymous]

I agree with Rakela Raul, looking good. People do let it down. Also think the sun might be a bit strong, the buildings next door don't have strong shadows or even much contrast between front and side walls. Maybe the sky background is too clear for such a gloomy day? Did the photo you've used to superimpose on have enough sky?
BTW, too scared to put any of my work here, so well done.