Ridge Cabin

[OPEN_RANGE]

A project I worked on about 12 years ago has come back to life. I originally did 3 different material/finishes variations of two interior views. Now I am doing a few exteriors and substantially revising the previously completed interiors.

The project is just beneath a mountain ridge crest at about 11,000'. Access year round by gondola. Ski in/out. I will be showing some winter views.

Always keen for any suggestions for improvements.

[OPEN_RANGE]

A different sky for the dusk version and a daylight version. Getting ready to send to client and then start on interiors.

[glorybound]

Nice! For me, the camera angles you use are hurting things; they seem very technical. I would lower the camera to more of an eye level, the way a person would actually see the house. I appreciate how much work you put into your work, keep it up!

[OPEN_RANGE]

Thank you for your review Bobby. It's very helpful to me to get professional feedback from you and others on this forum.

I usually do try to get an eye level from the ground. For this one the house is on a steep slope and being down at ground level looking up at it makes it appear to be "looming" over the viewer. There is one of these cabins that has been built and the photos they have from the ground level are not very comforting to look at. Anyway, that's my justification for this one.

An update of the daytime is here, I improved the reflections in the windows. The mountains were too big in the previous.

[glorybound]

I bet the views are breathtaking. I would lighten the sky in the background.

[OPEN_RANGE]

Yes the views are fantastic. I will be showing them thru the windows in the interiors and even better in two shots that simulate the views from standing on the decks and looking out towards the mountains. Planning winter for those to reinforce the ski in/out aspect.

I am getting feedback from client so some required changes will be made and an update of this exterior will follow as soon as I get some clear direction. I will lighten the background sky a bit when for the next pass.

Thanks!

[OPEN_RANGE]

Here is the first of two interior views. The second interior will be from the corner of the dining room looking towards kitchen/Living. That will follow soon. I'm waiting on feedback from this one before rendering out the next one. Also have some updated exterior day/dusk. They are not much changed, just revised a bit per client direction.

always keen to hear any suggestions for improvement and etc.

[fixeighted]

For me this lacks depth I'm afraid. All the colours being so similar flattens the image and exacerbates the lack of contrast.
This could probably be helped a lot by moving the sun to match the background image sun direction, which will have it come through the big left window
and hit that wall. As it is it appears there's too much light coming from the behind the camera, if you see what I mean.

As it is there seems to be no grounding of the objects within the room, so you could e.g. move the cupboards and other stuff slightly off the floor, thus creating contact shadows there.
The bright highlights on the granite look a little distracting but that may be rectified by the sun movement.
Also the wood panelling with the white lines in between looks strange - not sure whether it's meant to be like that or not.

I guess you have no choice about all that really knotty wood but for me it's just too much

Anyway I hope that's constructive and will watch for an update

[OPEN_RANGE]

Hi fixeighted and thanks for your review. You are correct that I do not have control of the colors, wood tones and etc being used. That is all dictated by the client/developer or more accurately by his wife.

I may try moving the sun, I think I experimented with that and found this to be what looked best but I will re-visit that. It does not match the background but that is not a deal breaker for me or the client. Funny, I had the bottom of cabinet kick spaces slightly above the floor and moved them down to meet it. Maybe I will raise them back up.

The wood paneling was a popular treatment here. Not so much anymore but these clients are old school and using it. It is semi rough hewn wood planks/log slabs with chinking in between. It's supposed to suggest, among other things, that element of the house was built at a separate time out of logs.

I do have a fill light behind the camera. Trying to match how a professional real estate photographer would light this and use blended exposures etc to come up with a real estate sales photo, which is what this will be used for. They strive to get everything evenly lit and also never have blown out/over exposed backgrounds through the windows. Views are a big selling point.

Client direction is make floor lighter, make sink more darker tan/beige, make chinking tan/beige (they like everything brown<g>). So that will be in the update for sure.

Thanks again for your input, all good points, much appreciated!

[Syclone1]

Nice work on these renders! I don't have much to comment apart from what has been said except in the original post with the night render, it looks very strange to me that none of the glass is reflecting anything looking like its been removed. I might be tempted to turn down your back light behind the camera a bit, its making the edges of the counter top glow too much. these are all just personal opinions though, the client is the one that matters the most

cheers,
-dave

[OPEN_RANGE]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for your comments, helpful as always. I have turned the backlight in the interior down 2/3. You will see the effect when I post the next update. It helped.

Regarding the exterior dusk window reflections - I struggled with that. The glass is there but I essentially turned the reflections down all the way. The reason for that is the PG HDRI I'm using has the lower half all black and that is causing a line 1about /4 or so above the bottom of upper windows. Above that line the reflections are visible/controllable. Below that line the reflections don't appear, or actually it's reflecting the black lower 1/2 of the HDRI. Frustrating. I don't want to switch to a different HDRI at this stage of the game. I tried but could not sort out how to mitigate that.

[OPEN_RANGE]

Here is an updated view#1 and also view #2. Any comments or suggestions appreciated as always.

[Syclone1]

I hear you on the HDRI image. all of my favourite ones I use are only half dome and the bottom is black which can be a pain sometimes. I do have a couple ideas for that as well but it is purely up to you

The new interiors are looking better. I'm still not a fan of the back light on the centre island in the first image but again its a personal thing.

Cheers,
-dave

[OPEN_RANGE]

Thank you Dave. some updates are below.

For the exterior dusk I set up the reflections I had for day time and then turned down the illumination of them. They are sort of visible in the updates below. probably cold be a bit stronger, but I think I have to stop working on this one for now. The lower windows do not reflect anything, as far as I can tell, in the day or dusk versions. I think it's due to the camera angle. The material and etc is the same for all the window glass.

Updated exteriors with changes per client. I made some minor tweaks to the interiors and posted them as well.

I have two more renderings to do for this. They will be as if standing on outside decks, looking at mountains in distance. I will add them to this topic when completed.

[OPEN_RANGE]

for fun - here are the two original renderings I did for this project in 2008. I did three different material packages. This is the Cherry. Also did Mahogany and Knotty Alder (which is what the new ones use). I thought they were OK at the time. now.... well not so much.

Also I put a photo of myself skiing some deep pow in the TV screen <g>