Rambler

[glorybound]

This one was hard with noise to contend with. These have been fast turnarounds, so I wish I had more time. The close-ups were just my fun and the client didn't get them; they were quick 3-minute renders.

[andybot_cg]

I like the last one, the third image has too much empty floor space in the foreground. I can just hear the client asking to get everything in the image. With that little amount of daylight opening, I find it best to use Vray sky instead of HDRI to get the noise to clear quickly.

[glorybound]

Yes, the client picked the cameras. I have learned to leave that alone. The camera they pick is the camera that they want. I can move it slightly from the original and they tell me to put it back. Using HDRI's are nice and I wish that they would work better. Using the V-Ray Sky/Sun is nice, but you don't get the subtle colors and then you have to mess with things out the windows, which I have yet to perfect.

[andybot_cg]

For the reflections/ background, I've been combining HDRI and sky - where the lighting is from the sky and disabled in HDRI, and vice versa for the reflections.

[glorybound]

I will try that. Do you use two domes?

[glorybound]

Warmed up. Still not happy, at all, compared to other things I see on the web. These are not personal projects, so I don't have control over everything, but I am falling short here. What can I do to improve things?

Do you guys add warmth to your lights, or do you leave everything white and do a color balance in post? I am having a hard time with color. You want whites to be white, but you want warmth, too.

[andybot_cg]

I think the issue with your last images is that the color cast is too even. The daylighting should be blue-ish, and the lighting yellowish.

I will try that. Do you use two domes?

Yes, one with skylight, invisible and diffuse only enabled. 2nd with HDRI and set to visible, with reflection & specular only.

[glorybound]

I think the issue with your last images is that the color cast is too even. The daylighting should be blue-ish, and the lighting yellowish.



Yes, one with skylight, invisible and diffuse only enabled. 2nd with HDRI and set to visible, with reflection & specular only.

I'll give it a try, thanks.

[glorybound]

No sun, correct? Dome with HDRI (visible, reflection and specular). The other dome is just a skylight (invisible and diffused).

[andybot_cg]

No sun, correct? Dome with HDRI (visible, reflection and specular). The other dome is just a skylight (invisible and diffused).

Incorrect, add sun. Dome is just for sky GI.

[glorybound]

Okay, makes sense.

[glorybound]

Portals or no portals?

[hoppergrass]

probably pushed it too far into the reds/magents to be pleasing.

I find colour balancing in Vray to be tricky at best so I tend to keep light colours more neutral, possibly leaning more to yellow/orange in warmth and final balancing in PS. I think the key is to keep the colours subtle in the render and then boost them in PS. It might seem a bit counter-intuitive but a bit of desaturation at the end, taking a bit of "bite" out of the colours helps too.

One of the classic colour theory tools is to balance warm shadows with cool highlights or vise versa warm highlights with cool shadows.

[glorybound]

I do blue up shadows and warm up highlights, but mainly in exteriors. I am still not like the results; something just isn't working.

[hoppergrass]

you have an excellent foundation, you know the tools and techniques and established a strong pipeline, the next step is to work on the artistry/craft to bring it all together, and that is probably the hardest step of them all, to become a story teller.

Asking yourself, "what is the story I telling?", from there it will be clearer as to what you need to do.