Exterior with direct sun and artificial lighting

[saturn]

Hey guys,

I've been working on an exterior and the client wants both sun lighting, blue sky and artificial lighting on the interior (to lighten the glass) and lighting to highlight points of interest of the buildings. The glass however is a mirror like green typical of office buildings. I am having a really hard time with this and would love it if any of you share your techniques in doing this? I have been unsuccessful at making the interior look decent while keeping the same character on the exterior.

Attached is a sample rendering. Please pay no attention to the sky as it has changed to blue (image to follow soon)

Thanks,

[saturn]

Updated Image.

[saturn]

Updated image.

[Jonferimonic]

It seems you need to nail your sky first. The last image is very flat and lifeless and lacks the nice contrast of the first image. None of the 3 skies you've used are any good. Im guessing they're straight out of max?.
Check these sites out for better BGs:
http://www.cgtextures.com/
http://mayang.com/textures/ - but as i mentioned in another thread this link is down right now.
Alternatively, get yourself out on a sunny day with a decent digi cam.
Its hard balancing a daytime image out between showing a lit interior and good reflections, as the two sometimes work against each other but if you made an alpha channel for the glass it would be much easier to get the look you need in post.

[saturn]

You are absolutely right, the sky will have to be done in post.

I will take a look at doing most of the special effects like the in post.

Any other tips on this image is very appreciated.

[saturn]

Updated image. This is the proof for the client. Very low render settings and missing much entourage but overall this is it.

[VikrantBatra]

RedBug

Hello There

Just a few suggestions from my side. Well I totally agree that you need a good contrast in the scene for it to look good. One thing which you can do is that you can lower down the reflections of the glass and make it a bit more see through and then you can pump up the lighting for the interiors.

Now once you have good effect then you can always render a separate layer of highly refective glss and composite it in AE/PS for video/still and reduce its opacity in there on top of the Background layers.

In the end you can give it a bit of bloom which will make your image shine like a new coin.

Best of luck,
Vik.

[DrJan]

I think it's a good start, but I should change the direction of the sun. Right now the sun is coming from the right and almost the same side as your camera. Try to let it come from the left side. When you can't do that due to a realistic light situation, I'd move the camera to the other side so you get more contrast between the front and side facades.

[saturn]

Hey guys, thanks for the feedback. For the next pass I am all over rendering the highly reflective pass and overlaying it. Unfortunately, I am stuck with the camera view and sun angle due to location and time of day. The client has specific request and however I agree with you DrJan.

Any other suggestions are very welcome.

Thanks,