Our company is building 3 identical houses with a very small footprint. Here’s what we came up with for the main floor layout.
Any critiques are welcomed.. always good to get fresh eyes on a project like this
Thanks!
Everything about the modeling itself seems about perfect (maybe slightly too perfect - like the perfectly oriented barstools or everything perfectly oriented and placed)! The only thing I would likely adjust would be the lighting and brightness of some of the very dark materials and the lights themselves. Enscape has a sharp contrast (in a bad way) at the very dark and light parts of colors so things like the chairs I would lighten slightly and give it a metal reflection (which I believe it may already have). It shouldn’t look like a silhouette. The greenery of the plant leaves under the sill should be lightened up and potentially other dark materials. The wood floor should probably have a slight bump effect of the grain just to add some depth. I would probably turn the lights above the island slightly stronger so I could see a hint of it on the island. I hate the glass of the stairs but again I believe it’s an enscape limitation. I would also play with having the sun enter the room and getting a nice render from that and play with a higher contrast from natural light and the other lights (again a little too perfect in overall lighting across areas that would be lighter/darker then others). The outside leaves look a bit fake as well (or maybe too blurry for being that close). That actually only stands out in the last picture. The earlier ones look fine/great. The window mullions seem a bit thin for real life. I love that carpet. How did you do that? I’m a fan of the overall composition and framing of the renders. I like the slight outline used on everything. It really helps show the white parts.
These are all nitpicks and these images seem more then client worthy and I would only consider them if you were looking to make it more photorealistic or looking to save them for portfolio use.
Separately as a point of taste and not realism, I’m a fan of the dark blue wall with the white trim. My personal office is a similar color.
Really appreciate your time to send some feedback jlo. Those are all really helpful items.. especially related to lighting. Modulus Render does a great turorial on escape detail lighting that I was trying to practice here so I think I was a little hyper focused on the artificial lighting and should have spent a bit more time adjusting sunlight and playing with my HDR.
Carpet is a model I got from the sketchup free 3d models Facebook page .. hit search then “rug” and its the 2nd result
Also, as you are playing with your lighting, you may also want to change the -colors- of your lighting particularly up and down the -kelvin scale- (warm to cool light colors). I keep this handy on me always:
Kelvin Light Colors
3000: 255 177 110
3500: 255 193 141
4000: 255 206 166
4500: 255 218 187
Those are the RGB values for those temperatures. I like the look of a very white/grey/bluish natural light (likely something around 6k to 10k temp) and oppose that with warm interior lights around 3k or 3500. It’s a common technique in a lot of CG renders especially on overcast grey renders. Your island lights in those gold shrouds are almost certainly going to be 3k or 3500 in real life.
Also, Enscape does ies light profiles. They are easy to apply and look fantastic. Use them every chance you get!
When I do enscape lights, I actually do it twice. I will light the glass of the bulb or filament by making that color emit (but these are never very powerful) and I will add a seperate enscape light appropriate for whatever I’m lighting which is to actually fill the area such as spot lights, spheres or other. I hate it when people only have the enscape light and and it looks like it’s coming from nowhere because the bulb or source is dark!
those kelvin light colors are super helpful, thanks! I did try some ies profiles but I haven’t used them enough to know which ones are best for pot lights, pendants and under cabinet fixtures.. will experiment a bit more with those.
I keep a folder for my ies profiles along with an image that reflects that profile as reference. check zip.
IES lights enscape.zip (17.7 MB)
there is also an .exe in there that technically shows the profiles in that app but you don’t really need it since you can reference the sample images and don’t care about the technicals. There are a few dupes. I, obviously, gathered them from multiple sources.
Thanks for sharing the resource.. the thumbnail pictures make it a lot easier to visualize the light pattern before importing the file. Appreciate it!
I tried to implement some of your suggestions with the floor, IES lights, adjusting some of the elements to be slightly less perfect and added a new 3d plant that reflected light better in the left side of the frame (previous was just a 2d png) etc
I think I still need to mess with the artificial lighting to get it to look more natural but I like the results so far
The first images were amazing already, but you can really see the slight differences in the last ones, where you applied some of the suggestions jlo shared. I went back and forth checking the floor and I’m amazed at how simple yet impactful that small change turned out to be.
I’m looking forward to seeing more images once you play around some more with lighting. Great job and thank you for sharing!
Thanks Tatina, Its really helpful having more experienced people in this community take the time to offer some pointers to help others (like myself) train our eyes to see those smaller details / changes that can make a big impact in the end.
So I kind of think you went 1 step forward, 2 steps back a bit but I’m not sure and hopefully others will chime in as well. Here is what I think:
The floor looks so good now. Tatiana is right! That contrasting detail that I like in that carpet now works so well with that floor. Excellent. Treat -all- materials with the depth and detail and consideration that you do with the floor. I even put a bump map on my painted walls of a sandpaper type bump texture in my renders. Love it. I love the lights in the island - everything about them. They are the centerpiece that my eyes get drawn to in most images. The subtle lights onto the island are probably about exactly where I would do it myself (maybe I might make even slightly less considering it’s daytime).
Here are my step backs (totally just my opinion so ignore of you don’t agree - it’s your art!)
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i don’t like the lights on the backsplash in the back corner. I’m not sure if it’s because they are too bright, too warm, both or other (I think it is probably the color more then anything) but they pull my eye off the center of the image and ruin - the composition - of the images. By themselves they are fine but in the composition, they hurt it. I want to barely notice them (which would probably be opposite of how I wanted it if it was a night render). Past that, the leaves in the plants are also now too bright or too saturated or both. They look plastic/fake and also are distracting to my eye instead of adding to the overall composition. Enscape always oversaturates so I’m always brightening dark objects, making darker -white objects and turning saturation down on materials
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I would take it a step further and get that plant, the succulent on the table and the green leaves on that painting to all be similar (less saturated and maybe darker (but maybe not as dark as the picture one) ) greens. They don’t (and likely shouldn’t) have to be exact but something that shows purposeful color coordination. Just make sure they don’t overall distract from the main dark blue walls or the kitchen either or the overall white of the space. It should enhance in it’s subtleness and not take over the focus of the room (unless that’s what you want).
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Your primary theme is white and blue. Everything else adds subtlety and depth.
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enscape also has a “foliage” setting which adds a slight transparency appropriate for leaves but it may be irrelevant because you don’t have the sun on.
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Do me a favor and turn some of the barstool backs slightly so none of the 4 are the same (or maybe not so subtly). Just slightly..maybe . I want to believe someone set it as a human and not a robot doing it perfectly.
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the wood on the chairs (and tray on island) is a similar color to the leaves (Again it’s a bit oversaturated but it plays kind of nice with the bronze/gold and those leaves - I’m not sure I would change it or likely I wouldnt desaturate it much). That’s interesting.
-I’m very mixed on the fern thing on the island tray. I like that it is the focal centerpiece but it being a very dead plant turns me off a bit as well. I do like that it’s color works well as a transition from the gold lights to the brown chairs. Theme good but way dead plant bad.
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the 3rd to last image has some fall trees in the background - can they be -more- red? that may be a nice contrast with the space… Or maybe the pot on the stove be more red where it’s currently a burnt sienna type color.
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I would try putting that plant by the sink on the other side of the window (towards back wall)(or maybe to the island edge) so I could see it’s green in the pictures play off the browns and you now start getting a green and brown theme going across left to right outside to inside all the way to other side. Again don’t let it overpower the white and blues which are your primary theme colors. Maybe that cutting board could be a a similar brown as well (and far lighter then it is now)!
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I would lighten the bronze handles of the cabinets to more match the bronze/gold center lights and I would -test- making them more reflective. Then you start to have your bronze/gold carry a theme throughout your space. The tripod light in the back corner by the painting should have the same/similar color bronze. I like that coffee pot thing being slightly more red then the handles and island lights so I think I would leave that. Since it’s so small it doesn’t overpower and is a nice variance.
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I love how that clock reflects your blue themes and and the top gold portion works great with those lights! I love that. It looks purposeful and planned. The gold in that clock may work being brought out more as well but I do think it’s already nice now.
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I would add some bump effect to the stair black metal of the stairs. Should it be flat shiny like that or should it be more like the fridge or something different? It’s too sharp and flat and reflective for my taste.
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I would test making the dark blue walls slightly lighter or more saturated if everything else was becoming too dominant.
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I would test making the black part of the island lights a middle color of the dark blue walls and the black of the countertops (make it part of the theme) or maybe not because it is good now.
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out of all this, I really only feel strongly about the plants being now too bright and green and the back wall and the corner lights being too strong or distracting. Everything else is far minor… And I overthink things. Maybe desaturate the boots a bit as well but again maybe that’s a similar brown to the chairs. You tell me
Separately, the forum mod has now added a section for work in progress images and the corresponding dialogue. You guys should start carrying these conversations over there and get some momentum in that place for these types of conversations otherwise it may die on the vine because it’s new. This thread really should be there.
I’M going to try to attach a dropbox link since I have a zip larger then enscapes max size. It’s about 70MB. it may be auto blocked - I dunno. I generally speaking keep random image collections of architecture, CG (that I like), art etc etc that I use as reference like a moodboard when I create renders. I gathered a bunch of images from my collection (none of my work included btw) and I believe maybe even some grabbed from these forums. A few are real images but most are CG. I clearly don’t collect enough real interior design photos. Feel free to reference them and I would look at them as my moodboard for your renders to factor things like lighting, color schemes, composition, details etc etc. It’s just food for thought to see things -you- like so you have ideas on how you can create now and in the future. I highly recommend you start collections of your own if you are going to create into the future! Your renders are certainly on par and better them some renders I keep in that collection so kudos on that! Take ideas or throw them away. It’s all up to you!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/g3kn8faqwah4ync/Sample_imagesr.zip?dl=0
As my colleague mentioned, it’s quite awesome to see the community work together to achieve such fantastic renderings!
Thus, I hope you don’t mind, I have moved this specific thread into our new category “Unfinished / Work In Progress Renderings”. This area is specifically for, as the name implies, WIP renderings that may benefit greatly from further tips and ideas provided by the community.
Once your renderings are final, feel free to also post them in the main showcase section itself again as well! 
jlo - lots of great suggestions in there. I thought you might say something about the “plastic plant” because I had a similar feeling but I already rendered it out. I knew I’d probably come back to do some more edits. Color has always been challenging for me so your pointers on how to better knit them together in a thoughtful cohesive way is really helpful. I appreciate the inspo folder you sent as well - I sort of just decide my color theme as I go so I like your idea of planning it out and looking at inspiration to plan/design and try to map that out.
I printed out your last comment on paper and highlighted a number of the details I want to work on so I don’t miss anything so I do plan on making those changes and posting.. again thanks for putting the time into those thoughtful responses.. I feel like I’ve learned a lot just from this thread
Demian - no worries about moving the post.. i didn’t intend on it being a work in progress but that’s what it’s morphed into, which I’m really happy about.
were gonna crowdsource renderings to get them to the winners of the week haha!
That fur texture is spot on, how did you achieve that? AO Map?