Hello,
This is a laneway house for a project I’m working on. Just posting it to get some feedback as I feel I’ve just been doing circles! Not much has been done in post, just little adjustments here and there. I really need to spend more time in post as I struggle with it.
Anyway, appreciate any and all advice!
Well, the architecture is a little odd, though maybe that is the architect’s issue.
Is the door on the other side? It’s a strange view of the unit to focus on imo.
Detail is everything, so any additions will improve it, such as brackets for the downpipe and a drain perhaps.
You have gaps in the landscaping, noticeably on the left, so they can be finished off with something simple.
The grass needs to be geometry these days I think, and is simple to do with scattered Cosmos assets or other methods.
Similarly with the soil area, which could be geometry or a better displaced texture.
The trees to the left foreground look like they’re comped and seem too ‘cutout’, as does the right side edge of the building, which appears blurred with DOF, though sharp on the corners.
Typically, with archviz images, you are better off using a perspective corrected camera so that the verticals are straight. That’s an easy fix.
Do as little post work as possible and so as much as you can in the scene itself and with VFB corrections 
Haha! The Architecture / Design is nice and the one image I’ve posted does not represent that… it represents odd material placement! However, when it’s viewed in the sequence of images, it makes much more sense… I hope…!
I actually do have brackets on the downpipes… but if you can’t see them, they don’t count. I was trying to avoid scattering, but didn’t work out for this one. The mulch has been tough for me and I’ve been coming at it from a few different angles, but still nothing good. Again, I was trying to avoid scattering to see if I could get some results by other methods.
Like everything… perspective correction was noticed after rendering / posting! Yay!
I really appreciate your feedback! Always helpful.
I need to experiment more with the VFB, learn to incorporate it more.
The first thing I noticed was your verticles are not straight. Also, the right siding profile is a little soft. Other than that, I think it looks pretty accurate. I am unsure where the tree shadow is coming from on the right side of the house.
The shadows are coming from my invisible tree… very rare species out here! I have DOF applied, will have to improve it. Appreciate the input!
I do that sometimes, but I make sure it is convincing. I remember reading about Uncanny Valley and how people notice something is off; they don’t know what, but it causes fear. The writer said the viewer would rather see something unreal than almost real. I always remember that when I try to fake something.
Made some adjustments; fiddled around in post a little more… I managed to switch my flashing texture to an incorrect one though (just noticed) I can see the repeating… will have to re-render. But I like how this one looks compared to the original.
Thought I would post the current state of the front too. The neighboring house is just a placeholder..
I think it’s a great start, the materials and model look great.
I think what’s letting it down is the lighting and composition…
Dont light the scene from behind the camera. I’d personally light it from right to left, so the left facade is in shadow.
With this type of sun light, I’d expect the shadows to be darker too, look at real photography and you’ll notice this.
Finally, the composition is a bit clumsy. In this camera angle, I’d avoid having the building in the centre, look at using thirds. Maybe try a more traditional ratio for the image too, 16:9 or 9:16, and give your building a bit of breathing space / bleed around it. If you can’t pull back, try a portrait composition, with the top 40% of the image being sky. Think about how to make the shot feel interesting.
Thanks for your input Suzanne!
How do you normally setup your lighting? For these, I’ve just used the HDRI.
For composition, I wanted to keep the camera on the site, which is very narrow and tight. When in doubt, always add more sky I guess! Anyway, I really appreciate the feedback and will fiddle around with everything
Lighting depends on the style of image I’m going for. Could be HRDI, could be vray lights, spot lights, maybe sun light (although not that often). I don’t think there’s anything wrong with your lighting, it just needs turning approx. 90 degrees so you’re not lighting from behind the camera. Don’t be afraid of contrast and dark shadows. Find some reference images.
Regarding camera, you’d be surprised how many people will fake the position and surroundings to get a good shot. And in reality, photographers will use all kinds of tricks to get a decent shot. But try using thirds and adding more sky if your camera position is set.
The front looks nice! Great job. Maybe boost the reflection on that upper glass railing.
Thanks Bobby. I was actually just trying to play around with the reflections… how do I boost them?
RawReflection works the best for me. Mask the glass. I like to add a slight noise (.5) in the bump slot.
Those updates are vastly improved and showing the front gives context to the back view, so I can see that it’s a good design actually
As the others mentioned, tweaks to reflections on that glass and swapping out the sky/adding more to the top or sides would help, though maybe there’s just no space, so whatever you can get away with.
The only thing that remains obvious, to me at least, is that the grey siding texture has a repeating whitish line across it.
