This is the exterior rendering from the Mountain House Interiors that I posted a couple of weeks ago. The client(s) originally only wanted the 3 interiors. After those were completed they decided to have this exterior view done.
I thought to add it to that previous topic ( https://forums.chaos.com/forum/chaos…ouse-interiors ) but…decided to make a new topic for this exterior rendering
Posted here for comments and critique. Thanks!
I challenge you to look at your images a day or two later, but only as thumbnails. This one gives me a 1990s vibe (something we were doing 20 years ago). I am sure the next iteration will improve, and I look forward to seeing it.
Hmm. Not sure what it is that you feel should be improved? I have it lit with one sun low on the horizon hdri. the same hdri is also the background sky. Basic exterior materials and site work to match the specs. 16:9 aspect.
The client(s) love it (and the previous interiors) and they have not asked for any revision so I am not planning any further work on this…but you never know.
I based a lot of what I did on this photo of the project that their drone photo guy took.
Hey, if the clients loves it, that is what matters.
Hi Bobby, The client satisfaction is important for sure. But it is not the end all. I am always striving to improve and I put a high value on your opinion and critique’s. If you are inclined to elaborate on how this rendering would be improved I am keen to know your feedback. Thanks!
Compositionally, I would lower the camera. Right now, you look to be standing 10’ off the ground. A glass reflection would be good. Also, I would cool down the exterior and warm up the interior. The warmth should draw you into the house. These are just my first thoughts.
Here is an update. I thought I had the camera @ 5’ above the lower floor level. I double checked and indeed it was at 7’ above lower floor. This has the camera at 5’ above.
I cooled the outside using white balance in the vfb and warmed the inside with lightmix adjustment.
I put a plane with a vray light material and photo for the reflection in the glass. I only have winter time photo (by others) for that. Not sure it’s the best thing, esp the big aspen in the kitchen glass. Maybe some painting oout of that tree but to correct that requires a re-render.
Previous version took @ 15 minutes 1.5 credits to render at 3800 px wide using chaos cloud. This version took @ 30 minutes 2 credits
Thank you Aebi_Vincent!
There really are no trees in the hdri background the scene is being lit by a vray dome light with HDRI 018 (Vray Cosmos Library) .
I used a separate dome light for the sky and thought I had the same hdri in it but…just noticed it is HDRI 002 and I did not change it to match the 018 when I was trying different hdri for this. It was a happy accident or whatever because the 002 has some nice clouds and looks better for the sky.
The scene is supposed to be summer time sunset per client request. The reference photo shows existing conditions and is used for general understand of surrounding sit and materials that are already on the house. Not intended to match the camera angle or time of year or etc.
I do have a curves linear contrast adjustment layer on this added in photoshop
Thanks also to you Mr. B. Fixeighted! I think the second version I posted above is not so far away from the version you posted? I think I should cool the outside more. I’m doing that with white balance in vfb adjustment layer which then cools the entire scene. Then I need to warm up the interior lights to compensate. I started with the interior lights at 2700k. The cooler I adjust the white balance then the interior lights are getting adjusted down to @ 1500k which looks good but seems like an unrealistic temp in real world terms. Maybe that workflow is not the best way?
I will try one more refinement on this. We are leaving on tuesday and gone for @ 3weeks so one more attempt is likely all I will have time for.
Thanks again for your feedback(s). Very helpful to me as always!
Still needs help…Is it a dusk shot, or a day shot? If it’s day, then the interior wouldn’t be that bright. Look at the photograph you posted. The camera angle is too straight on which makes the image look flat. Not sure how you placed your plant and trees, but there needs to be a bit more variation in scale and color. Maybe add a person or two. Show some activity. Does give me a 90’s vibe.
Hi an thx for your feedback! It is a disk shot. Trees are all aspens so same root system and color. There is variation in scale though. This is for a real estate ad. You never see people included in pro real estate photography unless it’s a public space like library or airport terminal or etc.
Those references photos are great! I would like to be able fo achieve that. The very simple lighting setup is an hdri from chaos cosmos instanced into vray dome light set to invisible. That’s the only light other than the interior lights.
Then a separate vray dome light with different chaos cosmos hdri for the sky.
Is there a chaos cosmos hdri that you would suggest for use as the main light? None that I tried seem to achieve a result like the reference photos you show.
Thanks again!
Check out poly haven for some high quality hdris.
Nice detailed model as always Mark.
From your last post it sounds like you have two dome lights in the scene with different HDRIs. How about just dropping a single Cosmos HDRI onto your scene (set to visible - which is default I think) - that’s all you need.
Experiment by rotating the HDRI around & use lightmix to balance out / tweak the internal lights & HDRI as required.
Luma3d’s photos are a great reference - look at how the underside of the deck / balcony / roof is clearly defined - aim to lighten the black materials / boarding to achieve this.
Hope this helps.
Too much contrast and saturation. Do you use reflection on your materials? It’s as if there is not enough main light driving into the scene. It’s difficult to tell what time of day this is actually. Perfect view to add some depth too, adding some haze to the trees in the BG. You need to define the form of the building more too.
5 min mock up in photoshop.
Since you are asking…
The wood is VERY saturated, and definitely too red compared to your ref photo. The wood texture is clearly tiled, perhaps you could tile in PS and clean up the repetition, and then apply that.
The dark wood is VERY dark. Feels like it needs less fresnel and more reflectivity, and just a lighter value to begin with. See how it is looking nicer on the right side where you have some reflection? You could roughen up the roughness even more. I would also try to get the various black-like materials to be slightly different, more difference in their reflectivity, roughness, and fresnel values so they look like distinct materials. For instance, you would think the painted metal surfaces like the window frames and railings would be more reflective and less rough than the black wood-- from the ref photo it looks like the “black wood” is actually black metal. So definitely did not get that from yours. Perhaps a low frequency bump like the ref to get some more variance.
The lighting has no real direction to it. Try the light raking across it, 3/4 backlit is always nice, with enough frontal fill (though clients may want more frontal), or even the high noon photo is better than full frontal.
The colors in the sky are too saturated, don’t seem to fit the scene, and draw my eye too much to the BG.
Some subtle DOF would help if you could get the house sharp and the trees not as sharp.
The edges of things are very hard and fine. Looks like you need some bevels in a lot of places or to use the VRayEdgeTex in the bump slot trick to fake them.
The entire image could be desaturated, and softened a touch, with a hint of vignetting, etc.
Some of the trees have a lot of blue/cyan in them, feel a bit surreal.
The interior light itself looks nice. The balance is a hint odd unless it is a dusk shot, which I think is what you are trying to do-- just not feeling that. The exterior lighting and fill could come down.
Of course this is your creation. So you take everything anyone says with a grain of salt, and put your own flair on it to truly make it yours. It’s easy to get into design by committee, and end up ruining things that way too. It’s most of the way there. Just little things like these, and what others have said could help push it further.
One possibility of tweaking attached. Of course you can do far more with the actual scene. I would still get more magenta out of the sky, personally.
DanSHP has that nice high-key look too. I like that.
