Sun Fish

Here is a house I am working on and should have done by Monday.


That looks absolutely massive. Did it come from Autocad?

ArchiCAD model

The architect insisted that we have the entire view in light. I have decided that it’s me who doesn’t know what he is talking about :). Of course, I have more work. I am waiting for the landscape plan.

and, the back.

Kind of a nice/ugly design. Some elements looks proportional but others like windows and dormers don’t. Are dormers different size on the garage and main building? What I guess is your camera makes all the windows on the garage look like they are different size, i.e. the portion on this side of the porte cochere.

I think it is the site causing that. I am going to work on the site tomorrow.

pool side

still no landscape plan, but I did work the topology a little



some progress.

it still looks CG, which I could use some advice on.


It seems mostly fine except for the skies. They give the viewer no sense of the direction of light. it’s not so easy to fix with this example as there isnt a huge amount of sky to be seen anyway. In future try to use skies with more of a gradient to suggest a direction of light. And those messy looking clouds never look good.

Also your colour balance is really pink.

Quick edit:

I am using an HDRI, so light is coming from the sky. I actually had a more blue sky earlier (like the one you are showing), but the architect wanted white clouds. I am not seeing pink, and I looked at in on several screens, but I could be wrong. I like the more desaturation, like you are showing. Actually, the sun/sky isn’t physically correct, but the architect was insistent on having both sides in direct sunlight. I hope it doesn’t bite him in the butt, because in actuality, the back of the house will never see direct sunlight. The way the house sites, with that big sun deck and pool, it will always be in the shade.

The lighting is fine albeit a bit harsh but theres no reason why you cant replace the sky with one that enhances the lighting direction. I would try using more puffy coulds if you really really need them but try and find on that has the correct perspective and a clear left to right lighting direction.

For your next project, try and find a good reference image of a similar scaled building that you like the lighting conditions of. That makes it really easy to light your scene as you try to match the photo. Then once you’ve gotten as close as you can in 3D, do the rest of the tweaks in PS. Match foliage colours, grass colour, sky colour, direction, and luminosity, but most importantly shadow density and colour. Using a reference is a must if you want to get closer to realism. I have heaps of reference images categorized so I can find a good look and go for that look right from the start of each project. Start building a library of references. No HDR style photos or overtweaked crap. Nice, well taken, and well processed photos. Like you would find on here: architecturepastebook.co.uk

edit: double post

I took some color out


much better already

I am just not feeling these - light on everything - images. But, it’s what he wanted. It’s such a nice house; I am going to play with on my own dime.


Alway fun


took a little of the edge off the pavement and darkened the top of the sky

we went with this view