Stumped

Started by masonspappy, May 19, 2016, 08:44:29 PM

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masonspappy

This image kind of stumps me.   It's still a WIP, not finished.
Was looking at the latest iteration and it just seemed kind of soulless to me.  Not sure what to do with it.
So...
Would be very interested in hearing what alterations other members might recommend.
thanks.  ???

Upon Infinity

It's a good scene.  Good setup.  I might say that the light is a bit flat.  If it was me, I would filter it through some trees, maybe. Either from above or behind.  If the objects are too dark, then, you could inject some GI.  That might make it 'pop' a bit.

fleetwood

Some thoughts -
To involve a viewer, I think there must be something unique special or interesting about some of these things : 

the lighting
the composition, colors, or design including the camera angle
the particular instant of time of the event depicted (which can tie into lighting)
the specific objects and subject matter
the suggestion of a story or mystery

I think all of the above meshing at once would make a super render. Even hitting strong on one of those categories would make a somewhat interesting render.

To be honest, in the case of this render as it is now, it has a the start of a mystery, but the lighting, camera angle, timing of the moment shown, subject matter, are pretty ordinary.

Maybe there could be more interest or mystery if a partially visible figure was placed leaving or entering just outside the gate, perhaps mostly hidden by the bushes, something like that.
I think something needs to be in the frame ( a bird flying away, a dog stealing a burger, a toy balloon drifting by)  that makes it a single special moment in time instead of generic mid day.

Just my two cents - probably others will have different important items. I don't claim my own renders satisfy any or all of the above, but it's still a few of the things that I think go to make some renders more interesting.

Dune

I think with a different light direction you can already win a lot. It's indeed very flat. Some late evening light may be interesting, or early morning, still a bit foggy, the day after... And I would change the ground cover. I can't really see what it is, leaves? Better to make it mown grass or bare earth with grass patches, or even some (partly overgrown) cobble stones.
But the elements in the image are nice, so you can make something more interesting out of it.

luvsmuzik

I ran it through my pc built-in image editor and just a few tweaks and light vignette gives it lots more depth. It is just a little bright and cool. BTW can you multiply color in function to vary the leaves on ground cover? I know you can do that in another program, but I have not experimented much in TG. Like you can do with the fake stone shader. I know the leaves are all from the same tree, but even those vary colorwise, usually.

I will remove this image, if you like. Just showing it a little different.

masonspappy

Thanks guys. Good ideas, and I hear what you're saying about the lighting and ground cover. Got some ideas now to experiment with. Thanks very much!! And @luvsmuzik, fine to leave your image up.  Adds another facet to the whole lighting thing.
- Cam

masonspappy

So Im thinking something a little more like this...

Dune

That is so much better. One thing I immediately noticed; don't you have a bumpmap on the stone wall? If you do and give it a displacement value of 0.01-0.05 it would make another big difference, as the light is striking it on a nice angle.
If you put up the texture file, I can make you a bumpmap if you wish.

fleetwood

Great improvement. The table with the red cloth now becomes important and the little patches of blue sky behind it now contrast enough with the trees to lead me off into the distance and back.

masonspappy

Thanks for the feedback guys.
Dune,  I have a bump map (made in crazybump) but values needed to be set higher as you suggested.  Walls are not quite so flat now.

Dune

Yes, that's more like it. One more thing you could do to that wall; add some color variation, or even some patches of (fake) moss.


bobbystahr

Quote from: Dune on May 22, 2016, 11:04:03 AM
Yes, that's more like it. One more thing you could do to that wall; add some color variation, or even some patches of (fake) moss.

agree and agree, or even populate the wall with some of the free mosses a bit
something borrowed,
something Blue.
Ring out the Old.
Bring in the New
Bobby Stahr, Paracosmologist