Photorealistic Cottage in the Woods - Lighting & Rendering

Because I’ve learned so much from working on the Blender Guru competitions, I thought I should try again. Also, I wanted to make a nature scene so I could show off some nature tricks that I have found recently, and I figured that a well made realistic nature scene would beat any simple interior scene any day.

I have so far blocked out my scene and added basic materials. Right now I am struggling on making realistic trees fully in Blender. The hardest part is the leaf distribution. So far I have used sapling, but even that is not completely realistic.

Things NOT to critique:
The cabin (it is just a placeholder to show it’s position)
fireflies
forest in the background not blending into the sky (I am pretty stumped on that though)

I am just focusing on the nature side for now, so any suggestions/help on that would be fantastic, materials especially.

Link to high res here.
http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/4916/photorealisticcabininth.jpg

Thanks,
Jonathan

looks great so far , I attached a image link with some flow lines where I would make some changes , the red line depicts the dividing line formed by the log and chimney I feel could be offset in a x axis or a greater gap between the start and beginning for each ( white lines ) this would create a better feel for flow around the cabin (blue line )

not that the current lines formed in the composition are wrong in any manner , just a personal opinion of what my eyes told me at first glance.

Textures are looking fantastic already :wink:

http://s19.postimage.org/3wn5z59hr/photorealisticcabininth_composition.jpg

Wow…Looks great:) two quick crits, Perhaps modelling the slats would be better as they don’t line up and there isn’t enough bumpy contrast on the log. It may be better if you used some different shads of green to give some contrast to the foliage especially on the left as it’s hard to pick out what’s what.

Looks really really nice, good work.
This is my desktop background currently, keep me posted! :wink:

looks great so far , I attached a image link with some flow lines where I would make some changes , the red line depicts the dividing line formed by the log and chimney I feel could be offset in a x axis or a greater gap between the start and beginning for each ( white lines ) this would create a better feel for flow around the cabin (blue line )

Thanks, that is a great suggestion, and I will for sure work on that. I had not even thought of flow lines.

Perhaps modelling the slats would be better as they don’t line up and there isn’t enough bumpy contrast on the log.

The bad texturing is just there as a placeholder, and I do plan to model the slats. Also, I’ll try to improve the log, I knew it looked off somehow.

Looks really really nice, good work.
This is my desktop background currently, keep me posted!

No way are you kidding me?! If that’s not encouragement I don’t know what is! :wink:

Thanks for all the feedback guys, it’s really encouraging!

No, I’m not kidding you. :slight_smile: A little bit of encouraging proof;

I amn’t adding the image here because it’s huge and will clog the screen up. :o

Very nice.

Uau! The environment is almost perfect. I just suggest to variate greens between different plants.
The house is not so good as the environment

Ross, why don’t you have Blender in your dock?

You’ve done wonders with nature here, really!

Now the bad things - barn lets this thing down, really. imo you should have to consider model every plank here - then it’ll be perfect.
Things that throws off:
Planks on lower part closest corner - texturing don’t match. Usually you see some corner construction; well, thing is supposed to be built and buildings have rough corners if there are planks involved.
Doors/ windows - the same - each should have something to hold it - frame. And it is really construction rule for every house.
The house has not been there just for some days - grass inside suggests that - make a roof show it; it should have been bent, not a straightest one from the day it was built from the materials available, some parts fallen down rotten. In the woods they tend to catch every possible green stuff growing as time passes by.
Chimney’s texture is marvellous, just a little more bump to it, some stones missing and it’ll play the game.
Does it really have just one window? Complete darkness inside? Nuff…

Nature you’ve managed to draw is darn good! I like it every bit. Some longer weeds somewhere perhaps?
Hope you don’t mind me pouring crits; it just happens that i’ve seen some left houses in a woods. And managed to repair some too :).

Happy Blending!

The water looks good to me! What i don’t like is the trunk across the river. Materials are good, maybe some more displacement, but seems like also secondary branches are detached from the main one, not only the bark (that is ok). For the leafes, if you are using cycles, have you tried to add a little glossy shader so some of them ‘reflect’ the sun and you will have more green diversity?
I have read somewhere that if the light is coming more from sides of photo instead of front or back you achieve better results artistically…but this thing is better to ask to who have more experience than me :smiley:
Sorry for weird english :slight_smile:

Every time I log in it disappears even though I have Keep in Dock checked (sorry for being off topic). But yeah, it’s usually there. :wink:

Now the bad things - barn lets this thing down, really. imo you should have to consider model every plank here - then it’ll be perfect.
Things that throws off:
Planks on lower part closest corner - texturing don’t match. Usually you see some corner construction; well, thing is supposed to be built and buildings have rough corners if there are planks involved.
Doors/ windows - the same - each should have something to hold it - frame. And it is really construction rule for every house.
The house has not been there just for some days - grass inside suggests that - make a roof show it; it should have been bent, not a straightest one from the day it was built from the materials available, some parts fallen down rotten. In the woods they tend to catch every possible green stuff growing as time passes by.
Chimney’s texture is marvellous, just a little more bump to it, some stones missing and it’ll play the game.
Does it really have just one window? Complete darkness inside? Nuff…
Thanks Eppo, but gosh darn it, I’ve said like 3 times but this time I’ll say it in bold to make it clear :slight_smile: : I HAVE NOT EVEN STARTED ON THE CABIN, IT IS JUST A PLACEHOLDER. Don’t interpret that as me being mad, I just want to be clear because apparently I wasn’t?

What i don’t like is the trunk across the river. Materials are good, maybe some more displacement, but seems like also secondary branches are detached from the main one, not only the bark (that is ok).

I don’t quite understand what you are trying to say, but I will work on the log and how the branches attach, and add some more displacement.

For the leafes, if you are using cycles, have you tried to add a little glossy shader so some of them ‘reflect’ the sun and you will have more green diversity?

Yes, I have some of that right now, but it is super hard to balance that with diffuse and translucent to make it look real. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

I have read somewhere that if the light is coming more from sides of photo instead of front or back you achieve better results artistically
Thanks! This helps a lot!

You guys sure got me excited about working on this!
Jonathan

My sincere apologies!
Me needs new spectacles… In self defense - Subject line in bold stated Cottage (as No1) in the Woods ( as No2) lol.

If i’m still allowed - logs at the water usually show some wetness on the sides; and i agree with what was said about branches bulging out slightly ‘not so’. The small, dark one, on the other side of the stream: bit artificial looking imho.

Just out of curiosity why did you peal off the core on the big one? For me it looks like someone did it while tree was up, however it should be high above ground - not easy to reach.

And don’t forget to lay out some stone foundations for that cottage too ;)!

My apologies one more time…

Very promising start, however the tree leaves seem too translucent - like, there’s very little shadow on it cast by other leaves. Also, the grass looks too plastic-y green. It doesn’t look like plastic, but the color scheme is too neon, and not at all varied.

Eppo - No problem, and some great suggestions

Also, good observation Oweldude.

I finally have time to work on this again, but it takes forever to render on my sad CPU, so expect an update tomorrow so I can render overnignt.

I did some work on correcting the materials for the trees, and also rendered out the forest in the background again.
Here is the link to the image, I didn’t want to post it here because it’s so huge.

I plan on adding at least 8 more trees to make it more varied, but that is low on the priority list right now.

I also tried working on the log a bit, but it really is hard to get right, so if you have any ideas on how to make it look realistic, please share!

Thanks for all the help,
Jonathan

I have a small critique on the grass. When viewing it in high res, you can see the polygons which takes away from the realism. Here’s a little example form the right foreground.
http://www.pasteall.org/pic/show.php?id=33450

I love the nature elements of this one, but the cottage itself looks like CG. I think you’ve done really well with the plants and the grass, and I have to look deep to see that it’s not a photography. But then you see the cottage, and it doesn’t look natural at all. But since you’ve done so well with the nature, it just takes more work with the cottage.

I joined this community for inspiration, but I’m getting depressed at the skill of people like you, because I’ll probably never match it, haha.

I have a small critique on the grass. When viewing it in high res, you can see the polygons which takes away from the realism. Here’s a little example form the right foreground.

Thanks! I actually figured this already, because you know how much longer it would take to render with all the grass subsurfed? I have the modifiers, but I just need to up them in the final. Great observation though!

I love the nature elements of this one, but the cottage itself looks like CG. I think you’ve done really well with the plants and the grass, and I have to look deep to see that it’s not a photography. But then you see the cottage, and it doesn’t look natural at all. But since you’ve done so well with the nature, it just takes more work with the cottage.

Please read above posts

I joined this community for inspiration, but I’m getting depressed at the skill of people like you, because I’ll probably never match it, haha.

Thanks, but everyone starts out you just need to work hard at it!