Which lighting scheme do you prefer of the two renders? I have my thoughts, but I don’t want to bias any of the responses.
I created a polygon to simulate the water on the ground. However, it looks too perfect to me. How would I go about making the wet-to-dry boundary a little fuzzier.
Any other comments are more than welcome. Thanks.
The first one is a much better exposure.
I would not expect to see “water on the ground” from this point-of-view at all, therefore I consider it to be an unnecessary detail. No matter how you tried to do it, it would be visually inconsistent because this is obviously “an overcast day” and the ground surface looks like it’s made of gravel. Exploit that to make your job easier!
Furthermore… when I first called-up the image on my browser, it was cropped so that what I saw basically consisted of only the upper third of the image and only the leftmost two-thirds. Personally, I thought that this crop was better … tighter … than “the whole image.” If it were me, I’d crop the other parts of the image completely away.
It’s a funny thing with images: sometimes (quite often, really) less is much more. And when the image is being generated by CG that’s a great thing, because it cuts your render time.
I would do two things: One, go into edit mode on the puddle, make sure no verts are selected and you are in the face mode, then go Select–>Random–> 30-40%, you can be the judge. Then delete them. This will randomly select faces (or verticies) and will chop up your puddle, and since you’re using Subsurf, it’ll look smooth. This might work…
Anyway, if the random select doesn’t work, I would turn down the Alpha of the water. In fact, turn it down if the random select does work.
Oh… I like #1 better if it’s just after a storm, #2 if it’s raining. #1 is better exposed and the grass looks better.
~Jace
sundialsvc4,
Thanks for the response. I did think about the scenario behind the lighting and the water. Image 1 I viewed as a sunny day with puddles after a thunderstorm. In that case, I should probably have thunder clouds in the background. Image 2 I viewed as an overcast day with puddles left after overnight rain. To be honest, I am a relative newbie to 3d and blender. I am not as observant about the overall concept and consistency of my images, but I’m getting better.
Thanks for the advice about the CG in general. I’ll try to roll that into knowledge and thought process w.r.t CG, rendering and art.
Chalda
Jace,
I’ll give your ideas a try. It takes about 40 minutes for me to render this image. I’ve got a soccer game in an hour. Hopefully, I’ll post the results tonight if I’m not too tired.
Thanks for the advice,
Chalda
I reduced the alpha of the water from 0.6 to 0.2 and I randomly removed some of the faces. It didn’t seem to help very much. I’ve attached the two renders with the change.
I also tried a smaller, closer camera angle. I’ve attached renders for both lighting schemes.
Chalda
Can you scale the Z xais (height) of the water puddles down so they’re more flat? They look a little to round and blobby. But, in my opinion, the random remove looks a little better though still not perfect.
My favorite render so far is your third on the right. It looks pretty good. And for the dark scheme, the center top.
Good job, and maybe turn the alpha on the puddle down a little more. I forgot to say this but I love your tree. It looks great.
~Jace
What is the main subject of this scene?
Is it the bench, the tree, the vase?
The compostion of this scene is odd looking to me.
Don’t get me wrong I like what you have so far.
IMO the scene needs some serious thought and work.
Answering the original question, I would think that water generally doesn’t dry evenly and where it contacts the surface the surface tension would vary, giving a less rounded edge (indicating oils etc.). Also the gound heats differently meaning there would be a wet film in some areas leading to the puddle, but not in others (often seen as a patchy darkening around a puddle).
I love the overcast versions as it is a nice departure from the bright happy CG images we so often see. On composition, perhaps the tight crop on the tree limb is a good focus with a bit of DOF fall off to the background. Featuring an autumn leaf perhaps?
Looks great by the way nice grass too. Wish I could get around to finishing a scene! 
