Hi everybody,
Here is my latest completed work. It is a house example for my visualization portfolio. Comments or crits welcome.
Thanks,
Erich
Looks good, but it would look even better if the roof looked less flat and there was actual grass in the yard.
That is a very nice model, I really like it. It has good lighting and a good colour scheme. Some parts do look a little flat though.
I don’t think the grass is much of a problem - I like the grass texture. The little bits sticking up put me off a bit because they seem too evenly placed and their colour doesn’t much go with the rest of the lawn. Can I ask what texture you used for the grass - is it procedural?
As for the other flat bits like the stone walls and the roof tiles, just add a bump map to them. You can even map the original texture as a bump map sometimes. Perhaps just for the stone wall in this case.
The style reminds me of the fmv in the Sims.
You are right about the flat look. I will see what I can do.
Do you mean the individual blade faces that are spaced around?
The grass is a combination of image and procedural elements.
I think the biggest problem, for me, with the grass is the color.
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=50&hl=en&lr=&newwindow=1&safe=off&q=grass
Google-fu might help.
The shingles on the roof look a little big…
Overall a nice visualization. Great work!
Do you mean the individual blade faces that are spaced around?[/quote]
Yes I meant those. I keep looking at them like they are meant to spell something out.
To be honest, that’s the only thing that’s bugging me about the image - I don’t mind the flatness. It’s a really nice image.
BTW, can I ask what lighting setup you used?
Why yes. 
I used four spot lights and one sun light. I used the spots to increase the ambient light around the home. If you use the sun alone, the dark areas will be to dark. I also used AO (very important).
House looks absolutely great! Could you post a tutorial or something on how to do something like this?
Very good modeling and textures. I agree that the grass looks a bit off, though. Also, I think the “flat” look can be alleviated by having some shadows on the roof and the lawn. It seems as if it was taken at noon, making it look sort of bland. Maybe adding a lamp above and behind (and enabling shadows on it) the house would help.
Wow, AO? I honestly didn’t notice any “graininess” that is usual in most renderings with AO. You did a good job with it. Hope you don’t mind me asking, but how long did it take to render?
Did you try to add a little hemilight. It gives he render a much more warm feeling to it.
WOW…That is awesome! :o
A few crits:
Add a texture to the parts of the wall that have none.
Use fiber for grass
Use AO. 
Anyway, awesome work! 
Yea I agree. That would make it look Better thank it already looks. Very stunning work. Great job. Did you do the back of the house too or no?
Every picture needs something to draw attention.
Make a high-textured letterbox and put that close to the camera.
Also maybe a few more clouds in the sky.
Other than that. It looks great.
The modelling and texturing is great! I especially like the raised ground around the house, with those stones around it.
However, I have a few suggestions to make it even better:
- Most important: The lighting looks too flat. I can tell that the sun is shining, since there are sharp shadows. However, the overall lighting suggests that it’s overcast (so does the sky texture, for that matter), which means there shouldn’t be sharp shadows. I’d say you should increase the sun light’s energy, make it maybe a bit more yellow, and decrease the other lamps, so that the shadows look darker, giving it better contrast. Look at good architectural renders on the net for reference.
- The grass has been mentioned before, the colour seems a bit odd.
- The sky looks odd too, the clouds are too evenly placed, and they have no sharp boundaries, but somehow blend into the blue sky, which looks weird.
I’d say you could fiddle around with more than one procedural texture, using the Colourband option for the cloud boundaries, and using another cloud texture as a “Stencil” to make the clouds randomly placed. Or use an photo for the texture.
Zsolt
Thanks for the grass tutorial. I love it! Here is a test render using the current model I am working on.
Why is my grass so blurry? Note rendered without RAY on.
Thanks everyone for the kind comments and helpful suggestions. I have a list of things to work on. I will update in the future.
Cheers,
Erich
Give us an AO render please
Nice model!
Try turning up the brightness on the grass. It’s a little dark.