Inside my house

[gregzaal]

I decided a needed a nice long blender project to work on for the next while, you know, improve my terrible modeling skills and all… so I finally had the idea to recreate the inside of my house in blender… or at least parts of it.

Nice thing about doing this is that I just need to get up and walk around examining things closely to see what I need. And I can just take photos and create custom tile-able textures.

So I’m starting with my TV room. So far this is what I have, and the reference image is below.

Now as you can see, I kind of prefer the colder look to the orange one… and i want a more CG look too, like the glowing window, lights and fire place… except I would like to make the fireplace look better (any suggestions?) but I’ve yet to watch Andrew Price’s tut on realistic fire…

And I still need to do some more modeling…

[kbot]

No flat screen ? The burglar proof grills on the window makes me thankful for living where I am.

Anyways, your project so far is cool!

[gregzaal]

thanks… still got a lot to do… but ya, burgler bars are pretty much a necessity here in south africa and no, no flat screen… yet.

[gregzaal]

thanks… still got a lot to do… but ya, burgler bars are pretty much a necessity here in south africa and no, no flat screen… yet

[tdietz87]

I think this is a cool idea and it s nice to see you’ve shared a picture of the inside of your house. Thanks Keep up the good work. Floors look a bit too slippery when compared to reference picture

[gregzaal]

Yea i know, but i think it looks better with the higher refection… but i might tweak it later on.

i have made a few changes, but nothing worth showing yet (dont have much cap left - typing this on my phone).

any ideas on how im going to make the couches?? im not sure…

[DDD]

With that much reflection, it looks like the floor is wet.

Are you using halos for the window blur effect, and fire? if yes then dont, cuz it dont look too good, i mean it is fine but compositing makes it better.

SO that said, here is a fire tutorial, which it pretty simple too:
Part1(setup): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg7-i997NH8
Part2(compositor): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KATYv22Rm9c&feature=related
Part3(background/foreground setup): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMB2PUER57A&feature=related
Part4(ascending heat effect): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zk6DZKD2xzw&feature=related

And use the bloom effect for the window.
In this make rain tutorial Andrew Price uses bloom for the sky(about halfway through, he shows you how to achieve the bloom effect), do that for the window. http://vimeo.com/12598986

everything else looks great! gd job

[Rednaz]

I really like the overall layout youve got so far, maybe you can extrude some tiles around the fireplace, because right now, to me it just looks like a hole in the wall. Also the reflection is maybe a bit overdone, but that depends on what look your going for.

Goodluck!

[gregzaal]

Ok ok, I get the point, too much relfection. (im not complaining, thats what this forum is for - constructive crits)
But I know, I need to add the bricks that surround the fireplace… only noticed then recently for some reason…
Thanks for the tuts DDD, I’ll watch them tomorrow though since its 00:30 here in South Africa (no, headphones don’t work right now)
And yes, I’m using compositing, but I need to tweak it and use the different brightnesses and saturation instead of render layers - also because I noticed, when moving the camera, that the window glow appears through the wall… which is bad since I’m planning to animate it.

Anyway, here is a tiny update. not much has changed since I’ve been busy with other important things:

[Kemmler]

IMO the glow effect looks pretty corny, and the floor is also too shiny. I understand the appeal of it being artificially bright/shiny, but it detracts from the scene IMO.

[gregzaal]

Ok heres another update:
I turned the reflections on the floor down. Changed the whole node setup a lot - no separate render layers. There is a little glow left, but I don’t want too much do I?

[TiQ]

nice the carpet looks to flat

[Rednaz]

The floor looks a lot better now!

[gregzaal]

I know, the carpet does look flat, but it’s not just a plane, it does have a little depth… how can I make it look more 3d???

[gregzaal]

oh and what do you think of the different glow on the window and lights? I think that they are too soft now… not enough glow…

[spacetug]

rug.blend (131 KB)

not the greatest rug, but it should give the general idea…

the lighting in your scene needs work.
try an area lamp behind the window, for sky light, and spot lamps with a high blur radius for the recessed lights. (increase the distance value if you need too)

also, I would suggest using a clay material when you’re doing lighting, as the lighting affects the materials.
add a cube, move it to an unrendered layer, give it a new material, call it clay. turn off the specularity, everything else stays the same.
then, when you want a clay render, go to the render settings, and type in the name of the material into the “mat” field (in renderlayers)

[gregzaal]

Awesome. Thanks for the tips spacetug. My rug is actually like that, but i’ve tweaked it a little now to make it more pronounced.

So you’re saying that I should model now and worry about textures and materials later? It’s a good idea, but I personally find modelling really awesome… until I start to suck at it… which is pretty soon after I add the cube But sure, I do a bit then upload a post.

Oh and I do have that lighting setup already… so I’ll do the clay thing and see how everything works.

[spacetug]

Yes, generally the preferred workflow is:
Model
Rig (if necessary)
Light
Shade (materials)
Render
Postprocess/Composite

Then, if there’s animation, that goes in somewhere after rigging.
I think I remembered everything…

There’s something inherently pleasing about a nice clay render…

About the lighting, if that’s the case, you just need to do some tweaking, especially with the brightness, halving distance, and color.

[gregzaal]

Right, heres an update… done a few things…

The top one is my lighting setup and wireframe - the lights are all selected… because otherwise it is confusing as hell.
The middle one is the clay render.
And the bottom one is the final with composition and materials

Sorry about all the big images, but it had to be done.

[DDD]

Yea, now the rug looks like a rug.

Colors are off on the couch, i mean the red.orange from the window, make it like a soft yellow.
The left wall is a bit dark…
The light behind the back wall is composited badly…imo (the wall is supposed to block the blur glow thing, oh and it is not orange it is yellow, at least that’s how it is in the reference image)
Ceiling color is way to gray, in your house it is mostly the same color as the walls.
Fireplace…if there is a fire, then the back of the fireplace would not be dark. that said, the whole fireplace would have red/orange/yellow color, i dunno how exactly, but i suggest taking a picture with it lit.

But hey, good job so far.