looking good. the sagging roof is a nice touch. I might have to start giving this thread some stars.
Haha, thanks Modron.
I just fixed one thing that was really bugging me - the chimney. Now it looks like a proper chimney and not an extruded cube with a texture. That strait line of shadow was driving me nuts. Anything driving you nuts?
Anyways, any suggestions on what to do next? Eventually I’m going to add some animals, but not until the rest is pretty much done. just to get thinking though, what small animals would you want to see? Birds? Squirrel? Any favorite bugs? They won’t be big, obvious, or the focus of the scene at all, but I think it would be a nice touch.
I think I’ll do a render overnight tonight just to see how the whole thing looks so far and do a tad of post pro for fun.
Thanks for the help,
Jonathan
Ok, I finished rendering it and did a tad of composititng.
Here is without:
Here is with:
I added the trees in the back post pro and it looks better, but it was a hassle so I will stick with png for now until the final.
I changed the grass material a bit, can you compare it with the old one and see which one is better?
Anyone know where I can get a better sky texture?
Also, I want to add mist and volumetric lighting to this bad boy to make it look fantastic, so that should make it really pop.
Please critique, I can take constructive criticism.
Thanks,
Jonathan
Edit:
Oh and RossBlenderArt, I think you can swap backgrounds now, as this one is more complete;)
this is real good…its been great watching it progress…although, i prefer it without the post pro 
Great wip!
I think the firefiles to the left suggests some really bright flowers. It could add interest to the image as a whole to have something that sticks out in a way like that - in that area.
EDIT: Oh, now the latest renders turned up. Overall I think it´s a little too monochromatic, although that could also be ruled out as a matter of taste.
Really good wip project. Hmm how much poly actually it takes… after you add some volumetric lightening etc… Spend more time in photoshop and you will get really amazing work.
This is great! It’s my favorite entry (even though it is a work in progress) in the BG competition along with the diner image :yes: If you don’t mind a bit of critique, I might suggest adding some slight color variation to the cottage. Right now, when I look at the image, I see green everywhere. It’s just a suggestion, as it might draw the viewer’s attention to a more centralized focal point.
Looking good Jonathan:) One thing that I keep thinking about is composition…try selecting the camera and then going to the camera object data tab and then in Display select the thirds composition guide. I would try to adjust the position of the door into the top right third intersection…and if possible another point of interest in the lower left third intersection to balance. Right now its looking very realistic but for it to be art and not a photo graph you’ve gotta use some composition rules. Its also a lot of green some color maybe with flowers or something would really pop!
p.s. I also prefer the render without compositing or maybe the one with needs some more contrast:)
Also just noticed too, it seems that your waters bump map shows waves moving away from the camera and they should be rotated 90 degrees to follow the water as it would ripple down the stream:)
Overall very nice so far, lots of good progress and attention to detail. Except… it looks to me as if the willow tree on the left has its leaves growing in the wrong direction. This is very visible in the large-format image of your earliest posts. From the dangling stems they grow upward & form a downward-pointing V-shape, but willows do the opposite:
The leaves grow downward as well, forming an upward V-shape.
Also notice the amount of yellowish-greens, tans & browns in the example image – yours could use some variation in this regard, there’s a lot of kind of ultra-saturated green going on, whereas the real thing shows a lot more variation.
I would think that the trunk across the stream would be used as a crossing point by the owner of the boots on the front porch. Given the lush conditions it would seem natural for there to be a path trampled in the grass to the log, and some sign of wear from crossings.
turned out great, man. nice job.
Looking good Jonathan:) One thing that I keep thinking about is composition…try selecting the camera and then going to the camera object data tab and then in Display select the thirds composition guide. I would try to adjust the position of the door into the top right third intersection…and if possible another point of interest in the lower left third intersection to balance. Right now its looking very realistic but for it to be art and not a photo graph you’ve gotta use some composition rules. Its also a lot of green some color maybe with flowers or something would really pop!
Thanks, this is a great critique and helps a lot. I always use composition guides, but even though I have them on I forgot to use them 
Although the point is to make it like a photo and not art, so whatever. But I do think that would help a lot. As for more color, how about some lavender and such?
Also just noticed too, it seems that your waters bump map shows waves moving away from the camera and they should be rotated 90 degrees to follow the water as it would ripple down the stream
Wow, I kinda feel silly now I don’t know how I missed something so obvious haha 
Overall very nice so far, lots of good progress and attention to detail. Except… it looks to me as if the willow tree on the left has its leaves growing in the wrong direction. This is very visible in the large-format image of your earliest posts. From the dangling stems they grow upward & form a downward-pointing V-shape, but willows do the opposite:
The leaves grow downward as well, forming an upward V-shape.
Also notice the amount of yellowish-greens, tans & browns in the example image – yours could use some variation in this regard, there’s a lot of kind of ultra-saturated green going on, whereas the real thing shows a lot more variation.
Thanks, that’s exactly the kind of thing I need. It means I’ll have to redo the tree but with sapling it’s very fast.
I would think that the trunk across the stream would be used as a crossing point by the owner of the boots on the front porch. Given the lush conditions it would seem natural for there to be a path trampled in the grass to the log, and some sign of wear from crossings.
Great idea!
Thanks guys, that was all very helpful and encouraging! Expect an update with most of that stuff sometime tomorrow.
Jonathan
Ok, I redid some of the composition, and I think it looks a lot more balanced this way:
Things I fixed since then:
Moved willow tree forward and small tree backward a bit so the sun shines on the small tree to give better color variation
Brightened up the small tree’s leaves a tad so they stick out more
added a broken fence to the background
Things I need to fix:
water looks like crap, apparently I need to do more than rotate the texture
Log barnacles look pretty bad as well
Ferns look lonely under the willow
add lavender to get more color
Add some dead leaves on the ground
Did I miss anything?
I added a little bit of mist, but I am waiting for a build with Agus3D’s fantastic faked volumetric lighting, so if anyone wants to compile a windows 64 build, I can find the patch for you 
Honestly that would be fantastic if someone knows how to do that.
Any suggestions or critiques on my compositing? I tried to make it less over saturated green. Any tips on how to get good looking subtle camera scratches/dust?
Thanks,
Jonathan
For such a bright sunny day at near noon, the mist is unnatural, it would have burned off by mid-morning, Your earlier lighting was much more accurate in this regard. At most you could add some haze-effect on the distant trees, where there is enough air between them and the viewer for atmospheric perspective to have some visible effect. The mist makes it hard to judge the saturation adjustment, but mentally compensating for it being removed, it looks better to my eyes. Good edit on the willow, reminds me of Minnesota (I had one in my front yard there, very climbable).
The far trees on the horizon look too bright & saturated against the sky – contrast would make them appear darker, I think. Also there seems to be some alpha-fringing going on for those branches and leaves, makes them appear too thick and a bit fuzzy. If anything, against a bright sky, contrast & diffraction would make them appear thinner, the thinnest branches probably vanishing altogether (I don’t think Cycles does that kind of diffraction yet.)
I was going to comment on the last render about the lack of contrast, but for the new one that has a little bit of haze, the contrast is actually pretty good.
Whether you stick with the haze or not, the sky should be a lot lighter, not as dark as it is now.
And camera scratches and dust? That’s a myth in my opinion. No half decent camera would show them. Have a look at this.
http://kurtmunger.com/dirty_lens_articleid35.html
For such a bright sunny day at near noon, the mist is unnatural, it would have burned off by mid-morning, Your earlier lighting was much more accurate in this regard. At most you could add some haze-effect on the distant trees, where there is enough air between them and the viewer for atmospheric perspective to have some visible effect. The mist makes it hard to judge the saturation adjustment, but mentally compensating for it being removed, it looks better to my eyes. Good edit on the willow, reminds me of Minnesota (I had one in my front yard there, very climbable).
Hmm, what if I just lower the haze? I kinda like having it, but perhaps more subtle?
The far trees on the horizon look too bright & saturated against the sky – contrast would make them appear darker, I think. Also there seems to be some alpha-fringing going on for those branches and leaves, makes them appear too thick and a bit fuzzy. If anything, against a bright sky, contrast & diffraction would make them appear thinner, the thinnest branches probably vanishing altogether (I don’t think Cycles does that kind of diffraction yet.)
Yep, I know this is cause I’m using a PNG render right now for convenience sake. This is no big deal and will be fixed in the final. Basically because the trees image is larger than the render size so if I put them together in the compositor it wants to re-size the image to the wrong size. It’s just easier to do it in gimp later.
Whether you stick with the haze or not, the sky should be a lot lighter, not as dark as it is now.
Agreed, and I will fix that later on.
Depends on how realistic you want it to be. I live in a heavily forested area surrounded by trees and enough green to knock your eyes out,and the only time I see visible haze in summer months is if an actual fog rolls in overnight, and that burns off not long after the sun is high enough to clear the treetops. The clarity of the air is a hallmark of high summer in wooded areas like you show. The cumulus clouds in the sky are “fair weather clouds,” so there’s really no reason for the haze to persist, as it might if there was extensive cloud cover and high humidity.
If you want to keep the haze/mist in a setting where it would be more natural, think about changing the lighting to a low angle, like early morning. You’d have to change the sky image, but it might make a very dramatic image with the sun raking through the leaves at a shallow angle.
It’s up to you, of course, I’m just making observations. But the dialog does point out a fallacy in the “photorealistic” concept – The camera is not really Blender’s camera but your mind’s eye, your mental “darkroom,” and that is where the “photo” actually develops.
Seems I’ve run out of quotation marks!