Placka (Old Town Athens)

Artwork Focused Critiques
#1

I decided to have a go at this scene because it would help develop my texturing skills, something I have little experience of, usually using blender for product modelling and design. It came about after a trip to Athens where I managed to grab a few hours to look around. I loved the Plaka area, the Café culture and steep narrow alleyways. The character of the old buildings was fabulous. Trying to recreate the same sun baked character has been difficult and took a lot more work than expected.

The scene is modelled around this one camera view so there is nothing on the back of the buildings. It’s lit with one Sun light to cast the shadow’s, One Hemi for a slight fill and Ambient Occlusion. I have no experience of lighting outdoor scenes. It has 841,179 vertices, which is at about the limit of usability on my machine. It’s rendered with Blenders internal.

You can see the development of the scene in the Work In Progress thread.
Your thoughts on this project would be appreciated.

Regards
Rob

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/r.burke2/rab3d/athens/street17.jpg

#2

congratulations! fantastic work. 5 stars! :yes:
it would be great to see it without jpeg-compression, which seems to have left some artefacts in some areas. and… i would not want to use the spiral stairs. even steeper than the stairs at this years BConf :eyebrowlift:. also, perhaps some more variation on the green of the plants and perhaps a slightly different lightning (perhaps a yellowish / orange fill light? or just some postpro?) could be good. oh, and what about a worn out texture for the green door?
but that’s just nitpicking…
good work!

#3

oh, i just realized that this isn’t in the finished projects. so, focused critique here we go. :eyebrowlift:
what about some global illumination?
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual/PartV/Pseudo-Global_Illumination
in addition you could add a large scale spot-light set to irregular shadow-buffer with “only shadow” for the sharp shadows of the sun. http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/blender-243/irregular-shadow-buffer/
i already mentioned the green door. some worn out texture would be great
the stones behind the chairs could be a bit more bumpy.

but all in all, i would think it’s almost finished.

#4

Some critique is that the marquise front edge looks very stiff.

Tha red chairs and green door doesn’t have anything else than a plain color (atleast thats what it look like), they should have a worn out look where they meet the ground.

There are no reflection map or mirror map in the windows.

The stone floor edge where the chairs are needs alot more love to it.

Thats all I can think of for now.

Great work.

#5

very nice, I would add a little weathering to the steps and mountain in the back

#6

Thanks all for the comments. I have added better stonework to the steps and cafe area, more detail to the green door and a reflection on the glass, plus a few minor ones.

I have already spent too much time on this one, so I have posted the updated image in Finished Projects.

Thanks again
Rob