Playing to an audience of one

[HaJotCe]

Not sure if I’m actually done. Thought about a title for this piece for long. Then I came across this old David Soul album…

[Fritz131]

I like this. I like it because all the buildings are different and well detailed. The guitar looks good and most of your person looks good but for some reason I feel (maybe it’s just me?) that he’s got almost like a wrinkle or a crease where the mesh is bulging out under his eye, to the right of his nose. In looking closer it looks like the cheekbone is too far back, but again, that might just me.

Other than that, I love the piece. Keep up the good work!

[DeadParrot (Locky V)]

You’ve got a decent amount of variety in the detail, well done. It’s so easy just to rely on one or two textures and cheat your way through, but here you’ve done a great job of making each building its own.

I wouldn’t call this done tho (but its totally up to you). There are a number of things that could be addressed if you wanted to ramp this render up a few notches.

• First, and most important is that everything is waaay too perfect. The textures are too clean and the windows too perfectly shaped. The buildings look like you were going for an older style of architecture, and so buildings that have been around as long irl definitely have some wear and tea. It not only adds character, but adds to the overall atmostphere of the image when you put in some ageing. Dirty those bricks up some. Show signs of a life well lived.
• Is there a specific reason you went for black and white? It does hide some colour nasties, but if all you’re left to play with for mood is value, then perhaps structure your lighting so that the viewer’s eye is lead around the image in the way you want it to be. Because right now, with everything so evenly lit, theres no real visual interest in the image. Try looking at some black and white photography for inspiration. Then go into PS or Gimp and adjust the render in post.
• The pose of the musician is off. Having played guitar for twenty years, I can tell you that the instrument becomes like another limb. The way you have posed your character looks like he has never picked up the instrument before. If you look at pose reference for guitarists, you can see the guitar body is tucked in as close as possible to the torso. The back bottom edge of the guitar’s body sits near or in the fold where the leg and torso meet.

The fretting hand (the one on the guitars neck) should look relaxed. The palm in a slightly arched pose with the thumb around halfway up the neck. You’ll earn bonus points if you can make the musician look like he’s in the middle of the most amazing performance of his life. It’d be all about emoting.

• There are no reflections on the water. It’s just a black void. I think you’ll find adding a decent water / reflective shader will open up the scene more. At the very least we should be able to see light relfections of the buildings and the boat, as well as highlights from any ripples / small waves.

I don’t mean to burst your bubble. This is an impressive start. But if you want to push it from an ok render to a brilliant render, than thats where you can start to focus on. Good luck and keep at it.

[HaJotCe]

Thank you for your critics.
The effect under the eye may be an artifact created by jpg or black and white conversion. The original picture in color looks smoothly. The only bad effects that I can see are the shirt cuffs underneath his wrists…

[HaJotCe]

Thank you for your comprehensive criticism! I see a lot of work ahead

@DeadParrot

You’ve got a decent amount of variety in the detail, well done. It’s so easy just to rely on one or two textures and cheat your way through, but here you’ve done a great job of making each building its own.

All houses use unique testure (etc.) maps. No cheating at all. At least not there

@DeadParrot

I wouldn’t call this done tho (but its totally up to you). There are a number of things that could be addressed if you wanted to ramp this render up a few notches.

• First, and most important is that everything is waaay too perfect. The textures are too clean and the windows too perfectly shaped. The buildings look like you were going for an older style of architecture, and so buildings that have been around as long irl definitely have some wear and tea. It not only adds character, but adds to the overall atmostphere of the image when you put in some ageing. Dirty those bricks up some. Show signs of a life well lived.

You’re right. And thanks for the link. I already asked myself how I could age the buildings and came up with something not looking realistic. The only thing I came up with was the greenish moss close to the water. I will look for ideas in the pictures.

@DeadParrot

• Is there a specific reason you went for black and white? It does hide some colour nasties, but if all you’re left to play with for mood is value, then perhaps structure your lighting so that the viewer’s eye is lead around the image in the way you want it to be. Because right now, with everything so evenly lit, theres no real visual interest in the image. Try looking at some black and white photography for inspiration. Then go into PS or Gimp and adjust the render in post.

I am not sure if the mood looks better in black and white or in color. I have done the color conversion in Gimp and not only desaturated the image but applied curves and USM. There are not many lights in the scene. It is mostly lit by the HDR background. I do not have the impression that I need to hide some color issues I should possibly go with color.

@DeadParrot

• The pose of the musician is off. Having played guitar for twenty years, I can tell you that the instrument becomes like another limb. The way you have posed your character looks like he has never picked up the instrument before. If you look at pose reference for guitarists, you can see the guitar body is tucked in as close as possible to the torso. The back bottom edge of the guitar’s body sits near or in the fold where the leg and torso meet.

• The fretting hand (the one on the guitars neck) should look relaxed. The palm in a slightly arched pose with the thumb around halfway up the neck. You’ll earn bonus points if you can make the musician look like he’s in the middle of the most amazing performance of his life. It’d be all about emoting.

On my reference photo, a guy is sitting on stage like my actor. The linked image looks quite different though. I will update him accordingly.

@DeadParrot

• There are no reflections on the water. It’s just a black void. I think you’ll find adding a decent water / reflective shader will open up the scene more. At the very least we should be able to see light relfections of the buildings and the boat, as well as highlights from any ripples / small waves.

The river uses the same water texture as I used in my bridges post (https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?407523-The-two-bridges&p=3103367&highlight=#post3103367). I suppose, the missing reflections stem from missing light at river level. Maybe I could fake some bubbles around the rocks on the sides and see, if a lit window would provide some more interesting view.

@DeadParrot

I don’t mean to burst your bubble. This is an impressive start. But if you want to push it from an ok render to a brilliant render, than thats where you can start to focus on. Good luck and keep at it.

Thanks again. I try to get better with every render Additionally, I am trying to use an AO pass to improve the depth impression further. I will post my updated image later.