Hello all! This is my first image on here, and also the first image I’ve submitted to any forum for critique. Obviously, this is still a work in progress, but I need your help!
The scene is based off of a modern times, “small-town” village during Christmas time (Google “quebec city christmas”), and the plan is to have the center building be labeled as “Scrooge and Marley’s,” with most of the lights focusing on the other buildings and leaving the center one in the dark.
To Do List:
Add small Christmas Tree’s next to some of the buildings AND strings of lights
Darken the middle building more OR brighten the other buildings more
Put snow on the mini-roofs on the large buildings
Add a window to the far right building on the roof part
Add the “Scrooge and Marley” sign
I need your help! Do you think that it: -Is too orange-tinted?
-Needs people/cars?
-Needs texture-fixing?
-Sucks altogether? (I hope not)
Thanks so much if you’ve read through this! Critique away, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
(Side note: the lamp in front of Scrooge’s is supposed to be broken)
-The lights seem like they should be MORE orange, but the darker areas should be more blue or more purple.
-I like the idea of having the center house in the dark. Maybe you could back it up some, too, so it’s a little bit in shadow as well? I would add some depth to the image!
Right now it’s kind of flat and compositionally centered. Do something more interesting with your composition! Add some depth…maybe some foreground stuff? (Bushes or trees maybe?)
-Is your camera still at the default 35mm? You might want to either make it lower or higher to add or remove depth. Play with it
-The road looks bland and untextured compared to the rest of the scene. Add some cracks and more texture! If it’s covered in snow, add some subtle foot prints that have been filled in some maybe? Also maybe add some grooves in the snow where cars have driven?
-Get rid of the street lamp in front of the Scrooge and Marley building. It’ll be in the way of the focus of your image! I realize it’s broken, but I think it might be stronger if you move it slightly out of the way of the house or remove it altogether!
-Add some bounce lighting! Also, make the dark areas darker, and make the shadows slightly softer.
Really great so far! I can’t wait to see where this goes!
Looks great so far. To make it greater, you might want to:
more orange
perhaps make the Scrooge and Marley building shorter. It’s already shorter than the buildings beside it, but increasing shortness sets it apart more
road is too flat and untextured
more foreground activity
the “broken” lamp is hard to notice (didn’t even see it until reading the side note). It’s probably too small to make it more obvious that it’s broken, so removing it might work better.
the whole image looks very “flat”, with the buildings all the same distance from the camera. Angle the camera slightly one way or the other.
Yes, I definitely agree it looks too flat, I have added lamp posts to the foreground, and I’m in the process of adding yellow bright planes behind the windows to make them glow from the inside. I moved the house back, shrunk it a bit, toyed with the camera focal length, and finally I’m starting to decorate! The plan is to string up some garland from the near lamp posts to the far ones across the street, then make the foreground out of focus
One problem though, when I render the layers with the nodes and everything, the glowing layers are stuck directly on top of the “Render Layer,” regardless of which one is in front. Is there a fix to this, or is it completely normal, and I’d have to find a work around? Here’s what I’m talking about: Here!
Also, how do you change the shadow softness? Thanks again, this has already helped me a lot!
