Re: Interiors of Higher-end Residential Units
Wow, thanks guys! That's a whole lot more encouragement than I ever expected! Lemme respond point for point, they're all definitely valid:
Strat, et al -- amazing how I've gotten so used to looking at this material, but you're right, now held up against reference the scale is way off. I wish there was a way to have random offsets in the max tile map, 'cause I also hate how you can see the running bond ends lining up at every other row. But it's the easiest way I've found to do wood floors and change the wood map to the client's specs.
Mohamed -- thanks, I should own up to the fact that this was by no means a solo effort, I had two modelers on our team working with me preparing much of the geometry. I would never have gotten these done so quickly without them.
Jonathan -- the glows are the only post work that I did in Photoshop. I grabbed the alpha outside the window as a selection, then feathered it by 30-40 pixels, filled the selection with a glow color, switched the layer to screen blend mode and adjusted the opacity to my liking. I also did quick lasso selections of the lampshades and followed the same routine, with a smaller feather and warmer color.
Jason -- bump on the wood is a great thought, it would help diffuse those massive spec reflections from the exterior.
Ant -- yerright, I struggle with soft fabric-like materials in V-Ray and still I can't get them to look right. I should peep some tutorials on the subject.
Iain -- I could not agree with you more on the technical vs. aesthetic dilemma. I can't stand the stodgy, conservative New England design -- no color anywhere, just muddy beiges and browns -- it completely lacks any dynamics. I felt like I was starting out with one hand tied behind my back. Granted that's no excuse, someone of more skill and experience than me could no doubt have massaged this into a much more pleasing image, and slowly I think I'm understanding better how that's done. It's a great point, and as someone who went to college for computer art I think one of the greatest tragedies in our field is artists who lose sight of the art over implementing a new routine / software feature. I've been guilty of it far too often.
That's what really burns me about the way VizMasters uses the work of Neoscape and other industry greats to say "Hey, look at me! Now if you shell out for the same software they used, your stuff will look this good too!" It's a complete fallacy, and anyone who really works in our business knows and respects the incredible raw talent it takes to pull off great visualization -- and it has absolutely NOTHING to do with what application you're using.
In fact encouraging that kind of thinking only hurts us. We all deal with the clients that think we just push the render button. They see a fantastic image and have no concept that we all start with the same empty grid. It's really a shame to see a highly-trafficked industry website promote this kind of thinking to make a buck, because we all desperately need to get over it.
Sorry I got off on a rant there. But needless to say, your point is well taken.
Thanks again, everyone!
Shaun
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