Villa PM

Gladd you got some use out of the model John. I really like the mood of your renders and the quality is very high. The only thing I'm not so keen on is the amount of post production, but that's just a matter of personal taste - I like to do as much in 3D as possible - and doesn't detract from technical proficiency evident in your work.

Thanks for your kind words Mr. Hier, well I tried..:) The only added thing to the raw render was the trees and sky as well as the people. Did also a little Colour balance to enhance the overall mood of the evening in addition to the light glares.

Gladd you got some use out of the model John. I really like the mood of your renders and the quality is very high. The only thing I'm not so keen on is the amount of post production, but that's just a matter of personal taste - I like to do as much in 3D as possible - and doesn't detract from technical proficiency evident in your work.

David Hier, Indeed great model and render. I did two renders of it too..you can check it out on my profile and let me know what you think! Cheers!

I appreciate that. What I meant is that the lighting produced by the gamma corrected HDRI never seems to match the normal gamma HDRI used for the background - so the lighting of the model makes it look like it doesn't belong in the scene. I could be doing something wrong though.

Yes, it does mess up the image, hence it's used only for lightning, another version of background (could be the same HDRi but with normal gamma) needs to be put into environment. Or changed in post-production.

But I don't like this solution, although many use it. I lower the gamma of HDRi for shadows (bertrand's technique) and use it as pure light for the scene.

I've tried that before and although you can improve the shadows it seems to mees up the rest of the lighting so that it doesn't match the backplate. Thanks for the link - the images and the architecture are superb. I think I've seen quite a few of the photos in Icon magazine.

Good to know Thea allows the combination of IBL and Physical Sun. Octane for instance didn't. But I don't like this solution, although many use it. I lower the gamma of HDRi for shadows (bertrand's technique) and use it as pure light for the scene. You're right, they use such angles...some are better, but I don't find any of them particulary attractive, mediocre photos. http://www.ultimasreportagens.com/ Check these for inspiration, I find them among the best of contemporary architecture photographers.

Thanks for the advice. Funny that you should pick up on the camera angles. On the one hand I think my poor photography skills need addressing (maybe a photography course?) as I think they are holding me back. On the other hand my angle choices are based on these photos: http://www.contemporist.com/2012/01/09/villa-pm-by-architrend-architecture/#more-40673 Creating a realistic setting was definitely a problem for me. I'll have to work on that for future renders. Lighting was done using a mix of HDRI and Thea's sun (the HDRI provides about 90% of the lighting). I only added a low power sun as I didn't think the shadows were strong enough. Maybe a different HDRI would have worked better. Although these renders are unbiased I did run some quick (15min) biased renders in order to get AO and alpha passes etc. I'm still learning what all the biased settings do, so I'm not very confident with biased rendering. When it comes to HDRIs, Thea actually tends to render faster when only using IBL. That comes in really handy when I need a quick product image as I can use a studio HDRI (with no additional lighting) and get a clean unbiased render in as little as 20 minutes.

I saw a review from Sandro on Ronen Bekerman's site which got me interested.

Yeah, it was a great article and his Carapicuiba House renders are stunning.

I'll rather continue discussion here ;- ). Thank you for brief explanation David, it seems Thea does have the advantage against others, I saw a review from Sandro on Ronen Bekerman's site which got me interested. Did you try using HDRi to light your scene ? That's what I am most interested it. How the unbiased renderers handle them. I remember using them with Octane render to better results than I got with Vray ( I fight great noise when using HDRi in Vray, the times go so up I might as well use unbiased even then). For your renders, I like the second the most. The contrasts suits it. I think the scene would benefit from different environment, more trees (even if it's not reality) to hide otherwise rather ugly surroundings. The modern white structure would stand out more. The glass would also get nice reflections. And try the HDRi to light it ;- ) ! Good luck Last thing, try to get more natural perspectives. Like a real photographer would stand there, the first image has camera placed too high. The dynamic composition doesn't suit the building, and looks like the usual random rotation at 3D.

Have you got a link to your render?

Have you got a link to your render?

dear david, i have re-render ur model.hope u dont mind. pls check it out. regards, muck.

Thanks for the feedback. I think that you are deffinately right about the contrast issue. I did the post-pro with my monitor calibrated for print and I forgot that most people tend to have their screens set up to be brighter and less saturated. I'll make sure I sort that out for future renders. Thea has come on a long way since it's release and working on scenes like this with Interactive Render is a real pleasure.

I would personally punch up the exposure and contrast more. That aside, I like the renders very much. I forgot what Thea is. Will have to look that up!