Log Home Rendering

[gmay.240153]

I work for a small log home company and we've recently started rendering some of our models for our customers. The lack of tutorials on the subject of rendering in ACA 2009 is astounding. Especailly any that deal with log homes. My main problem is getting the terrain to come out looking right. I will gladly welcome any and all critiques to my work. This was done completely inside ACA 2009 with a little help from the Archvision pulg-in. Please let me know what you think.

[dzatto]

That's a pretty nice rendering. Just a few thoughts.

1. The windows need to be more transparent. They look solid.
2. The shadows look too dark to me. Do you use global illumination (GI) or final gather (FG) when you are rendering?
3. The materials seem to look a little cartoonish (if that's the correct word). I've had trouble with this on some renderings as well. It's just not realistic looking.

But honestly, it's a great rendering. And it definitely gets the point across to the client, which is what we do renderings for in the first place. Keep up the good work!

[gmay.240153]

Thanks for the comments dzatto. I've only been doing the rendering thing for a couple of months now. I agree, it looks quite cartoonish but I'm not exactly sure how to change that look. When I do a rendering like that I usually just set the sun to a location that illuminates the rendering enough to bring out some of the details. If you know of any lighting tutorials I'd like to hear about them. Once again thanks for the comments and the encouragement.

[david_peterson]

I'll agree with Dan here. In the past, I don't know of anyone that used the rendering materials that came with Autocad. Mainly cause they never looked good. I thought they fixed that when the included Viz as the render engine
The materials just look funny, to bright. Stained pine shouldn't be shinny.

You have a great model going and a nice view set up with a great background. Now comes the hard part in figuring out what to tweak to make it better and get the best results possible.

Great Job

[dzatto]

Thanks for the comments dzatto. I've only been doing the rendering thing for a couple of months now. I agree, it looks quite cartoonish but I'm not exactly sure how to change that look. When I do a rendering like that I usually just set the sun to a location that illuminates the rendering enough to bring out some of the details. If you know of any lighting tutorials I'd like to hear about them. Once again thanks for the comments and the encouragement.
Rendering is a lot of trial and error. Sometimes I'll set up a rendering and it looks awesome. So I think I've got it figured out. The next rendering I do I set it up identical to the previous one and it looks like ****. lol

I'll just throw out some things off the top of my head:

What's your sun intensity set to? I always keep it at 1. Also, type in DEFAULTLIGHTING on your camera view and make sure it's turned off (set to 0). Otherwise, you have 2 lighting sources in your view and it screws things up.

Play around with GI and FG. Usually, I turn GI on and leave FG set to auto. If you set it to on, it may help, but it will quadruple your rendering times. Sometimes it's not worth it.

I'd also play with the sun angles. It looks like it's hitting almost directly on the face of the building, which will wash it out a bit. Try changing the north direction of the sun (rather than rotating your model) so the shadows are different.

Are you using the SUN palette to insert a sun and location? I set up the sun for the actual location of the project (city and state), and time of day I want. I don't just arbitrarily throw a sun into the scene.

Let me know if any of this helps.

[rdaynard]

The reason your image looks "cartoonish" is because of the background. To get the most realistic results, you need to use the sun and sky illumination for the background. By default, this will force Final Gather, which is a good thing. Final Gather helps to smooth out and lighten the shadows. I find that the number of rays depends on the resolution size. The higher the resolution, the more rays you want. For an outdoor rendering, I don't use Global Illumination. I don't think it helps much and it can add to render times. I would also change the camera postion and angle. Try to think of the rendering as a photograph that you might take yourself. Right now it looks like you took the picture from a tree. I would move the camera lower to the ground, say, 6'-0" and set the target looking up. Set the camera to more of a perspective angle rather than an elevation and move it away from the house to a postition that allows you to get the entire house in the picture with some space on either side, but make sure the camera lens length is between 35-50 mm. You should also find better textures. Most of what comes with Autocad are not seamless, have no bump maps, and are low resolution. I would also be more careful with the scale of your objects. Your wine glasses look to be about 18" tall.

With all that said, it looks good for someone just starting out. If you could see some of my early renderings, you'd probably laugh. Like dzatto said, it's a lot of trial and error.

[gmay.240153]

Thanks for all of the feedback. When I have a few spare minutes I plan on trying some if not all of the suggestions that have been thrown out there. I look forward to more. The best way for me to learn is to do it, laugh at it, then do it again (repeat as necessary).

[dzatto]

Rdaynard has a good point. I usually use sun and sky illuminated for my backgrounds and it comes out nice. However, I have also used a background JPG image and it still didn't look cartoonish. Maybe that's becauxe I turned FG on instead of leaving it auto? Not real sure, but I know it can be done with a JPG as a background image.

[neje]

Ditto to the comments here. Great effort for a few months experience.
I abandoned a real background to get sky & illlumination going but I leave GI & FG alone at this point (not that I don't want to explore them).
I use Lighting Units 2 (international), sun at .2 to .5 and Sky & Illumination to 3 to 3.5
These settings will give you softer shadows and more realistic lighting.
Thats about all I've learnt to change at this point.

Get the camera angle down
Ditch the furniture - makes it look like a dolls house.
Modelling is good.
Add bump to roof? I often use the same map if I don't have a bump map. I'm sure B&W work better but it still works. Stone especially needs bump.
Should the immediate ground be paving?
Double up on the timber testure to balcony and turn one vertically to use on the posts & other uprights.

Altogether a real good effort.
I can identify with the comment about producing some real (funny) pic's early on.
Well done.

[gmay.240153]

Once again I thank every one for their comments. I am taking the advice of all and trying different combinations using FG and lighting combos. When I get something, I'll post it. I'm sure we could all use a good laugh. Thanks again.

[gmay.240153]

Thanks to everyone for all of their comments and guidance. This is my latest rendering. I would appreciate any critiques and of course any compliments. Thanks again.

[dzatto]

Looking good. I especially like the grass in the foreground. Is that a picture or a rendered material?

The shadows still look too dark to me, which is making the rendering look unrealistic. Especially at the guardrails.

It looks good, though. The logs don't look as cartoonish as the first rendering. Keep up the good work. :beer:

[gmay.240153]

Thanks, I'm having trouble getting the shadows soft enough to look real. I'll take any advice you've got. The "grass" is a jpg with a bump map.

[neje]

I think that looks much better. If you can get some garden bed into the garden rather than grass.
For the shadows I found (and I'm still working on it) you need Sky & Illumination to get lighter shadows.
I have sun set on .25 and Sky + Illum on about 3.5 with variation.
I don't yet use GI and my Lightingunits are 2 - not sure if that makes a difference to my numbers. I think only for lights not sun.
Well done.

[rdaynard]

Looks much better! Is your background set to "Sun & Sky Illumination" or just "Sky Background"? Also make sure your Final Gather is turned on and your rays are between 500-1000. You can also adjust the softness of the shadows under the sun properties.

[gmay.240153]

Thanks for the compliment. My background is set to sun and sky, my lighting unit is set to 1, and I've made no changes to any of the rendering settings. I just used the "Presentation" preset in ACA. I'll give your suggeestions a try and let you know how it comes out. Thanks again.

[jay.80870]

Great improvement over the first one. Keep up the great work!

Thanks
Jay