Log Home Rendering

[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.

[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