latest pj

[Max Lloyd]

Hi everyone.

This is my latest private job. Some friends of the family have just bought this place in Cobham, Surrey, UK and want to give it a face lift as well as some extension work to the side and round the back.

They have been amazed at the drawings I have produced in revit, so after todays pre-planning meeting, the client asked if I could do some rendering of the latest ideas. Who am I to say no. Well, its the same kind of format I have done before, but looks good all the same.

I have attached a piccie of the existing house for comparison. Just about to submit for planning then I will do the building regs (technical drawings) and probably a bit of site supervision. Keep you posted!

[Roger Evans]

Thank you for informing us
and the Inland Revenue
at the same time

Please make sure
you charge a
bundle for the bundle

I had a client recently who expected a whole house design for peanuts ..& got some guy to do it as well ... Can't wait to see the mess he makes of it

[Martin P]

Very nice rendering, and a nice private job to get too. I dont tend to get much more than garages and loft conversions as private work!! (I hate loft conversions - so does my boss thats why I get them!!)

[ejburrell67787]

Is that a flying car? ;-)

Personally I avoid PJs entirely... and can't see how you can find the time to do one such as that...!

Was the style change the clients idea? Looks like it involves a lot of what looks like superficial work but is possibly more complex - like taking all the tile cladding off the upper floor - is it in fact brick underneath to match the ground floor?

Elrond

[Max Lloyd]

I see eveyones on good form today!

The building is timber frame, and the client does not like the existing bricks or tile hanging. So the whole outer skin will be removed from the front and replaced. They had some fairly clear ideas on the front style.

There is substantial inner refurbishment as well as extensions to side and rear. Plus they want to re-landscape the front, railings and gates, and there is a lovely old stable block that they will re-furbish after. Basically they want to change everything, makes me wonder why they bought it really!

Have attached dwf's of existing and proposed.

[ejburrell67787]

Well it certainly looks grander after the alts! A lot more spacious inside too.

[Max Lloyd]

Well we have now got planning permission (finally) for the main house. And the stable block I mentioned earlier is now the current project.

I have done a few different variations for this as the client keeps changing their mind as to the future use of the building. However, I think this is the final design now as they are keen to get this renovated so they can move into it whilst they carry out the works to the main house.

I felt appropriate to be a bit more 'out there' with this design as its an older building and can carry a more modern twist whilst still maintaining its original charm.

I have rendered it entirely in Revit and broken my usual style to incorporate a background image. Since before Christmas, I haven't had a chance to play with Maxwell, but will be taking this into the beta version and playing with bump maps to see what I can come up with. I'll keep you posted!

Max.

[Roger Evans]

Very good Max ~ no need for Maxwell unless you want to

(I see that like me you have non low profile velux rooflights!!)

Cheers Roger

[Max Lloyd]

Hi Roger.

I actually took a little inspiration from one of your posts a while back where you had done a rear single storey extension. I really liked the glazing and dark framing you used and hope to use something similar here.

The client is really impressed with the design and images and hopefully construction will start in a matter of weeks.

In terms of the rendering, I agree, there is no need to use maxwell, its more for self-tuition. I'm quite surprised how good these have come out. They are the least 'accurender looking' images I have created so far and almost feel like some of the Vray images others have posted. Don't know what you guys think?

[Roger Evans]

I did notice Max looks good but apply for B Regs immediately if you haven't done so (part L) Also how are you doing the detail for roof overhang ? Mine projected 400mm you seem to do it at about 150mm? Add a channel drip if you can

Renders~ One of the best Accurenders I've seen can you explain / share
Q? patchy brickwork how?
Roof Tile?
Background image?

Not too fond of the grass (Chris Zoog has it smack on)

[Max Lloyd]

Thanks for the tips Roger. I will be looking at building regs and details imminently.

I agree Chris' grass looks great....then so does the whole of his images!

In terms of creating this render, I have attached 6 images showing the approximate path I took to achieve this look. From step 1 to final render probably took me about 2 hours

Step 1: Find a view that you are happy with.

Step 2: I then did a render at 300dpi (3-4 mins render time?) with some standard materials assigned (this isn't using my latest template, just the standard stock AccuRender settings). Take a look and critique!

Step 3: Easy in this case as it looks so awful! First thing to do is 'adjust the image' in the render settings. I have now used brightness -0.72, contrast 0.32 and indirect 0.92 to try and 'dull' the image down. This is probably the single biggest improvement that can be made to AccuRender images.

Second most important thing is the materials. Fairly happy with the glass, although at this point the reflections are useless as there is nothing to reflect other than the sky! Updated the brickwork, roof tiles and timber colours / maps.

Step 4: Ok, I'm fairly happy with the building now, so its time to start playing with the landscape. My first consideration is the lighting angle which I almost always adjust to suit specific views and rarely get bogged down in reality. Secondly i thought I would try a background image and see how it looks. I used it as a planar image, although I tried cylindrical and spherical but not happy as the resolution of the image broke down as it was being stretched round too far. Even with a background image, you should set the colour of the sky to something that roughly matches the bulk of the sky colour in the image. This means that any reflections will make more sense. Don't just use the regular cyan colour!

Step 5: Happy with the sky, time to start adding vegetation. I added some hedges (just a solid extrusion) around the building and used a new material map to what I usually use. Sub-regions to identify gravel, paving and edging details to the front. Added some trees around the building to frame it. At this point, I did adjust the direction of sunlight to try and get better definition onto the trees. If using a reflective glass, consider putting trees, features outside of your camera view to give something for the reflection to pick up on. If the image had been straight on to the glass, these features will obviously need to be directly behind the camera position.

Step 6: Add more vegetation, play with different trees / plants in different seasons and locations. I would place a plant, then do a 75dpi region raytrace around it (takes about 30 seconds) to see that I am happy with it. If not, change the plant, the season whatever to get what you want. Start to group the plants into some sort of sensible arrangement.

I made a few tweaks to the building just adding extra detail to bring up the believability of it.

That's basically it!

I have attached the maps for the brickwork in the next reply, roof tiling, hedge, grass and sky. Otherwise its standard AccuRender materials. i think it was Scott that recently suggested making 'huge' material maps using photoshop. This is a great idea (although I haven't done it yet) so that you get less of a tiling effect.

Hope this helps.

Max.

[Max Lloyd]

material maps.......

[Lashers]

Pretty cool stuff Max! See you have gone legit with your name ha . . was it a traumatic experience?

[Max Lloyd]

I hated that (http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=31414) number after my name! Much better now.