Hackney Shed

[melviso]

Hello everyone :)


My latest work. This is my 3d rendition of the Hackney Shed designed by Office Sian Architecture.

I used only 3dsmax and Corona A6 for this piece. Textures are all handpainted and this is the raw render with no post processing done. No hdr image.The books are also handpainted using Viewport Canvas as well as the text on them (Had to come up with a workflow using the Spline Text tool and the Viewport canvas brush to paint text textures as Viewport Canvas does not have a Text tool in 3dsmax 2014).

[kahein]

Hello

I like the lighting and the mood.
For me it very realistic.
But the textures and the modelisation need more work.

[maru]

Yes, unfortunately I can also say that the quality of textures looks worse than in your earlier works. They look kind of blurry - maybe filtering is too strong, or maybe they are just low resolution?
Other than that I can only envy your patience and skill!

[melviso]

Thanks Kahein and Maru.

Thanks guys for the constructive criticism. Decided to redo the textures and up the res to make it look better if it means repainting it from scratch. Working on it now. Will repost when I am done.

.

[melviso]

Textures redone and now high resolution.

Still Raw render straight out of 3dsmax using Corona A6. No post processing. No hdr image. All textures are handpainted. No photo textures used.
Textures were handpainted using Photoshop and some textures using Blender 3d painting feature. I have been having problems with Viewport Canvas for some reason. Frequent crashes and also seems to be having gamma issues when saving out painted textures.
There is a workaround here:https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/3ds-max-forum/viewport-canvas-display-disparity-maybe-gamma-issue/m-p/6244836#M112797
Problem is sometimes this still saves out with details I have painted getting lost due to change in gamma even with the workaround. In order to save valuable time and not lose texturing work, I will have to stop using VC for now. Photoshop is great for texturing as well as Blender for 3d texture painting :}

[Juraj]

Imho we should crowd-source you a retail version, you're pushing Alpha6 for too long :- ) And send you some Rebus credits so you can finally render your artwork fully ! (You quite deserve it)

I think you place emphasis far too strictly on something that doesn't matter that much. Quality of your work lies in patience and detail, not "custom hand made painted" textures. Forget it, if there is perfect photo-sourced texture, use it. Substance ? Use it. Anything, doesn't matter. This codex imho hinders you.
Otherwise the imperfections of those pieces take away from what would otherwise be very nice, detailed and complete scene.

[melviso]

Thanks for the kind words Juraj :-)

I have been using Corona A6 to train myself to focus on the raw requirements towards achieving high quality work with some limitations or basic tools. It's like learning to sketch with a pencil before learning how to use a brush and paint for artwork. With the limitations, I have learnt a lot and tbh, I felt it was kinda cool to show work done with a older/free version. Alpha6 is old school now :)  I will get the latest Corona Version for future projects. It has way better features and working with it would be easier and more efficient.

You have a point about the textures thing and tbh, they take considerable time to paint and manage and time is money. I think I am taking a purist route and at the end what matters is the result.If something helps you work faster, easier and efficiently, use it. Reminds me of Alex Roman (The third and the Seventh) interview:
http://www.evermotion.org/articles/show/8268/alex-roman-i-love-architecture
where he talks about using premade models, some ppl find that unprofessional or some for originality sake, will make their own models. Also he talks about how painting improves one's skills as a cg artist and I have learnt a lot from painting textures and lighting my scenes without hdr. Helps you understand how textures, materials and light work with each other. I will definitely start using photo textures and hdr now. I think like you pointed out, it doesn't matter much. It's time to peddle back on the limitations and start using the brush and paint.

Thanks for the advice and constructive criticism :-)

[Juraj]

Exercising limitations can be quite good ( I for example avoid lot of plugins and stuff to keep my workflow simple and replicable in any time and software ), just don't get caught up more in the process than the result :- ) The result is what matter.

[melviso]

I completely agree.

Yep, lots of plugins can get sort of distracting. I also tend to keep my workflow simple makes things easier and manageable.

In reality, Clients really aren't particular about how the job is done. The result is what they are interested in. I think I got a bit carried away with workflows and techniques :-)