Terrace Covering

[PhilippeV8]

Any tips for improvement before this goos to print ?

[bronson]

Wow beautiful!

A bit digital look.
If possible pls improve the detail especially on the steel profiles and the wall texture.

Really love the water and environment.

Btw, is that the retractable fabric roof?

Bronson

[Speedster]

Beautiful!  But it depends on the purpose of the image in print and what you are trying to sell.  I find my eye goes directly to the large white "block" top-left, which is distracting from the focal point. Maybe a comp would be in order, by changing the lighting a bit just to tone down the white?
Bill G

[edwardo]

Nice, is this ALL rendered (like, all geometry?)

If the purpose of this image is making me want a holiday (in the sun), then it has worked!

Ed

[PhilippeV8]

Thnx folks!
I'm trying to do some changes as suggested here.

This is 100% rendered, no backplate image.  It's the HDRI you see.  The shrubs in the background are flat panels with opacity map to "cut out" the plants.

I had some feedback from 'managers' here at work but, while remarks here on the forum were constructive .. the ones I got at work were not.  I've been messing with this all day and I do not feel like I've managed to make this any better. 

[PhilippeV8]

What do you guys think ... ?

[TpwUK]

Much better

Martin

[Angelo]

wow nice phillipe

[Jslowsky]

Using contrast can be your friend for scenes like this. I cropped your illustration because the subject of interest was in the center of the screen. I have added depth to your pool and felt you could improve the separation between the deck and the pool if you added a pool curb (the kind with the round bumper edge would look good). Almost all pools would have a tile edge on the water surface. All outdoor shadows are cool or have a temperature, none are black. I felt the shade needed to be darker to suggest its purpose (if it had a mesh material would be better). The furniture you are using is indoor and not outdoor, so if you would consider using something with a natural fiber frame with white canvas pillows would be more inviting. Glass is always tricky and I prefer to control them separately both in color and the amount of reflection. My 2 cents.

[valentin_valev]

I totally agree with Jslowsky! Try to apply some textures to the elements in the scene, combined with nice contrast ( not too much ) and after some post-processing it will be awesome. These wooden structures need some bump maps, so they can pop up. And last but not least, increase the samples so we can see better results. Keep it going, man!

[PhilippeV8]

Update:

1: wood ?
2: indoor furniture is correct, but that is intentional.  the marketing idea is to promote outdoor living ... extend your summer .. extend your living room to the outdoors ... hence the interior/exterior blending mix.
3: contrast .. I noticed I need to make my renders have less contrast than I would like because print does add a LOT (sometimes too much) of it.  So I set my images to my liking and before I pass them on to the DTP guys and the printers, I do a gamma correction of 1.20 in photoshop.  This way the final printed result matches much closer what I had/have on my screen.
4: concerning the covering: it is aluminium frame with verry little groves or detail in it, so the "flat" look ... I can't doo much about that.
5: the screen: .. it is fabric with very very small perforations, then clear-coated to make it water-proof again.  I have an opacity map which adds the perforations and I have spent >a lot< of time adjusting the translucent material for them.  Fabric "glows" when lit from (above)/behind ... but then again it must show enough shadow effect on the terrace and furniture ...
6: glass reflection: I tried to balance reflection and tint such that I do not show too much of the interior .. basicaly because there's not much detail in there to show.
7: format is squared just because in some cases they'll want to use or will have to use that.  I render the square, but in 99% of the cases the DTP guys will cut a portrait post-card format out of this render... which does look better indeed.

[TpwUK]

Every version seems to be getting better. I can't offer any advice on this one, my architectural rendering skills are naff at the best of times.

Martin

[Speedster]

The last image really "pops", and I would call it a day.  Perfect!

No marketing image stands alone on a gallery wall- there's always descriptive language and copy to enhance or support the image, and all must work in unison to be successful.  I'd love to see the image in context on the final print page!

But this thread also brought some ideas forward, at least for me. As a product designer, one of the most difficult, and often the most frustrating, issues is when to say "enough, already"! 

One of the most important rules in advertising is that "you sell the sizzle, not the steak".  What you have done in the last image is to sell a lifestyle, as enhanced by your product, not the product itself.  There's just enough focus on the covering (awning)  to plant your product, but the sense of a soft warm breeze blowing across the pool, and some nice chilled drinks, in a soft shade, is the important sell.

Another point has impacted my own thinking.  In a recent issue of Sound on Sound (a pro sound recording magazine from the UK- I also do recording), there's an interview with the great Sound Engineer Rob Kirwan, who produced and engineered the mind-blowing Irish singer/songwriter Andrew Hozier-Byrne's (known simply as Hozier) new album "Take me to Church".    In the interview, Rob said "The computer's capabilities are endless, but you don't necessarily need them...they invite you to endlessly postpone committing yourself..."

Most of my clients are CAD savvy, and know you can endlessly tweak a design, usually for the worse.  But at some point you have to say "enough already" and go to steel.  That's my job.

Good job!  And thanks for the gamma correction idea!  I've always wondered how to get to print without going darker.

Bill G

[PhilippeV8]

Well I ain't my own boss, so    I can't call it quits untill they tell me so ..
Honestly I'd rather have them stick with v1.0 which I find a more fun pool-setup.  With the step-stone-bridge and all ..which my colegues also liked a lot.  Not to mention that that setup was by far the most DIFFERENT from other terrace-covering-renders we have already ... and I mean SETUP on that, not style or feeling.  Its just that the pool and the window and the setup now look a lot similar to one of the other products we have, and I'm concerned some people will not notice the difference quickly enough.  But hey ... why would a marketing manager be called a manager if he would not in every case have some adjustments to enforce on each v1.0 you put on their desk.  I guess they'd otherwise have moral issues if they'd get their pay-cheque at the end of the month knowing that they were all "ow waauw, that looks awesome, lets use it as it is" ..

Oh well, guys, I do NOT want to sound bitter, cuz I'm not   I'm a kind and easy "I do what you tell me to do" kinda guy.  Just venting, that's OK, right (ask Carlos Mencia)

[Angelo]

i have an idea i am not sure if its a good one, bring the image in the big screen or distance yourself from the screen, does it capture the eye? i think then you know its enough, view it like in an art gallery.