Kitchen Design Concept - Critique Welcomed!

[imauserwiththisname]

Greetings All,

Please take a look at this kitchen designed in SolidWorks and rendered in KS9. I recently picked up a copy of 2020 Design Live which will probably make the modeling portion significantly easier, but I'm a product engineer by trade, so SolidWorks is my comfort zone  .

I got too lazy regarding fixing the image in the window to have a better matching perspective and my client wanted the images ASAP, so I had to submit as seen below. Please do your best to disregard the perspective of what lies outside the windows—this is a client supplied image of what is actually beyond this wall in their home and they insisted it be included, but would not supply anything beyond this one image.

I'm actively seeking out critique as I continue to build my interior rendering skills, based on lots of experimenting and watching some of the amazing community generated material graph tutorials—I'm partial to the almighty Will Gibbons as he explains things in a way that I can easily absorb.

Thank you for taking the time to check it out and fire away on what you'd do differently if so inclined,
Lookwright

[cango]

first great job. lots of work behind all that.

I'm struggling myself with too perfect painted surfaces (as it is easy in 3D, of course) But working as a interiors carpenter, I know no such thing exist ;-)
So, I would try to - lightly - make that gray paint a bit more alive, so to speak. Not through imperfections per se, but some sort of texture to the paint.

Just a curious question, since it is an actual real life project (I assume) the handles on the drawers - why in the middle? What kind of stone is it on the tops? (I assumed it was chosen by the customer, or is it  a "stone") 

[imauserwiththisname]

Hey Cango,

Thank you for your input!

You're dead on regarding the paint needing more life. Next go round I will add some texture maps to get more life into the casegoods. This is definitely one of those details that I overlooked while being so absorbed in getting the lighting right.

Regarding the drawer handles going dead center—client request—something along the lines of "my current handles are centered so that's what I want." Having worked as a finish carpenter during what seems like a lifetime ago, I learned that the customer is always right when it comes to these minute details!

The top is using a texture map of the actual quartz slab that the client purchased from a local stone vendor. This again was a client request and they only provided one skewed image with camera flash hot spots, so I tweaked it to the best of my ability to get what you see in the images. I wasn't entirely happy with the outcome as I feel it looks a bit too much like plastic. If any of you material power users have insight on how to get a better stone slab result, I'm all for taking the time to learn.

Thanks again,
Lookwright

[cango]

Regarding slab material, my tip would be to check the youtube tuts on materials - there are several - and you pick up bits and pieces here and there. Keyshot's way of handling the materials are "easy" (once you get into them) and I specially like the way you can with only one texture diffuse jpg, make bump and so forth.

regarding the paint on the doors etc - I assume they would not be hand painted, right? (the final project I mean). A slight bump map with brush strokes would - in that case - give it more "life".

On a side note - No, customers are not always right :-) But I surely do as they wish. ; -)

[imauserwiththisname]

Greeting again Cango,

I'm definitely deep into the YT tutorials for creating materials—my question was more along the line of how to make the stone material seemingly more realistic, but the more I viewed some client's granite tops today, the more I realized it really is a hard shiny plastic looking material when all is said and done.

The casegoods would most likely be sprayed, so there would be a very fine texture finish that could be achieved even with one of KS's stock maps... going to give it a shot next time around.

And yeah, you nailed it again! Rarely are they right in my world, but in their world they always are... and their world is where the checks come from, so I bite my tongue and nod and nod and nod!

Regards,
Lookwright

[HermanCarlsson]

Nice start : )
The first thing that I would recommend would be to set it up so that your materials catch the reflections from the windows. Now all those flat areas, worktops and floor and so on, that should get nice reflections from the windows are really dull. So, add light/reflection from the outside and make sure your materials are reflective with some nice gloss and reflection maps. 
Keep up the good work!

[imauserwiththisname]

Greetings Herman,

Thank you for your response, it is much appreciated!

Your insight about reflections from the light coming through the windows is spot on! This scene is definitely lacking in that regard and I think it would benefit greatly from that—this is exactly the critique Ive been looking for since the client is happy with it regardless and I get so caught up in some of the other details that I didn't even think about this aspect!

I am going to do some experimenting per your suggestion and will post the results when I have a chance. I recently updated computers and now have the speed of GPU rendering available, so I will hunker down and get to work on this—not much else to do these days! 

Warm regards,
Lookwright

[KristofDeHulsters]

Good job man! Looks like an expensive kitchen! One thing that threw me of immediately that wasn't mentioned yet is the outdoor wall. Even though you can't get around the backplate being used because of client restrictions, it seems that that outside wall has very little thickness. It also stands out in the cabinets on top. It looks like there is no wall at all there. It would have in both places a 5" thick wall. I marked it in the picture attached. Another thing that would help make that part look more realistic is adding a little bit of color to your glass (and maybe some more thickness to the glass itself).

Just out of curiosity: did the client want these windows behind the cupboard up there? It's a very strange design feature and kind of strange as people living across from them will be able to look at their kitchen stuff!

Anyway, I hope it helps! Let me know if you have more questions!