Thornhill Manor

#1

Hi everyone,

This is my WIP Thornhill Manor, done in 3ds max and vray.

The original model was done in a very realistic style, but then I decided I wanted to try a completely different style, going for something more cartoonish, so this is the rework.

The final piece is going to have a mysterious green fog spreading around, but this is a rendering without it to get a better sense of the composition and model. The windows in the house also need some life behind them, which will be added soon.

Thanks in advance for any comments :slight_smile:

#2

I did some work on the mist, using vray environment fog and this is what I’ve come up with so far:

I think this might need some more levels of noise on it to make it look more natural though, but I think I’m happy with the basic shape of it.

However once I saw this preview I realized I wasn’t happy with the color palette or the composition. I did some quick color adjusting in photoshop and came up with this which I think is a much better colorway:

I played around with some composition guidelines and will upload a revised preview later on.

Any opinions on the mist and the project in general will be very welcome :slight_smile:

#3

Looks cool. I like both of them. I’ll be following.

#4

Thanks ArtisHard, I’ll keep posting updates :slight_smile:

#5

Did some more work on the composition, fog and lighting.

I need to add more randomness to the edges of the fog and more detail to the terrain. I also need to change the backplate and probably make the fog a little bit more dense. The mysterious lighting for the fog still needs work as well.

Comments much appreciated :slight_smile:

#6

New update with a lot of work done on the terrain and a camera I like better.

#7

I feel wrong to see the horizon but also the moon. In my point of vue, you should choose midnight.

#8

I wanted to play with the idea of a very low moon like you see in the supermoon photographs, more of a twilight picture than full midnight.

#9

Yeah I’m diggin the twilight thing. It might pay to add more dark to the gradient across your sky.

Something like these to consider.

Also it looks like the sun just set over that hill. Usually there’s pink, purple and orange around then. I don’t know if it’s something you want or not. Something like these…

You don’t need it necessarily though. You could go with something like this…

I suspect that’s photoshopped but it still looks good. And you’re going stylized so it shouldn’t be confusing.

The fog looks good. I don’t know if you would want to create some more call outs to the fog though, maybe some low clouds to pull the sky in a bit and make it look more claustrophobic, or some glow around the lights so they look blurry.

Something like the clouds at the left of this picture cutting off the mountains.

Or these lights.

Also you lost the path a little bit which gave a nice line to follow up to the house. I don’t know how you want to bring that back in but it was a nice element.

#10

Thanks for all the comments and references ArtIsHard! I do want to add more fog and cloud effect, I’m looking into Houdini to see if I can get that done there or just keep playing with vray’s environment fog. I love the reference for the haunted house btw, I really like the effect on the blurry lights, but aside from the moon, there aren’t really any places right now where that would work, I’ll think about whether I could add some other interesting light sources.

As for the path you are right I’ll definitely make it more obvious. Hopefully I’ll be able to play around for a bit with this tonight and add some updates.

#11

Here’s the newest update. I really like the way the fog turned out. I think this one is nearly done :slight_smile:

Comments appreciated as always.

#12

Hell yeah. Looking good.

#13

I think it rare that the moon can be on the same side as the sunrise. Is it just possible?

#14

Like in the sky at the same time? That happens pretty frequently.

#15

I think it looks fantastic! I am hard pressed to find anything that really needs fixing. So I will list the most minor of things.

I found if difficult to see the pathway up to the house. But that might be due to the image being small on my screen. So take that with a grain of salt.

Additionally, the tree branches look a bit off to me. Maybe they curves in weird ways? or it might be that they seem too thick before reaching the edge of the branch. I can’t put my finger on it, mind you I might just be crazy, i’m not a professional.

Are you thinking about adding any more patches of fireflies?

I love that all the windows has this warm welcoming glow, expect for the one room with someone standing by the window. That kind of sickly green definitely does a good amount of visual story telling. I get this feeling that the house is safe but that figure by the window is dangerous. Not sure if that is what you were going for or a happy accident, but either way, looks great! Keep it up, and goodluck, I hope you are able to bring it to where you are truly satisfied with it.