Salk Institute

[bubs]

I threatened to try this a while ago, (some of you may recognize one of these from the WIP thread) and finally found myself with a bit of free time.
Used more of a 'teach myself Indigo' exercise than anything else, but as a complete amateur i'm really pleased with the results.

Everything modeled from scratch in SketchUP and I think (from memory) all the textures are custom from images.

Comments & advise always welcome!

Bubs

[wlf_alex]

I like it! Good job. And it is not worse than here:
http://www.evermotion.org/modelshop/sho ... /6475/0/0/

[bubs]

Thanks. That evermotion video was everywhere a while ago, and served as my main source of inspiration for quality. It seemed every site / blog I looked at about 3d viz had examples of great work using 3ds max and v-ray.... Since I own neither, (and am not likely to) and I was sure indigo could produce results with the same sort of quality, so I thought I'd have a go! A LOT of trial and error (especially on the water!) But I have to say I enjoyed the process, and I'm loving indigo even more for it! Now to try so.e original work!

[Headroom]

Very nice renders and not amateurish at all!

It's just that it takes us often longer to get to these results! Only we know, however, what time we spent working on a given project

[CTZn]

Great scenery !

[Zom-B]

A LOT of trial and error (especially on the water!) But I have to say I enjoyed the process, and I'm loving indigo even more for it! Now to try so.e original work!

Learning stuff the hard way takes time, but the knowledge about the render engine and materials etc. you gain are priceless! Nowadays most people are asking in Forums if problems appear instead of taking a few minutes and trying to solve them by them self...
So kudos for coming that far on this bumpy road

Regarding your scene I like the results a lot.But to push the output even further here two tipps:

- Best to see in "Scene 4.jpg" your floor is very bumpy, but seems to have same reflections inside scratched and damaged areas. To improve this look use a (high contrast) exponent map based on your bump map, to reduce reflection inside this scratches. Aply that texture to exponent channel and maybe also to fresnel scale channel. Another good approach is to use it a a blend texture between a reflective phong material (with very light or no bump mapping) and a diffuse material (that has all the bumpmapping).
That technique will also enhance your other rough but still reflective materials

- your sky replacement is quite obvious, like in "Scene 7.jpg" you clearly see aliased edges! Give Indigos alpha render mode a try, combined with some Aperture Diffraction you maybe can push the look even further. (AD glow gets recognized and saved properly by Indigos alpha rendering too !)

[OnoSendai]

Looks good.
The biggest problem for me is that the holes in the concrete slabs (bolt holes?) aren't modelled, so the lighting on them is wrong,

[StompinTom]

(bolt holes?)

Tie holes

Sweet renderings! Overall nice atmosphere, though it would be nice if it were inhabited a bit more (more details in furnishings, material junctions, etc.)

[bubs]

Thanks for the comments everyone. I take encouragement from the fact that they are so specific! I have to say the advise and tutorials of this forum are by the far the biggest reason I use Indigo! (although it does produce pretty good results too! )

[Zom-B]

I take encouragement from the fact that they are so specific! I have to say the advise and tutorials of this forum are by the far the biggest reason I use Indigo!

More specific and advanced help is also way more fun to do then telling beginner basics for the 1001 time

[Pibuz]

I really appreciate the images! Excellent work on the textures (I can't see any seam: very good!), some more work to do on the materials, like Zom-B said.

But please..PLEASE: correct the topic name! You're re-killing Louis Kahn!

[bubs]

I know! It's been driving me crazy since I posted it! But I don't know how to change the name...

[Zom-B]

I know! It's been driving me crazy since I posted it! But I don't know how to change the name...

Edit the first post, should be possible to change topic name there too.

[bubs]

Thanks Zom-B, you've lessened my shame!

[M-Pixel]

Nice Rendering