Evolving Works

Lorraine · September 8

Evolution of a Greek Island. PW's Greek Beach House, sailboat from Ansiko's Mediterranean Seashore, and DTHDR-MauiA HDRI that comes with DS.

Lorraine · September 8

A better sea

Lorraine · September 8

The sea evolves, I swapped out the original seafloor and water for Muelsfell's Vast Ocean

Lorraine · September 8

Much change...no more boring swimming pool but now a natural swimming pond, and an island off shore (from Andrey Pestryakov's Mountain Lakes and Forests). The furnishings have begun to take shape. Used Mesh Grabber to extend the terrace, and moved the house seaward. Made a little vege garden between the steps and rocks.

Lorraine · September 8

A new roof...using the barrel tiles from Lindsay's Hill Side Villa, plus adding a sunshade pergola to the seaward end, also from Hill Side Villa. Added assorted trees to the cliff top, and tamarisk trees (from Ansiko's On the Beach) to the shoreline. And I spent a day changing and tweeking a set of HDRI, taken of the same area over different days and times so I could have a consistent background with different lighting. That was a learning curve.

ashleighlaywood · September 8

Love to see the progress here! Quite the difference from the first concept render!

richardandtracy · September 8

Agreed. The latest iteration is really good. The background islands, the shape of the sea & the trees all add depth of authenticity to the image. The change to the pool is interesting much more so than a swimming pool (unless occupied by swimmers - but that's more difficult to get right). The evolution of the terrace & movement of the house are subtle & I'd have missed it if you'd not mentioned it. Looks better for the changes, though. Good stuff.

Beyond that, I like the flow of the image. There are three ways your eyes get to the house end of the pool. Starting top right, following the background hills, flowing upwards on the left and also right of the pool. Needs something of interest there - People?.

The only bit that feels a bit - lacklustre? maybe too harsh - 'not quite up with the quality of the rest', is the sailing boat with the sail. It feels as if it needs work. Tweaking textures, or a sailor, or a bow wave flare of white, or a wake decal. Something like that, and maybe a seagull swooping around the stern. This isn't quite what I was thinking of, but it could be standing on the transom: https://www.most-digital-creations.com/seagull.htm.

Regards,

Richard

Lorraine · September 8

ashleighlaywood said:

Love to see the progress here! Quite the difference from the first concept render!

Thank you :)

Lorraine · September 9

richardandtracy said:

Agreed. The latest iteration is really good. The background islands, the shape of the sea & the trees all add depth of authenticity to the image. The change to the pool is interesting much more so than a swimming pool (unless occupied by swimmers - but that's more difficult to get right). The evolution of the terrace & movement of the house are subtle & I'd have missed it if you'd not mentioned it. Looks better for the changes, though. Good stuff.

Beyond that, I like the flow of the image. There are three ways your eyes get to the house end of the pool. Starting top right, following the background hills, flowing upwards on the left and also right of the pool. Needs something of interest there - People?.

The only bit that feels a bit - lacklustre? maybe too harsh - 'not quite up with the quality of the rest', is the sailing boat with the sail. It feels as if it needs work. Tweaking textures, or a sailor, or a bow wave flare of white, or a wake decal. Something like that, and maybe a seagull swooping around the stern. This isn't quite what I was thinking of, but it could be standing on the transom: https://www.most-digital-creations.com/seagull.htm.

Regards,

Richard

Thank you Richard, your critiques are always welcome and kindly given...and pertinent! I shall work on that boat :) The scene is not finished yet...and going by previous scenes may never be, I have a bad habit of continuous 'improvement' People are evolving in the background, one called 'Jack' who is a Kiwi, short for Jacqueline, whose grandfather died on Crete, ( https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/big-read-the-last-three-known-kiwi-survivors-of-the-bloody-wwii-battle-of-crete/4NMAAASUP25IMLP4V7YR3MGCLA/ ), and one called Theia who is Greek, greatgrandaughter of Cretan resistance fighters. There will be more to populate the greek villages, houses, and islands I have recently bought. That's another bad habit...once I get an idea for a scene, one that will become extensive and all consuming, I tend to buy up anything and everything I can use. It just takes that first purchase, in this case the PW Greek House. That was the 'light blue touch paper and stand clear' that my debit card HATES!

Lorraine · September 9

A different angle and yet more change. I had to replace the tree at the front as, though it wasn't lo poly, it was badly made and unsuitable to render up close. So it got downgraded to being a small beach bush and shoved along to the left. I replaced it with one of Martin Frost's low res olive trees from his Mediterranean Trees and Shrubs - Low Res Plants. All the trees, shrubs and other plants will be low res as my 3060 can only hold so much. No subd, no large textures, all optimised to hell and back.

Early on I changed the ivy leaves on the back cliff face to bougainvillia, now a common vine all over Greece. Much more vibrant than ivy. Along that face are a couple of grape vines and a lemon tree. The chairs on the front terrace are another prop from Lindsay's Hill Side Villa.

barbult · September 9

I'm really enjoying the evolution. This last one with the bougainvillea is really attractive. The red color contrasts nicely with the blue bench. Both draw my eye.

Lorraine · September 9

barbult said:

I'm really enjoying the evolution. This last one with the bougainvillea is really attractive. The red color contrasts nicely with the blue bench. Both draw my eye.

Thank you :)

Elor · September 11

Great idea about the pool :)

For the boat, if you need wakes, @spacebones is sharing some on Renderosity:

https://www.renderosity.com/freestuff/items/98589/wakes-vol-1

https://www.renderosity.com/freestuff/items/98519/wakes-vol-2

Lorraine · September 12

Elor said:

Great idea about the pool :)

For the boat, if you need wakes, @spacebones is sharing some on Renderosity:

https://www.renderosity.com/freestuff/items/98589/wakes-vol-1

https://www.renderosity.com/freestuff/items/98519/wakes-vol-2

Splendid! Thanks for the links...off to download :)

Lorraine · September 13

Tweaks.

Lorraine · September 14

More change. I bought Stonemason's A Village by the Sea and have pillaged its textures for the house. Plus popped one of the houses up on the cliff ledge. I wanted a cliff behind the cliff and after faffing around with different lumps of stone I had an epiphany...reuse the cliff that was already there. So I isolated said cliff, deleted the rest of the ground, enlarged and flipped and raised up behind. Happy me. Used a staircase from Sickleyield's Liminal Pools to get up to the cliff ledge, cut a hole in it and installed a door (much needed storage, did the same inside the house where I found a void). I am planning more work up on the ledge a bit later. I've decided to change all that crazy paving. Next job. Will probably steal more of Stonemason's textures. Did anyone notice the boats on the jetty had changed last post? I was never happy that the boats just sat there, not tethered to anything, and when I found A Village by the Sea had a couple of nice dinghies TETHERED TO A POST!! I was ecstatic. One got saved out and parked by the jetty, two more posts went on the other side and the little yacht was moved over and tied up. More happy me. See what's in the sky? Mediterranean gulls, check. Peregrine falcon, check. Dinner, maybe.

richardandtracy · September 14

Can I go on holiday there please? 'Nuff said. It's fantastic. Regards, Richard

Lorraine · September 14

richardandtracy said:

Can I go on holiday there please? 'Nuff said. It's fantastic. Regards, Richard

You sure can! But you'll have to sleep in the little house on the cliff, that's going to be the guest house ;)

Lorraine · September 23

Edit: Blasted Cloudflare!!!!

I've been busy working on the furnishings and the windows and doors. This was the original windows and the furniture I had till today

Then I took out all the originals and put in these

Elor · September 23

I don't see any picture in your message, sorry.

richardandtracy · September 23

Same here. Looking forward to seeing them. Regards, Richard

Lorraine · September 24

Iterations of windows (and if you look down, floor as well)

Original

Iteration2:

But you didn't REALLY think that was it, did you?

Lorraine · September 24

Iteration3:

And, I do so hope, last iteration 4:

Reasoning: First, The large window looked wrong...not a Greek look to an older house. Then I wanted shutters as well. Then I looked at some photos of Greek houses and they had single windows in small spaces so I copied the front window and put two round the side and filled in the gaps. And I didn't like the windows opening into the middle so I tweaked them to open to the side.