"Chris R" <car### [at] comcastnet> wrote:
> I have been working on this for a few weeks and am about ready to move on, so I
> thought I'd share it with the community.  The comments I receive usually end up
> in future projects.

And based on this, I'm sure a lot of us are hoping to see those!  :)

> This is based on a photo of the back side of a row of colorful beach huts.  In
> the original, all of the huts looked like they had been freshly sided and
> painted, which wasn't terribly interesting to me, so I decided to age them quite
> a bit so I could continue working on my raw-wood textures and aging paint
> textures.

The siding paint looks too new and glossy.  Actually everything looks a little
too clean, but that's the nature of renders.

I still have no idea how to go about using "proximity patterns," but maybe you
could scuff up the edges and corners a bit, and add some brown, tan, buff spots
to suggest wear by wind-blown sand. The eaves look too immaculate, and I would
imagine that the first thing to warp and dry-rot would be those diagonals on the
foundation posts.   Maybe use "isowood" for those.

> The shingles were another new area for me to play with.  I have done tiled roofs
> before, but this is my first attempt at a tar-shingled roof.

That looks like a great texture.  I'm wondering if you could add some sand up
there and some darker spots where some of the protective granules have crumbled
off the tarpaper base.

> The foundation posts have a layer of sand on the lee-side; you can sort of see
> it in this view.  I have other test views with closeups that look pretty good as
> well.

I might make that a lighter color to enhance the contrast, and add a stronger
specular component to give it that sparkly sand look.

> I'm pretty happy with the sandy beach and the random stones.  I thought about
> adding some seashells to the mix, but haven't done that yet.

Not that you'd want to sully it with actual trash, but maybe if you added some
footprints, drag marks, and other signs of life - maybe a sun-umbrella leaning
against the side, a lost towel or sandal blown underneath by the wind, a bucket
and/or shovel, can or bottle, dried starfish, a POV-Ray logo'd bottlecap ...
you know - stuff.
Stuff IN the sand is good - though I'd shove it down a bit deeper - it seems
unnaturally proud of the surface.  Shells are a good idea, as would be
driftwood, and a bit of those dessicated bits of dune grass straw that seem to
be everywhere.
A PITA seagull perched atop one would also help give it that wee little bit of
_life_ that would take off the sterile edge of the solely architectural scene.

> Thanks ahead of time for any comments and suggestions for improvements.

I really like what I see when I _look_, but perhaps just accentuate what you're
clearly doing a bit more.  The unevenness of the siding boards is great - but
they're still to - straight, square, new.  There are no knots, or those places
where the wood decided to suck up the paint before it dried.  No chips, scuffs,
or hammer marks.  Put a popping-out nailhead or two.  Give everything -
especially those vertical strips and the fascia boards some waviness and/or
crookedness. Pop a piece loose and let it hang from one end a bit, esp along the
bottom edges.
I mean, they're beach huts.  "But everyone who hears these words of mine and
does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on
sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against

wind and shifting sands, and _people_ are gonna beat the snot out of those
things.  They're going to lean and expand and contract, and crack and split, and
work themselves apart. So make 'em more political - you know - crooked.  :D
And the way the red hut diagonals are above the sand, but the others are
starting to get buried in it - is absolutely perfect.

The paint texture is looking great on the yellow hut, and those horizontal
regions (fading?) on the leftmost blue and green huts is great.  I can almost
see it on the red one, but the way it looks suggests more shiny specularity of
glossy paint - so maybe it needs to be tweaked somehow to works across a broader
range of base colors.  I'm impressed with the normals and that there are so many
isosurfaces in the scene.  That makes my inner raytracing mathematician all warm
and fuzzy.  :)

As far as the composition - that gets a little tricky.  In my head I have "beach
scene" as being glaringly brighter, and more "open".  So, maybe open up the
scene a bit on top and bottom to show more sand and sky, and put some kind of
white media fog thing encroaching on the scene from the direction of the sun?
Maybe explore a lens flare and see if that adds anything to the scene...

Not sure what your global scene layout/geometry is, but maybe move the camera so
you can see through the gaps in between the huts and get some sense of distance
- some open ocean and foggy horizon to add depth to the scene.   Maybe if you do
that, you'd have enough distant stuff to add in some heat mirage.  The sky kinda
seems washed out - maybe deepen the shade of blue a bit?  It would also make the
clouds POP, which I think they should - given all the reflective lighting from
underneath by the beach sand?

Nice, simple scene - but yet there are so many little details, many of which you
are obviously already aware of, and trying to craft into your scene.  Make it
any more real, and I'm going to start smelling salt, seaweed, and boardwalk
food.

Good job!


- Bill

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