help with render

[jsteacy]

Hey everyone, this is my first post of my work. I work for a company that is funded by the DOE to help improve the home building industry (specifically the guys building the suburbs because they're pretty bad). I use sketchup a lot but not for rendering. We are trying to convince the developer to let us put PV panels on the house as well as make some changes to the design of the house. It's still not a very exciting design but it's got to fit in to what is produced by this section of the home building industry. Here are 2 renders, one day, one night. I would love some suggestions on how to improve them. Let me know, Both are rendered on easy - 08 - exterior daytime. Sorry about the blurring of the sign but it's to protect the builder and developer. I know I had trouble getting the alpha mask to be the same size for both of them but I think I'm missing a step in the process. I've made it twice the size and I have fit proportions checked but in photoshop when I reduce the image by half it doesn't reduce the mask to be the same size. C&C are more than welcome. I've also been told to get some landscaping in the images, I'm willing to buy but I'm not sure which direction to go. Photoshoping 2-d images in, 3-d plants or inserting the 2-d images into sketchup. Any suggestions on which type and where to get them would be awesome. If I need to provide any more information please let me know.

Cheers,
jsteacy

[Fletch]

adjust exposure and gamma of the rendering to match the background - that will be half the battle.

[bb60]

I would go for a better sky, straighten your verticals, and get some more realistic landscaping (I prefer 2D set up in SU), darker shadows. The garage area seems a little odd--shouldn't that be a garage door?

[Fletch]

if you are doing multiple views, it's good to have 3D plants... so you see them from different angles. if you are doing the same views, it's good to have 2D plants just in your photo editor... more control/quick/easy... if you are good with your photo editor.

Have you seen the Moonlight tip?