The Work Bench

Greetings,

Due to it being summer and my wife and kids are back east. I have been doing way more fishing than blending. However I did manage to work on this project. I came up with the idea a few days ago, tonight was the first chance I got to work on it. So after a few hours this is my progress thus far. As you can see I have some texturing to do. I am not sure if I am going to stay with the colored wood for the bird house. But I thought it might add something interesting to the scene. The curtains were my best attempt at both modeling and texturing. I am really interested in what you think. Any suggestions, comments, critique, applause etc will be greatly appreciated. Cycles 100 samples, 100% res.

Thank you in advance.


interesting scene! there’s only something strange beetween the outside illumination idea, and the actual light inside the room. maybe adding a lamp inside the room would help! the curtains are good! i don’t usually deal with this kinda scene and this is just my point of view, in hope it will help you! of course more render sample is best, try 300 samples and less resolution to save render time!
P.S. my english isn’t perfect because i’m italian!

If the bird house is the highly saturated pieces you shouldn’t keep that coloring. I think it would be best if you went for a traditional wood birdhouse.

Hey CoBlender,
Loving the simple scene so far!

Heres my c&c:

01 - Theres not enough parts of wood to make a bird house there! lol

02 - i think its to “light” as a scene (im refering to the weight not the brightness), how many times have you been to a work bench and the ONLY tools was a hammer and some nails?
Maybe some carefully placed nails in the wall to hang the hammer from neatly.

03 - Adding to point 02, maybe add a saw and some screwdrivers + a shelf with a few more jars for nuts ‘n’ bolts/screws/nails/paint

04 - Bouncing off the idea from point 03, add a paint pot and brush

05 - the walls and ceiling seem really smooth for a shed, and the room looks too large.
But if it was a house there would probably be a light and some decorations.
Also the workbench doesn’t look “nice” enough to be kept in anywhere but a shed.

I understand that this is a long list, and by no means do you have to follow any of this advice, but its good to understand how to improve any scene you create!

but yes, i do think your scene is very nice, even as is!
(though the sampling could be higher?)

chuck the res down to 75% and up the samples to 300 minimum?
or post the .blend and ill render it and post the result :slight_smile:
i was thinking 2,000 samples or so?

Thanks everyone for the input. HEre is an updated render. I did change that backplate, and added a few more items.
I agree about it looking too plain fora tool shed. I plan on modeling some 2x4 framing for the walls. But at the moment I am more worried about the main objects in the scene. I wasn’t happy with the curtains so I changed them up as well. Much happier witht he result. Please if you have any additonal input concerning the updated version. Please feel free.


yeah! now i love looking at that window! the glass is very good, but there’s a shadow that should not be! keep adding textures to the tool as you did for the hammer! and yes, hang something on the wall, maybe a picture or some instruction sheet or better other tools! i like this scene!

Biggest improvement needed here is that there must be some light-source inside the room, to allow for the fact that the sunlight will bounce around in the room, or there will be another window somewhere, or an open door or something. You’d be able to see what the insides of the walls are made of, and so on. It will be a much dimmer light and of a different color, but it must be there to some degree.

To me, the view outside seems very 2D and slanted. Is a nice hdr an option here?
If not … try aligning the picture plane with the camera … it seems outlined with the window now.

Other than that : I love the vibe. Lots of potential in this image and can’t wait to see the final render :slight_smile:

Once again thank you for all the feed back here is another update. I added a few things to the scene to try and make it a little more interesting. The thing I am finding about this scene, there is so many things you could add to it. I am going to keep tweaking it an asking for input. As well as adding some content to the scene I added some smudges and such to the windows. I just thought it needed something. I am pondering placing some trees outside the window to help add some depth. Possibly some small birdhouses in those trees, to tie it all together.

This render was at 100 samples. Still at 100% resolution. I tried lowering it, but just wasnt happy with the result.

Please as always comments, suggestions and critiques are welsom.


Looks very nice. What is noticable to me, though, is the curtain duplicate. You might want to do some random editing to one of the curtains so that they don’t looks like exact copies.

I love the bump on the glass! Works vevry well with the outside image.

The metal of the tools and nails could use some more attention when it comes to textures. It’s all lacking shine and decay but I assume you’re not done texturing 'm yet.

Keep it up!

wow dude, such improvements over 1 weekend!
okay well heres the next round of C&C :wink:

  1. the outside image of trees etc looks like its dragging your scene back. and unless you model most the trees probably isnt too fixable. but one of the side affects too cameras is to get a good exposure in the room, the window light would have to be quite “blinding”. maybe this is something you could look at here?

  2. the shed itself doesnt have a cramped feel. i could be 100% wrong but i get the feeling that this is an average sized shed but with a relatively small table in it and its COMPLETELY bare appart from the 1 table and lots of tools surrounding it?
    Maybe if you hung tools like (the link below)-ish, and have the tools disappearing beyond the camera?
    (http://www.marthastewart.com/sites/files/marthastewart.com/imagecache/wmax-330/images/content/pub/special_issues/2004/la_gt04_tool_wall_xl.jpg)

  3. i noticed the saw was flat with no “teeth”, looks like an over sized butchers knife with a saw handle :’)

  4. the bird house parts still look scarse, will 4 pieces really make an entire birdhouse?
    plus maybe texture it with wood but mix it with yellow/red/black in the compositor so it actually looks like painted wood and not weird blocks.
    (weird because the saturation is too much)

This is looking really good dude!
ive subbed!

last of all if you post the .blend i could post a high res result?
ill just do a render at 200%, 750-1000 samples?

Ok so I think I am close to being done with the interior modeling. I have been trying figure out how to add some cobwebs to the scene without just texturing some pictures of cobwebs on a plane. But as far what I am going to do for the outside, I like the backplate I used, but I agree something has to be done. I am considering modeling some old gnarly oak trees against a sky backplate and using a particle system for some grass. But the sapling generator gives me fits sometimes. Anyway, I thought Id post this updat. Please keep the input coming. IT has been extremely helpful.

Cycles 200 samples 100% Res 2.71


Here we go:

  1. The Saw -
    Looks better but the teeth seem to be really small? plus maybe a little rust texture on it?
    The handle gives it an aged feeling, but its condition is MINT

  2. Re-Doing The Outdoors -
    I dont think this is neccesary or easily visible…
    Maybe add just the 1 tree to cast a shadow with leaves etc on the table?

  3. Background Image -
    There is an element of blurryness in the trees etc and i think it makes it look a little fake?
    i reckon that with a decent woodland image on a plane (emission) could really help the photorealism of this scene?
    (i believe the blurryness is some slight chromatic aberration which you could try and fix in a photo editor)

  4. Background Image -
    Another thing is the shed seems to be tilted backwards slightly?
    i believe this is due to the camera angle when the picture was taken in the background.
    so adding to the last point, maybe a new picture of some woodlands would be good?

  5. The New Blinds -
    I think this is a much needed item to the scene and looks GREAT!
    i think there should be some slight displacement to it as it looks REALLY flat.
    One last thing is most blinds have a weighted bar at the bottom, have a look at some reference pics :stuck_out_tongue:

Im subbed and quite wait for the next update!
Its REALLY progressed and you have really tried to improve from the pointers i have given :slight_smile:
Well done and hurry up with the next update! Hehe

Ok all after two weeks of being blenderless, due to going back east for vacation. I am back at it. This is my latest render, as you can see it has come quite a long way since the initial post. I think I am finally done modeling. Nw I am trying to decide on where I want to go with textures. Still not sure about the scene outside the window, but it’s better still needs something. As I said though I so hate doing trees. I know I should go outside my comfort zone to be a better blender, but some barriers were never ment to be crossed. I

Ok all after two weeks of being blenderless, due to going back east for vacation. I am back at it. This is my latest render, as you can see it has come quite a long way since the initial post. I think I am finally done modeling. Nw I am trying to decide on where I want to go with textures. Still not sure about the scene outside the window, but it’s better still needs something. As I said though I so hate doing trees. I know I should go outside my comfort zone to be a better blender, but some barriers were never ment to be crossed. If I may make a stephen king reference. lol anyway here ya go same settings as before. Once again keep the input coming


Looks fantastic! Though I do feel that the original subject of building a bird house does not seem to be the focus now. May be you can…

  1. Re-arrange the objects on the table to focus on the bird-house topic?
  2. Move tools to the shelf that are not required and move those to the table that are required? e.g. the big saw?
  3. Move the coffee-cup to a corner.

Great work though! The best things I have seen always take a good amount of time and thought-process…

Cheerio!

SG