And you, how do you use your Sweet Home 3D? Episode 21
Martin started to use Sweet Home 3D last year to decorate the home of his cousin, but turned quickly into designing always more impressive places like a castle in Slovakia, a trendy café, luxurious bungalows, and recently a tropical landscape and an art school.
Castle by night (inspired by some similar real buildings in Slovakia)
- Are all these projects part of your job, or the results of your own inspiration and designed for fun?
At first, it was only for fun. I was interested in architecture when I was 20 and I was admitted to an architecture school. But I didn't start it at that moment because my life turned to a different job.
After years, my brother recommended me this application because I started to paint some free ideas of our new house and the house of my cousin on paper. He said: "Try to do it this way" pointing to Sweet Home 3D... And the love was in the air!...
Supermarket
- You first achievements with Sweet Home 3D were right away very neat. Did you study graphics before? What would you advise for a Sweet Home 3D beginner?
I didn't study any graphics before. And I was an enemy of IT (Information Technology). I was using a computer only for Facebook and emails.
My hint addressed to new users is very simply. Try, try, try, try, and try again. I have to say that Sweet Home 3D is great because, to create new projects, it is very well-arranged: you really don't need plenty of tutorials to understand what to do. And if you have some questions, there is an administrator or lots of users for help in forum.
Cousin's home
- You have been quickly interested by the photo rendering tools included in Sweet Home 3D and the Enko Nyito AdvancedSettings_PhotoRendering plug-in (read also his interview in the blog), both based on Sunflow library, but it looks like you also used other software during post-production to obtain additional light effects. Can you share with us your different experiences, for example, commenting the 3 following pictures you posted recently in the forum gallery?
Yes, as I said, architecture was my hobby and I was still interested in different architectural and interior visualizations. I was still focusing to find the way to do it like professionals. And when I saw some great pictures of user Ceciliabr in the forum gallery (read her work and interview in the blog too), I was sure that it is possible to create nice pictures with Sweet Home 3D plug-ins too.
Then I saw some tutorials of architecture renderings and it inspired me to combine rendering and “photoshoping”. At first, I used very simple Microsoft applications installed by default under Windows. Then I bought Polarr-Pro application and, in the end, I started to use GIMP 2 or PicsArt.
Each one has some different features to help your rendering look more realistic.
Hmmmm... I still watch this picture and I have to say that the only one thing I made there in post production was reducing color saturation a little to find some more winter feelings.... And I started to use "firing" effect of Pollar-Pro to copy some defocusing you can see on real photos.
I love this one... because I use the lens flare effect of PicsArt there... It's veeeeery simple but brings a very realistic and very artistic effect.
That rendering was more complicated to obtain... I rendered the base image in Sweet Home 3D in night mode with daily sky to avoid any shadow in the picture and to simulate a cloudy sky. Then I modified the brightness and color saturation in Polarr-Pro. And in the final, I use the rainy texture of PicsArt. If this tool looks simple, it was actually a little difficult to find the accurate combination.
And the model shown in this rendering is not mine. As I said in the description of this project, it was not important for me to create some new models but to create some new renderings. This is the only project where I didn't create any model. All the models shown in the image were downloaded from Trimble 3D Warehouse. I only arranged them....
- In the following "National geographic" project, you wrote that you used 373 trees and plant models. Can you advise us where to find some good models?
90% of the models which are not mine are downloaded from Trimble 3D Warehouse. Some others come from CGtrader and some from Archive3D.
- Your last project proposes a very modern architecture. Can you tell us how you designed these vertical round walls?
Designing that wall is simple. I first created a classic round wall in Sweet Home 3D. Then I exported it into OBJ format and imported this OBJ model back with the furniture import wizard where I rotated the model. At the end you don't have a standard round wall but this rounded construction.
As a final word, I have to say that I recently started to combine Sweet Home 3D with a new renderer. I bought a license of Thea-Render that accepts all Sweet Home 3D models exported into OBJ format included all colors and textures. It looks that a new era starts for me. I want to create models in Sweet Home 3D and render them in Thea-Render, which combine CPU and GPU engines.
Here is the same project rendered by Sweet Home 3D...
... and then in Thea-Render. It is my first image but I have to improve it
Thank you very much, Martin. We are looking forward to discovering your new renderings!
