Peter, here is the layout I was talking about. I have can lights in each of the openings and about 9 dome lights up and down the front of the main unit and about 12 more dome lights around the perimeter of the room. If I turn the lights down you cannot make out the sunburst above the two pieces or the rosettes (that don't exist yet, that is another problem in another thread) or the edge profile (that also doesn't exist in these pics).
Anyway, this is the type of thing I run into here in the greater Phoenix area. Many houses have these drywall pockets that are typically used as entertainment centers. They are functional but not very attractive. Luckily, some folks know that this can be fixed with a little imagination and some wood! I just wish I could find more of them.
This particular unit has a couple of wine cellars (the fridge units in the center) a few drawers for media, an audio cabinet with grey glass doors, a small area between the drawers for the subwoofer (I had small speaker cabinets in the unit that balanced it a little better but the client wants to keep them wall mounted where they are now) and some display shelves. I also am filling a pocket over the fireplace and using the same sunburst to kind of tie the two pieces together.
Cherry Wine/Media cabinet
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Rolf Bergstrom
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Cherry Wine/Media cabinet
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Peter Walsh
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Rolf,
Nice job. Dan may be right about positioning the lights. You should be able to catch more of the carving.
See-through glass is easy to do in Fireworks graphics program. You could stick some electronics on the shelf and glass on top. I get images from the web sites of the stuff the owner is buying (or has) and drop the images into the pix. I will post my media cabinet pix with the doors open so you can see.
I save my pix of books for shelves and use them over and over again. Once you have a little library it takes only a few minutes to drop these in the rendering (in a graphics program) along with your Company name and copyright mark.
By the way, I never give the customer a printed pix when quoting. They take it to Jose for a cheap price. I bring my laptop and show it to them on the screen and then try to get a signature and a down payment. Once I have that, I give them a printed pix. Too much work goes into the renderings to give it away to help some other guy dontcha think?
Regarding acquisition of work. Hell, if you just find the developments that those builders have built you could get a mailing list for those homes and send them a flyer of one of the jobs you have done with those alcoves.
Peter
Nice job. Dan may be right about positioning the lights. You should be able to catch more of the carving.
See-through glass is easy to do in Fireworks graphics program. You could stick some electronics on the shelf and glass on top. I get images from the web sites of the stuff the owner is buying (or has) and drop the images into the pix. I will post my media cabinet pix with the doors open so you can see.
I save my pix of books for shelves and use them over and over again. Once you have a little library it takes only a few minutes to drop these in the rendering (in a graphics program) along with your Company name and copyright mark.
By the way, I never give the customer a printed pix when quoting. They take it to Jose for a cheap price. I bring my laptop and show it to them on the screen and then try to get a signature and a down payment. Once I have that, I give them a printed pix. Too much work goes into the renderings to give it away to help some other guy dontcha think?
Regarding acquisition of work. Hell, if you just find the developments that those builders have built you could get a mailing list for those homes and send them a flyer of one of the jobs you have done with those alcoves.
Peter
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Kerry Fullington
- Wizard Member
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- Company Name: Double E Cabinets
- Country: UNITED STATES
- Location: Amarillo, TX
Rolf,
The trick in lighting is not using too much.
I would light that room with three dome lights.
One over each cabinet area approx 5 foot from the wall at ceiling height and one centered between the two cabinets 5 foot from each wall and four feet off the floor.
One of the tricks is to make sure every texture you place in a room has shine. Walls 1 or 2. Floors 2 to 3 wood textures 2 to 4 at max
For your sunburst it is nice to use a slightly different texture for carvings and moldings so that you can give them just a bit more shine to bring them out
Less is always more.
I light the room so that it looks natural then I take the jpeg to irfanview and use Gamma correction and brightness and contrast correction to finish it off.
Kerry
The trick in lighting is not using too much.
I would light that room with three dome lights.
One over each cabinet area approx 5 foot from the wall at ceiling height and one centered between the two cabinets 5 foot from each wall and four feet off the floor.
One of the tricks is to make sure every texture you place in a room has shine. Walls 1 or 2. Floors 2 to 3 wood textures 2 to 4 at max
For your sunburst it is nice to use a slightly different texture for carvings and moldings so that you can give them just a bit more shine to bring them out
Less is always more.
I light the room so that it looks natural then I take the jpeg to irfanview and use Gamma correction and brightness and contrast correction to finish it off.
Kerry
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Rolf Bergstrom
- Senior Member
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- Joined: Thu, May 19 2005, 2:12PM
- Location: Glendale, AZ
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I hear you. I normally do retouch my images, I left them alone here to show the native image. For this customer, I did close ups of the details and had a full view that was retouched and looked better.
I try to use alot of light because here in the desert it is always sunny and the houses, to the detriment of water levels everywhere, are flodded with natural light. The main problem I run into is unnatural shadows. I place a light down low or to the side because the area is too dark and then I get upshadows and side shadows that look bad so I add another light somewhere to kill those shadows and so on and so on. Don't get me wrong, I like the dimly lit library look, I just don't see much of that here.
I will play around with the shine factors and see how that works out.
I try to use alot of light because here in the desert it is always sunny and the houses, to the detriment of water levels everywhere, are flodded with natural light. The main problem I run into is unnatural shadows. I place a light down low or to the side because the area is too dark and then I get upshadows and side shadows that look bad so I add another light somewhere to kill those shadows and so on and so on. Don't get me wrong, I like the dimly lit library look, I just don't see much of that here.
I will play around with the shine factors and see how that works out.
Last edited by Rolf Bergstrom on Mon, Aug 28 2006, 1:27PM, edited 1 time in total.
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Kerry Fullington
- Wizard Member
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- Joined: Mon, May 09 2005, 7:33PM
- Company Name: Double E Cabinets
- Country: UNITED STATES
- Location: Amarillo, TX
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Rolf Bergstrom
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- Joined: Thu, May 19 2005, 2:12PM
- Location: Glendale, AZ
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Please, don't take ANY offense whatsoever, but to me that looks like a dimly lit bar with no windows (yes Dan, I can adjust the brightness and contrast on my monitor 
). It is hard for me to see the details except on the chair. Like I said, I do like the look of the dimly lit rooms, they are very elegant and look like what you would see in a magazine but they do not reflect the reality of what I am working with, as Samuel L. would say, M@#$%@F@#$#@# bright walls and M#$%#@#F@#$#@$ bright rooms! I know this example of mine is at the complete other end of the spectrum (I would not present it like this), but I can just tell 'em to adjust the brightness and contrast on their monitor 
(is that too many of the little laughing guys? I am not sure of proper protocol here).
Seriously though, I ran into a snafu with adjusting shine. I don't even attempt to try and place the individual cabinets in a room like this. There are just too many pieces to try and place in layout mode. Nine cabinets isn't TOO bad but boy it sure is easier placing two assemblies (which I have had to do too many times to count). And then there is all of the trim (it is all one face frame so the face frames are not part of cabinets) and the sunbursts. I did go back and play with one of my \"traditional\" projects and was able to make subtle differences with shine settings but it won't help me since more of my projects are built like this.
I am not too worried about it though. I eventually get a good rendering and I have yet to not get a job that I have done in eCabs. It has only been a few jobs but batting 1.000 is good no matter how you slice it.
). It is hard for me to see the details except on the chair. Like I said, I do like the look of the dimly lit rooms, they are very elegant and look like what you would see in a magazine but they do not reflect the reality of what I am working with, as Samuel L. would say, M@#$%@F@#$#@# bright walls and M#$%#@#F@#$#@$ bright rooms! I know this example of mine is at the complete other end of the spectrum (I would not present it like this), but I can just tell 'em to adjust the brightness and contrast on their monitor (is that too many of the little laughing guys? I am not sure of proper protocol here).Seriously though, I ran into a snafu with adjusting shine. I don't even attempt to try and place the individual cabinets in a room like this. There are just too many pieces to try and place in layout mode. Nine cabinets isn't TOO bad but boy it sure is easier placing two assemblies (which I have had to do too many times to count). And then there is all of the trim (it is all one face frame so the face frames are not part of cabinets) and the sunbursts. I did go back and play with one of my \"traditional\" projects and was able to make subtle differences with shine settings but it won't help me since more of my projects are built like this.
I am not too worried about it though. I eventually get a good rendering and I have yet to not get a job that I have done in eCabs. It has only been a few jobs but batting 1.000 is good no matter how you slice it.
