Rendering advice

So I'm relatively new to this forum as well as the 3D world, and for the first time, I've put in a lot of effort into a model that will actually be used for something.

But there a couple of problems and need some advice.

I know I need to work on some of my materials. Needs more contrast. Any Suggestions?

My renderings seem ok when rendering to a small image (1024 x 768 ) and may take 5-10 minutes. However, while attempting to print larger to either an OCE plotter or to PDF, the lighting stinks and takes forever (1-2 hrs). In some cases, I get an error while trying to print to PDF.

I will also be using Gimp to incorporate backgrounds and such to give a more realistic "feeling". Haven't tried anything like that yet. Any tipes or trick I should know?

Any ideas?

From what I've researched, the amount of hardware on my (work) machine is probably sub-par:

AutoCAD 2010, using "high" redering preset

Win 7 Pro 64 bit

Intel Quad Core Xeon 3.2GHz

NVIDIA Quadro FX 1800

12 gigs RAM

Any help, comments and/or critique is welcome.

Thanks.

Anyone?

I'm not sure exactly what you're looking for help with? Textures? Lighting? Rendering? Post work in Gimp? All of the above?

Why don't you start with one question at a time. Work your way through that issue and then move on to the next one. When you lump a whole bunch of questions into one post, it tends to be a bit overwhelming and difficult to answer them all.

In all honesty, that looks pretty great to me, especially fro your first foray into 3D. I'm not sure if AutoCAD has a maximum resolution, your small size is about as big as I usually go to.

That's a great model you've built.

The modeling is pretty good, although I would suggest that you chamfer your corners. It looks like you have a lot of sharp edges on everything. In reality, nothing ever comes to a perfectly sharp 90 degree corner. You should soften those edges.

Your materials are not terrible, but I agree that they do need work. You should adjust the tiling of the brick material on the wall. It's especially evident at the end of the wall where the texture wraps around. You can see grout joints on the end that should not be there. And the material that you've used on the metal posts looks far too large. I think you should scale it down quite a bit.

As for post work in Gimp, just look online for Photoshop tutorials. There are thousands of them. And the same techniques used in Photoshop can also be used in Gimp. If you have specific questions, you can ask them in the Design Software section.

I'm not sure why you're having issues printing larger images. Maybe it's a memory problem or maybe you need some updated print drivers?

Yea I see what you mean. My apologies. I just got a little too excited about my progress. I'll be sure to think about what I ask for out a little bit more before posting.

Thanks for the comments. They are greatly appreciated.

Great point on the edges. I will definitely make some adjustments to soften them up.

I wasn't sure how to handle the texture on the separator wall. I'm going to scale material up a bit and see it that works.

I was able to find a good compromise on a larger output file, however printing to a PDF seems to be out of the question. I'm thinking I'm a little too hasty on printing to PDF and should just let it print overnight and see what happens.

Thanks again guys for the encouraging comments.

One thing that jumps out at me is the material mapping on the transformer. I would play around with the scale and tiling of the materials on there. Your first image is the most noticable because of the proximity to the "camera".

I would also post some of your illumination values and what you have in terms of lighting(global and local). I dont work in Acad much but there are several users here that are very well versed in it.

I think the modeling work looks very good so good job there!

shift...yea, very noticeable texture issues there. Also, I didn't realize until after posting the images that the first image shows a rendering that was in the process making adjustments to the materials while the rest of the images are before the adjustments.

I still have some work to do there.

Thank you.

I have merged your two threads. No sense having the same thing posted in two places.

This is quite a complex model you have here. Yes a background would be nice but overall, I could say you did well on your first 3D job.

This wasn't the first time I've created something in 3D. However, it is the first of which I've put in several hours and concerted effort, and is the first of which will be used for something useful at work and not just a leisure time project.

As soon as I finish up this model, I get to do it again! WooHoo!!

Thanks again for the comments. They are very much appreciated.