I think these are quite good. Hopefully some of the 3D experts will come in here but in my limited experience these are better than a lot of the 3D stuff we get shown here.
I am sure some of the micros would be happy to take these and they should sell (except maybe the camper van which if it gets through copyright check will probably have quite a limited market).

Hopefully Sean will make a comment, he was a 3D expert in a previous life, and is now one of the best selling photographers, so is probably the best person to give a judgement on quality and sale-ability.

(except maybe the camper van which if it gets through copyright check will probably have quite a limited market).

Thanks for the kind words Microbius. The only reason I did the van is because of this baby from picNiche.


Phrase                              L      T             Count        Views         Sales            V/F            D/F          Rating
hippy van surfboard   US   1.00                3           3373          751          1,124.33    250.33   281,458.11
FTSSISBSDT- GI

Overall you have a good eye for stock.

The drum set is too low-poly. The cymbal shows not enough detail - you can tell by the straight edges. Will get you accepted everywhere except iStock.

First plane shot looks nice. Cool lighting.

Second plane shot in the detail frame on the left there is a shift of the reflection on the left that looks funny. It may be correct but I can't tell since the crop is so tight.

The tablet shot is not my cup of tea. Looks a bit flat. It's tricky to get proper dimension into product shot of a flat reflective object.
I'd play more with the light setup and maybe not have it lay flat and rather set it upright or something.

Bully shot: The shallow depth of field gives it the tilt-shift look. Somewhat cool depending on what you wanted to achieve.

If you want to make it look like a model it's fine. But to create a real life effect I'd increase the DOF to a more realistic level.
If rejected I think you can easily modify the front to make it less obvious that it's a VW.
The detail in the frame at the lower half of the front door puts me a bit off. The door doesn't seem to fit properly into the frame.
The head lights look a bit simple as well. I wouldn't bother with any details in the lamp, just use a more realistic semi-transparent texture to the headlight glass then you don't have to worry what's underneath.
Lighting is pretty harsh (very sharp shadows). I'd soften it a bit.

Overall pretty decent work. Keep going.

Thanks for the replies everyone!

I have updated the drums because I realized that I rendered the chrome with a slight transparency giving it a hollow look.

Corrected:

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/L4XkS62xaLd7FBvks9sI9w?feat=directlink

I also have a render which I am hesitant to submit:

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/_OSBfUYHjVZljp6vbHtuqQ?feat=directlink

click_click: Thanks for the advice and kind words. I forgot to subdivide the cymbals before I rerendered so the edges are still there but nothing a bit of post production can't fix later.

I agree with the comments on the van. I will leave it until a later date if I feel the need to rework it.

As a matter of interest, which software are you using?

Interesting! I've never used pic niche, Ill have to do a forum search to see if there have been any comments about how well it predicts sales.

Still, be a bit careful, if it looks too much like a VW van you may well get a rejection for copyright reasons.

Yep, on the VW.  There's also some texture repetition on the roof of it, and I'm not sure what it is supposed to be sitting on.

From first glance at these small sizes, composition and color-wise, they all look very nice, aside from the poly issues.  I'd be careful of such "obvious" setups though.  They are all "here is a ____ in the middle of the screen over a ______ background".  I'd take the skillz and try to stretch a bit more conceptual.

I am going to be submitting 10 images to each agency. This is the list so far:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-J7Lc7sy49no/Ti7ZoJU2yOI/AAAAAAAAALY/0scwrIwxKGk/s800/a2crit.jpg

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-ANhS4hgbd0w/Ti7ZnuIMHFI/AAAAAAAAALY/IhN7IIVfRg4/s800/a1crit.jpg

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-ICT2TSqLdYY/TjEwAv4dZVI/AAAAAAAAAMg/rE8lQ6a7Plc/s800/Drums.jpg

New images (need crit):

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-NmDbY67UIg0/TjJ58Ke-g0I/AAAAAAAAANo/vUTlnKJjyrk/s800/racePrev2.jpg

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-p_WPJrPefug/TjJ58SqyQNI/AAAAAAAAANs/DD_ADhZ4dms/s800/raceprev.jpg

Nothing to add. Keep going like that and you'll get plenty of downloads!

Surface material of the road looks pretty good! Nice motion blur.

Thanks for the kind and encouraging words click.

I have a few more:

This is a rework of the camera shot:

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-rZtvdZZxZMo/TjLOQrAJ-AI/AAAAAAAAAOA/5lr64ZgHCig/s800/CamerasPrev.jpg

This is a new one - a start to a series. Instead of all the drawn diagrams I have on the papers currently I am going to have poems and love letters instead to fit the context:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-ZpltBb2I-Fk/TjLOM-6zDTI/AAAAAAAAAN8/WtUs8ANb_nc/s800/PapersPrev.jpg

click, are these normal problems? I usually try to sort out the normals as much as I can but I suppose as I use an external renderer the normals might be imported incorrectly? I'll investigate.

Anyways, here is an update on the 'Love Letters' shot:

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-UIB9NJJUBM8/TjL2EpDPO4I/AAAAAAAAAOY/Q465M_mI-E0/s800/LoveLettersPrev.jpg

Quote from: Photon on July 29, 2011, 13:07

click, are these normal problems? I usually try to sort out the normals as much as I can but I suppose as I use an external renderer the normals might be imported incorrectly? I'll investigate.

Anyways, here is an update on the 'Love Letters' shot:

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-UIB9NJJUBM8/TjL2EpDPO4I/AAAAAAAAAOY/Q465M_mI-E0/s800/LoveLettersPrev.jpg

I feel like if I gave you any further "critique" I'm creating my very own competition. You're doing well. I think from now on you just have to learn by experience.

Using an external render engine can cause a whole bunch of issues. I'm trying to stay away from them.

However, if you can only achieve your personal look by using this engine try to find some forum where these render engine related issues are being discussed.

Again, often you can get away with those "details". Only if I really can't figure it out I try and submit them and usually they get accepted.

iStock is just very picky on polygons and subdivision and as long as your lighting is correct you shouldn't have to fear anything.

I can't help you any further. Looking forward to seeing more of your stuff.

Nice one click