Are my render settings good enough?

Hi folks… I’m not very good with lighting and rendering but I was wondering if the pic below has good enough lighting to showcase my model? Thanks for any input you can give…


Good enough for what? Sharing, selling, trying to get a job?

Cool model and I do think it is held back a little bit by the resolution, noise (up the samples), and lighting (3 point or HDRI are possibilities).

Hi mate,

this kinda difficult modeling deserves better I think… Despite its only a CLAY render, U have to somehow focus or point the viewer in the right direction. Looks like U have some blue(ish)/green(ish) light under the model or in the front part but … the rest is only white and there is NO interest in it so…

The camera settings could be changed … ie lowered. Try to get it almost on the ground and rotate it upwards so the model will look much bigger and “fearer” if U know what I mean. Then put a stronger white light behind the model and two very weak lights to the front sides (could be some colours, for example blue and orange - looks good together) so the whole scene get a “live” and also silhouette composition which suits the machinery which probably kills U in a seconds :wink: despite its Lunar Explorer.

 Sincerely, Jan

PS: If U provide a .blend file I will do the lighting for U mate. If U dont want to put it here just PM me…

@Kulligan, good enough as a render to share. I’m pretty aware of the sample issue, (as well as ton of other issues apparent), but I was just really concerned about the lighting and whether or not it is good enough to show other peeps… as in would you make fun of me because my model is horribly lit. That is all.

@janmatys… the model is available in blendswap under the same username I have. I would be wary trying to lit this beast though. This project was my first serious attempt at modeling something complicated. Unfortunately I did not have good practices yet when I started this project last year, meaning this model is poly heavy. 1.6 million faces without subd :frowning: and I really want subd… sigh. I was going to retopo, but quite frankly, I think the model is ugly. I got over the “in love” phase with this project pretty quick when I realized how bad the poly count got (not to mention that the overall shape of the model is awful), so I decided not to waste all that much time on this one. I just want a few good renders out of it so I could say “hey look, I can model 3d!” while I work on other 3d projects that are more manageable. Thanks for the offer though and thanks for the advice.

AFAIK there is NO way to search users on BlendSwap or am I wrong??? So PLZ give me a link or name of the model… and yep, 1.6M polys is INSANE! :wink:

 JayM

@janmatys - you can find his user and model with a google search like this: “edgarej site:blendswap.com”

@edgarej - It’s definitely a cool model - and I personally wouldn’t laugh - more get frustrated that I can’t see it well or rotate around it etc. I’d recommend grabbing the HDRI Haven free pack (CC-BY) and using HDRI lighting (it’s easy to set up and looks great). Also lots of great materials on blendswap too.

You can search on blendswap, there is a big icon at the top with a magnifying glass called Search.

Heh, I know for sure but it does NOT search users…

Kulligan: Yep, I totally forgot about this feature - THX!

 JayM

PS: Now Im rendering the Lunar Explorer so share the result soon (subdivided all the parts needed)… 1000 samples so it takes some serious time :wink:


… 5 minutes (NOT so serious at least :wink: )

But hey, the materials will be good for the render so if U want I could send U this scene and add them.

@janmatys
OMG, I went rogue and totally did my own thing and now I wish I haven’t after seeing your image jan. I wish I took the time to visit this thread cause I was planning on replacing the model I have on blendswap. I did some edits and I was able to bring the poly count down to 1.3 mil and turned on subd’s on the most important pieces. Still a lot of polys, but at least more manageable and better looking. I wish I was able to share that with you instead of the old piece.

As for the image above, what was your workflow? Did you use internal or cycles? HDRI lighting or no?

ps
you are so my twin, I went by eJAYM2 for awhile, lol…

@kulligan
thanks for the tip… I would have to take a look into this.

I was going to share my latest render but I won’t now after seeing jan’s render, lol…

Hi mate,

yep, the HDRI was used in coop with 4 standalone lights (area) and all was done in Cycles.

And hey, share the new model and I will take a look … materials done?

 Sincerely, JayM

PS: Here is the scene (.blend) if U R interested:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_gIaThKIumPc3dJczJwYUdtRVk

@jaym

I uploaded the new model at blendswap: http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/78373

No, I haven’t put materials on it yet. I’ve been working on another project and using that project as a way to learn how to use normal maps effectively so I could apply what I learned from that project onto this project (and finally get rid of those annoying 30k poly tires). Unfortunately I’m frustrated with it… I can’t seem to get the hang of normal maps… sigh…

ps, thanks for the blend. I downloaded it so you can take it out now if you wish.

Yep, no problem mate … already DL the new version and will take a look and probably do some renders…

 JayM

Cycles was finally able to render this behemoth. Yay!


Add a humanoid model/silouette in scene to make it epic. Otherwise viewer has no relative reference to understand the scale of your creation. Good resource: Scott Robertson

Thanks for the tips Cgstrive! I’ll do a better presentation out of the renders soon so I could add them to my portfolio.


Wow! The last render there looks amazing, 100x improved.

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