Critiques Needed

Hi, I’m new to posting in the forum. I’m aspiring to be a 3d illustrator so this work would be for my portfolio. Please give me your honest opinions. Thank you.


I looks like clean modeling and textures and materials, but there’s no way to really know until you put some lights in! Post another render with higher levels.

The look I was going for is a dark room lit by a television screen. When I bring the lights up I lose the effect, any advice?

The model looks alight. The textures too.

If you are really going for a TV, then you might actually need the TV to show an image. Based on the reflections, the TV is just showing a plain white. It is very rare that a TV projects plain white. Even without a signal, there would be static noises. A plain white doesn’t speak “TV” to me. Maybe use a video game screenshot for the TV to project?

However, a TV is not a good source of light. It isn’t a particularly strong and its color can be very garish. You might need to supplement it.

Harsh, unusual, rim/kick, and creative lighting can really work sometimes. Ultimately though, you need some light, somewhere, and it just doesn’t exist here. Experiment with it. Compositions need areas of interest, contrast, and some brightness, somewhere to draw the eye. The eye wanders in this one. You’re not too far off from photorealism. But you lose a lot of points by not lighting your scene. And don’t forget that a lot can be done in post too. Hope you don’t mind the side by side, but this is closer to more pleasing levels. It might be worth noting that in a sense the lighting in this scene plays a part in the story too. In the sense that the television lights the controller, which in turn is controlling the light source, now the television essentially controls our lives, soo… Whoa, that’s deep!

Thanks for all of the advice everyone, it was just what I needed. You are right about the brightness/contrast. I think I got caught up in creating an old photo look but lost focus and the tv look along the way. I did some research and it seems that because of the colour temperature of tv humans perceive it as blue. I’ve adjusted the colours and brightness/contrast. Please tell me if you think it is an improvement, I think it looks way better.


The TV is not blue because of color temperature. TV can project various colors. Many TV especially the old CRT ones shows a blue screen when there is no signal from the video port, sometimes with the text “NO SIGNAL” in the center. Modern ones tends to show a black screen. Now that you make your TV blue, it seems like there is no video. The connection might be broken or the TV is broken.

I didn’t say that the tv projects blue. I said humans perceive the light as blue. Keep in mind I’m going for older tube tv look here. I put together a quick test to see which looks more like tv lighting a room. The top image is just fully illuminated with white light. The middle is lit with a small emission rectangle emitting blue light. The bottom image is a room lit by the same emission rectangle but with a texture of a tv test pattern emitting the light. To me, the middle image looks a lot more like tv light. The last just looks like there is a white light in front of the couch.

If you google “watch tv night” for images, you find that the vast majority are using blue light.


I really like the composition, personally. Something that would add to the story and realism, would be to add some wear to the controller itself. My game controllers would usually have spots worn more reflective by frequent touching. The cracks and recesses (like the direction arrows) would accumulate dirt. It seems you’re going for nostalgia, and these could add details that someone who really liked to game would remember.

The carpet texture is really awesome. The bump on the magazine should probably go away. Great work!

Well, it is because of: White balance. Or wrong white balance. Many amateur photo just doesn’t care about white balance. See, here is an indoor photo in incandescent lights and various color balance being used:


2500 works really well. However it is not the same for outdoors:


2500 looks really wrong and… blue. The same thing indoors if it doesn’t use incandescent lights:


A lot of camera, especially the old ones, has an indoor type set for incandescent. This is because incandescent is the common kind of light found indoors. Hence the blue TV and the perception that TV gives off blue light.

With mixed light sources:


The left is white balanced for outdoor light, which makes the indoor light looks orange. The right is white balanced for indoor light which makes the outdoor light blue.

So. Here is a photo of a TV with very wrong white balance:


And here is one that is white balanced more properly:


So, I guess, you want to create the effect of the first TV photo. But then you have this:


Also, why I want the colors is this:


Look at the couch. The reflection is colorful!

I’d say it’s really good progress. Some wear 'n tear could be good. One thing that has an easy fix is the material on the red buttons. It’s too diffuse it have more gloss, and lower roughness gloss, similar to the black plastic on the left/right/up/down. I’m not seeing any kind of hard specularity on the red buttons. That carpet is really nice. It’s funny the bump on the magazine doesn’t bother me much even though it probably isn’t there in RL. Maybe lower the strength a little bit. I’d go over this whole thing with a grunge pass and spare nothing. Make it super dirty, then dial it way back until it’s not even hardly noticably. Also, are you using filmic?

The updated version is a big improvement. The one thing I noticed that could be enhanced is the cable. A normal cord could show some slight smudges and/or twisting from the handling. But it’s a minor thing really. Overall the image looks very good.

Based on the criticism that I received, I’ve made the following changes. I added more distressing, dirt and scratches to the controller and cord. I adjusted the lighting to include a light emitting screenshot of an NES game. Please tell me your thoughts.


Vast improvements. Light source is too strong on the top of magazine, it’s getting too blown out there. The red buttons on the controller need lower roughness and more gloss overall for a harder plastic, closer to the black directional buttons. Still can’t really see any imperfections/dirt/bump on the controller/cord. Don’t be afraid to beat that s*it up. Corners might be a little too sharp, especially the lower right, looks like you might cut yourself. Try softening those bevels.

The lighting is definitely better. Though, it makes other issues apparent.

The corners are sharp, they should be more rounded.

There are parts that are getting too blown out… even though the light isn’t that strong. Some would advice to use filmic. It gives better results in these kind of images.
As for dirt and imperfections, I actually think that this amount is good. Some just seem to overdo it. This is personal preference. Some like clean some like it very dirty. Your call. Though if you want to make the cord more dirty, like what Photox advises, you could try to make some areas rough, usually by using a texture and inserting it to the roughness input.

And last bit, you can try to use Subsurface Scattering for the select and start button. They are made of rubber and exhibits SSS so the subsurface scattering would help make it look more like real rubber.

As for the B and A button, I also find it alright. Though you can raise it off the surface a bit because it seems too low in. And also, another part where you can use the Subsurface Scattering as plastic also exhibits SSS property.

Great progress! May be worth the time looking at the filmic stuff. Not only are all the cool kids doing it, but it may help you with some of the details getting lost in the shadows and reflection. :smiley:

+1 on filmic, you’d get a big jump with virtually no work.

Hi! I can give a thumbs up for filmic

Link to the download, green button, download zip.

Andrew Price did a great talk on what it does and how to install it.

On your last image my eyes wander of to the bright spot at the top of the magazine. You want contrast where you want people to look. Be it contrast in value, hue, shape or anything, contrast is key, but dont overdo it.

The story that I see in this image can be summed up as “retro gaming night” is that what you want the viewer to think?

Other than that, you got some skillz dude! Keep it up =)