Blender newbie

Now I’ve scared everyone off I hope a few techie’s can assist. I’m using Windows 7 32 bit. I’m watching tutorials but when it comes to rendering am I getting very poor graphics. I’m using NVIDIA GE660 video card. The result appears as though someone has thrown a grey sheet over the image that dulls the image and it does not appear in colour, like the colours I select when I’m in the Node editor. Is this a common problem and how can I rectify this? Thanks for reading

Hi, no it is not common. I have the GTX 670 and it work fine.
You can try a benchmark file which should work as expected, the BMW27.blend.

https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?239480-2-7x-Cycles-benchmark-(Updated-BMW)

Cuda in User Preferences > System must be enabled, actual Nvidia driver is needed.

Cheers, mib

Does the scene have lights ?
We don’t know since you’ve failed at the very first step in getting help. You have failed to supply any .blend file for us to review. This is the minimum requirement for ALL support questions. If you need help don’t make those who may with to help have to use guesswork.

Hi, no it is not common. I have the GTX 670 and it work fine.
You can try a benchmark file which should work as expected the BMW27.blend.

https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?239480-2-7x-Cycles-benchmark-(Updated-BMW)

Cuda in User Preferences > System must be enabled, actual Nvidia driver is needed.

Cheers, mib
No. For problem solving, the first thing is to remove the graphics card out of the equation (if they are actually using it) and set to use the default cpu rendering. The description of ‘dull’ render implies poor lighting/scene setup

Hi,
If could provide a bit more details like;

  • What render engine you are using (see to menu bar in Blender)
  • What is your light setup, are you using HDRI ?,
  • Could you attach a screenshot or render?
  • Is it indoor?
  • How many bounces are you using in the rendertab > lightpaths

Or even better, if you attach a blendfile, members or me can check it.

Even if Blender newbie, you should always at least show what you see as a problem.

“Look, there!”, yet pointing nowhere :wink:

:smiley:

Like that scene in Ghostbusters…“Listen…do you smell something”

Sorry guys, also a newbie at posting on boards like this. Here are some images that I hope illustrate my request earlier.




Looks fine to me based on what is in your scene.

The problem is you only have a single default point lamp in the scene and it’s set to a very dim level.

Try changing the point lamp to a sun lamp and re-render - should be brighter.

If you want your scene to look realistic though - you need to do something more with the lighting.

Either multiple lamps, emission meshes (planes) or try a HDRI environment map.

Check out these tutorials on setting up studio lighting or using HDRI environments

The default scene lighting is inadequate for realistic renders.

Hi Moony. Thanks for your reply and boy was it useful. The tutorial never mentioned the lighting and yes I agree the default is not strong enough. However now that I have found the lighting node and can see that it can be adjusted, I have reset this to 900, but would like to ask if you can recommend a level to set this at that is like “standard” or is it all down to personal choice. Thanks once again, an important lesson learnt.

There is no “standard” setting for lighting - your lighting will depend on the scene, materials, scale, how many lights you have, what type of lights they are etc.

You need to spend some time learning about lighting. Lighting is at least as important as materials - and many materials will look completely different under different lighting.

Probably one of the easiest ways to get good/realistic lighting “out of the box” so to speak is to use a HDRI environment map. There are many available for free download - and aside from a few tweaks - most will make your scene look pretty decent. Of course the environment map has to match your scene - so there is no use picking a desert sunset HDRI to light a forest scene, or a bright sunny day to light an underground metro station.

Just google for “free hdri packs” - plenty of them around.

Flat dull grey for your world lighting is going to make a dull flat grey scene, at least unless you do something else with lighting to provide ambience. The quickest fix in that regard would be to change world lighting to an

or use a

.