Architecture - photorealism attempt

Hey
I’m trying to make architecture art with photorealism.
“Trying” that’s a good word. I’ve watched some tutorials and my entry was good, but in my own art - it’s lacking of something.
Any advices, links and constructive critique would be nice. :slight_smile:


The stone wall in the center looks too wet, and the handles are definitely too reflective, and possibly too big as well.

Thanks KingPeuche. I’ve also change a lot in lighting. Is it better?
Any other tips?


I’ve will try to do something with the poster on the right (light bounce)

You could try incorporating my micro roughness node group into your glossy materials. I feel is adds a fair amount of realism. You can even add it to the walls. It adds a subtle sheen as long as you go for high roughness and high softness (0.8 and 1.0 respectively)

https://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/88765

Or copy it from here is you dont want to download it

Overall it’s an improvement.
One thing I notice straight away is that the second image’s wall is cut in half by the lighting, and it makes it seem like the architects did a lazy job on the lighting.

Hey nice add-on, I’ll be sure to download that.
Where did you learn about that?

Is it an idea to connect the normal of the layer node that inside the nodegroup to an input of the nodegroup ?. In case one is using normals (normal map for example)

Update : I just compared a skinshader I worked on for several weeks; with and without your node group.
I think what we have here is really important. As important as a fresnel effect itself. Such a huge difference.
Great discovery, thanks
The only thing is that for skin, the specular reflection at grazing angle is to sharp.

I assume you are talking about my node group - if so, have you tried upping the “softness” value. That should take the edge off the grazing angle sharpness - but still retain a noticeable sheen.

I’d love to see the effect on a skin shader - it’s one of the applications I envisaged for it, but haven’t tried yet.

moony I’ve checked your nodegroup. I will try to put it into my project on weekend.
Yes KingPeuche - now I see this half-light. I’ve already fixed that. I’ll post the output after all fixes.
Thanks guys!

Here MicroRoughness Applied to Skin. I used a simplified node setup where I can specify the roughness at facing angle and specify the roughness at grazing angle.
Without Microgroughness: roughness is 0.584 all over:


With microroughness:
At facing angle: 0.784
At Grazing angle: 0.380
(so having the overall roughness in mind)


You don’t see the difference very obviously here, but when you open the pics in a photo-app and switch between them, you’ll see a big difference.

Nice test - I think it really does make a difference - subtle, but much more realistic. You pick up the highlights on the head and collar bones.

It’s funny you have made that modification - I had a similar idea earlier this evening and have posted an updated node setup in the dedicated ‘micro roughness’ thread over on the materials forum.

It would be good for you to post some test images in that thread, perhaps try out the new node group which also incorporates MartniZ’s improvement in the way the falloff is handled.