What's wrong with this render?


I’ve made this for a project but they told me that it looks “quite fake and cartoonish”. How can I improve it?

maybe the composition is a little wrong…even the lamp is too short, IMHO

For me, it’s the words and the table. The words don’t look like they’re painted on the folder, they have no texture to them. The table looks a bit flat to me too.

Is that a table? Looks like a floor to me.
I would say Waaf and El Director are right in their assessment, i would also mention color.
The words have the same color as the floor, with the green lamb and the yellowish light you have 3 main colors in the image.
Now that is not wrong but i would change the color of the floor to a slightly different tone, to separate it from the rest of the objects in theimage.
It will pop more and might make it more interesting for the eye.
But i guess the size of the lamp and the composition is much more important for changing the impression.
The small lamp makes the folder huge.

Agree with everything everyone has said.

The table/desk top needs to have a different material/texture. It looks like flooring material.

The focus of the render is a little confusing. When I looked at the image my eyes went to the lamp. The second element then becomes the folder which I assume is the main point of the render. It should be showcased better if that is the case.

The lighting of the image is really soft. If you look at photography examples using a single light source they tend to be harder. Unless that is what you are going for with a 15 Watt bulb in the lamp.

Good luck. Hopefully after the harsh comments from your project group they also said it was a really good start.

There’s nothing fundamentally “wrong” with it. To offer an opinion, we need to know what the brief was.

The text on the folder is what looks the most off to me. I’m not sure how those words got on the folder. Are they painted? a large marker? Stamped? Right now, it looks like you have a flat text object with a vector font.

To me the text itself is one problem with it. Makes it look cartoony, a bit like a cartoon character holding a stick of dynamite that spells out “Dynamite”.

It’s spelling out what it is instead of leaving visual clues otherwise, and kind of assumes the viewers are idiots.


Well, just my opinion (I’m not saying that I’m right).
I do not like that green volumetric light on the top left corner. On my monitor image looks over saturated. The texture in the folder looks a bit strange, as if texture had low resolution. Lack of detail in general.
Here a quick manipulation in Darktable:

Edit:
Are the words material emulating wax like the one used for old stamps? Or maybe blood? I’m not sure about the context of the scene and your intentions, so I can not say much about it.

I’ve tried to create a “realistic” version of the project’s logo. I’ve kept the same style/font. The phrase “the case” is just an ink stamp on the folder.


Well, embossed/relief/engraved effect in text can be carved or raised:
https://www.pixeden.com/psd-mock-up-templates/gold-relief-logo-mock-up-template
https://publicide.com/slide/a-emboss-business-card-printing-jpg/

In last image in your post the text looks carved, but your render looks raised. Anyway whatever the effect you want to achieve, you should add the folder texture also to the text.
And if the ink stamp is old like the folder, also add some degradation/worn to engraved ink text.

One thing that immediately jumps to me is that the folder seems a bit too rough to me,

reminds me of bread

http://www.mbc.net/default/mediaObject/Photos/2014/November/WEEK-01/3-11-2014/%D8%AE%D8%A8%D8%B2-%D8%A8%D9%84%D8%AF%D9%8A/original/9365f2d94b60446ff5b406d4959f66df64c07eb0/%D8%AE%D8%A8%D8%B2-%D8%A8%D9%84%D8%AF%D9%8A.jpg

Apart from that, there’s nothing that stands out as “wrong” with the image

Many thanks to all for your help!
This is the final image with a slightly bigger lamp and more light, they liked it, but they’ve told me that they don’t like the “noir” concept at all… :frowning:


I like the composition of the first one better than the second one, and for me, the thing that sticks out most is the lighting, especially in the 2nd version.

In the first one, I think there’s too much ambient lighting (from another source other than the lamp). Either that, or that the lamp shade should be facing at a less acute angle. I feel like if the light on the folder was supposed to be coming from the lamp (and ONLY the lamp), given the direction the lamp shade is facing, the falloff from the lamp would be a lot sharper, and more pronounced. The part of the “folder-area” further from the lamp should be darker (in a more realistic looking scene) if the lamp is the main light source in the room/scene.

With the second one, I like that you re-oriented the lamp head, but where is that green volumetric glow coming from? It has an almost neon saturation, and if that were the case, light from a neon light nearby would emit MUCH more light in the scene to the point that the folder would have more of a greenish tint to it. As it is now, to me, it looks too unnatural. I imagine a little glowing, Tinkerbell-esque detective hovering over the desk just off camera, looking down at the folder, emitting that greenish light. lol

Also, I think the folder is a little too thick. Maybe it’s my monitor, but to me, looking at the material of the folder & its thickness, it almost looks like it could be made out of wood.

Lol Anyway, that’s all I’ve got. I hope that made sense, b/c I’m not much of an artist (more of a hobbyist that just picked Blender up for S’s & G’s), so my technical art vocabulary is pretty minimal. :stuck_out_tongue: