I consider myself to be at an intermediate level, so this isn’t perfect… but I can’t say I’m disappointed with my render. The compositing is minimal, I only added a slight DOF and minuscule vignetting.
Note, I am also using Blender’s render engine, no Yafray or anything like that. As for adding that magic detail that makes a scene feel photorealistic, I’m not quite sure what to do… help?
The quality isn’t that good on the small picture…
Here’s a link to the full-res: FullResBathroom
both the sink and the faucet need a higher ray mirror value. also it would be nice to have other things in the picture, perhaps a soap dish with one of those hotel soaps on it.
Oh my that looks fantastic! That outlet is a nice touch. I think maybe having running water could be a nice touch as well, but it is up to you.
First off I would like to say: Exellent modeling
here is some stuff you could fix
p.s. what is vignetting?
vignette is the dark bits around the corners of images, you will know what i mean when you see one, google it.
the best realism tips i can give you for BI are reflections.
1 - the surface looks awsome
2 - for metal things, they dont really have a diffuse colour unless very rough, so i would turn up the reflections there
3 - same goes for the sink, look at real images of porcelain (in real bathrooms, because studio lighting doesnt show you the reflections that well tbh)
4 - might want to pay attention to the cloth, it looks quite cg and could do with a cloth texture and a light particle system maybe?
also turn up the division in the simulation please (if you used one).
5 - if you are using lots of reflections in your scene, you might want to turn up the depth in the reflections panel
6 - subtle lens distortion always works a treat
7 - the edge of your surface looks a little wierd 
8 - try adding very light grungemaps to de-clean everything, dont make it look to dirty though
(9 - i know you said no, but you might want to try luxrender for an external render? would help with photo realism massively)
it’s good though, keep at it 
Thanks for all the feedback guys!
Good idea, I’ll start working on that…
Well actually, the thought had crossed my mind before but I’m scared to try it. I’ve never been good with making water and I would probably mess up my scene and make it feel more fake. Good suggestion though, if I thought I could do it I would.
When I turn up the reflections on the sink, it ends up looking really gross for some reason… I could attach an image and you could see for yourself, something just doesn’t look right for the reflections. Have any suggestions like loading an image for it to “fake” reflection?
Did you go to the hi-res link and zoom in on the cloth? I did, in fact, add a texture… it sort of looks like it was knitted or something. Due to an unfixed blender error, the normal mapping on the cloth doesn’t show up in the mirror. I tried a particle system of very short grass on it and I never could get it to look right, so I took it off. What do you mean by “light particle system?” It would be nice if you could give me some cloth-making tips. Oh and I also tried simulating it as a cloth and that too also never came to look right, so I hand-modeled it in the end.
All your other tips were great, Casio23 thanks! 
@epic fry sauce
thanks, by light particle system i just meant a few fibres poking out of the cloth, but i have never properly rendered cloth before so i dont really know an effective method it was just what i would have tried first.
the cloth actually looks pretty awsome in full res 
about the porcelain, you may have reached the limits of blender’s internal renderer… try adding a HDRI map to see if that helps at all.
althogh it’s slower than the map-to-reflection texture method, get a photo of a bathroom with similar colours and set it as the sky, when you turn up reflections it (hopefully) won’t look nasty like you said. if you google for HDRI maps theyll be better than images
the cloth does look a bit awkward… but it wont kill anyone
good luck
derek
add some gloss to the mirror
You mean like a fake gloss? Because I have specularity on…
This post is too brief to be suitable for Focused Critique. Please elaborate on all criticisms here.
This post is too brief to be suitable for Focused Critique. Please elaborate on all criticisms here.[/QUOTE]
I think all he is meaning is slightly brightening a streak-like portion of the mirror to fake the effect of some gloss…
A good scene overall, but a few slight errors:
-The faucet looks kinda bland. Perhaps this is what you’ve wanted. I’ve seen bland faucets in real life. If not, increase the mirror value (reflectivity).
-The faucet handles look like they’re just pieces of metal sticking out. Make them look like they can be operated. If you don’t know how, feel free to send me a private message since there are multiple ways of achieving this.
-the sink itself (white part) could indeed use some more specularity, as it looks bland.
The entire seen seems kinda cold to me. When I think of a bathroom like this (by the way, a girl friend of mine has one that looks very much alike) I think of something that looks warm. Try some post processing (color correction + Hue saturation value) to make it look warmer, more attractive.
Overall, very nice job =).
Happy blending!
Acro
Good modeling overall. But there are certain details missing all over that would boost the realism of the render. here’s a list of potential items that you may want to add,
Caulking, most sink and counter top almost always have caulking around the edges to prevent moistures from seeping in. the sink looks disconnected from the counter thanks to the lack of caulking.
the base of the faucet just looks too flat. There are not many sinks that have specially designed hole for faucet like that so we are not used to the faucet looking like that. maybe raise the base of the faucet and make it thicker to look a little more natural?
The frame around the mirror is too thin. I cannot detect any depth of the frame, making it look like it was sunk into the wall. ::EDIT:: I misunderstood the edge of the mirror. I now realized that the mirror’s edge is beveled and not a frame. so no need to correct it now. sorry
The power outlet is a nice touch too but normally in the restroom, these power outlet have surge protector like in this link,
http://i.ehow.co.uk/images/a05/60/7v/types-electrical-outlets-3.1-800X800.jpg . also, don’t forget the screws.
Hopes that this crit can help you spot the details that you need.
Nothing much… just a few material changes. Still not happy with the porcelain and chrome textures but I think they’re both better. I would say they’re almost unnaturally shiny for the scene though. Also, too much reflection causes the porcelain to look like serious crap and I also could not get good looking specularity on it either.
Full res: Click here
Change Review: Click here
Rad, Depending on where you live the power sockets may not have any screws (in my house, they don’t). Might be something you’d know better though, as our sockets also look different.
What Casio23 said about luxrender is true, because luxrender is essentially a shortcut for good lighting and materials.
Lux is essentially the closest you can get to the perfect render button.
If you don’t want to use luxrender, however, you need to work on the lighting and materials.
If this is based off a real bathroom, that shouldn’t be hard at all. Try using area lamps where suitable, like a ceiling fixture, and point lamps for bare bulbs, like what might be over the sink.
For the faucet, the material should be 100% raymirror reflective, no diffuse. If it has a brushed finish, use glossy reflections + a normal map to achieve that.
The sink should be brighter, probably blown out, because it’s the only white object. (besides the outlet, anyway)
The towel needs more large scale wrinkles/rumpling, and more body and/or thickness.
The mirror should be pulled out from the wall just a bit so that it catches the shadows and AO, which will give it the appearance of depth that it lacks right now.
The towel holder needs a base, instead of just sticking into the wall.
The countertop: Try ditching the glossy reflections, and using sharp reflections instead. You might want to make a scratch texture and set it to subtract from the reflection. See if you can’t find a better granite texture, also; the one you have looks to be low resolution and blurry.
You might want to ditch specularity entirely, and use emitting meshes behind the lamps.
The composition is kind of boring, but then again, a sink isn’t very interesting.
RadScientist was talking about GFCI outlets, BTW. Not surge protectors.
I did a little tweaking/paintover; I hope you don’t mind.
http://pasteall.org/pic/show.php?id=10407
I caved into the pressure and tried to install Lux on my Mac… it failed both on the normal blender and a modded version. The exporter simply isn’t loading into blender… 
looks like to story 2 quality. the soap is a little thin. add lights (model them)that actually give out light rather than nothing. nice textures
Don’t know if you’re still checking this, but:
-newer render looks much better.
-i would trun off blurry ref on the porcelain, as most porcelain has clean reflections, just a bit lighter.
maybe try max distance and fade to material?
-also, maybe adding some fingerprints to the mirror might help add realism
good luck
derek
Hey
Not a bad start.
First of all…I dont think you should look for another “fansy-shmansy” software to render your scene…anyone can achieve good result in a software that does everything for you. BI can be just as good…thats if you know what you are doing.
For you to get more realistic chrome material, try to turn tap material to black and push mirror to 95 - 100%. Remove all textures from it…if you have any. If you like the result - assign the material to all metal objects on your scene.
Also add some more detail to the scene…glass with some tooth brush and paste…some shaving foam, water dropes on the counter or something - just to give it some life, because right now…the scene looks pretty dead to me. You can even make a drop hanging from the tap.
Your towel: make the normal map bigger, so I dont have to zoom on it on my 32" to see that it has one. Make the ends sharper. And try to run a better simulation, coz right now…all those unnatural wrinkles make it look like you have been washing dishes with it.
Make the soap a little thicker and not in such a perfect “pose”…
I also dont think that you must go for day light…maybe try a yelow-ish lamp with some slightly spreded shadows.
Dont quit this project…by the time you finished with it…you will learn a lot. Guys in here are willing to help.
Dont concentrate on small things like fingerprints and all those stuff…for now. Get the composition right…then you will get to it.
Take care
