I’m modeling a cheeseburger. It is going to be part of a larger scene, although the cheeseburger will definitely be the focal point. No need to comment on the lack of scenery, as right now I just want to make the cheeseburger as realistic and mouth watering as possible. In my mind the weakest part is the burger patties themselves. I am not going to use image textures, except as masks for procedular textures. Any ideas on a better burger? Thanks.
Food seems like a real tough challenge in 3d… first impressions for me is the bun looks like it may have a bit too much specularity. But the modeling, sesame seeds and the basic color of the bun looks good in my eyes The cheese and ketchup look pretty convincing. Maybe a bit more randomness in the thickness of the tomatoes and bit more bending of the tomato that hangs over the edge.
As you already mentioned the weak link right now is definitely the patties… they don’t look to yummy right now 
The colors seem to be off or something… grill marks and some dripping juices might help sell it more.
Ok… please proceed to make me a nice order of fries and a chocolate shake, and let me know when it’s ready.
There should be more gloss on the patties and tomatoes. And since we have SSS now, you may want to add that to the buns, tomatoes and lettuce. The patty texture needs more fine grain, and variation in color, because the surface should be darker than the crevices.
Yes, looking really great so far. You’ve done a great job so far!
Critique: The cheese needs to have it’s glossiness set lower (this actually will make it look more glossy which is what you want) and make sure you are using a Fresnel input in all of the color inputs of the glossy shaders. It looks like you are doing that already but I just wanted to make sure because sometimes people don’t know this and just try and turn down the glossy/diffuse mix instead. Bun looks great as do the sesame seeds. Lettuce looks a little flat like all the shreds are facing the same direction. Tomatoes look great too. Maybe a little stronger glossy mix to catch the refections on the sides better. I would use a more glossy setting (like 0.1 for instance) for the tomato insides so they appear more juicy. Tomatoes are very wet inside. The way to make this look even more convincing is to add a tiny noise map as a bump map just on the insides. You can use the exact same trick for the catchup too. It’s looking a little more semi-gloss then it should.
Now for the patty: First is glossiness. All the pictures of hamburgers that I looked up has very glossy surfaces as of they were wet. Well, not wet but greasy of course. So again, use a glossiness value of .1 or lower for this. Second is that it should have a mix of lighter colored chunks that represent the fat, grey chunks that represent the meat, and dark spots that represent the burnt/grilled parts. I would just use a mix of three noises textures and see how that turns out. The grill marks are fine but their edges are to well defined. Like you mentioned before, use a noise texture to try and mask out the edges more.
I think you’ll be golden after that. But seriously, it’s looking really close as it is now. Keep it up!
EDIT: I didn’t think to ask before but you are using Cycles right? I shouldn’t have made that assumption.
Harley, thanks. It’s sounds absurd but I am putting serious thought into the fries/no fries debate.
Indy. Yes, cycles. Thank you for your critques, I am going to try all of them. Should have version 2 in a few hours. I feel like I’m headed in the right direction, and with some tweaking of materials it could start approaching realism. Thanks again mate.
Missed themadgms comment due to post delay, but I did add some SSS to the bun, tomato and lettuce. Knocked down the gloss on the bun a tiny bit, per Harley’s request. Tried all of Indy’s suggestions, and kept most of them. The glossed burger is now looking much better and fresh off the grill. Remodeled the cheese for a better drippy look. Bent the tomato some. I need to redo the tomato entirely, with a new mask and better noise and materials. Added some mayo which looks too much like plastic. Been staring at it so long I can’t really see the whole thing any more. Any more critiques? Thanks.
I think indy has a much better grasp on materials than I do… but something happened to that cheese… that piece right in the middle bugs me for some reason… maybe a little too much gloss was added. The beef looks 100% better… the greasyness is there just as it should be, but something about the color is still off… That will teach ya to put mayo on a burger…should have went with mustard
I want it my way Blenderallday… just like Burgerking…where’s the onions? Just kidding … but for goodness sake, will you please put it on a plate
Well If Harley doesn’t like that melted cheese in the middle, I’d better fix it! But seriously it looked odd so I remodeled it, and I deglossed it a bit and upped the SSS. I think it’s looking better. Took the cowards road on the tomato and mostly covered it with mayo. I’ll spend some time on it tomorrow, but I need to fill in the rest of the scene. If anything jumps out at anyone, let me know. Thanks.
Really nice job… getting very close to photoreal. The bun seems a little too smooth and the glossiness of it too uniform for a bread product. maybe more variation in the spec map, and a touch of bump? Certainly better than any food item i’ve rendered. The patties seem greasier than I would care to eat, but probably are correct for a fast food burger
Edit: also, I think your very first tomato looked more real, the later ones seem to bright red.
jandress, Thank you. I agree on all counts and tomorrow I’ll address each one. I’m using a tiny amount of displacment on the bun, barely perceivable. I may up it a bit and/or add a spec map. I may degrease the patties a tiny bit, but I feel they are pretty close. I agree on the tomato, I need to head back towards orange tones and increase the SSS. Currently it looks more like the skin of a red pepper. I think the original one is better. Classic blender – spend an hour tweaking nodes and it looks worse than before. Oh well that’s why I save a lot of versions. Append is your friend. Thanks for the comment, appreciate it. Cheers.
Awesome! Looking a lot better! I agree about the bump/displacement on the bun. Just a subtle bit though. The bun should look smooth and soft in my mind. There was something about the color of the patty in the second image. Maybe it’s a tad darker or something. I think it looks more appetizing that way. I think making it to light in color kind of suggests being under cooked? Maybe that’s just me though. About the tomato, yeah, I agree that the first one was closer. To me the issue back then was not so much the surface of the sides (the skin) but more the lack of glossiness of the insides. There’s a lot of water in a tomato and that should make it look really glossy. I think the problem with the cheese in the second image was not that it was to glossy, but that it wasn’t glossy enough. Melting cheese has a more liquid consistency and because of that should look more glossy. The next time you melt cheese in the microwave, watch it turn from matte to glossy before you’re very eyes. Also, It looked like you didn’t use fresnel on the glossy of the cheese too. It has to much of a soft sheen and it reflecting to much of the dark background. Fresnel will move the reflections to the edges of the shape and look much more realistic.
I’ve been saying this in a bunch of other threads too: Always use fresnel with glossy. Really, it should be built into the glossy to prevent people from producing unrealistic materials. just about all surfaces exhibit some degree of fresnel.
It’s looking really great though. Looking forward to see what you cook up tomorrow… [cook up?.. did I really say that?]
just a little bit of steam and some drips!! but very nice work!! I almost want a maccydo’s rofl
Looking very good! You also might want to add a harder cut edge to the buns. And the cut surface of the tomato should be glossier than the skin, but perhaps with a slight bump? And the color variances in the bun look a little too green for some reason.
Awesome job, but no onions?
Thanks for all the advice and encouragment. I have added some more displacement to the bun and moved the hue away from a green a tiny bit. And due to popular demand I have added some onions. Also went back to an oranger tomato with more SSS. Working on the scenery around it more today. I’ll post another version later tonight. Thanks all.
Here is the nearly finished version. As you can see, the cheeseburger’s secret is that it is an entry into the BGuru sci-fi contest. It’s a futuristic 3-d printer capable of printing food. Inside a space craft. Tomorrow’s the deadline. Any last minute critiques on it? Thanks all.
Now that’s a clever entry… I wonder if you should add a decal or something that would help the viewer who may not know what a 3d printer is or looks like, to identify that is what it is … Just a thought. Best of luck in the contest.
I am debating making it sort of more obvious that it is a 3-d printer. Problem is, very few people have seen a 3-d printer, or even know they exist. I am thinking about having an l.e.d. style display on the glass in front, with :37 (37 seconds) like on a microwave. I like doing these contests because it forces me to actually finish something, unlike those 50 or so folders of half finished exploding pineapples. But thank you Harley.
I do think there needs to be some explanation really though. I mean, I had no idea what was going on when as I was looking at the image and I don’t think anyone else will either. You can’t rely on just telling someone what it is. You need to make it clear what’s going on. I think the idea of a label or decal that says “Food printer” would be better then nothing. I personally would love for you to pull the camera back and show more of the machine. A row of buttons below with icons for different food would be funny too and fairly simple.
Well I changed the scene a bit, and hopefully made it clearer what is going on. I’m done with the sci-fi contest, so I think I may open a WIP for just the cheeseburger. I’ll add a lot of toppings and get it as photorealistic as possible and maybe put it on blendswap. I see so many scenes of empty plates and forks and knives, maybe people would like a cheeseburger. It’s the kind of model you can really mix and match too, and sort of make it your own. But thanks for the advice guys, especially @Indy_logic . Appreciate it.
Hi-res png: https://www.dropbox.com/s/it5q2a2in596epp/cheeseburger-1280-submit.png
