Hey guys, I’m just a newbie getting started with blender and, aiming to get some critiques/feedback, I decided to share my first “original” render after completing a few tutorials.
Modeling was easy, the real challenge for me has been getting the materials to look right, especially the condensation from the bottles. I tried using normal maps for the water droplets, even made some myself, but the results were not satisfactory, seems to look better with particles which is what I’m currently using. I am using roughness maps I made to get the kind of frosted look and the running water drops on the bottles. The forest in the background is just a static image, by the way.
I rendered it twice with cycles, one with an HDRI and a sun lamp and another with backlit as well to show the different coloration of each beer type (not sure which one I like the most):
I’d really appreciate some feedback and some tips about what could be improved, having in mind I’m pursuing photorealism. Thanks in advance and sorry for my bad English!
These are pretty damn wonderful, except (imho) your water drops are kinda small (did you use reference images?) and your tree reflections from the foreground of your hdr makes for some funky reflections where they taper. I personally would tweak the hdr to have an opening/clearing of forest in the part of hdr that is reflecting there…
I agree, looking to reference images of bottles’ condensation, I noticed there are a lot of small droplets, that’s why I used two particle systems: one for very small droplets and other for bigger ones. Maybe I could try increasing the amount of big ones.
About the HDRI I totally agree, I’ll experiment with some other HDRIs to get better reflections.
Thanks for the response man!
Yeah, it is just one those weird reflection situations that even if the GI is physically correct and whatnot, it doesn’t change the fact that it still looks a little weird. Personally, I would go for some Rocky Mountain hdr and and bg plate… this is, after all, Colorado beer…
Also, it couldn’t hurt to cast some leaf shadows on a bottle or two and the table. I really think this would help bigtime - even if you changed to mountains (but presumably still have trees nearby). I use leaf shadows all the friggin’ time.
