Hey all,
I’ve been working on this for the past couple of days, and I decided I’d like some feedback and comments (constructive please). The texturing isn’t perfect, I’ve noticed and the scene is a little empty. The original render was quite dark, so I have lightened it slightly in post, but not significantly.
Rendered 1000 samples in just over 2 hours.
Thanks! 
Rotating the camera a little to the left might help fill in the scene some, and I think an extra light might bring out the shine in the keys. Awesome render, I like the floor texture and the logo.
modelling looks very ok. im not a piano-player but i think i miss some wood where people put the musicpapers on right?.
Maybe plain glossy, shiny reflective black material would be better then the wood texture.
you certainly have to do something with your composition and lighting. there are some basci pules about composition, color use, whitespaces and how to etc etc. Google around and you will find many info about it. it is very handful in all of your future renders and make stills look very professional. In blender you can set helplines to your cameraview under the camera properties > “composition guides”.
in this case i would rotate the camera to the left like ironicmind suggested. maybe lower the camera as well so you get a slight overlook view of your keys like a path. add a Depth of Field and focus on the keys in front of the logo or so. you need some more lights as well. maybe if the logo would cast light and shadows can look good.
On real pianos (as opposed to keyboards with plastic keys) the gaps/shadows in the gaps between the keys are much more noticeable. This is probably partly due to the white keys not being white on their sides, only laminated onto the top and front surfaces. The sides are left with bare wood. In my experience anyway. Good work - keep it up.
Way way too dark. I think that is a common problem with many artists (self included). Also, in addition to changing the position of the camera, you might also want to change the focal length. What you are using now is (imoho) distoring the image too much.
First of all, thank you all for your helpful comments.
I agree that there isn’t enough light, the hardest thing I’ve found with Cycles is that the light levels change over time. I shall boost the lights, however.
The camera position might help too, I find composition quite difficult, and the depth of field comment seems fair.
As regard the piano itself - I am a self-taught keyboard player (not classical pianist) and don’t own a piano, so what appears natural to me may not be a true reflection of an actual piano - hence the thread in the first place.
Anyways, thanks again - I shall have another look and see what it turns out!
I’ve had another go - only did 607 samples this time (1:42), but I feel that the composition and general light level is better.
The bump map is too heavy on the floor by a lot.
Make the floor reflective (honestly I’d use a glass, but people say there’s something wrong with me…)
And the keys need to be a lot more reflective…
The wood needs to be shinier too. Otherwise, what should look like the parlor of some rich person looks like an old house and a $50 Blender piano. 
The chair is fantastic. (Well, okay, if you’re going to go crazy with glass and gloss shaders anyway, make the top of the chair wood and make it shiny, like many people play this thing a lot…)
I think it’s a great scene, but I’ve always loved piano.
I also think it’s ambitious.
So I give you a B++ but I think you can make this incredible, and do a lot of crazy things in Cycles.
Great start. You almost got it…
What’s your world emit strength set at? The shadows are awfully dark for a GI environment. Other than that, the new one looks great. The lighting makes the keys stand out more and shows their gloss. I would agree about the piano. It just seems a little off.
@AdamEtheredge Yes, the bump does look a bit extreme 
That’s an interesting idea - using glass. Might give it a try over the diffuse/glossy mix.
Haha!
Thank you for your kind words! Cycles is indeed extraordinary - just seeing the stuff people can get in minutes of setup is incredible. The node-based materials actually are very flexible, and only stand to get better imho.
@ironicmind13 World settings are pure white, background, 0.25 (to be truthful, it was playing havoc with the look so I turned it way down 
)
I’ll keep looking at that wood and the piano, the dimensions might be a little off too.
much better already. still too dark tho. if you add/mix another glossy shader to the piano the reflections will brighten up your scene more as well. try out a skytexture as a background in stead of pure white. dragging your mouse over the globe of the skytexture settings will give you different illumination of daylight and looks more natural. 0.25 is not so much for global light … give it some more. don’t be afraid to loose the deep black color, you should ;).
(personally i would scale up the tiles more. it distracts a bit of the attention the piano should have. anyway good progress and you will get there.
i think a wall in the back ground instead of the floor going off in to no place. might help with the lighting too a bounce back or just a touch of rim/back lighting.
the other thing is that keys on even the most expensive pianos are never perfect they are a tad longer or shorter. and on older ones they are higher or lower.
the other think i noticed on my paino in the other room is the small amount of dust in between the black keys on the white keys (where my fingers never go).
over all i like it!
good job.
Ok, thanks - might give that a go.
A wall might make some sense too, perhaps I’ll add one. And thanks for the comment regarding pianos - I suppose they aren’t perfect. I might look at that too, although adding dust may be a challenge!
Have produced another render - 650 samples, 2 hours. A little noisy down by the pedals, but its good enough for now. Have upped the global illumination using a skytexture as suggested, added wood textures (just to see if I prefer it to the very dark wood - EDIT: might add some velvet or leather to the seat) and a wall (which has got a material, but looked more plain than I had hoped - next step is to add a light bumpmap to it to make it look painted EDIT: and maybe change the grey). Also rotated the floor plane so the tiles are perpendicular to the wall and piano. Have added some random rotation and slight movement to the keys, although this may be too strong at the moment, so I will tone it down a bit.
Thanks again to all…
A couple of comments: Most pianos have a cover for the keys that comes down to protect them when not in use. Also, there is also usually a bit of wood to set sheet music on. Thirdly (and lastly) your pedals have nowhere to go as there is no gap around them. They would be stuck.
Thanks shadowbane - I hadn’t thought of the pedal housing (my initial camera angle didn’t see it!). And yes, they do, but I wanted to keep the Blender logo on the wood, so I decided to leave it off.
I would try to make the keys shinier. right now they seem really dull. I think that it would be good to try.
You’ve got some texture stretching on the front part under the keys.
Ah, so I have. Many thanks.
