Hello:wave:, I’m an hobbyist 3D Artist (Not pro and mostly self-taught using a tutorial on youtube.)
Everytime I’m rendering a scene the lighting is always bad and the water too. I tried to ask the same question on discord and a few other desert forums. On discord only one person was answering my question and she said my water is bad and my shadows are bad. I KNOW. (Sorry for majcap) when I ask her how to improve my scene I had no answer… I’ve quit Discord since because I didn’t have any reason to be on it. So I’m going to try to ask the same question here.
I use cycle as a rendering engine. I only use a sun for the light. and my water is a flat rectangle with an ocean modifier and a glass shader. I know there are probably some problems with the composition of the piece but I’ve tried my best… I’m not an artist and I don’t know how to draw and I was unable to make sea moss…
Sorry, for my bad english. I’m not a native english speaker and I’ve never have the chance to live outside of my own country.
Thanks you to everyone that read me and sorry for wining about my bad art for ages.
actually the scene is not that bad… it just lacks contrast (bright/dark). and yeah, there’s definitely different shaders you can do for the water.
for the sun, are you using a standard blender light and clicking the ‘sun’ setting on it? or is this some plugin, like PSA (though the clouds in the distance are better than what i’ve seen out of PSA)
could you share your settings for Cycles? light bounces, that kinda stuff. that might trigger someone’s suggestions toward what you might tweak to get some more contrast in the scene.
do you have any links to share of (other people’s) artwork with the look you yourself are hoping to achieve, so we can tailer our reponses that direction?
I see a problem in your render settings: the clamping settings. usually, you don’t want to clamp direct light, or it will limit how bright you can make a light source, which is bad for a sunlit scene. I would put the direct clamping at 0 (which disables it) and the indirect at 30 (or the highest number that doesn’t cause problems). Clamping is something that exists as a workaround for fireflies (very bright pixels caused by poor sampling of reflections), but it limits the light intensity in return. Clamping is a compromise that you would use only in scenes that need it, and even then, you should use the highest number possible so you don’t limit your lights.
For your color management settings, you might want to experiment with “look”, “exposure” and “gamma”. Those settings will help you adjust the contrast. You will need to experiment a bit, as every scene is different.
Hey @Malemort , respect for not giving up after such an annoing encounter. Sadly it happens all the time, dont bother listening to criticism if it ist constructive. @KDLynch already mentioned the mayor parts, your scene isn’t at all bad, you are already 90% there; you are just missing the hardest last ten percent.
As already mentioned contrast is the main thing you need to adjust here. Especially if you have reference try to really disect it in different parts and try to achieve them one after the other.
One of the easiest ones would be to darken the ocean the deeper it gets. This can be achieved by just adding a volume scatter node with the right density and color to your ocean cube.
Maybe the beach could benefit from a few little spots of darker tones or details.
Also check your general blender color settings, those are definetly not on high contrast.
This might be intentional but i thik the scne could also benefit from lowering the camera a little bit more like in your reference to emphasize the depth if the scene. Ofc this would propably mean adjusting the layout a little bit.
It is time intensive but a little bit of depth of field cpudl also work wonders.
And yeah just play around, have fun, start the next project which will work a little better
Hello to all of you Geospinelsulfid, oo_1942 and etn249. And thank you all for your very nice advices.
I read all of your comments in detail and try to applied all of your suggestions.
I learn about clamping. I had no idea what “clamping” was for and why it matters in my case.
I use the composite section for the first time. I need a bit more time to find the right balance.
I adjust the angle of the camera and change the layout of my piece.
I tried to adjust the sea using a volume adding a volume scatter node. but it’s now terrible I think I must understand how it work first. (Exept if you like blue jello.) I need to change a lot of things in my piece because now the placement of all of those toads are wrong. Dori is sick. and I didn’ adjust the hot air ballon and he doesn’t look right. it’s a W.I.P.
I’m sorry mr. Geospinelsulfid, I tried to apply every one of your advices but I don’t understand how volume scatter node work and my ocean cube is more like some sort of plane with an ocean modifier so I don’t know if it will work the same way. but I can change it. I will tried to figure out how i can a better ocean tomorrow. If you have a blender tutorial that work for me in my case. I take it.
I don’t know what “depth of field cpudl” is. but is it some sort of focus field ? (If that mean anything ? Sorry, I don’t know.)
I’m still taking any sugestion. I’m really sorry, but it’s getting really late for me and my already bad english is somehow getting worse.
I wish you all have a very pleasant night.
I’m now satisfied with the result (As long as I’m not looking to much into it.), there are still stuff that I could improve but sometimes you’ve got accept how some things are.
Thank you to everyone that help me. You have been a great help and I like having the point of view of someone that is more experienced than I am. That is willing to share his many tricks to help me improve and help me achieve my original goal. If you have any suggestion feel free to reply. Otherwise, it will be wise for some sort of moderator to close this topic.
theres no need to actually close the thread… but it is useful, since this is a support thread, to pick a post and mark it as the solution, even if it’s your own post. that’s for other people looking for the same kind of info in the future, to lead them to a solution faster, as well as letting people know you’ve solved (to your satisfaction) the issue.
and yeah, it’s always hard to tell when to call something done and move on to the next piece… a struggle that many of us, if not all of us, share.
and I didn’ adjust the hot air ballon and he doesn’t look right. it’s a W.I.P.
