Maybe you want to be a little more precise? A nicer lighting setup with different lightsources and/or HDRI or better settings for samples and light bounces? Maybe also show what special spot you don’t like yourself?
(Or even the quality of the (paint) varnish material ?)
I have tried following so many tutorials on lighting setups and none of them work. I don’t know what part I don’t understand but studio lighting doesn’t really work in my cases. I don’t know if my current light setup is fine or not. And how do I make a lighting setup that gives good lighting to showcase with other camera angles.
In this setup I am using a diffuse light at the top and back with a primary source perpendicular to the side of the car.
I think both looks nice. But who am i to judge. Important is what you wanna achieve… maybe a bit less reflection in the ground plate? Maybe some imperfections on this. Maybe (another) HDRI ??
Lighting cars can be very tricky, and each car is different in how the lines react to light, I think the second one showcases the body lines well, also using the color of the ground to manipulate how the light refracts into the sides is a trick as well.
Also, a lot of the time I will point very focused spot lights on parts of the car I want to highlight that seem too dark or very weirdly placed area lights that would make no sense in real life but create a gradient across a logo or body line
It really is sort of trial and error, but also really wide lights almost always help, I’m still learning myself but those are a few things I have picked up and translated to CG
Also kudos! Keep pushing your renders and skills, I want to see more blender/cycles car renderings reach the heights of some of the greats out there right now!
Really nice work here!
The reason I think I like the lighting and render angle in the 2nd shot is that we get a good amount of rim lighting along the top silhouette and contours of the car. I think some sort of backlight might help with the initial render.
Place a very small light to “squirt” a little illumination at the front of the car, to remove the “opaque black” in the grill area without explicitly calling attention to the light’s presence. This might or might not adress the shadow in the door, which for some reason is less objectionable to me.
In general, the “histogram” tool should show you a mostly bell-shaped curve with no “spikes” at either end (corresponding to “featureless black” or “blown-out white”).
Adding too many lines creates too many reflections, which kinds spoils the shape. However I see a lot of lighting setups that showcase the shape very well without creating too bright reflections.
The bottom of the door is curved inwards and that’s why there is shadow if that’s what you are referring to
