I feel I have been getting very close to the type of result I want out of cycles but I’m still not there. It may also just be a skill issue in some other aspect of the craft. What can I look into to get a more photorealistic look?
4 Likes
The first thing that jumped out at me is the tiling texture behind the car.
Next, the grass is very uniform and not grass-like. The color and shape of the grass seem off.
The proportions of the car itself seem a little weird, and the reflections are too perfect.
The reflections and refractions in the taillights seem more like crystal than plastic
The camera angle is a bit weird too, it feels like you are trying to hide the model more than show it off.
1 Like
When making a render of a large object, be wary of using too much depth of field. A depth of field of that strength would usually be the result of a camera that’s very close to the object and you will usually see that effect on photos of small objects. This makes the render look a bit like a photo of a miniature car. Alternatively, a strong depth of field can also be the result of a very large, high quality lens, but then you would not get as much chromatic aberration as there is in this render.
Talking about chromatic aberration, it’s an effect that’s supposed to show more on the edges of an image and it comes with lens distortion too. I don’t know how you did it in this render, but I would suggest using the “lens distortion” node in the compositor if you aren’t. It will give you this effect in a realistic way (though keep it subtle).
Also, if you are trying to do camera effects, you can add vignette to the list. It’s a slight darkening that happens near the sides of a camera’s lens.
Sunlight is brighter than that, even close to sunset. Right now, it’s barely stronger than the car’s rear lights.
The car’s red lights seem to be behaving a bit weirdly. Does the glass have a thickness (2 sides)? If it doesn’t and you just used 1 surface, then it will behave like the lights are encased in a block of solid glass. Also, did you either deactivate the shadow on that glass or use path guiding? Cycles has a hard time getting light through glass without the help of those and will darken anything that’s behind glass.
All the car’s materials are perfectly shiny. If you are actually aiming for realism, using some roughness textures to add some light scratches and stains to the reflections would help. If you want the car to actually be perfect, then you are not really aiming for realism, but rather something slightly stylised.
The concrete texture visibly repeats. But more than that, the background is very plain and featureless. Of course, such places do exist in real life, but they can make even a real photo look fake and surreal. This wouldn’t be so bad if the graffiti was more visible to break the repetition, if the concrete had some damage and chipped pieces near the sharp edges or if there were multiple types of plants in the foreground.
Don’t hold me as a command but here’s what I’d do:
-Getting rid of the repeating concrete texture on the wall.
-Adding posters to the wall, or imperfections.
-Adding imperfections in the grass, using different types of grass instead of just one.
-Add either clouds or some other structures behind the grill in the wall.
-With some good compositing you could add glare and some sharpness or softening if you like.
Send me the completed version after you finish it completely, I’d love to see it!
1 Like
Thanks for the amazing feedback guys, I haven’t posted here in years but I don’t seem to be getting good feedback on things on the Blender subreddit so it feels great to be back.
I haven’t gotten to the background yet but I was able to add a little bit of realism to some of the car materials. Here’s an updated shot. I should be able to address the rest of the scene this weekend!
4 Likes