# How hard is it really to make my render look more realistic like this ai generated image? **URL:** \ **Category:** Materials and Textures\ **Tags:** texturing\ **Created:** [September 27, 2026, 4:51pm UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/how-hard-is-it-really-to-make-my-render-look-more-realistic-like-this-ai-generated-image/1653729 "2026-09-27T16:51:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Prizmek](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/prizmek/32/1499564_2.png) [@Prizmek](https://blenderartists.org/u/Prizmek)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2026, 4:51pm UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/how-hard-is-it-really-to-make-my-render-look-more-realistic-like-this-ai-generated-image/1653729/1 "2026-09-27T16:51:09Z")
So although I have real life reference my arc pavement is not the exact same as the reference and I wanted to see how my specific shot would look like if it were realistic and I’d say the ai generated result was pretty good. Now my question here is as someone who has yet to undertake something like this (turning a clearly fake cg material realistic) how hard would this be to achieve this with both blender and substance designer combined as that’s my area of expertise? I was able to create the herringbone brick pattern in substance designer. I’m aware that it’s a basic looking material. My main goal was just to make the pattern and overall color to match my reference. I have some surface imperfections but it’s not very visible from far away and I’ve yet to add wear and chipping and whatnot. I was planning on leaving that for later Also another thing what things should be part of the material itself in the image textures and what things should I leave for decals or nodes in the blender shader editor or something else entirely (I’m not knowledgeable enough to know) ![image](https://blenderartists.org/uploads/default/original/4X/0/a/9/0a907da99b17c76e6162caf4858e8d5bdfac7c3f.png) ![image](https://blenderartists.org/uploads/default/original/4X/d/4/d/d4d8c453a81fd15016d55d18b9d8ac5b230d4f03.png) ![image](https://blenderartists.org/uploads/default/original/4X/7/3/3/7335bcc8bd12ecbcfb8533062aa112ce0e1baa3a.png) ![image](https://blenderartists.org/uploads/default/original/4X/a/f/b/afb1aebc805c8a002195f9f6e9c09df78004022e.png) ![image](https://blenderartists.org/uploads/default/original/4X/6/6/e/66ebdf8c881bf1ca9fedf17bd051ef56af52fab4.png) ---
**Author:** ![Renzatic](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/renzatic/32/1433665_2.png) [@Renzatic](https://blenderartists.org/u/Renzatic)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2026, 4:59pm UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/how-hard-is-it-really-to-make-my-render-look-more-realistic-like-this-ai-generated-image/1653729/2 "2026-09-27T16:59:42Z")
Grunge, wear, tear, and slight color variation among all the bricks. Make some dirt and grit to fill in those crevices. Make some stones look more worn. Rotate some of the bricks at slightly different angles. Reality is rarely ever uniform. Even brand new things will have some imperfections. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Campbell](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/michael_campbell/32/523720_2.png) [@Michael\_Campbell](https://blenderartists.org/u/Michael_Campbell)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2026, 6:32pm UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/how-hard-is-it-really-to-make-my-render-look-more-realistic-like-this-ai-generated-image/1653729/3 "2026-09-27T18:32:21Z")
Try adding some dirt between the cracks using AO to mix two shaders: ![image](https://blenderartists.org/uploads/default/original/4X/2/8/4/284b597c285db1fbea4c959a493a835fc155325f.png) ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Campbell](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/michael_campbell/32/523720_2.png) [@Michael\_Campbell](https://blenderartists.org/u/Michael_Campbell)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2026, 6:41pm UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/how-hard-is-it-really-to-make-my-render-look-more-realistic-like-this-ai-generated-image/1653729/4 "2026-09-27T18:41:45Z")
You could use a noise texture to add some surface grime too: ![image](https://blenderartists.org/uploads/default/original/4X/c/c/d/ccdc1041d38bf7ac7c7e7b28f3f881d714779038.png) ![image](https://blenderartists.org/uploads/default/original/4X/8/b/f/8bfdde94c435cc4ccf42133765bc89d66342a22f.png) ---
**Author:** ![GrimZA](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/grimza/32/1401336_2.png) [@GrimZA](https://blenderartists.org/u/GrimZA)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2026, 8:23pm UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/how-hard-is-it-really-to-make-my-render-look-more-realistic-like-this-ai-generated-image/1653729/5 "2026-09-27T20:23:11Z")
What do your light sources look like? I would use a smaller but higher intensity light source as the main source (Your lighting is kinda dark) and a second scaled up plane with an emission shader for ambient so the shadows aren’t pitch black. ---
**Author:** ![ABeton](https://blenderartists.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@ABeton](https://blenderartists.org/u/ABeton)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2026, 9:44pm UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/how-hard-is-it-really-to-make-my-render-look-more-realistic-like-this-ai-generated-image/1653729/6 "2026-09-27T21:44:30Z")
You could drop the specularity quite a bit as well to imitate that the terrain is bumpy and has a lot of little holes. Make the cracks wider and more irregular, add an earth material there with a mask, and imperfections as was said earlier. If it is a close up shot try displacement instead of normals, could look better.