Hello. This is my first Blender project. I would appreciate feedback and tips on how I can improve these images in terms of photorealism. Thank you.
- Modeled in Blender and rendered in Cycles.
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Welcome!
This is pretty good in terms of realism. The main thing that isn’t realistic to me is this glass object to the bottom right.
Is it just clipping through the white base? I would expect the glass to either be fully out of it if it isn’t already (no intersection, leave a very small gap between the objects) or to have a slot inside the base to fit the glass in.
An other thing that could improve the look of this object is to add a little bit of volume absorption in the material. A glass slab this thick would be big enough to absorb some of the light going through it, especially the light entering from the edges and going through the long way.
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Something else that I’m wondering about is the wood beams. Are they supposed to be old worn wood, or brand new polished wood? Right now, it looks like an in-between of the two. It looks slightly too grayish and rough to be new, but too smooth to be old wood.
If a building is made out of old, rough wood, it’s going to be an intentional esthetic and it’s going to be really obvious and leaning into it on purpose. If it’s made of new wood, it would likely be smoother, shinier and have a more vivid color.
Also, I am wondering if it wouldn’t look better if there was a very small gap between the pieces at their intersection points. It would allow a very fine contact shadow. The pieces intersecting perfectly like this looks CG.
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My next advice isn’t entirely about realism, but rather about the general contrast of the image. It looks a bit dull and faded. Blender’s default color management is a bit on the drab side.
You should go in the color management settings and try a higher contrast option. You could also adjust the exposure and gamma there to get a better contrast.
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Are you having a hard time rendering and denoising this image? I imagine you must, it’s the exact kind of image that would give Cycles a hard time. I think I see a bit of denoising artifacts in the glass and the shadow of the stairs.
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You might need to increase the samples, especially the min samples, they are very important for a difficult interior like this. If you don’t pick a min samples value yourself, Cycles picks one for you based on a fraction of the max samples, which may or may not be enough depending on the scene. For a still in an interior scene like this, I might use these kinds of settings.
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I see that a lot of the light is coming from windows. Is that bright white light a sky background? If it is, it might be a good idea to put light portals in the windows if you haven’t already. They help diffuse background light find windows and render with less noise (they don’t help with object light sources or sharp sunlight though).
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Are you using camera effects?
Real photos have a series of subtle imperfections introduced by the camera’s lenses and film/sensor. Those imperfections include:
- depth of field
- motion blur (in an animation)
- lens distortion + dispersion
- vignetting (a darkening that appears on the edges of lenses)
- lens dirt or condensation if the environment would cause it (visible as defocussed smudges over the image)
- grain (different from render noise, not the same pattern)
- bloom/glare
- film halation (if using a film camera as opposed to digital)
- lens flares
I haven’t found one single tutorial that explains all those effects at once, so here are some of the more important ones.
lens distortion and dispersion (aka chromatic aberration)
bloom/glare
vignetting
grain (important, grain must be introduced after the previous lens effects, as it’s caused by the sensor, which is after the lens)
By re-creating those imperfections, you can give the illusion that your render is taken by a real camera. Keep them subtle though, real life photographers try to limit those imperfections.
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Wow, thank you so much for the detailed answer and all the helpful tips.
Yes, the beams are supposed to look worn, as it is an existing barn that is being converted into offices. Since my modeling skills are not that good yet, I tried using a texture to make them look old. In reality, they look like this:
I used an HDRI for the exterior light, and since it looked quite dark inside, I increased the intensity to 1000 to make it look brighter. By light portals, do you mean area lights? Perhaps I can try reducing the HDRI intensity and combining it with light portals.
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Light portals are area lights with a specific setting applied, see the bottom of this page: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/render/cycles/light_settings.html. Also, in my personal artistic opinion, the HDRI is to strong compared to the interior lights. I would decrease it’s strength and compensate with the lamps and wall lights.
Using textures for imperfections works perfectly fine, but make sure to use at least all layers of a PBR texture (roughness and normals are particularly important) and perhaps also displacement + adaptive subdivision.
If this is a real property you have access to, you might want to consider making your own textures and photoscans from on site materials. However this will take a significant amount of time especially if you’re new to it.
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When you have a room with small windows, it’s difficult for Cycles to find the background through those windows so it can be used as a light source. Light portals allow you to mark the location of windows so they can be used easily as light sources.
It’s done by placing area lights in the windows (as adjusted to the size as possible) and checking the portal option in the light settings. The area light will not cast any light, it will only guide Cycles to be able to find the windows. This will reduce the noise in the light coming from outdoor.
Note that this only works well if the background has soft and diffuse light, not direct harsh sunlight (because sunlight is directional and that’s independent of the window’s shape).
I see a bit of shine on the wood in your render, which isn’t there in the reference. Are you using a roughness texture? Maybe I would disconnect that and give the whole material a flat roughness value of 0.9. I would also do the same to the diffuse roughness. This should look close to the reference.
Also, maybe adding a bit of wobbliness to the model could help convey the old and worn aspect. No need for something very complex, just a few loop cuts or subdivisions would allow to move stuff around and make the planks a bit lumpy.
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