Medieval Scene

Hey everyone I’m fairly new to blender and need a little help. I’m currently making a scene inside a castle (kinda like an alchemist’s table or something). The flask sitting in the middle of the table is currently emitting a small amount of light. But the outside the flask is a whole bunch of white stuff. I tried turning off caustics but that gets rid of both the glow and the reflection of the flask. I tried clamping but that simply gets rid of the reflection all together. Any suggestions on how I can fix this problem? Also this whole scene is lacking the rugged eerie medieval feeling I want it to have. I think its because of the lighting. Any tips? Thanks in advance!

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/CZ-phuGhyNR3JXwcqk_sOqUnCQmhXDjczJpySBIwJw=w368-h207-p-no

Hi, unfortunately I can’t see your image :frowning:

How bout now?

Might I ask, what ‘look’ are you going for? Right now it looks a bit flat, maybe cartoony?

I would recommend switching to cycles if you aren’t already, and using a couple very small (.1 - .3) point lamps centered on the candle light.

Also, adding a bump texture to the wall and table would go a long way toward adding realism. Just drag the image texture color output to the displacement input and it makes a subtle, yet very important change.

I actually have the image linked to the displacement already… Maybe it needs a multiplier? I’m going for a dark eerie realistic look. I don’t want that cartoony feel that it has but I’m having troubles getting rid of it.

For the flask, have you adjusted the roughness of the glossy node?

I’m sorry, before I ask…is this cycles or internal?

A couple of suggestions - Everything looks too clean - manufacturing processes of the day would have been much more crude: the candle holders could be bent and have a little tarnish, the table model itself could be more warped, the joints between the stones less uniform, etc. The candles could have some wax-runoff blobs on the sides of the sticks themselves and on the holders. Also (already mentioned above) you have too much light in this scene - simple candlelight would not illuminate as much, nor as uniformly.
I am also new to Blender so I dont have much technical advice I’m afraid, but I like where you are going with this and just offering composition suggestions.