I have a couple questions I have been playing around with the composite nodes and nodes systems. Also with the textures and I’ve made some pretty good pictures and the thing is I can’t exactly achieve photo realism. I want to know how to use the composite nodes and nodes operations because that is really a troubling thing.
I don’t know what some of those operations mean please help me.
Think like a photographer. Lighting is everything (in my opinion) in Blender. No matter what mesh you create, it is the lighting that makes it photo-realistic. So in effect, lighting can make or break a “Blender project”. Lighting is everything.
I prefer YafRay for photorealism. Also, as you know, textures help make your objects look like they way you intend, such as using the NOR feature for bumps and the shaders for the shine. Color too. All of these little bits help make the project look better. But in the end, it is the lighting that does the trick.
Visit this place here. http://hdri.cgtechniques.com/~sponza/ You’ll see hundreds of the same exact mesh, but you’ll notice the lighting is what makes one look better than another.
I recommend staying with the default settings for now. That thumbnail image that you have on display shows what you can do to manipulate the texture on a mesh. Experiment with it and all of the settings and see what each function can do.
See i downloaded yafray but I don’t even know how to use it and also that other light it adds. I really never took the time to learn it because it was pretty slow to me. Also they are missing some what about stress and tangent what do they do?
what about stress and tangent what do they do?
I want to know what tricks you guys use to make your models look so real because I’ve seen some pictures and it looked good and photorealistic.
What…does…that sentence mean? Honestly, it makes no sense to me at all.
Do you need tutorials on lighting or something? If so, a clear statement of your problem would really help, you know…
(BTW, first you said you didn’t want to learn yafray, why not? Being slow is not really an excuse, if you optimize your workflow you can do test renderings with it as well. And GI DOES help to make lighting easier and faster to setup.)
I’m with Company2 on not wanting to learn yafray cuz I don’t like 20 minute renders just to find out that everything looks lke crap. But if you want photorealism you aren’t really gonna get that with Blender. I’m personally not intrested in photorealism though.
Man, I got a good laugh out of that reply! I was wondering the same thing.
Sorry guys I edited it do you understand now.
Good to see I was not alone 
Ah, well, now for your statement first: as I have said, it needs optimization to fully appreciate Yafray’s features but that is not Yafray’s fault, but merely the algorithms behind GI. Two ways around it: make use of the border feature a lot (even though this needs the .xml button to be deactivated) and use the cache with proper settings.
On the other hand, you can achieve quite realistic stuff with Blender only. There was a thread about lighting just recently, where someone pointed out a method to simulate GI with only Spots - hard to setup but very fast. Might be something for you guys…
And for you, company2: Thanks…now, was it that hard to take your time and make a clearly understandable sentence
But still, the question is quite…impossible to answer. It totally depends on what you’re going for - an outdoor image, a room, an object in a studio? There are no tricks, there is just experience (and knowledge), patience and experimentation. You need proper lighting (liek spin pointed out), texturing, modelling, post processing etc. - if you think, a render engine makes it for you, you’re wrong. Especially the modelling is still your very own work while something like Indigo can really help to make lighting easier.
So, what do I want to tell you? I have no tricks so there’s nothing I could say to answer your question But maybe if you gave us some more hints, we could then give some more infos, maybe…also, I’m sure someone will post some good tutorials later on.
I was afraid you’d say something like that now it looks like I have to find my way. So far though I’ve been doing we’ll with grass and the ground.
It came out pretty good but if you don’t mind telling me can you guys give me some tips on using Comoposite and Material nodes? If it isn’t too much trouble.
advice on those nodes would fill a book, in fact, we wrote one. you can read it for free at http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual/Compositing and http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual/Node_Materials
You beat me to those links, RogerWickes. I agree the compositing nodes are not simple, exactly because they are so powerful. I’m sure we haven’t even seen one percent of what can be done with them in Blender. It will take any single person a lot of time and practice to master a system like this.
Spin makes a good point: Iighting, together with textures, can make or break a scene. The most awesome million-poly model would look crap under Blender’s default setup and materials. Lighting alone takes much practice and study. In my opinion if you’re serious about getting close to photorealistic lighting you must consult references like Digital Lighting and Rendering by Jeremy Birn.
Reminds me, Birn does these “lighting challenges” at CGtalk forum, where detailed models are provided and then users are invited to use their CG software to light them creatively or for different conditions like candlelight. The models are at http://www.3drender.com/challenges/ ; they are things like bowls of fruit, a bunny, bottles, etc. Also definitely look at the lighting challenges at http://forums.cgsociety.org. Lots of great discussion and critique there. Using these still lifes and getting the feedback is like being in art school again. You hone your skills on the basic forms, then master simple objects and figures before you touch a room, landscape or epic space battle scene.
As Myke says, Blender is not a magic tool that will create realistic scenes just because it has nodes, or can pipeline to renderers. It takes a lot of sweat and practice to get to that level. In the end very few of us probably have that much ability, but the great thing about Blender is that it gives so many more of us the opportunity to try.
CD38: i cant wait for wizards to come out in 3.00. They will really help with things like lighting and rigging and modeling and scene setup, stuff like that. Stupider tools like DAZStudio are simpler to use because of bundling stuff together, invisible to the user, and stuff just works easier; trading off the geeky coolness of starting with nothing and adding it all manually versus getting it close using a wizard.
I agree on the scratching the surface using Compo: The tut I wrote on blending emotions was inspired by that crazy node layout used for that comic book style jap image. I think Blender has a future JUST as a movie editor tool now using the compo nodes.
That made my day 
Yeah, it looks like that - you have to find your way. By the way, are you sure you need the Nodes already? Sure, it is a magnificent way to handle post pro and stuff but definitely not the easiest thing to start out. So far, I really did not miss them, doing my post pro in Photoshop and rendering out several, easy to make, passes and then just compositing in 2D. Sure, there are these Blender purists ( ) who say you don’t ever need to go into 2D anymore, just do it with nodes…but I’m not one of them.
I say, make it as simple as possible…and when you got a good base, start with discovering new paths and enter the world of Nodes…
Maybe I have to add that I often use Yafray and look forward to test other render engines as well - where Nodes can’t help you (yet!). So, I personally rather stay away from them now.
Rogerwikes said about 3.0 having a wizard I’m glad blender isn’t that easy to master because I have more of a sense of accomplishment just getting this far. I honestly thought I’d get this in 1 week man was I wrong.
Hey but isn’t the POV ray better than yafray because I remember reading a tutorial that said that yafray is for water.
I’m going on 10 years and even I still get lost now and then, and have to find my way back to some sense of sanity. By photorealism, is this what you mean?
testing…It’s not really an issue of purism. It’s a workflow issue involving speed and ease of use. I should probably qualify that last part. They are easy to use once you begin to understand how to apply them.
Anyone who ever tells you that there is NO need to go external is either lying or doesn’t know what they’re talking about and this will always be true for as long as other software packages exist. No software, no matter how hard it’s coders try, will ever be THE Jack of all trades. After all, FedEx would NEVER hire a plumber, no matter how computer savy, to configure and maintain one of their IT networks.
Thanks and that is what I am looking for something to really help me at least make people say oh that is a dog or that is pretty good graphics. I’m not looking to make the best graphics but I want it to look pretty impressive.
One thing I honestly don’t understand at all is composite nodes could you really break it down for me. I mean the renderlayer (render buttons) seems to be a challenge for me. Can you guys help me?
PS(thanks for the help so far).