Realistic Real-Life Sci-fi photo help needed?

Hi,

I’m trying to get a good composition for a city scene. The problem I have is getting the colors real life accurate. Seeing objects from the eyes in real life tend to have high contrast relating to surrounding objects. I can get high contrast but I lose saturation or vice versa. So, I’m a little stuck. I rendered this with 1024 passes at 5/3 for bounces etc at 720p. The final version will be at 2048 passes at 8/5 or 8/6 at 1080p. There are details thats hard to see at 720p.


If anyone has anyone suggestions. It would help. I’m trying to get a bit sci-fi style but with very natural and realistic composition. I’m not a expert and intermediate when it comes to composition for super realism.

I uploaded the blend and .exr files to http://averyanthony.com/blender/scificity.zip

Vivienne

Attachments


This is the closest I could get it so far with the .blend in the zip file.


Looking for color contrast. Notice that the sun is orange yellow and the clouds are blue. That is effective contrast. I don’t see much sun reflected on surfaces unlike the photo where we see windows and water with tight caustics and reflections. Also I would suggest googling aerial perspective.

Looking good though.

I tried to account for aerial perspective. I used this link information as a foundation. The link is http://psych.hanover.edu/Krantz/art/aerial.html. If someone looks into the horizon the deeper it gets as to matching the sky/atmosphere and the higher the blur. I’m not sure if it’s effective but it does creates some distance and contrast.

Attachments


Change to a shallower depth of field. Lighting is not hard enough. Sunlight is very hard crisp shadows. An atmospheric haze would help as well.

When I rerender I can make the sunlight with crispier shadows. As to depth of field, do you mean it should be more blurred further or away or the coloring? Do you know of a good example of haze? I really do not want any haze within the city which I have done.

For a wide field of view like this even late in the day shallow dof wouldn’t really be apparent. It would tend to make the scene look like a miniature. The clouds have no side lighting and don’t vary into the distance. Atmosphere would create a gradual change from ground to sky in the distance so it’s better but could have more especially at this time of day. Look at photo reference of scenery at dusk.

I came up with this so far. I can take care of the sharpness and lighting of the scene to match more when I rerender. I just want to get a get baseline before I render

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This is a higher resolution. Its still missing details.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]233552[/ATTACH]

I think the second version looks a little better.


Some haze would definitely help to make the distant objects look distant. Also, areas in shadow tend to have a blueish tint while areas in direct sunlight tend to have a yellowish tint. You can use the Color Balance node in the compositor to achieve this. There are three color wheels, one each for Shadows, Midtones, and Highlights. Push the Shadow one into the blue, and the Highlight one into the yellow.

Better textures would also help. Everything is too uniform in both color and specularity.

Steve S

Hi Steve,

  1. I’m going to push the haze a nudge more. The problem I have is matching the effect from real life video and photos. A lot of pictures or video I have taken, there is zero or very low haze in direct light shoots.

  2. As to color balance ill try that.

  3. Now to color, specularity, and texture. I use procedures for everything except the ship color. The only thing I can think of is rendering 1080pX2 with 2048 passes at 8/8. I am rendering at 720p with 1024 passes at 6\3.

Im rendering far below acceptable standard for a final image.My specs for my computer is good but not powerful enough in video to render the scene using the gpu. So im stuck to cpu. I plan to add more details to the scene to buildings, carrier cruiser in distance in sky, mono train, and vehicles in distance and under platform glass on the highway.

If you have suggestion on point 1 and 3. Im all ears.Vivienne

My 2c:

Your limitation is not system specs. Bump down your resolution to something low and do a ton of renders until you get everything looking good.

One thing I’d definitely work on is getting better texture on the main floor. Also vary the reflectivity using a texture. Take a look at Alex Roman’s work (Third and the Seventh, etc) to see how much a texture can add to something flat.

Think of texture as working on different levels and frequencies. There is OK microtexture on the floor but when you get to larger patterns, scrapes, etc, there is nothing.

You can also build “texture” with geometry of course - if you had a city built of shapes that had harsh lighting bringing out contrast, you would be good.

That said, the image still could use some more contrast… definitely put an S-curve on it in the Compositor. However for that to look really good, you need to think about what you want to be more silhouetted in the scene. Maybe half of the ship is in dark shadow and you can barely make out the details, and the other is nearly blown out?

I really like the reflection of the ship. Also, the little side pod things on the left and right look good.

You do need to think about the background though - the fact that the background is unfinished is the major issue. If this were a film VFX shot, the BG would just be a matte painting of course. First thing I’d do would be find a shot of better clouds (the ones you have now look very CG and don’t reflect the lighting direction at all) and stick in a whole lot more atmosphere. Probably I’d blow out the BG.

Also, if the lighting is hitting the ship from the side, why isn’t the texture of the far away mountains lit up more? Push that, man! Good luck!

Hi

>> Your limitation is not system specs. Bump down your resolution to something low and do a ton of renders until you get everything looking good.

For creating the scene the specs are okay like you mentioned but when I bump to the final version. I want to get super high detail meaning you can see bolts on the platform and ship. 1080p will not cut it.

>> One thing I’d definitely work on is getting better texture on the main floor. Also vary the reflectivity using a texture. Take a look at Alex Roman’s work (Third and the Seventh, etc) to see how much a texture can add to something flat.

I’ll do a search.

>> That said, the image still could use some more contrast… definitely put an S-curve on it in the Compositor. However for that to look really good, you need to think about what you want to be more silhouetted in the scene. Maybe half of the ship is in dark shadow and you can barely make out the details, and the other is nearly blown out?

So, you also agree to shoot the contrast more. I thought it was a bit high already.

>> You do need to think about the background though - the fact that the background is unfinished is the major issue. If this were a film VFX shot, the BG would just be a matte painting of course. First thing I’d do would be find a shot of better clouds (the ones you have now look very CG and don’t reflect the lighting direction at all) and stick in a whole lot more atmosphere. Probably I’d blow out the BG.

I would use matte pictures but my overall goal will make this scene so I can animate it including the background. So, it is not a option. I’m not sure where to get high quality clouds cover.

Getting this scene just right is aggravating me. I think a lot is getting to to match real life. So, I’m having difficulty with all the elements. I guess a lot of practice.

Vivieinne

Here is the histogram for your most recent image (open image in UV/Image editor, Properties panel)


A histogram like this would be typical for a night (“low-key”) scene, while I gather you want this to look like it is sunlit. If that’s the case, as suggested above you want brighter highlights (even some blown-out) and overall more contrast in the scene. Another problem is the blacks are getting clipped, eg at the bottom of the image and on the left sides of the buildings. There should be more detail visible there, especially given the high key that is lighting the back of the ship. Btw if that light is supposed to be the sun, the sunset-like light low in the sky makes no sense.

With the moon and the artificial lights throughout, this would make a great night scene. Is that not a possibility?

Hello Steve,

I worked on the scene some. I focused mainly on the ship on platform. I’m not where I can get a very good HDR image for the background so it wouldn’t look to CGI. I composed the scene with some of the suggestions minus the city in background.


Vivienne

If you’re aiming for realism, you need to make sure everything is as realistic as possible before it goes through the compositor.
I think you need to focus on materials and textures. The floor (and the underside of the ship) look really good. The devil is in the detail, and it’s not an easy job, but you’ll find it takes you a lot further.
Look at the attached photo. Your material on the spaceship looks a bit more like plastic than metal
[ATTACH=CONFIG]234884[/ATTACH]
This is a company that makes spaceship paint: http://www.indestructible.co.uk/approvals/ it could be useful somehow?

My take on it
A little blur, a little bluish tone, some defocus of not in focus objects, a little of “halo” (blur in screen mode), a little of contrast (blurred layer in overlay mode on top)
It needs also a fog so the mountains appear not so clear and the sky bottom needs a change in color too, but I am not going to spend more time doing it.

http://i.minus.com/itmjSZKO1HQlH.jpg

The part that is unbelievable, to me, is the central ship. The modeling needs more detail in the back. The blue glowy engines should be set back more. They look like they are flush with the housing instead of residing within the housing. Those red outline boxes look like Legos™ and destroy the illusion that this is an impressive space vehicle. Also where is the wear and tear on the ship? Surely this sturdy craft has made more than one journey and needs some exhaust scaring or soot deposited on the paint job. The modeling looks unfinished so the lighting is giving you trouble.

I do like the scene and concept, however.

Hi Atom

Tonight I’m going to work on the details inside the warp engine housing, on the impulse engines, add a internal corridor door in the bay, and bolts. I agree on the details. I cant push it to much because I want to animate the scene. So pushing high poly and texture will kill rendering for purposes

As to the ship, I would like the topside smooth and sleek. The underside with more a banged up look. Which I thought was shown by the landing legs slash gear.i know the impulse part needs a more burnt up look.

Anyway. Do write. Thanks for suggestion

Vivienne

Hello Casio23,

Thanks for writing me. I agree about realism. Its a challenge that never ending. I have to find a stopping point. The texture on the ship is good but weak in showing wear and tear. I want the ship look like it has a fresh new paint job but enough wear it to on the bottom that it couldn’t all be covered. As to detail, I will add more detail on warp coil. Like someone crammed tech in a super compact frame for example cell phones. The rear impulse engines I will update and detail. It looks like a lego toy. Although the box shape feels to be the best shape. I probably add more detail in the bay like a corridor door for future purposes.

I’ll check out the paint link. Vivienne