So I’ve been working on getting closer to photorealism and feel like I’m still really struggling. I’ve done a few larger scenes and not really been happy with them so have tried a simpler scene to pinpoint the problem which is what’s posted here. The sofa/books are downloaded, as are the textures, as I feel my main downfall is the lighting and compositing so this is what I wanted to be able to focus on. I’ve been using HDRi previously, but really wanted some harsher light which I couldn’t get with them so went back to a simple sun lamp. Currently my rendering settings are fairly standard, exporting a png with none ticked on the filmic log option and then tweaked in Lightroom. I’m used to editing photos and film where the flattest start point is desired, but it doesn’t seem to work quite as well as I’m used to. There seems to be less data so I get posterisation and other nasty things.
I’m really not sure what to do though, as I’m struggling to even put my finger on what takes away from the realism, so any thoughts as to what can be done better would be great.
I’m not a lighting expert, by if you don’t mind an intuitive answer your shot reminds me of a certain type of acrylic painting where the artist used a photograph, not a real model, as the subject. Painting from a photograph results in a flattening of the painted image because the model is itself a 2D image with flattened lighting and perspective. Your shot (which is nicely composed and framed, by the way) has that same flat feeling to me. Perhaps if you created a complex array of lamps, each with a different strength level?
TheBragi has a good point, looking at it, there’s a distinct “2D” feel to it, a lack of depth. Could be your camera angle / focal length added to the light direction not defining any depth, too “left to right”.
Just for info, if you use sunny High-EV HDR env maps you’ll get “harsher” light too, but high noise in interiors. HDRI Heaven provides high-EV HDR for free if you need.
Export as a 16 bit tiff if you use those softwares for post production. But I suggest you to work as much as you can in blender with ASC-CDL node before further tweaks in ps or lr etc…
As for “none” in filmic looks, it’s the same as “base contrast”. Dunno why but blender devs made some choices that look kinda nonsense to me such as this none=base and the false colour as a view and not as a look.
I suggest you to train yourself by reproducìng real photos. And give attention to models and expecially shading. Cause you can have the best lighting setup ever but if your models or your materials are crappy the final result will be crappy.
Thanks for the replies. I used a relatively long focal length, as far as indoor shots go, of 50mm, because I didn’t want the perspective to cause the sofa to look too large and looming compared to the background. It already makes a fairly hefty 2m set of shelves look a bit spindly. I’ll try fiddling a bit with it and the lighting and see what I get.
I’ve been using .exr HDRs from poliigon and still find the light less than ideal. I suppose it might just be the lack of control. Control isn’t something I like to give up, and I’ve seen very nice scenes without using HDR so would like to learn without.
Even at 16bit I find the files rather lacking sometimes. I’ve been using Lightroom simply because as a photographer that’s what I’m most used to and it’s a lot quicker than the compositor, but I may give it a go. I don’t want to question you as you seem to know what you’re talking about, but looking at the “base contrast” “look” there certainly seem to be areas blown out that aren’t if I select “none”?
With regards to the models, is there anything particular about the ones in this scene that betrays it? As I say, the sofa and books are downloaded because I wanted to focus on other parts, but the shelves and table are made by me and both are accurate reproductions of items I’ve liked in shops.
I’m not completely sure of the leather material, that is IMO a bit too glossy / grayish, but I don’t think it’s that important.
I think your render is OK, maybe the missing parts are just compositing/post-processing.
How about adding a bit of volumetric light (that can be faked) , some color corrections to make it more film-like. A tiny-bit of vignetting, glare, chromatic abberation , film grain ?
If you want to get cheesy how about an instagram filter ?
Another way of adding realism is to include faked clues that this is real , like having some books not well aligned. more visible stuff on the table ect…
To me , it look realistic, one missing part is a kind of a story behind this image, you generally don’t take this kind of pictures unless you want to sell a sofa. Maybe by adding more “life” in the picture (who lives here ?, ect…) you can make it more beliveable.
If anything compared to a lot of chesterfields the leather is actually rather matte, but I agree there isn’t something quite right about it which has been bugging me. I’m not sure if it’s just a conflict of a leather that looks rather worn being so glossy, and whether I should try and go for a cleaner leather. I think the greyness it just down to me trying to balance the background in Lightroom, and I really should have used a mask.
Do you have any links for faking volumetric lighting? I found one using light rays in compositing, but that method seemed to work off highlights and sort of relied on a window being visible in the shot. If I try it on mine I just get a glowing sofa I did have some vignetting, but removed it as it just felt rather closed in, and with the light streaming in I was aiming for a slightly “loftier” feel.
I agree with the books I could have leant a few etc. Stupidly I put a couple upside-down, but that doesn’t really show either way. And yea, being in the shadow of the sofa the glasses on the table don’t really show up as much as I’d like. Perhaps I’ll try and think of something else to go there. I’ve seen some very perfect, clean, almost empty looking renders that still seem much more realistic. To me, as I mention, it’s a certain “lofty” feeling which I just can’t seem to get, which is why I’ve been wondering if it’s down to the lighting.
If you render to OpenEXR, you’ll have far more data to work with than PNG gives you. If you’ve never used EXR, you’ll find the latitude is truly mind-blowning.
If you want to improve in realism, maybe you should take a picture and try to recreate it from scratch, maybe some IKEA illustration that are 3D but look very realistic.
Very nice, and not needing too much tweaking, I think.
Maybe some subtle DOF, a bit more luminance variation, the slightest touch of color grading, and some subtle level adjustments perhaps.
I prepared an example and will first include the original here so the images can be clicked repeatedly and cycled in a “before and after” fashion for your consideration:
Thanks for the edits. I tried doing some actual volumetric lighting in blender, and although it’s a nice effect, and gives it a certain cinematic quality, it isn’t really the realistic style I’m going for.
Stupidly I realised in my tiredness when I copied develop settings over in Lightroom from a previous render I didn’t have some boxes ticked, but couldn’t figure out what wasn’t right so just went with it. I’ll go back and have another twiddle and see what I come out with. I might also try another render with a small aperture and see how it comes out as well.
The overall shape of the sofa looks great, especially the shape of the seat cushions has some very nice variation on it! But in my opinion, what takes away the last bit of realism is the shading and texturing of the sofa. (The floor, the bricks, the painting as well as the bookshelf look really believable!) With all the wrinkles it has on it, it seems like you want it to look like it has been in use for some time as sofas on catalog photos have only a few but really strong ones on them. But the wrinkles are spreaded way to evenly. On photos they mostly occur on the seating area and backrest but only rearly occur in areas which are rarely exposed to weight and friction as for example the panneling below the seating area. The tip of the wrinkles has a brighter color on it, as the top layers of the leather have been rubbed of. In genereal I think your sofa lacks in color variation as not only wrinkles but protruding areas in general appear brighter. Lastly there is some very obvious texture tiling at the bottom area. Here are some examples which might help you
I’m still struggling with this issue at times as it seems that getting 95% of the way to photorealism isn’t too hard but that last 5% is a ton of work. For whatever reason, post processing is a huge weak point for me so I’ve taken to overcompensating with attention to detail in modeling. In this case, I think that working on the interface where the brick meets the floor will help a lot. As it stands, It looks like they are just two planes butted up against one another where id expect to see some kind shadowy gap where the wood is not 100% flush against the irregular surface of the brick. It also doesn’t look like you are using a displacement on the brick which might help to sell it a bit as well. These look like poliigon textures as well and I’ve always had a bit of trouble with certain ones. I’m not sure what it is and would be hesitant to assume that its anything wrong with the textures themselves but I’ve found that I get better results with less fiddling when I use some other textures.
The last 5 or 10 percent takes the most time in pretty much anything, 3D, coding, etc. It is ever more elusive as you’re at the fine tuning stage and you reach a point of diminishing returns. I think it’s where many of us think, “you know what, good enough”.
Your image looks quite good already. There’s no need to much worry.
As others pointed out, you should try to recreate an whole project in 3D based in someone else work. Try to spend some time in archdaily or even behance, take a look on other projects, try to recreate them…
Also, I suggest you to avoid flat images like yours, with the camera right in front of the subject, since it’s quite hard to make it believable, one of the most important tips I had while working with 3D is to add layers to the scene, the objects in the first layer are the closer to the camera, the objects in the second layer are the focus point, and them there is the last layer which has the filling objects, usually the wall, the environment, stuff like that. This usually gives the perception of an full scene, that has much more to tell them it is been shown.
English isn’t my mother tongue, I hope you can get the point haha
Also, your scene have only three models, it’s very hard to create minimalist good scenes with a very little amount of objects and still be able to tell an story.
Thanks for all the feedback. I agree somewhat with the leather comments. I’ve gone with a different, slightly toned down texture, and have made the pattern on the lower section/sides much more sparse as I agree that’s realistic. The lightening on the raised sections though is very leather dependant, and less common on black than brown in my experience, so I haven’t made that change.
The brick wall is a texture from megascans (I found the poliigon ones rather mushy), for which I have used true displacement, so there is also a rough edge with the floor, it just doesn’t show as most of it is in the shadow. If you look carefully though under the table you can actually see the world lighting through a small hole where I didn’t extend the wall down far enough.
I realise I perhaps haven’t picked the easier shot, but I kind of wanted it this way so I could really dissect the elements one by one to try and nail any problems. I can understand where others are coming from with regards to copying and so on, but that’s just not how I work best.
Also the floor is a PBR material, with a further texture over the top for some smudges. I went for a fairly plain smooth one as I didn’t really want it being a big feature of the scene.
Wrt earlier comments, I’ve stuck with a very slight amount of volumetric lighting, although I’m still not 100% sure. I ditched any DoF, as any noticeable amount simply made it look like a miniature. Being a photographer I know how I would personally shoot that scene, and there wouldn’t be any noticeable DoF so it just seemed wrong to me. I’ve also swapped the glasses on the table which rather faded into a background for a lamp I quickly knocked together. It could do with a little more work, but just wanted to see what effect it had. The sunlight was also warmed slightly using a blackbody node to be more realistic for its angle in the scene.
So, with all that being said, here’s where I’ve made it to now.
@Dheorl Like the latest version much better! And you’re right about the lightening on the raised sections being very leather dependand. But I still think that the look of the leather is a bit off. In my opinion this has to do with some of the folds which don’t follow a logical order. When looking at reference photos it stood out to me that almost all the bigger folds have their origin at a center of stress, normally some kind of cavity. This often leads to the folds forming more or less parallel or radial patterns. You’re sofa has this effect occuring only on very few places at the back rest. But on other places many of the bigger folds don’t seem “logical” to me.
The floor with the smudges looks quite realistic to me!
Its the small things that really help with photorealism, once you get to this point. I would suggest little dust specs that you would see flying through the air with the sun coming in like that.
Also I would add little dirt specs on the floor. Maybe add a particle system with just a handful of small dirt particles on the ground. Look all around you, on the ground on your desk everywhere, there are tiny dirt particles. Just a thought.
Thanks, I appreciate the follow up comment. I agree the leather is still the main thing which isn’t quite right. The lines you’re referring to on my model though are more meant to represent just general leather degradation from humidity etc, which although compounded through use are normally much more random in their nature due to imperfections in the leather. More along what’s seen here for example.
The folds you’re highlighting are largely just a product of the manufacturing process. I do genuinely appreciate the thought though and don’t want to seem ungrateful.
I did have some vignetting, but removed it as it just felt rather closed in, and with the light streaming in I was aiming for a slightly “loftier” feel.
