Re-UPDATED!!!!! AGAIN!!
This is one of the most common questions iv had, here you will know all the tricks on how to make renders look real.. ish.
Plz Visit the NEW! FORUM! to help you create even more realistic renders with the help from the ionee community
im not doing this in steps becouse most of this is tips so ill just show you how to improve.
[the following can also be done useing other 3d programs ie maya and 3ds max, here im using blender 3d]
>>please read all of this in order, it makes more sense<<
this page will be updated and will be full of infomation soon.
Modeling
it depends on what its for really, for renders you need high poly and as much detail as possible still maintaining the actuall shape, if were for games
you must have low poly, with alot of bump mapped details, (more in textures)
its important to be aware of what you see in the real world and observe natual shape, ie youl never find a completely sharpe edge and most things are smooth.
Textures
to get great and realistic textures you will need to use:
using these three things you can have great textures.
First, the diffuse has to actually look real. you dont need a fancy image editing software to do this.
there is no such thing as a clean object, so somewhere add some dirt to the diffuse.
The bump map is usually used to to give the feeling that the detail looks as if it were modeled, even if it were as simple as a cube.
game desighners often use this to keep file sizes low and still have a realistic look to the object.
the specular adds a shiny effect to the object if the specular is zero it gives a feeling that the surface is rough the shinyer the more of a glossy look you will get.
(below) its important to get the specular right otherwise youl get some the complete opposite of real.
Materials
materials are really important, they can add depth and touch to the model, keep in mind; we must keep looking back at the real world for ideas.
only in fabrics and rubbers and some other stuff you won't find specular, without specular you find things rough and old.
The world doesnt really have those vibrent colours we usually think we see, to fix this and a more greyish feel to the diffuse, adding a hdr will increase the realism and add a atmosphere.
(below) adding reflections can really change things, rough reflections are more seen in the real world.
Lighting
light of course is important, becouse without light we see nothing.
if you dont get the lighting right you might as well start again, i always add some AO, even a tiny bit can change things.
yould never find a sharp edged spot light becouse.. well you just dont! or at least have a little bit of softness, in blender you must set the samples to more than one.
(below) if the object is outside you must know that light is bouncing all around you. on a cloudy day (overcast) light comes from everywhere (up there i mean) So to fix this you can use the AO as well as a load of weak lamps near the sky. remember its rare to find a lightsource with a spot, try streching the light out or use a light emiting area, this is called using a fill light, people usualy use this as a main light source.
now a common mistake is when people leave the samples of the light way to low causing a grainy effect in the render, but increasing the samples will affect the time taken to render the scene.
Dont be shy to use lots of lights just dont over do it!
Camera
the camera is probebly the hardest obj to control, if you get it rong the image will not be so realistic. just take a look at good camera views and setups.
FOV short for Field of View shows how much of the scene is in the image, diffrent fovs create diffrent effects for example, some car images use long Fovs.
Orthodoc is very rare in real life and is'nt the most realistic effect for a camera, you can easily tell its made on a computer. so try and avoid it.
(below) here are some examples of Fovs
choosing a good position for the camera should take some time, the best views of of corners of the obj like the images above. try and be creative with the views. oh and try not to reviel unwanted objects in the camera like mesh emmiters so you dont ruin the image.
Render and Compositing
Before you do any and i mean any renders, you must choose a suitable render engine for your scene, remember only some engines can do animations so check first, just to save you from getting disapointed.
here is a list of Render engines compatible with blender 2.48 and up:
>> COMPARE RENDERERS <<
and some others i found:
To compare and Try out renderers click here!! >> COMPARE RENDERERS <<
your computer has to meet at least the renderers minimum standards in order to use it. Depending on the renderer you use also depends on what graphics card you have and Cpu you use. to learn more about GPU's and CPU's click here!
Putting the model on a video using a composit program you can blend the modell into the picture scene, this will make the whole scene look real! iv posted a couple examples below:
(below) here is the diffrence beetween blender internal and the new yafaray, just see how much more realistic it looks:
download this scene for blender 2.49
Give it a reasonable size and add a very very slight mist to the scene giving the impression of depth. focus depth is always nice but remember! : The smaller the scene/object the lower the f no. fidle with the colour and brightness so you get a realistic look, finally add a bit of refraction and distorts and your done.
Lots of artists use photo editing programs to create effects, so dont be afraid to add lots of effects and filters to the image, the the technique may be diffrent for animations, you could use the nodes in blender to do this.
i use photo shop to get things just right, i sometimes blur items that are to close or to far away to mimik the focus effect, i framed it in paint shop pro9 and this is what i got:
[click to enlarge]
(image above was done in blender internal)
Good luck!
ionee
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