Realism advice - table only

I am starting with simple objects/scenes to try and achieve maximum realism. What advice do you guys have for this table? It just doesn’t look like a real wooden table to me.

I believe folks are interested in what rendering package are you using first.

I am not a rendering person myself but I would say the wood texture is too big, then adding some bump map. The top of the lamp is just a plain color. And if possible add an HDRI for some quality reflections.
The internet has plenty of wood textures, some seamless- choose a good one if this one is not on your taste.

Ah, OK I forgot. I use Indigo Renderer. I also try to use Vray but can’t get good renders with it.

Yeah the wood texture just looks blurry and totally unreal.

OK here is an HDRI added. It makes the scene super bright and I can’t seem to control that, plus I don’t want the ugly image in the background like that.

I don’t use Indigo and I don’t know how you can fix that. Usually the HDRI has some settings, Brightness,Contrast etc
Also there might be a way to also add a background to not see the HDRI. Also there are some Studio or Inside HDRIs, those would make more sense to use with your setup.
Maybe read the manual ?

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If you want extreme realism, you first need to use better wood grain textures. And apply them with the correct orientation. Look at some real furniture to see how the grain runs. It’s oriented incorrectly on the aprons and drawer fronts. Also draw the table so it could actually be built out of real wood. The aprons, for example are set too far in on the legs.

Light the table from the front instead of the left rear.

There needs to be a tiny shadow line between the drawer fronts and the front apron. As it is, it looks like the drawer fronts and apron are carved out of one thick piece of wood.

As for the design, the bevels on the drawer fronts are much too wide for those tiny drawers, especially when nothing else has a bevel. And the drawer pulls are too small.

For extreme realism you’ll also need to add some dust, reduce depth of field and so on. Look around you and actually pay attention to what you see. then duplicate that.

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Shouldn’t a table with dimensions like these be standing against a wall?

Anssi

Typically it would be. Or behind a sofa.

As mentioned before, you don’t see only the table but the environment too, you can create a perfect table but with an unrealistic environment, it won’t look photorealistic.

You guys are missing what I am trying to do. I am starting simple and just want to create a single photo-realistic object for practice. Someone else here did it a while back to show me something and that’s what I’m trying to do. The hdr image seems to add some nice reflection, but it adds an ugly messed up image in the background plus it makes everything too bright.

You asked about creating a photo-realistic render of the table. I don’t see anything that has missed the point.

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People are talking about sofa’s and walls.

Address those things that I mentioned like properly applying decent textures to a properly drawn model.

They are right. Standing alone in the middle of nowhere your table looks like it might fall over at any moment. You should create at least a rudimentary “furniture store”-like environment. It is not “realistic” to put it like that. It has even got a lamp on it - it needs to be near an electrical outlet.

As to rendering with Indigo, I guess that there are more people who know the ins and outs of that specific application at the Indigo forum.

Anssi

I am not interested in a real scene here. I only want to practice getting the table more real looking.

Thank you DaveR, I am using what you said.

Hello again @pseguin219,

As @DaveR stated and as I have myself told you a couple times before in your other threads, one important aspect will be to use higher quality materials in order to achieve higher quality results. But your quest for realism won’t end there.

As for your table, I would also add that any object with harsh, hard light coming from behind it will look unrealistic and out of place. Same as in the world of photography, the three point lighting theory is an acceptable starting point for single object/basic scene.

Documentation and tutorials abounds on the subject matter of realistic renderings.

You could very well simplify to the point of using a single rectangle as a 3d model and try having that look like a wooden board, until you actually allocate time to sit and read articles/watch videos in order to get a better grasp of what kind of information your rendering engine is expecting you to feed it, I’m afraid you will be back every other week, knocking at the wrong door and expecting some kind of epiphany.

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Have you tried this plugin www.brighter3d.com for sketchup 2016, post your model and i will render it to show you the results

Like some have mentioned before you need an “environment” of some sort to create a photo-realistic table. Lighting, reflections and shadows all contribute to the “photo-real” look. Even if you only want to show the table, you must build some sort of studio for the lighting and the table to interact. A table in empty space will never look photo-real, we don’t even know what it will look like. There are lots of rendering studio models around but, basically all you need is a floor and two walls. They must have materials applied to them, still if it is only white (is it matte white, glossy, eggshell?). Your lighting must represent real world lights, i.e: location, intensity, falloff, etc. If you use an HDRI image as the light source, it must also interact with the environment to look real. Beyond that, work on the details: things like rounded edges, the space between coplanar edges and of course, the quality of textures and proper placement. Cheers and good luck!