Realism in my scenes

SketchUp
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Hi Guys. I’ve been working with Indigo Renderer in SU 2016 but have seen so many people using vray that I decided to give it a shot. I seem to be having trouble getting realism so I created a very simple scene and just want to work on making it very realistic. Any suggestions?

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Hi @pseguin219

As I have stated in earlier communications with you, realism is much (much!) more than a switch you turn on and this forum is a great place to get modeling advices. Your rendering engine’s forum (or a cg-oriented community) will probably be a better place to ask for that kind of advice you are after.

So that being said, here’s a bit to chew on.

First you could look around you and ask yourself what makes what you see look real? A part of your answer will be light and shadows.

So you added a source of light to you scene, and now what?

Materials. (Also called textures)

Now could be a good time to foray into the world of texturing and get acquainted with the different kind of maps required (among other things) to make something looks like its real. Your scene make use of flat textures (diffuse maps) and thats it but there are several other maps you can use and that will all affect/be affected by light:

  • normal/bump maps
  • specular maps
  • displacement maps

So if you have chosen vray as a rendering engine, google the vray manual and read on the different maps it supports, the settings available for them and start playing with lights and materials. :smile:

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Thanks, that is very helpful advice. I was looking for specific advice on this scene as a kind of exercise. I have been looking around the real world and trying to figure out what makes things look real, how they reflect light, etc. What I am after is the ability to create a scene that is indistinguishable from reality. I’ve seen people do it and that is what I am after. I wanted to start with a very simple scene with a couple of objects and just work on realism.

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Remove the following:

  • Mythical and supernatural beings
  • Extra-terrestrials
  • Perpetual motion machines

-Gully

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google on ‘realism renders howto’ and you will find a ton of good tips.

edit: your 3d scene lacks realism because:

  • the stairs are flat, have no beveled edges, don’t show any worn/use indents
  • same for the floor
  • in real life, there’s always some sort of transition between elements: skirting, cornice etc
  • the uv mapping of the floor needs an ‘intention’. In real life, someone would spend many hours on the floor tiles, looking for a nice pattern, a nice composition to match the stairs.
  • the seating of the chair is/looks flat.
  • the wood material of the chair is too shiny

A good (realistic) scene starts with a good ‘script’. Should it be a medieval scene? A modern scene? Whats the context of the stairs and chair? A basement or ground floor (different light)? Daytime or nighttime etc etc

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Back to your scene…

  • Your stone texture should be seamlessly applied:

  • would a real wood chair be polished like this?

  • would stone stairs reflect the floor like this?

  • would a real room be infinite long without more light?

  • would there be extreme sharp edges without a handrail?

…
The sum of all these points make it look not photorealistic.

(I’ve never read of someone who leaved Indigo for VRay btw.)

1 Like
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Though at least someone seems to have left Indigo.

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@Cotty’s answer is all you need. Don’t use Reflection too much, especially on objects that normally don’t have one. Aside from all of that, I’d also suggest to turn on the “Ambient Occlusion” feature. It makes the renderings more realistic.

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Thank you guys. I’ll research what ambient occlusion does.