A realistic render in progress...

[thc721]

Modelled a really cool glass ball with gold stand, working on textures and lighting. I think the area light needs a little more intensity but I don't wan't to lose the awesome shadow with reflection. What do you think would improve this picture? The image shown is a rough 452 second render on my Dual 1GHz G4. Any suggestions? (This is one of my first attempts at a realistic render.)

[Martin]

Hi,
I think that is a excellent first try The stand and the floor already look very reallistic. The glass ball will become more realistic once you add more details to the scene. Because glassy objects live from the reflected and refracted environment. That's why glassy objects always look so nice with HDRI environment textures.

By,
Martin

[thc721]

I've added some more texture detail, although some of my lighting changes made a dark patch on the floor in shadow areas. I've got to work that out. Lighting glass items can be really difficult! Thanks for the comments.

[Jake]

Really nice lighting. Well done. There is a Renaissance quality to the light.

[thc721]

The trick to some of my lighting is the "emissive" tag. The walls and floor (to some degree) are slightly emissive. I found out after experimenting some more that is why I have a dark patch on the floor. I turned all the emissive back to solid black and the dark patch went away. (See my latest, and hopefully last rendering.) Thanks for all the positive comments!

Looking at a glass ball all day kind of makes your brain go to mush... Time to work on a new scene....

[Jake]

thc721,

Are you using the radiosity setting?

Seems the corners in the background are a bit flat. I would think there would be a more gradual shading toward dark in the corners where the walls meet.

[thc721]

No radiosity in this render. I added a distant light right above the glass ball to fill shadows in a little. That's probably why the lighting is less contrasty. I could re-render with just the area light, only a little brighter. It had a nice corner darkening effect.

Call me a purist, but I don't use HDRI and raydiosity all that much. I spend way too much time fine-tuning textures and lighting before moving on to the more complex stuff. The model only took me 30-60 minutes (I am a beginner, mind you) but the lighting has been a constant tinkering process running into DAYS now! I grow impatient watching my Dual 1GHz G4 render. It's fast, but it's no G5. I would crazy rendering on an iMac G3--I've seen another artist do amazing work here in the gallery with an iMac! It has inspired me.

[Jake]

Well, I'd say your off to a great start. Nice job.