Realism
Softimage_Graphic_Artist
Posts: 292
in The Commons
How does my rendering look.
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Some times I wonder, do I need a new computer to make my models look more realistic when rendering my final result look fake.
Any advise out there.
Maybe if your own renders start to look fake to you, then maybe just because, you've progressed.
All the best to you, in this frustrating stage, of your artistic development.
How does your rendering look? Got a gallery somewhere?
Realism is an aesthetic, a style and a set of techniques. Better hardware will only render more quickly.
Things that work for me when chasing realism as I perceive it.
Render settings : lower saturation by half; increase ISO (and balance the rest of the film settings); turn off denoiser; render for less time/don't chase perfection.
Lighting: lots of weak lighting with a few strategically placed stronger lights to simulate natural lighting accented with artificial lighting;
Camera: use them; play around with focus - depth of field on and focal length and f-stop adjustments;
Characters: mix in several HD character morphs at low levels to simulate facial interest; if I use beautiful morphs, be careful not to let them become idealised; mix body morphs to please no one, not even the mirror, learn to appreciate the beauty of askew, floppy and lived in; use asymmetry; perhaps even dForce simulate an entire character for a cycle or two.
Clothing: simulae in an external tool.
I used to shop at a music shop that used the following quote on their bags:
Thats my angle on it. Scratch things up a bit.
This is totally a thing, and at least for some of us, I don't think it ever goes away. I remember when I first started playing with Daz, I was often having "Wow!" moments, as I learned how to use it. But the more time I spent (and, I would hope, the better my work got) the less happy I was with it.
Good hardware helps (especially with time and reducing frustration), but it's really about the assets you're using, combined with lighting, camerawork and how you put it together. Imperfections are what look the most real, and having high quality textures (that themselves are humanlike and imperfect) will also help sell the realism you're trying to achieve.
I think the DAZ characters can only get so realistic. Like, it would be impossible to make a very realistic image with just DAZ Studio and DAZ figures. They just have certain parts of them that aren't very realistic.
Postwork and good photo filters help a lot. I don't think I've ever seen a straight render that looks realistic. And you should post an image if you want a specific critique.
Agree with both @NylonGirl and @Wonderland. The realism (at least right now) is prety good, but has its limits. And I'm okay with it because that gives the figures a style beyond just trying to look like a picture. And yeah, let's see an image for what you're referencing, too.
Reality is a construct of the human mind's interpretation of its limited perception of the universe and therefore realism is a construct of the interpretation of a mind expressing that interpretation of its limited perception in a medium limited by the manipulation of that medium's ability to fully match that perception.
In mathematics it's expressed as: Q x D/5 over Pineapple ÷ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ x E=2.718 + ®
The application of the formula can be enhanced by the consumption of either copious quantities of caffeine, alcohol or pudding.
It is worthwhile to note that most humans are perfectly willing to ignore the reality presented to them by their optical and audio input organs in favor of the musings and suggestions of input sources they have deemed comfortable with accepting input from, therefore reality on its most basic level can be circumvented by following certain common popular output formulas.
One can access a sample of this venue by saying "Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse" out loud and then petitioning the entity that appears for a bowl of chocolate pudding.
If no entity appears, your perception of time, space and pudding delivery is asynchronous with the simulation methods of your current version and your bulk data is not being compressed by the OddleData jigglemahoozits.
There is no remedy for that because this entire post is a figment of your imagination due to the unwitting consumption of too much pudding at a free sample table at the grocery store, so it is best you ignore your organic input organs and imagine a more pleasanter answer.
I hope this was helpful.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
McGyver - Thanks for that, I needed a good laugh. I'm also really glad you stopped by and took the time to post.
Yeah, it's definitely a mindset thing, and I think it happens with all forms of art as you grow.
What's helped me is to realize that absolute realism probably isn't possible with the available assets. So that's fine. What's "close-enough" realism? It's different for everyone. But for me it's that the poses look as natural (not-stiff) as possible, and that the assets & characters in the scene all have an equivalent level of quality, so nothing clashes. Beyond that, I take a deep breath, enjoy what I like from each render, see what I might want to improve on (sometimes it's waiting for a better asset to be created or go on sale), and revisit it when I've leveled up.
The "close enough"'realism is an interesting thing. Personally, I like the idea that we may never get to the point where its easily distinguishable from pictures-and that's a good, good thing. Even figures that go for realism are still obvious works of art, and I think with the time and effort we put into our renders, it should be acknowledged that they aren't photos (or AI).
Of course we'll get more and more advanced and realistic assets, but I hope they never become too realistic. I take pride in the time and effort of my renders, and enjoy them being acknowledged as realistic, but still not photos or AI.
It also probably depends on what you're trying to do with your pictures, but mine are mostly very slice-of-life. So a lot of times it's the little touches... the magnets on the fridge, the knick-nacks around the house, the set of oven mitts on the wall that I hit with a shader because absolutely she'd have crazy cat print oven mits. The cord that dangles down behind the end table and goes into the wall instead of just having the lamp sitting there lighting itself. The fact that the room looks like a house where somebody lives definitely helps sell the rest of the picture.
Yeah, that's also an important aspect. I was referring to the photorealism of the assets, but details in the scene really matter to sell it overall. The little things you mention turn out to be pretty big things when one starts noticing them in the scene, too.
Hard to tell without looking at them
amazing renders OP incredible
Yeah, I am not seeing any renders also
good HD details, good skin, and good light.....that's about it
would be nice if you showed your work though lol
Sometimes when I go for realistic light, i try to keep light simple like i did here.
usually tho i go for more stylistic lighting in my works though
agree. Obviously IRAY lights have some inaccuracies, that add up, the more lights sources you use.
It seems to give the best results, if you keep the light sources down to one HDRI and ONE iray light source.
If you use a mesh light, keep its polygone count low, for keeping render times reasonable.
Lately I have been work really hard to achieve the complete opposite (big grin). I love this render by BlueFingers very realistic. Maybe look at some galleries and decide what matches your vision of realistic and read some of the comments becuase this and other gallery artists do share tips.
This was one of my renders
What was one of your renders? What I posted or what you did not post? Here's what I see from your post.
Oh the images didn't post because they were in tiff format and to large. I will try again.
These are a few more renders, I just have to keep practicing, so I can get better at this. So much to learn.
Finally we see the renders. Really like the pocket watch. There is both realism and artistry visible there.
Yes totally agree with you! Realistic and atmospheric, and with a hint of emotional storytelling.
This was a render I was working on I built a coffee cup model in Autodesk Inventor Pro to specifications as best as I could and I then scanned all the tecture maps and reworked them in Photoshop. I used Maxon ZBrush to complete my coffee cup model with all texture maps applied. Then I used KeyShot Pro to finish all my rendering. By the way the smoke coming from the cup is from Ron's smoke I purchased from the DAZ Store. This model can be used in DAZ if anyone want it it's free just give me a text or e-mail at [email protected]
OK, I'll take a shot. The most obvious thing I noticed in all the renders is the lack of a "real" background. They look to me as if they are all placed on a plane with a reflective surface with an HDRI to provide lighting and reflections. Thus the environment looks artificial, lending an artificial feel to the object in the environment. The objects themselves look quite good.
I think it would be hard to distinguish the bowl from a real bowl, but the environment kills the feeling a bit, and the balls, while the look nice, add additional questions that IMHO can lead to questioning the reality of the image.
The watch looks great, and I'm sure to the average person would see it as a real object. If you hadn't asked the realism question, I'm sure I wouldn't have questioned the realism, but again the "environment" sort of dropped in into a bit of an uncanny valley situation. So on closer inspection, the writing in the watch face is flat. This typically is painted/stenciled onto the watch face so it typically looks ever so slightly raised compared to the white face, because it is in top of it *even though it's very very thin. The gears also look a bit off to me. they look to thin/frail to be functional. they kind of look like they were stamp cut from a thin metal sheet.
The leaf is very good as well, but the background/environment again give a bit of the uncanny valley feeling. If the leaf is supposed to be old and dry, then it is good, but maybe a bit too green. If it's a freshly picked leaf then I would expect a bit more of a waxy surface, and more subsurface scattering.
The cup is also very good.and probably would not be identified as a 3d model with a casual look. Again, the background/environment gives a bit of uncanny valley vibe, as does the "steam". The steam might feel better if I could see the hot coffee or tea inside the cup. The cup models are also feel just a bit to perfect, which I'm sure is adding a bit more to the uncanny valley vibe.
They are all really fantastic work. My comments are just minor nit picks, but if you want the images to look and feel like they are photographs of real objects in the real world that would fool everyone, the minor nit picks can make all the difference. Of course they could also be photographs of real objects, and my observations are simply a result of influencing what I think by saying they are 3D renders.