How about a modelling/rendering challenge?

[zsouthboy]

Here's a picture I saw today and thought instantly that it'd be a great modelling/rendering exercise to try to match:



Originallly found it here:
http://gizmodo.com/5019609/rettangolo-s ... n-ambrosia


Here's what I've gotten so far. Blocking the scene out and trying to match the lighting first.

[Borgleader]

Very nice but it seems to me like those panels on the wall (the ones next to the black ones) arent reflective/specular enough. or maybe its just me.

[Kram1032]

nice first try

Borgleader: That's hard to tell. zsouthboy has to fully match the light and tonemapping first. He's already pretty close

[zsouthboy]

I thought the panels on the wall were a mirror at first as well, but the more I studied the picture (and tried it with mirror materials) it actually looks like those are simply diffuse "painting" things instead - there's no reflection of the pipes in them at the right places. Still going back and forth on that one.

Now that I look at it again, they do look like mirrors. Fark.
Ah well.

Lighting this one is a bitch. There's the two obvious lights (in the middle of the frame and camera left behind), but it's not light enough in the other areas of the frame to match with just those, in varying intensities.

It's actually fun, because i've never tried to do this before, so I'm doing what I do best: learning as I go along.

[Kram1032]

what *I* notice is, that the black part of the wall in the background actually is the same black as the cuboids in front of it but in your render it seems to be darker

further, it's not as wide as you modelled it

[zsouthboy]

Here's another render as I'm going along, and blender viewport.

It's such an iterative process compared to what I do normally.

[Kram1032]

the perspective is a little stronger on the reference image... (though, you can't trust blender in that part, anyway. It's very hard to match perspective. ESPECIALLY, when converting to Indigo afterwards)
The rest looks much better now
Nice progress^^

[BbB]

Hey Zsouthboy. Good start so far. You sure your scale is ok? Looks like your DOF is a bit too shallow for a scene of that size.

EDIT: It's a really good idea to do this kind of stuff. Best way to learn.

[zsouthboy]

Yeah I build scenes in blender at 5-10x size, usually, then reduce by x on export.

@Kram: it's actually been interesting to try to match perspective and camera placement - focal length is around 30mm is my guess for the original.

EDIT@BbB's edit: I agree completely, that's why I'm sharing my experience as I go as well.

[Caronte]

Yeah I build scenes in blender at 5-10x size, usually, then reduce by x on export.

Why not adjust the Worldscale value instead?

[zsouthboy]

Because I like being able to snap to precise increments.

Perhaps you misread what I said, as well - I don't physically scale it down before I export every time - just use the world scale setting on the "Environment" tab of Blendigo

[Caronte]

Ah! Ok

[BbB]

Also, you will need to use the shift lens to render this. The original photo is using it. Look at how straight the verticals are even though the cam is not level.

[zsouthboy]

You're right of course - I was just eyeing the shift lens controls in blendigo, going "Yep, looks like I get to fark with these"

I can't, no matter how i configure the room, duplicate the reflections in the furthest away mirror, however. It's bizarre - it's right next to the large black fabric area and is reflecting...white.
Moving the camera around a bunch does not, at any point, make it reflect white.

[OnoSendai]

Good luck. The original looks photoshopped to me, so you might be trying to achieve the impossible