Newbie - Help!

[Oscar J]

Yes, they should give exactly the same lighting as when not using them, provided you cover all openings to the environment with exit portals.

[elliottcal]

Had a play with HDRIs and exit portals and left it to render overnight and this is the result. It's (for me) difficult to tell if I've got the lighting right without seeing the materials in place. Do you think it worth moving onto materials now or still try and tweak the lighting? There are still bits of the model missing, but I'll add them in later.

[Oscar J]

The lighting looks beautiful to me.

[elliottcal]

Thanks Oscar, posting it with the reference photo for comparison.

[Zom-B]

Do you think it worth moving onto materials now or still try and tweak the lighting? There are still bits of the model missing, but I'll add them in later.

Since materials also affect the light in the room (like the dark floor absorbs quite some light), I'll do a first rough material pass.
By that you also can adjust light to fit the reference by adjusting it based on reflection behaviour

I also suggest a big soft light behind the camera, that softens the shadows on the wall the camera is facing to.

[elliottcal]

Thanks Zom-B, will try the soft light and make a start on materials. Materials are the bit I'm probably least comfortable with, so I'm sure I'll be asking a load more questions!

Thanks everyone for the advice and tips so far.

[Originalplan®]

@eliottcal Looking good so far!

[elliottcal]

Thanks OriginalPlan!

[elliottcal]

I've roughed out the floor and played around with colors, which I know are off for the attached. I've put a bump-map in for the lines between the boards, but unsure about how to handle the 2 different textures on the floor. 1 being the varnished surface and the other being where the varnish has worn away.

Thinking of playing with a blend material using 2 types of phong, 1 with a higher IOR for the varnish and 1 with a lower one for the worn patches. Am I heading in the right direction?

Also attached the original image for reference.

[Oscar J]

You don't need to blend phongs. If you use a map in the fresnel scale slot, with white areas where you want the clear reflective wood, and black where you want the worn surfaces, you'll get the same effect. These kinds of maps are often called spec maps or reflection maps on texture websites.

Your bump map looks a little low resolution by the way, it's like the gap between the planks is too soft.

I think you pretty much nailed the lighting by the way! You can adjust the white balance to match the reference pic better though.

[elliottcal]

Thanks Oscar, just had a little play with the fresnel map and it seems to be doing the reverse to what I need, the black areas which don't reflect, appear darker than the white areas which do. Looking at the reference photo the worn areas are lighter than the shiny ones.

As I write that, it makes perfect sense that the shiny areas would be lighter, but in the re picture the varnish gives the wood a darker look.

Any tips on how I can replicate that?

Added a quick test render to show what I mean...

[Oscar J]

Well, the colour texture for your floor is drastically different to the one in the reference picture.

Ideally, you should have a spec map that matches your colour map. As you can see by looking at the ref picture - the worn areas are light and matte, and the reflective areas are dark and reflective. So ideally you want a colour texture which is lighter in its worn areas and has a dark wooden colour in the other. For the spec map you want it to be the other way around - it should be dark in the worn areas, where the colour texture is light, and lighter everywhere else.

If you can't find/make appropriate textures for this, it might indeed be a better idea to do like you suggested and make a blend material between a light wood coloured matte material, and a darker reflective material, and control the blend between these with an appropriately "worn" blend map.

[elliottcal]

Makes sense, I'll give both a try and see what works the best (or at least within my capability!)

[FakeShamus]

The floor is a perfect candidate for a coating material. Use your floor texture material as the base and use a separate texture to control where the varnish covers it.

[Pibuz]

Hi Elliott,
interesting workfolw I must say. It remebers me of...mine when I started!
I think this is the right way to understand: posting reference and wips really helps evaluating the progresses, and at the same time see what still lacks.

My go is to focus on the typical elements of the image: in this case, the furniture itself is minimal, so there's something else in the scene which must bring it up, and that - my friend - is the floor. I'm sure the photographer worked a lot on that, so....you have to work on that too.

This is the right moment to make some material testing: make small tests on the "hotspots" (the bright reflection areas and the feet of the furniture, I'd say), find the best texture you can, matching the reference, and you will see a GREAT improvement.

Also, straighten the vertical lines