Looking good but still very CGI! What next?

[Chinook]

Hi everyone. I'm more used to working in a much more stylized way in C4D but I've got a rare architectural piece I'm working on and I'm stuck.

I'm familiar with those amazing photographic-look renders of beautiful architectural interiors that I've seen you guys do and I'm crawling my way towards that with this piece but can't get there.

 

My eyes (and brain) are burnt out so I'm after some advice. I'm pretty happy with the model. I'm pretty happy with the general setting. I'm pretty happy with the quality of light / sky / AO / GI etc. But at the end of the day it sooooooo looks like a CGI

 

I've begun to wonder whether I should be attending more to lens effects / Depth of Field etc? Or should I open it in photoshop and soften some edges? / add some noise/ dirty things up / add lens flares Arghhh! What should I do?

 

I can upload the scene and give more details of what lighting and environment I've used - but frankly I've tried quite a few things so I'm interested to just get any feedback I can based just on what the overall image is looking like.

 

thanks.

[Claudio Branch]

 

I'm pretty happy with the model...but at the end of the day it so looks like a CGI.

 

 

I see alot of crisp sharp edges. You need to chamfer pretty much all of the visble edges. Objects in the real world do not have razor-crisp edges.

 

You need Ambient Occlusion or dirt in the corners everywhere as well. This will help the scene have much more visual weight by creating the illusion of the objects having more depth and mass.

 

So, get to it!

[STRAT]

and your lighting is way too bright and flat. you might also want to look at paying more attention to your texturing too.

 

unfortunately, the way to a beautiful photo-real image lies in the skill, experience and dexterity of the artist.

 

I know you appreciate there's a lot more to making a cracking image than just spending a few days working on it. take all the advise you can, incorporate it all into your image, then stand back and be satisfied with your finished article. It wont be as good as your next picture; which is why we all strive on

 

it's quite nice btw

[Chinook]

Thanks for all the feedback. Lots of real helpful and practical advice there. I never fail to be impressed by how online communities help each other.

I've been busy working through different settings, details, surfaces and lighting and this is the result. A mixture (as you can probably guess) of HDRI lighting, strategically placed lights, AO and then a brief sojourn in Photoshop for some 'finesse-ing'.

I know it's not great (still obviously CGI) but it's a huge leap forward for me compared to where I started.

I'm now going to be setting up some test scenes of a simple interior and running through an organised series of experiments to try and understand what I'm doing a bit more!