Hotel Reception - struggling "big time"...

[sdwhitton]

first image is the best in my view, although looks to be direct lighting rather than PMC say, looking at the nasty highlight on the ceiling, so maybe path-tracing or PMC is the way forward

I would change your exposure to be 2.8 or something, and lower the ISO to 100, and yes your gamma needs to be around 2

no need for artificial lights (why would they be on with the sunlight streaming in like that?)

if your client really wants them to be on, render them separately, with a black environment, and 'add' them using either screen or linear dodge (add) in photoshop

maybe get some stock photos of glares / lens flares from actual lights and add them over in photoshop again using linear dodge (add) in photoshop?

if you were thinking it looks all unnatural and too 'cg' then that's because it is all cg! so maybe introducing some dirty photographic bits like the above wil trick it round into 'reality'

and whack a really orange photo-filter adjustment on that 'rendered lights separate' layer, to give some colour other than white

you could give the sunlight / natural light a bluish tinge strangely, as natural light is often blue rather than 'yellow' - would compliment the orangey artificial lights, again if they have to be switched on..

if anything, think the colours of the various bitmaps, particularly the wood, is maybe the culprit, along with the 'greeny' colour of the walls - bit of a nasty colour to me, and they don't particularly go with each other - this is all personal taste though - maybe the bump map to the walls is too strong, and looks too cg

so maybe over the sunlight render add a new layer, fill it completely with black, change it's blending mode to 'hue' and make it 10, 15% as cg is always a bit over saturated....

I think you should also add some chamfered edges to the model (difficult to tell at this scale, so apologies if you already have!), and the plastic to the lamps doesn't maybe look reflective enough?

lose the 'cg' plants - use photos of real ones - again introducing a bit more 'photographic dirt' into the image

finally, finally, finally - could maybe try and find a photo of something similar, and see how that looks? even sample some of the colours for reference..

quick look myself :

http://www.hotellevanteclub.com/img/galerias/024.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hotelmodera/4482789164/

actually looking at these, it's surprising how reflective things are in actuality..

hope this all helps!

[madcoo]

Many thanks for your kind and detailed replies !
Lots of helpful stuff here.
I'll work on the image following your advice and will keep you posted.

Many many thanks !!!

[madcoo]

Hi everyone,

I tried to apply your tips n' tricks.

- added 3 light-emitting panes : 1 in the ceiling, 1 on the right, 1 on the left (selected in orange in the viewport images below)
Their vertices are directed towards the inside of the room

- used only IES for the lamps. This time I left the power as it should be in real life (100 for all, except 60 for the desk lamps).

- ISO set to 100 - gamma to 2.0

- got rid of the CG plant, so I can add a photo of a real one later (or a plane with an alpha image in my scene)

- no Photoshopping so far

=> the room is now better lit up, but IMHO it looks ever so "flat"...

What do you think ?

render time : 7 mins

[remon_v]

The room looks flat because there's no contrast and no reflections and highlights.
Did you color your lights?
Sun is a warm color, make the ceiling light also wam.
And give the 2 lights that serve as windows a cool color.
Maybe tweak some materials so reflections work better, and maybe put a picture of a room behind the camera, so there's something to reflect.

Last thing I want to add is your scene can use some tiny bevels.
For example the table legs are just boxes now, just bevel (or champfer don't know how you call it in Blender) the edges so slightly so it can pic up highlights.

[madcoo]

Thanks for your reply.
I'm still getting nowhere with that scene. I spent most of the day today trying to work it out with light-emitting panes / background image / sunlight environment / environment map, and still it seems like everything I do is totally pointless...


Every time I change the value of a Light it changes the whole atmosphere, and I just can't get any nice reflections whatsoever, even after tweaking my materials.
And I did bevel all my objects...

I'll work some more later on that one.
Totally gutted...

[sdwhitton]

it's getting better...

you're fighting a difficult subject imv, it's a box with some chairs and a table in it fundamentally

some esoteric elements in there, that bookshelf on the left and the bookshelf at the back, if they could 'go', it probably would look a lot better, that picture on the right, the way it hits the edge of the picture maybe doesn't help, but all if these things have to stay, then the book thingy on the left needs beefing up, looks unreal, the shelves at the back need to increase in size 150% and that picture needs to be more majestic

apologies if this is a bit strong, it's quite late here in London, but I don't think it's the 'rendering' as such, more the subject matter

[madcoo]

Thanks for your support Sdwhitton
Indeed I had much less problems with my "White kitchen and bottles of wine" scene : more light coming in, a wider space...

All the objects in this scene have been chosen by the client, and placed according to a 2D map that they gave me with the exact position and size for each object. Even the picture on the right and its size were given to me by the client. And he insisted on the fact that it had to be laid out "as it is", without a frame or anything. (and yep, that's another reflective material gone...)

Indeed part of the problems I have comes from the fact that too many objects MUSN'T be reflective, so it corresponds to the client's wishes

I'm finding it particularly difficult to get some reflection and realism out of "thin" elements of furniture like the table and the chairs on the left, although I modelled them finely and bevelled them...

"Frustrating" would be the appropriate word for this project...!!!

Many thanks again

PS : hey you're in London ? I lived in Reading for 4 years... Loved it