In the course of time the interest in CG has grown steadily and more and more professional renderings (are used to created 3D configurators) can be observed. Often you see amazing scenes, which for some reason still don’t reach a photorealistic level despite perfect lighting, textures and topology in their models.
But something is still not right and you are rarely realistic. In the following article we would like to give you some tips on how to get rid of perfectly rendered images and cubes and make them look imperfect.
Depth of field.
Depth of field is a very important thing you can do to make your renderings more realistic. Almost every real photo has it. Even if you take a picture with your smartphone, it focuses on something. Sometimes you hardly notice it. But it’s always there.
Blender`s camera has depth of field built in. Just scroll down to the “Depth of Field” tab and set the “Iris” to “F/Stop” and set the F/Stop number as you like to get the result you want. If you do not want to use an empty slider, you can simply set the Distance slider.
Focus length.
Focus length is not always needed, but sometimes it can really help rendering. The higher you set it, the further an object looks. Each camera lens has a set focus length. By default, Blender’s Camera is set to 35mm, which is a good preset. It is a very common focus length. But not ideal for many situations.
In this article we won’t go further into different focus lengths as this would go beyond the scope. You will find many interesting articles on this subject on the Internet.
Third regulation.
The one-third rule does not exactly contribute to realism, but it certainly improves quality, so let us include it anyway.
The one-third rule has existed since about the 18th century and it is still as useful as it was then. The third rule basically divides the picture into nine equal parts and then you place the main focus of the scene on one of the four middle corners.
Under this tab Blender has a third control in the camera settings.
Focusing the image on one of the 4 points brings interest and energy into the image. There are many other composition rules like the third control, which can also be important.
Lens effects.
Lens effects are basically errors in a camera. Photographers often try to avoid them to get a perfect picture. But as CG artists, we try to do exactly the opposite. That’s what makes CG difficult. With all imperfections. Here is a list of the most common effects:
- Chromatic Abberation
- vignetting
- Bloom
- lens hoods
- glare
- Motion Blur
- Lens Distortion
- Dust and Scratches
And that’s just a few. Many of these effects are built directly into Blender‘s Compositor. Others have to be added in Photoshop or Gimp. Search Google for these effects and learn why they appear and how to create them. Once you have mastered these effects, you are well on your way to photorealistic rendering.
Texture maps are intended for creating material variations. There are many different types of maps. But the most common are Displacement, Normal and Specular. To create these maps, you must buy a program to create texture maps. Recommended are Crazybump and Knald. There are also some free alternatives, but the results regularly leave much to be desired.
The use of texture maps is probably the most important thing for realistic rendering. They add more details than modeling will probably ever do.
Chamfering.
Look at the objects around you. Everything has at least a very small bevel. In Blender we can duplicate this by chamfering with CTRL-B or by adding a chamfer multiplier. Even if you set it to a very small bevel, it will help.
We hope you enjoyed this article. VisCircle wishes you a nice day.
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