Vehicle Setups

[C.Smith]

That's my biggest beef with the C4D renderer. Even when you have good material setups and lighting setups, the renderer still looks a little 'cartoony'.

For my car paint materials I start with a Danel shader and build from there. I often turn off the 3 specular channels because the highlights in the HDRI image should be making those instead. Then tweak your reflection falloff (fresnel) and reflection amount till it matches your references.

But Even on my best renders where I think I have all the best elements set, the renderer still lets me down a little in it's inherent look.

[ClassicGamer]

I have to agree with you too about the advanced renderer, sometimes I'll get an indoor lighting setup with my furniture and other things so spot on, it'll look just like a photo.

But this is the nature of learning I suppose.

I forgot to mention my current car paint material settings

I'm using a normal newly created material with the following settings:

Colour = 255 full standard red colour with a brightness of 50%
Reflection = Pure White with a brightness of 60% and a fresnel added with a black to light grey gradient.
Specular = Set to plastic, Width set to 50% Height set to 20%, Falloff set to 10% and 0% inner width.

I've tried using the same HDRI as the background HDRI in the environment channel a few times too, usually set to about 40%.

I'm also looking for cartoon style lighting and material setups, as i'm keen to make a homage to the Italian job too.

I hope someone can help me :)

Kind Regards

Classic Gamer

[Per-Anders]

I don't think any of that is the fault of the render engine. If you choose to use fakes like speculars you will get a fake look. Don't get me wrong your images are good, but your models lack detail as do the textures, the forms look supersimplified and overlarge in many of the details, the lighting and shadows don't match the backgrounds (you have crisp brightly lit cars, in dull grey landscapes, or crisp shadows where only a diffuse light is present, or a very plain shadow where there should be some), nor does the grain. The second image has overuse of AO it's got the classic grey and overdark look, its' better to use AO in an overlay mode instead and use it lightly, it's there to add a bit of detail for when youre' lighting or GI doesn't quite have the resolution. The HDRI you're using looks quite low res and like it's got MIP mapping going on on it, MIP will blur things and that looses the contrast of the HDRI. The backgrounds themselves are kinda interesting, they look like they're box mapped environments and the mapping isn't accurate, so youre' seeing a very CG look again on them, that's actually either an interesting stylisation point, or unintentional, use a frontally projected image instead. Finally for realism don't expect a perfect match to ever come out of any render engine, it's mostly about compositing the result in post.

Keep working at it. It's a good start, but there's still a fair way to go. Photorealism doesn't happen by accident, it's hard to pull off a really convincing match to a background plate in any render engine.

[ClassicGamer]

Excellent advice, thank you very much, I totally agree with your points too, that's why i'm going for a cartoon style.

Not sure to go for a luminance channel and a couple of lights for a cartoon look,

or GI.

I'll have to do some more tests.

Kind Regards

Classic Gamer

[STRAT]

as mentioned, the key to matching your rendered elements to the backround plates is to match as closely as possible. keep in mind lighting similarities. contrasts. colour saturation levels. soft/hard shadowing. grain. sharpness/DOF. blur. AO etc etc etc.

Obviously textures and model detail are big issues and need to be addressed, but all the above things must be matched up as closely as possible and kept in mind when trying to photorealistically blend in.

Whach you dont distort the backround photoplates either. it'll look obviously wrong (like in a couple of yours shots) if it is and distract from the realism.

as it stands your images are a great start, but look like game screen shots. mainly, imo, due to lighting/contrasting.

like Per says, photorealism is an art you must work and and craft. it wont just happen by hitting the render button. (unless you use maxwell of course :p )

[Primitiv]

I am no expert, and I have my own grips about C4D renderer, but I agree that you need to analyze your backgrounds better so that you can translate them in your lighting.

Here I have some examples of stuff I produced in the past. There are many faults for sure, but it shows that you can achieve a good mix of CGi and real images in C4D.

http://homepage.mac.com/primitivx/.Pictures/3D/Maserati-admired.jpg
http://homepage.mac.com/primitivx/.Pictures/3D/Maserati_garage.jpg
http://homepage.mac.com/primitivx/.Pictures/3D/Cobra.jpg

This one is no ideal in terms of lighting, but I was testing PhotoMatch.

http://homepage.mac.com/primitivx/.Pictures/3D/Caddy.jpg

[Primitiv]

By the way, beside lighting I noticed that your backgrounds look weird because the scale is off. You have to make sure to set them at the right scale or your objects will look like miniatures.

Make sure to simulate the lighting from the same position as your background images. Use arrays of lights to create better shadows when needed.

Also, render in multi-pass and bring your renders in PhotoShop or similar apps. There you can fine tune them. Most of the time, a render will not look good out of the 3D app alone and this is where PhotoShop skills will come handy. This is not cheating, it is enhancing and manipulating what you create to finalize it.

[ClassicGamer]

Thank you all very much, fantastic advice by all.

I'm busy till Monday, so i'll get back onto it then, and try to update aswell.

Kind Regards

Classic Gamer

[Tibs]

I like the 4'th one where they are both on the bridge.

Just a small crit, isn't the new Mini a bit bigger then the old one?

http://inlinethumb51.webshots.com/1074/1098546921025743611S425x425Q85.jpg

[ClassicGamer]

yes, i'm off a little with the sizing.

Here's a new setup, this setup was created by a friend who goes by the name of -R3D-, so credit for the composition goes to him. There's not much sampling in this render either, hence the problem area's under the cars on the flooring. I've tweaked the windscreen glass and the headlights too.

I quite like this one alot more, and it's at least going in the right direction now.

Updated Test Render
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v234/3DJohn/ClassicGamer-3DCompositedMinisRende.jpg

Kind Regards

Classic Gamer

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