I know, yet another car render. But since I’ve never done one before, I decided to give it a try. My main goal here was to make it looks real, not necessarily beautiful. It was done over two afternoons, with Maya and MentalRay. The car is a TurboSquid model, and I worked with Exidge’s (from CG-Cars) backplate and HDRI envi package.
So, if you guys could give me your opinion on the camera mapping, lighting, shading and compositing I’d really appreciate it.
Thanks!
I think it looks spot on. Nice job there. What lights did you use and render settings?
Only thing that pops to my mind is the shadow under the car, Im by no means a lighting expert but it almost looks to “clean”. Maybe its just me, but very nice render indeed 
Seems a bit bland/flat looking at the moment (IMHO). I think some additional contrast would help. Also since the environment/back-plate is cloudy and/or dusk perhaps a more lively paint color would add some “pop” as well.
I bet some darker shadows under the car would help too because there wouldn’t be a lot of bounced light under there in this particular lighting situation…but that may come with the added contrast.
To me, the shadow looks too sharp. The lighting is very diffuse, therefore the shadow should be very soft.
Kyron: I worked only with the HDRI pano as environment and FG turned on with one extra light bounce. I used Exidge’s backplate and HDRI package.
JeffPatton: Actually, I lowered the contrast a bit on photoshop, trying to mike it fit better on the backplate. I might have gone a little to far. I’ll try a more vivid color and see how it goes… 
Kev3D: I agree with you and Jeff about the shadows. I’ll make a few adjustments.
Thank you all, guys!!
Is the paint color supposed to be that pastel red/greyish color? If not then perhaps the paint is too reflective or lacking a fresnel effect on the reflections. Might also be related to the reflections themselves if the gamma is wrong on the environment reflections.
If it’s supposed to be that color, then ignore this reply.
The Clear Coat material is a mia_shader_x with reflectivity set to 1.0, and BRDF with 0º at 0.1 and 90º at 1.0.
I’m working with the MentalRay color management, but the HDRI node is set to linear. Should I leave it at “Use Default Input Profile”?
The final image also has some color correction on photoshop. Or maybe I’m just not getting the color right… :curious:
By the way, thanks for the tips Jeff. I really admire your work.
Just started using (or trying to wrap my head around) linear workflow. There seems to be a bug with the new color management, as far as I’ve understood. Quite a few threads on it at the Maya render forum.
I think the car with the red color now looks a bit washed out. Might have something to do with that. Have you tried the old school gamma correct each texture instead?
Kyron: I’ve had a few problems with the new color management before (the worse of all being color aberration on dark areas of the image). It didn’t seem to accur with this particular scene, but it might be a good idea to try the “old school” approach on the linear workflow.
I’ll post the result here as soon as I finish setting the new render/shaders.
I’ve personally chosen not to use the color management at all.
I linked a 2 test renders in this thread if you want to compare something. Might give you a hint on whats going on. I’ve no idea about technical stuff, so I just go with whatever looks more pleasing.
But yeah, it could be that the color management function is also bugging out on you as well.
I still think the shadow edge is too sharp, see this reference: http://www.golfmkv.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=443&pictureid=1901
Also, the wheel material looks a bit shiny, especially on the rear wheel, maybe try turning the glossiness up?
I turned off color management, went back to the “old school” approach to linear workflow and here it is. A very different result, and it looks better already.
Looks like color management is really not working properly. What is sad, cause it saves some time.
So… what do you guys think??
Looks better :). Do you have an image of your reference? I’m mainly thinking about the car color. Personally I’m not a big fan of the “washed out reddish” color, but if thats how its supposed to look regard my comment
Edit: I once had a used Opel Corsa from 92 in red. I think it looks a bit like your car has been too much out in the sun, and therefore the color has faded. But that takes a long time and I would then suspect the car and the car paint to have a little more wear and tear perhaps.
Anyway just my thoughts.
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