Realistic Renders

buddhaken · June 07, 2009, 01:44:20 PM

I know that it is possible to get them. Just looking through the gallery on the main page proves this.
My question, is, what is it that those artists are doing to get it to look so darn good? Everything I end up making always seems to have that..."CGI" look. Is it something to do with lighting, or are there tricks in the rendering settings to get them to come out looking so good?

neuspadrin · June 07, 2009, 01:53:43 PM

Mostly it's getting to understand the software and how it works, and getting a nice collection of realistic models of plants to use. Also a lot of times variety and imperfections are what makes a big difference between cgi look and real. As the real world is filled with imperfections, when we see something thats almost too perfect it looks like cgi.

Seth · June 07, 2009, 01:56:00 PM

i think lighting and atmosphere is very very important to achieve some realistic look to your render.
some CG looking renders can really get improve working on these two settings.

Henry Blewer · June 07, 2009, 02:07:18 PM

Atmosphere settings are important. Slide the quality sliders on the atmosphere and cloud shaders to 1. This will increase render time and the preview update. I wait until I am ready for a quality render. If the sun is close to the horizon this helps get rid of graininess. On the Lighting tab, increase the environment light on the surfaces. Do this by small amounts. This makes quick global changes in the scene.

cyphyr · June 07, 2009, 02:22:54 PM

Its mostly down to good lighting I'd say. One tip is to add another environment light, set one to GI and the other to AO (it'll make sence when you do it lol) and then balence between them. It will increace render times somewhat but its worth it.

Richard

Seth · June 07, 2009, 02:37:35 PM

more than addin another light (that might help), i'll play with sun orientation and altitude first

buddhaken · June 07, 2009, 02:40:38 PM

Thanks for the tips. Keep em coming:)

cyphyr · June 07, 2009, 02:45:07 PM

Oh and soft shadows too

PG · June 07, 2009, 03:09:03 PM

Didn't someone say Ambient occlusion (rather than the default Global Illumination) provides more realistic lighting?

red_planet · June 07, 2009, 04:18:04 PM

has nobody mentioned button 9 ??

rgds

Chris

PG · June 07, 2009, 04:55:30 PM

Unfortunately button 9 (internal object name instantAwesomeness()) is only available in the CIA build

Aagam · June 07, 2009, 05:21:54 PM

I miss button 9...

neuspadrin · June 07, 2009, 05:24:26 PM

there should be some way to reactivate it through easter egg

like, go help --> about, type "i<3button9"

kevnar · June 08, 2009, 12:57:04 AM

The TG2 Gurus have a combination of know-how and probably more advanced computers. There's a lot of crazy functions and techniques that will take me years to figure out on my slow-ass computer. It's mostly trial and error, and when every trial takes at least 20 mins, the learning curve goes at a snail's pace.

Just keep trying new things. Don't be afraid to break it. Don't be afraid to ask dumb questions. Terragen is 10% inspiration and 90% patience.

Henry Blewer · June 08, 2009, 08:19:40 AM

I use 320 x 240 to render the 'gross' details on a landscape, detail at 0.25. If your ready to do better tests, try 0.35 for the detail with larger image sizes. If you're goin to the store, 0.5 and 800 x 600 doesn't seem to take too long.