Aston Martin One-77

Kyle_07x7 · August 15, 2014, 9:56pm

Hello all,
I’ve completely redone the headlight material to make it lighter and more chrome-like. I’ve also modified the main lights to look less conical. The right headlight still looks a little cone-shaped but that’s just the camera angle.

I am very satisfied with the progress I have made with this project and I feel like with a bit of compositing magic I could call this one finished. However the last thing that’s bothering me with the car is the lighting. The key to a good render is good lighting and I’ll admit, my lighting set up is pretty terrible. It was the simplest type of lighting I could use at the beginning of this project and worked well for previewing my materials and stuff.

basic rundown of my lighting:
I use a single plane as a light source with a gradient material applied to it so there’s less glare on the hood.

I feel like I need a more effective lighting setup. One of the things I don’t like about the current one is how there are weird sharp black reflections cast onto the hood and side of the car. I don’t know if this is because of the lighting or because of the car paint material but it makes it look like car is being lit with an HDR image. I have absolutely no experience with professional studio lighting inside or out of Blender so what kind of lighting setup can I use to produce a better render?

TARDIS_Maker · August 16, 2014, 5:33am

I would recommend a studio HDR

cpfeiffer · August 16, 2014, 9:50am

I would agree with TARDIS. Add a studio HDRi… I found some on DEVIANart. I can add a Dropbox link if you want me to

Kyle_07x7 · August 16, 2014, 6:16pm

I grabbed some HDRIs off deviantart today. I made test renders of the six that I thought looked the best. Thank you TARDIS Maker and cpfeiffer for the suggestion I think it really adds a lot to the image.

Here are the first three:

#1

#2

#3

#4

Kyle_07x7 · August 16, 2014, 6:18pm

And the last 3:

#4

#5

#6

Please tell me which one you think looks best.

sdighe · August 16, 2014, 6:36pm

I’d say either 1 or 3, although maybe the hood is a little blown out with white light in the first one.

TARDIS_Maker · August 16, 2014, 6:39pm

I’ll vote 3

sarends · August 18, 2014, 2:19pm

I would also recommend changing the DOF. I understand that you want to focus on the front, but when you try and look at the back it just strains the eyes. If you are not going to have the back in focus for the final composition, then there is no point in putting in so much detail to the back of the model.

Kyle_07x7 · August 18, 2014, 7:33pm

Here’s a close-to-final composited image. I completely removed the DOF. The car is rendered at 1000 samples. I am thinking of changing the color of the car paint. What color do you think would look good on this car?