Some of my work

[NM-92]

Okay, i'm new in the forum, so hi to you all. My name is Nicolás, i am from Argentina and i am currently studying industrial design. I am astonished (and a little sad) for the quality of the images that i saw in the forum, so i created an account to ask for advice. I'm not really into all this forum thing so i don't know if this topic goes here, but i wanted to share my renders, so i could get some critics, advice and comments on my work. So, here it goes.

































Also, i have a question. How do you illuminate your scenes ? Is it completely HDRI ? Do you use physical lights as well?

Here is my Behance profile, some of them are uploaded there with their process: https://www.behance.net/nm-92

I think that's it, looking forward to learn and improve. Thanks to you all.

[Will Gibbons]

Good start! Some of these are stronger than others. The quickest way to learn is to ask questions, learn from the best and keep making new work!

I also studied industrial design (quite a handful of years ago), so I hope you're having fun! One bit of advice I like to offer those who are trying to improve their renderings and are pretty new to it is to use photo references. It makes a big difference. Look at every little surface, material, texture, bit of lighting and try to replicate it.

As for your question about lighting, using HDRI or physical lights comes down to personal preference. Sometimes it's hard to achieve a result with only one approach, so in many cases both HDRI and physical lights get used. There are no real rules... do what you need to do to create a great result!

[Magnus Skogsfjord]

I agree with Will, there are some great starters here! And the tips about recreating photos is also great. Have done that myself a bunch of times.

I think some of your renders could benefit from Depth of Field(DoF). Especially that last one with the board (also the close-ups). While the texture looks and feels good, the repetitiveness is a bit distracting. This  could be covered using a DoF. Simple to add, and adds a lot of drama.  I also stopped at the pool-shot. Loving that ground (carpet) material you have there, but the pool cue looks a little bit too plastic-like. Third image I stopped at was the microphone shot. Modeled that one yourself?

Regarding lights: I use IES on some occasions, but I still haven't mastered them, so I generally browse through the HDRI's to find a look that I like, and then manipulate it with lighting pins using the HDRI editor. I recommend you look at Esben Oxholms recent webinar. He really got some great tips on that. I've also heard that Tim Feher has some great tutorials on lighting, but I haven't gotten around to see them yet. Still, his images speaks for themselves, so I'm confident he could provide some great tips.

[NM-92]

Thank you both for your comments.
Yes Will, there was a huge difference in my renders when i started seeing photographs or other renders. This helped me a lot to improve my scenes. Regarding the lights, i experimented a bit with both. For example, in the pool scene, i put 3 area lights and use a completely black HDRI, in wich i set only an image pin to get some ambient reflections. I don't know if this is the best aproach, but i was quite sattisfied with the result.

Magnus, i agree with you in that texture problem. Actually i was only messing around with different kind of textures to understand them a bit better and i saved the image because i achieved something different than the usual wood that i use, but, yes couldn't manage to map the image correctly without messing up the scale. Thank you from your comments on the pool scene, will check that. Yes i modeled that microphone following a tutorial from grayscale gorilla in cinema 4D (another software i'm trying to learn). And finally, i also followed your workflow with the HDRI editor, but i noted more realism in my images when i started using physical lights. I watched Tim's webinar and he explains very clearly the use of IES lights and automotive rendering, so i recommend it to you.

Again, thank you both for your time

[NM-92]

Well, i watched Esben Oxholms webinar, so i decided to go ahead and try some tips for myself. Here is what i achieved. I'm really happy with the results, but i think i can get some more nice highlights if i put more effort within the hdri editor. Sorry for double posting, i didn't know how to edit my answer with the image.



Edit:
Model completed

[Magnus Skogsfjord]

Feels better already. I like the circular brushed detail on the knob.

[NM-92]

Yes , i'm very sattisfied with the results, although there's a lot of things that can be improved. Also, you were right about DoF, it really helps. I love that texture, but i hate mapping it, just can't get it right.