Brushed Metal Jewelry

[Ed]

You are very close here annamaria

But you are comparing two very different images.  The meister rings contain color and a reflective ground.  Your rings are gray against white, so you have a flat monotone composition.

I would experiment with changing the color assigned to the brushed metal.  I work with with metal all day and each has a subtle tone - even white gold, platinum and titanium are not pure gray.  Pure gray is not the way to go.  Take a photo of your rings and examine the unaltered image with a color-picker.  Assign that color to your brushed material.

I have found that realism improves in this type of image by adding color.  If the ring itself has little or no color, then add color to the background.  Color gradient backgrounds with a ground reflection will make your ring pop.  I like to render with an alpha channel, then add in the background in photo shop.

I feel you are trying to copy your competitor's look and perhaps what should be done is come up with a unique look that promotes your rings in the best possible way using the tools you have.  Each high end jewelry brand seems to have their own way of presenting their work.

Experiment with subtle ring color, color backgrounds, and ground reflections until you make it pop.

Ed

[annamaria]

You are very close here annamaria

But you are comparing two very different images.  The meister rings contain color and a reflective ground.  Your rings are gray against white, so you have a flat monotone composition.

I would experiment with changing the color assigned to the brushed metal.  I work with with metal all day and each has a subtle tone - even white gold, platinum and titanium are not pure gray.  Pure gray is not the way to go.  Take a photo of your rings and examine the unaltered image with a color-picker.  Assign that color to your brushed material.

I have found that realism improves in this type of image by adding color.  If the ring itself has little or no color, then add color to the background.  Color gradient backgrounds with a ground reflection will make your ring pop.  I like to render with an alpha channel, then add in the background in photo shop.

I feel you are trying to copy your competitor's look and perhaps what should be done is come up with a unique look that promotes your rings in the best possible way using the tools you have.  Each high end jewelry brand seems to have their own way of presenting their work.

Experiment with subtle ring color, color backgrounds, and ground reflections until you make it pop.

Ed

Hi Ed, thanks for your suggestions. I thought experimenting more before replied to your post. I can't get anything close to whatever i do. It'not the reflections it's that surface metal.

For example this one, it's a toally different look. but those are all photographed. We don't have the budget to photograph so many pics.

i'm also trying maxwell, i do get realistic "metal" but it's not not commercial look, so can't sell the rings like that. So i'm still experimenting.

It is easy to find somebody who does normal jewelry, like solitaires, and actually we also get pretty close. but those wedding bands are kinda hard for us. I have still time on my demo cuz i still don't know what route i'm going to go. I love the active community here.

I may also post a job type of thread to see if somebody can achieve those looks. If we could buy the scenes and put our jewelery and experiment because we can't get what we want (yet).

I mean, i even took the 9 hour class on maxwell, i can create materials render cars ect, same in keyshot, but i can't get that jewelery like i want.

Let's see what we can achieve in weekend.

Greetings and thanks for all your help u provided so far!

[Ed]

annamaria -

I agree about the cost of jewelry photography.  I have a dedicated table-top studio with three 800 watt wireless strobes, soft boxes and a Canon 12 MP with macro lens, tethered to a laptop for instant views.  I get good results, but it's time consuming and requires a lot of post processing.  Any professional photographer will say taking photos of little shiny round objects is one of the most challenging assignments.

For these reasons I became interested in 3D modeling and rendering as I realized more and more product shots are renders.

I also have the Maxwell learning edition and ran some tests there.  I even rendered the same ring in the same position in both Maxwell and KeyShot and showed the results side-by-side. They were both good renders, but people liked the KeyShot version better.  The only area Maxwell came out ahead was for text engraved rings - their displacement mapping did an excellent job as opposed to modeling the recessed text.  But that's more of a modeling issue, not a KeyShot issue.

As far as the reference images in your latest post, the brushed metal looks like it has a Curves adjustment to blow out some of the detail.  Using a Clown pass will allow you to select portions of the ring and apply Curves selectively.

I've also looked a several tutorials on jewelry photography post processing.  In my opinion, the post work was so involved, the result resembles an illustration more than a photo.  But maybe that's the "commercial" look people want.

I think you're on the right track.  Please post more of your recent attempts and hopefully others will join in with suggestions.

Ed

[DriesV]

Can you share one of your ring models/scenes, Anna? You can save your KeyShot scene, textures and lighting in an easily distributable package (File > Save package...).
I'm not very familiar with jewelry rendering, but I'd like to give this a (key)shot tomorrow.

Dries

[Ed]

KeyShot render on the left (with post processing), reference images on the right.  Not trying to duplicate or color-match the colored metal portion here.

Yes?  No?  Maybe?

Ed

[annamaria]

Can you share one of your ring models/scenes, Anna? You can save your KeyShot scene, textures and lighting in an easily distributable package (File > Save package...).
I'm not very familiar with jewelry rendering, but I'd like to give this a (key)shot tomorrow.

Dries

For some reason it "changed the texture after i save it. I think both textures got in sync but they shouldn't as it's different.

thanks

Ring scene.ksp

[annamaria]

KeyShot render on the left (with post processing), reference images on the right.  Not trying to duplicate or color-match the colored metal portion here.

Yes?  No?  Maybe?

Ed

Ed, my self i could not achieve what u have achieved. Only thing i see here is the "brush metal in keyshot is rough, while the reference its "glossy". The brush is so nice and don't understand how it's "whitish" and still nice and visible. Seems the brushes are longer ? no idea. Problem with rendering is, if u change something it affects everything.
The bands are tricky. Rendering normal jewelry is not a problem even in vray of rhino we can get good results. But this bands...really really tricky.

[Ed]

annamaria -

I agree - smooth bands are tough.  Intricate jewelry is much easier.

Yes, the brush marks are longer on the reference.  Should be able to duplicate that by stretching the bump map in Photo Shop and using "no repeat" in KeyShot.  I think a bump map stretched with a ratio of 10 units in length and 1 unit in height will work well for the outer surface of a band without repeating.

The only post effect I used was "Levels" and "Curves" in PS.  This creates some white blown out areas and darker edges which seem to match the reference images better.  Unfortunately that technique also breaks the brush marks into shorter segments which make it look rough as you noted.  I need to think on this and experiment.

"...Problem with rendering is, if u change something it affects everything. "   That happens.  I find  it can be an iterative process - pick the HDR, then tweak the materials slightly to best interact with that HDR.  But once you have that dialed in, you can drop in your various ring models and crank them out quickly.

Ed

[DriesV]

Okay, this is fun!
Thanks for sharing the ring model, Anna.

1st image is straight out of KeyShot (PNG screenshot).
2nd image with adjustments like Ed previously talked about in Photoshop.

This is using the unaltered HDRI that you used. I applied one of my own bump maps and played with some other settings.

Dries

[TpwUK]

And here's my effort - pure KS, no re-touching KSP provided with post incase you want to play further ...

[DriesV]

Another shot...
This time I reduced the texture scale by 50pct.

The brush effect should be more subtle.

Dries

[DriesV]

Yet another shot...
Now with a custom (pin light only) HDRI.

Materials are the same as in last shot.
This is my last attempt for today.

Dries

[Ed]

DriesV - That looks pretty good.  Can you post the KS Package file to the forum?

Ed

[DriesV]

Here you have 'em.
Packages were named according to posted renderings above.

Dries

[Ed]

Thanks Dries - Great job on the HDR.  I think annamaria has all the tools and tips now to dial in the settings and get the job done.  I hope she'll post some results.

Ed