Tek wrote:
> Yes folks, it's time for Yet Another Reflective Sphere On Checkered Plane!
> 
> This is a WIP for the Before+After round of the 
> I-can't-believe-it's-not-the-IRTC contest. The concept here is rather 
> obviously before + after I got my mad povray skillz. I'm gonna have a 
> double-image with one side being the standard rsocp like I could do when I 
> first used pov, and the other side being the most realistic rsocp I can do. 
> This is, obviously, the latter.
> 
> There's some tone-mapping in there already though I think it looks a little 
> like a painting not a photo at the moment. So I'm gonna mess with that and 
> add some lens effects (blur, dispersion). BTW, if it isn't obvious, the 
> background's another HDR probe from http://unparent.com/
> 
> Any suggestions on how I can make this more real?
Wow!

Now, I'm going to pick on every little thing though, since you want
suggestion to make it more real. Anything I wouldn't expect in a photograph.

What my eyes first noticed was the 'noise' just below and to the left of
the sphere. I don't know what AA settings you used, but changing that
could either soften and spread out the highlight and make it look more
real, or get rid of them completely which probably wouldn't look as nice.

The background is very blurry. My camera seems to think that to get the
background that faded would require a very narrow depth of field, if the
table is normal height off the ground for an outdoor chess table. A
little blur at the far side of the table would take care of that and
might even convince the photographers that this is a real picture.

Lastly, the table edge itself. I love the pigment, it looks just like
the composite stone I would expect to find in a park. My eyes say that
each chip in the stone seems too flat. I would suggest normals, but it's
the shadow that gives it away. The shadow of the board on the lower
right looks too crisp as it passes over each little chip. Similerly, the
green on the far top right looks just as bright as the near green
specks, something I wouldn't expect looking at that table. The little
bit of lens effects you mentioned might take care of all of that without
resorting to anything more complecated.

I linked the picture to a friend, fellow computer geek but not into
graphics. His response was, 'wow, wait, that's not real?' Personally,
I'd want this as a desktop, or a poster as is. I can't wait to see it
when you are finished.

Post a reply to this message