Help make this look realistic!

[flat9safety]

Hey guys,
I need some help making this model look more realistic.
It's a plane flying over at night, I'm rendering it out of Maya with Mental Ray. It looks alright but not photo-realistic yet.
Any tips would help! A still is below.
Thanks!

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/4374/maincomptimeup0002416.jpg

[Capt Quirk]

There is way too much light from above.

[hunter richards]

I agree, too much light and you need to add some atmosphere as well as some texture to the image- also keep things on the softer side? Maybe add some golden light to the homes to add depth?. Quick try:
http://www.dvxuser6.com/uploaded/23459/1235424895.jpg

[flat9safety]

Well right now I am just focusing on making th model fit into the scene. The scene is going to stay the same brightness as is because when projected onto a big screen, if it is too dark the audience will not be able to recognize what is going on. Also usderstand that the clouds are going to be a little brighter than the ground because they are taking light dirrectly from the moon.
Also, this is a still from a sequece, so this is all going to be moving.
Thanks, keep the suggestions coming!

[Everts]

Why dont you do a GI render out of maya . Or a dome light setup.

Or just make the plane texture darker with a metal shader. It looks like full moon light setting.

[Capt Quirk]

Here is one of the things that bugs me about that. If you look at the engine, you see fairly strong light on the top left of the housing. The light would have to be coming from under the wing to show like that. It is way too bright. Maybe make the metal texture less reflective?

[triplej96]

I'd say the edges of the plane are way to sharp need to soften those up and maybe a bit of grain.

[oneinfiniteloop]

Your lighting is all wrong. You have a strong side light when everything else is very soft and diffuse. Relighting the scene correctly will go a long way. Get some soft, diffuse lighting going and non directional.

You need some shadows too, again soft diffuse ones. I would suggest using AO in MR, it would help a lot with your realism and less costly than GI.

Your material needs some tweaking too. The specular channel is too hard. Again, you're matching lighting here. Metal with that kind of specularity would be shinier and more reflective. Dumb it down some, add some diffusion and noise to break up the surface texture and maybe a touch of relectiveness with noise in that channel as well. Everything is life reflects some light, even if just a little bit.

But...it all comes to life in the comp, dupe the footage and use some blening modes and blur to soften it up, add the slightest bit of light wrap, color grade, some lens abberrations, etc.

[Anhar Miah]

Blur is your friend, any time you have sharp lines, zaggies it screams "electronic/CG":

make sure you use anti-alising and motion blur.

Also look at how light bends around objects, I forgot the exact technique (composting) where this is simulated, it was an AE book, I'll see if I can dig it out.

Other than that you need to try and match lighting and color space (general composting rules)

Anhar

[oneinfiniteloop]

Also look at how light bends around objects, I forgot the exact technique (composting) where this is simulated, it was an AE book, I'll see if I can dig it out.

There's a good light wrap technique in After Effects Studio Techniques (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw_0_15?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=after+effects+studio+techniques&x=0&y=0&sprefix=after+effects+s).

[Matt Grunau]

Everything is life reflects some light, even if just a little bit.



I don't, but that's because I am MagiK!


I was gonna suggest breaking up the Spec and Reflect maps oneinf, and you beat me too it. Damn you.


Couple things I will add not already gone over are grunge maps, writing/text and such, different materials for the different parts (each with its own relefction and spec attributes), and a little smoke/heat distortion from the engine.

[oneinfiniteloop]

a little smoke/heat distortion from the engine.

Good call, totally didn't think about that one! Again, in the AE Studio Techniques book there's a cool way to do heat distortion rather simply.

[Sad Max]

Also look at how light bends around objects, I forgot the exact technique (composting) where this is simulated, it was an AE book, I'll see if I can dig it out.

Other than that you need to try and match lighting and color space (general composting rules)

Anhar

That's compositing.

Composting is when you mix the final render with cattle droppings and kitchen waste to make fertilizer.

Add some paneling with diffuse and specular breakup plus seam lines to the engine nacelles; they are too uniform and un-detailed to pass. There's plenty of reference photography on-line to help you with the look.

The overall shape of the nacelle, and the nacelle/pylon/wing relationships look odd too, but maybe that's just the shot.

[bruce southerland]

Unless there is a blackout at the time, there would be some
lights on the ground, ie street lamps..etc, so there would be a
mixture of artificial light and moonlight.
The light that is hitting the clouds and the plane would be coming
from the moonlight, so both the color temp and direction of the
light would be the same.
the plane looks a little to crisp compared to the clouds & the buildings on the ground. Unless that is your intention, you may
want to take the sharpness of the plane down some.
as far as how light or dark each element in the shot is, that's
a matter of taste.
hope this helps.

[Anhar Miah]

That's compositing.

Composting is when you mix the final render with cattle droppings and kitchen waste to make fertilizer.

Add some paneling with diffuse and specular breakup plus seam lines to the engine nacelles; they are too uniform and un-detailed to pass. There's plenty of reference photography on-line to help you with the look.

The overall shape of the nacelle, and the nacelle/pylon/wing relationships look odd too, but maybe that's just the shot.

lol ROFL, yes :Drogar-Dum(DBG):

well mind you, we may have a new category, which is "composting compositing", a new technique where by one runs film through cattle droppings in order to literally composit that 'gritty' feel and look....

Anhar