Still Life

For this project, I wanted to create a photorealistic render of still life.

Reference

To start I got a bunch of images online of still life paintings to get inspiration and ideas for how I would compose my scene.

While I really like the lighting used in the Dutch Vanitas Still Life Paintings I wanted to focus this project more on creating fruits so I decided to used the lighting but choose a different more simple composition. I also decided that I wanted to try a different composition so I wanted to make my render vertical.

Set up

I then got models from online to set up my scene.
I then set up my scene with a basic lighting setup so that I can see the objects and get a picture of how I want my composition to look.
I then rotated my camera for the vertical shot.

Reference for fruit

then I went online and got references for shaders

133608361-vector-olive-oil-bottle-on-white-background.jpg

sprzedam_fruits-fresh-grapes-_agro-marke24_giełda rolna-210278-71132.jpg

Look Development Set up

Then to create the shaders I used my usual look development setup

I also realized I didn’t write down the values I used for the reference shaders. so if you want to recreate this setup here are the values.

Look Development

Creating textures for apple

For the apple, I used substance designer to create the texture using images as a reference

For the apple, I mainly wanted to recreate the apple in the reference image. which I think came out pretty nice.

CupCake texture

I also did the same while creating the texture for the cupcake but since it is very simple there wasn’t that much to do

Then when actually creating the shader I mainly used Maya using the look development rig I created

Shaders

Renders

As I was creating the shaders I was also checking to make sure that they would work well with the scene.

Luckily I used display layers when creating my light rig which made the whole process very smooth to work in.

Initial lighting and Camera

So to start I rendered out the scene with the materials that I finished at the time to see how the lighting and composition of the scene looks.

While I like the way that the spotlight gives out a highlight for the objects I think it is too harsh and needed work so I reworked it and got a new version

HDRI and Camera

I then added an Hdri to get reflections and added in a fill light to brighten up the scene. I also added the plastic bowl shader in the scene.

Taking out Banana and replacing cake

I ran into some issues while I was adding in the Banana as it really seemed off and looked weird in the scene. As for the cake, it seemed to be too big in the scene, and making it any smaller would mess with the composition so I replaced it with cupcakes.

I also added a placement texture for the wood, and cloth as I wanted to see what it would look like and what color I should make it. Then I also tried refining the orange to see how it would come out.

Refining

I then worked on refining the materials that I already have to see what works and what is best. Next, I want to work on finishing up the textures for the wood and then start lighting the scene to get the dynamic lighting you would have in a dutch still life painting.