The ultimate compliment for a 3D artist is when someone looks at his creation and is convinced that it's not a computer generated image but a photograph taken of the real thing. While there are some who aim for a fantastical, whimsical look for their 3D rendered images, achieving photo-realistic results is still considered to be the "holy grail" of the rendering world. So if you are looking to create some "killer" 3D interior and 3D exterior shots, read on for some tips on how to get that real effect into them.

· Alter your lighting – As every artist knows, lighting is critical to any 3D render. Play around with it and experiment with lighting that different times of the day. You are bound to get the scene to look more real.

· Create reflections – Examine each object in your scene and analyze which ones would normally have reflective surfaces. Some examples are water bodies, a shiny floor and the metallic surface of a car. Creating reflections for these this will do wonders to making your rendering look realistic.

· Cast shadows – Shadows add depth to your scene and are a must for achieving the natural look. Adjust the lighting to get a good play of light and shadow in your view. Making it too sunny in a 3D outer shot or introducing too many light sources in a 3D interior shot reduces the number of shadows so that the final image looks very flat. On the other hand having insufficient lighting would not allow one to see objects and recognize clearly. So it is important to choose the optimum amount of lighting for your 3D rendering.

· Use natural-looking textures – Instead of using those from a 2D paint program source your textures from photographs and use them to create your maps. It will make all the difference to making materials like fabrics, stone, wood and concrete look natural. Make sure you use photographs of a high resolution so that small, natural flaws are obvious bestowing a whole new level of realism to your artwork.

· Make it imperfect – Nothing in the real world is perfect and if you want to fool people into thinking your 3D rendered image is a photograph you have to imitate this imperfection. A little stain in the wall here and a slight wrinkle in the fabric there is sufficient to get people confused.

· Spruce it up – Use 2D photo-editing software to add object like real images of trees, shrubs and people into your 3D interior and 3D exterior rendered images.

Follow these simple instructions and you are sure to be creating masterpieces in no time.

Article originally published at Source by Nabeela Shaikh