Watch WIP

[ActionArt]

Here's a bit of an update. I'm happier with the reflections. I'll work on the background and brushed texture next...

A good tip for positioning refl. planes is to hide everything else - you can even turn off lights so all you see in your render are reflections. If you can come up with a setup that looks somewhat good with reflections only then the real render (with lights etc) will look even better.

That does work well!

[Zafar Iqbal]

Your render is improving quiet a bit. The new picture aspect helps a lot too. Keep it up

[rray]

Nice work, model ist a 100% match. With some more work on the materials you'll have an exact copy of the original reference. For the background I think the white from the refs works best...matter of personal taste of course.

[ActionArt]

Thanks guys! I was just about to try white just for fun

I still have to model the clasp on the band. I didn't think I'd need it but you can see the hole if you look close so I better do it.

[Rork]

A good point of reference is jewelery-, and of course watch photography for advertising brochures. You can extract the setup from the way it looks on the image.
These kind of renders basically 'need' the same studio setup as you would set it up with a physical camera.
Sometimes it's good to think about how you would do this in real life, not in SI.

But it's definitely starting to look good, it's just too clean for my taste atm. I know it's polished metal etc., but try to get some subtle variations in there too for more realism.

rob

[ActionArt]

it's just too clean for my taste

You're right, it gives it away as CG right now. The purpose is to replace some of their studio shots so it has to look real.

Now, how to mess it up a bit without making it look bad...

Anyway, got to do some other work now but back to it in a day or two.

Thanks for all the help!

[ActionArt]

Here's a quick render test with white as the background. I think I like it the best.

[ace63]

I liked the blue background more because of the reflections and the feeling of depth it gave.
Nice work on that watch, and a great improvement over the first pic you posted

[shadow_ex_]

great work there, really complex model to do,well done^^

[ActionArt]

Thanks! I see the maker has just released some new versions with color/material schemes I like better so I'm going to update that.

Just a note on area lights and the Binary Alchemy light shader. I tried it just for fun replacing the area "softlight" with the BA one since they said it was faster.

Render time went from 2.5 hours to under 4 minutes AND looks better (no grain)!!!! Holy render batman!

I'm going to do further tests to confirm this tonight but WOW (I'll post results). If you haven't tried it, I'd suggest it!

[ActionArt]

Here's the latest with some some brushed up textures. I'm liking the look of the brushed gold and did it with two different backgrounds. I think this is about it for this project unless someone points out something that could be done better

Thanks for all the help!!

[shadow_ex_]

i like the material a lot!
but now its a bit boring
that it is all gold
hopefully its for testing reasons only ;)

[ActionArt]

It's just one of the color schemes Xoskeleton offers and I liked it but that's just me

I'll do one more with the other colors as well.

[Rez007]

Hi Action Art,

I kind of read most of the posts in this thread, but not all, so sorry if something is repeated. Here are my suggestions.

To start, everything is looking good so far, but I would try this to help in the photorealism side of things - I used to sell highend Swiss watches when I was going through college, so my recommendation is to go into a fine jewelry store by the Swiss watch area, and look at the TAG Heuer, Baume and Mercier, Rado, Omega, etc. and ask the person that works there for a product catalog. Almost all Swiss watch vendors have them for customers to take home. In there, you will see their lighting techniques which will help in your lighting composition. Personally, I think your model is fine, and I would not "dirty" it up at all. Those watches are cut from precision machines, so they are not going to look worn-and-torn, especially since they are new. Also, the type of crystal that is on the front, if being a Swiss watch will have the properties of a Sapphire, if it is Japanese movement, then the front crystal will most likely be a mineral crystal. That should have a slight physical difference in reflections. I would ask your vendor, that you are doing this for, what type of crystal it is. It is not really a drastic difference, but it could help. Another note, in watch production shots, a lot of Watch makers/vendors like to use a specific time displayed on the watch - it plays to the overall astetic of the the watch itself. All in all, you have a nice image, I would just focus on the lighting, composition (camera angle), and Depth-of-field (intensity of), which you can get from the product books.

[Hirazi Blue]

Apart from all that, I think your last two images show what an extreme difference the background can make. Personally I would prefer the blueish background, but I won't bore you with some feeble attempt to justify that...
(but no, it has nothing to do with my nickname here)

[ActionArt]

Thanks for the expert advice Rez. This project is a sample specifially for XO watches: http://xowatch.com/

I'll have to check on the type of crystal used.

I never would have guessed you'd pick the blue one Hirazi