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Desktop Lighting and Shaders Final

[EDIT: I originally uploaded a low res version of this render by mistake. :D  You can see the full-size render now if you right-click it and "Open Image in New Tab".]

My final exercise submission in the Fundamentals of Materials and Shading course, rendered in Cycles, with a few tweaks to lighting and adjustments of a few objects (rotation, location.)

I also added textures to the crumpled paper seen on the desk, and even on the ones in the basket.  I had a bit of fun choosing those "rubbished" images and drawings, even though it's impossible for anyone to ever see what they are.  But I know. :D 

The monitor shows Blender in the background, taken from a screenshot of my own screen UI, in solid mode, while I was working on this project. You can kind of make out the desk scene in the viewport, as seen through the window.  Meta.. (not the FB kind.)

The keys on the keyboard have a slight emission added to the letters, to suggest that the characters are illuminated, but not the keyboard itself.

I added subdivision surface to, and moved, the post-it notes, so the one on the left would "adhere" to the monitor. 

The post-it note material is the supplied texture, with the paper colored by a mixRGB with yellowish color, set to linear light, and then connected to a translucent BSDF.  I think it gives a bit nicer look than what I had it set to previously , which was a principled BSDF with texture, with slight transmission - that did allow a little light to come through but it still seemed too opaque.  The translucent BSDF worked much better, thanks to @jlampel's suggestion.

I think it gives a decently convincing look of the translucency of a post-it note, with some bright light shining through the monitor behind on the top section of paper; a more opaque look, where the note adheres to the monitor; the shadow underneath, of another post-it note behind;  and a yellow light-cast/glow underneath the monitor where the sunlight scatters through the color of the note hanging down.

I made a great texture for the green chair cushion; albedo, roughness map, and normal map, that I spent quite a bit of time working on and was happy with.  But during rendering, I noticed that it's completely blurred because of the camera's shallow depth of field, and it being so close in the foreground.  I'd been viewing it in viewport shading, as well.   So...  something to keep in mind for the future, I suppose!  :-D

In retrospect, maybe a patterned texture, or just a simple glossy/vinyl material for the cushion would have achieved a better result, rather than spending time on texture details that can't be seen in an out-of-focus area.  No worries though..  I learned a lot with this exercise, even from mistakes.

4 Comments
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  • Seriously??? Wow. I am staring at everything.

  • This is a really well done cluttered desk. Everything here looks good to me, nice job!

  • Amazing job. I really appreciate how you thought about each texture individually and made it the best it could be. Having an image on the monitor of the Blender scene is clever. Good subtle details like the light catching on the painted brick and the numbers in the digital clock reflecting in the headphones. Any criticism is going to be nitpicking. Perhaps some subtle wear on the edge of the desk closest to the chair. Things like that. At first glance it could easily pass for a photo.

  • Hmm.. I was wrong. There's no larger image. :D
    I had to reupload this to my project gallery since I accidentally used a lower res image. Unfortunately, the higher res (4.62MB) image isn't loading either, and it's only showing 1280x720 when you right-click to view full size. Ah well.. Looks roughly the same.. just less details and smaller. :D