A few days ago I started to use V-ray 2.0 for Rhino and made some renderings with the little knowledge I have and the results are not that good. There are always some undesirable shadows on the metal, which makes it looks fake or kinda frosted. And when I try to render gems, like diamond, the refraction effect is not convincent. The diffuse color is very stong and hard, not good at all.
I followed a very interesting tutorial (only the rendering part) to the letter but didn’t have a similar result. I used another engagement ring I already have to render, but the final result is very far from the tutorial.
Obs: Before starting to follow the tutorial, I reseted the options on vray. Lights: I tried with “Global Switches - Default lights” On and Off. Also I tested all the Vray “Studio Lighting” options.
What am I doing wrong, people? Any suggestions would be appreciated
enable “Global Illumination” on your Vray setting. I dont see any GI on your scene, also plug a nice HDRI for your IBL.
set a correct IOR for your material. and for a close up shot, enabling Depth of field on your camera would add more realism to the image.
adding caustic will give a more convincing look. but slows down the render time
I didn’t watch the whole tutorial but around 1:17 Maia mentions the default HDRI file she’s using in Vray. This will produce the realistic reflection and refraction. It looks like you don’t have an HDRI in the reflective environment so it’s using a solid black. Check the Vray options and add one as a map… I believe you need to choose bitmap as the type and then select the HDR file, if memory serves. Add the same HDRI to the refraction environment channel as well for the gems. You can grab some free HDR files below if needed… www.food4rhino.com
Check out more tutorials for VRay in the company’s youtube channel + SimplyRhino for jewels
Like Brian said the problem is mostly the reflections from the environment - insert an hdri map like suggested (or a dome light with hdri in your scene). For the dispersion feature check the relevant video above.
Give it time and many tests and your renders will always get better - but you have to learn a bit more about the settings + theory
