Realistic ray tracing using Blender 3D

The rendering above was done using only Blender Internal Raytracer.

Raytracing was introduced in the later versions of Blender. It is indeed a very welcoming addition. This tutorials shows how it is possible to produce good realistic rendering using Blender's default raytracer. No Yafray will be involved in the tutorial.

This tutorial is written with steps designed for newer Blender versions with ray-tracing capability.It consists of tips for creating realism using some of the newer functions within Blender.

Tip One: Soft shadowing using Blender's Area Light

To produces nice diffuse shadows, do not use spot light with shadows on. Instead a better option will be to use area lights.

In the real physical environment, sharp-edged shadows are hardly seem, unless under the bright noon Sun. Because of this, soft or difused shadows should be used if realism is required.

The shadow in the image (on the left) is casted by an area light. Glow effect was post-processed with the video sequence editor within Blender.

Generally, Area Lights will give significantly softer & more realistic shadows. Spot lights and other types of light will give hard shadows which are hardly unrealistic. Remember to turn-on Ray Shad. The Energy level for using with area light must be significantly lower than that of spotlight to prevent over-exposure.

Tip Two : Use Ambient Occlusion

What is Ambient occlusion? It is a relatively new shading method that take into account attenuation of indirect light caused by nearby objects and geometry. Actually, it is a rough approximation to full global illumination.

Within Blender, Ambient Occlusion is a new featurepark under the World Setting .When using this function, shadow need not be turned on.

Add: adds light & shadows
Sub: Subtract light & Shadow. This feature will need light/s to be included in the scene.

Plain: use white diffuse energy
Skycolor: use skycolor as assigned in the world button
Skytexture: Use the sky texture to render the diffuse. For this feature, a texture must be assign in the texture channel of the world environment

	Rendering on the left is created without Ambient Occlusion. In this case, Shadow was turned off in the Render setting.
	Rendering on the left is created with Ambient Occlusion on. In this case, Shadow was turned off in the Render setting.

Tip Three : Applying Texture or image map to the World environment
Adding of an enviromental texture can be done in the Texture Setting . This helps to reflect the metallic & reflective surfaces in the scene as well as adding details to the ambient occlusion (if the skytexture is ON).

Point to take note: The world button must be activited to assign the map onto the environment or world scene.

In the World Setting , the mapping parameters can be assigned.

AngM: uses 360 degree angular coordinate.
Sphere: uses 360 degree panoramic spherical mapping.
Tube: uses 360 degree panoramic tubular mapping.

Image render using image map applied to the the World Setting .

Point to take note:

Under the material setting of a reflective object, Ray mirror must be turned ON for the material assigned.

Well, these are the tips useful for adding Realism to Blender 3D rendering. Hope that it is useful. Thank you for reading. Happy Blendering...

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