Hello everyone, I have only recently started using view without much background in C.G and decided to do my second picture in vue which I am attaching here... I wish to add more realisum and tone to my picture can some one tell me what simple measures I can take to accomdate that in the picture...

Thanks

Ok, first, it would help us to know which version of Vue you are using. Your scen is too washed out, this can be changed in the atmosphere editor. You can simply change the atmosphere to another one from the collcetions browser. I would recommend using an atmosphere that has the GI  or AO (this one is only available in Vue6) letters in the preview. GI means global illumination, and it computes realistic shadows created by indirect lighting. AO is a bit the same, but instead of computing indirect shadows for the whole scene, it computes shadows for objects that are inside a set range ( for example GI will compute shadows for objects that could be miles away from another, when AO will compute shadows for objects that are 2meters away from each other, if the range is set to 2m), so AO is faster to compute.
Also remember that you can change the sun position by moving it around in the viewports. Changing sun position can dramatically change the look of your scene.

Thanks bruno, I am using vue xstrem I will try playing around with the atmophere. I was also wanting to change the material on the icebergs I did try the translucency option however it takes an ernoumous amount of computing power and often caused a computer hang up can I do more to make the iceberg material look more icy and real.

It seems I always have problems with preceptions or camera distances due to which the propotions end up feeling unrealistic can you help me out there in any way....

thanks again for the response.

I would recommend opening one of the sample scenes that come with Vue and study how it was made. Study all details. Make changes in atmosphere, in materials, etc, and see what effect each change has. You will learn a lot from doing this.

I recommend you watch the beginners tutorials over at GeekatPlay.  They will get you up and running, then start with the Epic tutorials once you know a bit about Vue's interface. 
http://geekatplay.com/vuetutorialsnew.php

I also teach on-line classes at LVS.  http://www.lvsassociates.com/register/index.php

I have a tutorial on camera lens focal length effects (among others). The default lens focal length causes lots of geometric distortion (it's not technically distorted really, but that's a long story). This is because it's a wide angle lens meant for landscapes. Read my tutorial, or just use a focal length of greater than 60mm or 70mm and move the camera back. 

Your scene lighting needs to be much more dramatic (i.e. much less flat and less front lit).

Notice that moving the sun's location around the scene has no effect (after all, it's 93 million miles from the camera). It is rotating the sun that changes the lighting. Also, I always turn off "points at camera" for the sun, to give me more control. And the sun shadows are typically too dark for mid and closeup work. Try 70% to 80% shadow intensity. 

A typical newbie problem is ignoring material scale. Getting the scale of materials right makes a big difference to realism.

Until you understand materials (and eventually get into the function editor) you should prolly use the standard materials or download those of more experienced mat creators.

_jc  'Art Head Start' e-book: Learn digital art skills $19.95
'Art Head Start.com Free chapter, Vue tutorials, models, Web Tutorials Directory.

hi plancker,

make sure your scene has plenty of ambient lighting from skydome, atleast 0.5! The atmospheres that come with Vue are really poor. Put the light balance to about 20% to get a good daylight shadowing.

check out my reallight atmosphere to see what i mean

http://rocky1990.deviantart.com/art/Vue-reallight-atmosphere-93555939

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Xpleet is correct.

Avoid too much radiosity in the render engine's Global Illumination (GI) lighting solution (corners too hot, too much color bleeding from one surface to another, etc.). Also avoid not enough radiosity (dark corners, splotchy walls). Do this by controlling the amount of indirect light in your scene via the skydome, ambient Vs sun slider (may have to set to "affects all lights") and the radiosity gain settings.

More controls are in the custom GI settings in the "User" render type "quality" slider Edit button. Here there are a lot of GI controls, including settings for the Radiosity Photon Mapping and other GI stuff. For example, splotchy walls should be fixable (at the cost of longer renders) by doubling (or more) the photons for photon mapping.

Be sure to read the Vue help for these settings.
 
If you want to learn more, I recommend Jeremy Birn's excellent book, "Digital Lighting & Rendering, Second Edition" (New Riders).

_jc  'Art Head Start' e-book: Learn digital art skills $19.95
'Art Head Start.com Free chapter, Vue tutorials, models, Web Tutorials Directory.

I should make a macro for posting my Lighting tutorial? ;)

http://www.silverblades-suitcase.com/tutorials/htm/22.html

Try that, mate, see if it helps :)

Here's another tip I find important, I strongly recommend keeping your fingers from the GAIN slider, I yet only had bad experienced with it, newbs to Vue use radiosity gain to make the shadows lighter, you don't!! want to do that, instead use material based ambience or luminosity.

Quote - "I strongly recommend keeping your fingers from the GAIN slider, I yet only had bad experienced with it, newbs to Vue use radiosity gain to make the shadows lighter, you don't!! want to do that, instead use material based ambience or luminosity."

Well, than I am a newb. :-)
I use radiosity gain a lot. And Chippwalters is also a newb, according to your opinion, because in his InteriorPak he uses radiosity gain a lot. :-)

Radiosity gain can make a big difference in several contexts. For example, my image "old land of giant gods" has a gain of 3. That's the best way (and most realistic) to have those rich shadows in the skull.
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1714990
I have many more images with gain.

There's nothing wrong with using radiosity gain, as long as you know how and where to use it, what cons it has and how to go round those. Material based ambience or luminosity are not a good replacement for radiosity gain, IMO.

guys, I tried playing around with some of the suggestions mentioned above, but seems like I still need some simple help with scale and lighting. Can't seem to inject enough realisum into the scene. I tried playing around with rotating the sun but apprently it seems from my scene that the lighting is too strong rather than realisitic. I am attaching my picture here after playing around with some setting..... The scale is definetely not that great, so is there a simple way to work on scaling to make things look more realistic.

Thanks

Have you used reference photos of icebergs to get the color, shape and texture correct?
Good references would help with lighting too. Human figures might help to establish the scale.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2747629

This thread might be of interest to you, as it basically deals about the same thing: realism.

Thanks Jc,
I was actually praciting on some of the geek at play tutorials from where I got this idea. I have played around with the materials for the ice bergs but for some reason it tseems the picture looks too grainy (perhaps because of a lot of light)

1. Is there a way I can reduce the sunslight or intensity rather than the oritentiation so that the picture looks a bit softer.

2. I was trying to introduce fog and was playing around with altitute and cover. Is it possible to add two sets of clouds one at the higher level and one at the lever level to increase a fog like affect.

3. finally in terms of the scale, is it better to make objects bigger but placed further down the camera or is it better to have objects smaller and closer to the cam to give the realisum affect.

4. Are there websitre where I can pick up some free vue atmopheres that are good to enorporate in a senece like this.....

5. I was looking for free boat models but couldnt find any for vue online, if someone can guide me to a good website.

I think as wisely mentioned in this fourm many a times, lightining and scale are quite imporatant elements of a scene.