Diamond help or advice

[stevesideas]

Im trying to get the caustics and general look of some diamonds really spot on.

This is what Ive managed to do so far. I have a dome light with a hdri (not using caustics for this light) and then a spot light directly behind the camera with caustics on.

The refractive IOR for the diamonds is set to 2.417 which I think is correct.

Any advice on how to make this look better ?

[simmsimaging]

It is looking pretty good. I would try some different HDRIs to see if you can get something with a greater tonal variation to bring the gems to life a bit more. Also a *bit* more contrast overall might help the stones.

B

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

Id say...

Chamfer on
Dof on
A more direct light
and less caustic, decrease the multiply they bit burned...

and then loads of post

[stevesideas]

Thanks for the tips. Do you mean chamfer the edges of all the diamonds ? I wonder if I could use the edgetex in the bump slot rather than physically model the chamfers in...there are quite a few edges in this diamond. Im looking down on the diamonds and they all need to be in focus so im not sure DOF would be possible in this instance...nice for angled views though.

Yes, I thought that same about the intensity of the caustics.

What would you do in post apart from maybe add some glow to the hi-lights to simulate bloom and maybe some color correction ?

I'll give some other HDRIS a go. Im using dosch studio hdris at the moment

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

Just select all edges and give them chamfer... see if that works. I'll vote for physical based chamfer rather than bump...

Glow, sharpen, vignette depends from the image...a lot, Id make them darker on the deep inside, just to give them a bit more depth, lovley noise, dispersion and a lot more

[add101]

maybe moving the lights could have a good effect? I think the diamonds that look the best in this image are the ones that don't have the big white patches (the ones in the middle). Is this the reflection from the light?
Overall it's looking really good!

Here are some reference images:
http://www.a1-diamond.com/ (interesting lighting/contrast, and caustics projected forward)
http://famousdiamonds.tripod.com/mil...ardiamond.html

[pg1]

about 2 years ago I did a lot of diamond work for Argyle, I'm with Dadal on this one, lots of bling post work.
I also had several lights setup. Some doing just specular and some doing caustics.

[stevesideas]

Thanks for the tips guys.

[Subburb]

Hi Steve,
as you're SolidRocks customer, i would suggest to use the "perfect caustics" tool of solidrocks. The only parameter for its quality is caustics subdivs of the light(s). It can give what you excpect. grainy but very precise. my 2 cents.

[stevesideas]

I actually haven't used solidrocks more than 3 times when I originally purchased it. I didnt seem to get on with it too well. Maybe I'll download the update and do a few tests.. Thanks