Mantra - trying to match a Redshift render

[GallenWolf]

Hey all,

I recently rendered this in Mantra:

What I'm trying to do is learn mantra by matching it to this particularly delicious redshift render.

The redshift render is obviously leaps and bounds ahead. I'm having difficulty getting the clarity that the redshift render has of the water, and I'm also having difficulty matching the lovely gradient at the far end of the ocean cube. I've tried using point colours as well as reflection geometry, to no avail.

Any suggestions what kind of lighting tricks to achieve this look? I've also attached my hip file.

Thanks!

oceanCube_odforce.hiplc

Edited December 24, 2017 by GallenWolf
Update link to redshift render

[TobyGaines]

Do you have a good HDR? And I do mean a very good one, I'm sure they had a very good one for theirs. Theirs looks more contrast-y than what you're using does, it could also be the source of that gradient. Their key light is also a lot brighter, not sure if that's in the hdr or not, but that would liven up your render, brighten up the ocean floor and put highlights on your subject, like in the other render

What I did to find the best hdr for a particluar subject, is to take all the decent hdrs I had and make an image sequence out of them, then read the sequence into the environment dome / render the subject with a different hdr per frame - it's like doing 2 dozen test renders overnight - keep the hdr sequence for future use

[TobyGaines]

whole bunch of good hdr's here, free, no logging in or any crap either!

http://hdrlabs.com/sibl/archive.html