Great work! just a quick review. In the original picture I notice that the metalic surface is dirtier with rust and dirt too (not just dust), the blanket has more intense color and patches on it are more obvious and the trophies are shiny gold, not just mustard. Also towels are creased.
For the metallic surface, I may consider adding more dirt to the texture, but in terms of rust, it has plenty already. For the "intense colors of the blanket", it is also a matter of lighting. I think you perceive that because a non-negligible part of the blanket in my render is in the shadow of the tv light. As for the trophies, they're not that shiny (I made them very shiny at first, and got a comment that they were too shiny) - beside they already have specular intensity to the max. As for the towels, I already discussed the matter in an earlier post.
If you're having trouble matching lights, there is always post production, aka Photoshop!
The idea crossed my mind, namely for adding the layered tiles for simulating variations in lighting, as Cyb mentioned before. However, I would like to be able to make it without post-processing as much as possible.
Done a little test for the studs on the right side....
oh and the black cheese, is a ring according to the reflections.
with regards to the blue haze around the TV, it seems they used a simple point light, so the metal around the TV reflects this, and not the air around it. I might do a test for that as well, if you like.
Shall I transform the black cheese into a smooth, large metal ring then? I can do that. Concerning the studs, I modified the right-most stud so that is is nicely fixed into the wall, which may be a difference from the original. However, I have a question: in your scene, does the last but one stud (the upright one) actually touches the pipe wall? Or did you twist the perspective by aligning it closer to the centre of the shelf? In my renders, the studs were aligned with respect to the edge of the shelf - I don't know if you'd advise a change on this.
As for the light, actually I perceive the opposite. I think the air is colored in the original (namely I feel that the blue halo makes a clearly visible sphere, part of which are obvious in the down-left section, where the pipe is "cut". I think it also really shows in the deep section of the pipe, right below the hanging clothes (it is not directly lit by the tv, but blue scattered light comes in front of it). The light (as opposed to the scattered light) itself isn't that blue in my opinion, else it would change the hue of the blanket and pillow case as well. You're welcome to go ahead with a try on volumetric lights on your side to check things out.
Spoox perspective looks better indeed.
It's like it seems as a different angle.
Well, I did try to align the camera to the original scene in the best of my abilities. True, making pre-alignment with Sketchup might have been better, but it was not within my possibilities (and unless someone else has the Pro version of Sketchup for exporting .obj files, it still isn't). Though I don't know if the camera position can be exported in the process.
and with an added light in front slightly above the TV.
Interesting. However, here comes another question: for my scene, I put light sources where there could be "physical" light sources... I don't know if putting light sources where there's no actual item that emits light is a desirable course of action...
