Finishing a 3D Render: Color Grading, Bloom, and Effects

Once you're done touching up your 3D render, the final phase of post-processing focuses on color grading and adding lens effects.

Dial-In Your Contrast and Color Grading

Experiment to familiarize yourself with Photoshop's various adjustment layers (Brightness/Contrast, Levels, Curves, Hue/Saturation, Color Balance, etc.). Adjustment layers are non-destructive, so you should never be afraid to push things as far as possible. One of our favorite color-grading solutions is the gradient tool, which is an excellent way to add warm/cool color contrast and harmonize your color palette.

How to Add a Light Bloom Effect

The light bloom effect adds dramatic impact to a scene. It works well for interior shots with big windows, but the technique can really be extended to any scene where you really want little patches of light to jump off the screen.

1. Create a duplicate of your render.

2. Place it on the top layer of your composition, then go to Image > Adjustments > Levels.

3. Drag both sliders to the left until the entire image is black except for the highlights.

4. Change the layer mode to Overlay.

5. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and add some blur to the layer.

6. Adjust the layer Opacity to scale back the effect to your liking.

Add Chromatic Abberation and Vignetting

Chromatic aberration and vignetting are forms of lens distortion that are produced by imperfections in real-world cameras and lenses. Because CG cameras have no imperfections, chromatic aberration and vignetting will not be present in a render unless you add them yourself.

It's a common mistake to go overboard on vignetting and chromatic aberration, but they can work wonders when used subtly. To create these effects in Photoshop, go to Filter > Lens Correction and play with the sliders until you achieve an effect you're happy with.

Add Noise and Film Grain

Grain can give your image a very cinematic look and help sell your image as photorealistic. There are certain shots where noise or grain might be out of place, so if you're going for a super-clean look, this is something you may want to leave out.