What is a still life?

a still life is a painting, drawing or photograph of an arrangement of objects, typically including fruit and flowers and objects contrasting with these in texture, such as bowls and glassware.

objects in scene:

- table cloth

- pastry croissant

- tea/tea pot

- fruit

- plates

- silverware

- glass/cup

- warm/soft light

modern

simplistic

realistic

trendy

sunlight/sunset through window

interesting light placement and shadows

screenshot of personal items

(easy to find models to focus more on the light and rendering)

I'll save this idea for another assessment

Here are the models for my scene for my scene.

I ended up choosing idea one as I could practice lighting the scene with simple objects that sat on a surface. It also has a variety of textures that light can react differently to.

 I placed the cutlery on the plates to appear as if someone took a photo in the middle of the meal. I also wanted it to look more organic and natural so I placed the cake on it's side and moved the cherry, included flower petals and berries on the table. Each cup also has a different amount of tea in it. This creates a story rather than a clutter of dishes on a table.

I also had to go in and fix the topology of all the handles as they had holes and made glitched out and were broken. I originally hid or deleted the handles but then realised the scene looked too staged and looked obvious that I was hiding them.

Models set up and ready for basic colours. 

I played around with a few layouts but I forgot to screenshot them :(

Silverware and tray have metallic materials, vases has water and glass materials, fine china has glossy porcelain material, cake and croissant have a rough material, berries have a rough yet shine to their material and tea is shiny and a slightly lower opacity. 

table with cloth: https://www.cgtrader.com/free-3d-models/furniture/table/table-with-cloth

croissant: https://www.cgtrader.com/free-3d-models/food/miscellaneous/croissants-pbr-3d-pack

tea set on tray: https://www.cgtrader.com/free-3d-models/interior/kitchen/porcelain-tea-set

Berries: https://www.cgtrader.com/free-3d-models/food/fruit/blueberry-bowl

cake: https://www.cgtrader.com/free-3d-models/food/miscellaneous/slice-of-chocolate-cake

silverware: https://www.cgtrader.com/free-3d-models/household/kitchenware/knife-forks-spoons-3d-model

flower vase: https://www.cgtrader.com/free-3d-models/plant/flower/flower-for-decor-3d-model

wooden chair - https://www.cgtrader.com/items/1938755/download-page

Basic lighting with 4 area lights. All white lights with same intensity except for back light.

Same as first one but with different coloured lights. Top light has a warm tone and side lights have a cool tone.

Light Option 3 

Directional light with window silhouette, cool toned filler lights and white back light from window. Darker vibe, lots of shadows, warm tones and interesting outlines. 

Over exposed directional light with window silhouette. Orange and blue filler lights. Creates lots of nice reflections and has an early morning breakfast vibe. 

Soft white area lights and orange point light in centre. Gloomy and unfinished meal vibe. Grey colouring to represent a rainy/cloudy day.

table cloth - cloth 

croissant - rough, bread, flaky

tea set - porcelain, shiny, glossy

tray - metallic

berries - matt but with slight shine

cake - rough, sponge, frosting, matt

silverware - metallic shiny

flower vase - glass, transparent, glossy

wooden chair - wood

flower - matt

Adjusted and moved models closer to make a pile in the centre. this will follow the 'rules' of making it a still life more than a setting.

Here is everything textured and laid out. I just have to render different angles but this will be my main render. I had problems with my croissant's UVs and texturing process so I swapped it out for some donuts which were a lot nicer to texture.

Here are some Maya renders from different angles.

After a fiddle around in photoshop background is blurred, depth of field applied to contents on the table focusing on the Teapot and the items on the tray as they are the centre of attention and draws your eyes in and shows off the nice lights and reflections. 

This is the first render from photoshop with fixed hues and lighting, appropriate colours and fixed the placement of objects on the table to fill empty space.

This render is the same however it has depth of field applied, showcasing the teapot and items on the tray and added a vignette. 

This is my final render based off my 3rd lighting test, with dark shadows, moody vibe and interesting light placement. I played around in photoshop and decreased the exposure and played with the hues to create a warmer and darker look. I also applied a vignette and depth of field to add layers and depth to the scene.