There’s a lot of room for improvement in your lighting. An HDRI will help tremendously, but darkening your world and increasing the key lights will get you a long way already.
You can use an hdri or the sun sky system and get same results. Let go of the hdri stuff and pay attention to the other points user is making. There is room for lighting that goes well beyond the hdri element. All hdri does is simulate natural light system as an environment light. You still have to dress up the scene with the necessary lights etc.
An hdri is an environnement High Dynamic Range Image, you can get a lighting as if your scene was happening outside. The sun in the image illuminates the scene, and the sky gives your shadow a nice blue hue.
There’s a lot of room for improvement in your lighting. An HDRI will help tremendously, but darkening your world and increasing the key lights will get you a long way already.
Keep it up
but what does an hdri actually do? when i dont notice much of a difference when using one
You can use an hdri or the sun sky system and get same results. Let go of the hdri stuff and pay attention to the other points user is making. There is room for lighting that goes well beyond the hdri element. All hdri does is simulate natural light system as an environment light. You still have to dress up the scene with the necessary lights etc.
An hdri is an environnement High Dynamic Range Image, you can get a lighting as if your scene was happening outside. The sun in the image illuminates the scene, and the sky gives your shadow a nice blue hue.