It's pretty hard to get a good result when starting out. It would look basic because there isn't anything there to make it interesting, which I'm sure you already knew intuitively. And it's a REALLY big rabbit hole to delve into when it comes to how to make things look interesting and cool, so if we're going to start anywhere it would be with a few things you've already suggested, lighting and materials. Two very fundamental parts of making something look good without adding anything extra, just two things to highlight the main object focus. also be mindful of what render engine you're using, cycles is a very heavy renderer but produces much more accurate lighting and shadows as they're path traced, eevee is a light renderer but can produce what you might call basic looking results and can be quite difficult to get what you want.

here's some tutorials on lighting and materials to get you started

https://youtu.be/Dwnz-G3E8yI?si=1pO0QNSCpLmhD17W

https://youtu.be/ElMM3u2MO5k?si=HWjJQLznlQRvFq_e

https://youtu.be/6FS98iDEjow?si=oTEDLF4VcEqG8k1u



If you got any other questions, or even want some help my discord is .mandoman.