Friday, December 2, 2011

Notes on Realism

As the BYU 2013 film Chasm is beginning, I'm digging into some of the awesome photorealistic work of which I know.  Here are some notes that I've taken and links to the videos.

Depth of Field done in post  - After Effects, Lenscare, $200

DoF and camera movement are critical to hyper-realism.
http://vimeo.com/8200251 - Compositing - AE
http://vimeo.com/8217700 - 3ds Max Shading, Rendering, Compositing
Linear Pans, Zooms, Strong DoF in post
Rapid DoF, Hand-held Camera shake
Smooth motion, curved.

Process.
Existing Sketch up library model.
3ds Max
Vray Power Shader - default wood + tweaks. 3 of them. offset.
Concrete Texture Map
Photoshop + cgtextures.com (stained concrete)
randomize look and feel
bump mapped
Lighting/Rendering
Vray
Environment Light
Quadratic Anti-aliasing
Indoor, used skylights and free sky render for environment lighting.
Compositing
exported exr
A LOT of color correction and post exposure changes in AE
glow effect used for blown out lighting in ceiling
overlayed a color mask/correction image.
Brought into photoshop last.
AE plugin, Magic Bullet Looks 2, Red Giant, $300