Tobia at Home, revisited

revised Tobia scene: mesh overlay

Reviewing a 2-year-old rendering from the Tobia project - by Anna & me - I determined I could squeeze out one more rendering without too much more work.

old rendering

Here's the previous rendering. There is nothing terribly wrong with it, but I wanted to make a more interesting version.

Most of the old lighting is ambient, resulting in a flattened space.
The dog seems to be under-represented, with much of the focus drifting to the colorful props.

new rendering

In the new image, there's more lighting variation throughout the space, creating improved depth and reflections.
The adjusted camera angle increases the significance of the dog by showing more of its face and tag.
Pronounced surfacing on the back wall helps to make the room more tangible.

Giraffa

finished composite

Here's another product-visualization exercise. The design is by Anna. The rendering is by me. The modeling is by both of us.

design sketches by Anna

Anna's initial goal was to design a rocking giraffe, but she managed to fit 6 other product designs into the scene.

detail

For me, this and the previous project are attempts to bridge the knowledge gap between brightly-lit visualization rendering, and more nuanced illustrative rendering.

Tobia at work, part 2

Tobia's pal

This is the final rendering of the Tobia project, a collaboration between Anna Maria Bonanese and myself. The previous post dealt with the construction of the barn and a few props. This one focuses of the design and construction of Tobia's companion.

mouse forms by Anna

The first step in the mouse design was to research photos of mice and their anatomy. From those, Anna produced these sketches. Silhouettes are used in order to resolve the form. The modeling environment is not the place to resolve rudimentary design issues, so we sketch until we're happy with its shape.

spec drawings by Anna

Then Anna designed these modeling guides.

Tobia at work, part 1

Tobia en garde (click to enlarge)

Tobia recently found employment as a sheepdog. Here, he’s seen preparing for work.

The concept was to use the same model of the plastic toy, and change the textures so it appears as an old discarded toy in an abandoned building. The new composition was conceived of and designed by myself and Tobia-designer, Anna.

 design stages, by Anna and me

early rendering - new scene being built

... and then with some textures applied ...

intermediate rendering, ready for the next stage
(click to enlarge)

next: a friendly visit

Tobia at home

Tobia at home, final composite

(click to enlarge)

I've been wanting to do some small product-visualization projects for a while, and have finally found a designer to work with.

production process, from sketch to modeling; drawings by Anna

(click to enlarge)

Anna Maria Bonanese designed the product and environment for our first project, Tobia the beagle. I constructed the scenes, using Maya, ZBrush, and Mental Ray. Anna then tweaked the materials and arranged the props to her liking.

Tobia, studio shot

Tobia at home, design by Anna

Anna loves to design many things, but children's products are her favorite. Tobia is inspired by a dog that she sees each day, during her morning walk.

W Hotel, part 6 - lighting correction for the suite

I've picked up some new rendering techniques, and I've chosen an old W Hotel scene to refine my understanding of them.
Click on any of the images to enlarge.

step 1: lighting & shader adjustment

before & after lighting adjustment

The first thing I did was to calm the artificial light sources, which were overblown and over-saturated (above left).

step 2: conversion to linear workflow

before & after gamma correction

I've recently begun to use a linear workflow, so I converted this scene, as well. For my purposes, linear workflow creates greater lighting distribution - which means the elimination of hot spots and dark corners - and better color accuracy, so the texture colors are less distorted.

step 3: multi-pass assembly

Render passes are used to create post effects, some of which would be time-prohibitive to render directly in the 3D program. They also allow precise adjustments of the separate lighting elements, after you've spent weeks rendering a sequence and don't have time to re-render. I'm still working on my compositing formula. What I've figured out, so far, is represented below.

diffuse pass

The foundation layer is the diffuse pass: the objects' colors and textures, without any lighting effects.

spa

detail from enhanced version

I worked on this spa project last autumn for Shigeru Ban Architects. It ended before lighting could be designed, so I'm now adding lighting to create a composition that I'll be happier with.

rough progress rendering

This was my first submission for the original project: an incomplete progress image.

completed geometry

The rest of the architecture was filled in. The client asked that the camera be pulled back to reveal the skylight, and that the chaos be reduced (see below). Although the cylindrical waterfall was in their design, they felt it dominated the composition; so it was removed.

final commissioned rendering

Lighting was adjusted and people were added. This was the last rendering sent to the client before the project ended.

photo of scale model

Now I finally have time to create an image from this project that I'm a little happier with. Lighting design was never finalized for this room, so I simply appropriated the lighting layout from photos of an early scale model.

my version (click for large)

Here's my revised composition. With all that's going on in this image, it took many days to test-render, render, and then patch-render; so this wouldn't be a practical rendering for the typical small job. Maybe in another 5 years, after the CPU tech has caught up....

W Washington Hotel, part 5 - suite

(About a year ago, we were contracted to do the illustrations for W Hotel's new Washington D.C. hotel.)

design drawing, by "Zaldi"

My 3D rendering was partially based on this drawing. I didn't make this drawing, and I don't know who the illustrator is, but the signature says "Zaldi."

test rendering 1

This was my first test rendering.

test rendering 2

The first pieces of furniture are modeled.

test rendering 3

After a few days of work, the rest of the furniture has been modeled and mapped.

final rendering (click to enlarge)

The designer managed one redesign (rug, furniture colors, TV, fireplace) before the project had to end.

W Washington Hotel, part 4 - living room

(About a year ago, we were contracted to do the illustrations for W Hotel's new Washington D.C. hotel.)

living room (click to enlarge)

This was a tough room to make natural-looking. It could still use a few more days of work; maybe a week, to add 3D people in "hip" dress. Maybe someday ....

living room, detail

sofa, test rendering (click to enlarge)

capital, test rendering

W Washington Hotel, part 3 - sky terrace

(About a year ago, we were contracted to do the illustrations for W Hotel's new Washington D.C. hotel.)
CASE STUDY edition

sky terrace rendering, detail

This time I'm showing some of the progress that lead to the finished rendering. Maybe this post will be a little more interesting, or maybe it'll just be long-winded.

existing sky terrace circa March 2007

Here's a photograph of the old terrace prior to redesign.

lamp rendering test

This lamp is the first thing I modeled for the sky terrace, but it was omitted from the final design.

W Washington Hotel, part 2 - great room

(About a year ago, we were contracted to do the illustrations for W Hotel's new Washington D.C. hotel.)

great room

This is my most interesting W Hotel rendering, because of lighting (6 different types of light sources) and dynamic decor (radiating ceiling and long table). However, of the 7 rooms we created, I'd be least comfortable in this one, due to the lack of elbow room.
This room was also a collaboration with Paolo Bertolotti.

great room detail

chandelier, test rendering

dinnerware, test rendering
medium-res set on left, low-res set on right
(click to enlarge)

W Washington Hotel, part 1 - guest room

About a year ago, we were contracted to do the illustrations for W Hotel's new Washington D.C. hotel.

guest room, view 1

guest room, view 2

The new interiors were designed by Dianna Wong, and these illustrations are a collaboration with Paolo Bertolotti. I'm particularly proud of this project because we had much more time to refine them than usual, so the telltale flaws of artificiality are more difficult to spot.

guest room detail

mirror frame, test rendering