24.5.07

Ingenious Arrogance You Say?!

Crazy, spectacular, ingenious, insane and daring. I'm referring to the designs some local Architects here in Singapore are coming up with nowadays. Putting aside the other high profile developments, it still amazes me that there are other developments out there (or to be launched) that just challenge the norm.

Imagine... a high-rise development where you can park your car just next to your living room. Well, I guess it's meant for those filthy rich folks who just don't only want to own a classy place and some fancy car, but who also wants to show it at the same time.

And that's where you really put into context the answer to this question ,"why?"

Their answer: "...simply because we can!"

And so as for this image, I was just messing around with a last minute job I had to work on. I came in at the "lighting stage" only. The client wanted to have some focus on the car being smacked right next to the living area (as intended as well by the Architect). My solution, was to make the lighting at the car brighter of all areas. With the limited time as well, I had to cut down the reflections and minimize glossiness levels so it would render like "now."

This is not the final image the client requested. It's just my interpretation, a quick-wit of some sort as to come up with an Ad and Tag line for a rather "incomplete" render. Not only for fun....
but simply because...I can.



Tech Notes:

With all the initial high reflections, the image took ages to render. So reflection depth was cut way too low to 3.
I would have rendered in passes, but it would take me longer than required still. The drawback was almost no reflection for the car at the ceiling which is supposed to be a mirror. Other elements get reflected sharply while the car doesn't. (I have yet figure out why). Blurring was done in Photoshop, via Radial blurred and comped with the sharp image.

18.5.07

Building A City In A Day

It is written that God created the world in 7 days (Okay, technically 6 days, cause he took the day-off on the 7th). And then, one fine day I get the challenge of building a city in about the same time. Good thing is just going to be complete CGI! But alas, the forces of the "time gods" were against me. It's instances like these that make me wish I had Hiro Nakamura's powers of time-space manipulation.

The challenge here was to fill in the gaps in the Architect's design. I had to basically create something "complete" based on a Master Plan, which wasn't even detailed enough. There was this freedom to make use of my Architectural knowledge, and incorporate it together in the 3D. In short, I too became some sort of the designer.

Now here's where the tricky part comes in. As the "designer," I had to come up with something that the Architects would like, or at least match their style. It would have been easier had there been a rough sketch from them. But since there wasn't any, I just had to create something, based on what I had at the moment (current books, and some rough info from the Architects). Another difficult aspect was coming up with closer views, rather than just Aerial views, which also mean higher level of details.

Do note that, I've been sort of out of touch with my Architectural designing. It was rather a fun exercise as well. It ain't finished yet. And the images herein are just drafts, and not necessarily what the Architects have in mind. So it could be totally scrapped as well in the end. Here's some of the closer views.























Forget the buildings...actually for this view, I sorta became
more engrossed with the sculpture (my own design).












A post-processed effect...based on Dennis Allain's style.