2014 Mid-year Update!

Check-out -- > Visualization Gallery in CG Architect

2014 ... Still at it! Do people blog still nowadays, really?! I guess in this fast-paced age of digital web content -- it's like twitter, youtube, and vimeo. 

Please feel free to view my latest animation reel , by clicking here.

Badly Taken Photo

It's been ages since I've posted something here. Well, it's been a hectic year atwork, and some of my stuff seemed so 'typical'

It's kinda ironic, Photographers would at some instances remove "nuisances" and imperfections in their photos, while CG Artists would do otherwise.

Well, I'd also like to share a breakdown of this image. After some scrutiny, one can see the "mis-matches" ...taking away the magic. lol. Oh well...but my intent is to share some of techniques used herein.

This was actually post-processed from an earlier project. My intent was to turn an already rendered & post-processed perspective to a "photo-real" image. When I color-graded the CGi, it still just didn't look "correct". I gradually searched for images to cut-&-paste. So basically, these photo elements, (some of which were actually nice taken), was then adjusted to make it look "badly taken" as well. Once all elements were framed and in place, an overall color adjustment was done. Working on 2K resactually...then re-sized as such.

Summary of techniques that i used:

- slightly tilted horizon

- lens blurring

- lens correction + color fringing (to simulate camera aberration)

- color desaturation, with reference to other point-n-shoot digital photos that were "badly exposed"

- motion blurring (very slight)

- "familiar" composition -- typical to those street photographs at the corners

; somewhat breaking the rule's of composition which some random laymen wouldn't be aware of when taking photos.

Sun...down

Here Comes The Sun

Presenting...a project I've been working on, somewhere in a small town (downtown) Sunnyvale, California. This was rather a huge undertaking in a span of almost 3 months. The model itself composed of nearly detailed buildings in 6 blocks, altogether with animated cars and people. It's great that the team managed to pull-thru. The project required creating Animation sequences and some still perspectives. Some of which can be seen here.

If there's one part about this project, that I'd like to touch on later - it would be procedural mapping. This project had a dozen textures and maps, which was rather overwhelming. So I figured, to cut-down on it and make it 'easier' by using procedural texture mapping. Anyway, I'll write more about it in detail in my later posts. Here's a 'snapshot' along a streetview for now.

Above is a view I composed myself,
all in 3D with some Photoshop enhancement.

More than Panoramic

There are some things that even a virtual camera can't do so in making CGI. This project required a sweeping view of the cost along the pool area. As we had set the camera in, there was some diffculty getting that panoramic view. Normally, to get a wider view, one would adjust the camera lens to show more. However, by doing this, distortion in foreground objects get very noticeable. In such instances, the foreground objects would be cut-off from the perspective. In this particular shot, it would also mean cutting-off the "panoramoic" effect. The solution ---> to simply take 2 shots and stitch them together.

The second picture shows the division of the 2 images, which was cropped later on. The end result is a "sweeping" shot and having the depth. Though the eye initially focuses to where the real vanishing point is, we "balanced" the picture by off-setting the other side with more "space" towards a seemingly infinite horizon.

Tech Notes:
Modeled with 3D Max 7.0
Rendered with Vray
Post-Processed in Photoshop CS

News of Old for the New

Back again for 2008. Last year was a very intense year for CG work, especially the last month. And things are still on the roll. Major things in the making still. Hence, the reason why I haven't been able to post much on this blog. However, for posting's sake, Autodesk has recently released some news regarding some stuff about company I work in (Lights & Shadows). Something worth sharing...

Bar counter at some resort development at Koh Samui

A grand plan, The Capella at Sentosa

Press release as seen here.

Just to note, neither I or any of us in LNS did not pick the above images. I'd say there were other "impressive" works to choose from as well. So it was quite a suprise, for at least the 1st image, to make it. To add, though I was mainly involved in these, I have still to commend a few of my colleagues who have played a part on these as well.

1st Image: 3D modelling was mostly done by me, including Photoshop enhancement. I'd say, the fun part of working on this was creating my own library of bottled liquors. It was more of collecting actual labels and replicating the bottle's shape in 3D. In a way, I got educated in the art of drinking wine and mixing cocktails.

2nd Image: This was a very tough thing to make. Again, major involvement in 3D on my end. The main building was rather typically modelled. And I had to copy the existing colonial house in which the new development was designed around it as well. What i found difficult was making the land contour / slopes. Literally done via edit-poly...pushing and pulling vertices / adding polygons as I traced along the plan. And a major role, was the 2D enhancement my our DI Artist. Without the surrounding and trees / colour adjustments...it just wouldn't have looked right.

Other Credits & Tech Notes:
Chua T.Y. (Main Adviser...MasterChief)
Additional 3D model in Max / Support (for The Capella): Xiao Lei, Chua T.Y.
2D DI in Photoshop (for The Capella): Alice Lee

Another Old School Technique For A New View

The job at hand was a "Courtyard scene" that featured a staircase and some bridge ways above. The 3D models were done earlier by my colleagues, and I only came in to do some revisions and re-light the scene.

The image that I present here is my version. The client had a different thing in mind, that of which I thought was too "cluttered" in terms of visual composition. Although, the other image was nice, I decided to keep it simple and rely more on "hard-scaping" and focus on the Architecture, rather than showcasing the usage of space this time.

Click on above image to see the Breakdown of Scene.
Another more detailed & similar technique can be found here.

Tech Notes:
Modeled with 3DS Max v8.0
Rendered with mostly Vray
Ambient Occlusion pass was rendered with Mental Ray
Post processed in Photoshop

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.

La Viva...Vivo City!

It's more than mid-way thru the Fashion Festival here in Singapore.

And it's almost half a year since I worked on something relating to this -- Vivo City (the background for the Vivo City ad posters).

For that mentioned project, we had to work closely with the ad agency who already had conceptualized the look. It was also a different kind of visualization. We were given the freedom to create an impression of the Vivo City mall -- and not to really follow the architectural detail to the dot. And the final image would be "muted" in a monochromatic tone as to help focus the view to the model in the foreground later.

This project also brought me back closer to my "Architectural" roots. I basically was given a rough sketch and plan. Then from there, I would design and "build" it in 3D. There are about 7 posters or so that we got to work on. But, I figured I'd just show this one.

From concept to execution. It starts from the drawing by the Ad agency.

I couldn't find the actual poster for this particular shot. But if you happen to be in Vivo City, it won't be hard to miss.

Here's just the background which I worked on. Quite few more details were actually changed and added for the actual poster, besides the monochromatic adjustment.

Tech Note:
Modeled and rendered in 3Ds Max 8.0 with Vray.

Brief scene description:
One Direct light from above, thru the skylight.
A few number of customized maps (photos of shopfronts) were used as textures instead of building it in 3D.
It was also more of an "artistic" call when it came to how sharp or visible the reflections were.
Of course, the final ad print would have also been handled by another DI Artist -- as for colour and image enhancement.

Render without Lights...(almost)

...it can be done. But also depending on some situations or whatever effect you may be after. In this case, I had the "luck" of using an HDRI which was available from Paul Devebec's Site.

The project (in LNS) at hand was some bar / lounging area. The design was modern and incorporated some sleek lighting fixtures, and lots of glass. And this is one type of project that required to show this concept, and yet set it in a night effect.

This pass is basically using most of the GI settings and environment to light up the place. No lights were place just yet. The supposedly light fixtures were simply made with self-illuminating materials.

After a few adjustments in the materials, I simply used an HDRI in the environment to give it the "colour." And omni lights were just placed at the egg-shaped lamps that were on the tables. It just so happens it turned out quite well, such that I did not have to place any other lights. With a few tweaking in the influence of the HDRI environment, I managed to get to this point where I felt comfortable to proceed in finishing the image in post.

My post-processed image. I simply adjusted the curves, and enhanced the colours by a number of Layers in Photoshop...either by adding photo filters and mixing up with soft light effects and blurring. Other details were also added, such as the wine bottles by the bar and painting some of the specular reflections.

One thing I noted was that it took some time to render this thing. And once, I had it rendered to a very hi-res resolution, splotches and unwanted colour spills became evident (as I think) due to the "low-res" HDRI. It disappeared actually, once I got rid of the HDRI, but of course I lost the coloured effect. So for an upcoming animation, I tried to recreate this coloured effect by adding 3d physical lights in the scene. At least now I had a clear visual reference. And It rendered faster.