Somewhere Off The Pacific

So It's been months that I've been indulging myself at work, and OctaneRender.

To keep it simple here's the latest I've got so far:...

More @ HERE

There's no turning back...from Octane Render. I just acquired it...

Am loving it, and delighted so far. Here's my first take on it, used a 3d scene (not created by me)...and "tested" out Octane shaders, lighting...on my GTX 970 + 650ti GPU rig...rendered at 15 mins -- rather fast considering the lens blur is in 3d. 

No Photoshop work here....all done and out from Octane Render.

3d element credits to : https://www.scenected.com/
and https://www.facebook.com/smsl26

Animation in Octane Render Test

Octane Render Animation Test
Am delighted with Octane so far. Frame renders at about 4 minutes on a GTX 970. I had set up a scene in Vray which took about 2 times longer.

Dipping Into Octane

In the age of fast ("affordable") GPUs, real-time rendering has become more viable as well. One Such is Octane render. Having heard from a long time friend, and seeing the numerous works out there made in Octane made me keen on trying it out.

Am truly impressed, and see the possibilities of generating high-end quality renders at possibly less time compared to my usual Vray.

My first renders, dabbling in Octane in a day - demo mode on a GTX 970 card:
These exterior day render took about 6-11mins at 1000x600 resolution

This part took about 20 minutes. I guess when it comes to glass, transparency - cranking up the depth will take it's toll on Octane path tracing. Depending on the levels of transparency you want to achieve, render times can stretch as well.

In-camera-render FX...camera blurring and flares

 Quick light set-up with HDRI...(about 2+ mins render)

Well, that's all for now. Soon to come..and better, as soon as I get hold of the full version.

Playing around with Corona Render.

Scandinavian Interior (based on photo image)

Side project to test some 3d modelling and lighting with Corona render.Sourced for some Interior photos to simulate in 3d - About 99% is my own created 3d models (except the wall radiator).Textures were sourced in Google. Post processing was done in Lightroom.

Brighter exposure (update)

2015 ... CG life is still alive

Something of last year though...

(...bump)

http://www.cgarchitect.com/members/view/rbgallinera

http://vimeo.com/89845115

and, a reminder of a site.."faded"..soon to be gone. I had aspired to be on my own (listed), but life is tough, and perhaps a multitude of circumstances was just not in my favor. Perhaps too, I wasn't ready in many aspects. So for now, this will just be a reminder of what was then...

That's all for now.

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.

Asia Square Tower 2 - Constructing the "Unconstructed"

This recent work (with Lights & Shadows) involved some photomatching and background clean-up. Rather a straightforward work, though still rather tedious. Basically, a wide-angle shot of the existing had to be photographed. After which, it was brought and photomatched in 3DMax. Sun direction in 3d space was matched as well to the phtoto. Reflection passes where done separately.

 

Another big chunk of the work involved cleaning and "filling-in-the-blanks" for the background in post. These involved clone and filing in the reflection to match the reflection in the photograph.

 

Finally, overall colour-grading was done to "unify" the 3d render with the 2d elements seamlessly.

 

 

Additional credits:

Chua Teng Yeow (Photo)

Alice Lee (Environment / Post-work)

2013...blog revisited

It's been  about 4 years now since I've written...

...and am still at this -- pursuing this "Art." Of course, there weren't all easy days, but I couldn't back down just easily. So much I have lost, besides time - and certainly, there's that silver lining.

For sure, one thing I have learned -- what goes around, comes around. Though many instances apply to this saying with relevance in the course of my journey, I would rather mention the good ones.

Back in 2008, I had to leave the fellas at Lights&Shadows - the company which kinda jump-started my career in this 3d/CGi. It was all good when we parted ways, and I had as well developed a certain friendship with them beyond just work. And so, as I had left, I went about doing other stuff...thru ups and downs...and eventually setting-up Lucid Render. 

Lucid Render (or simply Lucid), is my first venture - of a "hobby" turned full-time job. It's tough. And being solo on it, does takes its toll and tires me. The joy of doing things for myself and yet the stress of "surviving" can be daunting at times..to the point of giving up...

...to cut the story short, I couldn't focus much on the "way I want Lucid to be"; and I have in a way missed the interaction with other artists. And destiny leads me, I end up back with Lights & Shadows.

...I come back, better, bolder,...a tad bit wiser perhaps. BUT in having still in mind - I could still be much better...

there's just to much to do, to work on..and yet to achieve.

Some of the latest stuff I have done

For Print

Yes, it's been awhile since the last posting here. I've decided to revamp the site, and get something out there - yes, something that can be felt and held in ones hands. For starters, I've already set to print some selected works that were done this year.

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

Another Street Cam

Same project mentioned in the previous post. A different view, treated with a different tone.

And the elements breakdown

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.

Animation Breakdown

It's a new year, and even though the world's in recession, I've been busy with lots of Archi CG projects. As such, I haven't really had time to post some "making-of" lately. But here's one still for the new year. This is no solo project, but I had major involement in it in terms of production and coordinating with the artists involved.

Things are not as simple as it seems. To achieve a more believable scene that really "pops-out", we really "3D."

Production Credits:
Mushroom Multimedia Pte. Ltd., Singapore
in collaboration with Zum LLC., USA

Click Here for more info about this project.

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

When A Night Shot Isn't Exactly Night

It's actually (supposedly) dusk. This project was done quite some time back. The design had been finalized, and we needed a "hero" shot that would show the buildings uniqueness in some way. I guess the Architect knew as well that the design was not much special from any other building, except that it had these "special" windows. So to emphasize on these, was to have it rendered as a night shot. Of course, the tricky part was to show the building's form as well, and as requested by the developer.

So to create the illusion of a night shot, 3d omni lights were thrown into the interior scene, while maintaining a considerable amount of GI to light the exterior. An overall grading of bluish tone and colour adjustment was done as to get the look i perceived was nice. To further enhance the effect, I had to pick a relatively complimenting sky and background as well.

In summary, I was trying to simulate a shot taken at dusk (via color correction as to get that "night" effect without losing too much details), and at the same time creating silhouettes as to frame the building.

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

Cut & Paste : "Toy Digirama"

It's been about a year now since I took up collecting toys & figures that interest me (and had influence my "early creative years"). With this, also came my passion of photography which I hadn't done for some time. So besides the usual 3D CG stuff, I sorta found a new area wherein I can "play" around with.

"Toy Digirama"...as what I've heard and gathered, is the digital exposition of toys via compositing the photos (of the toys) with a background (whether real or created) as to tell a story. Similar to those dioramas except everything is created with a computer with a program like Photoshop.

Lost In Akihabara

A breakdown of my process (click on image to enlarge)...

Tech Note:

Photo taken with K800i Phone Cam

Digitally enhanced and worked in Photoshop CS3

GoRanger and other musings here.

Simplified (A different approach to lighting)

Okay, so it's been ages since I've had any updates here. Lotsa..lotsa stuff "cooking."
Anyway, I'd like to present a recent work wherein I approached the lighting of the scene in a not-so-typical manner. The scene in question is an interior of some loft. The project required a draft render to be done quickly. Problem was only the architectural walls were given. In cases like these, I'd go for the "minimalist" approach. Minimalist not only in terms of the look, but also the way of setting up a "nice" scene.

First, the 3d model has to be strategically built (as only can be seen), so that a couple of camera angles can be set-up to show spaciousness. Then, it had to be furnished so that it the client would be able to relate to the scale of the space and picture composition (don't assume people can easily imagine things in an empty room even). Finally, it had to lit-up as to clearly show some mood or effect.

The first few steps are typical to most 3D artists. However, the method of using a Vray light sphere is not usual to probably most. This, as I'd think is like really having a sun (instead of the Vray Sun, or Direct-light or numerous vray light planes). The tricky part would be positioning it as if it were an huge Omni light. And this would also affect the way the shadows would turn out.

The final process, would be the enhancing of the image in Photoshop. To create different moods with different light positions and settings (although not difficult) can be simplified further by just sticking to one light position. To create the illusion of different times of the day, adjustments to colour filters would do the "trick."

Render settings, and light position / set-up are the same for the above images in different cameras. Notice that the shadows are the same, I simply "added" different colours and background to have a slightly different effect.

• Tech Notes:
• Modeled with 3DS Max v8.0
• Rendered with Vray, Ambient Occlusion via Vray plugin
• Post processed in Photoshop