Off Topic - 3D Artists

[Iwerk]

It is amazing how realistic that these images are. These are not photographs.
The images were created with a software program called Maya.

"The Perfect Storm" with George Clooney, "Monsters Inc." and many more movies were created with this technology.

My point of introducing these images to this website, is that 3D artists have gotten so good at their creations that it is getting hard to tell them apart from photographs.

[Larry N. Bolch]

It might be worth mentioning that photographers already know about 75% of 3-D, so adding it to ones skill-set is very easy compared to people coming to it with no background in photography. Mostly a matter of learning the tools, as in any medium. Light works like real light, cameras like real cameras and surfaces like real surfaces.

Imagine a camera that has nearly an infinite zoom lens, that uses 35mm focal lengths including a fisheye. It will also do panoramics with no added stitching needed. It is a full movement view camera - oh, and it also does movies and stereo photography. It will render stereo pairs that I can view with an antique 19th century Holmes Stereoscope! The quality of these is absolutely stunning, when printed with my inkjet photo printer. It is the 16MP digital camera I use almost daily in Shade8.5.

Imagine a studio of any size you want at the moment, with as many lights you want. These are either spotlights or ordinary lights that radiate in all directions. They can be diffused to cast soft shadows or be extremely sharp edged. The diffusion is ultimately variable, as is the intensity of each light. In fact, I used Shade to do a portrait lighting tutorial, since the lights work just like lights in the non-virtual world. The model posed exactly as I asked her to, and did not move during the lengthy portrait session. She gave me no attitude at all during the shoot.
www.larry-bolch.com/portrait-basics/

Imagine being able to photograph your imagination, create and photograph worlds that only you can envision. I rarely go for an imitation of reality - but rather begin where reality leaves off. When I want reality, I use photography - though I have been pushing the envelope there as well in recent years.

Always have the ideal weather for whatever sort of photography you want to do. You are free to try any photographic technique and practice it until you nail it. The skills go both ways, what you learn in 3-D also directly applies to real world photography.

I have been working with a number of programs, Bryce, Poser, Imagine and LightWave. I have been using Shade for about the last year and a half and it is now my weapon of choice. More at
www.larry-bolch.com/shade/
www.larry-bolch.com/shade/Sidhe.htm
www.larry-bolch.com/shade/anaglyph/
www.larry-bolch.com/shade/anaglyph/gallery
www.larry-bolch.com/shade/color-light/

[Iwerk]

Larry, you will never cease to amaze me. Excellent work...
I especially like your High Dynamic Range image-based illuminations.

This is the same method that Ivan used for the scene with the car.
For those who are not familar with the process, it is done by pasting a scenery image on the inside of a large sphere that surrounds your object. The lighting comes from this pasted image and reflects off of your objects within the sphere. It is an absolutely brilliant idea.