Real-life scenes designed to look like raytraced computer graphics

[beschizza]

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/01/03/real-life-scenes-designed-to-l.html

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[bobtato]

It looks like he managed to get everything looking authentic apart from the shadow gaps, which is actually a useful insight.

[orenwolf]

That’s seriously awesome - that kind of raytracing blew my adolescent mind, and I actually grew up hoping I’d one day be a 3d modeller working at a LightWave firm somewhere.

Then I realized you needed to understand art, too, and moved instead towards systems modelling instead.

[LearnedCoward]

[anon24181555]

Meanwhile I always add barely visible (oops) CG monofilament wires “holding up” my CG

Here’s a photo compared to the render output of the Maxwell Renderer v 1.0 I remember from a while back. Unbiased renderers can come pretty close to looking like the real thing, if you put in some effort to mimic the surface materials.

[roomwithaview]

Guess we know where your username came from, holy crap that’s nice!

[Amstrad]

[Marktech]

Low greyscale resolution creates gradient banding in background.

[LearnedCoward]

It’s close, but the reflections in the Maxwell Render are more perfect than in the photograph. The wall colors are smoother and deeper. There’s also what looks like a little dent in the corner of the tall rectangle in the photo, but not in the rendering.

[StVincent]

If anyone wants to kill a weekend, the Lynda.com Blender Essentials lesson is absolute aces. You will be knocking out renders like these within 12 hours:

Lynda.com is paid, but you may get it free through your local library.

ETA: Blender is totally free, and there are mountains of community resources, too. Definitely an affordable hobby/skill to pick up.

[bobtato]

@anon24181555

I always add barely visible (oops) CG monofilament wires “holding up” my CG

Ha! Yeah, sometimes the best way to put the viewer in the scene is to be all “shrug lol” about the elements you don’t want to spend any time modeling.

(If I rendered that now, I’d also raise the models up 0.5mm off the floor for the shadow gap…)

[phuzz]

You can go ahead and buy a Utah teapot: (edit, if you’re rich)

Edit: I thought it was only about €20, but it turns out I was reading the shipping costs, and it’s actually €300, ouch!

[renke]

does it come filled with free tea leaves?

[LearnedCoward]

It wouldn’t be that expensive to just make your own.