Design Visualisation: Digital Techniques Journal M1

Module 1

A Digital Still Life ARCH30005 Experimenting with the arrangement of elements and composition in space by the usage of different historical styles and elements of composition, my modern digital still life tries to capture the drama of the still elements by the simple usage of camera angle, mood lighting and perfectly curated elements. The digital still life also alludes to the renaissance colour palette and style of the components which is what I’ve tried to achieve.

Mannik Singh 877805 Studio Leader: Tony Yu Studio: 04

Reflection Module 1 of the subject was a perfect way to learn the basics of 3dsMax and V-ray. Learning about how objects can be made by using modifiers was an interesting thought when compared to modeling from scratch in CAD programs like Rhino. Furthermore, learning how materiality is affected by different components like texture mapping, diffuse colour and reflective and refractive properties was super helpful in creating a fairly realistic render. These simple principals could also be applied to bigger projects, therefore module 1 served its purpose well.

To achieve my goal of getting a balanced, renaissance style composition the Lighting, the drama between the objects in the space, the balance in composition and the colour combinations and contrasts were, perhaps, the most important elements I had consider before finalising my scene.

To achieve this drama and style, I constantly had to go back and test the various camera angles, type of film, the lighting colour, the materiality - certain transparency and opacity, the positioning of the objects in relation to each other and in the space.

While, certain workshop elements couldn’t be applied for the sake of my scene and style, elements such as HDR, the lighting and the techniques will be very helpful in module 2 and 3. As my protagonists for Module 2 will be the older artistic couple, the scenes and the render could potentially form the subject of their painting for the next module.

M1.01 Modelling Part 1 of the Module 1 focused on the learning and application of the basics of polygon modelling using 3DS Max. The aim was to model a selection of objects brought in by the tutor, that were to be photographed and documented on the first day of the class. Each of the object posed a different problem that had to be resolved using the various solutions in 3ds Max. The plates and the bowl (alongside) were the simplest to model; by using the image and measurements clicked in the first studio, I was able to generate a rough profile using the line command in 3Ds Max. Subsequently, by using the Lathe modifier and Min setting, I was able to procure a plate, further by using a shell modifier I could add thickness to the essentially 2D plane. To further smoothen out the surface and the edges of the objects, turbosmooth modifier came to be handy. The same procedure was followed for most of the objects like the candelabra, bowl, wine bottle, the wine glasses and the fruits (pear and apple).

Fig 1.1 Image showing using a plane of reference to draw the line

Fig 1.2 Image showing the usage of ‘Lathe+ shell’ modifier to procure the 3D plate.

Fig 1.3 Image showing the usage of ‘Turbosmooth’ modifier to smoothen out the plate.

In order to get the desired surfaces for fruits like the pear and oranges, using soft selection tool in the ‘edit-poly’ modifier proved to be a great tool. The soft selection tool allows one to partially select the sub-objects in the vicinity of an explicit selection.

This causes the explicit selection to behave as if surrounded by a “magnetic field.” By pulling the control points I could essentially mutate the object to get the desired result. Further to this action, turbosmooth modifier helped in correcting and smoothing out any accidental folds, etc.

Fig 1.4 Image showing the usage of ‘Edit-poly’ modifier and soft selection tool

The wine in the glasses and the bottle and the label were to be extracted using ‘the edit-poly’ modifier, whereby selecting certain polygons and faces, I was able to detatch them from the original surface like that of the wine bottle, and cap it to create a polygon inside/outside the object. (Shown on the left)

Fig 1.5 Image showing the usage of ‘Edit-poly’ modifier to extract the surface for the wine bottle label.

M1.02 Texture and Materials Part 2 of the Module 1 focused on the process of adding materiality and texture to the objects created in the first segment of the module. Furthermore, complex objects had to be unwrapped. Often the results of which meant editing textures to suit the unwrapped maps.

Objects that were to be made out of glass, ceramics, and fairly clear liquid were easy to texture. By the usage of simple V-Ray materials and tweaking the diffuse, reflection and refraction components I was able to achieve the desired results.

The problem arose when object were too complicated, due to which a normal material would look warped on the said objects. To solve this, the ‘Unwrap UVW’ modifier came in handy, specifically for objects like the chopping board (shown alongside) Using the modifier, an unwrapped map of the object was presented which could be tweaked to suit the material. Aligning the components of the map further required the flattening of the original map, where several components could be joined to give a fairly easy surface to work on. (Shown alongside). After aligning the components, the map could be rendered to be worked up on in Adobe Photoshop.

Fig 2.1 Image showing the usage of ‘Unwrap UVW’ modifier and further edit UVW map tool

Fig 2.2 Image showing the aligning of different elements to achieve the simplest map possible.

Fig 2.3 Image showing the process employed in photoshop

Fig 2.4 Image showing the Pelt unwrap of the pear’s middle component

Fig 2.5 Image showing the making of texture map in photoshop

By exporting the maps as PNG files, I could work on them in photoshop, whereby I was able to render how the diffuse map/texture would sit on the actual object in the final object.

Furthermore, I could generate Bump and Normal maps to give a sense of 3 dimensionality of the object without having to model little details.

The fruits were a little harder to work with to unwrap. To unwrap them, I had to create seams and had to unwrap the object in segments. Even after that, due to the geometry of the objects, unwrapping was only possible using the ‘Pelt’ unwrap which resolved the complexity of the map, furthermore by using the relax tool I was able to generate a slightly inaccurate but flatter map to work on. This was particularly helpful in the case of the orange and the pear (Alongside)

The unrolled maps were then taken into photoshop for the addition of texture and materials, as done before for the chopping board. Because the texture of the images was proving to be difficult to align, I had to paint over the seams to create artificial colour range so that images could come together properly.

Generating the flame was the hardest yet most rewarding experience. The geometry was created first by tweaking the sphere on which a V-Ray Material was applied.

Subsequently, to the diffuse component a ‘gradient-ramp’ map was applied which allowed me to play with the colour gradient for the final product. The same map was applied to the self illumination and the opacity component. The opacity component was further applied another gradient ramp map, which allowed me to make the flame brighter on the top part and slightly transparent on the bottom to achieve the candle flame effect. The fog colour and selfillumination colours were also applied to give the flame a glow. (Process alongside) Candle’s material was achieved by using the V-Ray Subsurface scattering material. I used the Skim Milk preset, however, to achieve the candle wax effect I had to tweak certain components such as the scale and the diffuse colour. The grapes on the chopping board were done in a similar fashion.

Fig 2.9 Image showing the working of Vray FastSSS2 Material type

Fig 2.6 Image showing process of making flame geometry

Fig 2.7 Image showing process of using self illumination component.

Fig 2.8 Image showing the gradient ramp map for the opacity component

M1.03 Lights and Scene setting Part 3 of the Module 1 focused on the process of lighting, composing and rendering the scene using V-Ray in 3Ds Max. The first part of the scene setting meant the composing of objects in space. As I wanted to create a balanced - almost-renaissancestyled image for my final render, it meant the object’s heights, placement and dispersion on the plane was crucial. Knowing the fact that symmetry while nice, is boring, I decided to play with the heights vs size of the objects. By flanking the composition with a heavy backdrop and lighter objects on one side and a heavy object (the cheese-board) and a plain wall on the other side, I was able to achieve the balance. The center portion of the composition was taken by fairly tall and interesting objects like the wine glass, the wine bottle and the candles on the candelabra.

The lighting was another crucial element in the setting of my final scene for the render. The white plain light doesn’t offer the dramatic overtone that the yellow-warm tint brought to the scene, also alluding to the protective coating of yellow layer on top of the renaissance paintings. Using HDR and other lighting would have distracted from the scene, therefore using a plain lighting was a key decision which helped me achieve the final render.

The final part of rendering the image was the placement of camera to achieve the drama of the scene. Frontal positioning of the camera would have distracted from the play of objects in the space, making the scene seem flat. Therefore by positioning the camera at an angle I was able to achieve the before-mentioned intentions for my scene.

By using slightly higher shutter speed, I was able to keep the ISO to 100, which helped me achieve a more polished image with lesser noise.

Fig 3.1 Image showing the manipulation of the camera to get the best angle

Fig 3.2 Image showing the final render in progress.