Just spotted today that the DVD has been finally released. I posted the tutorial image in my gallery.

I have a tutorial DVD coming on the market soon (hopefully in January 2008) on the subject or car rendering. It is the first time I have attempted something like this and am hoping that it is well received and generally useful. The Gnomon workshop are releasing it and have announced it in the 'coming soon' section of their website.

There is nothing worse than a big ugly len flare generated with photoshop.. we can all agree on that.
but lens flares can really make a big difference to an image if used in a subtle and realistic way.Sun glare from specular highlights are a very common sight in photos and of couse as observed with the naked eye.If you look at a car on a sunny day you can see what I mean. Shading a lighting in 3D can not really replicate this well.The same can be said of glow and flare from lights. Shader glow is also pretty poor for replicating this.

In the following examples show the basic technique I use to replicate lens flares, secular highlights, and light glow.As I do illustration they really apply only to stills.



For the light glow and flares I have taken a fast exposure of some real car lights and screened them on to the image. For the specular sun flares I took a fast exposure of the sun reflected in a car bonnet (or hood if you prefer) which was painted metallic black. This was screened over the image where the CG specular highlight appears.

I have taken a whole library of flares from various light sources and reflective surfaces to capture just the highlight. I use them a lot in arch viz where there are artificial light sources. But also the augment any exterior image.An added benefit of this approach is the inclusion of micro details on the surface. most painted and polished surfaces have these micro scratches on them that get picked up around the highlight and thus in the photo... they add a nice touch to the rendered image.
Here is an example of this with the original photos

I have been writing a new phenomena that will simulate thin wall plastics.
I hope this will be useful for the likes of products and things like the cowling on motorbikes...

The story so far is:


also on the theme of shaders this was something similar and used most of the same nodes and network but with some added displacement.

I wanted to start this blog to show some of my WIP and prep work that should not go in my portfolio as such.

I will be uploading some WIP images and model shots from some older projects.
Normally I can't show what I'm working on right now as I'm sure you guys will understand but hopefully this will be interesting.

Also on a differnt note I attended the first meeting of the guys from the 3dpoder.com foros here in Las Palmas. I was shocked to see other people working and interested in this field in this tiny island.. It would seem I am not alone.
The meeting was held in some out of the way building on the university campus and I nearly got lost untill I saw a bunch of guys wearing an assortment of t-shirts from the incredibles, surfstation etc... I had almost worn by Boxx T but choked at the last moment as I thaught it would be too obvious.

Wish I had now.. maybe the next one then..

to get the ball rolling on the WIPs here is a model shot from the recently completed MotoGP cover and promo art. Just a screengrab.
Note: I believe in Detail_on_demand so only the parts that are really needed are modelled..
Maybe if I have some time in the future I will fill in the missing parts and have a complete model..
Time constraints on this project were severe and I had only a weekend to do this model.