5 ms·
Don't be daunted, it just takes time. You'll get faster at it with practice, but the first step is simply brute force, or at least it was for me. Take a picture
by errantspark 5y ago
Don't be daunted, it just takes time. You'll get faster at it with practice, but the first step is simply brute force, or at least it was for me. Take a picture of something simple, recreate it in 3D with exacting detail. When something doesn't match you drill down, find the optical phenomenon that you weren't modeling correctly, and fix it.
That's it. There's no shortcut to being good at this stuff, you just have to learn how the real world works and make sure that when you're simulating it in the computer you're using physically correct numbers for everything. Relentlessly comparing what you're doing to photographs is the only way to truly master the skill. It's a lot easier to take a step back and do stylized realism once you can nail the real thing.
That being said this is fantastically executed. I'm especially loving the ability to mix the baked GI live, it's a great effect for static scenes like this.
P.S. Ok I probably lied when I said there are no shortcuts. Here are a few:
- use a physically based (preferably unbiased) renderer
- use only energy conserving materials
- use light-probes to light your scene
- a1371 5y agoWhat are energy conserving materials?
- errantspark 5y agohttps://google.github.io/filament/Filament.html#materialsystem/energyconservation https://google.github.io/filament/Filament.html#materialsyst... This document is a good primer on a lot of the concepts that go into PBR. I have a few more open source/free resources on PBR and unbiased rendering as well and I will update this post if I can dig em up.
- wyager 5y agoThey don’t reflect more light than the amount of light that falls on them.
- gmueckl 5y agoThe things that you list as shortcuts aren't actually shortcuts, but the best tools for their respective jobs. To put it differently: this is what renderers were aspiring to from the start, but couldn't quite reach initially in real world applications because if a severe lack of computing power. So, for the better part of three decades, computer graphics relied on ugly shortcuts that required laborious workarounds from skilled artists. With the right tools you just don't need a lot of them anymore.
- errantspark 5y agoTrue! I meant shortcut in a more sapiocentric way, i.e. "These are the top 3 things you can quickly google and implement for a big realism gain for low effort cost."