5 ms·

Darn, it looks like it won't be long before photo editing software can (1) Find stock models for all objects in a scene (2) Align them perfectly (3) Le

by drcode 12y ago

Darn, it looks like it won't be long before photo editing software can (1) Find stock models for all objects in a scene (2) Align them perfectly (3) Let you manipulate them arbitrarily (4) Render an output picture with all the changes applied that is virtually indistinguishable from a real photograph. Once this happens (and it doesn't look like it'll take long) photography will no longer be an accurate reference for knowledge about the real world.

moubarak 12y ago
2 can already be done using active shape models. http://www.isbe.man.ac.uk/~bim/Models/asms.html http://www.isbe.man.ac.uk/~bim/Models/asms.html
bhouston 12y ago
> photography will no longer be an accurate reference for knowledge about the real world. I think we passed that point a few years ago. The trick now is to lower the barrier so that it is more accessible to more people. The state of the art in rendering looks perfect: http://www.ronenbekerman.com/inspiration/ http://www.ronenbekerman.com/inspiration/ Our product, Clara.io, makes it possible to render things like this out in real-time: https://clara.io/view/bee73adb-ed90-47c0-8048-93accd56ff80/render https://clara.io/view/bee73adb-ed90-47c0-8048-93accd56ff80/r...
- mikeash 12y ago
  Ages ago. Photo editing is almost as old as photography. It just used to be a whole lot harder. For a particularly notorious example of high-quality pre-computer "photoshopping", see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_of_images_in_the_Soviet_Union http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_of_images_in_the_Sov...
- atomical 12y ago
  How fast should I be able to rotate? It's a little slow for me.
  - bhouston 12y ago
    The real-time V-Ray raytracing is slow because it is very high quality -- it is doing real global illumination with no precalculations, favoring quality over speed. For client side WebGL, click the Real-Time tab.
    - sovok 12y ago
      It would be cool if the position and rotation would be synchronized between the two, so I could choose a nice view in the Real-Time tab and switch over to Photo Realistic to get the raytraced version.
      - bhouston 12y ago
        It works that way in the editor (although you need a Clara.io account and you need to be logged in) if you set up multiple viewports with the same camera.
    - deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]
- afro88 12y ago
  Still not there for me. The devil is in the detail - the sauce and the strawberries in the food picture, the books in the desk picture. Also, I still haven't seen a rendering of a human being that looks genuinely photorealistic. I used to love that technology was pushing towards this point when I was a kid. Now it scares me. Maybe I'm getting old..
  - thomaseng 12y ago
    These renderings of a girl look pretty damn realistic to me: http://vimeo.com/40602544 http://vimeo.com/40602544
    - pja 12y ago
      Those are pictures of an adult, not a child. When you use the word "girl" to describe an adult woman you're implicitly belittling her. Don't be that guy.
      - goblin89 12y ago
        > Those are pictures of an adult, not a child. When you use the word "girl" to describe an adult woman you're implicitly belittling her. Don't be that guy. Sorry, I'm not a native English speaker (so I'm not confident enough to downvote or anything), but your judging this use of “girl” as female version of “boy”, ignoring the overall mode of expression, doesn't seem adequate. I would have no objections if thomaseng's comment was more formal: > I would consider these pictures of a girl quite lifelike But it's not. If I were the author, and the pictures were of a man, I'd totally say “guy”. Once you flip the gender, “guy” seems to become “girl”, not “woman”. (Again, given the overall informal style used.) And as for the word “guy”, it doesn't sound in any way belittling a grown-up man (and you just used it yourself).
        pja 12y ago
        I would say that the male equivalent of "girl" is "boy", not "guy". The English language is often unhelpful in that exact equivalents of the word you want that exist for one gender don't exist for the other, or else carry other connotations. Master vs Mistress for instance.
Guvante 12y ago
To be fair naive analysis for photography hasn't been accurate for a long time and these methods will leave traces.
rlpb 12y ago
I wonder when this will happen for video. At some point, video evidence (from unverified third parties) will have to become inadmissible.
daredevildave 12y ago
Did you know that much of the "photography" in shopping catalogues is already CGI? http://www.dezeen.com/2013/11/27/cgi-renderings-for-catalogue-images/ http://www.dezeen.com/2013/11/27/cgi-renderings-for-catalogu... http://petapixel.com/2012/08/24/ikea-slowly-shedding-photography-in-favor-of-computer-renders/ http://petapixel.com/2012/08/24/ikea-slowly-shedding-photogr...
rasz_pl 12y ago
You just described holy grail in 3D vision, AI and robotics. Being able to make sense of the world from a 2D image is one of the cornerstones for building artificial brain.

by drcode 12y ago

moubarak 12y ago

2 can already be done using active shape models. http://www.isbe.man.ac.uk/~bim/Models/asms.html http://www.isbe.man.ac.uk/~bim/Models/asms.html

bhouston 12y ago

> photography will no longer be an accurate reference for knowledge about the real world. I think we passed that point a few years ago. The trick now is to lower the barrier so that it is more accessible to more people. The state of the art in rendering looks perfect: http://www.ronenbekerman.com/inspiration/ http://www.ronenbekerman.com/inspiration/ Our product, Clara.io, makes it possible to render things like this out in real-time: https://clara.io/view/bee73adb-ed90-47c0-8048-93accd56ff80/render https://clara.io/view/bee73adb-ed90-47c0-8048-93accd56ff80/r...

mikeash 12y ago
Ages ago. Photo editing is almost as old as photography. It just used to be a whole lot harder. For a particularly notorious example of high-quality pre-computer "photoshopping", see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_of_images_in_the_Soviet_Union http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_of_images_in_the_Sov...
atomical 12y ago
How fast should I be able to rotate? It's a little slow for me.
- bhouston 12y ago
  The real-time V-Ray raytracing is slow because it is very high quality -- it is doing real global illumination with no precalculations, favoring quality over speed. For client side WebGL, click the Real-Time tab.
  - sovok 12y ago
    It would be cool if the position and rotation would be synchronized between the two, so I could choose a nice view in the Real-Time tab and switch over to Photo Realistic to get the raytraced version.
    - bhouston 12y ago
      It works that way in the editor (although you need a Clara.io account and you need to be logged in) if you set up multiple viewports with the same camera.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
afro88 12y ago
Still not there for me. The devil is in the detail - the sauce and the strawberries in the food picture, the books in the desk picture. Also, I still haven't seen a rendering of a human being that looks genuinely photorealistic. I used to love that technology was pushing towards this point when I was a kid. Now it scares me. Maybe I'm getting old..
- thomaseng 12y ago
  These renderings of a girl look pretty damn realistic to me: http://vimeo.com/40602544 http://vimeo.com/40602544
  - pja 12y ago
    Those are pictures of an adult, not a child. When you use the word "girl" to describe an adult woman you're implicitly belittling her. Don't be that guy.
    - goblin89 12y ago
      > Those are pictures of an adult, not a child. When you use the word "girl" to describe an adult woman you're implicitly belittling her. Don't be that guy. Sorry, I'm not a native English speaker (so I'm not confident enough to downvote or anything), but your judging this use of “girl” as female version of “boy”, ignoring the overall mode of expression, doesn't seem adequate. I would have no objections if thomaseng's comment was more formal: > I would consider these pictures of a girl quite lifelike But it's not. If I were the author, and the pictures were of a man, I'd totally say “guy”. Once you flip the gender, “guy” seems to become “girl”, not “woman”. (Again, given the overall informal style used.) And as for the word “guy”, it doesn't sound in any way belittling a grown-up man (and you just used it yourself).
      - pja 12y ago
        I would say that the male equivalent of "girl" is "boy", not "guy". The English language is often unhelpful in that exact equivalents of the word you want that exist for one gender don't exist for the other, or else carry other connotations. Master vs Mistress for instance.

Guvante 12y ago

To be fair naive analysis for photography hasn't been accurate for a long time and these methods will leave traces.

rlpb 12y ago

I wonder when this will happen for video. At some point, video evidence (from unverified third parties) will have to become inadmissible.

daredevildave 12y ago

Did you know that much of the "photography" in shopping catalogues is already CGI? http://www.dezeen.com/2013/11/27/cgi-renderings-for-catalogue-images/ http://www.dezeen.com/2013/11/27/cgi-renderings-for-catalogu... http://petapixel.com/2012/08/24/ikea-slowly-shedding-photography-in-favor-of-computer-renders/ http://petapixel.com/2012/08/24/ikea-slowly-shedding-photogr...

rasz_pl 12y ago

You just described holy grail in 3D vision, AI and robotics. Being able to make sense of the world from a 2D image is one of the cornerstones for building artificial brain.