As I work on my Personal Project’s Lighting Study, I am also eager to expand my knowledge and skills by exploring various techniques that combine 2D and 3D. To achieve this, I took on two side tasks. In the first one, I created simple metallic models in Maya and photo-bashed them in Photoshop into an editorial photo. Although the design process was enjoyable, the result wasn’t what we had hoped for. The lighting did not match the rough style of photography and made it look too computer-generated. I believe one of the mistakes was not replicating the lighting created in Maya and instead simply incorporating the asset in the photo with minor changes to the background.
Furthermore, I am still unsure about the rendering process, and as a result, the file was not optimised for render time. This caused issues in the timeline, especially since I was collaborating with Fashion Photography Students who requested multiple samples of the final product. Unfortunately, the long render time (over 3 hours per frame) made it very time-consuming to provide the pieces. As a result, we had to rush the photobashing part of the project. Looking back, I regret focusing on the render quality and wish I had spent more time seamlessly incorporating the 3D assets into the photos. It would have been easier and faster and created a more visually appealing project. Additionally, the torus lacked the roughness and imperfections needed for a more realistic look when using the chrome material. However, I am pleased with the use of the mesh light for the lighting of the surroundings, which created a desired cyberpunk style and was easy to use. I plan to use it in the group project as well, as it can add interesting-looking light props to the scene.
Adjusting the renders to fit with the original file:
For my second side project, I wanted to learn about using Houdini in combination with Unreal Engine. Dom suggested the Endless Flower Blossoming Tutorial by Entagma, which was easy to follow. However, using more custom settings based on programming language was confusing. Despite this, I found the basics of creating simulations to be interesting and tried to customise the effect for the Personal Project. Unfortunately, my Houdini project crashed when simulating falling petals, and I was unable to find the error after reviewing the tutorial multiple times. I suspect that I may have set up the project incorrectly. As this was not a critical part of my lighting study, I decided to leave it for now and return to it later if I have time. Nonetheless, I still want to explore more ways to use Houdini and am considering using it for my Final Major Project.
Going forward, to enhance the outcome of the project, I would like to incorporate Unreal Engine plugins such as UnrealReader or SpeedTree and examine how they can be used to visually enhance the project.
References:
Entagma (2020) Guest Tutorial: Endless Flower Blossoming. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2rDQtsTwzo (Accessed: 05 May 2023).