CAVm2 - Bildebehandling

CAVm2 

Bildebehandling - Picture Editing

In this blog entry I will go throw the different exercises of the CAVm2 module, which is about picture editing.

Textures

This topic covers some techniques in Photoshop to process images to be used as materials.

 1. Normalization of materials

 

This is a technique used to even out light, shadows and reflections. This shows the power of Photoshop which allows selecting images that will normally be discarded because of imperfections.

2. Seamless materials

This technique edits the material in a way that removes any strong features so that can be used repeatedly in tiles with a realistic result.

3. Color editing

  

This is one of the main features of Photoshop. Colors can be edited both in the complete picture or in a selected area. The technic is based on modifying Hue, Saturation and Lightness,  together with some powerful tools to select colors and areas.

4. Bump map textures

 

Photoshop can be used to create Bump map textures that improve render quality in 3ds Max. The technique is based in different adjustments to the picture to increase realism in the materials.

5. Filter effects

 

Photoshop offers many filters in it’s gallery, which can be used to enrich images making them more interesting and complex.

6. Layers and blending modes

 

This is another main feature of Photoshop. It allows manipulating images in an advanced way that would normally be impossible to do with normal editing adjustments and tools. It also makes editing a lot faster since some parts of the image can be isolated.

Entourage and Terrain

Entourage refers to plants, people and animals that are included in a render image to make it more realistic but are not part of the 3D model. To make entourage in Photoshop two main techniques are used: Alpha mask and Transforms.  

 

 

These are used to adjust the image and to create the shadows to make the image more credible. 

Once familiar with the techniques, very good results are achieved in short time. 3ds Max can use the processed images from Photoshop to include entourage in a render. It also has it’s own entourage library which is powerful since it adds 3d elements to the model.  

The terrain can be done in 3ds Max with contour lines imported from AutoCAD as well from all kinds of splines from 3ds Max itself.

Oppgavedag 1

In this exercise was required to go out and take pictures/photos, which would be edited in Photoshop to be used in Max / AutoCAD, for both textures and entourage using all the techniques described above. These were used in a render of a cottage.

-Background picture

-Textures: Bricks/Panelling – Asphalt/Grass

-Textures: Bricks/Panelling Bump map – Asphalt/Grass Bump map

-Entourage: Tree - Person

Results in 3ds Max.

Cottage.

Oppgavedag 2

The purpose of this exercise is to make a photomontage of render pictures, textures and  pictures elements from both past exercises and internet.

 

CAVm2 Moduloppgave

Using materials created during this modul, the house from CAVm1 moduloppgave is rendered and placed in a terrain together with entourage and background. The final result is made for both 3ds Max and Photoshop methods, to be able to compare them.

 Initial CAVm1 House

 Terrain profile

 Materials placed in house and terrain

 

 

 Render picture in 3ds Max prior to placing entourage

Final render in 3ds Max

Final render in Photoshop

In conclusion, each one of the methods has its good and bad things.

3ds Max

Pros:

-It is easy to select another viewing angle at any point in the process.

-Perspective is handled by the program itself.

-Shadows are generated automatically.

-Lights and reflections are controlled by the software.

Cons:

-Editing individual areas of the final render is challenging since materials and entourage are used by the program in a rigid way. This means that the same material cannot have two different representations.

-Materials an entourage are referenced to external files, which can be problematic (loosing references, filename changes, changes in the reference images).

Photoshop

Pros:

-Many tools to edit the image, even in individual areas.

-The use of layers makes it easy to edit images in a non-destructive way.

-The files are self-contained, avoiding the problems mentioned above for 3ds Max.

Cons:

-Perspective is done manually.

-Shadows, light and reflections are not managed automatically by the software.

In my opinion, an ideal combination would be to generate a complete render in 3ds Max including materials, entourage and background, and post-processing the image in Photoshop. The only disadvantage is not been able to iterate the process between the two programs. 


Video presentation
Link to Youtube