Lighting is said to be one of the most important factors when 3D modelling, and making a product or scene look realistic. If the lighting isn’t correct, the model will look ‘flat’ and ‘lifeless’, however, if a good model is lit correctly, it may look like the real deal. Lighting in real life is just given, there is sunrise, sunset and unnatural light such as lightbulbs and lamps (Slick, 2017). Therefore, it is vital to mimic and reflect the most accurate lighting in ‘The Scene’ as possible, as the outcome will be aesthetically pleasing and will look professional.
Looking at YouTube tutorials, I found one by Rob Tuytel, who goes through how to create an interior scene, then at the end, talking about lighting it. Below is the video:
I followed the lighting section in this tutorial to see how it would look in my work:
Below is the rendered image including the lighting. As you can see, there are still some ‘fireflies’ which I believe may be coming from the outside light (HDRI) as where the heavy light it, the ‘fireflies’ are:
The next video I watched consist of using HDRI images (interior and exterior) in order to create a mixed lighting for an interior scene:
Once a HDRI exterior light had been placed, ‘The Scene’ looked more realistic, but still quite dark:
Bibliography
Slick, J. (2017) Guide to 3D Lighting Techniques for Digital Animation. Lifewire. Available from https://www.lifewire.com/3d-lighting-techniques-2090 [accessed 27 November 2017].
UV mapping in Blender is the process of putting a 2D image texture onto a 3D model. ‘U’ and ‘V’ are the axes left as ‘X’, ‘Y’ and ‘Z’ are used in modelling. You can UV unwrap your model by making ‘cuts’ in the model as to where the product will be split open in order for the model to turn flat ready for the image, or, there is a smart UV unwrapping tool whereby blender generates the cuts for you and unwraps it without you doing any work.
In order to learn how to unwrap a model in Blender, I watched several YouTube tutorials. Below are some of the ones I found useful:
These videos were extremely useful to watch, however, after discussions with a tutor, I realised that I was able to wrap a texture round some of my products without going through the process of actually UV unwrapping them. Below is a video demonstrating that process:
The products that I could texture without unwrapping them include:
Desk Storage Box
Small Desk Standing Vase
Large Floor Standing Vase
Wallpaper
Bookshelf
Desk
Plant pot
Floor
Below are some screenshots of the progress of adding textures to my products without UV unwrapping them:
However, in order to get the correct textures for the picture frame and plant, I will have to UV unwrap the products, then export to photoshop and learn how to paint and re-inport into Blender.
The best video I watched to help me understand how to export the UV unwrapped mesh into photoshop to paint, then back into blender to apply to the mesh was one by Darrin Line. See below for video:
Here is the progress to texturing the picture frame:
From the import back into blender, I realised that from simply painting the picture frame, the outcome in the promotional video and advertisement won’t stand as a professional and aesthetically pleasing as other products. Therefore, I decided that I wanted a wooden frame, which could be boxed wrapped, and then a texture imported form illustrator (as I prefer this to photoshop when it comes to small illustrations). This meant that I had to completely re-model the picture frame so that the two elements were separate, and the re-imported the picture frame into ‘the scene’ to be wrapped.
Below is a rendered image of ‘the scene’, with all textures applied:
HDRI lighting standing for ‘high dynamic range imaging’ and is a technique used in digital imaging. The technique involves reproducing a greater dynamic range of luminosity that what normal digital imaging produces to create a quality lit scene. HDRI is a much higher dynamic range of colour and values than traditional bitmap formats. HDRI is modelled after trichromatic base of the human eye and store actual luminance values in each pixel (NING, 2017). As well as colour being obtained, strength and brightness of the light is valued and inputted.
Examples of HDRI lighting:
In order for my scene to look professional and as realistic as possible, I will have to use HDRI lighting. This will give my work a professional look and will aid the advertisements and promotional video that will be an outcome of the modelled and lit scene.
Following a Jay Westson YouTube tutorial, he recommends using the ‘cycles’ render in Blender for optimum results. From then, he deletes the lamp and adds a plane to the bottom of his product in order for the HDRI lighting to be effective, and so that the audience can see.
The next step is to go onto the ‘world’ section in the right-hand-side toolbox, and chance the colour to environment texture. Then add in the HDRI setting and look at the rendered view of you product and the lighting should be applied.
In blender cycles render, Westson states that you get ‘fireflies’, which are speckles to the lighting. However, one method to enhance the look of the product with the HDRI lighting is to go back to the ‘world’ section of the toolbar and enable ‘multiple importance sample’ and turn it up to ‘2048’. This enhances the lighting to create a more apparent and aesthetic look.
Below is the YouTube tutorial video I watched to gain this information:
After following the tutorial, below is a screenshot of my rendered scene using HDRI lighting:
Here is another tutorial whereby Mark delivers a HDRI lighted sphere:
From this tutorial, I was able to find more information about downloading some HDRI images that would aid me in my scene.
The next aspect of my work I need to research is render engines. There are several render engines on the market which all have different qualities and outcomes once a modelled product or scene is finished.
An article from Blender Guru analyses and tests 6 engines as well as the blender cycles which I am currently using. The other 5 render engines are: LuxRender, Maxwell, Mitsuba, Octane & V-Ray.
On the first test (a car scene), cycles took the second longest time to render, however, produced few fireflies. LuxRender rendered in a faster time, however the quality of the image was more poor. Mitsuba, Octane and V-Ray were the quickest and noise-free in this test.
The next test was an interior scene. This scene will be the most relatable for my project. Interior scenes are quite problamatic to render as the main part of the lighting comes from indirect light. The quickest render engine for this scene was the LuxRender at 12:44 minutes, against the worse (Maxwell) at 24:27 minutes. Cycles again had few fireflies and looks aesthetically pleasing, however was slow. The recommended engine for this type of scene was V-Ray. However, V-Ray comes at a cost of $350, which is out of my budget so I will be looking into the free build in and add-on’s of: Cycles, LuxRender & Mitsuba.
Pros & Cons of the three render engines I could possibly use within my budget (Cycles, LuxRender, Mitsuba):
Pros of Cycles:
Fairly simple to learn
Good use of material nodes and viewpoint
Good documentation
Cons of Cycles:
One of the youngest engines, not completely optimised
Only 2 rendering algorithms, neither suitable for caustics
(Image by Steve Lund)
Pros of LuxRender:
CPU and GPU rendering
Many rendering algorithms and samplers to choose from
Lost of post-production filters like lens effects and noise reduction
Great documentation with many examples
Cons of LuxRender:
New version doesn’t support all features, for example, hair
Complicated and hard to learn
(Image by Simon Wendsche)
Pros of Mitsuba:
Many rendering algorithms and samplers
Excellent documentation
Open-source and popular among researchers
Cons of Mitsuba:
Generally not suited to serious 3D production
Ver complex and hard to learn
(Image by Zeealpal and Bashi)
To conclude, I will look into using the Cycles render engine that is already build into Blender. This is because the interface is interactive and fairly simple to use, unlike LuxRender and Mitsuba, which is a game changer as I am new to the software and rendering process. Furthermore, it is specifically for 3D production, therefore there are no missing features. Moreover, I will not be using Maxwell, Octane and V-Ray due to their high prices, even though their outcome was of good quality and time-efficient. However, moving forwards, if I had a greater budget in industry, I would look into these render engines in more depth.
Bibliography:
Blender Guru (2015) Render Engine Comparison: Cycles vs The Rest. Blender Guru. Available from https://www.blenderguru.com/articles/render-engine-comparison-cycles-vs-giants [accessed 21 November 2017].
NING (2017) What is HDRI? Flamingo nXt. Available from http://nxt.flamingo3d.com/page/what-is-hdri [accessed 21 November 2017].
Hyperfocal Design (2017) Blender HDRI Tutorial: Cycles. Hyperfocal Design. Available from http://www.hyperfocaldesign.com/tutorials/blender-hdri-tutorial-cycles/ [accessed 21 November 2017].
In order to construct a full scene/ environment, I had to build every aspect that would go into the room, including products that are extraneous to the Kontor collection of products. Therefore, I started to model these first before putting the Kontor products in, see below for screen shots of the development:
After the initial ‘scene’ was constructed, I imported the Kontor models in the finalise the room:
Everything above has been 3D modelled by myself. I experimented with new features such as creating the plant in the corner by watching tutorials and playing around. However, one thing I decided I wanted to include in the room was an office chair, therefore I downloaded a free model and imported it into ‘the scene’:
For the Kontor collection, graphics need to be designed in order to texture wrap around the 3D modelled products. I aim to create these in Adobe Illustrator, then transfer the textures onto the models to be placed into Blender for the final outcome.
To start, I decided to hand-draw some initial ideas for graphics. I have used various design features such as geometric shapes, and further experimented with tessellation, size, shape, orientation and abstract placement. Below are the scanned drawings:
The next step was to start producing some computerised graphic using Adobe Illustrator to reproduce some of the above initial ideas, and experiment more. Below are the first ideas:
The first graphics I produced use geometric shapes vastly. Further to shape, colour is experimented with, using one or two colours, then experimenting with opacity and shade. The first image is purely hexagons, and second experiments with a 5 shapes. Both ideas are very ‘fussy’ to look at, therefore I do not believe that they would make good wallpapers, and may look unprofessional and ‘childish’ to be placed as textures on products.
Above are the next lot of graphics I designed. They still use geometric shapes, however, don’t overcomplicate the style. After analysing the results from the survey which targeted potential consumers, a general consensus was that colours of ‘grey’ and ‘silver’ was preferred and looked aesthetically pleasing to consumers, therefore would attract them more resulting in sales. Therefore, I decided to stay with the grey colour, to later experiment in Blender with metallic aspects to create an enhanced and professional look.
Above are more experiments using different shapes of grey, with repetition in shape. These graphics are very bold and therefore would be suitable for one off products and feature walls.
After evaluating the designs above, I decided to continue developing graphics, however, keep content to a minimum, and create more ‘simple’ designs that follow a more aesthetically pleasing approach with a professional looking outcome. Below is a design I have created in Illustrator, and a graphic which I have chosen to use as the wallpaper in the Kontor collection.
