Project Two: Match To Live

This project will give an introduction to setting up a camera, light rig, shadows and reflection of the environment on a simple object to "match" it to that in a photo taken with that object. The process involved choosing a real world object that could be modeled in a short amount of time. Afterwhich, the student would create a series of photos (at least 20) of this object in a variety of settings inclusing outdoor, indoor, daytime and nighttime. The composition would require the object to occupy not more than 25% within the frame, thus leaving room for a CG twin to be included.

Photo references:

(Click on image to view larger pix)

Process
The first step is to make the model of the object chosen, which in this case is a Nivea bottle. Then it will involve UV layout and texturing, and finally a test light to see how the shaders are working with the lights.


Camera Setup will be next. This is done by using "Maya Live". Elements like grid lines, repetitive tiles, and any lines within the reference photo itself, are used as much as possible to correctly setup the camera with the right perspective that matched the reference. The grid view from Maya is an effective tool to make a good approximation. Sometimes fill in geometries have to be created to have better accuracy.



Rendering
Taking into account the positions, color, intensity, transparency and attenuation of the shadows on the original photo, student should attempt to light the scene as close to the reference as possible. Other factors would be reflection from the environment, and other material attributes that affect the lighting.

Rendering is done in passes using rendering layers in Maya. The layers are diffuse, specular, occlusion, shadow and reflection. These layers can be seen as follows:



Compositing
Compositing is done in Shake. See Shake node below. (Click image for larger view).


Final Render and Composite


Comments:
I would lift the bottle cap a little higher just to make the occlusion beneath for obvious. I would also change the environment reflection a little just to match the reference.
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