Tommy L Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 I have decided to put my skills to the test with the most ambitious project ever. Unfortunatley, I have to start by doing my least favourite and weakest skill. I am totally rubbish at scaling things. Some people can look at a photo and say "that building is 120' tall" with absolute confidence and then turn out to be pretty much correct. So, if anyone reading this is one of those people, any chance you could guess some dimensions in this photograph? And yes, I am going to do all the people and umbrellas and glowing signs and puddles and everything. Ill do it as a big WIP thread. I just need the building heights/widths...... Oh, and a photographer friend of mine says this is shot with a 50mm. Any disputes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Mottle Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 The best way to scale things in an image is to look for things you do know the height of. For example. Assuming a storey is 12.5 feet, that building in the back is about 10 stories, so about 125 feet. In the front left that guy leaning on the wall is probably 5-5 (based on Asian people generally being shorter) so the front store area is probably about 9 feet tall. Once you start with a few references, the rest can be guesstimated based on perspective lines and proportions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horhe Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 Average persons height is about 1.80 meters. (asians are probably shorter as Jeff mentioned) Average lamp post height is about 9 - 8 meters. Average 2 lane road width is 7 meters - 3.5 meters one way. Average floor height is 4 meters for commercial unit. Usually the floor heights at ground floors are 5/6 meters when services are available. Average post height (near the road) is 0.5 meters height. When calculating proportions - measure with what you can figure out. If you figure out the height of a person, use him as the measuring tool and measure away the rest of the objects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaneis Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 If it's any help, the Jaguar S-Type (center, behind the black umbrella) is 1447mm/ 57" high. Draw some perspective guidelines back to the buildings and you could construct a grid from that...perhaps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oluv Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 this image was definitely taken with a wideangle lens. i would say at least 28mm if not even 24mm. it is certainly not 50mm, if it was he probably used medium-format. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesTaylor Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 I have decided to put my skills to the test with the most ambitious project ever. if you really want to test your skills hows about animating the entire scene too!!!! scrolling images / adverts / TV screen, moving people / cars etc. even add some rain coming down!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronll Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 Olaf: I'm curious about how you judged the lens used. I'm not disagreeing, just is there any way other than gut instinct to measure the lens used on a photo? Is there any software that measures lens length on existing photos? (And for the purposes of this discussion, we would have to define some terms, like we have to assume that the photo is full-frame and has never been cropped, and we know that lens nomenclature differs for camera formats and whether digital or film.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 You could model straight from the photo if you wanted. Knowing the total height of one of the taller buildings is all you need to scale the rest, and that can probably be found with a little research. Syd Mead: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy L Posted January 19, 2008 Author Share Posted January 19, 2008 Thank you guys! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horhe Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 if you really want to test your skills hows about animating the entire scene too!!!! scrolling images / adverts / TV screen, moving people / cars etc. even add some rain coming down!!!! Hehe, i dont think that Tommy wants to spent the rest of his life on this... ;] But probably would if you promised to pay his bills Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blowback Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 good luck. I am looking forward to the progress Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 This is going to be really fun to watch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 FYI, I moved this over to the WIP forum. Good luck on this. It will be fun to watch the progress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy L Posted January 21, 2008 Author Share Posted January 21, 2008 Thanks for the interest, Im busy, so dont go checking this thread every 5 mins......but it will happen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horhe Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 Still nothing eh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Sosa Posted January 22, 2008 Share Posted January 22, 2008 what render engine will u be using? I'm not an expert, but I think that finding the rigth scale of the models, finisihng modeling/mergeing the meshes is the difficult part here. If vray is going to be used, vraymaterials with assigned maps and different "outputs" will make things easy to get the different lumination of the signs. still a long way to go..tho Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesTaylor Posted January 22, 2008 Share Posted January 22, 2008 what render engine will u be using? I'm not an expert, but I think that finding the rigth scale of the models, finisihng modeling/mergeing the meshes is the difficult part here. If vray is going to be used, vraymaterials with assigned maps and different "outputs" will make things easy to get the different lumination of the signs. still a long way to go..tho now that sounds like comments from a clients perspective.... after all we simply have to hit the render button as TommyL has already shown!... http://www.cgarchitect.com/vb/11558-new-taylor-made-maxwell-keyboard.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Sosa Posted January 22, 2008 Share Posted January 22, 2008 now that sounds like comments from a clients perspective.... after all we simply have to hit the render button as TommyL has already shown!... http://www.cgarchitect.com/vb/11558-new-taylor-made-maxwell-keyboard.html nah..I may eat my words m8, but still, having 2000 meshes to assign mats looks scary and probably it is, giving the rigth luminosity to each is not "that" difficult...I insist. I have created vray mats with no vrayligth itself but with luminosity by altering the bitmap output, great for nigth shots like this. wouldn't mind helping out...if vray. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy L Posted January 22, 2008 Author Share Posted January 22, 2008 Are you kidding me? That image contains every tricky thing there is. The weather alone makes it difficult. The detail, the reflections, the materials, the lighting, its all going to be a step apart from what I usually do. Maybe you're brilliant, maybe its easy for you, easy for me? nope. The reason I chose this image is just because it has all the elements to make a technically difficult render AND its a beautiful photograph. The colors jump out of this thing and the clarity over that range at night is no easy feat. He or she had a VERY nice camera and a very fast lens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Claudio Branch Posted January 22, 2008 Share Posted January 22, 2008 Tommy, you have set yourself up with a brilliant challenge. I am sure that you will really hone your problem-solving ablilities as you recreate such a challenging image. How much discretionary time can you commit to this and what kind of schedule do you anticipate for posting progress? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy L Posted January 22, 2008 Author Share Posted January 22, 2008 Well I dont know how much time. Its going to be my own time, so it depends how late I have to stay at work and how many friends have birthdays and how much the missus wants me to be looking at her and not a screen. I think It'll take around a month before I get happy with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Sosa Posted January 22, 2008 Share Posted January 22, 2008 Are you kidding me? That image contains every tricky thing there is. The weather alone makes it difficult. The detail, the reflections, the materials, the lighting, its all going to be a step apart from what I usually do. Maybe you're brilliant, maybe its easy for you, easy for me? nope. The reason I chose this image is just because it has all the elements to make a technically difficult render AND its a beautiful photograph. The colors jump out of this thing and the clarity over that range at night is no easy feat. He or she had a VERY nice camera and a very fast lens. hehe...don't get me wrong tommy , I never said it was going to be easy!, I just said that by using vraymats with outputs would make things easier...NOT easy . first of all, we don't even know what render engine u will use ...defaul scanline?, mental ray?, fyrender, maya?,vray?, rinho?, etc indeed, u got a very complicated escene in any sence, modeling, scaling, amount of elements/meshes, reflections, reflactions, etc. and I hope u succed on getting a great render it's all about how much u du want to simulate the photograph?..the more realistic and alike render to the original photo, the longer and more complicated work will be waiting for you. using photoshop to give the last kik?.....a compromise I would say. good luck anyways...Eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koper Posted January 22, 2008 Share Posted January 22, 2008 Hey Tom, very interesting and good luck. I just saw something strange in the image, there is a pole right in the center of the image next to the center lamp post but it starts off at a shop entrance, then as you follow the pole upwards its in front of the lamp on the center lamp post. don't know what to make off it, maybe it was just a heavily shopped image. but good luck anyhoo:cool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy L Posted January 22, 2008 Author Share Posted January 22, 2008 Eric; Im going to try and get it straight out of the render engine with as little post as possible. Just a clean-up and levels etc, not people and cars. I think Ill try it in Mental Ray. Bit bored of Vray. I do have the latest release of FryRender too, but I dont think this is the kind of image it would excell at. Koper; Well spotted! Actually, that was me trying to guage scale in the image. Forgot to delete the props before shrank it to go on here....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koper Posted January 22, 2008 Share Posted January 22, 2008 who's the photographer? the only way I know how to take a photo of such a square is long exposure, which means people and cars are blurred or non existing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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