gadzooks Posted June 9, 2009 Share Posted June 9, 2009 I have been using 3D people in my renderings for the past several years now, and although they look good, I have noticed that a lot of firms are using photos of real people in their renders. If done right it looks amazing and goes a long way in selling the image. Some of the most amazing images in the 2009 Architectural 3D Awards this year used that very technique. So my question is this. 1. Where do you get GOOD images of people? Besides Image cels. 2. Any tutorials on composting them into your renderings. This is particularly crucial because if not done right they stick out like a soar thumb. 3. Any collections anyone know of. 4. NO REAL PEOPLE! in my opinion they ruin images instantly. Thanks guys on any help you can provide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logan.W Posted June 9, 2009 Share Posted June 9, 2009 (edited) Hi gadzooks, People usually get the images from websites which offer stock-images of people. There are huge collections of people on these websites. Give google a search with "stock images" as the criteria. The thing with the images they get is that most of the images are either on a transparent layer (no background) or they have a certain background-colour which can be easily removed so you're left with only the person. Nice and clean. The picture is then imported into a program which can handle layers in the post-editing stage. I import my render into photoshop. On one layer is the render and then I add the stock image on its own separate layer. On top of my rendered layer. I can manipulate the stock image in terms of size and give it some perspective. (doesn't work well at times. so need a good picture which flows with the render) Add a shadow to the person, et voila, person in render done! I am sure you'll be able to find some tutorials on the net. You can use GIMP for post-editing too, as it supports layers and is free. Edited June 9, 2009 by Logan.W Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy L Posted June 9, 2009 Share Posted June 9, 2009 What do you mean by 4. NO REAL PEOPLE. ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil poppleton Posted June 9, 2009 Share Posted June 9, 2009 1. Where do you get GOOD images of people? Besides Image cels. Grab your camera and enjoy the sunshine, and take unique photos for your own library. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
batfink82 Posted June 9, 2009 Share Posted June 9, 2009 The best way (and cheapest) is definately to go out and take photographs of people on the street. Eventually you will build up a great library to put in your images. 3D people never look good........... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Homeless Guy Posted June 9, 2009 Share Posted June 9, 2009 The best way (and cheapest) is definately to go out and take photographs of people on the street. Eventually you will build up a great library to put in your images. 3D people never look good........... The best because you control what you get, but not the cheapest when you add in the time to cut out the images in Photoshop. Think of it this way, how many hours are you spending cutting out people that could be spent doing billable work? ...then multiply this by your hourly rate. A library of 40 to 60 people taken on your own could easily run $1000 to $2000 if you look at it this way, compared to less than $100 from places like got3d. ...unless you have no work anyway. Then shoot and cut away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dean@pikcells Posted June 9, 2009 Share Posted June 9, 2009 It may cost a bit more in man hours, but you're guaranteed to have unique people in your images. I personally think there's nothing worse than having stock elements in an image that has appeared a million times before in other peoples work. The trick is to only cut out people you are definitely going to use, roughly cut out people quickly for testing and drafts Dean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logan.W Posted June 9, 2009 Share Posted June 9, 2009 ^ That's why we have groups like deviantart. Really does help to bring in some "unique-ism". Really good stock images and most of them are free to use. Other ask for permission to use them in your projects. But it's worth it. I rarely use stock sites which are very popular. I have personally never taken photos by myself to put into work. Perhaps I'll try that. But to get the "person" out of the photo is really some work. Unless you make preparations in a certain area with certain conditions like background colour, scenery, objects, lighting, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dean@pikcells Posted June 9, 2009 Share Posted June 9, 2009 ^ can't say i totally agree with you about the time taken, but then again i guess it depends on the situation. generally speaking though, it should only take a couple of mins to cut out a person. if i remember correctly, the Cyan project on ourwebsite (pikcells.co.uk) has a girl in the jakoozi. we hired a model and a profesional photographer to get the lighting spot on. this is something we would never acheive with stock photos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logan.W Posted June 9, 2009 Share Posted June 9, 2009 ^ There I totally agree with you. There are some situations where you need a certain time of pose which cannot easily be found, or created by manipulating images. In fact, if one does even try manipulating it, he/she will be wasting even more time! Yep, it does take a couple of minutes to cut out a person. But if you've never cut out anything before in am image and want to do it for yourself. Be ready to spend a lot of time on doing that. Unless you can afford to get some plugins for the software which ease out the process. So if one is not going to use a stock image, they're best off hiring a model and a photographer to get the shot you're looking for. In terms of time, it's cost-effective. They appear better too. Stock images do require a lot of touches here and there to get it right where you want it to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Homeless Guy Posted June 9, 2009 Share Posted June 9, 2009 ^ can't say i totally agree with you about the time taken, but then again i guess it depends on the situation. generally speaking though, it should only take a couple of mins to cut out a person. For a distance, rough cut out, a couple of minutes are fine. For a well crafted cut out that will be used over and over in projects, more care should be taken. Even if you are using cut out software, it will take more than a couple of minutes. if i remember correctly, the Cyan project on ourwebsite (pikcells.co.uk) has a girl in the jakoozi. we hired a model and a profesional photographer to get the lighting spot on. this is something we would never acheive with stock photos. Agreed, but more than likely only marketing visualizations will have the time and budget for this. And even though this was a professional shot, on a screen, more than a couple of minutes would have been spent prepping the file for insert into the rendering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dean@pikcells Posted June 9, 2009 Share Posted June 9, 2009 ^ yea I totally agree, the most time spent is usually correcting the colours, lighting, shadows, reflections etc to ensure the photo people integrate well into the rendered scene. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dollus Posted June 9, 2009 Share Posted June 9, 2009 if you go to Autodesk's Area site, there's a good short bit on integrating photo people into a scene on page 60 or so. direct link: http://area.autodesk.com/tutorials/interior_scenes_part_4_rendering_post It was part of a great interior tutorial series created by Neoscape some time ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Buchhofer Posted June 9, 2009 Share Posted June 9, 2009 Depends on the context of each individual rendering.. I mean.. if you're staging an image in 1995 european exterior then yea, theres a ton of off the shelf libraries you can work with! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyH Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 Forgive the question. I get that photo people are being used in todays renders, but technicaly if your working up a photo-real scene, isnt a person just another part of the geometry? A decent human model/mesh or two in the scene would pick up the scenes lighting and create all the right shadows right? So is it really that much faster/better to use postwork photo people? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Homeless Guy Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 (edited) A decent human model/mesh or two in the scene would pick up the scenes lighting and create all the right shadows right? These don't exist at a reasonable cost. ...even then, only the upper tier will look better than a well crafted photomontage. Edit: ...actually, if the person in your scene is going to occupy more than 4 or 5 percent of the final image, you are better off photo compositing. If the person in the scene is smaller than that, use AXYZ, or similar. Edited June 11, 2009 by Crazy Homeless Guy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dean@pikcells Posted June 12, 2009 Share Posted June 12, 2009 but you still run into the issue of using stock elements. Every Tom, **** and Harry owns a set of AXYZ characters. We only use 3D characters in animations, because this is easier and way cheeper than green screening all the people into the scene. Dean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy L Posted June 12, 2009 Share Posted June 12, 2009 These don't exist at a reasonable cost. ...even then, only the upper tier will look better than a well crafted photomontage. Wasnt Ryan or someone going to make a bunch of people for arch-viz? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Homeless Guy Posted June 12, 2009 Share Posted June 12, 2009 Wasn't Ryan or someone going to make a bunch of people for arch-viz? Yep. ...or at least test the water to see if it was feasible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now