Coffee table

[Tommy L]

I made a coffee table at home using a big chunk of wood and a chrome stand from a chair I grabbed from a dumpster in the alley behind my house. Very ghetto... but Im super happy with it, so I thought Id render it. Here it is in a studio environment, vray disp for the cracks on top. Theres a couple of poly's gone goofy at the front which need fixing. But what it really needs is a story! What can I put on the table?

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

You could always through a $1500 tag on it and put it on Etsy.

http://www.etsy.com/

 

EDIT: Ok, maybe $1500 is to high. How about $499?

 

http://www.etsy.com/listing/42720227/small-circles-coffee-table?ref=sr_gallery_16&ga_search_query=coffee+table&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_page=&includes

Edited May 7, 2010 by Crazy Homeless Guy

[-MerlyN-]

glass of scotch, ashtray and smoking cigar?

 

great image so far, but big mistake, you put a veneer texture on the edge of your wood, which just looks wrong and totally out of place... at least for me as a carpenter it does. You need to find a wood texture without anual rings in it and also there are some dark areas in the current edge texture, which dont have counterparts on the top. Keep going!

 

Oh, and for your real table, make sure you dont let any moisture sipping into any cracks you might have in the real wood chunk or it might tear up. I'd suggest to put some decent amount of coating on it to protect it from attracting moisture

[abmitalia]

I agree to Nils - but so far it's a good render. About the story. Try the intellectual one. Half rolled Newspaper ( not to big) with a pair of reading glasses. It fits to the chairs. RK

[BillyElNino]

I'd like to know what you're going to treat the real table with too? great job on the table, the render might benefit from some kind of varnish look to it too...

[Tommy L]

I think I may try to animate the grain in the wood. Maybe a liquid effect perhaps drop sopmething into the scene and have it splash into the table.

[braddewald]

Tommy, you're images always have the coolest dof effects. There's a grungy kind of noisy burnout as the dof increases. Is it chromatic abberation, or is there some tool you use that achieves this effect?

[Tommy L]

Thanks Bradley. Its a combination of a few things. My PS workflow for images such as this is:

1: Adjust curves (not levels) and/or use Mike Browns' patented layer 'boosting' method [clone base layer twice, make one multiply, one screen, then adjust opacity to suit].

2: If bloom is required, clone screen layer and then Gaussian blur then erase darker areas.

3: Flatten, convert to 8bit

4: DofPro to suit, enhance tool in dofPRO is what gives the 'grungy blowout' you referred to.

5: Clone layer, add chromatic aberration, erase with brush as appropriate.

6: Flatten and Vignette

7: Noise (value between 4 and 10, but thos depends on resolution of image, noise is res dependent)

Main thing to note is that DOF should not just be added as an arbitrary footnote. I sometimes plan camera angles just so I can use it, but I'll not try to shoehorn it into client work.

 

Thats was about it for this image. I try to get as close as I can in the render, but its the post work that makes most images sing. Its usually the imperfections in photography that I aim to add in post. Weird isnt it? Photographers spend big money to avoid noise, chromatic aberration and DOF issues, and we go and add them in in about 5 minutes in PS! Same in AE, seems like chromatic aberration is all the rage. I went to the movies the other day and saw that 'Datenight' flick (dont bother) and I could see that loads of chromatic aberration was added in post. I dont know if it was stylistic or the post guys were heavy handed, but I quite enjoyed picking up on it. Im so used to looking for effects, sometimes I dont even make a judgment on if I like them, I just acknowledge that they are there.....

Anyway, thats probably a longer answer than you were looking for.

Edited May 11, 2010 by Tommy L

[-MerlyN-]

entertaining and educating none the less

[braddewald]

Tommy: No, that's not too long of answer. I've been admiring your work since I first joined the forum so its nice to get some insight into your workflow. You could have written a couple pages and I would have been all ears. Thanks!

 

PS, my friend has a similar table but with a custom shaped glass top he had a friend make who owns a glass shop. Pretty cool stuff for being a thrown away stump.

Edited May 11, 2010 by braddewald

[Jonathan Sanchez]

Love it man.. Good stuff! It's funny how effects that photographers try to avoid, we purposely add to our images, but hey, I think it looks great!

[BVI]

Thanks Bradley. Its a combination of a few things. My PS workflow for images such as this is:

1: Adjust curves (not levels) and/or use Mike Browns' patented layer 'boosting' method [clone base layer twice, make one multiply, one screen, then adjust opacity to suit].

2: If bloom is required, clone screen layer and then Gaussian blur then erase darker areas.

3: Flatten, convert to 8bit

4: DofPro to suit, enhance tool in dofPRO is what gives the 'grungy blowout' you referred to.

5: Clone layer, add chromatic aberration, erase with brush as appropriate.

6: Flatten and Vignette

7: Noise (value between 4 and 10, but thos depends on resolution of image, noise is res dependent)

Main thing to note is that DOF should not just be added as an arbitrary footnote. I sometimes plan camera angles just so I can use it, but I'll not try to shoehorn it into client work.

 

Thats was about it for this image. I try to get as close as I can in the render, but its the post work that makes most images sing. Its usually the imperfections in photography that I aim to add in post. Weird isnt it? Photographers spend big money to avoid noise, chromatic aberration and DOF issues, and we go and add them in in about 5 minutes in PS! Same in AE, seems like chromatic aberration is all the rage. I went to the movies the other day and saw that 'Datenight' flick (dont bother) and I could see that loads of chromatic aberration was added in post. I dont know if it was stylistic or the post guys were heavy handed, but I quite enjoyed picking up on it. Im so used to looking for effects, sometimes I dont even make a judgment on if I like them, I just acknowledge that they are there.....

Anyway, thats probably a longer answer than you were looking for.

 

Thanks Tom - thats some great info there.

[BVI]

Speaking of CA - Avatar had loads and loads - I guess it simulates reality to the nth degree.