Where to begin?

[Vi]

Hi everyone, Vi here...

 

I'm frustrated! I am trying to create a scene using a bitmap as the background. The general theme is to put 3d furniture in a picture of an empty room, creating a photo-realistic image. I've tried putting the bitmap in the environment map roll out in Render Setup, in Environment and Effects, and also just as the Viewport Background... with combinations of them too.... I place a plane as the "floor" and match it to the angle of the photo through a vray physical camera. I have tried to use the vraymtlwrapper with matte/shadow as a base material but it never seems to work properly, and when it does work alright... everything else goes to *ahem* you know...

 

Also, another thing- my objects are rendering slightly "see-through". Reading through posts and experimenting with things has led me to believe that they are reflecting the "environment". I've tried adjusting my reflection parameters and different settings along those lines but nothing will work!

 

I feel like when I get one aspect of the photo to look decent, another aspect completely fails. I wish there was a step-by-step "How-to" video or tutorial somewhere to show me what I need to fix.

 

If anyone knows a good way to start a project like this please help!! I know render settings vary from image to image, but if I could just get some general guidelines for using a bitmap background... that would be amazing!

 

Thank you for tuning in.

 

Much love,

Vi

[Matt McDonald]

I know you're a V-Ray user but Master Zap had some tutorials on how to do this with Mental Ray. The concepts should be similar.

 

http://mentalraytips.blogspot.com/2007/10/production-shader-examples.html

[mfured20]

Hey Vi, I would be willing to help; I have some knowledge about this. Would you be willing to upload the photo that you have to match? Ill do a couple quick images to show you how I would approach this. They will be a quick and dirty way of doing it, but they will work.

[mfured20]

Allright, here we go... I have to run in a mintue but this should give you something to go on. I have put instructions into the images, and you can pull them up for a little help.

 

I mentioned that i would build the physical environment, and that is because i would apply that picture to each wall in some manner, so that the furniture, when finished, will reflect whats supposed to be there. If your photo has a window in the right hand wall, then you can use the UV mapping to stretch that photo across the modeled wall and give it that basic color, so your chrome or whatever will catch splashes of the correct reflection.

 

another thing to keep in mind is the photo itself. Don't forget how photos work, and how close it is to how this modeling works. The horizon line is always going to be flat, and you have to be sure that your photo and the model have the same horizon line, or else everything is going to be stretched and terrible. you might have to adjust the photo itself in photoshop by adding more space to either the top or the bottom to get it lined up right.

 

hope this helps, I dont know if i can answer any more questions for a little bit. good luck!

[Vi]

Hey Vi, I would be willing to help; I have some knowledge about this. Would you be willing to upload the photo that you have to match? Ill do a couple quick images to show you how I would approach this. They will be a quick and dirty way of doing it, but they will work.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]40503[/ATTACH] It was shot with a 35mm sensor, at 27mm... if that helps. Thank you thank you!

[Vi]

Thank you everyone for your input! Time to start working again now that lunch is over I'll be sure to post my results, and let y'all know which methods worked (that is, if you're interested hehe).

 

Much love,

Vi

[Vi]

Here we are! I "built" the walls, and I think that will be the best way of doing it. Thanks everyone! [ATTACH=CONFIG]40510[/ATTACH]