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Having a bit of fun with the challenge. Exploring more ideas than i would do on a normal project but i’m really enjoying the exploration of ideas. I also just wanted to show some lateral thinking.This time I have a Box cart race with a crowd cheering. There is very little vegetation on the site, so just to soften the image a bit i chose a composition with one of the few trees and ivy on the walls.
For this project I decided to test Corona Render. It is quite simple and very similar to the classic Vray. The final render in 4K resolution took about 5 hours.
Now the fun part begins: post production!
I really love working with adobe photoshop. It allows you to have almost infinite creative freedom and be very flexible in terms of last minute changes for the customer.
The workflow for post production will be divided into 3 phases:
1) COMPOSITING of the different EXR channels + various adjustments
2) Insertion of the PROPS, in this case people. It will be the longest part of the work since I want to take a personal pictures of the various subjects.
3) FINALIZE: addition of FX (glare, dust, light leaks, fog) and Color Grading
I love the Colour Festival and I had an idea of the building appearing above a coloured fog of powder with happy people running around. I think the stair side of the building works best with the concept. From a technical perspective,I have created a few different lighting scenarios which i have setup in 3dsmax’s layers and in Vray’s settings i have it to not render hidden lights. That way i hide and reveal the layer to test lighting with different cameras
Happy I can participate on This Challenge this year. My immediate thought was to keep the building and its environment as they are and tell a story around the building. First look around the model, I realised i needed to add a bit more detail. My usual work flow is to find how i want to tell the story as soon as possible. This includes the composition, the mood and story props. I do rough texturing, modeling and lighting and i refine as I go along. I do paint over in Photoshop to add detail and elements that i need but would take too much time to model especially for ideas i may discard. I like to explore different ideas and composition even if they may seem to out there but i have found ideas spawn other ideas.
With this building i was drawn more towards the courtyard side of the building. I like the stair case as well as the space for different views and potential for different stories. I also felt I could represent the “Love the roundness! Love the Deep Red CorTen steel!” theme to quote Ronen Bekerman’s introduction to the project. As mentioned earlier I did explore other Views and compositions. To kick off this is an early idea that i entertained.
Chose my camera and started testing lights. I added some street lamp and a drain on the floor, made improvements on the pipes (they were going inside the floor) and modelled the base of the brick building.
As a person I see the whole context first, when looking at a photo (or render) I look at the over all image. It is well known that different people see the same image differently and most people can be categorised to what they first see in an image. If an image is pleasing that individual on that specific categorisation, then they usually find the over all image interesting. That then follows by a secondary category and so on and usually the order they follow that determine if the person like the image or not as a whole. Sounds more complicated that it is. Anyways, to not get into too much detail I usually tend to like images that is balanced, and one strong point for me is colour and lighting. The colour is not necessarily colourful. to me the over all tone of the image and how the colours interacts is very important so I use that making my own images.
To create a strong concept, I familiarised my self with the soundings of the project site. Stockholm is an old beautiful city with lots of history and a lot of the the surrounding buildings very classic traditional old red brick and the cobblestone courtyard and the contrast between them is gorgeous.
The corten texture on the main building is very suitable and I wanted my image to reflect and respect the great architects balance between good and new making it look like it belongs even though it has a modern cladding and shape it just looks right. I want to bring out the red metal rusty look as I find it contrasting well with the beautiful minimal grey stone old cobblestones.
I also want to keep the image natural and realistic so I wanted to find inspiration in nature and let that dictate the lighting. First thing that came to mind was The Red Center and Ayres Rock in Australia. Pending on the time of the day the huge “rock” changes from orange almost a bit yellow tones to a deep red. I like the deep red and interaction with a contrasty blue sky. To soften the image I always love bringing natural element into the image and once the first stages of the process is completed I like to add in some greenery in a realistic and subtle way, if suitable, however I don’t want to take away from the natural environment I will create and I love keeping things minimal so I will have a play. I also have a faint idea of cobblestones and pigeons, however again if the image allows for that (and time) I might incorporate this.
