How many hours ?

[GarethB]

Rob, Knight

You may be interested in what my friend does with computer graphics

http://www.dmmultimedia.com/index.htm

The RS3100 section is all generated from the plans I have for the cars, photographs and measurements taken from my own car.

These may be used in a computer game that he had been asked to provide some of the graphics for. This means I may have to get my car in the studio for the engine revs to be recorded properly. Then down the rolling road to generate the power and torque curves for the game.

[Knight]

OH! Now that's some nice rendering! What renderer does he use?

I drool when I visit HERE sometimes. So far I really like the realism of this render:



...it looks like its about to move, its that crisp with a nice balance of detail and sharp light, great use of relfections too especially in the eyes with a good touch of smoothness without being blurry although the realism kind of fades away with the armour it's a very clever character render. The only thing about all this, is the level of time needed, not that that is a bad thing, it's simply without an aim I sometimes question why the hell I do it lol !

[GarethB]

Knight,

Have no idea what software he uses.

Why do you spend hours doing what you do?

Simple, because you can and you find it rewarding. Just like me with showing my car and spending hours polishing it!




And the car gets driven to the shows and cleaned before judging!

[Knight]

Kay that HAS to be rendering wizardry photorealism! Dude! That's like proper clean! I never knew a car could look cleaner than my dinner plate, just look at them disks!
Go on you can tell me, you use Evian water in your jets don't ya?
No, seriously, that's amazing, art on wheels, well kept piece of machinery.

[GarethB]

Not bad for 32 year old Ford that has never been restored.

Use better than Avien water, it is medical grade deionised water in the coolant and the screen wash.

After a good shampoo and set, the shampoo is rinsed off with the same type of water and dried carefully with one chamois for the top and one for the underside!

The rust bubbles just vissible on the arch are genuine Ford

This was the car I was racing at the Nord Schleif Circuit (big part of the nurburgring) when I found my sight was shot

Raced for the first time last July in it at Castle Coomb.

I can polish like you can do graphics

[Andrew MacLean]

Knight

Is that a computer generated image or a physical model that has been photographed?

Gareth

Nice car! Glad to know that you are able to take the ld lady back onto the circuit again

Wy to go blind artists and visually impaired (no longer) racing drivers.

Andrew

[Knight]

Knight Is that a computer generated image or a physical model that has been photographed?...

Oh that's very much CGI using the exact same piece of software that I use called 3D Studio Max with some additions using Digital Fusion, VRay, ZBrush. As far as I know that was a collaboration between two guys over the net.
As disgustingly fabulous as it is, there are some issues with it but the technical ability is still staggering - time consuming but truly worth it in my opinion!
Just as a piece of interest, what makes it seem more real is how the lighting is achieved. Most light is rarely 'just white' and there are a heap of ambient hues and reflections in most normal settings. Usually CGI looks fake because of the lighting, these days a lot of effort is put into this one aspect of CGI rendering and how that is achieved is a relatively simple technique.
Rather than, do the normal and add, a light source, with a few smaller light sources at different strengths and shades to simulate normal light you can use a high resolution image called a HDRI "High Dynamic Range imaging" which is basically a photograph at extremely high resolutions and quality, the software uses the photograph to determine the quality of the light, and by doing that even a simple sphere can look very real:

http://www.doschdesign.com/products/hdri/Nature.html

Is a good example what good lighting can achieve with HDRI.

Their example


My little test render using the same image:


Then when you spend the time doing a really good character or object model, and add that level of lighting, it simply brings it alive. I've seen some renders that are near impossible to tell against the real thing...

[Andrew MacLean]

So, the image is of an object that has no existence in real space? That would set the existentialists of the 19th and early 20th centuries clucking!

[John Smith]

I havr to say that the CGI cars are amazing... they look even more real than Gareth's real thing!

Only the chipped paint around the radiator filler cap makes Gareth's car look real!

Amazing models from 3DSMax, but I would suspect that the poly count may be a little high for a game; possibly a little too detailed for smooth fast animation. But a true labour of love.

[GarethB]

John,

That is sometimes the problem with CGI, they are too good, it is the imperfections that add to realism in some cases.

Either way, generating CGI or polishing cars are all a labour of love!