The other day I re-watched Skyfall and it really sunk in how of an amazing movie it was in terms of cinematography. Every single shot is so well crafted, to an extent that you hardly see anymore. You can basically take this movie as an example to learn/teach color theory as it has close to all examples of color harmonies, values of contrast and types of lighting.

High-key, Low-key, Graduated tonality lighting… monochrome, analogous, complementary, split, double even triple complementary harmonies… As well as contrast of value, hue, saturation… basically everything. 

Some sequences like the fight on top of a Shanghai building is just so thought of and art directed with all the reflections, refractions and interchanging lighting scenarios that it is just really inspiring to watch.

Of course a lot of it is treated in the final color grading but it was still shot beautifully and I think it deserved best cinematography last year.

But anyway I just wanted to share some examples of the wide range of lighting and compostions examples from the movie.

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Book recommendation: Light for Visual Artists by Richard Yot

Today I’m going to give a book recommendation for anyone who is into lighting being for fine arts, photography or CG. Light for Visual Artists by Richard Yot

Like 3 years ago when I was starting to get serious about becoming a CG Lighter I tried to find as many resources as I could through the internet. Books, blogs, anything really. There are a lot of resources but most of them seem to touch on lighting from a very fixed perspective: photography manuals, lighting for films and tv, or lighting for CG…

I remember I stumbled upon this artist’s website: Itchy Animation by Richard Yot. In his tutorial section he had created these great Chapters about lighting in general and for digital artists.

It was a really clear, straightforward and to the point resource, with simple schematics of all different types of light, shadows and such. And I read through all of it at the time. I even made it into a little document that I carried around for reference.

At that time he had a note saying that he would turn this into a book in the future and that it would be more complete and so-forth. I had it in my Amazon Wishlist for years and I never got around to getting it. So my surprise was today when I found it on my doorstep as a gift given to me because of the “Diada de Sant Jordi” (Gràcies Inés!)

What I think that makes this book a good companion for anyone who wants to learn more about lighting or just to brush up on some concepts is that it is very easy and well structured, and the whole content is original made by Richard Yot, which I think is amazing. All the little diagrams, renders and pictures are Richard’s and that gives it that special almost “handcrafted” feel to it.

Diagrams of different types and qualities of light.

Exercises for beginners with original diagrams and artwork.

So I would recommend going to his site and checking out the resource and if you like it and want a extended version just buy it. And if you want to check out his work on Behance: behance.net/richardyot

Well! That is all for now! I have a lot of things that I want to write about but only in time when I can talk a little more about them! (I can only say it involves a very important space ship … :D )

Real Time Ray Tracing is almost here…

So… lately there has been quite a buzz about GPU/CPU real time ray tracing and the possibilities this will open for games, but also for films and commercials as well as for animation.

Two of the main contenders are Octane from OTOY. An unbiased rendering application that is GPU driven and is proving to give very impressive results. It is both standalone and has versions for Maya and Max (these last ones support animation and thus, motion-blur).

image

(Click on the image to go to a fxguide post about Octane)

The other one starting to be well known is Isotropix Clarisse iFX that released a PLE beta for Windows and Linux and is planning to soon release a version for mac (at that point I’ll definitively give it a try). Clarisse is not only a render system but includes tools for scene set-up and asset management as well as a whole 32-bit compositing package.

image

(Click on the image to go to an old fxguide post about Clarisse)

Another to take a look at is TeamUp Technologies Inc. TeamUp A multiplatform collaboration tool that uses Cloud powered Multi-Optics® rendering technology that is also real-time. Here is a teaser I watched a while back.

And finally if you are new to real time ray-tracing and you want to get a quick look at what it could do for you check out this webgl page that allows you to play around with a real time path tracer. It’ll give you a feel for what it is to work with a real time ray tracer.

http://madebyevan.com/webgl-path-tracing/

Personally I think this opens a whole new world of possibilities in terms of lighting and look-dev. Faster turnover means faster iterations which leaves more time for tweaking your lighting and rendering to take it to the next level. Can’t wait to get my hands on one of these renderers and play with it to see what I can come up with in a very short amount of time!

more@nestorprado.com

Macro: A Neon Christmas

After taking a break from everything these lasts weeks and moving to San Francisco, at least for the holidays I saw this video and I wanted to share because I’ve been leaving the blog a little a side :D

This is totally my kind of shots, I’m a sucker for the slow-motion-macro look and I always enjoy them. I’ve been always finding excuses why not to do one, but eventually I’ll get the right one to work on. 

Also, who doesn’t enjoy a good behind the scenes and breakdown!

Cheers to Neon for rocking it with this little piece, you made my day :P

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HDRI Giveaway Day

Today I had some fun with my Nikon D7000 + Nikon 10.5 mm Fisheye Lens and the manfrotto QTVR with 360º Tactical VR. 

After that I’ve spent the afternoon assembling these HDR panoramas and testing them out. So here are three interior HDR’s that I give to you if you want them :D

Interior 1: Montgomery Hall Classroom

[DOWNLOAD Unclipped HDR Panorama]

Interior 2: Montgomery Hall: Byte Cafe

[DOWNLOAD Unclipped HDR Panorama]

Interior 3: Montgomery Hall: Parking Lot.

[DOWNLOAD Unclipped HDR Panorama]

It was nice to try it out and learn the best workflow for shooting with these elements and then being able to build the HDR spheric panoramas in a quick and efficient way.

Enjoy! And if you use them and want to photo-reply or send your results feel free to do so!

UPDATE: Nov-03

This is a little test with the environment 2 that I made this afternoon.

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New Trends in CG Lighiting

It’s nice to read something that gives you assurance on your beliefs, and when it comes to CG lighting… I couldn’t agree with this interview more…

I always try to stress this to people that I talk about this too and although it might seem obvious, people who are beginning to learn this art form aren’t fully aware of what they are really learning. It’s not about how this program works or what hacks I have to do to light an egg to match it to a live action one. It’s a lot more than that. And learning the tools that closely and more accurately mimic the behavior is a must, but in any case it is only the beginning…. 

Some quotes from the article that might make you interested in reading it:

[…] is there a difference between the way live-action DPs approach lighting and what we do in the computer?

(On the question: what do you look for in a lighter?) 

For full CG, I’d look for good artistic sensibility along with the technical skills you look for in any lighter.

Pixar’s Jeremy Vickery told me that he’d like to get to the point where he could recruit people with a background in cinematography or illustration, not CG software.

I could not agree with this more:

Lighting workflow wants to mimic live-action cinematography more closely. Fewer CG cheats will be required, and you will want to constrain yourself to what’s possible on a real set. In other words, you won’t want to place your area light underneath the floor and turn shadows off: that sort of thing. 

So it was refreshing to read this article and I hope you find it useful as well.

Little video explaining how basic re-lighting in NukeX can be achieved. This is a simple render made in a hurry in Mental Ray… Please disregard the poor shader work as it the default shader used to illustrate the concept.

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