The second experiment for post production will be looking at how to create grass using the technique gained earlier by means of opacity mapping and comparing the results with a post production of Photoshop texturing. As the results seen earlier opacity mapping is extremely beneficial to the user for creating complex geometry without having to physically create the objects in 3DS Max. The best way to create grass in an advancing 3DS Max is to buy Plug-ins such as V-ray and Supergrass but the way that it has been created for this experiment is the way that various games use in their industry by using small duplicated planes and in this case the planes will be scattered thoroughly throughout the scene to create a field of grass. Below is the colour map that will give the grass various shades of green and will work well with the lights in the scene that will have shadows turned on. The opacity map that shall be used this will allow
Above is the rendered image is a grassy knoll with a tree on top, it is clear to see the grass has worked and the opacity mapping has done its job. The light in the scene has also created a rounded looking knoll as can be seen with the shaded area to the left and the lit area to the right suggesting the a slope this will be implemented in the post rendered version in the next stage.Again following the structure of the previous water experiment the scene had to be set up ready for a grass texture to be applied in Photoshop to the right is the newly rendered image.
The good thing about this sort of post production is that the grass that will be positioned onto the scene can be easily adapted from any image taken, a user would be able to easily choose what type of grass can be issued from a real world taken image that would in turn give the final image a realistic looks. For this event the image of the grass can be seen below.
When applying the grass texture had to be cloned to the area that needs to be selected before hand, in this case it was all of the green area and then just slightly higher (giving the individual blades space to be seen in front of the background sky). The secondary process was to change the brightness, contrast, hue and saturation to match the rest of the rendered image. Finally the shaded areas were created to give depth and also highlight the areas that were previously seen in the 3DS Max image.
The results of this experiment were quite positive and so too was the feedback given by the peers asked. Although many thought that the 3D rendered image was quite realistic the individual blades of grass could be seen quite well to give an overall depth that they felt worked well many thought that the new post production image worked just as well. Due to the nature of easily being able to adapt a new grass layer a scene can drastically be changed and output can be produced quickly. The way that the 3D render was set using vast amounts of polygons the render took nearly two minutes. The success of this experiment is that both images have a realistic look to them in their own ways and the feedback given was not biased either way.
Conclusion
The two procedures that were covered in the advanced 3D mapping section had positive results, the opacity and displacement mapping allows a user to create realistic and complex geometry with less effort and time but still be able to produce work to a high quality with ease. The advantage of using these type of maps permits a scene to include less polygons which will in turn decrease the rendering time. A benefit if a scene includes a significant amount of objects. The opacity mapping included the best results as the chairs surface had many areas where light passed through and the shadow that cast mimics how the shadow would react if the surface was made purely of geometry. The results given by the post production method have varied in outcome, as the grass experiment had a positive realistic result, it is how the viewer perceives the image in the first place. Even though realism is achievable it is not always necessary to go further and create photo or hyper-realistic imagery. For example even though the resulted feedback given was close, this is a success as people are undecided between the 3D render and the post production method which in turn gives the user the freedom to not only to have an incomplete scene created in Max but the freedom to experiment in Photoshop to create the final output.The way that post production can be used to amend or even enhance a render taken from 3D Studio max can be a benefit to a user in a positive fashion, the two experiments that deal with embracing the concept of altering an image after the render and the techniques used such as displacement mapping can save time and/or produce different results that were not intended in the initial stage of production which in itself can be encouraging.
The results of this experiment were quite positive and so too was the feedback given by the peers asked. Although many thought that the 3D rendered image was quite realistic the individual blades of grass could be seen quite well to give an overall depth that they felt worked well many thought that the new post production image worked just as well. Due to the nature of easily being able to adapt a new grass layer a scene can drastically be changed and output can be produced quickly. The way that the 3D render was set using vast amounts of polygons the render took nearly two minutes. The success of this experiment is that both images have a realistic look to them in their own ways and the feedback given was not biased either way.Conclusion
The two procedures that were covered in the advanced 3D mapping section had positive results, the opacity and displacement mapping allows a user to create realistic and complex geometry with less effort and time but still be able to produce work to a high quality with ease. The advantage of using these type of maps permits a scene to include less polygons which will in turn decrease the rendering time. A benefit if a scene includes a significant amount of objects. The opacity mapping included the best results as the chairs surface had many areas where light passed through and the shadow that cast mimics how the shadow would react if the surface was made purely of geometry. The results given by the post production method have varied in outcome, as the grass experiment had a positive realistic result, it is how the viewer perceives the image in the first place. Even though realism is achievable it is not always necessary to go further and create photo or hyper-realistic imagery. For example even though the resulted feedback given was close, this is a success as people are undecided between the 3D render and the post production method which in turn gives the user the freedom to not only to have an incomplete scene created in Max but the freedom to experiment in Photoshop to create the final output.The way that post production can be used to amend or even enhance a render taken from 3D Studio max can be a benefit to a user in a positive fashion, the two experiments that deal with embracing the concept of altering an image after the render and the techniques used such as displacement mapping can save time and/or produce different results that were not intended in the initial stage of production which in itself can be encouraging.
