The Complete Guide To Photorealism For Visual Effects Visualization And Games

This book offers a comprehensive and detailed guide to accomplishing and perfecting a photorealistic look in digital content across visual effects, architectural and product visualization, and games. Emmy award-winning VFX supervisor Eran Dinur offers readers a deeper understanding of the complex interplay of light, surfaces, atmospherics, and optical effects, and then discusses techniques to achieve this complexity in the digital realm, covering both 3D and 2D methodologies. In addition, the book features artwork, case studies, and interviews with leading artists in the fields of VFX, visualization, and games. Exploring color, integration, light and surface behaviour, atmospherics, shading, texturing, physically-based rendering, procedural modelling, compositing, matte painting, lens/camera effects, and much more, Dinur offers a compelling, elegant guide to achieving photorealism in digital media and creating imagery that is seamless from real footage. Its broad perspective makes this detailed guide suitable for VFX, visualization and game artists and students, as well as directors, architects, designers, and anyone who strives to achieve convincing, believable visuals in digital media.

"This book offers a comprehensive and detailed guide to accomplishing and perfecting a photorealistic look in digital content across visual effects, architectural and product visualization, and games. Emmy award-winning VFX supervisor Eran Dinur offers readers a deeper understanding of the complex interplay of light, surfaces, atmospherics, and optical effects, and then discusses techniques to achieve this complexity in the digital realm, covering both 3D and 2D methodologies. In addition, the book features artwork, case studies, and interviews with leading artists in the fields of VFX, visualization, and games. Exploring color, integration, light and surface behaviour, atmospherics, shading, texturing, physically-based rendering, procedural modelling, compositing, matte painting, lens/camera effects, and much more, Dinur offers a compelling, elegant guide to achieving photorealism in digital media and creating imagery that is seamless from real footage. Its broad perspective makes this detailed guide suitable for VFX, visualization and game artists and students, as well as directors, architects, designers, and anyone who strives to achieve convincing, believable visuals in digital media"--

The Filmmaker’s Guide to Visual Effects offers a practical, detailed guide to visual effects for non-VFX specialists working in film and television. In contemporary filmmaking and television production, visual effects are used extensively in a wide variety of genres and formats to contribute to visual storytelling, help deal with production limitations, and reduce budget costs. Yet for many directors, producers, editors, and cinematographers, visual effects remain an often misunderstood aspect of media production. In this book, award-winning VFX supervisor and instructor Eran Dinur introduces readers to visual effects from the filmmaker’s perspective, providing a comprehensive guide to conceiving, designing, budgeting, planning, shooting, and reviewing VFX, from pre-production through post-production. The book will help readers: Learn what it takes for editors, cinematographers, directors, producers, gaffers, and other filmmakers to work more effectively with the visual effects team during pre-production, on the set and in post, use visual effects as a narrative aid, reduce production costs, and solve problems on location; Achieve a deeper understanding of 3D, 2D, and 2.5D workflows; the various VFX crafts from matchmove to compositing; essential concepts like photorealism, parallax, roto, and extraction; become familiar with the most common types of VFX, their role in filmmaking, and learn how to plan effectively for the cost and complexity of VFX shots; See visual effects concepts brought to life in practical, highly illustrated examples drawn from the real-world experiences of industry professionals, and discover how to better integrate visual effects into your own projects.

Wisdom from the best and the brightest in the industry, this visual effects bible belongs on the shelf of anyone working in or aspiring to work in VFX. The book covers techniques and solutions all VFX artists/producers/supervisors need to know, from breaking down a script and initial bidding, to digital character creation and compositing of both live-action and CG elements. In-depth lessons on stereoscopic moviemaking, color management and digital intermediates are included, as well as chapters on interactive games and full animation authored by artists from EA and Dreamworks respectively. From predproduction to acquisition to postproduction, every aspect of the VFX production workflow is given prominent coverage. VFX legends such as John Knoll, Mike Fink, and John Erland provide you with invaluable insight and lessons from the set, equipping you with everything you need to know about the entire visual effects workflow. Simply a must-have book for anyone working in or wanting to work in the VFX industry.

Helping graphic designers expand their 2D skills into the 3D space The trend in graphic design is towards 3D, with the demand for motion graphics, animation, photorealism, and interactivity rapidly increasing. And with the meteoric rise of iPads, smartphones, and other interactive devices, the design landscape is changing faster than ever.2D digital artists who need a quick and efficient way to join this brave new world will want 3D for Graphic Designers. Readers get hands-on basic training in working in the 3D space, including product design, industrial design and visualization, modeling, animation, lighting, and rendering?all the skills necessary in today's competitive environment. Helps 2D graphic designers gain the skills they need for a competitive job market that increasingly demands the ability to create or work in 3D Covers product design, industrial design and visualization, modeling, animation, lighting, and rendering Prepares you to create designs for iPads and other interactive mobile devices, as well as for print, Web, broadcast, film, HD, video, and more Uses Luxology modo to illustrate 3D concepts, but the author?s techniques and insights will help any artist moving into 3D, no matter what software they use This timely book is just what you need to create compelling and realistic 3D imagery and improve your job skills.

This practical, hands-on guide addresses the problems and difficult choices that professional compositors face on a daily basis. You are presented with tips, techniques, and solutions for dealing with badly shot elements, color artifacts, mismatched lighting and other commonly-faced compositing obstacles. Practical, in-depth lessons are featured for bluescreen matte extraction, despill operations, compositing operations, as well as color-correction. The book is presented entirely in an application-agnostic manner, allowing you to apply lessons learned to your compositing regardless of the software application you are using. The DVD contains before and after examples as well as exercise files for you to refine your own techniques on. New to the 3rd edition is an entirely new chapter entitled 'CGI Compositing Techniques', covering how the modern CGI production pipeline is now pushing many tasks that used to be done in the 3D department into the compositing department. All technological changes that have occurred between now and the publication of the 2nd edition are covered, as well as new media on the DVD and corresponding lessons within the book.

The digital compositing process is being applied in many diverse fields from Hollywood to corporate projects. Featuring over 30 pages of color, this tutorial/reference.provides a complete overview of the technical and artistic skills necessary to undertake a digital composition project. The CD-ROM contains composition examples, illustrations, and development software.

In this latest book in the critically-acclaimed [digital] series from New Riders you’ll learn all of the techniques and skills that will take you from beginner to visual effects (VFX) professional in just one book. Seasoned visual effects producer Jon Gress has refined the teaching of the skills and techniques presented in this book for over a decade to distill them down to the most effective methodology, delivered in a way that’s both fun and easy to understand while being state-of-the-art for industry professionals. You’ll start with a solid understanding of the basics of visual effects and compositing, the fundamentals of bluescreen and greenscreen keying, 3D texturing, cloning, wire & rig removal, rotoscoping, 2D and 3D motion tracking, and matchmoving. And then experiment with a wide range of 2D, 2.5D & 3D visual effects, including 3D CGI, crowd replication, face replacements, faking shadows, reflections and Z depth, atmospheric, smoke, cloud & heat FX, sky replacements, day-for-night and digital 3D HUD FX. Building on this strong foundation of compositing and visual effects, you’ll be prepared for the advanced section of the book which teach skills, such as 2D, 2.5D & 3D digital matte painting and projections, film colorization, particle systems, fluid and rigid body dynamics, full digital environments, digital destruction, advanced lighting and rendering techniques, stereoscopic 3D, 2D to 3D conversions, and expert 3D and Photoshop extraction and modeling techniques that can only be described as magic! Throughout the lessons, you’ll glean insider advice on cutting edge methods that even experienced professionals will find amazing. You’ll learn everything you need to know to begin working in the world of visual effects as an industry professional. • All the info you need to go from beginner to professional in one book • Easily accessible teaching style from an instructor who has helped launch the careers of some of the best-known Hollywood visual effects specialists • Includes companion graphics files and videos to follow along with the lessons