First of all, thank you very much for joining this newsletter. This is the first time I write one. I really hope you find it useful and inspiring.
I want to share with you some tips and hopefully inspiration so you can start mixing 3d into your traditional photography or photoshop composites. Instead of going into a full-length technical tutorial, I thought it would be more interesting to go through the thought process with some tips along the way.
Let me tell you the story of how this happy accident came to be.
Our kids were playing in our house and started calling me because their cars and trains were stuck under the sofa and couldn't reach them. So, I did what a good father would have done, and instead of helping them, I rushed to my room grab the camera and started snapping photos of the moment. The photos were dark, the background and foreground were useless. You can even see the garbage bin behind them. Evidently, a photo under the sofa is not IG-worthy.
BUT... I was confident that with Blender and Photoshop, I could transport them into a colorful and bright place. So, I just enjoyed the moment and focused on getting their expressions and have fun with them.
By looking at the sample picture above, you can imagine that any reasonable photographer would have discarded the pictures immediately.
Later that night, I opened up Blender and Photoshop and selected the images I liked better. Then the magic happened.
Before jumping into Blender, I went to Megascans.com and grabbed some beautiful 3d plants and trees. You can create an account for free that will grant you access to more than fifteen thousand (+15,000) materials and 3d assets. Pretty insane, right?. Bear in mind that these assets are used in big Hollywood movies as well. Anyway, back to the topic.
Screenshot from www.quixel.com, showing off the games and movies where their assets have been used.
Grass and plants.
It is my favorite part by far. One of Blender´s powerful tools is the ability to create "particles". If you haven't heard of that, it gives you the ability to duplicate crazy amounts of the same object and distribute randomly in a scene. Pretty much like vegetation and grass works, however, its applications are limitless. It is such a big topic. I will dedicate a future article just to show you the possibilities Blender put at your fingerprints.
Below is a quick animation showing the different layers of grass that will add realism to your scene. It also adds complexity with few tweaks with the same models you downloaded from Megascans.
Bob Ross was right when he encouraged us to enjoy those "happy accidents". Sometimes, all you need is to keep your camera around your neck. Special moments can happen in an instant, we can just wait to get lucky.
Well, that is all I wanted to share with you at the moment. If you like this format, please let me know. Stay tuned for future newsletters.
GOOD NEWS!
I am (finally) halfway through the preparation and recording of the mini-course Blender for Photographers. It takes time. I am making sure it is accessible for those artists who are not very technical. Artists who enjoy the creative process, not tweaking with numbers and geometry. I`m putting much love into the recordings to make sure that by the end of it, you can have a good grasp of the tips and techniques to make 3d enjoyable and with as little technical difficulty as possible.