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Uncovering the Mystery of How These Great Artworks Get Done

Of course they use an Image Editing Application, eh?

Some of the most admirable artwork view is abstract, but it also tells a tec-
in the Artlantis community is the tonic story. The selected view projects
simplest. One of my favorites is a cur- an illusion of exclusivity through com-
rent Artlantis website banner – a detail plex wall plane geometry – aristocratic
interpretation of fabulous Rachofsky elements celebrated by the building
House in Dallas, Texas, by Artlantis design. Because scene elements are so
luminary Nicolas Rivera. He’s pretty basic, light intensity and reflectance
good with the Photoshop, too. must constantly vary across surfaces to
This exercise imitates his inspiring im- maintain visual interest. The image is
age. Think of this as a “PhotoEditorial” produced in two stages: a conventional
rendering where the artist’s eye ex- rendering followed by an artistic en-
ploits photorealism to then artificially hancement increasing environmental
“Illuminate” the scene. Of course, the

Elevation View of Camera and Uplight:


Thinking like a photographer, or an artist or
something, solving the soffit lighting requires a
strong uplight.

Heliodon Solution: Manual Sunlight to simplify Plan View of Camera and Uplight: Position
aiming. Play with sliders to make the right bal- of camera and light aimed up toward the soffit,
ance of cool and warm light. Note the heavy sky and parapet - also minimises light reflection
color tint for sun and sky to maximize transferred possibility in glass
color effect

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luminosity; serene in countenance, yet
active with color and light.
Step 1 - In Artlantis: To create a
conventional rendering with special
sun and uplighting to brighten the
shadowed soffit:
-Heliodon Control: Using oblique
backlighting imitates the diffuse soft
light seen in the original illustration. I
used a manual sun angle to establish
the sun height and direction. [We can
cheat because it is just an impression –
the time of day or North orientation is
not critical] To get the right cool blue-
ness requires sliding yellow sun power
down and dark blue sky power up. Rely
on the preview to see changes.
-Uplighting: Because of the strong
solar backlighting, artificial uplighting
TOP: First Try with no uplighting: Light-
must compensate to brighten the soffit. colored wall panels are poorly modeled and the
A floodlight of high intensity, placed scene is too uniformly lit - needs contrasting
low and close, aimed up, overcomes the color. Sky is too light.
brightness of the sun and sky. Place the
light by pushing it around in a top view UP: Uplighting Setting: Very high Power setting
is necessary to fight against adaptive heliodon
while closely watching its preview power. No Shadows setting create the softest
effect. fill light.
-Adjust Surfaces [Settings: Page XX]:
To maximize the “perfect geometry DOWN: Basic Lighting Solution: Most users,
lacking a photo editor, would have to settle for
dream,” I played with the glazing this, and it is okay, but the sky is too light and the
to make it crystalline and flat. [real image is literal,raw. A little fakery could really
windows would show considerable jazz this up.

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UP AND TOP RIGHT: Photoshop Adjustments:
Added: Adjustment Layer, Saturation Layer,
Concentric disk, blended with “Soft Light” 73%
opacity.
Duplicated: Sky Background to darken...
RIGHT: Showing the effect of the Concentric
Overlad Layer - makes periphery darker and
center lighter - draws the eye to the center and
ensures that light gades in all directions to
enliven surfaces.

distortion] The mullions also deserved - Add a new layer to darken the sky:
special attention: a particular satin Whenever altering a layer, preserve
quality to diffusely reflect sky color. the original layer by editing a duplicate
Step 2 - PhotoEditing: To match the and hiding the original [just in case any
basic image with the splendid vision. edit messes up.]
Surface luminance and color adjust- - duplicate the background sky layer
ments are faster and more controllable [new layer in front]
in a photo editor once you have done - use Levels to darken the sky by
your best within the render. [The PSD shifting the middle slider triangle to
[Photoshop] format creates extra lay- the right [keeps the color value but
ers usefully encoding special informa- decreases brightness -- in this case,
tion, so use it. ] there’s no clouds in the sky, but you’ll
-Saturation [Color Vibrance]: Add see how cloud drama increases when
an Adjustment Layer to reduce color you apply this trick.]
saturation – again, to taste. The idea is - Add a new layer to enhance central
to soften color intensity. Experiment focus: The layer makes a subtle hyp-
with this tool by totally de-saturating notic concentric effect, lightening cen-
the image and slowly returning color ter and darkening image periphery. At
until you feel there is just enough to this angle, it coincidently makes a slight
sell the idea and to not overwhelm the corona effect at the building parapet,
eye with intensity. like sunlight just over the verge.
-Levels [Fine Tuning Brightness]: - create a new empty layer in front of
Add an Adjustment Layer to separately the rendered image.
control the brightness of highlights, - apply a radial fill from white in the
midtones and darks. Renderings often center to black on the periphery.
need contrast adjustments to match - set layer blending mode to “Soft
the design vision. The Levels tool can Light” – this mode affects underlying
darken shadows, blow out highlights image brightness and does not obscure
and improve mid-tone clarity. it as you might expect from an overlay.

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UP: Basic Wall Panels: Defined by a texture
map image overlaid on a Basic Shader. Increased
shininess to reflect sky color. Increased bump to
reveal panel edges. Sized to 1.50m wide approxi-
mates the actual panel size.

UPRIGHT: Satin Window Frames and Trim:


Basic Shader - almost black, but with tweaked
shininess and reflection to make uplight and
skylight visible - to enliven and articulate the
framing section
RIGHT: Extra Smooth Glazing Solution:
Artificially flat and shiny to convey perfection
and clarity. Light grey transparency adds a tint
and Medium grey reflection darkens reflected
sky color

- control effect strength by reducing


layer opacity. In this case, to 73%.
Conclusion: This approach can be ap-
plied to any image where the illustra-
tion requires focus and luminosity. It
is a simple trick and one that provides
a good introduction to tweaking a
rendering with photo editing.
Incidentally, The Rachof-
sky House teaches a lot about how
buildings should be, if you ever design
an art gallery masquerading as a
house. Tour it:
http://www.rachofskyhouse.org/

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