Post on 10-Apr-2018
transcript
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Some of the most admirable artwork
in theArtlantis community is the
simplest. One of my favorites is a cur-
rentArtlantis website banner a detail
interpretation of fabulous Rachofsky
House in Dallas, Texas, byArtlantis
luminary Nicolas Rivera. Hes pretty
good with the Photoshop, too.
This exercise imitates his inspiring im-
age. Think of this as a PhotoEditorial
rendering where the artists eye ex-
ploits photorealism to then artiicially
Illuminate the scene. Of course, the
view is abstract, but it also tells a tec-
tonic story. The selected view projects
an illusion of exclusivity through com-
plex wall plane geometry aristocratic
elements celebrated by the building
design. Because scene elements are so
basic, light intensity and relectance
must constantly vary across surfaces to
maintain visual interest. The image is
produced in two stages: a conventional
rendering followed by an artistic en-
hancement increasing environmental
Uncovering the Mystery of How These Great Artworks Get Done
Of course they use an Image Editing Application, eh?
Heliodon Solution: Manual Sunlight to simplifyaiming. Play with sliders to make the right bal-ance of cool and warm light. Note the heavycolor tint for sun and sky to maximize transferredcolor effect
Plan View of Camera and Uplight: Positionof camera and light aimed up toward the sofit,sky and parapet - also minimises light relection
possibility in glass
Elevation View of Camera and Uplight:Thinking like a photographer, or an artist orsomething, solving the sofit lighting requires astrong uplight.
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luminosity; serene in countenance, yet
active with color and light.
Step 1 - In Artlantis: To createaconventional rendering with special
sun and uplighting to brighten the
shadowed sofit:
-Heliodon Control: Using oblique
backlighting imitates the diffuse soft
light seen in the original illustration. I
used a manual sun angle to establishthe 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 strongsolar backlighting, artiicial uplighting
must compensate to brighten the sofit.
A loodlight of high intensity, placed
low and close, aimed up, overcomes the
brightness of the sun and sky. Place the
light by pushing it around in a top view
while closely watching its previeweffect.
-Adjust Surfaces [Settings: PageXX]:
To maximize the perfect geometry
dream, I played with the glazing
to make it crystalline and lat. [real
windows would show considerable
TOP: First Try with no uplighting: Light-colored wall panels are poorly modeled and thescene is too uniformly lit - needs contrastingcolor. Sky is too light.
UP: Uplighting Setting: Very high Power settingis necessary to ight against adaptive heliodon
power. No Shadows setting create the softestill light.
DOWN: Basic Lighting Solution: Most users,lacking a photo editor, would have to settle forthis, and it is okay, but the sky is too light and theimage is literal,raw. A little fakery could really
jazz this up.
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distortion] The mullions also deserved
special attention: a particular satin
quality to diffusely relect sky color.Step 2 - PhotoEditing: To match the
basic image with the splendid vision.
Surfaceluminance and color adjust-
ments are faster and more controllable
in a photo editor once you have done
your best within the render. [The PSD
[Photoshop] format creates extra lay-ers usefully encoding special informa-
tion, so use it. ]
-Saturation [Color Vibrance]: Add
an Adjustment Layer to reduce color
saturation again, to taste. The idea is
to soften color intensity. Experiment
with this tool by totally de-saturating
the image and slowly returning coloruntil you feel there is just enough to
sell the idea and to not overwhelm the
eye with intensity.
-Levels [Fine Tuning Brightness]:
Add an Adjustment Layer to separately
control the brightness of highlights,
midtones and darks. Renderings oftenneed contrast adjustments to match
the design vision. The Levels tool can
darken shadows, blow out highlights
and improve mid-tone clarity.
- Add a new layer to darken the sky:
Whenever altering a layer, preserve
the original layer by editing a duplicateand hiding the original [just in case any
edit messes up.]
- duplicate the background sky layer
[new layer in front]
- use Levels to darken the sky by
shifting the middle slider triangle to
the right [keeps the color value butdecreases brightness -- in this case,
theres no clouds in the sky, but youll
see how cloud drama increases when
you apply this trick.]
- Add a new layer to enhance central
focus: The layer makes a subtle hyp-
notic concentric effect, lightening cen-
ter and darkening image periphery. Atthis angle, it coincidently makes a slight
corona effect at the building parapet,
like sunlight just over the verge.
- create a new empty layer in front of
the rendered image.
- apply a radial ill from white in the
center to black on the periphery.- set layer blending mode to Soft
Light this mode affects underlying
image brightness and does not obscure
it as you might expect from an overlay.
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 ConcentricOverlad Layer - makes periphery darker andcenter lighter - draws the eye to the center andensures that light gades in all directions toenliven surfaces.
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UP: Basic Wall Panels: Deined by a texturemap image overlaid on a Basic Shader. Increasedshininess to relect sky color. Increased bump toreveal 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 tweakedshininess and relection to make uplight andskylight visible - to enliven and articulate the
framing section
RIGHT: Extra Smooth Glazing Solution:Artiicially lat and shiny to convey perfectionand clarity. Light grey transparency adds a tintand Medium grey relection darkens relectedsky 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 howbuildings should be, if you ever design
an art gallery masquerading as a
house. Tour it:
http://www.rachofskyhouse.org/