The so-called staging, or how exactly a 3D model is presented to the viewer, plays a crucial role in our perception of realism and aesthetics. This involves several key factors that contribute to the overall effectiveness of the presentation. One of the most important aspects is the environment, which includes the design chosen for the immediate surroundings of the actual 3D object. The choice of environment can significantly influence how the model is perceived, providing context and enhancing its visual appeal.
Equally important is the lighting of the scene. The placement, number, and properties of light sources are critical in creating a realistic and aesthetically pleasing presentation. Proper lighting can highlight specific features of the model, create mood, and add depth to the scene. The interaction between light and the model, including how shadows and reflections are handled, is essential for achieving a convincing level of realism.
To gain deeper insights into this process, we turn to our expert in lighting staging: Fabian specializes in working with our clients in the automotive sector, where he is responsible for the real-time staging of car models. His role is to ensure that various model configurations of the vehicle are presented in the most realistic and aesthetically pleasing way possible within a virtual environment. This involves not only technical expertise but also a keen eye for detail and an understanding of aesthetic principles.
Fabian, could you also elaborate on the approach and techniques you currently use in your setups?
We use Unreal for setup and visualization. We define both direct and indirect lighting. Since real-time shadow casting is limited to 12 lights and computationally intensive, we try to limit the light's range to what is necessary and especially reproduce the ambient occlusion (AO) shadow of the vehicle through textures. We do not use real-time raytracing as it is too computationally demanding.
We begin the setup with lights and parameters that have previously worked well in other scenes and then modify them as needed. Typically, this involves up to 18 lights for interior views and around 12 for exterior views, with four to five of them casting shadows.
During this production step, we also need to adjust some materials to ensure that color and material properties are appropriately highlighted under the given lighting conditions.
We create reflections on the car paint and windows using an Unreal shader, which involves a material with environment mapping using multiple textures in a skybox.
Can you tell us more about processes and tooling?
We collaborate as a cross-company team within a shared Unreal environment, which encompasses the entire production process. By using Unreal, a modern and popular game engine, we can produce images of individual vehicle views. However, we must maintain a high-quality view of the scene throughout production. The main advantage is a significant reduction in production time. Nevertheless, using game engines demands a high level of technical knowledge and experience to make the scenes real-time capable - and - realistic, which can be a drawback.
According to what criteria do you evaluate the light staging you are currently working on? Knowing the benchmarks and standards you use to judge your work can provide insight into the goals and quality measures of the staging process.
We always strive to implement the customer's wishes as best as possible. In the current project, we aim to ensure that the viewer can recognize the vehicle shape, that the materials are showcased in their full quality, and that the camera captures all the details of each view and presents them suitably - all as realistically and aesthetically as possible, with shadows and reflections on the car body and windows.
We always develop several proposals, which we then discuss with the customer in dialogue. For example, in this case, there was feedback on the representation of the leather steering wheel. We then tried to improve the look of the steering wheel through suitable textures.
There are usually two to three iterations of individual presentations with the customer, sometimes even five. It is completely clear that our customer also learns through the iterations. And of course, we all want to achieve a perfect result.
By exploring these questions, we hope to give a better understanding of the expertise involved in the real-time staging of 3D models, particularly within the automotive sector. Fabian’s expertise provides insight into the complex interplay between environment, lighting, and technical execution that goes into creating highly realistic and aesthetically pleasing virtual presentations.
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