Basketball

This project was created using the Arnold rendering system in Maya and depicts a lone basketball rolling through the shadow of a fence outside a sports stadium. This project uses GOBOs, or “go-betweens”, to create realistic shadow integration a CG object based on the information in the live footage.

Process Blog:

Critique

April 10, 2019

I am happy with how my project turned out! I received good comments on my model, textures, GOBO projection, and overall integration. The main suggestion I received was to work more on my ground shadow: the cast shadow changed in value as it moved across the scene and did not match the other shadow as much toward the end, and the ground occlusion may have been too dark. I hope to be able to fix these couple of issues by the end of the quarter, but I think the project turned out well so far.

GOBO

April 7, 2019

After setting up render layers and AOVs, this week we learned how to make GOBOs for our CG object–an integral element to our projects so that it appears to roll through the light and shadows. GOBOs are short for “go-betweens.” They are often used on physical sets as silhouettes or “cut-outs” over the lights, and we discovered how to apply them in the CG realm. I did not know what a GOBO was before this class, so it was really exciting to learn the process of creating a CG GOBO as well as to learn their plethora of applications. While not physically accurate, it is—most importantly—visually accurate. To create a CG GOBO in Maya, I needed to set up a light rig with black and white masks parented to that specific light and camera projection.

Matching the Camera and Lighting

April 1, 2019

After taking the photographs for project 1 over the weekend, it was time to match the camera in Maya. The picture of the cube is supposed to provide depth information and assist in camera matching. I adjusted the camera settings, including the focal length, to match those provided by the photographs before using the photo of the cube. I created the CG cube and adjusted it to be real world scale, then it was time to use the cube picture. By bringing the image of the cube into Maya, I was able to match the CG cube to the cube in the photo and match the camera angle (as shown below).

Once the camera was matched, it was time to match the lighting. The purpose of the white ball is to provide light and shadow information, so this is where the images of the white cube came in handy. I was able to match the direction and intensity of the light and the shadows.

I gamma corrected the HDRI to bring in more of the colors from the environment that are present in the original image.

Photography for Project

March 30, 2019

Project 1 was introduced this week and our first assignment was to take photographs that we could use for the project. In class, we were taught how to use the Canon 5D Mark III camera. I took photos outside of Daffins Park where there were metal gates lined along the sidewalk. For our project, we need images of a clean plate, the area in shadow, a cube, a grey or white ball in light and in shadow, and a chrome ball with multiple exposures (for an HDRI).

Thankfully, there were no major issues on the day of shooting. However, it was tricky to obtain cohesive images as the clouds often moved over the sun; and by the time the sun reappeared, there was a significant difference in shadows as it had changed position in the sky. Tip: have everything pre-planned and be ready to take pictures quickly.

Below are the photographs I took for Project 1 and the HDRI created in Photoshop…