Ibiza & Bridges – Part 3

This is the third and last location used for a private IBL (Image Based Lighting) and Autodesk Maya project dealing with car renderings called Ibiza & Bridges. Location is the in 2013 built Honsell Bridge in Frankfurt with its perfect view on the EZB and the Frankfurt Skyline. Photography (IBL and backplates) were shot on a rainy day with dark clouds.

Google Earthh screenshot of the location

The full spherical panorama was shot similar to part 1&2 of this series with a Canon 60D (APS-C sensor) and a Walimax fisheye lens with 11 mm focal length. Five bracketing series plus zenith, nadir an offshot with seven 2 EV shots each were necessary to complete the panorama for the IBL.

Equirectangluar projection of the panorama

Several distances such as the width of the street were measured on location to ensure a easy and fats camera setup in Autodesk Maya. For calibration check and fine tuning, a simple polygonal plane an a reference cube with the bounding box dimension of the Seat Ibiza was used.

Autodesk Maya screenshot of the camera calibration

The environment isa lit by the IBL only. Additionally, four mesh lights within the car are used to simulate the cars spot and fog lights.

Mesh lights for spot and fog lights

For this setup the a dark red metallic car paint was chosen to match the slightly dramatic atmosphere.

Rendering with car and soft shadows

Post production was done in Photoshop. To darken the backplate Color Lookup filter NightFromDay.CUBE was used at approx. 50% strength. Additionally, lens flare effects wre used for the four front lights of the car.

Final rendering after post processing

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *