AMG GT 2014 Dortmund/Germany

[Kaihes]

I want to share the first results of my upcoming AMG GT series.
The backplates and HDRI's were shot in Dortmund/Germany. The AMG GT was modeled by Humster3d.

Feel free to criticize ;-)

[Ludvik Koutny]

Perspective of car in the backplates doesn't really work in most of the pictures. And neither does the lighting. The car looks quite fake and style does not get along with stylization of the backplates.

[Kaihes]

Ok I have to admit that I'm new to the whole "CGI-world" . Could you explain it in a a little more detail? The car was positioned with a reference cube (except for the first image), but perhaps I made a mistake....

[Ludvik Koutny]

It just looks generally weird, as if it was tilted to the right. And to match the car with backplate better, i would first try to take some raw photographic backplate, without any retouches, integrate the car into it and render them together, and then stylize and retouch the entire image with a car. If you place car into already stylized backplate, it's a lot more challenging to do right.

[romullus]

Agree with Rawalanche on perspective. And i just can't stand that "Dragan" style. It's so overused...

[Kaihes]

It just looks generally weird, as if it was tilted to the right. And to match the car with backplate better, i would first try to take some raw photographic backplate, without any retouches, integrate the car into it and render them together, and then stylize and retouch the entire image with a car. If you place car into already stylized backplate, it's a lot more challenging to do right.

Mh okay, but this is basically what I did. The first image is the "raw" image (ok some highlight recovery and the best people) with the car integrated. And then retouch everything together. But I will have a look at the perspective. ;-)

[Kaihes]

Agree with Rawalanche on perspective. And i just can't stand that "Dragan" style. It's so overused...

"Dragan" style?

[romullus]

Don't know, maybe it has different name novadays, but it's basically the same - boosted midtone contrast and saturation over the top. Sadly, it's pretty much standart in automotive photography :/

[Kaihes]

Okay, thank you guys ;-)
I will show you the hopefully fixed version ;-)

[Kaihes]

Ok, I changed the colour, the red seems easier to handle, the position of the car, and the HDRI.
Does the postion still looks weird?

The bright spots of the sun on the backplate needs to be removed. I will add some reflections on the most important lines of the car as well.

[Ludvik Koutny]

Nope, still not working. Reflections are weirdly distorted, so the model itself could be the problem. Start with some simple integration, into static backplate, no motion blur. First try to master that before jumping into more complex scenarios. Also make sure your model is good. If there is some funky topology, no matter how hard you try, it will always look weird, because car paints mostly reflect sharply, and reveal crumpled surfaces ;)

[Kaihes]

Thank you Rawalanche :-)
So I changed the HDRI and the Backplate with the static ones. I added some teapots as well, so that it might be easier to find the most significant problems.
The model is from humster3d, so I guess it should be fine....

[Ludvik Koutny]

Car chasis seems to be full of distortions, so it's not a good model i am afraid. Nor is the backplate, because it's super difficult to compose objects that are partially in shadow, and partially in light. The case you have here is really one of the most difficult. To make successful image you need a good starting conditions. That means good car model, and good backplate :)

[Kaihes]

Thanks Rawalanche for your patience  ;-)

I'm sure I can fix the backplate...I have some exposures without sun, so I can fix the sunny spots.
Is it possible to fix the distortion problem? To be honest I don't know if I understand that problem. I always thought distortions are a natural effect, if the surface isn't completly flat. But the car body has curves etc., so that distortions should be visible or am I wrong?

[Ludvik Koutny]

Like this one. It should look like entire chasis is made of one piece which has been cut apart. Here it looks like two pieces that bend inwards into the area of the cut. So you can see reflection doing something looking like two bubbles next to each other. This is most common problem of the low quality models.

As for backplates, if you done them yourself, just make yourself (or get yourself) one that is either completely in sun or sky light, or completely in shadow, but ground area on which car will be placed should have no areas where shadows and light meet in contrast, like this one. These situations are solvable, but really difficult, so if you are just learning the process, then pick yourself easier scenario first :)