PG SoA Lighting Masterclass 2

With the second masterclass done and dusted its time to review the images and reflect again on how much great work can be completed in just one week by a group of talented and enthusiastic visualisation artists.

This year the project we used as a base was Strom Architect's Superhouse which was a complete 3d scene that Phil Hunter did for The Boundary last year. Students were encouraged to change the environment and lighting and even to alter the architecture if they felt that way inclined (some people really got stuck in!).

All images were produced using either vray or corona, with a lot of forest pack pro and either my PG Skies or vray/corona sun & sky.

Bence Fischer - http://www.brown-blue.com/

A simple clearing in the woods provided the backdrop for a lot of experimentation with lighting and mood. Some strong shots and a very seductive view of the spiral staircase. Bence wanted to make a version with god rays similar to my Farnsworth House renders from many years ago, but ended up with something darker, moodier and probably better.

Brian Sørensen - http://brianbaastrup.com/

I loved the idea of nestling the Superhouse in a cliff face and it was also technically very well executed. A favourite amongst many of us here at The Boundary.

Christian Schreinert - https://www.facebook.com/chris.alexander.ms

I can only assume Christian needed to get away from the day job for a while and indulge in a bit of creative escapism. Amazing amount of work and was fun for me to see the scene and ideas develop. A relatively calm lighting setup as that's what was needed.. I'll let the image speak for themselves,, enjoy:

Dung Nguyen - http://www.behance.net/badung

Dung made an amazing landscape in the first 2-3 days and then focused on finding 3 or 4 strong compositions. I hope what comes across in his renderings is that once he had this base for experimentation he really tested a lot of different HDR skies and moods through the use of heavy atmospheric effects. A pleasure for me to see the variation that can be achieved once you have set everything up simply by changing the lighting. 

Daniel Szalapski - http://www.keyframe3d.com/

A very refined set of images from Daniel, who set the Superhouse on a lake and came up with a couple of lighting setups that really suited the environment. A strong b&w shot and I especially like the dusk shots which really make the Superhouse look appropriately Super.

Eleonora Galimberti - http://www.eleonoragalimberti.com/

A beautiful photograph from dezeen provided the inspiration for a Superhouse set deep in the jungle. Eleonora hadn't used Forest Pack very much but managed to create a really good looking backdrop for her Superhouse images. Deliberately low key images help to make the architecture look very sophisticated and encourage the viewer to look for more in the images. The three landscape shots are amongst my favourites from the whole week.

Hala Hanna - https://www.behance.net/HalaHanna3d

Hala went for a Mediterranean feel which I think works very well with the architecture. Some very strong compositions, both rigid and symmetrical and also more free flowing. Theres a very nice quality of light and the final shots have a very nice soft feel to them.

Maayan Golan

Mayaan started from a great reference image of the sea which set the tone for her set of images. A bit of testing of lighting to figure out how to match the reference image and then constructing a seaside environment. I encouraged her to do a detail shot of the fence since it have been so expertly modelled.

Ronen Bekerman - http://the-craft.co

A pleasure to work with Ronen as always, and especially to show how I like to approach making a 3d scene, keeping options open for compositions and lighting. A strong concept, great lighting and also a beautiful colour palette.

Rocco Valantines - http://www.mmpaa.eu/

Rocco is an architect and took my invitation to play around with the architecture to make it respond to the environment seriously. I love the landscape he created, and the way the HDR skies chosen seem to fit with it perfectly. A really strong set of images that came from a lot of testing of cameras and different lighting setups.

Sebastian Kraus - https://www.facebook.com/sebastian.kraus.5011

Sebastian managed to hold his enthusiasm for Photoshop in check long enough to make a great wintery alpine landscape as a base for exploring lighting and compositions. The interior shot took on a cool high tech feel and became know as the James Bond shot and I particularly liked that Sebastian took advantage of seeing a potential composition in a Photoshop reflection pass to create the staircase detail shot.

Yaroslav Rojen

Yaroslav went for a wintery scene, initially based on my 'Twins' project, but once we started playing with lighting it took on it's own feel. Great attention to detail, and snowmen!

PG SoA Lighting Masterclass

This is the full gallery of a quite amazing amount of work accomplished in one week by 12 students. You can find out more or get in touch with the artists from the links provided, or feel free to leave comments below.

If you are interested in attending one of my lighting masterclasses, there is a strong possibility i'll do another one next year with SoA. Keep an eye on the State of Art Academy homepage for announcements.

Alessandro Consonni - http://www.behance.net/ac3dartist

Alessandro concentrated on interiors, and went for a very stylish minimal look. Rendered in Corona and with Corona environment fog which worked out really well. Click the thumbs for lightbox mode.

Alessandro Massi Mauri -  http://www.lissoniassociati.com/

Alessandro Massi Mauri started with some basic changes to the architecture (black timber) and made a desert landscape which worked surprisingly well. An alternative, Rick Joy inspired version of the house completes a great set of renders.

Darwin Ceballos - https://www.behance.net/Darwin_Ceballos

Darwin went for a Nordic winter theme and found some very pleasing lighting set-ups in which the architecture looks right at home.

George Nijland - http://georgenijland.nl/

A very strong set of images from George, who chose to concentrate on landscaping and exterior views. I especially like the subtle and carefully managed colours of the green grasses and the blues in the sky. Not an easy thing to do well.

Giuliano Sabadin - http://www.giulianosabadin.blogspot.com/

Lots of images with potential, but the wintery scene is my favourite, plus he seemed to knock it together in no time at all!

Jeroen Henning - http://www.ciiid.nl/

Jeroen tried a bit of everything and as a result seemed to get a lot out of the week. Corona AND Vray. Solid interiors and ambitious, expansive exteriors. I really hope to see the valley shot rendered higher res and with lots of detail added.

Matthias Arndt - http://www.lichtecht.de/

Some nice moves in changing the architecture set the tone for Matthias' images. Clean compositions and balanced lighting. I especially liked the buildings new relationship to the landscape.

Oguz Kalafat - https://www.behance.net/oguzkalafat

Oguz used the classic Julius Shulman LA image as inspiration and amended the architecture to suit his purpose. A strong set of well balanced moonlit images.

Paolo Faleschini - http://www.paolofaleschini.com/

Paulo took my suggestion of making B&W images, and did it really really well. Strong compositions, great use of light. As Gianpiero said to me later, they sum up the product of a lighting masterclass perfectly.

Robert Dukes - http://www.robertdukes.com/

Robert took the existing landscape and developed it even further, and modified the architecture quite a bit too. A great selection of compositions, and lots of good experimentation with different HDR skies as well.

Sandra Ferminan - http://www.ferminnan.com/

Sandra matched the atmosphere perfectly of the inspiration images she had chosen. Strong compositions and really beautiful colours, especially in the tree shot.

Walter Pegolo - http://www.oecusdesign.it/

Another mix of Corona & Vray with a strong emphasis on interiors. Walter also tried his hand at an exterior which resulted in a nice soft dusk image.

PETER GUTHRIE LIGHTING MASTERCLASS

Starting the week with a preview of some of the images produced in what I hope was a useful and fun week for my 12 students at the State of Art Academy. I'll upload all of the images in another blog post, but to give you an idea of the range of images that started life as Henry's Carey House here is one from each student, in no particular order.

Really fantastic work I hope you'll agree!

Top to bottom:

Alessandro Massi Mauri, Alessandro Consonni, Jeroen Henning, Matthias Arndt, Oguz Kalafat, Paolo Faleschini, Robert Dukes, George Nijland, Sandra Ferminan, Walter Pegolo, Giuliano Sabadin, Darwin Ceballos

Merry Christmas - God Jul!

(click for lightbox)

Wishing all readers of this blog a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

'God Jul' is Swedish for Merry Christmas and is also much easier to write when cutting down trees with a virtual chainsaw.

quick technical stuff: 3dsmax, vray 2.4, forest pro, fog in vray, lit by 1912, terrain from the free version of world machine and some smoke and silly things added in photoshop.

New Website! New Blog!

New Website!

Designed by Mattias Forsberg from Humblebrag, a digital design agency based in Borlänge, Sweden. It runs on Squarespace which means it should work nicely whether you are looking at it on a browser, smartphone or tablet. I'm very happy with it, and hope you like it too!

Mattias has also helped with my branding (woo!), so if you are a facebook user, feel free to check out my updated page there, and expect to see a new logos/profile pics appearing on twitter, flickr, vimeo etc.

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New blog! - Scrapbook

Ever since I started using google reader (RIP) I've been keeping a visual collection of images that inspire me and give me ideas for composition, colours, mood etc. and also as a way of remembering cool projects.  The name, concept and probably a large part of the content is of course is inspired by Andy Matthew's Architecture Pastebook. Thanks Andy, hope you don't mind! I'll try to be strict with my tagging so that it's easy to find images, and am also going to make sure that the photographer in question is credited and if possible a link to their website or portfolio. If you want to know more about the project or architect, you'll have to dig a bit deeper, by clicking the image itself.

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Old blog

I think I have successfully ported over all of the content and comments from the old wordpress blog, and the new layout means that images can now be bigger and clearer.  I hope to find a bit more time over the next few months to do some more tutorials and other new content.

I also want to thank Johnnie for his fine work on the original website and 6 years of brilliant support, zero downtime and all round excellence.

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Hayes Davidson are recruiting!

Hayes Davidson are recruiting! They are currently looking for a Technical Projects Manager, Technical Photomontage Artists and 3D Artists. For information about how to apply, visit http://www.hayesdavidson.com/about/jobs.php

I rent a desk at Hayes Davidson and have the daily pleasure of working alongside a great team of talented and enthusiastic artists, as well as (the equally talented) Patrick Vale and Nick Rochowski.