3D Photorealism Toolkit (Toolkits)
Written for those who work in 3-D graphics and want to create photorealistic-looking images, this book helps you increase both your artistic and technical expertise. The author, Bill Fleming, doesn't focus on any one specific product, so you don't need to worry about having the right tool. However, there are a few advanced topics, such as some surfacing and lighting techniques, that you can only explore to the fullest in higher-end packages such as 3D Studio Max, SoftImage, Alias, and LightWave.The book first teaches you about photorealism, the art of making images look as close to real photographs as computer-generated art can appear. Fleming puts forth the 10 principles of 3-D photorealism, which encourage you to create clutter, familiar objects, and details, and credible textures, edges, and lighting. He continues to explore these principles in the second part of the book, where you delve into hands-on projects and read his detailed advice. The book helps you to add basic details, such as seams, to your objects; reveal an object's construction by adding screws and cables; add mechanical details to your objects that allow for believable motion; and create beveled edges, scratches, and dents.The third section covers surfacing techniques, teaching you that all objects have some degree of aging and some degree of specularity (light-reflecting capability). You learn to avoid stretching image maps and repeating patterns and how to create the look of water and of glass. Next you create image maps, such as color, luminosity, diffusion, secularity, glossiness, reflection, transparency, and bump maps, and you also use procedural textures to create surfaces.The fourth section helps you plan your scene and even create interiors that reflect the personality of your subject--and add clutter. Finally, the last section gives you practice with camera angles and lighting and emphasizes radiosity, which is the indirect light distributed among objects in any given environment.Appendices include resources for modeling and surfacing source material; tables of attributes for metal, plastic, and rubber; and an index of refraction values for transparent materials and light colors rated in Kelvin. The book thoroughly discusses core photorealism concepts and the techniques for addressing them. There are also instructions for working along with the book's projects, which include everything from simple models to intricate scenes. A companion Web site offers support materials, including images, for the book's exercises, as well as free models and textures and links to related resources.--Kathleen Caster