Best way to do post production in Photoshop

radem205

Hi,

My model contains one big object (hoouse) and an infinite plane to view the outside shadows of the object. Now I want to add some vegetations to my render image in Photoshop. For example, I want to add a tree on the backside of the object (before the plane and in the back of the object). Is it possible to get an image of the object, all shadows and transparency levels (so without the plane, but with the shadows that catch the plane) to make the post-production mucht easier?

I hope you guys know what I mean. Shortly, I want to know what is the best way to render a scene for post-production?

Thanks in advance!

holmes1977

Can you post a picture of what you have done.
So I maybe able to give you some tips.

Ive attached an example of my work
This will show you how much I detail in the render and how much I include in PS.
Raw Render

Photoshoped

Better examples of this are Free Agents work.
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=29692&p=260351#p260351

holmes1977

Here's some more great tip's from Nomeradona, on how to use channels
http://nomeradona.blogspot.com/2011/05/how-to-use-vray-channels-in-vray.html

Post your results

radem205

Thanks for your replies! I've looked at your links and I think I know how to do it.

Also I've looked at another tutorial about compositing vray layers into Photoshop: http://cg.tutsplus.com/tutorials/chaos-group-vray/compositing-v-ray-render-layers-in-photoshop/

Is this a good start for post-production and for adding some vegetation?

radem205

Btw, which grass material did you used to get the results like in your pictures?

holmes1977

I got my grass texture from here http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm/ID/240824
Expensive, but I use this material all the time. So it pays itself off.

radem205

@holmes1977 said:

I got my grass texture from here http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm/ID/240824
Expensive, but I use this material all the time. So it pays itself off.

Thanks for your reply!

I've a few questions according to your beautiful ambience in your pictures (I hope you want to answer these questions):

What kind of (color) adjustments have you applied in Photoshop to your model to get a cleaner and fresher coloring (there is a huge difference between your raw model and the final model)?
What decides you to put some vegetations in Sketchup (like the plants between the fences) and putting the rest of the vegetations in the post-production phase (why didn't you put all of the vegetations in post-production?) ?
I think you have put some images of trees in your model and makes them only visible in secondary to get some shadows, right?
Did you use Ambient Occlusion in post-production to get a more realistic look?
Did you use an hdri (if yes, can I get it somewhere?) or vraysun?

You understand that I'm impressed by the ambience of your work and I hope you can help me with these questions.

Thanks a lot!

holmes1977

@radem205 said:

Thanks for your reply!

I've a few questions according to your beautiful ambience in your pictures (I hope you want to answer these questions):

What kind of (color) adjustments have you applied in Photoshop to your model to get a cleaner and fresher coloring (there is a huge difference between your raw model and the final model)?

What decides you to put some vegetations in Sketchup (like the plants between the fences) and putting the rest of the vegetations in the post-production phase (why didn't you put all of the vegetations in post-production?) ?

I think you have put some images of trees in your model and makes them only visible in secondary to get some shadows, right?

Did you use Ambient Occlusion in post-production to get a more realistic look?

Did you use an hdri (if yes, can I get it somewhere?) or vraysun?

You understand that I'm impressed by the ambience of your work and I hope you can help me with these questions.

Thanks a lot!

Answers

1. I always tend to addd yellow and red into my image to give warmth in PS. By going to IMAGE-ADJUSTMENTS-COLOUR BALANCE. I also play with a combination of EXPOSURE, BRIGHTNESS and LEVELS.

2. I first made all the trees/plants into clipmaps/ components in my SU model. But I found that any clipmaps that were position where the sky was behind them, would ghost in the render. So the tree would have a faint white out line. So I now only use clipmaps where there is an object behind them. Like a house, fence etc. Hope this makes sense. So all trees which have sky behind them were included in PS.

3. Your totally right. I really like shadows.

4. I used Ambient Occlusion in the INDIRECT ILLUMINATION tab in Vray options. I use very low values. I think this is something people over use. I also like using a filter called HIGH PASS on a seperate blended layer in PS. This gives a sharpe result to your image.

5. I cant remember if I did or not. But here is a good source of free HDRI images http://vknt.be/free/skies/

rvdkruk

@holmes1977 said:

I got my grass texture from here http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm/ID/240824
Expensive, but I use this material all the time. So it pays itself off.

Hi, I'm on a quest for nice grass and impressed by yours! I noticed your grass texture already looks good in the raw render. How is that possible with the 1024x1024 texture size limitation in SU? What size is the turbosquid grass texture you used?

thanks in advance...

holmes1977

@rvdkruk said:

@holmes1977 said:

I got my grass texture from here http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm/ID/240824
Expensive, but I use this material all the time. So it pays itself off.

Hi, I'm on a quest for nice grass and impressed by yours! I noticed your grass texture already looks good in the raw render. How is that possible with the 1024x1024 texture size limitation in SU? What size is the turbosquid grass texture you used?

thanks in advance...

As far as I know........SU can import big-size JPEGs and retain the image internally, but displays 1024 x 1024 pixel image maximum. (Someone correct me if Im wrong)

The High Res grass material I use is 6144x6144 its about 22mb. Depending on how big I want my render. I reduce it in PS.

rvdkruk

@holmes1977 said:

As far as I know........SU can import big-size JPEGs and retain the image internally, but displays 1024 x 1024 pixel image maximum. (Someone correct me if Im wrong)

The High Res grass material I use is 6144x6144 its about 22mb. Depending on how big I want my render. I reduce it in PS.

Do you mean that although SU displays the 1024x1024, Vray uses the 6144x6144 texture for the render?

holmes1977

Thats how I believed it worked. But I maybe wrong