Photo Match Shadows to Scene

[jujubee]

I know this topic has been covered in many different places - all of which are very confusing. So I am starting a clean scene and am looking for help. I've taken two photos, the first which is an empty scene and a second which has a coffee mug on the table for reference. I want to put a fake coffee mug with proper shadows on the first photo (so that it feels like the shadow falls on the table and the mug fits in.)

First photo - without coffee mug:


Second photo - with coffee mug:


I've included a basic scene which is not accurately setup (lighting-wise.) I'm not looking for total accuracy at the moment but the method:
Download Max 8 Scene Here

Questions:
1) What's the best way to match a photo to a max scene. Simply a plane with a bitmap applied ot it then align a camera?

2) How do I isolate the vray shadow, and superimpose it on a photo in Photoshop? This brings into several other questions:
a) Which vray properties need to be rendered out
b) Does alpha contribution on the plane have to be set to -1?
c) I've hear of other people using a matte material - is this the vraywapper material or the max matte/shadow material?

[Mirko]

Hey, first of all: your image looks perfectly real!!! Very good integrated mug!!!

To 2)
b) & c):
Just give the ground plane a normal material. Then have a look into the VRay Properties of the plane. Activate "Matte object", set "Alpha contribution" to -1, activate "Shadows" and "Affect alpha".

That's it

[instinct]

@juju : you actually took a pretty tricky backplate for seamless compositing. Because the table has "glossy" reflections. Composing in a Cup in a really believable way wont be all that easy..The parts of that table would have slightly more reflection visible, wich is hard to do unless you got a panorama of the room.

[DaForce]

Mirko:
they are both photos..

He didnt post his 3d one.

[DaForce]

quickly just changed a few things (but not light position) and this is what i got. Just running out the door so cant do more for now.

But it should be rather easy to imitate IMO.

[RErender]

If I really wanted to nail it I would start off by recreating the scene with a photomodeler, I use Icarus. Then it should be pretty easy to set up the light sources and mattes.

Good idea to have a panorama of the area too for reflections.

[Mirko]

[Morbid Angel]

not only, but there is 2 critical things that has to be taken into account:

1 - the light source (lamp) size is so small that it produces 2 shadows as we see on the image. 1 shadow is from the actual lightbulb, so small it makes the shadow nearly sharp. 2 shadow is is from the dispersed light in the lamp's glass which has more of an undefined shadow.
2 - is the gi environment. What you have to consider is the light that is illuminating this room. Once you get those right, you should be able to match the shading.
and as eric said, the panarama is always a good idea.

[Paul Oblomov]

2minutes to render. 20 to make scene setup



P.S. OK. Added reflection to wood table and several things cleaned in PS. Still no things to reflect on CG cup (printer etc.). If you'd like the scene - no.p.

[jujubee]

Excellent work guys and thanks.

Having the entire environment is an ideal situation - but unfortunately, I've been getting photos from architects in which they have not captured a surrounding area - or if they did, they did a poor job with it.

So this is a situation in which you are stuck with what you have - a typical real-world situation.

[Morbid Angel]

http://www3.telus.net/public/vinnik8...photomatch.rar

[jujubee]

Morbid wins...

[percydaman]

no I WIN.....

[dlparisi]

Vray Toon? Love it!

[Morbid Angel]

wow