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Need Photography Help - Shooting Reference Photos For 3D Characters

Community
#1

My friends and I have started a video game company. We are in the process of shooting facial photos of ourselves as references for in-game characters. My buddy bought a pretty good camera, a Canon PowerShot G9, I believe. It’s capable of shooting 4000x3000 uncompressed images, which is good for any texture work we will be doing for our in-game characters. We were basically looking for something that was capable of taking pictures at the same quality level as images you would be able to pick up over at 3d.sk.

We did an outdoor photoshoot with a tripod & a white backdrop on a sunny day, but it then became apparent we have no idea what we are doing, as the results were less than desireable. I don’t know if it was the sunlight or some camera setting, the flash / lack of flash that messed them up. When I viewed them in Photoshop to start editing them together, they came out really grainy and lost a lot of the detail that I was hoping to capture and use in the rest of my design process.I was hoping to get enough detail in the character’s texture map to apply it to my model in ZBrush, extract the detail into the model, and create a photorealistic model at render time in my other 3D application.

Can anybody give me any tips or point me in some direction as to the right and wrong things to do so that when we do another photoshoot, we aren’t wasting our time? Is there any equipment that would help? A good lighting setting for these photos? We were thinking of having a professional photoshoot done, but if it’s something we can do on our own, it would be more cost effective.

Thanks for any help.

-Andrew

#2

Well, I have almost no experience in video games, but I do have it in photography.

first of all, shoot it in raw format. you can handle a little bit of over or under exposure in photoshop.

Second, NEVER use sunlight unless you really know what you´re doing.

Its easier to control two or three lights in a studio.

I suppouse that for ref. textures you will need the less possible shadows, so, what you should do is place one light on each side of the face, and use the camera´s flash…

Bf&After.jpg

then you could use adjust the image a bit with phtotshop, playing around with exposure and shadows/highlights should give you a pretty nice texture.

The camera we used here is very similar to your camera…

Another advice, don´t aim to have a full body with a ton of details from a 10 megapixel phtoto… you can always have more detail with more photos

#3

Random:

  1. Avoid any low, high or odd angles with camera, will distort.Use a tripod for best results
    2.Do not use lens that distort. (fish-eye lens, extreme zoom lens
    3.Remember the technical term in modelling called orthogonal view.
    Front, sides,top.
    4.If the images will be used on a model in a scene,shoot the images in the same light.
    Do not, for instance use a flash, if the image will be used on a character in a room with natural light.
    Photoshop can adjust, but not completely.
    5.Direct sunlight is too harsh,giving troublesome shadows.
    If you are working in sunlight find open shade, such as under a tree or in the shade of a building.
    Cloudy or overcast days are best.
    6.I use subtractive lighting, which means go into open shade and put gobos( think large pieces of material) to block someof the light. Taking from rather
    than adding to.
  2. Be aware that when you photograph outdoors in almost any
    situation there is light color.Putting the subject next too
    a red building in the shade is an extreme example.
  3. Background…plainer the better.If possible bring your background with you.
  4. If using artificial light look up the principal of three lights ( main, fill, back/rim
    10 Depending on patience of model you can use these shots
    a. Full body ( all angles, get model to lay down on plain
    floor, yeah I mean it)
    b.Head ( remember orthogonoal), don’t forget a top of the head view. You stand on chair.
    c.Head details: eyes, nose, mouth, ears.
    Don’t eat garlic before shoot.
  5. Now…if you care to mark up the background…

Shots should line up in viewports when laid out.
Tripod,Tripod,Tripod
If you don’t have one, steal one.
If you don’t have photoshop, steal it.

Sorry what was the question?:smiley:
Best of luck:+1:

#4

More random.

Check camera settings, object is not to get the most shots. Quality is the most important thing, cameras have settings that will give you lots of shots with bad quality or few shots at better quality.

If you have a laptop that you can download the photos to, take it with you
if you have to travel to a location.
Camera previews suck for what you want.

Be patient with the model, remember his/her expression is not important.
It is not portraiture, its technical.
What you need is …meat!

If you use a white sheet and you have auto exposure, results will not
be correct ( same with black sheet).
Should be a neutral gray background( not really practical, but think
in terms of gray)

The more you enlarge ,the grainier the results. Get as close as you can
without distortion.

Try to use somewhere close by for the shoot.
Observe it during various times of the day, shadows, dog droppings, etc.

Remember Photoshop has a cloning tool, if you get one really good one…

Opinion, do you really want photos with the pores the size of Mars?
For years photographers spent lots of time hiding what 3d people look for.

Have a few cameras, digital and normal.
Digital…really expensive one ( Nikon, over a thousand) and a cheap one (Fuji, about two hundred). Would not try to tell you that the cheap one produces better results,but if you are careful you can exact a quality that will work.

Best texture and modelling shots I ever did were of an old man outside
a church on a wedding day.
Never thought I would get the results I did.
He has no idea of how many digital people he is part of.:wink:

All of this, plus above, sounds terribly complicated, it is not.
Trial and error!!!
Thanks to the digital age, photoshop, and, most importantly what
your results will be used for, fairly easy.

#5

If you can afford the money, use a 3 cameras setup (front, left, right)
It will help you A LOT to find the right profile if you’re able to aim the right cam with the left, and vice versa.

#6

Totally forgot this.:rolleyes:

Garage, open doors, model in chair just inside of doors out of the sun.

You outside shooting in.

JUST THAT SIMPLE!!!

#7

Was just told to add this.

Remember to thank the poor patient bastard that poses
for you, they don’t grow on trees.

#8

Thanks you guys for all your input, especially bicc39. I didn’t expect to get such a large amount of feedback. I got some additional tips on tweaking camera settings, ISO’s, exposures, etc from another site… I think with that and the info you guys gave me, we should be more than prepared the next time we shoot our pics.