Merry Christmas! (updated)

[Speedster]

Hi all;

Every year I revisit my "Christmas Card", modeled in SolidWorks, and first rendered in KeyShot 2.  So this year it's in KeyShot 6, using many of our new toys and tools.

Almost all lighting is from tiny area diffuse "Christmas tree lights" (most are occluded by the ornaments), with just one Area Diffuse panel in the upper right corner, but at very low wattage.  The Ground Ramp geometry is a heavily frosted glass, and the ornaments red anodize.

The environment HDR is set at zero brightness.  Rendered using Interior Mode, set at Max Time of 20 minutes, on 32 cores.

So...  here's to a very merry Christmas, and a 2017 filled with great renderings and minimum politics!

Bill G

[bdesign]

Beautiful, Bill! Thank you I really like the way your HDRI @ zero technique with Interior Mode brings out the specular highlights. Very nice.

Cheers,
Eric

[Speedster]

I really like the way your HDRI @ zero technique with Interior Mode brings out the specular highlights.

Thanks, Eric!  I "think" zero HDR brightness is essentially the same as an enclosed volume when using the Interior Mode.  Seems to have worked so far...
Bill G

[Despot]

Nice one Bill, Happy Christmas

John

[Josh3D]

Very cool Bill! Love the lights shining through the tree. A very Merry Christmas and best New Year to you and Geri!

[Speedster]

Hi all!

I majored in Technical Theatre Arts in college, focusing on lighting design, and worked several years professionally.  It was amazing how you could model an actor or set using only light.

So I've been experimenting with "Light Painting" lately, and this update is just the very beginning.  But it's a good subject to horse around with!  Added a number of Area Lights (discs), some gobos, etc.

Back in the 1990's, I had the great honor to work with Aaron Jones, one of the world's premier product and fine art photographers.  He had a huge studio here in Santa Fe, and shot everything on large format Linhof and Deardorff cameras.  He had his own color lab in-house.  I made many props for his work, many of them shown on his Motion Studies reel.

I also designed and prototyped his "Hosemaster" lighting system, which uses a high wattage lamp and a long very flexible fiber-optic cable to which you could attach a wide range of heads, like wands, points, snoots and the like.  You worked in a black-out studio ("HDR set at zero"), opened the shutter and simply walked over and painted a portion of the model with light.  You wore black, of course.  As the camera sees only light, it never captured you as you walked around in front of the lens.  Shots could take several days!

I share all of this as I am starting to attempt emulating his "Light Painting" concept in KeyShot. For real inspiration by a great master, please visit Aaron's website!  He retired several years ago, but his site is current. 

http://aaronjonesphoto.com/

Bill G

[Josh3D]

Some very interesting background Bill. Thanks for sharing. I like this new shot better!

[Robb63]

Small world Bill!!
My best friend was a huge Hosemaster user , and had many conversations with Aaron Jones as it was being developed. He's got some great samples of Hosemaster work still on his web site.

http://www.davo.com/_248-588-9600_/still.html

[Speedster]

Wow!  Nice work!  Aaron's studio assistant  was Clay Ellis, who works here in Santa Fe.  We worked a lot together, and of course he learned from the Master.  He also uses the Hosemaster System.  http://www.clayellisphoto.com/

I feel the Hosemaster is to film photography as KeyShot is to digital.  Amazing!

Bill G

[bdesign]

Great shot, Bill! Love the color palette. Look forward to seeing more "Light Painting" works from you

Cheers,
Eric

[Dylan]

Merry Christmas to you all once again!

[Arian Shamil]

Nice and merry christmas to you too