Some people like to highlight that all the glorious art has already been created. Those who say so perhaps forget to count in the endless possibilities of 3D design. Today movies can be filmed in a quarry of stone and 3D designers will add the turquoise sea, verdant pinewood and a surreal house on the shore.
The audience could suspect a house being improved using 3D design technique. But it is much easier to bribe with a landscape selling a matte-painting as the real one. Moreover, 3D designers are passionate to confuse questioning: “What do you think: is this a photograph or the art of 3D?”
This phenomenon is called photorealism. It is like a magic wand that brings a fantasy into the life while is used by a skilled artist. Obtaining render which is indistinguishable from a photograph became the Holy Grail of 3D design since 1960s. The target in this work is to reach perfection. In this particular case it means to imitate the reality to the smallest dots. It requires high level of attention even to the rarest details.
So we want to share our thorough list of the highly professional 3D artwork of photorealism. Hopefully, it will give you new ideas and inspire for the masterpieces.
A Vespid
Kuan Fu Sun
Kuan Fu Sun says that it took 30 days to finish a render of a vespid, using 3dsmax, Zbrush and Photoshop for post production. It is richly detailed from the tiniest parts of an insect such as body hair or the net of eyes to the floating bits of dandelion in the background. Daylight illumination and strong depth-of-field makes you feel the macro scale of a scene. Also precise textures of wings adds the final touch to realism in this image.
The Chesterfield Project
Benjamin Brosdau
Interior is something what surrounds us everyday. This classical interior 3D scene has all the elements and tiny details needed to fool a human eye. Accurate textures with extremely balanced shading and lighting of this rendering left us in awe. Benjamin Brosdau has completely achieved the same feeling of excessive, stylish richness that can be associated with 19th century classic interior design. What once appeared to him as a modeling task to get a famous chesterfield couch done, ended up becoming something much more complicated.
Bits Of Bread
Bertrand Benoit
All around the web this render by Bertrand Benoit is accredited as the most realistic one depicting our daily bread. Moreover, it indeed makes you hungry as hell. The author tells that he found a niche of rendering baked products almost accidentally. After a while he made a decision to build a small library of baked, carb-heavy assets. So he shared some of the results with a community of 3D designers and left them speechless. Bertrand Benoit is extremely accurate with the textures and as a result it is possible to feel the warmth of a loaf of bread.
The Classroom
Meny Hilsenrad, “Studio Aiko”
This is a possible future project of a design studio “Aiko”. Their original plan was to create a classroom environment from different camera angles that overlooked the entire classroom. Of course, later it turned out to be a highly challenging project: they went into much more complex work. One classroom has four different stories covered in separate lighting versions: daylight, night, sunny day and camera flash. Each contains precise details and high level of realism which does not blur even in the light of camera flash. Many of 3D designers use this idea as an inspiration for the generation of ideas. The team of “Studio Aiko” says that this project was done with a lot of love and dedication like no other.
Project’s making of is provided on vimeo.
Everything Beautiful Is Far Away
Marek Denko
Marek Denko is the 3D designer who fell into CG world when he was 15. Since then the artist stands for realism, details and perfection. This render reminds photographs made with Soviet film cameras: deep and somehow nostalgic. The author says that it took too long to finally finish this work: there were periods when he even could not look at it. A concept of this render is about being far away from everything you love. Marek Denko thinks that the airport is an exact place to feel that loneliness while walking unpersonalized between ‘Duty Free” shops and fake Irish pubs. Nevertheless, it was published in the 6th volume of “Digital Arts Maters” book series.
Eldorado
Marek Denko
This was supposed to be a commercial product. But… Ready-to-use 3D model of soil was left for the Marek Denko. So he kept the scene and professionally used it for the personal project. He mentions that he was not sure what will be the hero of the shot. An idea to use a toy came to the designer’s mind when he started finding toys he brought for his son from L.A. All of them were scattered around the house and garden: almost destroyed. Marek Denko found one of them. It was the 1953 Cadillac Eldorado. That’s how the author found a hero. But this is only a story behind. A process was much more difficult, asking at least few hours a day and 7 hours of rendering.
There is available retrospective of Marek Denko’s artwork on vimeo.
Old Lamp
Andrey Zhelem
There is a saying that the very first attempt usually fails. Then this render is an exception of a rule. “Old Lamp” is the first still-life image Andrey Zhelem has ever made. Firstly, he had an idea to create something old, but also sweet at the same time. And suddenly he got a picture in his head of a simple, but stunning still life render. He needed 7 days to reach his own limits of perfection and to finish it. Then it took only 1 hour of rendering to see these touching results.
The author also shares a tutorial for ‘Old Lamp’.
You’re Goddamn Right!
Riccardo Minervino
Riccardo Minervino works in the game industry, but never refuses experimenting. 3D designer has created a set of extremely photorealistic portraits. This one introduces you to Walter White aka “Heisenberg” from TV series “Breaking Bad”. At first, this 3D model was sculpted in Zbrush in just two days and later it was rendered in Octane. To render a portrait is a highly demanding task. It not only requires a precise work with outlook, but a designer must make the character alive providing him particular but concrete features.
You can also find making-ofs of his artwork.
It Was You
Toni Bratincevic
Tricycle. This render like a time machine brings everyone to the childhood. It was an intention of the author. He says that it is a reflection from his early memories. It has appeared as a picture of ‘Polaroid’ in designer’s mind: a coming render had to be as realistic as possible. Colour effects, abandoned things, old house, some light coming in, litter and windows without glass: all of them create mysterious atmosphere, awaken feelings and emit reminiscences. This work is dedicated to the author’s wife. Moreover, it was awarded with CG Choice Award and CGhub Gold Award.
Street 13-26
Grzegorz Wisniewski
A street view is a very common for most of us. The designer started creating this render only as a texture test, but he says he could not stop working on it. So the author decided to turn it into a complete scene. The hours he should ha