 Hello, my name is Aspen Lute. I am an Norwegian 3d generalist Visual artist I guess and I like to use Blender to make videos and for the past two years I've been posting videos on YouTube where I've been making tutorials step-by-step guides and just how to make stuff in Blender But we're not going to be talking about my YouTube channel today We're going to be talking about something that I care about and I think about every single day and it's for realism the process of taking something Virtual on your computer and turning it into a scene that feels real and has some authentic feeling to it So we're going to start out by looking at this scene here. We have a car It's just going to be added more more details until we have an environment that looks That it could be realistic in every single angle so We add some grass we had turn on the cycles rendering which looks amazing and then we add more trees This is from Botanic and the car is from traffic and then there's another blender out on called real city So these are all assets that are available to find online But what we want to do is that we want to turn this into a scene that looks Real in any direction. So now I'm gonna play a video and it's probably gonna need some Need some help because I messed up the embedding of the video There we go. So as you can see we're using the Nishita sky texture to get this beautiful Hard sunlight in cycles. We add in a car. We make sure that every direction that you watch It's gonna be Forealistic backdrop so we're making this environment and the reason why we're doing this is we want to add a camera And if you can add a camera, then we can start making this photo realistic scene So we want to build this scene up and we also want to add some backstory to this So to the ground of this scene. We're adding this road So here you can see I'm using these curves just add some roads So the grass will be sort of pushed down like this. There's cars been driving here So when we see this car here, we can understand what has happened So now we can place a camera wherever we want. So we want to try and place a camera up here and animate it But something about this just doesn't look real, you know, I'm not feeling this so When you're looking at this render now It can be tempting to ask yourself the question Why doesn't this look real? Let me just go to the next slide here Yeah, this question. Why doesn't this look real? And what I think is the problem with this question and this question is going to hit you like a truck It's like a really Difficult question to answer and it's a comprehensive question And what I want to do is that I want to Present to you today some questions that are easier to ask So instead of why doesn't this look real which I think is the wrong question I have prepared some questions that I think are a lot easier to ask And that is what this presentation is all about So I want you to treat the virtual scene like a real life recording situation So we're going to ask ourselves question based on the real life And yeah, so the first question is who is recording this The second question is why were they filming? So let's break this down who is recording this by asking yourself this question You will learn more about the technical context of your scene So for example, who is the camera operator? What camera are they using? What's the experience of the cinematographer? Have they done it before what is happening here quite technically? And then it will also give you more about the camera equipment quality If it's an expensive camera, what's the dynamic range? Do you have any chromatic aberration here? What's going on technically with the camera? And the second question is why were they filming? And this question will reveal intention about your scene For example, has it happened before? Is it something that's been rehearsed? Is it a documentary? Is it an event that is quite unusual? And by asking these questions and really stepping outside the box You can learn quite existential question What is the reason for this video to exist? And if you can truly understand this Then I think that's the step in the right direction if you want to achieve through for realism So let's try this let's use our clip and let's try and ask ourselves this question But now you might be thinking this is a little bit difficult because This is just a camera in London. No one really There's no cinematographer here. This is just hypothetical and it's just a virtual scene So to make this question give a little bit more sense, let's try and practice by asking them on a real scene instead So I'm going to pull up another video. This is from the Shibuya crossing in Japan in Tokyo And we're going to try and extract as much data as you can from this video file So I might help. I might need some help playing this video Yeah, sorry. I embedded the videos in the wrong format. I think so they have to do this manually. I'm sorry Okay, so here you can see we have the video of Shibuya crossing Let's ask ourselves these questions. Who is recording this? Okay, I'm thinking it's Maybe an amateur because it's a little bit shaky And the dynamic range isn't really good or at least it seems to be a little bit overexposed And the lens isn't the sharpest in the world and it's It seems to be on a 70 millimeter shot. Okay, why were they filming? It's a pretty Interesting event in Shibuya. All these people come rushing into the street I'm thinking that what we just saw is a clip where Where someone is just trying to Film what's happened. It's a tourist that got excited about an unusual situation. So Some Some of the details that we see some noticeable camera details Just the next slide. Yeah, we got a soft lens and we got some overexposed areas Not necessarily overexposed but the dynamic range of the camera isn't high enough to be able to see the details in the Car paint for example Some and we also got some shaky footage. No tripod or stabilization And I'm guessing it's a medium budget digital camera So what we have here is that we have a video recording of an unusual event that a tourist got excited about And if you're a little bit confused as to why we're doing this, why are we asking these rudimentary questions these fundamental questions about these video clips is that I think this is a great process So if it doesn't make sense right now, let's just trust the process and let's try this one more time So I have another video clip which is Perhaps I should tell you in advance that it's a video clip, but yeah So what I can see right away just from the thumbnail layer is that this actually has a little bit of lens distortion so we're probably dealing with a cheap lens and It's quite dark outside. So It's excited to see what's going to be the um Light sensitivity of this sensor Okay, so we can see that yeah this this camera is quite light sensitive and we're moving around we're filming this couch which I don't think really matters because As you can see of the camera motion here, it's sort of sliding around it's floating around a little bit Which kind of feels like it was shot on a gimbal. So I'm guessing that this is some sort of Hobby filmmaker trying out this new gimbal and it's actually it's a little bit unstable still so it's probably an improperly balanced gimbal Shot with a DSLR. Oh, and the the bokeh in the distance there is also a little bit uneven And yeah, we can actually see the camera operator in reflection there so If we look at what we got now we got On the next slide. Yeah, we got some severe lens distortion Which tells us that this is a cheap lens and we got some ugly bokeh not necessarily ugly But definitely asymmetrical and not round that you would expect to see in more premium cine lenses And we also got our gimbal. We can see that there's a gimbal being used there So we know that it's an we can assume that improperly balanced gimbal It is a camera with strong low-light performance probably the a7s mark 2 And what we have is that the video is a recording of an inexperienced cinematographer testing a gimbal camera stabilizer So why are we doing this? Why are we trying to look at these video clips and ask ourselves these rudimentary fundamental questions This is what I think is the beautiful part of this process. So let's just let's just have a look at what we did So what we have done is we've taken a real video and we've asked ourselves the questions Who is recording this? Why were they filming? We tried to extract this information And we are trying to learn more about the recording situation We don't know what happened But we're gonna have to try to assume and try to come up with a reason why could this happen And what we have is we have some sort of idea of what the recording context could be And this next part is the entire reason why I'm standing here is the whole point of my presentation I want you to take this process that we just did and I want to reverse it I want you to start out with the recording situation. I wanted to imagine Somehow someone brought a real camera to a real place and they started recording this And I want you to try and fill the gaps and add the context Who might be recording this situation and what could possibly be a reason to bring a camera to this place And then I want you to apply all those thoughts into your 3d scene And that will just change your mindset completely because now you have to deal with the consequence of having one of these guys in your scene This is the camera operator cinematographer person holding the camera And they are they bring so much to your scene they every time a person picks up a camera something magical happens They have an intention. They have hopes and dreams stuff. They're afraid of they have stuff They want to do stuff. They don't want to do stuff. They're being told to do but don't want to do anyways And stuff they're being paid to do and stuff. They're being not paid enough to do so We want to try and recreate this. Let's go back to our first scene And let's try and add a real life cinematographer or camera operator or just a person with a phone To our scene and let's see how we're able to Capture this scene in a perhaps more photo realistic way than the first render that we started up with But we have to ask ourselves this cam this question first Why would you film a camera? Now? Why would you film a car? What could possibly be a reason to film a car? And we have to take this question very seriously because if you're if you're not able to use proper logic Then everything falls apart. So what could possibly be a reason for someone to film a car? Okay, so let's try and use our brain and try and actually think logically about this I have prepared three examples for just what could possibly be reason first example It's an ad for the car. Okay. It fits an ad for the car that we have placed in our scene I'm thinking that someone is paying money to Show that car in a really nice way. So you want to you want to show the car in a beautiful way, which probably means that you don't want heavily distorted lens you don't want A soft lens you want on ugly bokeh you want a camera that is expensive So we have our expensive camera and you don't want a Cinematographer or a camera operator. It's just waving this around with no attention. You want an experienced cinematographer So we just have to extend our logic from the beginning of the Start where we have it's an ad for the car. So we have to Apply the logic in every step of the way. So now what we're going to try and make Is we're going to try and make a video that exists because someone got paid to make the car look as good as possible So the first thing we do we go to google and we search for expensive camera We get the rlx lf for example, it is a beautiful large sensor It's going to produce some nice shallow depth of field and it has a really high dynamic range So we will see all the details in the highlights or not all but enough You know and then we have this beautiful lens and now we don't want this camera to be shaking around on an unstable gimbal We want it to be really heavy and we want it to move slowly So we're adding one of these bad boys this heavy Goes on the rails and it's just it's almost difficult to mess this up, you know so Yeah, and i'm going to play another video just uh Yeah, so what we're going to do now is we're going to take this concept of our heavy expensive camera And we're going to add it to blender. So that means that we're going to just take our Cameras and add a few keyframes. Just keep it going really slowly So let's have a look Yeah, so there you can see the camera is just crawling Super slowly. I'm not sure if you can even see that it's crawling super slowly toward the car And if you were a cinematographer you would think a lot about where you're placing the camera here So we're placing the camera far away So when you're rendering this you get this beautiful shallow depth of field And the camera is sort of creeping towards the car and You're you're revealing that the car is in a forest for example by going side to side So let's have a look at what we just did we have added a um The camera allows us to have um We have a telephoto lens. So we're separating our our um Object a little bit from the background by we're getting this beautiful depth of field And also since we have to go in the mindset of what would a professional cinematographer do They would probably not want to reveal that this is a production So in the reflection of the car, you can't really see the camera crew And that's deliberate because that's the stuff that you have to think about So you're that's why you often maybe see a car filmed from a little bit um diagonally, you know That can sometimes happen at least unless you have a higher budget then you can just remove it in post, I guess Okay, so we have to come up with another reason to film a car in the forest How about someone got a new drone Okay, so we got a Lightweight camera and want to attach the camera to the drone and now this camera is going to be significantly cheaper So we can have Lower dynamic range we can have uh, for example a lot of barrel distortion lens distortion and we can have Chromatic aberration we can even add some more sharpening and we can add a lot of noise So and that since it's a new drone We're probably going to have an inexperienced camera operator So what we're going to have to create now is that we're going to make a video that exists because someone bet their friend They could fly through their car without crashing So let's see if that works Yes, we're going to start off by importing the drone to our scene because that's really nice just to get some reference So you can actually see the size and the scale of the drone and get a feel of what it would actually look like moving around this car So once you have the drone in your scene you can for example add the camera to the drone and give it a similar feel of you So now when you animate it the camera is Following the drone and you have to give the drone some weight And if you try to fly a drone without any stabilizers before You can know that it actually moves a little bit like a robot and we can lower the car windows And the drone will actually fly fly through So now this is the part we can go completely crazy by adding a lot of Lense distortion a lot of sharpening and just blowing up the skies completely and having a lot of noise in the shadows And if you've tried to fly a drone before you know that once you start messing around with this axis Where you're going side to side as we'll see in a second. Yeah, it's really difficult to keep it going and you probably end up crashing the car Okay, so let's just quickly review what we did We added some severe lens distortion to our scene So we get this barrel distortion effect because this looks a little bit like a barrel I guess And then we have a lot of Clip highlights because it's just way too bright for our tiny little cheap sensor And then there's also going to be a lot of noise in the shadows So we're going to have a lot of You didn't really see this in the video because the video compression was so harsh But that's just fine Just feel free to add a bunch of noise in the shadows And then the video compression will treat the video just as it would with a similar Photorealistic video with an actual video clip and also if you notice since we had our drone in the Actually physical 3d model of the drone or not physical virtual 3d model You can actually see it in the reflection of the car which opens the door for some mind games Is it why would you include the reflection of the drone in the car? And we might even explore this thought even further Okay, so the final reason or not the final but one more reason to film a car enforced What if it's someone got a new car and I want to show it off to everyone Okay, so what if I'm thinking that immediately if you want to show off your car You don't have time to just go and grab a nice camera So maybe just pick up your phone and if you want to show it off right away you might even be live streaming it so That means that we're going to get some seriously distracted camera work because you're focusing a little bit on the live stream when you're focusing on trying to just Show off your new car. So we are going to get A video that exists because an influencer got a new car and want to show it off to your fans Okay, so I think this is Yeah, this is going to play a video So we're going to use our phone and that means that we're going to get a vertical video And what we can do in blunder which is really nice is that you can just always parent stuff to stuff which is probably the most powerful way to For me at least make stuff Make sense in a way. So here for example, you can parent the camera to an actual human being So here you can see you have the phone levitating which is impossible So we're going to need an actual person holding the phone So we're importing just this mixamo model and now when you're using an iK constraint You can rotate the phone around and it will feel a little bit like there's actual someone Moving this so let's add some animation and let's just not care about the legs sliding around And now you can see that they're checking out this car So now let's just add this Live stream filter on top of this and you've got this Situation where someone is trying to feel in their car And then the big brain move is to actually keep this camera operator visible in the reflection So now you can see that we will be able to see this person holding Yeah, so that's peak photo elism or at least Some mind games we're playing with our audience Okay, so to summarize keep asking yourself logical questions about the world you want to make real So for example, we're going to try and start with the easy questions And then we're going to just zoom out until we get quite existential So we're going to start out with the simple question Who is recording are they experienced with cameras? And then we just take a step back and we look at the entire recording situation What camera did they use what lens is the full frame sensor and then we keep going well What's actually happening in this video? Is this real? Is it rehearsed as it happened before? Hang on who cared enough about this to record this? Why were they filming and then finally you get to the question that you really want to try and answer Why does this video exist? And if you can answer this question Your way to photo elism is going to be a lot easier than if you just try and focus on Textures and surface imperfections all day, which is what I hear a lot of people talking about when I talk about photo elism So, um, yeah, what I really like about having these Yeah, it's another video. Sorry, but it's the last one. So Yeah, so my favorite part about blender is that you can add whatever camera you like you can just Do some googling find out the spec sheet of the camera. What's the sensor size? What's the lens characteristics and stuff like that and it's it's free to add whatever camera you want. So It's it's such a liberating feeling to just pick a scene set up a realistic scene in your In your in your project file and then you can just discover how you want to show this off to the audience How do you how would a camera operator affect? the scene that you have and Yeah, that's pretty much my message today. So, uh, thank you so much for being here. Please enjoy the rest of the conference. Thank you