The Complete Guide to Photorealism for Visual Effects, Visualization and Games For Visual Effects, Visualization and Games

This book offers a comprehensive and detailed guide to accomplishing and perfecting a photorealistic look in digital content across visual effects, architectural and product visualization, and games.

Emmy award-winning VFX supervisor Eran Dinur offers readers a deeper understanding of the complex interplay of light, surfaces, atmospherics, and optical effects, and then discusses techniques to achieve this complexity in the digital realm, covering both 3D and 2D methodologies. In addition, the book features artwork, case studies, and interviews with leading artists in the fields of VFX, visualization, and games. Exploring color, integration, light and surface behaviour, atmospherics, shading, texturing, physically-based rendering, procedural modelling, compositing, matte painting, lens/camera effects, and much more, Dinur offers a compelling, elegant guide to achieving photorealism in digital media and creating imagery that is seamless from real footage.

Its broad perspective makes this detailed guide suitable for VFX, visualization and game artists and students, as well as directors, architects, designers, and anyone who strives to achieve convincing, believable visuals in digital media.

Introduction Part 1: Core Concepts 1. Reality and Photorealism 2. Photorealism in Digital Media 3. Color Part 2: The Real World 4. Light essentials 5. Light interaction 6. Daylight 7. Nighttime and Artificial Lighting 8. Shadows 9. Basic Material Properties 10. Lens and Camera Characteristics Part 3: The CG World 11. Rendering and Lighting 12. Shading 13. Texturing 14. Modeling Part 4: The 2D World 15. Integrating 2D Elements 16. Integrating CG elements 17. Lighting in 2D 18. Lens and Camera Effects 19. Epilogue: The Future 20. Appendix A: Glossary of Abbreviations 21. Appendix B: Software list

Eran Dinur is an Emmy and VES award-winning VFX supervisor, artist, and author of The Filmmaker’s Guide to Visual Effects (2017). His film and TV work includes: The Trial of the Chicago 7,Hereditary, The Greatest Showman, Uncut Gems, The Wolf of Wall Street, Boardwalk Empire, Star Trek, and Iron Man. He is an adjunct professor at the School of Visual Arts and the author of several popular VFX courses at fxphd.com.