I'm about to hire a photo studio and a model to produce a texture map for V3. I've never produced my own texture map from scratch before so this is quite an adventure for myself and my friend. We've decided to hire the studio twice, the first hire is for 2 hours, just as dummy run. I'll be taking pictures of my friend and visa versa, to see where we're going wrong etc. The second hire will be 2-3 weeks later with the model for 3 hours. Canon 300D camera will be used (I'll get my friend to post what lenses) Studio has soft boxes, reflectors, constant tungsten lights and 5 flashes triggered by infra red So as you can imagine I've got a few questions :-) * Do you think 3 hours will be enough time to take the pictures of a model to make a V3 texture? (I've estimated we'll need approx 200 photos) * What lens do you recommend for close ups, ie. eyes, lips, feet etc. * What lens do you recommend for full body shots (ie 50mm or 100mm) * If I concentrate on a) Getting rid of shadows with use of soft boxes and flashes etc. b) Making sure that lighting and exposure isn't to bright to avoid bleaching. c) Get focusing spot on. - Shouldn't this guarantee perfect results? I look forward to any suggestions

Sounds ambitious, but not unreasonable... For the 3D end of it there are a couple nice tutorials here. [I've seen others on the net.] I could be fun for you to document your project as you go along, and post a tutorial here for us. One piece of advice would be to discuss thoroughly with your model what you are doing, and perhaps show some examples. He/she may not be accustomed to the type of shots needed for Poser anatomical detail. May also be useful with and without makeup. Good luck! http://www.renderosity.com/tut.ez?Form.ViewPages=690&PageAction=View&Page=1 http://www.renderosity.com/tut.ez?Form.ViewPages=100

Thanks but I've already used these tutorial's for use with LEVIUS' texture maps. However they only concentrate on mapping the photographs onto the texture maps and not taking the pictures. Even Btsculptor's tutorial only briefly covers photographing the models. The reason I'm doing this is LEVIUS' photo's are are great quality and good value for money if purchased directly from his site www.3d.sk (only works out at $15 for 1 month - I basically downloaded everything on his site one weekend) but the photos are only at a resolution of 72dpi and I'm sure a CANON 300D can output at approx 200dpi. When we booked the studio an extremely nice engineer showed us around the studios and gave us basic tips like one light should always be brighter then the other, apparently this helps with shadows. But for sure I'll take whatever advice I get from this forum and the experience of doing it to make a tutorial on human reference shots. Thanks

I suspect you'll be using longer-than-usual lenses. It'll reduce any distortion from body parts at different distances, Think about marking reference points. Will it be easier to move the camera or the model? Is there something the model can look at so that head movement is minimised. I know you can get wheeled mounts for standard tripods, which could make camera movement a lot easier. Usual for video, rather than still photography. Minimum, I think, is markers for the model's foot positions, and a target marker at eye level. Because of the lighting, I expect it will be easier for the model to turn in place, Consider a sheet with something like a compass rose -- a circle to space the feet combined with direction markers so that each step in the rotation is the same angle. Does that make any sense?

That's just the sort of thing I'm looking for, love the ideas for the markers and compass rose. Thanks a lot

I have no experience doing what you're about to do (oddly enough, the reason I got back into photography was to do what you're going to try doing, but I got bitten by the photography bug badly and haven't done a single render since I picked my camera up again). That said, a couple comments: "When we booked the studio an extremely nice engineer showed us around the studios and gave us basic tips like one light should always be brighter then the other, apparently this helps with shadows." Actually, this helps CREATE shadows. That is the most basic 2 light setup. A key light (the brighter light on one side) and a fill light. This will create the classic portrait type shot with a bright side and shadow side. And when I say shadow side, don't think dark deep shadows. If the fill is within 1-stop of the key then you should have nice soft shadow that gives a three dimensional look to the subject. The greater the difference, the deeper the shadows become. Again, haven't done this before but I would think for a texture for a 3D object, you would want the lighting to be completely flat. In other words, 1:1 lighting ratio (both lights at equal distance, position and equal strength) That way, no indication of where the light is coming from on your texture. That should come from your 3D render. That make sense? -=>Donald www.dmholman.com

Thats an interesting point and yes as shadows are our worst enemy, I want to avoid them at all costs. When I go back to the studio I'll try and find out exactly what the engineer meant. I'll use the first session to try both methods.
Thanks

Message edited on: 07/11/2004 19:04