Ray Trace/Post Processing Tips: Inserting a photo background into your rendered scene

[Renerabbitt]

Raytrace, post processing and Photoshop tips: Inserting a photo background into your scene

 

Here we have a simple bathroom that has an overexposed exterior light

Using a material ID mask(see other tutorial below this line) We are going to inject a photograph of the existing exterior. For the purpose of this tutorial I will be using Photoshop CC. Time to complete: 15-20 minutes.

1.Create a duplicate layer of your background and name it, for the purpose of this tut my name will be Bathroom1. Open your Material/Object ID mask and copy and paste into your document.

2. Copy and paste your photograph image and name it:

3. Order your layers so that the photograph image is below Bathroom1.

4. On the Material ID layer, use a select/color range/  to select the window from the material ID mask and then switch back to Bathroom1 and delete the selection.Your Photograph should show up in the window. Switch to the photograph layer and resize to fit as you please by holding down ctrl+t and maneuvering the image handles.

5. Copy and paste the Photograph image and name it reflection. Move reflection layer up the hierarchy so that it is above bathroom1. Adjust the opacity on the layer to around 50% so you can see through to Bathroom1. Use edit/transform/flip vertical and then locate the image so that it in line with the reflection like so:

6. In the Layers Tab next to the opacity slider the layer should be set to "Normal." Switch that to "soft Light" which will produce this result

7. Using a large feathered brush as an eraser, erase your reflection layer until it lines up with the original ceiling reflection.

8.. For this particular project I used similar methods to replace the rug and images in the mirror. The final product was done in about 15 minutes

Before:                                                              After

                                

 

Here is the corresponding Photoshop File in case you would like to inspect the layers I created for this image

Bathroom_Window-1.psd

[mtldesigns]

I have no idea what you just said, but the end result is amazing.  Heck if I can get my can lights to look real would be a major step..  :-)  The rug too..  WOW. 

[mtldesigns]

By what I have seen on this and previous post, you are an expert on these rendered, RT, Photoshopped views.  I've attached three RT views with a touch of bump mapping.  The first one has an ugly light bulb dead center.  How do you correct this?  The next two have the traditional can lights, but mine looks like just white circles, where the one you showed above has texture and depth.  Again, how do I achieve a more realistic look?

 

 

[Renerabbitt]

16 hours ago, mtldesigns said:

I have no idea what you just said, but the end result is amazing.  Heck if I can get my can lights to look real would be a major step..  :-)  The rug too..  WOW. 

Thank you MTL, your first image is a tricky one as it involves a glass fixture. Glass is very difficult to render when it is next to a light source as it involves reflection, refraction and caustics. Best solution is to convert the glass on the fixture to a "General Material" then turn transparency up to somehwere between 50-80 and emissivity up to create the look of light bouncing around in the glass.

Second and 3rd images are simple, I made a tutorial just for this subject here:

 

[rockyshepheard]

Awesome rendering with the grass. Could you please upload a seamless grass material I could try out?