United3dArtists Archive

Hi all of you

not sure if title is clear enaugh...but sometimes in my job i must put few objects or entire scenes on a picture for simulate position or material requests.

Normally i reach the goal...but it's very frustrating adjusting camera settings (tSp761-modelside)...

Even putting camera on exact distance from object scene (like in picture real scene) i must modify position and angle-field to obtain a sufficient perspective-matching with real scenes on background...

Have you some solutions (mSide widgets, plugins or tutorials) about?

Other problem is shadow-catching...not reached despite tutorials or plugins downloaded in the forum

I have a written note in my manual that says the shadow capture needs a white color mesh to work. The further from white the more transparent the shadow is.

To make the best match, you must know your lenses and the focal length correspondances with tS's Z camera values.

To do this, follow this tutorials :

1. Go outdoor, put your camera on a tripod, place some marks on the ground at a regular distance from your camera (5 meters, 10 meters, 15, etc.) then make some shots with different focal settings.

2. Back home, in tS, create a new scene, place one camera and some marks to reproduce the scene you shot.

3. Open a new 3D window, set its size at the exact same ratio as your photos, and use them as background images.

4. Next, change the Z value of your camera to match the real marks on the ground with the virtual ones, and REMEMBER these values : next time you will simply reuse the values according to the lens setting (check in the JPG metadata to find your lens informations) !

Here is how it looks once done : For my Canon EOS 5D (full frame sensor), here is what I get with two different lenses :

Zoom Canon 17-40 mm :

Z=0.5
17 mm

Z=0.58
21 mm

Z=0.69
24 mm

Z=0.79
29 mm

Z=1.015
35 mm

Z=1.13
40 mm


Zoom Canon 28-135 mm :

Z=0.83
28 mm

Z=1.029
35 mm

Z=1.417
50 mm

Z=1.9
70 mm

Z=2.85
100 mm

Z=4.19
135 mm

the_ant wrote:...but it's very frustrating adjusting camera settings (tSp761-modelside)...

Yes it is frustrating. The last time I did this was for a joke for my co-workers.
Some months ago I noticed an almost empty social room. So I took a picture to
make some funny stuff.
( It is not allowed to smoke in our rooms, or drink alkohol , so I put some suspicious
objects in the picture )

I put the picture as a texture on a plane and rotated it in a normal position.
Next, I set the camera to the right position. And never touched it again.
Then I made all the object and put them in to the scene.

The first picture is the scene, the second is the uncropped view.

Regarding Shadow Catcher, the shader still exists in tS7.6 but for some reason it will not work if you pick it up in Modeler's Material Editor.

I saved that shader from a tS6.6 session though via an object painted with the Shadows Catcher, so you can load it into your scene, pick up its material, modify it at your wish and paint your own objects.

Oh...what the best and fastest support are all of you!!!

I'll try to learn from your suggestions and advise about results as soon as possible!

Thanks Thanks Thanks