3d art

 A digital stillife about the hardwork of coffee making. Cgi modeling and a lot of work in materials and lights realism. Aluminium, rust, wood, toasted grains and used machines, were the subject and the main idea of this composition. Time modeling, I decided to add different pieces enriching the composition, most of them are real designs. 2 bialetti moka, the old classic "napoletana", an invented moka, a traditional ironcast coffee grinder; and a gorgeus designed 1946 "patented vesuviana" I bought right these days in a local flea market.

If in part I was looking for hyperrealism, I wanted to add then a touch of exaggeration and surrealism with the mountain of old coffee junks in the background. I often see rendering art very well made with fruit baskets, flowers and bottles on tables, classical stillife themes. But I think hyperrealism applied to classical scenes it's not coherent to the cgi art. If you can do it with cameras, it's a useless geek-work, better add then a touch of creativity.

Useful notes

1: Light and environment settings are part of materials, especially metal and glass. Using hdri 360 photos helps a lot enhancing and reflecting real lights and colors on the models. On the coffee moka is reflected a panoramic photo I shot in an old Tuscany warehouse: wooden structures, bricks, windows, terracotta tiles "gets literally into the material" bringing life to the scene.

2: It's great to illuminate the scene projecting textures, like a cinema projector. In this way you can get great effects with dappled light, like the sun throught the leaves of a tree. Together with environment texture the effect is absolutely realistic.

3:Working modeling real objects and using lots of reference images helps a lot. Using scale dimensions helps to keep a sense of real and harmony, obtaining a more believable set and enhancing the surrealism of purposely out of size objects.

4: Working in cgi art is coherent to add a creative element. The target is breaking the real stillife and using the no-limit potential of the technique. If you can shot it with your camera, maybe you should focus on photography stillife. A real life set can be much more challenging and intriguing in many and other ways.