Renders in Dimension and Cinema 4D
This week I played around with rendering designs that I had previously created in Fusion 360. I started in Adobe Dimension and created a variety of different objects and backgrounds. I found that for whatever reasons my designs didn’t mesh well with their respective backgrounds in Dimension. I found some images and light sources worked better than others and the textures for the objects was also a huge factor in how the final image looked and how the object blended with it’s environment.
After playing around in Dimension I decided to try out Cinema 4D. Right away I noticed that while the environment looked much less photorealistic than it did in Dimension I really preferred the aesthetic over Dimension. There was something about the object and environment both having a digital origin helped the final image look more cohesive. The way in which I was generating images in Cinema 4D had a vapor wave style aesthetic and I really like that aspect of the images. The images also reference Salvador Dali’s paintings which is great because he is one of my favorite visual artists.
When I struggled to get light sources correct in Dimension I referenced some product photos that I had taken in the past on white and black backdrops to get an idea of what the light was doing in relation to the object. Luckily I had real world analogs to the digital objects I had created. Mainly car wheels. It was around this point that I realized that Cinema 4D was going to get me a better final result as far as the images I wanted to generate. This would likely not be the case if I was rendering small objects on tables and shelves in indoor environments. If that were the case Dimension may have been a better choice but since many of my objects were automotive parts I decided to try to keep the lighting and environments for those objects outside.
I also played with the scale of objects as well as texture to create more sculptural objects that would work as objects in a space or gallery along with furniture. The objects were also interesting by themselves in the space. I played around with the chairs that I designed in different environments along with the automotive objects that I made. In the end I decided what works best for my eye is a simple white or colored backdrop in Dimension or a gradient sky in Cinema 4D. For me, these choices make for a complete image while keeping the focus on the object. It also translates from the digital world to the real world better with a backdrop or horizon even if that element is simulated. I had a lot of designs to draw from and similarly with previous projects, there are so many variations and possibilities that at some point I had to stop and call it good.
These are the final 3 images that I settled on for this assignment. I could spend weeks tweaking objects in environments but I felt these images somewhat encapsulate the process and objects I was working with.
The titles for the 3 final pieces are 1. Aluminum Wheels 2. Red Hooded Chair 3. Spark Plug Sculpture.
