Detailed journal

Making of: Digital morning

Introduction
Time-lapse renders
Detailed journal

In this section you can read a detailed journal I wrote about how I worked on this project.

Many thanks to Michael Auerbach and Daan Pol for helping me with valuable feedback during this project.

Saturday, December 13, 2003, 23:36	The first render image worth saving.
Thursday, December 18, 2003, 16:05	Changed render position :) and better lighting.
Saturday, December 20, 2003, 13:55	The texture of a book from the desk. Resolution: 600 x 800 pixels.
Saturday, December 20, 2003, 19:01	I made a magazine to fill the desk with something :). Resolution: 1500 x 2000 pixels.
Saturday, December 20, 2003, 19:23	I've started to add objects (stuff) in the desk: a plate with pie, two books, magazines and a XEROX package.
Saturday, December 20, 2003, 23:47	Added more things in the desk: huge columns of CDs, ROBO Design magazines (as a joke) and some diskettes.
Thursday, December 25, 2003, 21:21	Finished the mouse pad texture. Original resolution: 1024 x 1172.
Friday, December 26, 2003, 22:55	A test render of the glass globe / ball I made. I am going to put it on the desk, as a decorative object. The render is done in the 3D scene of Digital Morning image, just to see how it looks up close.
Saturday, December 27, 2003, 12:30	Added the glassy globe and the mouse pad - which is over lit. The placement of the objects on the desk is better now.
Monday, December 29, 2003, 17:32	Finally the objects are better lit and I made the microphone.
Wednesday, December 31, 2003, 13:29	I started playing with SSS for curtains. Now we have shadows coming from trees outside... You can see them on the wall.
Thursday, January 01, 2004, 14:04	Switched back to the old good looking curtain texture and made the sub-woofer. Small improvements to lighting.
Saturday, January 03, 2004, 19:25	Added Dirtynuts to everything - every texture. Now you have the impression that there are better shadows or better lighting :). The renders are considerably slower...
Saturday, January 10, 2004, 17:41	Rotated the right speaker so I see it's shape, I modified the printer, because it had some 3D errors and did not look exactly like the real printer - now it looks better. I also modified a little the materials of the sub-woofer.

A few test renders of the objects in the Digital Morning 3D scene:

Sunday, January 11, 2004, 18:24	Sunday, January 11, 2004, 18:24
Sunday, January 11, 2004, 18:20	Sunday, January 11, 2004, 18:25
Sunday, January 11, 2004, 18:29	Sunday, January 11, 2004, 21:45

The Mentor network switch, unfortunately you can't see it in the final renders, because it is behind the printer.

And the story goes on... with more renders.

Monday, January 12, 2004, 22:32	I've decided that I don't like the plate with the pie... so I made a nice box of diskettes. Resolution: 620 x 568 pixels.
Tuesday, January 13, 2004, 13:17	Instead of a plate, I've put a box of diskettes. The cracks, dirt and stains on the walls are also greatly improved.
Sunday, January 25, 2004, 12:48	I remade the keyboard keys to look better, the old ones were too ugly for my taste.
Sunday, February 08, 2004, 22:02	After a long time of not working on the image, because I was busy with school, I improved the realism of the calendar more. Now it has 3D pages and a top poster. The resolution of the texture is 3000 x 3500 pixels. The mountains image is made by me too. The blinds are still down, but now they are correctly positioned, until now the blinds had too much space in-between. Much more better lighting and moodier. Another change is I improved the SSS for the curtains. Now you can see where the sun light falls on the curtains, just like in real life.
Thursday, February 26, 2004, 20:09	I finally got to model the monitor. This is a test render in the Digital Morning scene with it, just to see how it looks like.
Friday, February 27, 2004, 15:00	I further improved the textures and the modeling of the monitor. Here's a test render of it in dark to see how it illuminates a dark scene.
Friday, February 27, 2004, 20:16	A final test render of the monitor in a nice lighting setup that reveals the details of the object.
Thursday, March 11, 2004, 20:30	I finished modeling the PC tower after a few days of slowly working on it.
Monday, March 15, 2004, 17:57	Too many changes in this image... and it's definitely too ugly: the light setup is a test for observations - it turned out to be ugly and unrealistic; I added the tower and the monitor and changed the positions of the objects so they are correctly placed on the desk; the e-Star sub-woofer is behind the printer; I don't know where's the calendar :\|... 4D ate it, hehe :). This render is just a test one. The purpose is to observe and study the lighting in a 3D environment. I finished all the important and big 3D models, the computer components, which may affect the light in the room. Now I stopped doing anything else until I do a good lighting for the image. I had a hard time with this. Now, in the next images you will see totally different light setups. At the end, of course, I picked the best.
Wednesday, March 17, 2004, 22:29	Here's another lighting test. Playing with light and observing... The entire scene during night. All objects (texts, LEDs and others) have a phosphorescent texture.
Sunday, April 04, 2004, 15:54	This is a render made with the help of Daan Pol (Shademaster). He told me what lights and where to put them. The blinds were deleted at his request. I was out of ideas, so Daan Pol helped me. With this test I learned something more :). Thank you Daan! I'm also working on the calendar texture, as you can see it's ugly.
Sunday, May 02, 2004, 18:39	After a very long pause, again, I finished the calendar texture. I remade the lighting all by myself and it's better. Finally, the lighting gets as I wish.
Sunday, May 02, 2004, 20:10	The final calendar texture. I made it at a very high resolution: 3000 x 3500 pixels.
Thursday, May 06, 2004, 15:15	Now the lighting is better and very similar to the final render. I changed the outside view again.
Wednesday, June 23, 2004, 17:55	After another very long pause I resumed working on the project. The render is unfinished. It is at the first render step, render prepass. This is why it's very ugly. At least you can observe that I added details to the textures of the curtains, so now, they are similar to the final render. I also modified a little bit the calendar texture.
Thursday, June 24, 2004, 12:26	The curtains are finished and the calendar is too dark now. I've put the printer paper holder down, because the sub-woofer wasn't visible at all.
Friday, July 02, 2004, 17:32 Friday, July 02, 2004, 17:39 Friday, July 02, 2004, 17:45	I got from a friend an A4TECH Multimedia Keyboard for my computer, so I decided that I want to make it. Here it is, 90% finished. The old white keyboard was way too ugly :D.
Saturday, July 03, 2004, 15:54	Added the new keyboard in the scene of the Digital Morning image. The calendar isn't anymore too dark. I modified a little bit the outside view once again.
Monday, July 05, 2004, 21:53	Higher render quality and maybe some lighting adjustments.
Wednesday, July 07, 2004, 19:11	This is the logo of the mouse I'm modeling.
Wednesday, July 07, 2004, 21:05 Wednesday, July 07, 2004, 21:11 Wednesday, July 07, 2004, 21:23	This is the last computer component that had to be modeled. It was pretty hard for me to model an organic form, non-symmetrical. To model this mouse I was looking at 3 different mice for inspiration :).
Friday, July 09, 2004, 23:35	I've made a fantasy grass. This image is on the screen of the monitor as a wallpaper. Resolution: 1024 x 768 pixels. If you like it, click on the thumbnail for the original size.
Thursday, July 15, 2004, 21:40	Here you can see the new screen of the monitor, the mouse and, now, the corner of the room is fixed - looking good now, in my humble opinion.
Sunday, August 01, 2004, 14:01	Small improvements. A render from another position to see how it looks like.
Saturday, 4 September 2004, 15:25	This a new render position which is going to be post-processed.
Sunday, 5 September, 2004	This is the final render of the main perspective with tons of post-processing.
Thursday, 4 November, 2004, 17:36	And now, the second post-processed render.