Tom Grammerstorf

Car Photography meets CGI

What type of 3D work do you?

I decided in 2005 to learn CGI. The reason was very simple - to work in a way to merge both CGI and photography into one workflow. Now I can complement my real world automotive photography work with automotive rendering too.  CGI is for me is like ‘virtual photography’ and a part of the future of photography. With these tools I can create the whole automotive image by myself, like in the past.

What’s your main 3D app and why?

Autodesk Maya is the standard application for my work. It works very well with file formats from the automotive industry. 

What are your main renderers and why?

I prefer MentalRay because I use a special plugin in Maya and MentalRay called the _0x1_shaderlibary (www.0x1-software.com) where I can use measured BRDF materials, like car paints, glass and shadow shaders etc. All materials have a real-time visualisation, and look 100% real. With a special HDRI dome we can produce real shadows from the HDR. The highlight is that you need no final gather or global illumination, just ray tracing, which makes the rendering much quicker. 

How does HDR Light Studio fit into your workflow?

With HDR Light Studio, we can set up the whole lighting of the car. When I work with an HDRI from a real world as reflection, I can add some lights to the shadow side. In combination with the lights in Maya we have a brilliant result. But for me what makes HDR Light Studio essential is for the lighting of a studio setup, like in a real world automotive studio. All the reflections can set in real-time. This makes the lighting process amazing and very quick. 

What are the main benefits of using HDR Light Studio?

HDR Light Studio reduces the trial and error process of the lighting, like in the past of CGI. The process is now more like a real world lighting process of a photographer. You get what you see!

Would you recommend HDR Light Studio to other 3D artists?

Yes of course! Now I can´t think of producing an automotive studio photography style CGI shot without setting up my lighting using HDR Light Studio 2.0.

For more information about Tom Grammerstorf, check out his web site at: www.grammerstorf.net