[caryjames]

Really nice Justin, and especially nice of you to post the scene set up. Your results are outstanding ... very top notch!

One quick question if you don't mind... if you do just please pass

For the Smirnoff Vodka blue bottle and background, did you composite this shot? I was trying to achieve a similar effect with a jewellery render and found it hard to back light the backdrop with a texture and have a high gloss reflection of this same texture in the floor but found it very difficult to do in one shot.

Thanks again for your posts ... very nice!
Cary

[itsallgoode9]

Hey Caryjames. Yes I did the background and floor reflection in photoshop. Most of the images I do the backgrounds separately in photoshop. I've found it very difficult to do in one shot as well, even setting it up as I would in a real studio, the results just don't work like i expect them too in the real world. I'm still trying to figure that out.

[tom]

Do you have reference photos of this setup that you fail recreating in Maxwell?

[caryjames]

Thanks for the info Justin, your finished shot looks great... very inspiring!

Tom, I will try and post a reference of where I was going - in a separate thread so we don't hijack Justin's lovely gallery

[RobMitchell]

Thanks for posting a screenshot of your studio, Justin. Great insight! Also just had a look at your website. That homepage looks incredible, even in thumbnail form the renders look spot on. Good work.

[itsallgoode9]

un-frigging believable!! The shanghai white rendering on your site is just about perfect! In fact their all outstanding work! Where do you get the graphics from (labels)? Also the St. Germain bottle is sublime! GAdzooks

THanks for the compliment!! For the liquor bottles (except st germain and heineken) they were for actual projects, so I was given the vector art that is sent to the printers for the labels on the actual bottles. I generally export the artwork out of illustrator as a PDF as spot colors, which will give me a black and white mask for each different color on the label. In Maxwell I create a material with each color/surface as a different layer so I can have a lot of control over the surface quality of each color of ink or foil.

For all of the renders which were just portfolio samples, I buy the product and scan the label in. Earlier in the making of these, I had been retracing all of the labels in illustrator to clean them up...the printing is very very sloppy on one of these production labels. Although, I have noticed that it makes it tougher to create something realistic looking when the labels are too crisp and don't have the same printing quality of an actual label. Lately I have not been re-tracing the labels, only cleaning up the dirt and creases in the scans.

I am still going back and forth about whether I should do the "ideal" look of super crisp graphics on a label, or stick with something that is closer to reality. I think the correct solution just depends project to project.

[gadzooks]

Thank you for the explanation Justin. One more question. How do you get the labels off the bottle to be able to scan them? I ask this because you have inspired me to try and do some bottles. I assume when you say scan them that the labels are off the bottle? Once again Amazing work my friend.

[itsallgoode9]

Thank you for the explanation Justin. One more question. How do you get the labels off the bottle to be able to scan them? I ask this because you have inspired me to try and do some bottles. I assume when you say scan them that the labels are off the bottle? Once again Amazing work my friend.

depending on the label, i just soak them in water for a few hours and they come right off. Just like if you get a cheap beer at a bar that has been sitting in the ice for hours, those labels come off without having to try. I then just stick them on a piece of paper and scan them in. Sometimes the labels are plastic labels, so I just slowly pull those off...soaking doesn't work on the plastic labels.

[gadzooks]

That's what I thought, thanks for confirming it.

[brodie_geers]

Really amazing stuff! The lighting is absolutely great in every render!

I'm really interested in your post processing since you've mentioned it a number of times. It would be really cool to see some of your progress images if you have any.

-Brodie

[itsallgoode9]

Really amazing stuff! The lighting is absolutely great in every render!

I'm really interested in your post processing since you've mentioned it a number of times. It would be really cool to see some of your progress images if you have any.

-Brodie

Thanks Brodie! It'd be really hard to show how I do the post process stuff...it's more retouching and less post process, if that makes sense. Just think of it as the "before and After" shots of photography products, which you can find online. That's the same exact stuff that I do with my renders from Maxwell. I really treat my renders and my post work the same way as a photographer would. You can get the best idea of this from seeing the raw render of the Blue Moon Grand Cru bottle (there's a link directly below the lighting screen shot) and compare that bottle to the finished Blue Moon Grand Cru bottle on page 1.

Sorry I can't be of any more help, there just isn't anything that I standardly do across the board to all of my images. I clone out flaws, i add highlights, I take away highlights, clean up noise, clean up glass refractions, add lighting, take away lighting....Literally the same amount of retouching work that would go into a real photo of a bottle. Hopefully that makes sense.

The blue moon before and after is the best way I can let you see that.

[Aniki]

what about the two Shaghai White Cocktail Glasses in your portfolio ?

just curious, what is maxwell and what is not ?

very inspiring work nevertheless

cheers

Aniki

[itsallgoode9]

Hey Aniki,

The Shanghai White Glasses and the Beer pour shots are the two images where I did use alot of photos in the post process stage. In the Shanghai White glasses, the fruit, garnishes, Ice and texture in the liquid is created via photos...highly manipulated photos, mind you. The initial render were just glasses with the correct color of liquid in them.

Same deal with the beer pour shot. I just rendered a plain glass with the correct color of liquid in it, then added in all of the bubbles, foam, and pour using many highly manipulated photos.

That shot is actually supposed to be a stand-in for the pouring glass shot on Miller Light Beer boxes. A design agency was doing a pitch to Miller, but they did not have any high res images of that pour shot. They scanned in the side of the box and said "here, make something that resembles this". It's not exactly right, but gets the essence of the original good enough.

[lancemcgregor]

Justin these are amazing, you mentioned you would post the lighting setup any chance you will be doing that?
I'd love to get some renderings as good looking as yours.
Any tips on this kind of studio lighting would be great,
Thanks
L.

[itsallgoode9]

Justin these are amazing, you mentioned you would post the lighting setup any chance you will be doing that?
I'd love to get some renderings as good looking as yours.
Any tips on this kind of studio lighting would be great,
Thanks
L.

hey there, thanks for the compliments! I posted the lighting setup for one of my renders on page 3. Hopefully this helps.