Compositing Architectural Elements into a pre-existing Photo

[Terrie]

I have this small job where I was hired to do a rendering of a building. The client wants me to put the building into a photo showing the existing environment. I have seen this done by some of the better LW artists. How do I even begin? Is there a tutorial on how to do this.
Thank you,
Terrie........ :confused:

[kenmac]

The way I do it is…I am sure other folks may do it differently.

Take you photo and save it as “photo background.”

Then do a save and name it “photo alpha”

In Photoshop use the magic wand tool and outline where you want to composite your building.

Save selection.
Now you have an alpha channel….

Now in layout go to the Compositing Panel ……..

In Background image load “photo background”

In Foreground load the same file.

In Foreground Alpha load “photo alpha”

Make sure you have Alpha enable in the Image Editor,

No move your model around, resize..etc….to fit in the Background.

Hit F9 and tweak and tweak and tweak and tweak and…….

Hope this helps…..

KenMac

[Hervé]

[QUOTE]and tweak and tweak and tweak and tweak and…….


...and sometimes forever..... and it would still no going right, because of several factors like Real cam barrel, etc....

[Wade]

It's not that hard, but it may take some time at first.

What I would do -

Make your photo to the same size as your render will be such as 800 x 600...

Load that photo in as the back round image, set your camera see that image.

Load your model.

You are going to have to guess on the lens setting 35mm or 28mm....

Move your camera around to match the model to the back round. Wire frame mode works well for this.

The more you know about your original image the better - if it was a shot taken a eye level then make your camera 5"6" off the ground .... If you know it’s across the street and the street is 4 lanes plus right of way set you camera 60 plus feet form the building…

The more match element you have the better. Like property or fence lines streets or curbs.... If your building is to scale and you know where the foundation will go match the foundation or if you have a sit plan use the sit plan and match property boundaries if evident. Look for fence lines or whatever.

Hope this helps.

[Wade]

Photo used, this may not be the best example as most of the photo gets covered.

Last step cut the building out of the finale render and past it on to a fresh photo so you can work it and photo over as separate elements in Photoshop.