WATER PRACTICE
WATER PRACTICE
WATER PRACTICE
Water practice
april 2025
A product lighting assignment - this time with water involved. I chose to use the shoe I designed for an earlier project back in November.
(Shoe inspiration: “11 by Boris Bidjan Saberi Gray Salomon Edition”)
Simulating water in Blender turned out to be much more difficult and resource-heavy than I expected. Honestly, the initial results were not great, and it was really hard to experiment and iterate. In the end, I converted the water simulation into a mesh, sculpted the water manually, and adjusted or removed splashes to get closer to the result I was aiming for. I'm still not entirely satisfied, but I think I managed to save a lot in post-production.
Water practice
april 2025
A product lighting assignment - this time with water involved. I chose to use the shoe I designed for an earlier project back in November.
(Shoe inspiration: “11 by Boris Bidjan Saberi Gray Salomon Edition”)
Simulating water in Blender turned out to be much more difficult and resource-heavy than I expected. Honestly, the initial results were not great, and it was really hard to experiment and iterate. In the end, I converted the water simulation into a mesh, sculpted the water manually, and adjusted or removed splashes to get closer to the result I was aiming for. I'm still not entirely satisfied, but I think I managed to save a lot in post-production.
Lighting
In my first draft of this assignment I had a key light on the left (in a weird height now in hindsight) and a fill light on the on the right.
Guest teacher Nadim gave me feedback, suggesting I should switch the position of my key and fill light - and I immediately saw why that would work better.
I actually removed the fill light completely and embraced the idea of leaving parts of the product in shadow to create more contrast and, ultimately, a more visually striking image.
The final setup uses a key light from above combined with a background light, creating the illusion of a heavenly light beam illuminating the shoe from above - which fits nicely with the floating feeling of the composition. I also added another background light to fully lighten the background eliminate unwanted shadows on the floor and to give a subtle rim light effect on parts of the shoe and the water.
Lighting
In my first draft of this assignment I had a key light on the left (in a weird height now in hindsight) and a fill light on the on the right.
Guest teacher Nadim gave me feedback, suggesting I should switch the position of my key and fill light - and I immediately saw why that would work better.
I actually removed the fill light completely and embraced the idea of leaving parts of the product in shadow to create more contrast and, ultimately, a more visually striking image.
The final setup uses a key light from above combined with a background light, creating the illusion of a heavenly light beam illuminating the shoe from above - which fits nicely with the floating feeling of the composition. I also added another background light to fully lighten the background eliminate unwanted shadows on the floor and to give a subtle rim light effect on parts of the shoe and the water.
Lighting
In my first draft of this assignment I had a key light on the left (in a weird height now in hindsight) and a fill light on the on the right.
Guest teacher Nadim gave me feedback, suggesting I should switch the position of my key and fill light - and I immediately saw why that would work better.
I actually removed the fill light completely and embraced the idea of leaving parts of the product in shadow to create more contrast and, ultimately, a more visually striking image.
The final setup uses a key light from above combined with a background light, creating the illusion of a heavenly light beam illuminating the shoe from above - which fits nicely with the floating feeling of the composition. I also added another background light to fully lighten the background eliminate unwanted shadows on the floor and to give a subtle rim light effect on parts of the shoe and the water.
Post-production
I did a lot of post-production in Photoshop for this project, which the perfectionist in me enjoyed a lot.
A motion blur mask on the water adding some extra energy and movement to the picture. Together with another gaussian blur mask I managed to hide many of the defects of the poorly simulated water splash by Blender (and me).
Increased contrast and brightness with a curve and added extra brightness/darkness on certain parts with even more masks, especially for the light beam effect.
Post-production
I did a lot of post-production in Photoshop for this project, which the perfectionist in me enjoyed a lot.
A motion blur mask on the water adding some extra energy and movement to the picture. Together with another gaussian blur mask I managed to hide many of the defects of the poorly simulated water splash by Blender (and me).
Increased contrast and brightness with a curve and added extra brightness/darkness on certain parts with even more masks, especially for the light beam effect.
Post-production
I did a lot of post-production in Photoshop for this project, which the perfectionist in me enjoyed a lot.
A motion blur mask on the water adding some extra energy and movement to the picture. Together with another gaussian blur mask I managed to hide many of the defects of the poorly simulated water splash by Blender (and me).
Increased contrast and brightness with a curve and added extra brightness/darkness on certain parts with even more masks, especially for the light beam effect.
Wireframe
Like mentioned: this is a shoe i created for an earlier project in november 2024. I was supposed to make a shoe for a made up hiking brand called "ReGen" and I used "11 by Boris Bidjan Saberi Gray Salomon Edition" as inspiration and reference.
The shoe is all made in Blender where i used techniques like:
subdivision surface modeling (shoe)
solidify
array on curves (stitches and laces)
shrinkwrap (fabric parts and logo decals)
proportional editing
In the making of this shoe i definitely developed a lot in modeling while also getting more comfortable with some modifiers within Blender. Some UV-wrapping problem solving and good texturing practice in general.
The most tidious work was definitely the stitches around the shoe, working with the array- and curve modifier. But I believe it was worth it.
Wireframe
Like mentioned: this is a shoe i created for an earlier project in november 2024. I was supposed to make a shoe for a made up hiking brand called "ReGen" and I used "11 by Boris Bidjan Saberi Gray Salomon Edition" as inspiration and reference.
The shoe is all made in Blender where i used techniques like:
subdivision surface modeling (shoe)
solidify
array on curves (stitches and laces)
shrinkwrap (fabric parts and logo decals)
proportional editing
In the making of this shoe i definitely developed a lot in modeling while also getting more comfortable with some modifiers within Blender. Some UV-wrapping problem solving and good texturing practice in general.
The most tidious work was definitely the stitches around the shoe, working with the array- and curve modifier. But I believe it was worth it.
Wireframe
Like mentioned: this is a shoe i created for an earlier project in november 2024. I was supposed to make a shoe for a made up hiking brand called "ReGen" and I used "11 by Boris Bidjan Saberi Gray Salomon Edition" as inspiration and reference.
The shoe is all made in Blender where i used techniques like:
subdivision surface modeling (shoe)
solidify
array on curves (stitches and laces)
shrinkwrap (fabric parts and logo decals)
proportional editing
In the making of this shoe i definitely developed a lot in modeling while also getting more comfortable with some modifiers within Blender. Some UV-wrapping problem solving and good texturing practice in general.
The most tidious work was definitely the stitches around the shoe, working with the array- and curve modifier. But I believe it was worth it.
Down below are my previous renders that I made in November 2024
Down below are my previous renders that I made in November 2024
Down below are my previous renders that I made in November 2024
Overall the final result, of this project and assignment, is a nice improvement from my previous renders of this shoe back in November 2024. I enjoyed going back working with a previous project and it was really satisfying going all in on post-production to disguise weaknesses and improve details like motion blur, contrast, etc.
Overall the final result, of this project and assignment, is a nice improvement from my previous renders of this shoe back in November 2024. I enjoyed going back working with a previous project and it was really satisfying going all in on post-production to disguise weaknesses and improve details like motion blur, contrast, etc.
Overall the final result, of this project and assignment, is a nice improvement from my previous renders of this shoe back in November 2024. I enjoyed going back working with a previous project and it was really satisfying going all in on post-production to disguise weaknesses and improve details like motion blur, contrast, etc.
Water practice
april 2025
A product lighting assignment - this time with water involved. I chose to use the shoe I designed for an earlier project back in November.
(Shoe inspiration: “11 by Boris Bidjan Saberi Gray Salomon Edition”)
Simulating water in Blender turned out to be much more difficult and resource-heavy than I expected. Honestly, the initial results were not great, and it was really hard to experiment and iterate. In the end, I converted the water simulation into a mesh, sculpted the water manually, and adjusted or removed splashes to get closer to the result I was aiming for. I'm still not entirely satisfied, but I think I managed to save a lot in post-production.
