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Some of the most admirable artwork

in theArtlantis community is the

simplest. One of my favorites is a cur-

rentArtlantis website banner a detail

interpretation of fabulous Rachofsky

House in Dallas, Texas, byArtlantis

luminary Nicolas Rivera. Hes pretty

good with the Photoshop, too.

This exercise imitates his inspiring im-

age. Think of this as a PhotoEditorial

rendering where the artists eye ex-

ploits photorealism to then artiicially

Illuminate the scene. Of course, the

view is abstract, but it also tells a tec-

tonic story. The selected view projects

an illusion of exclusivity through com-

plex wall plane geometry aristocratic

elements celebrated by the building

design. Because scene elements are so

basic, light intensity and relectance

must constantly vary across surfaces to

maintain visual interest. The image is

produced in two stages: a conventional

rendering followed by an artistic en-

hancement increasing environmental

Uncovering the Mystery of How These Great Artworks Get Done

Of course they use an Image Editing Application, eh?

Heliodon Solution: Manual Sunlight to simplifyaiming. Play with sliders to make the right bal-ance of cool and warm light. Note the heavycolor tint for sun and sky to maximize transferredcolor effect

Plan View of Camera and Uplight: Positionof camera and light aimed up toward the sofit,sky and parapet - also minimises light relection

possibility in glass

Elevation View of Camera and Uplight:Thinking like a photographer, or an artist orsomething, solving the sofit lighting requires astrong uplight.

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luminosity; serene in countenance, yet

active with color and light.

Step 1 - In Artlantis: To createaconventional rendering with special

sun and uplighting to brighten the

shadowed sofit:

-Heliodon Control: Using oblique

backlighting imitates the diffuse soft

light seen in the original illustration. I

used a manual sun angle to establishthe sun height and direction. [We can

cheat because it is just an impression

the time of day or North orientation is

not critical] To get the right cool blue-

ness requires sliding yellow sun power

down and dark blue sky power up. Rely

on the preview to see changes.

-Uplighting: Because of the strongsolar backlighting, artiicial uplighting

must compensate to brighten the sofit.

A loodlight of high intensity, placed

low and close, aimed up, overcomes the

brightness of the sun and sky. Place the

light by pushing it around in a top view

while closely watching its previeweffect.

-Adjust Surfaces [Settings: PageXX]:

To maximize the perfect geometry

dream, I played with the glazing

to make it crystalline and lat. [real

windows would show considerable

TOP: First Try with no uplighting: Light-colored wall panels are poorly modeled and thescene is too uniformly lit - needs contrastingcolor. Sky is too light.

UP: Uplighting Setting: Very high Power settingis necessary to ight against adaptive heliodon

power. No Shadows setting create the softestill light.

DOWN: Basic Lighting Solution: Most users,lacking a photo editor, would have to settle forthis, and it is okay, but the sky is too light and theimage is literal,raw. A little fakery could really

jazz this up.

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distortion] The mullions also deserved

special attention: a particular satin

quality to diffusely relect sky color.Step 2 - PhotoEditing: To match the

basic image with the splendid vision.

Surfaceluminance and color adjust-

ments are faster and more controllable

in a photo editor once you have done

your best within the render. [The PSD

[Photoshop] format creates extra lay-ers usefully encoding special informa-

tion, so use it. ]

-Saturation [Color Vibrance]: Add

an Adjustment Layer to reduce color

saturation again, to taste. The idea is

to soften color intensity. Experiment

with this tool by totally de-saturating

the image and slowly returning coloruntil you feel there is just enough to

sell the idea and to not overwhelm the

eye with intensity.

-Levels [Fine Tuning Brightness]:

Add an Adjustment Layer to separately

control the brightness of highlights,

midtones and darks. Renderings oftenneed contrast adjustments to match

the design vision. The Levels tool can

darken shadows, blow out highlights

and improve mid-tone clarity.

- Add a new layer to darken the sky:

Whenever altering a layer, preserve

the original layer by editing a duplicateand hiding the original [just in case any

edit messes up.]

- duplicate the background sky layer

[new layer in front]

- use Levels to darken the sky by

shifting the middle slider triangle to

the right [keeps the color value butdecreases brightness -- in this case,

theres no clouds in the sky, but youll

see how cloud drama increases when

you apply this trick.]

- Add a new layer to enhance central

focus: The layer makes a subtle hyp-

notic concentric effect, lightening cen-

ter and darkening image periphery. Atthis angle, it coincidently makes a slight

corona effect at the building parapet,

like sunlight just over the verge.

- create a new empty layer in front of

the rendered image.

- apply a radial ill from white in the

center to black on the periphery.- set layer blending mode to Soft

Light this mode affects underlying

image brightness and does not obscure

it as you might expect from an overlay.

UP AND TOP RIGHT: Photoshop Adjustments:Added: Adjustment Layer, Saturation Layer,Concentric disk, blended with Soft Light 73%opacity.

Duplicated: Sky Background to darken...

RIGHT: Showing the effect of the ConcentricOverlad Layer - makes periphery darker andcenter lighter - draws the eye to the center andensures that light gades in all directions toenliven surfaces.

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UP: Basic Wall Panels: Deined by a texturemap image overlaid on a Basic Shader. Increasedshininess to relect sky color. Increased bump toreveal panel edges. Sized to 1.50m wide approxi-mates the actual panel size.

UPRIGHT: Satin Window Frames and Trim:Basic Shader - almost black, but with tweakedshininess and relection to make uplight andskylight visible - to enliven and articulate the

framing section

RIGHT: Extra Smooth Glazing Solution:Artiicially lat and shiny to convey perfectionand clarity. Light grey transparency adds a tintand Medium grey relection darkens relectedsky color

- control effect strength by reducing

layer opacity. In this case, to 73%.

Conclusion: This approach can be ap-plied to any image where the illustra-

tion requires focus and luminosity. It

is a simple trick and one that provides

a good introduction to tweaking a

rendering with photo editing.

Incidentally, The Rachof-

sky House teaches a lot about howbuildings should be, if you ever design

an art gallery masquerading as a

house. Tour it:

http://www.rachofskyhouse.org/