September 26th, 2008
We were contacted by Art Director Kimmo Raatikainen of Rientola with an idea of an imaginary crossbreed between a cob of wheat and curly pasta on a field. Pictures of food are always challenging and often come down to getting the smallest details right. A tiny change in the materials or lights can turn a delicious treat into a weird clump. The fact that we were creating something that doesn't really exist didn't make it any easier.
Tuomas Korpi and Mikko Vormala started by searching for references and photographing and scanning some real life cobs, leafs and straws of wheat. Jerry Ylilammi got to work on modeling the pasta wheat in 3D according to Tuomas' directions. A lot of experiment went into getting the model textures right with all the small details. While Jerry was tweaking the geometry Tuomas was painting the background and overall mood so the 3D and 2D elements would fit together perfectly.
Jerry rendered out a bunch of passes from 3D and Tuomas composited the picture together with the painted background. A lot of the fine detail in the final image is actually hand painted even though it's photorealistic. Some textures such as the surface of the straws were scanned and composited on top of the rendered images in 2D.
"It's weird how enough staring at a picture can almost make you temporarily blind", says Tuomas. "You think you've got something right, but once you've done a new version the previous one is downright embarrassing in comparison. It simply takes some time and versions to get these kinds of things right."
And Photoshop layers, some might add. While compositing, we think Tuomas was verging on the national record with close to 400 layers of renderings and hand-painted elements that constitute the final result.
Together with the pasta wheat, we made the packages and the blue ribbon that were also modeled in 3D and composited on the picture. They were made as a separate element so they can be used in various situations as needed.
Credits
Client: Blå BandAgency: Rientola
Creatives: Kimmo Raatikainen
Account Manager: Jenni Virtanen