COMPOSITION
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Composition – 5 tips for creating perfect cinematic lighting and making your work look stunningRead more: Composition – 5 tips for creating perfect cinematic lighting and making your work look stunninghttp://www.diyphotography.net/5-tips-creating-perfect-cinematic-lighting-making-work-look-stunning/ 1. Learn the rules of lighting 2. Learn when to break the rules 3. Make your key light larger 4. Reverse keying 5. Always be backlighting 
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Christopher Butler – Understanding the Eye-Mind Connection – Vision is a mental processRead more: Christopher Butler – Understanding the Eye-Mind Connection – Vision is a mental processhttps://www.chrbutler.com/understanding-the-eye-mind-connection The intricate relationship between the eyes and the brain, often termed the eye-mind connection, reveals that vision is predominantly a cognitive process. This understanding has profound implications for fields such as design, where capturing and maintaining attention is paramount. This essay delves into the nuances of visual perception, the brain’s role in interpreting visual data, and how this knowledge can be applied to effective design strategies. This cognitive aspect of vision is evident in phenomena such as optical illusions, where the brain interprets visual information in a way that contradicts physical reality. These illusions underscore that what we “see” is not merely a direct recording of the external world but a constructed experience shaped by cognitive processes. Understanding the cognitive nature of vision is crucial for effective design. Designers must consider how the brain processes visual information to create compelling and engaging visuals. This involves several key principles: - Attention and Engagement
- Visual Hierarchy
- Cognitive Load Management
- Context and Meaning
  
DESIGN
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Hand made Settlers of Catan boardRead more: Hand made Settlers of Catan boardtrytrytry.de/2016/07/mega-diy-siedler-von-catan-in-3d/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lqww2yZkeh0 
COLOR
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Is it possible to get a dark yellowRead more: Is it possible to get a dark yellowhttps://www.patreon.com/posts/102660674 https://www.linkedin.com/posts/stephenwestland_here-is-a-post-about-the-dark-yellow-problem-activity-7187131643764092929-7uCL  
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Tobia Montanari – Memory Colors: an essential tool for ColoristsRead more: Tobia Montanari – Memory Colors: an essential tool for Coloristshttps://www.tobiamontanari.com/memory-colors-an-essential-tool-for-colorists/ “Memory colors are colors that are universally associated with specific objects, elements or scenes in our environment. They are the colors that we expect to see in specific situations: these colors are based on our expectation of how certain objects should look based on our past experiences and memories. For instance, we associate specific hues, saturation and brightness values with human skintones and a slight variation can significantly affect the way we perceive a scene. Similarly, we expect blue skies to have a particular hue, green trees to be a specific shade and so on. Memory colors live inside of our brains and we often impose them onto what we see. By considering them during the grading process, the resulting image will be more visually appealing and won’t distract the viewer from the intended message of the story. Even a slight deviation from memory colors in a movie can create a sense of discordance, ultimately detracting from the viewer’s experience.” 
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GretagMacbeth Color Checker Numeric Values and Middle GrayRead more: GretagMacbeth Color Checker Numeric Values and Middle GrayThe human eye perceives half scene brightness not as the linear 50% of the present energy (linear nature values) but as 18% of the overall brightness. We are biased to perceive more information in the dark and contrast areas. A Macbeth chart helps with calibrating back into a photographic capture into this “human perspective” of the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_gray In photography, painting, and other visual arts, middle gray or middle grey is a tone that is perceptually about halfway between black and white on a lightness scale in photography and printing, it is typically defined as 18% reflectance in visible light  Light meters, cameras, and pictures are often calibrated using an 18% gray card[4][5][6] or a color reference card such as a ColorChecker. On the assumption that 18% is similar to the average reflectance of a scene, a grey card can be used to estimate the required exposure of the film. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ColorChecker (more…)
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About color: What is a LUTRead more: About color: What is a LUThttp://www.lightillusion.com/luts.html https://www.shutterstock.com/blog/how-use-luts-color-grading A LUT (Lookup Table) is essentially the modifier between two images, the original image and the displayed image, based on a mathematical formula. Basically conversion matrices of different complexities. There are different types of LUTS – viewing, transform, calibration, 1D and 3D. 
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Scene Referred vs Display Referred color workflowsRead more: Scene Referred vs Display Referred color workflowsDisplay Referred it is tied to the target hardware, as such it bakes color requirements into every type of media output request. Scene Referred uses a common unified wide gamut and targeting audience through CDL and DI libraries instead. 
 So that color information stays untouched and only “transformed” as/when needed.Sources: 
 – Victor Perez – Color Management Fundamentals & ACES Workflows in Nuke
 – https://z-fx.nl/ColorspACES.pdf
 – Wicus
 
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“Reality” is constructed by your brain. Here’s what that means, and why it matters.Read more: “Reality” is constructed by your brain. Here’s what that means, and why it matters.“Fix your gaze on the black dot on the left side of this image. But wait! Finish reading this paragraph first. As you gaze at the left dot, try to answer this question: In what direction is the object on the right moving? Is it drifting diagonally, or is it moving up and down?”  What color are these strawberries?  Are A and B the same gray?  
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What causes colorRead more: What causes colorwww.webexhibits.org/causesofcolor/5.html Water itself has an intrinsic blue color that is a result of its molecular structure and its behavior.  
LIGHTING
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Photography basics: Solid Angle measuresRead more: Photography basics: Solid Angle measureshttp://www.calculator.org/property.aspx?name=solid+angle A measure of how large the object appears to an observer looking from that point. Thus. A measure for objects in the sky. Useful to retuen the size of the sun and moon… and in perspective, how much of their contribution to lighting. Solid angle can be represented in ‘angular diameter’ as well. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid_angle http://www.mathsisfun.com/geometry/steradian.html A solid angle is expressed in a dimensionless unit called a steradian (symbol: sr). By default in terms of the total celestial sphere and before atmospheric’s scattering, the Sun and the Moon subtend fractional areas of 0.000546% (Sun) and 0.000531% (Moon). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid_angle#Sun_and_Moon On earth the sun is likely closer to 0.00011 solid angle after athmospheric scattering. The sun as perceived from earth has a diameter of 0.53 degrees. This is about 0.000064 solid angle. http://www.numericana.com/answer/angles.htm The mean angular diameter of the full moon is 2q = 0.52° (it varies with time around that average, by about 0.009°). This translates into a solid angle of 0.0000647 sr, which means that the whole night sky covers a solid angle roughly one hundred thousand times greater than the full moon. More info http://lcogt.net/spacebook/using-angles-describe-positions-and-apparent-sizes-objects http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/glossary/def.php.s=topic_astronomy Angular Size The apparent size of an object as seen by an observer; expressed in units of degrees (of arc), arc minutes, or arc seconds. The moon, as viewed from the Earth, has an angular diameter of one-half a degree. The angle covered by the diameter of the full moon is about 31 arcmin or 1/2°, so astronomers would say the Moon’s angular diameter is 31 arcmin, or the Moon subtends an angle of 31 arcmin. 
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Tracing Spherical harmonics and how Weta used them in productionRead more: Tracing Spherical harmonics and how Weta used them in productionA way to approximate complex lighting in ultra realistic renders. All SH lighting techniques involve replacing parts of standard lighting equations with spherical functions that have been projected into frequency space using the spherical harmonics as a basis. http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~cs4162/slides/spherical-harmonic-lighting.pdf Spherical harmonics as used at Weta Digital 
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Disney’s Moana Island Scene – Free data setRead more: Disney’s Moana Island Scene – Free data sethttps://www.disneyanimation.com/resources/moana-island-scene/ This data set contains everything necessary to render a version of the Motunui island featured in the 2016 film Moana. 
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Light and Matter : The 2018 theory of Physically-Based Rendering and Shading by AllegorithmicRead more: Light and Matter : The 2018 theory of Physically-Based Rendering and Shading by Allegorithmicacademy.substance3d.com/courses/the-pbr-guide-part-1 academy.substance3d.com/courses/the-pbr-guide-part-2 Local copy:
 
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