Hey gang!
Trying to follow Weirdhat’s tutorial on compositing 3D with real life images and video… I am glad to see Weird still kicking around here! 
Anyway… working on a image for our school…but I just can’t seem to get it right…not sure if it’s my lighting… or just my sucky model 
Any suggestions???
thanks for your time and input!
Cujo31
The motion blue makes it look wierd and the lighting is not very good for the image your compositing it too. Too bright on the visible side and too dark on the other side. The sign also looks to bright, as if there is a huge spot light shining on it. If you look at the image, it’s an overcast day so you shouldn’t be using any lamps at full power. Perhaps more ambient light.
Ok…
So I resized a bit… turned down most of my area lights to .100 power…and turned on “ambient occlusion”… any better???
Or did I miss what you were saying?
Thanks!
Cujo31
I second Khnum, no motion blur.
I think that the firetruck has too much saturation/too strong color.
Same with the sign.
Maybe the fire truck could use some reflections of asphalt and other
things that are on the right of the firetruck.
Maybe slight shininess to the truck with its shader and lights also, eventhough it is a cloudy day.
I said that thinking you want realism.
But there is good about the saturation to mention too, focus is much more
to the truck and sign, than to the photograph.
Well if the school color wasn’t pumpkin orange I’d try something different… but trying to stick with that…
how do you get a reflection of asphalt when the image is just textured to a plain behind?
I agree that more reflection would definitely help…
Realism would be nice… that is why I wanted kinda a blur, but with some many pieces to the model…wasn’t sure if I should try a motion blur or not…
Cujo
If you can get some photos from the same spot where the fire truck
is, you could uvmap those into planes and surround the firetruck with them and get the photos environment hence to the truck reflections.
Kind of pain in the neck, but that is how i would do it, if easy enough to get photos.
edit added -> here is a sample where i used the tehcnique i just mentioned
http://img423.imageshack.us/img423/5039/postthis4vs.jpg
other edit -> darker shadow would add to realism, i am quite sure
about this, i tested in gimp.
Judging from the shadow cast by the sign, your dominant light should be on the passenger’s side of the truck- not the driver’s side as it is now.
Also I believe the truck is too small. It needs to be larger. Right now it looks like a toy in the image because the scale is off.
The tyre rubber is much too shiny, and the wheels are not detailed enought
Overall, the truck is too “clean” in my oppinion. Some noise, or dirt in the texture would maybe help =)
I agree… also your perspective on the truck (camera lenslength and angle) is way off. I’ve posted a little edit to show what I’m talking about. (the red box would be a little closer to matching the pic’s perspective - tho not at all perfect… hope you don’t mind…)
I can see what you mean about perspective…
But… how do I change that?
I created a plane to match the roadbed and sat the model of the truck on it perfectly…
that much appears to be right…
How do I change perspective in the camera angle?
Cujo
Camera needs to move downwards, to change the perspective
so that it matches mzungu´s box.
Will someone second this?
Import your image that you are using as the background AS your background in camera view, then just set up your model so that it looks like it has the right perspective, render and recomposite or render with the image in the background, then touch it up in Gimp/PS.
You may be able to aid the lighting situation by using the image you’re trying to composite onto as an environment map. It can help match the lighting on the firetruck to the lighting of the scene.
I did it recently by merging a screenshot of a game with a silly model I did, it helped with some of the subtle variations and saved me some tinkering with lighting.
Don’t have the renders handy to give examples though, sorry.
Has anyone looked at Weirdhat’s tutorial on this???
http://www.weirdhat.com/blender/compositing2/
I have the camera parented to a plane that the background image is textured to…
if I move the camera… it moves the plane… so what is the next idea?
I corrected the angle of the plane a tad and that helped some…but am I gettign any closer???
Let me know!
Cujo
Bigger tyres. I’d make them big enough to allmost fill the space they have. Although, still be able to rotate them and not scrape the truck. Now they look like they wouldn’t support a truck that big.
The red lights on top and the white lights at the front bother me. Need more transparency, I’d say.
Then move the truck. The latest image is quite a bit better than your earlier attempts.
You got some progress made, definitely.
One but thought, now there is a shadow on the
right lane that is made by one lamp, i would
say get rid of it(the shadow only). And i still think there could
be a darker shadow underneath the fire truck.
You could use shadow only lamp to form the
shadow, this way it would not wash out the top
of the truck and you could use high light intensity to get a
darker shadow, i recommend shadow buffer shadow and
it applied so that it makes a soft shadow.
Thanks guys…I’ll give it some more work 
Cujo!
Darker would help, but the bigger failing of the shadow is it is not “fuzzy” enough. On a grey day like that, it should be a big black blob rather than an outline of the vehicle.
Example:
Ok…
So I changed up the angle of things… and added more shadow…
(notice the faint glow around the tires…no idea why that is there)
Anyway… are we getting close?
Let me know
Cujo