WE ARE AIMING TO CREATE A DISH THAT’S SO ATTRACTIVE, IT’LL MAKE EVERYONE HUNGRY!
Discover the techniques and software used to produce this delicious selection of CG food
My passion is everything that exists in the CG world, and I spend all of my time in this field. Reading magazines, working with many different types of software, and getting acquainted with plugins that can help me progress more and more.
In this tutorial, we are going to learn how to simulate a food dish scene. The idea for this render started when I saw some tasty pictures on the internet. This Royal Dish image is a personal project, and I decided to try something a bit different.
To get started, we need a great reference that we can find by searching on the internet, going to a restaurant, or even watching the food channels.
The design, detail and also colour variation in this scene are very important elements, because we are aiming to create a dish that’s so attractive, it’ll make everyone hungry! A variety of software is used to achieve a beautiful and realistic scene, which you can see in the different stages of the final rendering process. Let’s get started!
01 UNIT SETUP AND BASIC MODELLING
Before we begin, the most important part of modelling is the correct unit setup. I set centimetres for this project.
In this scene, I decided to use a wooden plate for the food. So I went to Megascans, and also decided to place a bread model next to the plate, to give a good balance of brown colour. I used a steak model and changed the material to give it a juicy look, to reinforce the sense of hunger.
02 NAPKIN SIMULATION
The best software for building and simulating a wide variety of fabrics is Marvelous Designer. To get started with creating a napkin, access the rectangular tool from the 2D Pattern window and reach the desired final size of the fabric with a transform tool. We’ll create a rectangle measuring 30-40cm.
Then through the Simulate button, I was able to get to the exact position where the fabric was supposed to be. In the simulation environment, I came up with some wrinkles that made the scene look more natural.
03 PREPARE SCENE WITH PHYSICAL CAMERA
This scene uses a physical 3ds Max camera, and the most important setting is the lens focal adjustment, which is set to 100 so that we can focus better on the scene. I tried to use a camera perpendicular to the scene without using depth of field, as the stone table under the tray needed to be in focus. I set the Width to 36, and adjusted the light balance via the Exposure option.
04 AMBIENT AND INTERIOR LIGHTING SETUP
We need to build a studio for this scene, so we need to use ambient light in addition to building the studio environment through the editing poly technique.
I used a Dome light and Peter Guthrie’s HDRI set 1739, which simulates an ambient light with the cloudy sun environment.
After creating three light planes, I added studio lights on one side with the Intensity set to 1 and
5,000c for Color, and one on the other side with the same Intensity but the Color set to 7,000c, as well as a light above the stage that acts as a softbox. Combined with an Intensity of 10 and the colour temperature set to 6,500, it simulates the emission of light.
05 ALFREDO SAUCE ON THE FRENCH FRIES
This was the most important step in this project, and was also the most enjoyable part for me – making the alfredo sauce with parsley on the French fries.
The best tool for simulating liquids is the Phoenix FD plugin. For this project we need a high viscosity to create the desired sauce concentration.
With Phoenix FD I used a cylinder as a basic liquid ‘emitter’ from which the viscous fluid could be generated.
From the Dynamics setting, set the Viscosity option to 0.8 and the Non-newtonian setting to 0.08, which will produce a high-concentration fluid. Use a high frame rate to run the simulation. The particles will run through the cylinder and coat the fries.
06 ALFREDO SAUCE CONVERT MESH
One of the strongest plugins in the field of molecular particle simulation is the Thinkbox Frost plugin. In this scene, we use one of the interesting features to convert the output of the Phoenix plugin, and convert the volume of the sauce simulated by the plugin into a mesh.
After placing the freezing mark on the ground from the Thinkbox plugin setting, we change the number to 0.1cm to fit exactly the mesh produced. Now we can use the material part by making a cream-white material with a glossiness of 0.9.
07 THE BOTTLED SAUCE
I used Zbrush for the creation of the meat sauce within a glass bottle. First, split the model to separate the volume of the sauce from the glass, then freeze the glass with the freeze subdivision level and reach the final volume through standard brushes and smooth. The purpose of this is to simulate the fluid that floats forward when the glass is horizontally positioned.
After making the output, we put it in the glass, Then do the same for two small saucepans on the plate.
08 PREPARE FOR RENDERING
After finishing the previous steps it is time to finalise the render as per the specifications below. The final rendering was completed in V-ray with GI settings in Brute Force mode, with Min Shade at 16, Light Cache at 2,500, plus 17 render elements, which provided excellent output. For this scene it is very important to use render elements at the post-production stage.
09 POST-PRODUCTION
First, after extracting 32 bits in the final render with the Arionfx plugin in Photoshop, we make the initial adjustments in this software. We can change Iso or Midtones in the Tonemapping section. We can also tweak the Noise and Lens parameters to our liking.
This plugin is the best option for changes to 32-bit photos. After that, we go into Photoshop and change the 32-bit to 16-bit to have full access to the render elements.
I used the colour section of the Nik Collection plugin to make grading changes, then I made the final rendering adjustments to reach the final output. •