Identifying hoax photgraphs just got harder...

It looks like the process of compositing is about to get a lot easier. I'm expecting to see an outbreak of "surprisingly realistic" UFO pictures in the near future...

Kevin Karsch, Varsha Hedau, David Forsyth and Derek Hoiem, all students from the University of Illinois, have come up with a method that maps the lighting characteristics of any photo and applies it to a 3D model that is to be composited into the shot.

Source

I have no idea why the link looks screwed, for some reason the forum software splits the link between the "r" and "e" in "renovate"

reply to post by EvillerBob

You can add any item, even "objects with diffuse, specular and... glowing materials". The system correctly mixes the object's own lighting with that of its photo-sourced environment.

It also deals with complex shadows already present within in the scene, and ensures the objects themselves correctly cast shadows.

Boffins insert 3D objects into any old photo... realistically





Thats some pretty impressive stuff

Very interesting post.

While they haven't actually done anything specifically new on an individual process basis, they have packaged a range of existing techniques with easy to use interfaces, which brings the the skill more in reach of the amateur user, and requires less expertise knowledge. It will be interesting to see how this is released, whether it is bought by a company like Autodesk or Adobe or released as a plugin for a range of existing modelling or graphic software.

My bet is Google will buy it and integrate it into Sketchup, in fact the interface looks very similar to some of the existing camera-match tools in Sketchup or 3Ds Max and it wouldn't surprise me if they used someting like Ruby or Maxscript to code it (probably Max, as the Torus knot and the Teapot are classic Max standards).

Can't wait to play with this!

Big deal. Like it takes high grade GCI to fool your average tin foil hate wearing UFO enthusiast anyway. It will take WAY more than a picture (under the right circumstances) and video to fool anyone with half a brain anyway. You all are worried about nothing.

The only thing stuff like this does is makes is look bad because of fakes, but that is the least of our worries. We look bad because we act like utter, ignorant fools not because of fake pictures and videos.

unfortunately it was already easy to begin with. the only ones caught were the ones who took 5 minutes to make it and it looks like it was pasted in from mspaint. I wonder how many times we were duped. oh well

It's pretty good, but to be honest a picture/video of a UFO just can't be taken as evidence at all any more, or well to begin with even.

When the footage of the Temple Mount ufos came out I thought they were pretty good, at least the first and third ones, but the second one being so obviously fake really helped to discredit the others, that and I remember some people on here giving reason as to why they were fake anyway.