Current project

Now here's a project Im really excited about. Friends of mine are developing a plot of land in England and asked me to do the renderings, maybe animation also. 4 houses. inside and out. Im going to really push myself on the planting aspect. Although I have photos I could comp in I am going to do it all in 3d. Its nice that they are not pinning me to a short deadline.

Reel, non-architectural, April 2011

Reel, April 2011. from tom livings on Vimeo.

Woohoo!

Warehouse

Haven't posted in ages. Ive been so busy and most the stuff I do now is NDA. Just finished a warehouse overhead rendering, thought I'd do quick shot inside the space. I think the DOF is a little strong/hokey, the fella is a little over-exposed also. But Im happy with it overall.

Seriously..this is National Geographic quality...booyah!

This is all 3d. Max, Vray and a little bit of photoshop. Next, animate it! Only took 20 mins to render on an I7, not bad for 1,000,000 (yes thats 1 million) trees.

Residential interior refurb.

Real quick job, like super-quick. Client called 830am, meeting 9am, started work at 11am, 3 images finished by 3pm following day including revisions! Nice.

Cardinals are now on State St.

I was contracted by internationally revered artist Tony Tasset to render 156 images of a cardinal bird for an installation on State St, in tandem with the giant Eyeball at Van Buren and State. The unveiling was this morning. Ill post some photos later. It was nice to see faces I knew there (Brian, Geyer, Mark and of course Tony).
So now there's my work on banners going down nine blocks and my work for the Ritz Carlton is 30 feet high on Michigan and Erie, so Im a happy guy.

Furniture pitch

Revisited a couple of projects to put together this for a promo campaign.

Interior renderings

Back to the bread and butter....I've been away from arch-viz for a while, doing goofy 3d for advertising. Here's a quick low-budget job for a local arch firm here in Chicago. Rendered in Max/Vray.

Changing times!

Wow, hello 2010, forget 2009. Some of my clients have really been hurting and its high time the economy started giving the little guy a break. SO, whats new for my little studio? Well, im moving. And it must be good because Im moving downtown. Out of the West Loop and into the big Chi-ca-go! My wife is pregnant, I have a new business partner and I should have an overdue new website in about a week (bookmark www.tomlivings.com, its gonna rock). OK back to it!

Bar

I did a job about 2 years ago in Texas called the Ice House bar. I really liked this shot, but the client didnt. Its interesting to compare this one and the approved rendering, which is in an earlier post. The Depth of Field is far more dramatic in this one, lots more character.

Ducati comp.

The bike was shot by Kurt Lauer (www.klphoto.net + www.burningboystudio.com). The environment is entirely 3d. Retouching done by Stephan Reynolds. 3 day project: one for the shoot, one for the 3d, one for the retouching.

Ritz Carlton exterior rendering

Well, one of my images is now proudly standing 28' tall on Michigan Avenue. Here's two of the options, I produced around 25 images for the project. These were rendered at a staggering 20,000 pixels high.

Reel : montage of work from 2009

Animation reel : Tom Livings from tom livings on Vimeo.

Furniture test shot

This was rendered using Vray (sp4-which is excellent). Still trying to decide, Vray...Mental Ray....Vray.....Mental Ray.....? Still no competition for DOFpro though!

Website delayed.

Thats right people, my wife (web designer extraordinaire) doesn't consider me important enough to do my web design, so Ill just have to be patient ;)

Max 2010 Review published

I wrote a review at the request of Jeff Mottle on the latest version on 3d Studio Max. Read the full article here: http://www.cgarchitect.com/vb/38575-tom-livings-reviews-3ds-max-2010-a.html

Chair study

Click to enlarge: I modeled, material-ed, lit and rendered this series in 2 days. I wanted to challenge myself and getting the leather right was the goal. It was also only my second Mental Ray job since putting donw Vray for the time being. The lighting is provided by a panoramic HDRI that I made with he help of the wonderful Kurt Lauer (www.klphoto.net).

Boardroom - Mental Ray test

Click to enlarge: Well this is a long awaited return to Mental Ray. Im writing a review of Max Design 2010, so Ive forced myself to learn MR again. Its a pleasant change and a huge surprise how efficient it is. Im beginning to prefer it to Vray....

Medical Center, UK

Click to enlarge: This is a really quick job. 3 images in two days, from scratch. Pleased with this render though. A bit more work needed to bring it to portfolio standard, may get around to it if work dies down.

Ritz Carlton.

Click to enlarge: This is an image for Ritz Carlton Residences, Chicago. A long project with endless revisions, Im happy with the result. Especially the people integration. Fantastic client; patient and meticulous. Really pushed me.

Ritz Carlton interior (geometry+lighting)

Click to enlarge. Here's a lighting test for an internal space Im working on. In this economy Im glad to be working at all... Happy with where this one is heading. Im using a new workflow (gamma 2.2 linear flow, so Ill post regular updates for all of you who'll never read it.

Levi's denim room 3

Click to enlarge: Latest, shooting models this weekend....

DKNY @ Bethesda Terrace

Click on the image to enlarge. This ones been in the pipeline a while. Its going to be a plate for a DKNY perfume ad. Just waiting for the models to come to the studio and get shot......
The location is Bethesda Terrace, Central Park, NY.

60's hotel room

Click image to enlarge. Nice vignette in a hotel room. Got quite a 60's feel to it. A spin-off of a current project.

Non-photo-real experiment

Click image to enlarge. My first attempt at an architectural NPR (Non-Photo-Real) or design concept rendering. Max, Vray and Photoshop. Took a couple of hours. I'd love to get a commission like this and really spend some time.

The Ice House 2

Click image to enlarge. Another image of the restaurant in Texas. All 3d.

The Ice House 1

Click image to enlarge. Here's one hot off the press. Very much client led, lots of revisions. Enjoyable though, Ive not done a restaurant before and Im quite happy with the results. This is in Texas, hence the Shiner Bock...

Goodyear HQ (Gensler)

Click image to enlarge. Nice example of architectural rendering. Dynamic and simple. All 3d with the exception of the trees to the left. Im happy with the road and pathway, both use Vray displacement. Glass aint bad either.

Where's the Hancock?

I dont have much glass high-rise in my portfolio, so I thought I'd better make some. This is a building I designed for a previous project and so I had the model just sitting around. The two glass towers on the left are 3d, Ive removed the Hancock building which was the focus of this photo. Total time, 6 hours I guess.

Thailand memories

Click image to enlarge. Different from my usual stuff. Thyis was supposed to emulate a photo taken on vacation that would invoke a memory of a happy moment.

Bathroom photo-match

Click image to enlarge.Bathroom shot. All rendered. Done as a photo-match exercise.

Digital set (lighting test)

Click image to enlarge. Test image for digital set creation in combination with Kurt Lauer Studios. Not particularly inspiring composition but the bar cart (photo) sits very well in the render. The shadow of the bar car is in 3d also.

The Merman

Click image to enlarge. VERY difficult image. Complex textures and displacement maps. We shot the guy, the tv and the magazines in the photo studio but the rest is done in 3d. Im really happy with the door, the tub and the floor.

Goa 2

Click image to enlarge. Another Goa image. Pretty much all 3d. My first foray into detailed planting in rendering. Thanks to xFrog models. Bitch to render on a Dell laptop. Did this before I got my renderfarm.

Kitchen 1

Click image to enlarge. Kitchen at night. Quite an '80s design. Nice comfortable space, looked more dynamic in black and white, although the color render did look warmer.

Goa 1

Click image to enlarge. A building I designed in Goa. Its built now, see: www.cocoshambhala.com
I rendered it because the client wanted to pre-lease it before it was finished. Vray, a little photoshop. Just the trees are done in post.

Concourse (Mental Ray)

Click on image to enlarge. An experiment in Mental Ray ( I usually use Vray). reasonably successful. Long rendertime though.

Broadway, Washington.

Click image to enlarge. An old image this one. Rendered at high res on an old Dell laptop, no DR, montaged into an awful photo supplied by the client... I just like the way the glass sits so naturally in the image.

Gym

Click image to enlarge. Another 1 day image. I find most of my best work is done in a day, it tends to keep me focused on the original image concept. Nice depth of field and lighting in this shot. DOF done in post to keep render times down, bamboo modeled in Onyx Bamboo Generator.

Romania (Lucien Lagrange)

Click image to enlarge. This image was done in 1 day using a revit model supplied by the client.