Photo Montage

Blue Cube Studios can create a 3D image of your property and drop it into a photograph. This creates a seamless, ultra realistic image showing your proposed development. These types of images are called Photo Montage images. The proposed element of the development is modelled in 3D and then dropped into the photo to create a montage of realistic photography and CGI.

The process for creating a photo montage is somewhat of a black art. There are a range of workflow techniques and technical tricks Blue Cube Studios have developed over the years which make the whole process more reliable and accurate. Put simply, to create a photo montage, you take a photo, ideally using a full frame DSLR camera, then record the position of the camera. Back in the studio we will position a 3d camera in the 3d model using the recorded position, and set the 3d camera’s parameters to match those of the actual camera used. These parameters are found in the META data of each digital photo taken, specifically, things like sensor size, focal distance, shutter speed and f-stop (aperture) value.

Once this 3d camera has been positioned into the 3d model and the settings have been matched to the physical camera that was used, a 3d render, or cgi can be produced. This is then placed over the original photo and then the matte painting is done. Matte painting is the process of masking out areas of the cgi, to reveal parts of the photograph below where they are visible. This process can be fairly painstaking, but the results are well worth it.

Photo Matched CGI

A photo matched cgi is the result. A photograph, with the proposed development matched in. The process of creating a photo montage involves matching, not only the position, but the angle, perspective, lighting, and exposure of the original photograph. This is where the term photo matched cgi comes from. In essence a photo montage and photo matched cgi are actually one in the same thing, but as with most cases in the architectural visualisation and property cgi field, there are many terms and descriptions which often refer to the same thing.