CG Reality

Knowing that my interests go more towards cartoonish-animation and videogames, I've always found very impressive the quality achieved in some films that incorporate in a realistic way parts of CG.

On my years doing architecture and trying to achieved a realistic-looking renders was really complicated (specially when you have short deadlines). There are so many aspects that you have to match with reality that you normally dont notice. Lights and shadows reactions are the hardest ones. Textures and camera angles.

The short film underneath are just some shots from Paris, but the impressive work that has been done to make it look like floated is amazing. The water looks really realistic and the reflections on it gives the complete feeling of it. I assume the illumination was made with images from the same place. (Worth watching in HD) 

5:46 AM // Paris Under Water

Mimicking fluids, specially water, has always been complicated for me since my computer dyes every time I try.
Also not only in the field of fluid, but the integration animating surroundings to make something surreal yet realistic looking. The adverb below is a good example of it, because of the synchronization with the music and the dance with the animation makes it really good looking.

While trying to work in the past with 3D max I remember being a huge fan of Josep Kosinski, because of his architectural background I was years ago, so probably the graphics now are not that impressive, but the point in the composition is there.
Here's the adv called Race from Mezzo. The first one is the complete advert and the second one is the steps for the composition on the visual effects.
It gives you a good idea of how professionals work and the most important steps to considering when making a composition with something that has already been filmed with real actors. 

Can't wait to be able to play with light in maya. I always struggled a little bit in 3D max and if it wasnt for render engines like Vray I wouldn't have been able to do anything in decent quality. Hope maya is slightly easier  (屮ﾟДﾟ)屮