All hail the renaissance: artists are reaping the best of both worlds by combining 3D imagery and photography.(Trends & Technology)

Computer graphics or photography? It's been a tough choice for print advertising creatives because the two media have different strengths. Photography excels at straightforward product depictions, while CG can produce renditions limited only by the imagination. And never the twain shall meet, or so it was thought.

But in an ironic twist, the print advertising industry's increasing use of computer-generated imagery is spurring a renaissance in photography and image retouching. New 3D software capabilities and digital photography techniques mean it is no longer necessary to make an either-or decision about CGI or photograph): Instead, creative types are drawing to the best qualities of each medium for producing print images that could not be created in either medium alone.

While computers have been used to enhance images since the advent of digital photography and the adoption of Adobe's Photoshop, the integration of 3D software--such as Luxology's Modo, Maxon's Cinema 4D, and Strata's Strata 3--promises a similar sea change. Or a larger one, as new mixed-media possibilities emerge. Even artists who are well versed in 2D techniques need to make a transition to the added dimension.

"In the 3D workflow, instead of just breaking down an image to its RGB or CMYK color values, we actually have to look at the exact way light interacts with the product," says McKay Hawkes, a digital effects artist at Pixelbox in San Francisco who specializes in high-end digital imaging and animation for marketing, advertising, and interactive campaigns. "We need to closely observe and replicate things like diffusion, spectrality, reflection, fresnel, index refraction, subsurface scattering, absorption distance, and transparency to create convincing and accurate photorealistic qualities. This is before we even get into bump and displacement mapping for textures and other various details. It can be a very challenging process, but the rewards are great, as it blows the door wide open for creative potential and improved workflows."

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The auto industry was an early adopter of techniques that combine 3D and photograph): In that rarified market, the computer offers undeniable cost savings, since the expense and risk of shipping prototype cars can be sidestepped with CGI, using appropriate HDRI imagery and backplates shot on actual location (see "Basics of HDRI," pg. 72). Cars can now be placed into virtually any location, before they're even manufactured. And the ability to leverage existing CAD datasets (albeit with some preparation) and repurpose them for marketing has been another big catalyst for the adoption of CGI in the automotive business.

A good example of how CAD data, CGI techniques, and photography were combined for an automaker's ad is a print campaign that ran in Europe for the redesigned Mitsubishi Pajero. The prototype wasn't available when the ads were being designed. So the agency, Golley Slater of Cardiff, commissioned creative shop Saddington & Baynes of London and its associate photographer, Richard Prescott, to produce a striking image of the Pajero parked in the surf, with waves lapping around its wheels. In the distance, a foreboding promontory looms, with a moody sky hanging over the scene. The image looks natural thanks to seamless compositing of multiple photographic and CGI dements, and yet the car never existed in reality. It even has water droplets and sand around the wheels, accomplished through a combination of 2D and 3D techniques.