Paper model effect from Royal Institution titles

Question

There's a clip in the Blender 2013 demo reel that consists of a fly-through of a paper cut-out model. (32 seconds in)

I'd like to have a go at recreating that look. Does anybody have any tips? What are the characteristics that make it instantly recognizable as paper? Is it a subtle texture on the paper itself? Is it the hand-drawn outlines on the edges? Or is it something else, such as the indoor lighting or the focal length?

I would say it is a combination of all those things. Are you looking for tips on how to create those effects? — gandalf3, Aug 20 '13 at 18:38
Related - http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/362/how-to-add-roughness-to-a-surface-using-modifiers — iKlsR, Aug 20 '13 at 18:46
@gandalf3 I'm an ambitious (almost) beginner, so I'll absorb any tips you have on any of that. — Isvara, Aug 20 '13 at 22:00
@Derecho For tips on how to create those individual effects, you will probably be best off asking about each one in an individual question. — gandalf3, Aug 21 '13 at 02:56

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 21 '13 at 19:05

7

My thoughts:

Every surface must contain a paper texture, even of only slightly visible.
Make the paper look a little used (dirt, coffee stains, bit crumbled up, more hints)
Light the place as if it was miniature (soft shadows, big lights)
Focus as if it was macro (blurry background)
When drawing on the paper, use near-real pencil.
Cycles - definitely use cycles for this.
Freestyle is not a must, but can help.
Extra help is small dust particles on the ground and flying around.

I think the strong point of that video is realistic lighting: very varied sources and realistic bouncing, warm temperature. Also it doesn't stay on too long, I bet you can get a better result if you try!

answered Aug 21 '13 at 19:05

krivar

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maybe some translucency for the material as well? – gandalf3 Aug 21 '13 at 22:18
@krivar Thanks -- that sounds like really useful stuff. – Isvara Aug 21 '13 at 23:19
I agree with all that, maybe add a bunch of "look-at" constraints for the character and the things on the desk. – Kirbinator Aug 22 '13 at 14:17

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 20 '13 at 09:19

It seems that the look is mostly influenced by the outlines, you could achieve something similar by using freestyle.

You can enable freestyle in the render tab:

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In the render layer tab you find several options to control freestyle

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A nice blog post on freestyle

Paper model effect from Royal Institution titles

2 Answers2