Final result - It’s very, very hard to do.
I used two render layers and a mask to build the composition. I needed a shadow with mask because the butterfly shadow bleeds through the background image. One wing I manipulated so, that is doesn’t over other shadows on my hand.
A second render layer for the butterflies. The shadow thing is very difficult to get right. The color of the shadow, the sharpness (blur), direction of the sun light, etc.
In preparation of this project
My concept of flower in hand plus CGI butterfly is becoming a brainteaser.
I took the photo with my smartphone. Camera hardware spec’s are difficult. No sensor data.
On the photo there is no horizon, I’m pointing the ground.
So I thought to model my hand and use that as a reference object. Smart idea, but execution is difficult.
Problematic is the XYZ rotation of the hand. Then camera lens … how much zoom effect. Lots of tweaking, no real match found. I manipulated the mesh to make it fit a bit
The sun light and direction is also a problem. The photo was taken in the middle of the day, bright sun. The shadow on the hand is hard. I included a 3D flower to mimic the direction of the sun. Which is also difficult match.
And the shadow is very soft. but I think this is solvable.
So, keep it simple…
It’s not the end results that count, but the journey … grrr
