Digital artists know Blender as free, open-source 3D rendering software, but just how far can you push things? Sirandalot wanted to find out, so he decided to create a virtual fake camera by making things overly complicated. More specifically, he utilized Blender’s ‘Cycles’ path tracing render engine to create a virtual camera setup that functions similar to that of a film camera.
Light rays actually pass through a lens, so all of the lens distortion and artifacts you see are physically simulated, resulting in renders that look at least semi-realistic. It all started with a pinhole camera and evolved into a single lens camera as well as a triple lens camera. Some modifications to shaders for the lens materials and filters were also added.
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The images are obviously still super grainy because of the nature of how Cycles does its path tracing. Caustics are not at all fast to render accurately, especially if you’re on the other end of 3 pieces of refractive material,” said Sirandalot.
