Hi Ben,
That would be a theme along with one of my passion. So, why do we not have it here?
First of all: Thanks for the list. Yes, that would be the CG chapter of such a theme. Which Eran Dinur covers in his excellent book:
The Complete Guide to Photorealism for Visual Effects, Visualization, and Games, by Eran Dinur
This is a must-read from my point of view.
“We’ve all seen tutorials/courses which cover general principles but the results don’t look real or look horribly out-of-date.” Well, there is a reason for that, and it is not the tech.
If I had to outline and develop a series that puts people into the driver chair of this profession, I would add the following themes to it:
• Training of the eye, which is the absolute starting point, without any doubt)
• Translating architectural philosophy into a visual
• Photography, Free-camera, lenses, exposure, etc.
• Color theory and systems, as well as Color management
• Cinematography (leading the audience and thinking about the visual language of an image)
• Study of art, light, light, light.
• Montage of 3D into images (compositing), motion tracking.
Having worked in a leading position in architecture for a long time, forgive me when I make this as complex as I think it deserves. This is a job in its own rights and is not represented by a collection of tricks. I assume you agree here.
If that would be just a few tricks and setups or workflows, then this is fairly covered in the Redshift 3D series:
https://www.youtube.com/c/MaxonTrainingTeam
As you can see, I started at one point with several series to create a base for this theme, link below (Photography for 3D Artists, for example), as well here on Cineversity: Cinematography (basics), and some thoughts about light, integration, etc.
It seems a common idea that any profession can be reduced to a few tutorials and sold as “and that is all there is to it” [sic!]. Long and complete series that require time are not used but often requested. So, I hope I was able to provide some pointers why you haven’t found here the requested set of skills.
Again, I encourage anyone to put a “1+” into this thread to provide a base for this massive amount of work. Again, this is not done with a few hours of providing tips. It is a complex set of skills to successfully communicate an architect’s (or any artist’s) intentions to a broad and colorful audience.
Again, I’m personally wide open to that, but so far, some people have even told me that they want to learn the whole feature film pipeline in a few hours, and nothing longer, which shows only how much a significant series would be needed here as well. Feature Film Pipeline, including VFX and SFX: I have learned this for three+ decades, and since it expands constantly (LED Volumes, OCIO, ACES, SSI, etc.), I’m far from done with it. I love it, and it has a lot of overlap to your request!
Thanks for your input!