The digital artist Carolina Jiménez has posted this curious visual challenge on Twitter. Are you able to find out which cup is the real one?
We have reached a point where it becomes more and more difficult distinguish fact from fiction.
The advances in texture design, lighting Y ray tracing have made a digital image increasingly difficult to distinguish from the real image.
A good example is this visual challenge What does the graphic artist propose? Carolina Jimenez On twitter:
I’m going to give you a challenge. One of these images is a real photograph. The other in a 3D digital recreation. Could you tell me which is which? Open poll below.#VFX #3D #animation #RealVsCGI #CGI #CanYouSpotTheFake pic.twitter.com/aG7RtAd5Az
– Carolina Jiménez G. (@Okinfografia) December 28, 2021
Carolina Jiménez is a graphic designer who works at Scanline VFX. He has participated in the creation of special effects in films such as The Suicide Squad, Terminator: Dark Fate or Eternals. You have more information in their website.
In the challenge proposed by this artist we can see two cups, with the coffee spilling. Which of the two is real?
In the Carolina survey 59.9% of users have voted for the photo on the left, and 40.1%, for the one on the right.
If we look closely, on the left the base of the plate looks more real, and also the shades of the liquid of the splash.
Some users of the thread also comment that in the image on the right everything looks too perfect, and therefore more artificial. Others claim to see the flash of the flash in the crystals of the photo on the left.
So everything points to the real picture is the one on the left, as confirmed by Carolina Jiménez herself. But there is a trick…
The photo on the right is a digital computer creation created by digital artist Mauricio Oliveira.
The one on the left is a real image by photographer Guilherme Martins… but it’s not a single shot. As the professional herself explains, actually they are two merged photos.
On the one hand, Guilherme Martins photographed the fixed elements of the image, such as the cup, the sugar or the coffee beans, and on the other hand, the splash of coffee, with a green background. Then merged both:
So technically the first photo is also not 100% real, because it is formed by the fusion of two different images.
This is a cheat challenge, Carolina Jiménez!
The reality is that in cinema or advertising, 100% real photos made with a single shot are becoming less common.