visual interest: dirty lens

The idea of a dirty lens was something I didn’t know about until I started work at ILM. A dirty lens adds another layer of imperfections to add a layer of realism to the either the virtual camera or to the CG effect in the shot.

A “dirty lens“ can include dust or water:

Here, we can see the water on the lens illuminated around the light source in the frame:

Water on the lens helps strengthen integration on one level to tie it to the environment, but what takes integration further is how it only illuminates from a light source. From Magnolia:

If this effect feels familiar, that because it’s similar to the hide/reveal effect of volumes with light: https://www.parispremdas-artblog.com/#/integration-revealing-volumes/

When it comes to integrating CG, a dirty lens can add another layer of texture to an effect to break up smoothness and give visual interest. Examples from “DC: Legends of Tomorrow”: