Make Your Renders Unnecessarily Complicated

Or you can try it yourself, at your own risk...
Had this idea 10 years ago, finally got around to it. Took a good couple of months too.
Maybe I'll have to come back in another 10 years in order to properly simulate diffraction and lens flare...

Music: "The Comeback Kid" and "In Evolution" by Garrett Williamson

Character model: "Danny" by Ethan Snell

[neoexplains]

You’ve blurred the line between ‘why would anyone do this?’ and ‘why hasn’t anyone done this before?‘. Incredible video!

[Franatom]

the fact that the "fake real photos" taken with the "fake camera with a real fake camera inside" are displayed in a "fake gallery" is just so meta, my brain just exploded

[LegacyCrono]

You're definitely the kind of kid that would deliver an assignment slightly late and the teacher would feel forced to accept it because you went so far beyond the scope of the assignment that you actually expanded mankind's knowledge about that topic with your work.

[curtmack]

You stress-tested Blender's rendering code to a degree that I can't imagine has been done before, and it _passed._ Somewhere, a Blender developer shed a single tear of pride as they watched this video.

[BAGELMENSK]

I like how you slowly cast off each automatic tool like it's a limiter to your power level.

[clonkex]

It took YouTube 9 months to convince me to watch this video. It was right to keep trying.

[shrey]

This could be the photography equivalent of making a CPU in minecraft. This opens up so so many possibilities of modelling hypothetical lenses. Absolutely incredible. Please make a longer tutorial of this

[AnthonyAdrianAcker]

As a photographer I am sitting here like "Yes. Yes. YES. YEEES. And I am thoroughly impressed. These are some of the most realistic renders I have seen. Amazing work.

[nswij]

He just rediscovered photography inside blender! Give this man a medal!
And maybe a psych evaluation too. You okay after all of that?

[dooterino]

This is horrifyingly accurate, you're even getting the same color cast on underexposed dark scenes that would be expected, and the RGB grain scattering is just about perfect

[Emptyance]

This is one of the most fascinating insanely unhinged things I've ever seen someone do in this space. Absolutely incredible.
So meta, so artistic, such an incredible display of skill and dedication. I think I've heard of Pixar doing something with a similar idea for their projects but I can't say I've seen anyone actually show it off like this.

[T_Armstrong]

Creators take note. THIS is how a tutorial should be. Clear. Concise. Easy to follow along.

[Erindale]

It doesn't matter how long this took to make, this is maybe the most worthwhile thing anyone's ever done in Blender

[maokus]

I remember a few years back looking at cycles and thinking "damn lenses actually work in this? I should make a camera!" Thank you for doing this so that... nobody ever has to do it i think...

[momo_anims]

This is probably the most terrifying thing I've seen done in Blender. Absolutely amazed that this was done.

[charlesturner]

This is genuinly the most amazing set of "renders" I've ever seen, the fact that they don't look photorealistic yet still look more like a real photograph

[Mrgijs]

as a professional photographer and nerd with some basic knowledge of 3D rendering, I can only say: you are insane, a mad scientist, and an absolute genius creative and original artist.

[alcanony]

A year of learning blender and building confidence trying to fight imposter syndrome, all rendered useless in 5 minutes.
Now every time i aim for photorealism this video will haunt me. Thanks man.

[TheXientist]

I've always wondered whether it was possible to recreate an actual camera in a 3D renderer given how realistic light simulation has become, and it makes me very happy to see that it is not only possible, but looks great as well

[uuffzz]

This EXACTLY feels like doing anything the first time in Blender.