I would like to use Carrara to mix a real-life background with a 3d render. The project I am trying to visualize is what this room would look like with a dining area raised slightly above the carpet and floored with wood laminate. The dining area would extend from the back wall to the midway down the radiator. So, Basically what I need to do is place a 3d box type object on the ground that follows the contours of the wall and which could then have chairs and tables etc. placed on it to see what it would look like. Would love to know how to do this with Carrara as it would help me learn something about it (as well as helping me decide whether or not to do this actually in my room!)

If anyone is up for a challenge I could post a better photo of the room and remove the plant and table & chairs!

Kixum mentioned this in the shadow catcher tut in the backroom, but no details about compositing I don't believe. Might check it out tho as a place to start.

HI, I only have a sample of a shadow catcher done with your image. But I'm sure what you asked can be done with Carrara.

You would bring your image into the backdrop, insert a plane into the scene, texture it to be as similar to the floor in the actual image as possible, setup lights which would match the room as close as possible, build the table and chairs, position the camera then render. -Kix

thnaks for the suggestions. Very impressive Ringo!

This is probably a task better suited to a 2D image editing software package. I did this in about 10 minutes in Photoshop, but PSP or the GIMP would be able to do the same sort of thing.

I've inserted objects from Carrara into photographic backgrounds, but the thing I find most difficult is lining the shot up with the camera in Carrara. Try to get the focal length of the lens on your camera and duplicate that in Carrara (Carrara's cameras are roughly 35mm camera equivalent). It looks like your camera is about 5 feet above the floor, and not square on to the back wall, so you'd need to match that in Carrara as well.

It can be done, but Carrara might not be the best tool for the task.

As I think about this more, it would be a fairly easy task to build the room in Carrara -- then adding the platform would be as simple as inserting a cube.... I think building the room entirely would be fun and a great learning experience. You can get photographic textures from the real walls and floor, too, so your textures match well. Some careful measuring and you should be good to go. Good luck! - Dex

WOW!!! Hey thanks so much sfdex. thats excellent work. I guess its all about the right tools for the right job and sometimes 2d is a better option for visualization. having looked at this maybe doing this for real isn't such a good idea. You may just have saved me a packet Thanks again!

Glad to help. You still might want to build the room in Carrara just for the experience. Could be fun, and then, hey, you never know what other strange ideas you might come up with! - Dex

The only problem with using 2D is getting the lighting to properly match what it would be in real life. I would just model the whole thing. That room is so simple, it would take less than an hour to do it well.