I've been upskilling in stablle diffusion lately, specially using screenshots of 3d scenes as image prompts for generating “realistic photos”.

While there are still some caveats, the minimal time spent and the results are fantastic! These examples took between 5-15 minutes each, once I was happy with my prompts and checkpoint models. No inpainting.

In the future, rendering will be as much a process of combining 3D models, prompt refinement, and materiality, then simply pressing a button.

Have I wasted the last 15 years learning material shaders, lighting systems, and offline rendering?

More tests to come...