photoman

I am using conventional lighting! Just a sun light and global ambience, (Though i use AO with global ambience in the desert which renders fast enough). Another note. The 10 minute frame on OSX v14 renders at about 9 minutes on a 1.8ghz pent4 XP v13 PC. Photoman

@Robcat That would save me probably 50 hours of render time. Though the 18min test frame on v14.0c OXS renders at 6min on v13 XP! (Same computer) Interesting Photoman

That looks cool. Why do the overhead struts move? They don't the camera is dollying back. I could make it even more confusing by adding one of those zoom perspective shots (Slowly zoom in as you dolly back). As for now I am turning this into a short movie project. View Here: HERE Photoman

I decided to start another animation project. I am basing this off a bunch of minor projects I have done in the past. I will be adding my piano model to some of them and adding some sweet camera angles and shots... Here are a few test frames: Render time is going to be murder! Most scenes have AO (the desert scene etc) and I managed to optimize those to keep them under 20 minutes a frame. The pool scene I took AO out so I could render faster (about 2 hours a frame with AO!!) Most shots are down under 20 minutes a frame now. I have plans to hopefully finish this comletly including rendering in the next 2 weeks to enter in a contest at my school. Off to do some more work!! Photoman

Thanks! I decided to do a sun timelapse!! Here is a test: Res_Pool_NoWater_AO_A_.mov No water or reflections, 1pass 10%AO More coming! and I predict long render times ahead! Photoman

Ok, here is the day render! I stopped it mid render, its actually a screen capture... I stopped it at 5hours and it was at pass 6 out of 9... The renders seem to take forever (AO and IOR can be computational intensive.... especially having all that water with IOR next to the camera). Up next is the night scene! @Jason I agree with you it is very clean, a little too much too. But I don't really want to model much anything else for it I am going for that ultra modernism hard edge style that seems to be popular nowadays Photoman

I decided to start a thread on some of my experimenting with outdoor lighting and rendering. So here is the scene I am going to be using: I designed/modeled it to have complex shadows, relfections, and have IOR somewhere (the water (1.33)) Here is a late afternoon lighting. I have updated that lighting setup slightly after the last render, I added 2 bulbs underwater (as suggested in this thread to give some shadow detail, and I also added a Lane T on the bottom of the pool. Ive been enjoying rendering to OpenEXR and using its high dynamic range (32 bit too) and buffers to get additonal tweakability. Next up is the midday daytime look! Photoman

I live up in the Bay Area, which is a bit too far away Photoman

I actually did not know that or anything much about snap to grid, thats going to save me a lot of time ! QT is nice for the screen captures but you cant really adjust any settings.... Photoman PS what compression settings did you use for the video?

Update! Here is a render with optimized radiosity: About 8 hours, 4x4pass 250samples Photon map too: Photoman

Quick Update! Been fiddling with radiosity a bit. I found one of Yves amazing tutorials on the eXtra CD while I was searching for props. I read it, downloaded the CalcSurface plugin and I now have a more optimized radiosity setup. I am amazed at how many models and materials and whatnot is actually on the eXtra CD!!! Not optimized, but looks very clean. about 3 hours, 4x4pass I also plan on adding in a marble roller coaster somewhere in the scene hehe. Photoman

First off, Thanks! I learned everything through either tutorials (Yves tutorial is very informative for radiosity) or just going in and figuring out how to do it, (if you looked onto my harddrive there are about 100+ random test projects where Ive fiddle with a different feature) As for anything else I learned, that would probably be from reading articles and other WIP's on here or at cgtalk.com . I also apply certain photographic skills too, (rule of thirds, etc..) And for me grasping all of A:M, that is not true. Just try to get me to model an organic model rig it, smart skin it, pose, and animate it.... I havent mastered any of those (or dare try yet) >>>>><<<<<< Minor update! Added materials to most everything, still needs some tweaking though. Darktrees and simple materials mostly. 1:35:42 9pass 50samples I still need to fill up the room though, I need to put my posters up and back in the garbage truck and dump all the junk I have on my floor in. Hmm just though of this, Is it weird that I am working in the exact spot I am modeling, with the same viewing angle? Photoman

I agree with you Eric, Radiosity is a bit slow, but it is the only way I can achieve the type of lighting and look that I want with this scene. I do wish AO would would give nice results for interiors but it doesnt. The style I am going for is mostly one light with harsh/sharp shadows and having the rest of the room with diffused bounce light. I find that if I increase the photon amount and render at low res and at a low sampling rate I can get relatively fast "test renders" about the half hour range. Overnight I set a larger higher quality render. Latest test render: I plan to tone done the bounce light a little but its the basic effect Im am looking for. I really wish the Radiosity engine didnt mess with specularity soo much, Ive had to alter all my shaders to comply with that (I have about 30+ shaders including props). I added some props. Some are my models, others are off the disk and others are from the forum! Hmm Maybe I could add Waldo somewhere and see if anyone could spot him? Photoman

Nice to get some feedback, thanks! Update! Gots more done. The room now has closet doors, real windows, blinds, comforter on bed, shelf on wall, chair (off the A:M CD), and also now has basic bumps and shaders (no materials yet) . Basic lighting, 2 bulbs with shadows. Had an idea to make the carpet a hair emitter, but I think that would be a little too much, plus my computer would definetly slap me Texturing is going to be interesting, I plan to make a simple procedural material possibly bitmapped based for as many of the materials as I can, I don't really want to decal/uv everything. @JBigboote I plan to use the benslens on this scene, but not until it is done, because it increases the render time to much will I am working More coming Photoman

Duplicate post

I have been thinking of starting a project over winter break. Of the ideas I had the idea to "3d-erize" my room won. I started so far by just modeling the main objects in my room: desk, shelves, dresser, bed. The bed right now is just a modified version of the bench from my piano project, It is just there to a be a deformer for the cloth system sheets I plan to put over it. 1 Light, radiosity about 2 hours 4x4pass Note- There is quite a bit of distortion from the 15mm perspective. Photoman

That looks great! Awsome videos too Photoman

Im done! At least I am where I want to be with this project, I'll probably revisit it later on. Final Image: About 20 hours 6x6 36pass 3 softboxes (bulb lights on paths, each 3 rays) 2k resolution I also rendered to OpenEXR, WOW soo many passes!! I opened it in AFX and there was a shadow, diffuse, and spec pass for each light, and for the reflecitons and so on! I added it to the A:M eXchange too. Thanks for the feedback!! Photoman

I added a bench too, every piano needs one . As for the wheels, most grand pianos have them but for the sake of the render I didnt want to add them. But Ill probably add them anyway now. When finished Ill post on the old A:M eXchange. I do believe the addition of the bench and the slight angle change of the camera took away the pixelated env map (its a 2000x1000 size map) 1600x1200 25pass AO(50%) 8;57;23 Did a little work on the guts, I think I am just going to leave it like that, I dont plan on doing detail shots in there. Photoman PS How do you edit the title of the topic?

Me masochist? Its *not* like I am going to render this at 100 megapixels or anything pssshhht... But on a serious not... I dont mind patch count too much, plus as Nancy stated each wire is say 4 patches and dont forgot all the knobs and whatnot.... Remodeled the whole edge/curvey piece. Old on top On the old one the normals were all correct, it was the double five point patch that was odd... 1600x1200 25pass AO(45%) 5:30:55 My environment map is too small so thats why there is a pixelized reflection. Photoman

Thanks everyone! I noticed that spot has a double five pointer that leads into a hook (Bad!) Im going to redo that area anyway (Needs a bevel). I started on the soundboard (Insides) but got a little sloppy so I am going to fix some of that and add all the piano wires and whatnot.... (I can already imagine the patch count 88 keys at least one wire per key...) Wires: Photoman

I am modeling a grand piano to exercise my modeling skills. Nothing fancy just a simple grand. Pretty much done just needs a seat and set! The aritfacts are from hooks, AO and hooks are not good friends. 8808 patches Photoman

Snowman?

27:42 AM 13l Intel Core 2 Duo 2.44ghz 2gb Ram Mac OSX 10.6 Ill test it on my windows partition tonight for comparison. Photoman

Great utility see here: A:M Terrafrom PC only though Photoman