robcat2075

I don't know if it is or isn't about spaces in 3DS. OBJ models DO have color. It's stored in the companion MTL file I do know that if i try to import "Cube creation Y&G.obj" to A:M I get the shape but no colors and no groups. If I remove the spaces from the file names AND from the references to those names INSIDE the files, A:M loads the OBJ and the groups with color. The Groups just have numbers without names but at least they are groups. First lesson: Don't make anything at any step of the process with a space in a name (even if it's a group name) and for now... don't use more than 8 characters while you are doing tests. I also just noticed that the ampersand (&) is trouble. Just use letters and numbers in your names for now I will get Blender and see if there are any obvious fixes. This is your blender model after I deleted all the spaces in the file names. It came in with groups and colors.

Now we can put two files that should be the same thing side-by-side and see what is different and if it's important. There's a lot that is different. First possible clue... A:M doesn't handle names with spaces when it's trying to import and OBJ file.

When you reload that OBJ you made, the groups come in correctly colored and named, right?

Do this Here is lathed cylinder exported as OBJ from A:M TestCyl.zip Load it into Blender Make a Group on the top half and make it Yellow and name it "Yellow" Make a Group on the bottom Half and make it 50% gray and name it "Gray" Save the new model as a native Blender file (if it's asking to subdivide anything, don't let it) Close Blender Reopen Blender and reload the Blender version Export that to OBJ with a new name (if it's asking to subdivide anything, don't let it) Send me the new OBJ and MTL files

Now I need a cube exported to OBJ from A:M with the same group names, with the same colors, in the same places on the model.

That is only one file and it's not in ASCII text format and it's not OBJ. 3Ds isn't going to help us. We need to work with OBJ because that can be a text file. I need the four the four files I listed and I need them in ASCII text. See how they have readable text and readable formatting... example OBJ: # OBJ - Exported from Animation Master # 1OBJ mtllib CYL.mtl o CYL.OBJ v 6.76197 21.8464 0 v 4.79586 21.8464 4.79586 v 4.24249 15.8275 4.24249 v 5.98175 15.8275 0 v 3.68912 9.80858 3.68912 v 5.20152 9.80858 0 v 8.06357e-08 21.8464 6.76197 v 7.13316e-08 15.8275 5.98175 v 6.20275e-08 9.80858 5.20152 v 4.24249 15.8275 -4.24249 v 4.79586 21.8464 -4.79586 v 4.51609e-07 15.8275 -5.98175 v 5.10515e-07 21.8464 -6.76197 v 3.68912 9.80858 -3.68912 v 3.92704e-07 9.80858 -5.20152 v -4.24249 15.8275 -4.24249 v -4.79586 21.8464 -4.79586 v -5.98175 15.8275 -9.03218e-07 v -6.76197 21.8464 -1.02103e-06 v -3.68912 9.80858 -3.68912 v -5.20152 9.80858 -7.85407e-07 v -4.24249 15.8275 4.24249 v -4.79586 21.8464 4.79586 v -3.68912 9.80858 3.68912 # 24 verticies vt 0.00000 1.00000 # 1 texture coordinates g default s 1 usemtl UnKnown0 f 1/1/1 2/1/2 3/1/3 4/1/4 f 4/1/4 3/1/3 5/1/5 6/1/6 f 2/1/2 7/1/7 8/1/8 3/1/3 f 3/1/3 8/1/8 9/1/9 5/1/5 f 1/1/1 4/1/4 10/1/10 11/1/11 f 11/1/11 10/1/10 12/1/12 13/1/13 f 4/1/4 6/1/6 14/1/14 10/1/10 f 10/1/10 14/1/14 15/1/15 12/1/12 f 13/1/13 12/1/12 16/1/16 17/1/17 f 17/1/17 16/1/16 18/1/18 19/1/19 f 12/1/12 15/1/15 20/1/20 16/1/16 f 16/1/16 20/1/20 21/1/21 18/1/18 f 19/1/19 18/1/18 22/1/22 23/1/23 f 23/1/23 22/1/22 8/1/8 7/1/7 f 18/1/18 21/1/21 24/1/24 22/1/22 f 22/1/22 24/1/24 9/1/9 8/1/8 # 16 polygons example MTL: newmtl UnKnown0 Ns 200 Ka 1.000000 1.000000 1.000000 Kd 1.000000 1.000000 1.000000 Ks 1.000000 1.000000 1.000000 d 1.000000 Ni 1.000000 sharpness 1.000000 If it looks like this, it's not ASCII text...

You can put anything in a zip We need four files: OBJ file from A:M MTL file from A:M OBJ file from Blender MTL file form Blender

I started to do it but it says long posts will be compressed without tags and I figured that would turn all the quotes in to wall-of-text.

The files need to be in readable text format like A:M's export files are, not compressed binary format. There is almost certainly an option for that if that is not the default.

Post both here

I did a test with OBJ export and it retained the original JPG format. It didn't convert either the file or the name to BMP. Just in case you missed it, I'm repeating this... this is the fastest way to find out what is going wrong: Make a very simple model with the same groups in both, then open their OBJ exports up in a text editor and the differences will probably be apparent.

Make a very simple model with the same groups in both, then open their OBJ exports up in a text editor and the differences will probably be apparent.

Is the problem not getting groups or not getting maps? If I make a model in A:M, create three groups on it ("Top", "Middle", "Bottom"), and export to OBJ, the group names and definitions are contained in a .MTL file that is written along with the .OBJ If I look at the MTL file in a text editor, the group names are indeed there I think the problem is not that A:M is not exporting the groups but that the target application is not reading them in correctly. Tell me if I have completely misunderstood what you are trying to do.

It's in the zone!

Experiment using environment map to create the highlights

I presume cycles is faster but he was never able to show us any more than a speckly preview in real time. It still takes a long time to get finished result. Last time I tried a cycles demo it was very slow and pokey. And none of the beauty shots he showed were something that an amateur did with one light. For your Lego project, I'd distribute the sets with lighting set up already.

that's a good word for it. In real film they used to do something called "timing" or "color timing" because color correction had something to do with timing how much light the film got and how long it was developed for different contrast treatments. There's a process they had to get a very blown out look that was different that just over-exposure but they had to do it by bleaching the original camera negative. That would be scary.

But the LCD has worse black levels so the dynamic range gained on the top is more than lost on the bottom.

That original "sRGB" version is how every interior scene of the White household looked in "Breaking Bad" so it's not necessarily "wrong".

there is also something not-quite-right in his demonstration of "desaturation" I'm still looking into that... I should note that his lighting technique of lighting the entire room with the light bouncing off the wall... that is something the A:M renderer can only do with Radiosity which is very time consuming. I could light that scene to get a very similar result without radiosity but that is another issue.

It takes me a while to watch that because I have to pause it every three or four minutes to go vomit. Listening to him chuckle at his own jokes is maddening. From what i can see, "Filmic Blender" is a render to a high dynamic range format like OpenEXR with a drop down list of post processing presets that do what one would typically do in After Effects. Look at the image below full screen. On the top is his before and after comparison of "sRGB" and "Filmic Blender" On the bottom, I've applied a slight "Curve" adjustment and a "Level" adjustment to just the sRGB side. It's kind of like a "gamma" change" Is that result not very similar? Mine is very noisy because I just have a screen grab off YouTube and not the real render. But just that one change has gotten a very similar result. I'm not an expert but I'm not convinced that the Blender Guru is speaking expertly about all the things he is speaking about.

The basic problem is that A:M and any other 3D software can calculate the brightness of the Sun and total darkness and everything in between. However, common image formats like jpg or targa or don't have enough data range of numbers represent all that. They store values of 0 to 255. If 0 is black and 1 is the dimmest detail visible then you can only double brightness 8 times before you run out of numbers and start clipping values. However, that is also about all that the monitors we look at can show. About 8 doublings of brightness from top to bottom. Maybe 9 on great monitor maybe way less on a cheap one. Actual film formats, viewed in person, can do better. Print does worse. Example: If I take a picture of the Sun and then display that on my monitor or print it on paper, that image will not be as bright as the Sun was. So, for any display format, choices have to be made about what part of that nearly infinite range of brightness you could calculate is crammed into what it can actually displayed from min to max. OpenEXR renders let you store a far greater range of brightnesses... 30 doublings, I think... but you still have the problem that no display can reproduce that. In addition, there is the problem of color....

There are several statements in the first few minutes that I am extremely doubtful about such as the assertion that a CRT monitor has an inferior dynamic capability to an LCD monitor. Just that is provably wrong. His comparison of the photo and render at 6:09 completely misstates why those two look different. I haven't gotten to the end of it yet. His solution (have't gotten there yet) may work in a practical manner, but I sense that he doesn't really know what he's talking about. Again I haven't watched it to the end yet... but if more dynamic range is the key, that's what OpenEXR is for. That is ostensibly "linear data" untainted by any color management You can pretty much render to that and do curve adjustment in post to include or exclude any part of the dynamic range you wish. I watch some more later. I'll also note that Yves Poissant has made a number posts of about color management and A:M and that if you say his name three times he will appear.

I made a few tests your sample in v19, still using the same 0.15 thickness and Jitter set to 100% 1 pass 3 passes 16 passes 64 passes 256 passes

Cool-looking shots!