scale philosophy

[dblhelix]

this question is of the large kind;

how do i plan for the size and proportion of things in this spaceless place that is 3D?

what should be taken into consideration?

 

does the intended detail in materials matter? (and by materials here referring to all things not wireframe!)

if so, is it custom to, say, make another model for extreme close-ups?

 

does the intended proportion between objects shown matter?

if so, is it custom to speed up the process by, say, using postproduction?

 

does the camera present us with certain rules, as in 'you want "macro" with distance blur, scale the model x10 for starters'?

 

does rendering enter the equation or is that just a frame size issue? does this sound stupid, it's because i don't understand lights at all!

 

naturally i've the specific circumstances of a project to consider, but i'd like to understand general principles. is there a gunslinger around? this'll take a moment, can i cram this too into the previous order ?

[robcat2075]

this question is of the large kind;

how do i plan for the size and proportion of things in this spaceless place that is 3D?

what should be taken into consideration?

 

 

Generally scale doesn't matter. Physical simulations like cloth or Newton may may like 1:1 scale.

 

Some people have had trouble with VERY large objects (aircraft carrier sized) when the absolute distance of parts from 0.0.0 starts to use up the decimal places of precision needed to keep small details in order. I dont' know it that's a bug or a reality binary math.

 

 

does the intended detail in materials matter? (and by materials here referring to all things not wireframe!)

if so, is it custom to, say, make another model for extreme close-ups?

 

Hollywood does that. Bot for a model seen both close and far, easier to just make the close version. But you could use the same model with different textures

 

does the intended proportion between objects shown matter?

 

not sure what you mean.

 

does the camera present us with certain rules, as in 'you want "macro" with distance blur, scale the model x10 for starters'?

 

In general I think the camera has an infinitely perfect lens so issues of distance and size are all relative.

 

Occasionally there's a clipping problem from a camera getting too close to an object in absolute distance. A patch might disappear as the camera approaches VERY closely. But I can't cite a test case to show this happening.

 

does rendering enter the equation or is that just a frame size issue?

 

Any multipass technique like mo blur or Depth of Field tends to be render time expensive.

 

Some compositing apps can do DOF well and quickly if given a depth map you've rendered in A:M

 

Complex combiner materials may take longer to render than a similar appearing bit mapped texture.

 

Reflection and refraction and Ambient Occlusion are other time increasers.

 

Hair can can be ghastly with ray-traced lights, but not bad with z-buffered lights.

 

 

 

i don't understand lights at all!

 

-More lights render slower than fewer

 

-Shadow-casting lights render slower than non-shadow

 

-Ray-traced shadows render slower than z-buffered shadows

 

A fairly good intro to CG lighting is Jeremy Birn's "Digital Lighting and Rendering" (2nd edition) which i've made some notes and translation comments on for A:M users

 

 

 

Here's a thread where I demonstrated a few variations on lighting and the time cost result.

[dblhelix]

it took you less time to write than for me to read LOL!

 

one more; did a quick search for "3D combiner" on wiki where i always go for terminology first, a:m second but 'no sense did it make'.

a:m gives many results, how do i specify my search to learn all there is -

"material combiner" or "texture combiner" or yes both and also for decal ~, etc?

 

edit; is this a tool? or a common description for a principle?

[Fuchur]

it took you less time to write than for me to read LOL!

 

one more; did a quick search for "3D combiner" on wiki where i always go for terminology first, a:m second but 'no sense did it make'.

a:m gives many results, how do i specify my search to learn all there is -

"material combiner" or "texture combiner" or yes both and also for decal ~, etc?

 

edit; is this a tool? or a common description for a principle?

 

Material Combiners are procentual created materials using several inputs to create an output... the most common one may be a chess-board but there are much more complex things possible... (DarkTree-Materials are often resolution-independent Combiners, for example)

These are available in most 3d-programms and result from mathematical algorithms to combine different inputs... but dont be frightend... you dont have to do the math... you are just telling A:M what to do.

The biggest advantages: These material-combiners are resolution-independed and very easy to map on a object distortionless.

 

"Texture-Combineres" is not a A:M-related term, so A:M can do that by using for example Projectionmaps as combiner-input.

 

Decals can be for example blended together... but I am not aware of for example Multiply-Operations or such things... in the end you dont need that anyway, because it is faster to create these stuff in Photoshop and import it as a texture...

 

In short: So it is a tool in A:M.

 

See you

*Fuchur*

[dblhelix]

So it is a tool in A:M.

 

i went searching, scanning the amount of results and yes, "gradient combiner" was the only one found in techref.

 

thank you so much robcat& Fuchur! it feels borderline absurd talking in real-time to mentors far far away. if subscriptions keep this going, i'm never buying the program

[robcat2075]

when you first create a new Material in the PWS it has just one "attribute" under it and you can set basic surface properties.

 

However, you can on that attribute and do "Change Type to" to change it to a "Combiner"

 

That Combiner will have two attributes under it.

 

And guess what you can do to each of those attributes?

 

 

 

Combiner materials aren't very intuitive to work with, you really have to know where you're going with them.

 

But they have cool powers. Look at my This is only a Test blog, almost everything there uses combiner materials for something.

 

Combiner materials are also known as "procedural" materials and sometimes "Perlin" materials.

[dblhelix]

And guess what you can do to each of those attributes?

 

take them to the sandbox!

 

pleading guilty to the pluralis blunder; when searching i omitted the star in "combiner*" and got wrong results. curiosity helped discover the material combinerS on the previous page. i also found a combiner tutorial from johnl3D, and gradient combiner searches gave me your quick recipe for glass. this was a perfect, productive day off.

 

thank you!