Stonemason Contest

24

Comments

  • bombenleger58bombenleger58 Posts: 106
    edited December 1969

    @Horo I think is Time to spend 1 or 2 Bucks for a faster Machine!!!!!!!!

  • JamahoneyJamahoney Posts: 1,791
    edited January 2013

    Horo...is the 'first' entry valid?

    Someone named isikol said: “All entries must be new images—not previously available for public viewing—or will be disqualified. Public posting includes display on blogs, forum posts or any web page without restricted access. "

    Jay

    Post edited by Jamahoney on
  • HoroHoro Posts: 10,526
    edited December 1969

    @bombenleger58 - I have already 5. I used the i3 because it doesn't have a fan even though it's a 4 core. I needed the 8-way i7 for other renders. The other three are slower but can be used for network rendering more elaborate scenes.

    @Jamahoney - TheSavage, Pam, David and I only posted links, no images except in the public forum of the Stonemason contest thread. The second image that is also there is indeed an old render but marked as not for the contest - just as illustration and it is too small. We'll see what Stefan decides.

  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604
    edited January 2013

    I think we are perfectly fine, because all we are doing is sending people to the contest thread. So the actual images are not being shown anywhere else but the contest thread.

    And as we are promoting this contest rigorously I am sure Stefan is only going to be pleased.

    These rules are the standard DAZ 3D contest rules, and I can assure you Jay that every other contest I have entered on the DAZ 3D forum people have always done this sort of thing, even when the vote for winner was going to be a public one, or perhaps I should say especially if the winner was going to be judged by public acclaim. :roll:

    Probably that last is one reason why nowadays there are no public votes for winners. Quite often actually since the CV team was formed Daz has actually asked the CV team to vote for winners of contests. I know this because the Current Forum Team (Mods, forum admin whatever you want to call us) were taken from the CV team, because we had already worked together as a team for a couple of years and Daz decided that we had been a very successful experiment. I don't think any other forum has a team of volunteers dedicated to helping New Users get to grips with the software and even the entire forum experience. I also don't think any other forum actually has a section especially for New Users.

    Promo finished, back to your regularly scheduled stuff. :coolsmile:

    Post edited by Chohole on
  • David BrinnenDavid Brinnen Posts: 3,136
    edited December 1969

    And my second. http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/15430/P150/#231983

    I stuck with the orange colour scheme.

    And if you look on the left... maybe just maybe this render offers a clue how to achieve a bokeh effect... which is interesting.

  • LordHardDrivenLordHardDriven Posts: 937
    edited January 2013

    David, your second entry reminded me of something. I haven't mentioned it here but recently my motherboard died. It could have been just it's time or it could have been some scenes I was rendering. Basically they were buildings that are detailed inside and out. I was trying to render some scenes that were inside the buildings and was having alot of trouble getting good decent lighting going and whenever I got something passible it seemed like the render times became undesireable (which makes me wonder if my rendering activities pushed my motherboard over the edge). Anyway I've been meaning to ask, is there a tutorial that specifically covers how to set up lighting in a scene where you are inside an object imported such as the Skyline Hall for example? If not could you make one when you have the time? Not only covering how to get the overall lighting right but how to illuminate the lights that are physical objects in the scene (like in the skyline hall picture there are some sort of panel lights in the ceiling)?

    Post edited by LordHardDriven on
  • HoroHoro Posts: 10,526
    edited January 2013

    @David - great scene your second entry. There appears to be some effects that could go as bokeh.

    @LordHardDriven - I have covered how lights can be made visible in my 3-part video Make/Fake and HDRI in Bryce for Bryce, but it is not yet published. Essentially, you have to create a glowing surface where the light should be perceived. For a light bulb, you would use a sphere, for a fluorescent tube a cylinder, for light sources within a frame a 2D face - whatever. Give the surfaces the colour of the light, usually white because these parts must appear very bright, and give them a lot of Ambient light. After all, they should appear to shine. Set the actual light source in front of the surface. If the surface is semi- or fully transparent, put it behind the glowing surface. That's how I made the lights in the renders in both of my entries to the Stonemason contest.

    EDIT to add: It is actually quite straightforward. The really hard bit is to place those surfaces and the light sources. It takes a lot of patience and sometimes many hours.

    Post edited by Horo on
  • David BrinnenDavid Brinnen Posts: 3,136
    edited December 1969

    David, your second entry reminded me of something. I haven't mentioned it here but recently my motherboard died. It could have been just it's time or it could have been some scenes I was rendering. Basically they were buildings that are detailed inside and out. I was trying to render some scenes that were inside the buildings and was having alot of trouble getting good decent lighting going and whenever I got something passible it seemed like the render times became undesireable (which makes me wonder if my rendering activities pushed my motherboard over the edge). Anyway I've been meaning to ask, is there a tutorial that specifically covers how to set up lighting in a scene where you are inside an object imported such as the Skyline Hall for example? If not could you make one when you have the time? Not only covering how to get the overall lighting right but how to illuminate the lights that are physical objects in the scene (like in the skyline hall picture there are some sort of panel lights in the ceiling)?

    Yes rendering is cruel to motherboards, continuous 100% load for hours at a time can reduce the lifetime of some components. Having killed a few motherboards I now tend to overspec them for what I need and this strategy does seem to pay off. I still kill power supplies at an alarming rate. Expensive or cheap ones, it does not seem to matter. So I just buy cheap suitable power supplies now and instead spend on the money I save on motherboards and the biggest cooler I can fit in the box for the processor.

    Interior lighting... is tricky, but with the new lighting methods I've uncovered for gel lights (which is what I used in the Skyline Hall) and one standard radial - yes, it is a good idea. Post up a picture of the kind of interior you are thinking of - different spaces will require different strategies and I will see what I can come up with.

  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604
    edited December 1969

    Can I add something to Mark's request.

    Setting up lights to work within a sky dome as well? I fudged it with my first contest entry but would love to know the recommended way to deal with things like this setting up acceptable lighting conditions to show an outdoor environment within a sky dome especially.

  • David BrinnenDavid Brinnen Posts: 3,136
    edited December 1969

    chohole said:
    Can I add something to Mark's request.

    Setting up lights to work within a sky dome as well? I fudged it with my first contest entry but would love to know the recommended way to deal with things like this setting up acceptable lighting conditions to show an outdoor environment within a sky dome especially.

    Yes, you are more than welcome to make suggestions. Show me a picture of the kind of lighting environment you like me to replicate - preferably a photograph - I don't like to copy renders since you are already then a further step away from the real world.

  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604
    edited December 1969

    On this occasion, very difficult to find photo's, but you have seen my image, which I admit is slightly postworked, although the crepuscular rays were in the image, not post worked, but how would you light something similar to get the actual shadows tuly matching the rays

    http://www.renewableenergyinstaller.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Forest-Trees.jpg

  • David BrinnenDavid Brinnen Posts: 3,136
    edited December 1969

    chohole said:
    On this occasion, very difficult to find photo's, but you have seen my image, which I admit is slightly postworked, although the crepuscular rays were in the image, not post worked, but how would you light something similar to get the actual shadows tuly matching the rays

    http://www.renewableenergyinstaller.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Forest-Trees.jpg

    Hmn... challenging... OK I'll pop my thinking cap on and see what I can come up with. Be aware - you are probably going to be in for monster render times!

    Oh and nice use of the word "crepuscular"!

  • HoroHoro Posts: 10,526
    edited December 1969

    chohole said:
    On this occasion, very difficult to find photo's, but you have seen my image, which I admit is slightly postworked, although the crepuscular rays were in the image, not post worked, but how would you light something similar to get the actual shadows tuly matching the rays

    http://www.renewableenergyinstaller.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Forest-Trees.jpg

    A perfect subject for an HDRI photograph. I've been waiting for such a moment for quite a while.

  • David BrinnenDavid Brinnen Posts: 3,136
    edited December 1969

    chohole said:
    On this occasion, very difficult to find photo's, but you have seen my image, which I admit is slightly postworked, although the crepuscular rays were in the image, not post worked, but how would you light something similar to get the actual shadows tuly matching the rays

    http://www.renewableenergyinstaller.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Forest-Trees.jpg

    Bryce 10 minute lighting project - crepuscular rays - a tutorial by David Brinnen

    Crepuscular_rays3.jpg
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  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604
    edited December 1969

    Nice one, thanks David.

  • Dave SavageDave Savage Posts: 2,433
    edited December 1969

    I know we're getting a bit off topic here, but to carry on the present theme, I was looking at the IL when I read Pam's question and thought it would be a good use of some IL experiments to make a quick and relatively simple forest scene. So today I've been playing with instancing a bit.

    The first pic below is my effort, with added god rays (I can't be bothered learning how to spell fancy new words like crepuscular).
    The second version, (which I only did really small because the big one took 4 hours with all those trees) is the same scene with darker leaves on the trees.

    Now I should probably have known or realised this, but I rarely use the IL and have rarely got it to work making actual instances. Today I did and was very pleased to find that if you instance your trees and then change the original one that you used as the brush, all the instances of it also change. Which makes tweaking forest scenes a bit easier as you can do it from the tree lab.

    InTheWoodsALT.jpg
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  • dwseldwsel Posts: 0
    edited January 2013

    chohole said:
    On this occasion, very difficult to find photo's, but you have seen my image, which I admit is slightly postworked, although the crepuscular rays were in the image, not post worked, but how would you light something similar to get the actual shadows tuly matching the rays

    http://www.renewableenergyinstaller.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Forest-Trees.jpg

    Bryce 10 minute lighting project - crepuscular rays - a tutorial by David Brinnen

    Thank you for the tutorial! The final effect came up very well even if it's only the quick demonstration of the technique. The method with the fog is the most accurate one but I came up with the alternative and quicker one with use of postpro.

    Instead of rendering fog you're rendering depth map for the objects (background white, closer objects black) or in some cases like i.e. volumetric clouds - just rendering the shape against the white background is often enough to get an appropriate mask for this task. Then the mask have to be blurred using zoom blur (might have different names in various apps). The starting point of zoom blur should be placed in the location of the incoming light.

    In my example I rendered the mask of cylinders (sun_mask1), but to add more interesting patterns and limit the effect to specific area I broke up the mask with the noise and multiplied circular gradient (sun_mask2). To get more saturation (more sun heat) I multiplied the mask with my render (sun_base) then zoom-blured to get the rays (sun_rays). The final image that comes from adding/screening these two layers (sun_comp) adding slight vignette and using curves to tweak the colours (sun_fin).

    72_sun_base.png
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    72_sun_rays.png
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    Post edited by dwsel on
  • Waleed - JordanWaleed - Jordan Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    I know we're getting a bit off topic here, but to carry on the present theme, I was looking at the IL when I read Pam's question and thought it would be a good use of some IL experiments to make a quick and relatively simple forest scene. So today I've been playing with instancing a bit.

    The first pic below is my effort, with added god rays (I can't be bothered learning how to spell fancy new words like crepuscular).
    The second version, (which I only did really small because the big one took 4 hours with all those trees) is the same scene with darker leaves on the trees.

    Now I should probably have known or realised this, but I rarely use the IL and have rarely got it to work making actual instances. Today I did and was very pleased to find that if you instance your trees and then change the original one that you used as the brush, all the instances of it also change. Which makes tweaking forest scenes a bit easier as you can do it from the tree lab.

    Very Nice , I like the fog between the trees

  • LordHardDrivenLordHardDriven Posts: 937
    edited December 1969

    David, your second entry reminded me of something. I haven't mentioned it here but recently my motherboard died. It could have been just it's time or it could have been some scenes I was rendering. Basically they were buildings that are detailed inside and out. I was trying to render some scenes that were inside the buildings and was having alot of trouble getting good decent lighting going and whenever I got something passible it seemed like the render times became undesireable (which makes me wonder if my rendering activities pushed my motherboard over the edge). Anyway I've been meaning to ask, is there a tutorial that specifically covers how to set up lighting in a scene where you are inside an object imported such as the Skyline Hall for example? If not could you make one when you have the time? Not only covering how to get the overall lighting right but how to illuminate the lights that are physical objects in the scene (like in the skyline hall picture there are some sort of panel lights in the ceiling)?

    Yes rendering is cruel to motherboards, continuous 100% load for hours at a time can reduce the lifetime of some components. Having killed a few motherboards I now tend to overspec them for what I need and this strategy does seem to pay off. I still kill power supplies at an alarming rate. Expensive or cheap ones, it does not seem to matter. So I just buy cheap suitable power supplies now and instead spend on the money I save on motherboards and the biggest cooler I can fit in the box for the processor.

    Interior lighting... is tricky, but with the new lighting methods I've uncovered for gel lights (which is what I used in the Skyline Hall) and one standard radial - yes, it is a good idea. Post up a picture of the kind of interior you are thinking of - different spaces will require different strategies and I will see what I can come up with.

    Well, I don't have a particular need at the moment. The renders that I suspect played a part in my motherboard's early demise were just an attempt to see what the interiors of the buildings actually looked like. Since we're in the Stonemason contest thread how about I just use a Stonemason scene? That way it might prove beneficial in more ways then just answering my question? The one I picked is Stonemason's Utopia Deck C as it has several different types of lights in one scene. All of which I've marked in the picture. There are tube like lights at intervals alone the wall. There are also small round lights along the wall at floor level. There are panel type lights along the ceiling and finally there is a big round ceiling light in the junction of the corridoors but in this image it doesn't appear illuminated. There is also a control/display panel that while not a light might give off a bit of a glow in certain lighting situations.

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  • HoroHoro Posts: 10,526
    edited January 2013

    That would be the one: http://www.bryce5.com/details.php?image_id=4682
    Again, I put 2D faces on the ceiling lights and cylinders on the vertical ones. Full white ambiance. Within, spot lights. The displays are a bit more tricky if you want they cast a bit light: get the general colour and put a flat spot in front of it.

    As I have noticed when rendering in the night and go checking, the room is lit with a pale blue light with not much difference of what's on the screen.

    Post edited by Horo on
  • LordHardDrivenLordHardDriven Posts: 937
    edited December 1969

    Horo said:
    That would be the one: http://www.bryce5.com/details.php?image_id=4682
    Again, I put 2D faces on the ceiling lights and cylinders on the vertical ones. Full white ambiance. Within, spot lights. The displays are a bit more tricky if you want they cast a bit light: get the general colour and put a flat spot in front of it.

    As I have noticed when rendering in the night and go checking, the room is lit with a pale blue light with not much difference of what's on the screen.

    Okay thanks Horo. I think something wierd is going on with my installation though because I was more or less doing that but it was like the lights were having no impact unless I edited then and played around with the include/exclude options. It seemed like I would have to include first, then exit, reenter the light lab and then chose exclude and then the lights would show up in the render but brighter then they should be to the point that even turning diffuse down to 1 it was too bright. I don't remember having thos kinds of problems before when adding radials so I assume something has changed but I'm not sure what when or how.

    Unfortunately until I get my computer up and running I can't try or test anything because I don't have Bryce installed on my wife's computer and since I hope to only be sharing her computer on a short term basis I don't want to go to the bother of installing Bryce here.

  • Dave SavageDave Savage Posts: 2,433
    edited December 1969

    That's a strange thing to happen LHD. Technically the exclude/include option shouldn't have any affect what- so-ever on a Stonemason product because it doesn't recognise grouped objects... unless it had been ungrouped after being imported into Bryce.
    I do know from recent works I've been doing that if you accidentally set a light to include a specific grouped object, the light simply stops functioning and even unchecking it from the 'include' list has no effect. You have to add it to the 'exclude' list and then it starts working again.

    I've no idea if you can save a default for a light so that when you open a new document (like you do with the 'default' doc method) new lights are set to include background only or something, but I'm wondering if that's the kind of thing that's going on.

    The only way I've had really bright lights when diffuse was only at 1 was when they were set to 'infinite' with specular set high.

  • HoroHoro Posts: 10,526
    edited December 1969

    @TheSavage - good advice here.

    @LordHardDriven - as a true Bryce adict, I have a copy of Bryce on an USB stick, which I carry around with me. Where a computer is, I can do some brycing.

  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604
    edited December 1969

    Now that is true addiction. Just think, once you get your post count up above 2500 you will get your addict status confirmed underneath your avatar. (that is unless you are a moderator, Daz forum team or admin, whatever they call us nowadays when you don't get that confirmation).

  • LordHardDrivenLordHardDriven Posts: 937
    edited December 1969

    That's a strange thing to happen LHD. Technically the exclude/include option shouldn't have any affect what- so-ever on a Stonemason product because it doesn't recognise grouped objects... unless it had been ungrouped after being imported into Bryce.
    I do know from recent works I've been doing that if you accidentally set a light to include a specific grouped object, the light simply stops functioning and even unchecking it from the 'include' list has no effect. You have to add it to the 'exclude' list and then it starts working again.

    I've no idea if you can save a default for a light so that when you open a new document (like you do with the 'default' doc method) new lights are set to include background only or something, but I'm wondering if that's the kind of thing that's going on.

    The only way I've had really bright lights when diffuse was only at 1 was when they were set to 'infinite' with specular set high.

    Well from what you're describing it sounds exactly like whaty was going on, I didn't know that about the grouped objects thing so maybe I did accidentally click on include at some point? BTW though, this wasn't with a Stonemason set, I've only started discussing it in terms of Stonemason sets because this is the Stonemason Contest thread. It was actually a Meshbox set, Toon Santa's Christmas Village to be exact. Although I imagine that imports into Bryce as grouped objects too. It was actually made for Bryce but the creator (Chikako) I think just takes his 3DS version, imports it into a Bryce scene, saves it and then calls that a Bryce version?

    The only other thing I can think of that might be at work here is that these are .br5 and .br6 files so perhaps something was set using those programs that doesn't translate correctly in Bryce 7?

  • LordHardDrivenLordHardDriven Posts: 937
    edited December 1969

    Horo said:
    @TheSavage - good advice here.

    @LordHardDriven - as a true Bryce adict, I have a copy of Bryce on an USB stick, which I carry around with me. Where a computer is, I can do some brycing.

    I guess I could do that although I have doubts my USB stick (which is only 4GB) could handle everything (meaning Bryce, all the Bryce packages I've installed and all the scenes I've saved) as that totals about 40GB

  • LordHardDrivenLordHardDriven Posts: 937
    edited December 1969

    chohole said:
    (that is unless you are a moderator, Daz forum team or admin, whatever they call us nowadays when you don't get that confirmation).

    That's okay, just so long as they don't call you late for dinner. :)

  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604
    edited December 1969

    chohole said:
    (that is unless you are a moderator, Daz forum team or admin, whatever they call us nowadays when you don't get that confirmation).

    That's okay, just so long as they don't call you late for dinner. :)

    Never happens, I am the only mug in this house that cooks dinner. :coolsmirk:

    Someone once asked himself why he didn't try cooking, and his answer was that he liked to eat food, not throw it away. Having said that he does make a mean bacon sarnie, crispy bacon as well. Plays havoc with the smoke alarm sometimes, as it is right over the kitchen door, straight in line with the cooker.

  • HoroHoro Posts: 10,526
    edited December 1969

    Ah - I know the argument. It goes different with me, though. I like to eat delicious food, therefore I take the time to cook it. I think I'm worth all the trouble.

  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604
    edited January 2013

    Well I may not be able to teach himself to cook anything but bacon sarnies, but I did manage to raise 2 sons and a stepson who all cook, and cook well. In fact my oldest son actually won an award as area Chef of the year for one Pub he was working at. When we lost him he was head chef at a superb Hotel restaurant in Ireland. http://www.silvertassiehotel.com/

    Post edited by Chohole on
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