Post Your Renders - #5: Yet More Hope

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Comments

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,537
    edited April 2014

    When you say volumetrics were blowing out the scene, do you mean you're using volumetric clouds or something else to generate the light beams?

    Marcelo Teixeira has a Fun Video on Cone Light Volumetrics

    I know that a lot of folks don't really care for silent tutorial videos, but I really enjoy Marcelo's work. Aside from the great articles and amazing images, his tutorials were one of my big draws into Carrara Cafe. He has, like, a whole Carrara user manual worth of video tutorials... I'd love to meet that guy one day. He's helped me in many, many ways!

    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited April 2014

    No. Light Cone is volumetric light effect.

    Sort of and not really.

    The sunbeams introduced in C8 were the first real volumetric light effect in Carrara if I recall correctly.

    To actually get a better looking light beam, try using real volumetric clouds. It may take a bit of tweaking to get the level of opacity correct, but I guarantee it will not blow out the background like the light cone will. It will also render faster than the light cone if you have shadows and light through transparency enabled.

    All that being said, I do like the light cone for some things, but it's like the 3D aura, there are limitations, and once you figure out how to work around them, it can be very effective.

    Post edited by evilproducer on
  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969

    Here's an example of using volumetric clouds to simulate light rays in C7.2 Pro. Not sunbeams as in Godrays, but more of a light cone effect. This was not the best scene to do this with as there are to many bright areas, but I was working on it and wanted to test the scale of the scene.

    The cloud is a cube shape with a brightness of 100 and a white color. The translucencey is set to 15%, the shadows are set to good and the shadow intensity is 100%.

    I used a single sunlight set to 200% with soft shadows set at a radius of 25ft. I rendered using the Skylight GI function. Scene ambient light was set to 0%.

    As I mentioned, I would have a more visible effect if I had more dark areas to contrast with the light shining through the cloud. However, the large center shadow creates a shadow in the cloud towards the center of the image. You can also see some subtle effects on the right side of the image in the darker areas.

    This scene doesn't really benefit greatly from using volumetrics as opposed to the light cone, except for the more realistic light angle. The real advantage is when a light cone is shining through a transparent object. Those calculations can take forever.

    clouds_for_light_beams.jpg
    1200 x 800 - 435K
  • wetcircuitwetcircuit Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Tim_A said:
    Must... stop... tweaking...

    NEVER!!!! :bug: :snake:

  • TangoAlphaTangoAlpha Posts: 4,584
    edited December 1969


    When you say volumetrics were blowing out the scene, do you mean you're using volumetric clouds or something else to generate the light beams?

    It's light cones. I was told they were volumetric, so that's what i was going by.

    The problem is that I didn't want any fall off, since the light is basically coming through holes in the windows, so there's nothing to impede it (the remaining glass is so encrusted with grime that I just treated it as opaque, so turned light through transparency off). The light has come 96 million miles, it's not going to stop in the last 50 feet with no barriers! But having rays coming through all three windows was so intense that you could barely make out anything of the underlying image. Reducing the effect through drop off, just made it look weedy IMHO.

    I reduced the fan effect, simply by playing with distance and spread angles. (okay, you can still see the beams are not parallel, but at one time it was much worse)

  • IamArtistXIamArtistX Posts: 119
    edited December 1969

    My latest attempt

    scifi-bedroom.jpg
    1920 x 1080 - 506K
  • TangoAlphaTangoAlpha Posts: 4,584
    edited December 1969

    I like it. I always tweak and tweak and tweak on this sort of thing too... In a case like this, with the falloff of the cone effect to try and get it it fade slightly throughout the scene. Seeing it here, without that fade... I must say, I think it looks really cool! Nice image!
    I do find something odd about Gabi having such a white light on her in this scene, but I like that too. So I just tell myself that there's a hidden light source near her that I simply cannot see from here ;)

    i think fade is good for some things - light through water for instance. But after 96 million miles of space and 100 miles of oblique atmosphere, it's not going to be much bothered by 50ft of air inside a building. IMHO ;)

    I wanted Gabi to be an outsider, intruding on a scene where she doesn't belong, if you like, and adding an element of tension/something not quite right. I kept her in the shadows, and used a small, focussed spot from off camera left. It could be that there's a second person, unseen, holding a torch... But I think the white light cutting across the main sunbeams serves to detach her from the rest of the scene, which is what I was after. Of course that may not work and I fully accept that (just trying stuff out and learning after all...) :)

    If I'd used yellow light, it would have had to be congruent with the main lighting, which would effectively have put her in silhouette, and I don't think that would work particularly (I didn't actually try it though)

  • TangoAlphaTangoAlpha Posts: 4,584
    edited December 1969

    My latest attempt

    There's a story there, and I can't help feeling it has something to do with an illicit rendezvous and a hurried exit...

    Nice touch with the DoF, and the strong contrast. And the skewed camera angle adds to the hurried feeling. I like it. :)

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,537
    edited December 1969

    My latest attempt
    Wow! Love it!!!
    Here's a fun experiment with Refraction:
    Fun_with_Refraction.jpg
    1280 x 720 - 1M
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,537
    edited December 1969

    The orb is a simple primitive sphere and I simply added the Green Clear glass shader that comes with Carrara. I also have some lights linked specifically to just the orb, as I wanted it to really stand out. This render uses GC = 2.2, Good AA, 0.5 accuracy for both objects and shadow, Sun Light and IL turned on, Caustics turned on at default values.

  • RoygeeRoygee Posts: 2,247
    edited December 1969

    Hi all :)

    I don't normally do much in the way of rendering - this one has a bit of a story behind it. It tries to depict a fishing village down the coast, which is somewhat of a National Treasure; it is probably the most water-colour painted scene in the country and virtually every home has a print or two of it.

    My friend has painted it a lot and challenged me to produce a version in CG. So, I'd really appreciate some c and c from you pro's before I show it to her :)

    Technical details - 1 sky light at 170%, 2 light spots confined to the foreground group. Rendered with "good" soft shadows, "good" lighting, ambient occlusion. Rendered at 1600 X 900 and reduced to 800 X 450 for the forum. In the old Anim8or tradition, everything in the scene, bar the figures which are MakeHuman for the low poly count, was made by me:)

    Arniston6Small.png
    800 x 450 - 461K
  • bighbigh Posts: 8,147
    edited December 1969

    Roygee said:
    Hi all :)

    I don't normally do much in the way of rendering - this one has a bit of a story behind it. It tries to depict a fishing village down the coast, which is somewhat of a National Treasure; it is probably the most water-colour painted scene in the country and virtually every home has a print or two of it.

    My friend has painted it a lot and challenged me to produce a version in CG. So, I'd really appreciate some c and c from you pro's before I show it to her :)

    Technical details - 1 sky light at 170%, 2 light spots confined to the foreground group. Rendered with "good" soft shadows, "good" lighting, ambient occlusion. Rendered at 1600 X 900 and reduced to 800 X 450 for the forum. In the old Anim8or tradition, everything in the scene, bar the figures which are MakeHuman for the low poly count, was made by me:)

    good job - but the clouds don't look right ( to 3d ) if you want a painting look

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,986
    edited May 2014

    Roygee said:
    Hi all :)

    I don't normally do much in the way of rendering - this one has a bit of a story behind it. It tries to depict a fishing village down the coast, which is somewhat of a National Treasure; it is probably the most water-colour painted scene in the country and virtually every home has a print or two of it.

    My friend has painted it a lot and challenged me to produce a version in CG. So, I'd really appreciate some c and c from you pro's before I show it to her :)

    Technical details - 1 sky light at 170%, 2 light spots confined to the foreground group. Rendered with "good" soft shadows, "good" lighting, ambient occlusion. Rendered at 1600 X 900 and reduced to 800 X 450 for the forum. In the old Anim8or tradition, everything in the scene, bar the figures which are MakeHuman for the low poly count, was made by me:)

    great job Roygee, wonderful how you modelled everything!
    c and c?
    you have great lead in with the boat,

    Oh I read recently how you should crop until all you have is the interesting parts.

    So with that in mind
    With this one I would crop it quite a lot.
    So a vertical line just to the rightt of the oars, take it to almost the rhs of that left hand chimeny
    then on the rhs of the image I'd crop uot the right hand building all the way to that distant figure.
    That buildling is not doing anything and there's a lot of nothing in the foreground near it.

    If you do that then you will have the essence of your composition and all those bright colours will be more evenly scattered around the work

    er maybe like this ?? apologies for working on your image if you go with this the woman will need to be moved to the left a bit as she is now dead centre

    some smoke maybe in chimneys?

    Arniston6Small.jpg
    600 x 338 - 35K
    Post edited by Headwax on
  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604
    edited December 1969

    Oh wow I love those cottages. What did you make those in?

  • RoygeeRoygee Posts: 2,247
    edited December 1969

    Thanks - I really appreciate the comment:)

    Bigh - if you meant to say the clouds are TOO 3D, I'm happy that I got them to work! Yes, I'll be going for a water-colour look and am frantically studying up on how to do that in Gimp. That will blur out the clouds somewhat, which in retrospect I think tend to overwhelm the picture. So your comment is on the nail.

    headwax - very insightful and you are correct. I never intended to make the family group the focal point, but now that you mention it...What I now intend doing is to make a separate pic of them by pulling in the focus, instead of cropping and take your advice on board. Maybe bring that one building closer and put something in front to take up the blank space?

    Chohole - thank you:) All made in Hexagon, as always. I'll put a cottage up on my ShareCG account if anyone wants it.

    I'm going to try to make a Bryce version of the pic, once I can get clear on some things that I find difficult to in Bryce - if only it had a split-screen function, it would make placing models so much simpler :)

    Thank you for your help - I was more worried about the lighting, but seeing as no-one mentioned it, maybe it is OK?

  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604
    edited May 2014

    All made in Hexagon, as always. I’ll put a cottage up on my ShareCG account if anyone wants it.


    Ooh please.

    Edited to add BTW, where is that little village. looks sort of familiar but not sure.

    Post edited by Chohole on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,537
    edited December 1969

    chohole said:
    Oh wow I love those cottages.
    Me too. Great job, Roygee!
  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969

    I can't really offer any c&c to what's been given.

    BTW, If you want to post larger images to the forum you can have a 2000 pixel max if you want. The file size is they allow is very large as well.

  • RoygeeRoygee Posts: 2,247
    edited December 1969

    The name of the place is Arniston https://www.google.co.za/search?q=fisherman's+houses+-+arniston&sa=X&es_sm=122&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&ei=SztlU77gLIyf7AaK6YFo&ved=0CFoQ7Ak&biw=1024&bih=643

    Unfortunately, most of the pictures you get to see on the net are upscaled imitation tourist accommodations a few K's from the actual village.

    I'll upload first thing in the morning and post the link.

    Thanks Dart - and for the tip, EP :)

  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604
    edited December 1969

    Thanks for that link Roy. Completely the wrong part of the globe to the ones I was thinking off, but does show how similar they can be

    http://fineartamerica.com/images-medium/irish-cottage-james-anderson.jpg

  • Hermit CrabHermit Crab Posts: 841
    edited December 1969

    @Roygee

    If you are looking for a quick way to turn your image into watercolour, I can recommend (the free) fotosketcher.

    http://www.fotosketcher.com/

    It can transform images in many other different ways and I have had a lot of fun with it - especially with some of the Bryce renders I've done.

    To all: Great renders in the thread!

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,537
    edited December 1969

    I can't really offer any c&c to what's been given.

    BTW, If you want to post larger images to the forum you can have a 2000 pixel max if you want. The file size is they allow is very large as well.

    I have some Coffee and Cookies that I'd be happy to share, since ep has to be so stingy ;)
  • ringo monfortringo monfort Posts: 945
    edited December 1969

    I spend a couple of hours getting this image setup and render. Victoria 6 with Dynamic Hair, Carrara Skin Shaders and the Sci-Fi Siren Outfit also with Carrara Shaders.

    Victoria6_Sci_Fi_Siren_Hair.jpg
    1000 x 1300 - 458K
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,537
    edited December 1969

    @Roygee

    If you are looking for a quick way to turn your image into watercolour, I can recommend (the free) fotosketcher.

    http://www.fotosketcher.com/

    It can transform images in many other different ways and I have had a lot of fun with it - especially with some of the Bryce renders I've done.

    To all: Great renders in the thread!

    Thanks Marcus! I hope you don't mind... I quoted this over into our Free Software that Makes Life Easier thread to keep it handy.

    Looks really cool! Dogwaffle is also really good for this. There are some of the automated filter methods, but also a whole slew of particle brushes, the one's that I really like for turning renders into paintings are Bristle brushes set to add no new colors, but the bristle patterns work with the pixels already there to create a really nice 'painting' effect, which gives an enormous amount of control, since you can change all manner of parameters, and stroke only where you want with the brush currently set up. Man it was hard to word all of that! Then there's the Orbicles, which are orbiting 3d particles that grab the pixel that they hit, when their 3d motion comes into contact with the 2d image, completes it's three dimensional orbit and paints it down again wherever it hits again, as it picks up the pixel that it just replaced, and so on. Like all of the particle brushes, these have many parameters and patterns to choose from, as well as the ability to either add no additional color along the way, or to add a selected color according to such settings. The bristle brushes can also add color if you ask them to.

    In Howler 9.2, which was recently released, many of the effects filters have now gained an "Animate" button, allowing us to add whatever effect across all frames of an animation, which is very sweet. When I first became a beta tester, one of the official releases was days away. I said that I'm not requesting this for the current development, but would love to see "Oilify" added to the timeline, which allows keyframed changes of its filters across animations. The next day Oilify was in the timeline, and the new beta version was released to us to try it! How sweet is that?!!!

    Here's an example of a render that has been Oilified:

    EnterVillageCenter1bpdB.png
    600 x 338 - 249K
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,537
    edited December 1969

    I spend a couple of hours getting this image setup and render. Victoria 6 with Dynamic Hair, Carrara Skin Shaders and the Sci-Fi Siren Outfit also with Carrara Shaders.
    Man, Ringo...
    Love the hair, love the skin shaders, love the outfit, love the outfit shaders! Coffee and Cookies for you!!!
  • ringo monfortringo monfort Posts: 945
    edited December 1969

    I spend a couple of hours getting this image setup and render. Victoria 6 with Dynamic Hair, Carrara Skin Shaders and the Sci-Fi Siren Outfit also with Carrara Shaders.
    Man, Ringo...
    Love the hair, love the skin shaders, love the outfit, love the outfit shaders! Coffee and Cookies for you!!!

    Dartanbeck,

    I love coffee and Cookies!!!!

    Thank you! ;-)

  • RoygeeRoygee Posts: 2,247
    edited December 1969

    Thanks for the coffee and cookies, Dart - I've just woken up starving, so they''ll hit the spot:)
    I have a demo copy of Dogwaffle - must install and try it out.

    Thank you for the recommendation, Marcus Serverus - I did see it while searching, but am a bit leery of downloading freebies without a recommendation - some of them contain some ugly stuff.

    Great render, Ringo - looks like a high-quality foto:)

    Here is the link for the cottage - http://www.sharecg.com/v/75916/view/5/3D-Model/Fishermans-Cottage

    Feel free to help yourself to my other models :)

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,986
    edited December 1969

    I spend a couple of hours getting this image setup and render. Victoria 6 with Dynamic Hair, Carrara Skin Shaders and the Sci-Fi Siren Outfit also with Carrara Shaders.

    Hmm that's a nice render Ringo, very nice, congrats.
    reminds me a little of a pre raphaelite model ,

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,986
    edited December 1969

    @Roygee

    If you are looking for a quick way to turn your image into watercolour, I can recommend (the free) fotosketcher.

    http://www.fotosketcher.com/

    It can transform images in many other different ways and I have had a lot of fun with it - especially with some of the Bryce renders I've done.

    To all: Great renders in the thread!

    Thanks Marcus! I hope you don't mind... I quoted this over into our Free Software that Makes Life Easier thread to keep it handy.

    Looks really cool! Dogwaffle is also really good for this. There are some of the automated filter methods, but also a whole slew of particle brushes, the one's that I really like for turning renders into paintings are Bristle brushes set to add no new colors, but the bristle patterns work with the pixels already there to create a really nice 'painting' effect, which gives an enormous amount of control, since you can change all manner of parameters, and stroke only where you want with the brush currently set up. Man it was hard to word all of that! Then there's the Orbicles, which are orbiting 3d particles that grab the pixel that they hit, when their 3d motion comes into contact with the 2d image, completes it's three dimensional orbit and paints it down again wherever it hits again, as it picks up the pixel that it just replaced, and so on. Like all of the particle brushes, these have many parameters and patterns to choose from, as well as the ability to either add no additional color along the way, or to add a selected color according to such settings. The bristle brushes can also add color if you ask them to.

    In Howler 9.2, which was recently released, many of the effects filters have now gained an "Animate" button, allowing us to add whatever effect across all frames of an animation, which is very sweet. When I first became a beta tester, one of the official releases was days away. I said that I'm not requesting this for the current development, but would love to see "Oilify" added to the timeline, which allows keyframed changes of its filters across animations. The next day Oilify was in the timeline, and the new beta version was released to us to try it! How sweet is that?!!!

    Here's an example of a render that has been Oilified:

    dart, you have more than one book in you, time to start and finish one eh?

  • Hermit CrabHermit Crab Posts: 841
    edited December 1969

    @dartanbeck

    Thanks for putting the fotosketcher link in the free software thread.

    The render you showed with oilify is lovely. The whole look it has - the ground, vegetation, atmosphere ...

    It always amazes me (when I see that and other people's brilliant renders) how anyone can start with the blue-grey Carrara Assembly Room and end up creating an outdoor world with late-summer lighting, etc.


    @roygee

    I understand your being wary - I've found no problems with the software and have had it for many months, so hopefully all OK.

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