Post Your Renders - Happy New Year yall
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This is a scene for my movie. I just started working on it so textures and most of the greenery are placeholders. Any feedback and suggestions would be very welcome.
Finally got some people to do my bidding ... ;)
Nice work Everyone!
Really love the nebula clouds the ship is emerging from!
Dartanbeck - Space scenes have always been tough for me, usually stitching together a large enough image to load into Background then tile it for use as part f the sky light... ;) I'll have to try your technique!
Tim_A - I totally know what you mean with the frustration... If I can't get things to work as I had envisioned, I usually take a break from it , switch gears and try another project... Or just take a break from Carrara altogether, watch a movie or do some gaming... That being said, I've been away from Carrara and 3d rendering entirely for the majority of 2014...
Dart, I love the emerging from the space cloud scene, I am jotting down the tips on how you got the space clouds (nebulae?) to look like that. Also with the coupon that Daz offered today, I finally picked up PD Howler 9.1. I have no idea how to use it, but I liked the demo vids and want to use it at least for compositing layers of animation masks together :)
Stringtheory, that's incredibly good. Wow. Where did you get those ruins?
Tim, I'm glad to see you got that scene behaving again, it's kind of cool to see it from a whole other angle. Very nice work indeed. Wow, this thread is popping with good stuff today :)
Thanks JonStark. I found the model here:
http://www.sharecg.com/v/36702/gallery/5/3D-Model/Lux-Prepared-British-Natural-History-Museum but followed the link in the description and used the OBJ version (which I used) on this page: http://www.3drender.com/challenges/.
Thanks Mohandai, Jonstark. There are plenty of angles on that scene!
Stringtheory: I thought that building looked kinda familiar!
It's been used quite a lot in various fantasy art images. I spent a long time trying to recreate it with my complete noob modeling skills and then stumbled across the model, which was cause for much celebration!
The lighting in your last image with the tower is awesome! I find myself second guessing my lighting way too much and I never feel like I've got it right.
It's also a major location in the Paddington movie, riding high at the box office right now. (and there's a big hoo ha going on about Dippy being replaced by a blue whale after 110 years) :)
Many whole days have been spent rendering and throwing away the results. Days like that get very frustrating. Even with Birn's book and many watches of PhilW's tutorials, good lighting often eludes me.
Ok, another new render (well, rather a major update and revisit of an older render from 2008), Carrara's native render engine... Procedural shaders are entirely my own - both body and teeth and doable without any extra addon plugins ;)
Beret is form the Veteran War Dogs for M4 package. Just need to find, make or model some sort of shield for the blank emblem area. Any ideas anyone? (I did model a Macross Zentraedi logo once, very acurate but wouldn't be suitable for this image)
I still might go a bit further with this scene, add something in the empty chest cavity area too... Maybe even some flying craft in the air?
I set the DOF to about 40%... Incase you guessed it, rendered using an hdri image.
Just when I thought I totally loved this model from the get-go many years ago when I first bought it. I never thought I'd ever be able to turn out a render like this.. :)
Definate shout-out to PhilW, JoeMamma, Philemo, and EvilProducer for helping me along in learning using HDRI with Carrara. :)
Also included is the original render from 2008 ... I still like how the original one turned out, but I do like the new one more-so. I guess one way of looking at is is the original image is an anology of my younger self, and this new rendition analogy of my current self - older, wiser, more experianced in relation to Carrara :)
Edit: any clue as to why I can't change out the current set avatar for the new one? I select a 100x100 px 14.2kb version of this and it keeps returning to the old one... else my firefox needs a cache clearing...
:coolsmile:
Hi stringtheory, no hdr image has been used, actually the background is a blurred photo placed on a plane. AFAIK hdr in carrara works like a reflective environment mapping but it affects global lighting marginallyYeah, I really like that skin scan. Looks awesome! Also, I really like how well any sort of spherical background in Carrara can be used for GI. Pretty neat!
Ten24 does its work in a excellent way especially on mapping, i find always a lot to learn from their work :-)
Stringtheory, I find your set very promising, it reminds me this video watched few days ago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYOLqIqgvnY#t=115, hope it could be inspirational for your movie (blur studio, they are masters!)
Tricky to light, cos it's on a curve in the track and surrounded by tall trees, so there's always going to be lots of shadows no matter where the sun is (could be great for tight close ups though). Still, it was really just a test render for the new stile (did I mention I'm an inveterate tinkerer? Can't help but keep adding stuff!). Quite pleased with it, well apart from the flower growing out of it!
Why to these things only notice in the 4 hour detail render, and never the small scale check? Ho hum!
Think I'm gonna have to redo that yellow flower - it doesn't look quite right somehow. More tinkering...
I think that looks great!
Looking good!
Yeah, I see exactly what you mean, the one flower growing right through the aged piece of wood... If and when possible, before rendering I change the view mode of the replicators from the default "Bounding Box" to "models" or whatever its called (can't recal top of my head right now) .. the mode that shows the models placement as they would show up in the rendered image. Especially when your dealing with multiple Replicators...
Still,would be nice if there was some collision detection to other objects (if there is I must be overlooking it)...
Thats where it can really bite, noticing these little placement and collision goofs once your 4 hours into the render... I generally do test renders, disabling global illumination entirely, even sunlight and just tossing in a basic distant light (keep the sunlight , just hide it) - at least for the initial replicators...
As much as I like doing outside renders, and ones with Trees and Bushes for vegetation, I rarely do them just for the reason of them taking quite a long time to render, at least when doing full GI.
Hmm, Since I'm going more into HDRI rendering, I'll have to see if it makes any difference in render times vs IBL + GI that I normally use.
Another trick I was shown once was to use both a Sunlight and a Distant light, and it requires splitting your scene into 2 parts - objects that are only lit by the sunlight (with soft shadows), and objects that are only lit by the distant light (not using soft shadows). I've only tried that once tho.
That looks really cool. I can't see anything in the still image that looks like needs improving.
Looking good!
Yeah, I see exactly what you mean, the one flower growing right through the aged piece of wood... If and when possible, before rendering I change the view mode of the replicators from the default "Bounding Box" to "models" or whatever its called (can't recal top of my head right now) .. the mode that shows the models placement as they would show up in the rendered image. Especially when your dealing with multiple Replicators...
Still,would be nice if there was some collision detection to other objects (if there is I must be overlooking it)...
Thats where it can really bite, noticing these little placement and collision goofs once your 4 hours into the render... I generally do test renders, disabling global illumination entirely, even sunlight and just tossing in a basic distant light (keep the sunlight , just hide it) - at least for the initial replicators...
As much as I like doing outside renders, and ones with Trees and Bushes for vegetation, I rarely do them just for the reason of them taking quite a long time to render, at least when doing full GI.
Hmm, Since I'm going more into HDRI rendering, I'll have to see if it makes any difference in render times vs IBL + GI that I normally use.
Another trick I was shown once was to use both a Sunlight and a Distant light, and it requires splitting your scene into 2 parts - objects that are only lit by the sunlight (with soft shadows), and objects that are only lit by the distant light (not using soft shadows). I've only tried that once tho.
My personal experience is that if I am doing an outside scene with GI, I tend to only use the Skylight. If I have areas that are too dark, I use a spot light or shape light to illuminate those areas- many times using light linking to include or exclude certain elements, such as the ground or something.
Thanks magaremoto, and thanks for the link. That is some seriously cool everything! Definitely inspirational. :-)
That looks really cool. I can't see anything in the still image that looks like needs improving.
Thanks evil!
My next set. This one is based on a photo that caught my eye due to its dramatic lighting. Last night I started modeling the walls and windows myself because I couldn't find anything that really matched. Once again, for animation speed, I have stayed away from any kind of GI and as a result render time at this size is under a minute at 2 pixel object accuracy (which is what I think I will have to render animation at).
For lights I'm using a vertex object with mini spots at 1% replicated over the surface. It's a super quick way of adjusting lighting and since it renders so fast its easy to fine tune. If I need more light I select a polygon and duplicate it and then move the new piece where I want the light to come from. Scaling the polygon will increase or decrease the number of spots on the polygon which will adjust the light output. I have attached the wirefame screen capture. It's not's not perfect but it soooo much faster!
That is a really nice set.
I also love the faked GI solution. I'll have to try it. My method for indoor scenes has been to create a light and set it the way I want, then duplicate it to create an array to simulate GI. I also use shape lights etc. Your method looks much faster and gives really good results. Now I want to set up an interior scene to see what I can come up with.
stringtheory, congratulations on being one of the few people to even mention trying the task of matching a real life foto. You can learn a lot from an exercise like that.
I'm a bit surprised that you're replicating so many low intensity lights.....
There's basically one light source for that room, and very little bounce light due to the characteristics of the surfaces (dark wood). So I would focus on getting the surface reflections right, and identify the key areas where reflected light is generated and maybe place a spot there with very soft shadows. Not sure why you're using so many replicated lights...
That is a really nice set.
I also love the faked GI solution. I'll have to try it. My method for indoor scenes has been to create a light and set it the way I want, then duplicate it to create an array to simulate GI. I also use shape lights etc. Your method looks much faster and gives really good results. Now I want to set up an interior scene to see what I can come up with.
Thanks evil, yeah, shape lifts are great too. I used two long tube lights along the sublime wall on my ruins render. The cast a diffuse light but the only thing that I've found to be a slight problem in some situations is that there is still a bright point of light that is projected somewhere into the scene. But they are super handy in a lot of cases.
BTW, the other reason I'd quibble about replicated lights is that each surface has different reflection characteristics (color, intensity, softness, etc.), and by just using a replicated light you may not be able to easily adjust this by surface. Though I'm sure you've accounted for that, I'm just mentioning for others to consider if they try something similar.
Looking at the photo and stringtheory9's interpretation of it, and bearing in mind that it is intended for an animation, which could add other variables to how the scene is lit, I think he did a remarkably good job.
I also think there is a difference between slavishly trying to duplicate a photo and creating something that is inspired by one.
You're free to characterize a learning experience as "slavishly trying to duplicate", but there is a benefit that one can obtain by trying to understand real world lighting by trying to duplicate a real world photo. Once that learning is obtained, it can provide a foundation from which you are free to interpret and "modify reality" to obtain whatever results you want.
It's like learning how to play piano based on the chords and musical genres that people tend to enjoy, then using that as a foundation to improvise and make other stuff.
Thanks JoeMamma. I have found that more spots at very low intensities produce much better texture clarity. I don't know the physics behind it but it seems bright lights tend to wash out the detail. I also find that textures that are in the shade of a few bright light sources are unsaturated and dead looking.
Using lots of low level spots doesn't seem to cause this same effect. I have also found that the more spots used the less hard shadows. The spots in this render use the default hard shadow setting. My goal might be different than many others who are looking to get that perfect still. I have discovered that I am going to have to make a lot of wise compromises if I am going to render a movie in my lifetime.
The rule of thumb that I have come up with is that the full screen scene (1400 x 700) without characters has to render in under a minute at 2 pixel accuracy or I have to adjust something.
Having a real photo to use as a lighting guide is very useful but feedback from experienced users is the best. I'll be taking another swing at those surfaces :-)
I really love this scene - the windows look great, although the lighting on the floor makes it look a little flat (the tile, that is). I hope no one plays with that puzzle box on the table though! ;)
stringtheory - nice scene
Have you played with the gamma settings by chance?. One advantage is that it sometimes brings the detail back in washed out highlights. PhilW recommends 2.2I really love this scene - the windows look great, although the lighting on the floor makes it look a little flat (the tile, that is). I hope no one plays with that puzzle box on the table though! ;)
Thanks MDO2010. Good observation! The floor is actually wood boards. The grill on the window is casting a shadow perfectly perpendicular and totally making the floor look like tile with no dimension. And I was completely blind to the effect because I was seeing it as wood. This is a great lesson for me to look at my renders objectively!
Thanks head wax. Yes, I've gone through PhilW's realism course a few times and learned a lot of very valuable info. Now I start all my renders at 2.2 and then tweak it up or down depending on if I need a little more or less contrast. With that said, even at 2.2 or higher, I just can't get the same detail in my textures with a single light than I can with a bunch of low level spots however this could just be due to my lack of experience. The render below uses about 100 spots at 1%. I have never been able to get this look with only a few bright lights even at gamma 2.2.