Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

MY GOD!! Camera tracking each frame?!! Dude! get your self a camera tracking program. Voodoo camera tracker is free. Use hand tracking great for tweaking, but leave the program to do the grunt work. Its nice to be motivated to do your own work, but lets try to be a little efficient next time. In the real world, its all about speed.

Distance blur i render out what called "Z-depth" in max. Mainly its a type of render that will make objects a set distance away from the camera completely black and things up close white. Then i import that into after effects and use that layer as a mask.

I make a new composition (Name it "shot [insert number or name] distance blur") and then import my normal footage of the CG (we will call this the beauty pass) and the Z-depth pass into the composition. Then i hide the Z-depth by clicking the eye on the layer. Then add the effect Channels>set matte to the Beauty pass. Choose the Z-depth as the layer, set change alpha channel to luminance, and invert layer. Now add a gausian blur to the whole thing and put the entire composition into your Final composition. This should over lap the other beauty pass in the final composition and you should have distance blur.

Normal scene with a imcomplete yoshi and some really bad mushrooms i just threw together.


Here is the Z-depth pass


Here is the final product. Some clean up to do with the purple mushroom. This can be eliminated by rendering the purple mushroom separately. Notice how i slightly blurred the scene and added film grain. Also the corners are slightly darker since cameras have a difficult time getting light to the corners of the frame.

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

i agree, i always seem to get overwhelmed :p

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Awesome...thank you for the quick tutorial!

I actually tested it to make sure that I could do it in blender...would this be correct? I did, of course, just throw out some primitives for now...I'll try it with more complex models when I'm not writing up my Eagle Scout Project 0_o...

Original:


Z-Depth:


Finished:


Thanks again for that tutorial! Also, which grain would you suggest using, considering there are several from which to choose within After Effects.

And one more thing, how would you come about doing motion blur? Yafray doesn't support motion blur, but I can't use the blender internal renderer because Yafray has a much more useable and realistic lighting system.

Thanks for all of your help again though!

-Chris Folea(pronounced Fowliuh)
"Life is like a box of chocolates...it doesn't last very long."

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

You got it dude! that kind of distance blur will dramatically cut down render. Now for motion blur.

The thing that is going to be moving in the screen should be renderd separatly so it can have its own layer that you can blur. Then its a matter of applying a directional blur and eyeballing it to make it look right.

I just use noise for film grain. Noise Noise. I really dont know what the other Noises do. Also sometimes if you want to take it further (it depends on the shot and what your trying to express) you can make the frame flicker, like its from an actual camera. Since you are recording with a off the shelf camera (im assumeing you didn't shell out $5,000 for a hvx camera) the camera will auto adjust the levels all the time. Causeing the frame to flicker a little.

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

When does the Safety Animation begin? I know it started Oct. 15th last year. Same time again this year?

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Heck, I'm completely bypassing the safety animation and starting on the actual animation right now. (although i would really like to help oversee the safety animation, reality struck me and i had hand my coordination powers off to a student:( )

So I'm already diving head first into the AVA entry! This year I'm doing only the credits. I got almost all of my character designs done and I'm gonna start story boarding it very soon here. Yes believe it or not, I story board my animations BEFORE I make them. You all can expect to see some amazing credits coming from me this year! (or at least if i use my time correctly and get them done.)

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

what? you all too good to show what your all working on? I know some of you are working on the safety animation.



Behold the mighty Ethernet cord!

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

I'm not gonna lie. The best I can do is that square in Blender. And that's the default model! Unfortunatly, we didn't have anyone last year that knows squat about 3d modeling. Hopefully we'll have better luck this season. Anyway, I love watching what you all make, especially Buddy. Keep up the good work!

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Well, basically we haven't started our modelling buddy, but we're pretty much brainstorming. So there is really very little to show, besides we're all out of practice.

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Okay word of the wise. If you are in edit poly and you are moving a vertice and every time you try to move the vert, your model looks like its undoing itself. EXIT THE PROGRAM AND DO NOT SAVE IMEDIATELY! I saw my entire model undo itself into the basic primitive box right before my very eyes. I dont know what kind of glitch that was but it was awful.

Good thing whenever I save my project I also choose "save copy as" which puts a number after the file name. So I only lost an hour of work.

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

So are we allowed to post things we've made in the off season then?

If so...heres a couple of things I've made in the off season.

edit- Hey BuddyB309...I saw earlier in this thread about that alarm clock speed modeling challenge...By aaaany chance do you happen to be buddy39 or whatever on 3dm3? lol, If so good luck to you in the flashlight speed modeling challenge dude. (If you haven't realized...I'm Groene07 there too) If not...disregard this confusing edit. ;p

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

No that not me, I'm Peter C in threedyfourums, I haven't done a lot of speed modeling challenges lately. (Morgan if you're reading this, I want to go at you again.)


oooo...perty

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

BEHOLD! The power of the jukebox!


all hail the mighty jukebox!

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Wow, that jukebox fits perfectly into a target commercial!

Man, I wish I could fit time in my schedule for modeling... college...

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

yeah, i was just thinking that haha

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

I'm a very busy guy too. I don't have hours and hours of nothing to do each day. This the work i do is about an hour each day (if at least that) so stretch that out over 2 weeks thats 14 hours. I just know how to set up my time efficiently and I plan every thing so carefully so when i execute them, I know its going to work and im not doing a trial and error way of animation. You do learn a lot doing a trial and error way (especially if you don't know the program) but it also eats up a tremendous amount of time.

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Remember that there is no spoon.

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

is that for an animation? or just a scene?


i want to see the finished product! :)

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

oh the finished product is a LONG way away. Like about three months away if i really try hard to work on it. My hope is that character will appear in our AVA entry this year.

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Was working on a Buckley Class Destroyer Escort, but have had to put it on hold for a bit do to lack of time:
the whaleboat:



20mm Orelikon:


Mk 51 Fire Director


The ship itself (didn't get to far on it)

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Beautiful modeling, ea. Can't wait to see the finished product on this one.

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

here is the shoe for my character

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Thank, but that is going to be quite some time from now..... also, I'm sure to have problems once I put it all together. My laptop is going to explode trying to render 4million polys....
Ohh, and here's a soldering iron

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Then don't have your laptop render everything at once. Render each part differently and then composite all the layers in a different program. Its how the big studios do it.

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

ya I know, just meant it will take a while, I actually normally just do that in backburner where you can render in lines assigning small chucks of the final image at the same time.

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

pppsstt, i'm brand new to this site... where is there help on character rigging? i know lots about 3ds, i just never rig anything...

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Its really hard to teach someone character rigging over chiefdelphi. Catch me on Aim and I will give you a custom rig you can dissect and ask questions about. My screen name is BuddyB309 on AIM

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

For projects like this, does anyone know who to render just like the wire frame of it with out making it look bad?

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

I assume your asking how to render a wire mesh. Well, there is numerous ways to do it, but the way I do it is merge my model into a new scene with a white plane and a single skylight. Then create a composite material of a black wire material (check the wire box in the mat editor) and a white standard material. Render in mental ray with final gather and done.
Looks like this when done:

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

You know... I haven't posted any of my recent works.. strange, lol. Guess I'll show some of em, tell me what you think! :). Let's see, the first one roughly took about 11ish hours, minus the rendering time, and the other 2 took a day's worth.. never really remembered how long I spent on them in hours. Hope you like them!

(That's definitely one way of doing a wire overlay, though I'm sure there are others ways if I'm correct.. not sure, it's just popping into my head that there is more than one way :P. Noticed you've been boolean modeling at some places, overuse of that isn't "healthy" just to let you know, just as a friendly advice, though I'm sure you know :D)

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Don't go there girlfriend!

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

do you by chance play hobowars lol

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

First time posting here. i se alot of nice work here. so tell me what you think of mine!

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

here is some of my newer work.

this one was a tryout of a new tree plugin i got


i was trying out a new grass plugin i got


im still modeling this one.

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Hi everyone. My fellow animator and I were browsing the forum while doing some rendering and we found this topic. So I registered because I was interested in showing some of my projects. I'm a Simcity junkie so I got into 3d modeling by doing buildings. I learned from the masters on Simtropolis.com. Lately I've been working a lot on buildings from the Netherlands. These are projects I currently have running:

Rijksmuseum Amsterdam (currently on hold because it's a MASSIVE project):
Front:

Back:


You can see the building here.

and two others:

I did this windmill model in a day, hope to texture it later tonight:


This building is another old dutch one I made. Finished the model a few minutes ago, will texture tomorrow I think:

Done:



For those who are wondering, yes, I model almost every detail, and use that model to create normal maps and highly realistic textures, then put them on lower poly models for my large city models of many buildings.

Anyway, let me know what you think guys!

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

holy $@#$@#$@#$@# that was amazing! :eek:

dude, ur like my god! I frickin worship the ground u walk on. I hope some day u can teach me a thing or two

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Haha, thanks mate. You know I'm gone skiing Monday and since we already hung out last night, tomorrow night or anything.... next weekend you can learn :P

and then we must get cracking on this AVA. :p

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

He was joking :P

I do hope you aren't saying my building's AREN'T good though :P

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Oh your buildings are very well done. I see that you take great care in your models. Keep up the excellent work. could we get a wire frame render?

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

hey guys, havent been here in a while since I graduated and moved onto college. Kinda left 3d animation behind and its a little sad. I remember when buddy came up to me and my friend and asked how we did our animation. back 3 years ago. we were telling him about HDRI mapping and such. Im really excited to see that you have taken this to a new level. Im really looking into maybe getting back into everything, but I always had modeling issues and that sort of stuff. Just out of curiousity, when someone makes something, lets say that building that is rendered at the top of this page, is that just one single object? I never really understood, that or if you would start with seperate objects. Same with the gun turrets a few pages back. i wasnt sure if someone builds off of a square to build one final object, or if it is a bunch of objects comprised to form one. Thanks. Good Luck, im looking forward to getting back into FIRST

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Ah yes, I'm afraid my animation projects are going to be a little bit dead when I got to college or something.

But one thing I'm curious of is how many of you I've met.

Buddy: I think we've actually spoken at the championship in Atlanta. I think I remember you showing your crazy blue eyeball to Louis Marcoux at the Autodesk booth but I may be wrong.

EDIT:

Here's a wireframe :D

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Buddy,

This is my first year on FIRST, coming in with some past 3D experience. Since the commencement of the season, I have been closely following the CD forum; especially threads relevant to the visualization challenge.

I have been very discouraged to find that every fourth post consists of your blatant boasting. I never expected that a sub-challenge of the FRC could be even more viciously competitive than the primary competition itself. Even when teams are looking for advice or help, you throw their ideas down for one reason or another. (ie, trees and render time)

Seeing as you are a student in a collage program focused on animation, I understand that you have had the experience to create quite decent animations in respect to the majority of FIRST teams. I would simply like to request that you use this experience to help others, in the spirit of FIRST, and perhaps complete your entire animation in the month that everyone else does.

Please don't take this post the wrong way; I am not challenging your artistic skill nor your practical experience, just requesting you think a little more about the other teams.

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

:D ^^
You named it, we do our best to be helpful, but fierce is a good description of the animation competition... that is, if there are very many animation entries at a regional. I’d love to blame Buddy, but really, let’s be honest, I know I’m a bit competitive as well, close enough though.

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Terribly sorry to come off in such a way. I never mean to hurt or discourage anybody in an animation team. Although I am a student in college, I am not here to showcase my work if that is what people are interpreting of what I'm putting on this thread. I am mainly here to lend a helping hand to anybody who needs help, I am quick to answer questions and I give full details on the subject. Just ask Testementdoom or Loce Imica Morn. I am also mentoring various people across AIM and my own animation team. I never want to come across as a show off.

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

my first work after finishing up the award animation.

I like it

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

The cup and gun are well modelled, only two items i think have a problem: The bullets dont look very realistic, and the gun butt material could be altered slightly, but even still, amazing work!

~Setsanto

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

thanks, this is a WIP so its not totaly done. but how do u think i should change the butt material?

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Add a specular streak that travels the length of the butts. that should do the trick. Also make the specular glow a little, makes it look more matalic.

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

k. sounds good.

Im also having one more problem with this scene when i render out the zdepth the glass table shows up so when i use it to blur the scene the carpet isnt blured through the table.
so lol i totally faked the DOF.
im thinking about just rendering the zdepth wihtought the galss part in it.

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Yeh, I completely agree with buddy. I'm afraid I can't help your question much due to the fact that I have no idea what Zdepth is!

~Setsanto

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

anyone planning on starting either thier animation or the credits early? Such was my plan cause we keep being crushed by lack of time/ man-power.

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

I say go for it. Design and rig an awesome character to be used.

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Here is the character I wanted made last safety... I'm gunna try and get a hammer time video going... I was so sad I when couldn't get the morph mod working properly in time... please criticize it... and yes I do know it looks like it just saw a ghost lol.

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Very espressive!

One suggestion - unless you're going for a surprised or crazy look, close the eyelids a bit until they just touch the iris (the colored part of the eye).

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

^^ yah, I've gotten that before and your right. The model I made screwed up so I spent 2 hours making this new one... I also textured it, gave it a tongue, And applied a few more tricks I have found recently...

I was expecting more of a tearing sound from the critique but lemme know what you think about this one... Anyone know how to make him look ganster/ MC Hammer esk?... anyone know how to make chains?...

also anything you can tell me about morph mods would be appreciated cause last time I tried lip syncing it kept moving the head to one side and I never figured out why... Also, soon there will be people...

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

This tutorial seems to be quite good

~Setsanto

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

My first self-challenge speed render:



Modeled and rendered in 19 minutes and 39 seconds...Now I'm going to try and make it look good :)

~Setsanto

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

that's pretty good, what did you use for a material?

Is there anyway I can make things interact? in this particular instance I'm trying to get the links of chain to hit both the body, and each other, such that they don't go through each other without me having to individually animate them.

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

its good, but its too perfect. If you notice on chain links there is a spot where you can see the weld. Also the chains should be scratched where they rub together.

Here is a scenery that I'm making for someone. Its near completion except for a few minor touches.

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

hey one thing you should change is:
you should back off with the noise there is alittle too much.

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

I used a metal shader, 100 Specular, 75 gloss, raytrace map as a ref map. Soon im going to put in a dent map and soft select a weld in the chain, as per Buddy's advice. That is, as soon as I have time.

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

You could try using Reactor.

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Speaking of reactors, I've tried working with them before, but never figured it out. Can someone explain to me or point me to a good tutorial where it explains how to use the different reactors?

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

There is only one reactor engine. If you have MSN, i could try to explain what little knowledge of it that I have, however, I have found one good video on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbVIu61fQcA

Hope that helps.

~Setsanto

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

It looks nice, very nice, but I have a few suggestions.
First I would make the bases of the pillars on the left a bit less round, maybe add a deeper bump or displacement map? And possibly, you might be able to make the floor seem a bit bumpier? I would also make the edges of the arcs at the top a bit less sharp...I dunno...something about it just seems unrealistic, maybe the softness of the lighting? Or maybe the materials seem a bit too smooth? Really nice work!
Just some suggestions though...I guess its all a matter of opinion.
I love the depth of field by the way, very pretty.
Hope this helps some!

-Chris Folea(pronounced Foh-Lee-Uh)

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Well, haven't had much chance to do much of anything this summer (though my trail version is fast running out), but here's a couple of things I've been having some fun with.



(I know, raytrace needs to be turned down)



(I have no idea whats going on with the one light)

~Setsanto

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Thanks for the video, sorry, but I've been at regionals and working on the bot of late so... no work done sinse I finished my people and flavor flav clock... I must say though setsanto for the second image
-your wood floor is without any real grooves
-don't know if it's intentional or not, but the bottom of your tables are a bit too sea through
-finally one of your yellow blocks seems to be missing a top and or side...

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Why does it seem to be that everyone has figured out materials and I still struggle with it after 4 years of max? TELL ME!

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Yeah, thanks. The yellow blocks are part of what is soon to be a cabinet. Its still very much a work in progress. However, thanks for the comments anyway, I missed the bit about the tables till now.

~Setsanto

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

wow..they all look awesome.
We dont have an animation team.. :eek:

I think we should start one over the summer. :D

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Just been working on this today... been wanting to do a set of pool balls for a while, but forgot about it until Setsanto's post reminded me about it... here's what I've got so far:



Models are simple, as one would expect... a plane and a bunch of spheres. Used Vray to render, using a VRayMtl with the correct diffuse colour, 55 reflect, and a bitmap for the numbers. Single planar, rectangular VRayLight above the table. Not sure how to texture the striped balls at the moment... will work on that tomorrow. Plan on eventually adding some fuzz to the table... may end up just using Photoshop. 3DS Max crashed when I tried it earlier, so I decided to get the important stuff down first.

Oh, I've also got a cue ball... it's currently hidden, as I didn't need to do anything with textures for it.

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

My main 2 suggestions, the map on the balls should be scaled down a bit, the numbers are unrealistically large in comparison to the balls. Also, the reflection doesn't seem quite right. However, all in all, amazing! I seem to be having the same problem too btw. Whenever I try to open my max file of the pool balls it crashes....weird.

~Setsanto

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Reflections of the balls or the light? I'll get around to adding an environment map when I can find/modify on suitable for the task. I'll scale the maps down a bit too. By the way, how did you get the striped balls? I tried a multi/sub object material, but that just messed up the mapping... all done with a texture?

Thanks,
-Jake Alexander

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Yeah basically i just took the unstriped ball map, and added two white boxes at the top and the bottom of it in MS paint. The only thing that messes me up is getting the boxes to be the same distance form the top and the bottom. Its basically just alot of trial and error. About the reflections, i think its the lights. I dunno, I used a raytrace material for my balls, maybe its just raytrace vs. VRay material?

Hope that helps,
~Setsanto

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Well, I added an environment map and did a lot of work with quality... nothing terribly noticeable. Nothing with mapping yet (including resizing). Might need to turn down the environment map a bit... will experiment tomorrow. (sorry for the size, cba to open up Photoshop)

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

^^
Not bad, but your missing the balls with stripes.
also it feels like the light is a bit strong, though really, it could be just as strong... just never been in a billiards room with that much white light...
is there a rest of scene?

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

\\

Are the "6" and "14" backwards? What number is on the orange ball in the back row - possibly a backwards "13"?

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Ok bud I'll point out a few things.

You need a falloff in the reflection so when you are looking strait at the surface of the ball its not as reflective.

The light its way way WAY to bright.

By splitting your diffuse channel into a mix channel.

You need to blur your reflection (done with layer rendering) and at tint in the right areas. The white part of the balls are going to add a white tint to the reflection and the color areas will ad the color. Do this by adjusting your diffuse map and adding it to the tint under ray trace.

again way to reflective.

Add noise to the pool table, not a lot but just enough to get some slight variation.

I've never seen any pool table balls that clean, even when they come right out of the box. Ad some slight scratches to them so they look they've been handled. If you can add some finger prints that would be even better.

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

The scene is pretty much a green plane and a vraylight at the moment... I'll get to work on a real pool table once the balls are looking good. Have stripes now as well; might need to re-do textures for the normal balls, so that sizing of the numbers and white circles is consistent.

Note: I started writing this something like four hours ago, so the two latest posts aren't being replied to here...

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Very good except for the things pointed out by everyone else

~Setsanto

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Finally got around to doing some work :p .

Materials on pool balls are Raytrace Material, Phong Shader, 100 Spec. Level, 83 Gloss Level, 1.2 IOR, Environment map of a pic I found on Google Images, Falloff Reflect (at 30), Diffuse Map of pool ball.

Trial Version almost finished :(

~Setsanto

EDIT: Better render, lights at a better intensity, ignore the "felt" :p

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

hmmmmmm...... I feel like I should make some pool balls since everyone else is doing them.....

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Okay, blurred the reflection (Refl. Glossiness 0.8), toned it down a bit, and used Fresnel reflections (effect is like that of a falloff map).

all_4.jpg is everything; all_4_lg.jpg is a close-up of the cue ball (rendered it and it saved to that file, didn't get around to fixing the name)

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Now your getting further away than were you were. The reflection of the light does not need to be blured but the reflection of the scene does. Keep working at it.

Well since everyone is one this Pool Ball phase I guess I will make some. Here is what I did in 20 mins. I didn't want to spend anymore time on it.


Yes yes, I know I can fix some things. But I don't want to cause I'm working on another project that Requires a lot of time and modeling.

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

here is a test of my current animation titled "Appliances night out"

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

The shadows seem almost too perfect, might just be me. Seems a little dark, then again, this monitor sucks so thats probably the problem.

~Setsanto

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Hey guys, I'm working on another big big project. Bigger than "Oggy and Friends." So I'll be posting up on here a lot pretty soon. I would like all the help I can get. If you want to help just grab a random electronic device from your home and model it. Here is a basket of clothes that is going into the background.

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

I guess the basket is alright in the dark scene, but in the lit scene, the inside of the basket looks extremely strange, the shadows aren't right at all, also the cloth object hanging over the right edge of the basket isn't draped properly.

Just my 2 cents.

~Setsanto

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

alright, its not just me that thought that then...
the clothes look kinda rigid in my opinion, needs some more "drapage" and some more wrinkles and folds

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Yes I know, I would fix it more if this was a major part of the scene. If you look close the textures also stretch. The shirt is extremely flat and so are the pants. There are also clothes coming through the basket. I could go on and on and on what is wrong with it and what needs to be fixed.

but what you are looking at is a background element of the scene. You are never going to be that close to the basket of clothes or viewing it from that angle. Could I spend more time and fix it? yes. But will the viewer ever see the changes? no, because the two main characters are going to be drawing all the attention.

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Have a new one... this is a chess set that I saw online, in a sunny environment and some light postwork. Rendered with mental ray, modeled with 3DS Max.
http://gallery.jakealexander.com/main.php?g2_itemId=187

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

I'm sure the modelling is amazing, problem is, the lighting is much to harsh to see it. The shadows are also a bit grainy, and the table is a bit glossy. Other than that, great!

~Setsanto

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

defiantly watch your lighting. Especially the side of the tables and walls.

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

not bad, I would watch your chess table... usually you don't have the pattern continue down the side of the set... also seems a bit to thick, though I've seen some founding sets like that, but it looked that way to me anyways...

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Actually, the way it's set up is exactly how it's supposed to look (not that the rest of the material is correct, but the texture is fine). Size is close enough, too. See the original image that this is based on:
http://www.well.com/~zoran/movingsale/chess_full.jpg

Also, I think most of the problems are because of mental ray (and because I don't really want to bother with making it look good in mental ray). I'll be doing a vray version as soon as I find time to convert all of the materials (most likely today).

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Mental ray and V-ray aren't all that different. If you know how to use them you can get the same result. You just have to render in layers and use a third party to tweak the results.

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

I'd actually have to disagree with you here. No matter how much Mental Ray is tweaked, it never receives that V-Ray finish, because of the way V-Ray handles lighting and shadowing differently.

Although you can render elements, composite, and tweak them, that's more or less lying and kidding yourself :P Though the result can look similar.

But Mental Ray CAN look really good, it's just a different look. It all depends on the skill of lighting, shadowing, and painting (textures and shaders that is).

Here are a 2 things I've done on my free time, as small art projects quickly, probably posted before, but some are new. Guess which one is Mental Ray, and guess which one is V-Ray.


High Res: http://i29.tinypic.com/2i9nm02.jpg



I was walking around the Autodesk Booth in the pits at Atlanta for a long time. (wearing a camera bag and a team 75 sweatshirt haha) It was interesting to see so many people doing 3d work.

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

Heas at the aouto desk booth it was pretty cool there. It was the first time i met any one who knew how to use 3ds max, It was really awesome there. Buddy you still having problems with those particles? :)

Re: Off-season Projects in 3D Animation
 

No, I got particles down now, thanks to Loui. If you were at Atlanta and never talked to him at the autodesk booth I suggest you kick yourself in the rump right now. He knows EVERYTHING about 3ds max and cleared up the questions I had.

Now if you used the same scene and re-textured it, it would be a fair guess. I can't compare them because one is organics and the other is architectural.

Urgh, everyone is saying V-ray is great, I see nice stuff with V-ray. But I messed with it a little bit, I got 20 min frame renders. I never bothered with it to much. But I guess I will take a stab at it. Anybody know of some really good website that will bring you up from the basics? I don't want to sit and watch a video tutorial.

I've made this with mental ray. Yes its too ultra shiny and new and there is this odd reflective thing going on with the the glass in the door. I haven't finalized the materials on it yet. That will come later.