Let the ball roll - and have something done!

First topic message reminder :

I'd like to start this thread to thread so we get to know what people find difficult in terms of CG. For example, modeling. Among the things that you encounter daily at work, What do you find hard to model or texture? What do you find hard to render? How to light? How to make things look real? How to animate? Etc. It is my intention that this thread become a source of information for those who already know the answer as well as those who are just starting.

This is an open invitation and there is no room for the faint of heart or those simply wanting to show off.

hala Bira!

eyecon01 wrote:hello V-wrang. You mentioned GI right? can you post your process on getting that right on the spot?

BTW very helpful tute. Want to see more.

There is no getting there right away 100% but Image based lighting via GI can take you close to 80% of the lighting part.
This is how we did it with ryukendo four years ago.

You don't need HDRI really, low dynamic range or your typical 8 bit images can do wonders as well. I know I should post the doc right away and I'm almost there.

Konti na lang.

I'm loving this thread dude!

Just keep em coming.....

still awaiting here sir....magtitimpla ulit ako ng kape...

Sana matuto rin ako gumawa ng 3D animation. Di ko pa natry. Isa sa mga dreams ko ang gumawa ng mga ganyan. tsktsk tsk Hope for more tutorials from your thread sir. Keep it up!

Konichiwa sir roy!.........been following this thread, but it seems your very busy these days......and I'm wondering why'd you remove your name and avatar?.........i thought you're blocked by the admins........just wonderin'

After a few months ex-communicado - I am finally energized, raring and now back with a vengeance!

Thanks Neil for the opportunity.

So where were we?

ytsejeffx wrote:Konichiwa sir roy!.........been following this thread, but it seems your very busy these days......and I'm wondering why'd you remove your name and avatar?.........i thought you're blocked by the admins........just wonderin'

Thanks ytsejeffx, I had circumcision. They say the second time will always be the most memorable. And so now I am back!

v_wrangler wrote:After a few months ex-communicado - I am finally energized, raring and now back with a vengeance!

Thanks Neil for the opportunity.

So where were we?

jesus christ on a crutch everybody get ready for another freakin rollercoaster ride

since we're at it, sir vert, there's been some discussions regarding LWF... i came across this : http://www.aversis.be/tutorials/vray/essential_gamma_01.htm

what do you think?.. good alternative ba sa LWF?..

I'll head on there in a while.

I've been trying to hold off yours trulys mouth with regards to anything Linear workflow as it will cause more brain fart to anyone not used to seeing low contrast renders straighht out of max.

Seriously, we've been using this for three years now specially for film based works because it requires a more complicatedly wide color space. For architectural works - it has been the defacto color management scheme in our office until lately when crayzard decided to test something else. (I'm still an LWF proponent though!)

What it does basically is stretch out your gray levels. So you'll have the correct levels of gray you nornally wouldn't find if you are used to the default setting in max which is OFF.

So what beauty does it bring? With LWF and if done properly, you don't need to do pump you lights intensity anymore like you've been unconsciously accustomed to in the past: to compensate for the areas that are too dark (of course the darkness was the result of non-linear light distribution that max was set to default to). So in the past, no linear gamma correction equaled to more lights (more shadows) and longer rendering time (because you are trying to light the dark areas with more lights!)

Getting used to LWF will take a couple of tries - and it could be months before one gets used to it.

And btw - all these LWF approach will mean nothing if you do not have a calibrator with you to sample your monitor's color ouput. Hindi minamano-mano iyan.

Thanks for the warm re-welcome cloud. The thing in between my legs is aching I need langgas.

welcome back vertex! good to have you back.

The Vertex is On! Welcome back!

mushroom wrote:welcome back vertex! good to have you back.

i second hir sir... its gud the ball is rolling again...

Thanks Mushroom and Bokks and Regs!

One thing I'd like to add with regards to LWF.

Its just another way of doing things. Its like cooking pansit. Some people like to add a dash of vetsin - some don't. LWF is like your vetsin. You can either have it or don't. It could make or break or ruin your pansit.

If you are confident and able to achieve what you need to with whatever workflow you have right now - then stick to it. LWF is not the answer to it all - it doesn't automatially change your renders to make it look like photographs.

Your lighting skills and composition is more important than these three letter abbreviations!

Nice to be back!

arkiedmund wrote:So sir, I think the best option is to pick my background in advance and check it's white point, so I can tweak my scene. In that way, when I insert the BG in post, it will have the same level of illumination in both my scene and the background plate.

Looking forward to your continuation of the discussion.

Post mo na sir, lumamig na kape ko, sa kakaantay...hihihi....

I almost forgot that depending on which photoshop version you use, there's a match color function in there to help you get a base tint from a source image. Quite nifty if you ask me.

v_wrangler wrote:

What it does basically is stretch out your gray levels. So you'll have the correct levels of gray you nornally wouldn't find if you are used to the default setting in max which is OFF.

So what beauty does it bring? With LWF and if done properly, you don't need to do pump you lights intensity anymore like you've been unconsciously accustomed to in the past: to compensate for the areas that are too dark (of course the darkness was the result of non-linear light distribution that max was set to default to). So in the past, no linear gamma correction equaled to more lights (more shadows) and longer rendering time (because you are trying to light the dark areas with more lights!).

I totally agree with you on this vertex. Same workflow here. And yeah you are right about getting used to a bit washed out images straight from max but as long it is saved on a floating point then it wouldnt be a problem. I adapted to this workflow coz of the scene illumination. less lights and less intensity.

ryancoy wrote:

v_wrangler wrote:

What it does basically is stretch out your gray levels. So you'll have the correct levels of gray you nornally wouldn't find if you are used to the default setting in max which is OFF.

So what beauty does it bring? With LWF and if done properly, you don't need to do pump you lights intensity anymore like you've been unconsciously accustomed to in the past: to compensate for the areas that are too dark (of course the darkness was the result of non-linear light distribution that max was set to default to). So in the past, no linear gamma correction equaled to more lights (more shadows) and longer rendering time (because you are trying to light the dark areas with more lights!).

I totally agree with you on this vertex. Same workflow here. And yeah you are right about getting used to a bit washed out images straight from max but as long it is saved on a floating point then it wouldnt be a problem. I adapted to this workflow coz of the scene illumination. less lights and less intensity.

and i think i'm starting to like it; although i'm using the aversis method which seems to run the same course... and yes, i've noticed some gain with regards to render times... still learning though...

I'd probably update this thread leaning on various topics at the vfx conference from now on.

oooh vfx.. you just peeked my interest sir. looking forward to your discussions.

mga sir, paanu ba magmodel ng scaled sa max? kasi ginagawa ko minomodel ko muna sa sketch up tsaka inexport sa max.