Wonderfully textured render - also, great catch about the ladder, I didn't even notice that at first! :-p

Once that's fixed, head straight for the gallery!

-Will

Hi Dirk, it turned out great & gritty! Love the way the texturing and lighting turned out.

Since the holes in the grating are not very large in the render, it seems like you could have had a texture for that without really making a noticeable impact on the scene. That would definitely help keep scene density and poly count a lot more under control.

- Michael

yeah the ladder. :-)

I have hoped no one would notice that. I noticed it after 5 hours of rendering.
O.k. I`ll have to change that.
Thanks god, that my lamps and the balustrade are so bad visible.;-)
They are looking cool as long as you aren`t an engineer.
They were build in a parallel-universe with more forgiving physical laws.

Thank you all for your nice comments :-)

Cheers
Dirk

Really nice !

Hi Dirk,

>>I have hoped no one would notice that. I noticed it after 5 hours of rendering.

I thought I would mention, really because that is the only part that looks "not quite right", other than that, it is a very good render.
I am certainly interested is being able to produce such materials (as yours) onto a model,... I do tend to give up with materials/renders and move to another model.

>>Thanks god, that my lamps and the balustrade are so bad visible.;-)

The render looks ok in that area, maybe just the problems you had with construction give you concern?

>>They were build in a parallel-universe with more forgiving physical laws.

Just a need for very small feet lol

I look forward to any other work you produce and post.

Regards,

- manz

Hi manz,

yesterday i made some material tests to see what helps making a material looking good. Here is the result.

1.)Most important is a good lightning.
Using a physical sky or a hdri is a good way to achieve that and of course using global illumination.
A bad lightning situation destroys an image. There has to be bright areas and dark areas(shadows).

2.)not less important is the use of high quality texures. This is a bit trial and error. What looks good in this renderengine doesn`t look good in that one. The bump map is important when the mainlight is not coming from behind, which it shouldn`t do in any case, because this destroys threedimensionality.
The bumpmap has to fit the colormap. Often that is not possible and it looks odd. I do my bumpmaps in photoshop using the highpassfilter and sometimes painting in some darker areas where should be the bumps.
A reflection or specularmap is also important, because as a result you have reflective and nonereflective areas. Using fresnel effect for reflective surfaces also does a good job. Please look here:

http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=1568.46

3.) i give every material reflective properties. Often very low and blurry.It`s also here a bit trial and error.

I think these are the most important things i pay attention to.

Greetings
Dirk

Hi Dirk,

>>Most important is a good lightning.

Yes, it is an area I am currently spending time with, certainly with GI.

>>not less important is the use of high quality texures.

As I mentioned, that is what I can have problems with. Did you use a real_world texture for your render (such as photos) or was it (possibly) a procedural texture. I do attempt to create a texture rather than using a photo etc, using such as MaPZone ( http://www.mapzoneeditor.com/?PAGE=HOME ), I am getter better, but it will take time.


- manz

FREE

http://www.cgtextures.com/

Some great learning here.
(Everyone should be a (no cost) member of this site!)

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=46&t=77484

Brian
ps.Apart from being the worlds top 3d site it seems it, also, is based here in my home town, Adelaide, South Australlia---IT MUST BE GOOD!

I use CGtextures.

I really would like to use mapzone, but i don`t get any realistic looking material.

But while using mapzone you have a perfectly fitting bumpmap and reflection map, which is not possible or
easily possible with a photo.

A while ago i`ve searched for 3d-Cameras and a program which produces a bumpmap from that but i only found
industrial solutions. I think a 3d-camera with software to produce a bumpmap from it would be a perfect fit.

Maybe we could start here at moi-forum a material thread with techniques to produce highquality textures with photos, crazybump, mapzone ect. (but i`m not sure if here are enough people interested in such things).

Dirk

Manz
Making your own textures in Carrara are greatly helped by the DCG Enhance C plugin (brilliant!)
(Note. 1 There are some free plugins from nVidia that are for Photoshop--worth having.
2. The recent issue of 3D World has the Luxology ImageSynthe Photoshop plugin for free--it may be free elsewhere also?)

Dirk.
Fresnel--a quote from a Guru

My understanding is that Fresnel efffects are written to interact only with transparent and reflective objects. It does add another layer of calculation to the render and can add to render times

ps. I scream blue murder if I have a render taking an hour!
Brian

PS2!!!---nVidea "Gelato" is now FREE!---WOW!