My kids love to see! (a self portait)

Is it cartoon or real?

< My kids love to see!
And your kids don't want to use?

they are 1 and 2-1/2. I hope they do!

sure in this case maybe wait a little :)

Hi Burr....

So, what is your rendering software ?

It was done with carrara. A lighting test to look at the MoI output! I've been looking at all the ones mentioned by you guy's here to find something a little better.

Carrara "seems" to have a good set of shading and textureing and rendering tools and manipulators, but it's such a finesse thing to get nice output. One little slider here and POOF, junk. Anyway, maybe you can tell me it's like that wherever you go so keep at it. Or, Maybe (he he he hehe, he uses carrrara) you may have some suggestions?

Thanks,
Burr

Are you using GI? I suspect not. IF GI is on, and you've got a sufficient light source (such as HDRI or multiple lights from different angles) then changes to your lights and shaders will have less drastic effect on the final render... Without using GI can be much more tricky...

jonah

Yea, now and again I turn on Global illumination but I have an old box and this kills my productivity.

WHen I want to arrange and set and check and reset, I cant wait 40 minutes and up to make my next move, Then the GI changes everything and my coloration is off. For this it was "on" as such a small peice I needed good quick results. the last time I tried it with a complex op it was like 36 hours and I had to change strategies.

I've been looking at my new box with like the dual 30" monitors and the 1.5GB PCIe x16 nVidia Quadro FX 5600 and such, but need to hold off with the new kids and get them fed first then when their off at school.......:)

We can all dream, Eh!

Burr

Hi Burrman
I also use Carrara and have also wondered how it compares to other packages. I'm new to the 3d world and its a hobby so have no great wisdom. I have found the book 'Digital Lighting and Rendering' a useful read as it explains broadly what its possible and how to achieve good results. Its also a book you can read away from the PC which I rather like. It might be particularly useful to you as it explains how to speed up your work by avoiding the use of GI and other time consuming methods of rendering.

If you do find a magic renderer please let me know.
Keith

Sure will! There's a lot of people in here making various things and then rendering with different stuff. Maybe lets start a thread on rendering our MoI and talk about who uses what!

VRay, Hypershot, Rhino... We'll see. Thanks for the tip on the book.

Keith
Over the several years I have owned Carrara, I would suggest that no less than 95% of my rendering has been done at the simple, fast, default settings.

Hypershot is definitely worth checking out for getting a nice looking kind of "product shot" type thing without much messing around.

It has a really easy to use setup for lighting, they have what is called HDRI lighting, where they basically have lighting setups that are recorded from real world scenes. You just pick one of those and you get realistic looking lighting right away.

That can save a lot of time because realistic lighting tends to be one of the more difficult areas to set up nicely for doing renderings.

- Michael

Of course Carrara should be fastest at those default settings. Look at what's going on there (or what's NOT going on if you think about it) :

Fast antialiasing
No caustics
No GI
Not using full raytracing
Low object & shadow accuracy
Low lighting quality

The biggest reason for Burrman's problem is surely caused by not using GI. Also i see several "hard" shadows aiming in different directions. It is better to use GI with one light and a few reflecting panels, than to not use GI and have 3 or 4 lights.

Burr, I would start with just one light, and also create a background gradient or use an HDRI and enable the Skylight. Set everything to lowest quality possible and see how it looks. Do all of this before creating any shaders, as the default grey material is much better to see how your light is affecting the scene. Once you start tweaking shaders, you will then be overcompensating for bad lighting. Things only get worse from there, and your render times will go through the roof. As mentioned earlier, use some reflecting panels instead of adding additional lights. This can easily replace a backlight... Also Carrara is not that slow. True, it's not Vray or Modo. But I am really shocked to hear it takes 36 minutes just for a preview? I would suspect you could find ways to shave time off your preview renders. Reduce your render size and quality settings output to the bare minimum you need to see a preview. Unless your system really is that old and this doesn't help?! :(

jonah

>Also Carrara is not that slow. True, it's not Vray or Modo. But I am really shocked to hear it takes 36 >minutes just for a preview? I would suspect you could find ways to shave time off your preview >renders. Reduce your render size and quality settings output to the bare minimum you need to see a >preview.

Hi Jonah,
Thanks for all the tips. They do make sense.

The 36 min previews and 2 day renders are on larger projects. One memorable one was a 290 ton concreate floating dock we did for the Arizona Memorial. I modeled the form work and launch system we used (built on Ford Islands amphibious landing area. concreate slanting down into the water. we launched it like you see them launch large ships!). Anyway, there was like 1900 aluminium joist alone! Plywood, Iron, Rebar....etc. Not sure but the file was in the gigs. Plus this was a few years ago (Ray Dream). Must....Get.....New.....Computer.....! Need......different.......software!

All true. It was fun.

Just so your not puzzled at my times.
Burr

Now it all makes sense! Except for one thing - "290 tons of floating concrete"! :) If your system dates back to Raydream, then i think it's time to retire that old dog...

Just a note on "Hard Shadows" in Carrara--

I regularly adjust the shadow strength of the lights, and, for some fill lights, I may not have any shadow creation on those.

And, I never normally have GI clicked on for preview renders.

Brian

But what is good lighting without good shadows! :[

The concrete floats thing was a good lesson for me in physics from the architect that design the thing.

to float 8.??? lbs, you need 1 cubic ft. displacement. You can float anything with this simple math ( I dont remember exactly what the point somthing was, Thats why all my stuff sinks! I just.... cant..... remember!) Also regarding that project, as I was revisiting my memory on it, I think the 1900 figure was all objects TOTAL. Not just the joist.

I have it on disk in a wharehouse I want to dig out and revisit with MoI. (Create individual parts then organize in a different package) I also did a model of Dr. Phil Nuytten's Deep worker. The company I was working with started an offshoot that wanted to go pick pink coral in the Kaiwi channel. They purchased 2 Deepworker 2000's that could go to 2000 ft. That one will be perfect to revisit with MoI!

Burr

I always thought the Arizona Memorial was an excellent piece of work. Interesting to know you had a part in it... :)

jonah

It's a special place. My part has been only "Refurbishing" or "additions". No original creation stuff.

Like the peice I am referring to was a replacement to the dock system.

Here are the only things I have in my office. A draft rendering of the Base unit for the form work to pour the dock. This was the launch system as well. Large steel I beams on steel channel into the water. This is about one eighth of the base. I'll dig up the other stuff and look at producing some different views.



Some line work of the newt mini and construction phase.