All posts relating to Maxwell Render 1.x
By Blitzor
#304829
Thanks for all your comments. The diamond is maybe slightly overexposed. I could have reduced the intensity a bit. Good eye Max.

I have attached 3 images: my scene setup, a trade secret of mine, and the texture for the light panels

Here is my scene setup. You will notice the top, left and right panels are primarily used to control the reflection of the metal setting. Not so much refraction in the diamond occurs from these panels (maybe 10% of the diamond "sees" these panels from our viewpoint). The 4th front panel is behind the camera. This one is seen in ~80% of the diamond.

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The second image shows a trick I always use to enhance the contrast in the table of the diamond. I use a relatively small black card that is in the path of the diamond's "table" reflection (the top surface of the diamond - referred to as "table") from the viewpoint of the camera. This does two things: 1. eliminates a bright reflection off the table which would make the refractions visible through the table muted, 2. it gives you some nice patterning/scintillation in the facets refraction. The other option is to have two panels in front of the diamond that are slightly apart. Make sure the gap between these two panels is in the table reflection path from the view of the camera. This technique also produces some nice patterning in the table.

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This is the jpg save of an HDRI map I made of the panels. And yes, this is the actual size of the image I use (doesn't have to be high resolution).

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Hope this helps you.
By philip99
#304841
Blitzor,
many thanks for sharing your work & experience, it is a big help for me & the forum. It is a gift
what is the render SL ?
Philip

Cary, looking at the render I could nor resist asking how this was done :)
yes it is a big favour to ask
By Blitzor
#304842
philip99 wrote:Blitzor,
many thanks for sharing your work & experience, it is a big help for me & the forum. It is a gift
what is the render SL ?
No problem.

SL 21, can't remember how long it took...maybe 4 hours hours on an i7? I can re-render tonight to see how long it took to render.
By Blitzor
#304843
caryjames wrote:
Here is a render finished the other day, I think that I finally am getting close with the metal surface. Good luck and keep posting these are looking good!
Cary

Image
Cary, put a small black card in the path of the diamonds' table reflection. You will make the diamond pop. You might also have to enlarge your light panels if the diamond has too much black.
User avatar
By caryjames
#304844
Hi Blitzor- That is a really good idea with the black card!

I have been experimenting with moving the front mxi emitter off to the side to let some "black" into the diamond but I had not thought of putting a black card in front of the emitter panel. I will re render that scene with the exact same settings but with the addition of the black card just to see the effect on the diamond....... I had thought you had another smaller emitter panel that you had shut off which was giving you the black rectangle reflection (seen on the top of the claws). I had a similar effect when I added a small emitter for dispersion in front of my large light panel and then turned it off.

Thanks for the tip and for showing your setup. I have been using a similar setup but have been adding a small mxi emitter/dazzler off to one side in front of my rings.

Here are some mxi emitters tests (Small shapes either rectangular, round, triangular) I recently finished trying to see if the shape of the mxi emitters changed the dispersion. I found that having triangular emitters helped give the diamond a more natural dispersion.

Rectangular emitters

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Round emitters

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Triangular emitters

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By philip99
#304899
playing with lighting..forgot that the render was on.. and this is what I got at SL17 later..
2nd was edited. I know the black card was not fine tuned with diamond
which one is better

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User avatar
By iker
#304903
I would use the first one playing a bit to illuminate the target, for me this the kind of render to use some vignetting

...an example of what I mean
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and with a darker background
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User avatar
By iker
#304964
Great! ...and I love those caustics! :shock:
By philip99
#305698
hello to all,
I am trying this render but still some grains, is it normal at SL 15.29
& lighting the the v groves on the band is not getting any result.
what do you think, any idea please
Philip

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By ricardo
#305731
You need gradients on the lights, the hard bands are not hepling at all.

Is this a HDRI map? If I remmenber right highoer resolution maps make the image to clear faster.
By philip99
#305742
Hi Ricardo,
no its not gradieants emmiters, simple 6500k flat emmiters around. & no hdri or sky
a very small 4500k emmiter at the top.

I will give it a try with gradients emmiters (with hdri map) to see what happens,
trying to get the front V groves on the flat band. its difficult one.
I shall post a new one
thanks,
Philip
Will there be a Maxwell Render 6 ?

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