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Eggclock revisited [finished! 080517]
Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 1:55 pm
by Maximus3D
Here's a small, quick'n'dirty wip of a eggclock i modeled last year in Rhino but haven't yet rendered with Maxwell. And i found the modelfiles again today so i thought i'd give it a spin on my new machine with the latest Maxwell version using the latest Rhino plugin.

..some of you may btw have seen this bird before on a different forum. I also recently been asked to write a tutorial for a Italian C4D forum about how i produced this eggclock.
Anyways, let's get this started!
A Rhino wireframe of my eggbird
More to come..
/ Max
Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 2:12 pm
by frosty_ramen
Looks good Max,
Can't wait to see your progress.
Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 2:31 pm
by Maximus3D
Thanks Frosty, there should be an update (rendering) soon on this eggclock.

but it looks like using hdr is a bad idea, the noise it produces is excessive to say the least and the rate at which Maxwell clears the hdr noise is equally poor.
/ Max
Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 3:44 pm
by Bubbaloo
Have you tried blurring your hdr and lowering the resolution? If it's for illumination, high resolution isn't necessary.
Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 2:16 pm
by Maximus3D
Blurring the hdr was the first thing i tried, it had no effect at all. And it's already a lowres hdr, around 512pix i think it was. But what's even stranger is that i have now setup emitterplanes and removed the hdr and added a skydome to this scene and rendered it again. Normally with emitterplanes and a skydome studiosetups like this one should render clean fast. Guess what.. it didn't, it rendered equally slow and noisy as it did with the hdr.

..and i'm running outta ideas now, i even tried to change the scale of the scene, it had no effect.
Below is my result after 3 hours rendering on all four cores at 1024x768. This should been clean just past 60 minutes rendering if not less.
/ Max
Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 2:47 pm
by Bubbaloo
Something's definately going on there. How big is the egg clock? Is your ground/background surface unusually large?
Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 3:17 pm
by Maximus3D
Yes something odd is happening in this scene

..the egg is about 3cm if i remember correctly and the background ends just above the head of the eggclock and it's not stretching much beyond what the camera sees either so it cannot be those things causing it.
Now i tried by ditching all emitters and only using Skydome to see if my emitters were the problem, looks like they're not the reason for the massive noise. And it can't be the materials because they're very simple 80-20 two layer type materials, real simpel stuff.
This is a 10 minute test at viewport resolution with only Skydome as the only lightsource. This should clear very fast, but it ain't!
/ Max
Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 4:13 pm
by frosty_ramen
Max,
are the spring like legs modeled or are they displacement, or clip map.
also the perforations on the "mouth" do they go into an open space inside the egg, or do they hit the surface?
Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 4:14 pm
by Maximus3D
Hmm.. now this is getting even stranger by the minute. I tried the feature within Rhino where you can export your entire scene to Maxwell Studio and it opens it there. And all i did in Studio was to hit render and voila, it works now!! the level of noise is definately much more normal and so are the rendertimes. But why's Rhino causing this massive noise when i render through it ?! anyone knows ??
Here's the exact same scene rendered from within Studio. This has only rendered for 18½ minute at 800x600.
/ Max
Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 4:19 pm
by Louis v a
It looks fantastic Maximus!
Will this eggclock also be in the stores one of these days?
Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 4:53 pm
by hyltom
Can i ask you which version of the rhino plugin are you using Max?
For your info, check the following topic:
http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/view ... 615#269615
Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 5:02 pm
by Maximus3D
Louis: Thank you

hehe, it'd be fun if it shows up some day in the stores, but i probably won't earn a penny on it because someone will most likely steal my design
hyltom: That's interesting, i haven't seen that thread until now. I'm using the latest 1.6.8.0 plugin build 2008-04-03. And i guess you're using the very same plugin. Thanks for pointing out that thread, now i know i'm not the only one affected by this ..bug.
/ Max
Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 9:02 pm
by Maximus3D
It's rendering now at 3200x2400 just for fun and because it's possible

i couldn't get the depth of field as i wanted it to look so it's not there in this rendering, oh well..
Here's a 30% of fullsize preview after about 60 minutes rendering at the above mentioned resolution. I'm posting a link to the fullres 3200x2400 when it's done in a few hours.
/ Max
Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 11:05 pm
by Tea_Bag
Great Max!! Any chance of posting the 3200 x 2400 pic good to see

Posted: Sat May 17, 2008 1:17 am
by Maximus3D
Cheers Teabag

as promised here's the mighty fullres rendering, and as a bonus also a halfres and a quarter resolution for the thread.
800x600 (quarter resolution)
1600x1200 (half resolution) - thumbnail link, click to view fullres
3200x2400 (full resolution) - no thumbnail, click the link to view it (1mb image)
http://maximus3d.net/files/Eggclock_Fullres_web.jpg
Some quick facts..
Rendertime: 5 hours 16 minutes and a couple of seconds
Materials: 4
Emitters: 4 + one hdr for bringing out details and adding subtle reflections
SL reached: 12,83
Thanks to you all for both viewing and commenting on my small & quick wip thread even though it been riddled with problems from the start.
/ Max