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By Maximus3D
#296330
Thanks yanada, it's not easy competing with Nico now :D i been thinking about putting this on the shelf while he works on his model and then i resume work on it later on again hehe. Great to hear you're interesting in this setup too, i like that and thank you so much. Lwo files hm, okies i can export as lwo but i don't have Lightwave to check if it can import them at proper scale and without any artifacts so i won't be able to guarantee full functionality. Sorry :(

I let this cook for 9 hours, it's using the ringflash (again) and i got some good help from Vandigital to eliminate the blocks issue seen in the previous images i posted.
http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/4850/m ... oldtes.jpg

/ Max
By kami
#296332
wow. looking really great! is that a new material of yours?
what did you do to eliminate the artefacts?

too bad I don't need any studio environment ... at least not till now. If I did, I would get them without hesitation.

cheers,
kami
By yanada
#296348
Maximus3D wrote:Thanks yanada, it's not easy competing with Nico now :D i been thinking about putting this on the shelf while he works on his model and then i resume work on it later on again hehe. Great to hear you're interesting in this setup too, i like that and thank you so much. Lwo files hm, okies i can export as lwo but i don't have Lightwave to check if it can import them at proper scale and without any artifacts so i won't be able to guarantee full functionality. Sorry :(

I let this cook for 9 hours, it's using the ringflash (again) and i got some good help from Vandigital to eliminate the blocks issue seen in the previous images i posted.
http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/4850/m ... oldtes.jpg

/ Max
hi max, I want to use them with Modo so if you can make them Modo "certified" Ill be :D
User avatar
By d7mcfc
#296349
Shame they won't transfer to 3dsmax, as this is my weapon of choice.

A misfiring one most of the time...

There must be a way of getting around this, You'd be missing out on a big market!

Living in hope
User avatar
By Maximus3D
#296352
kami: Thanks :) it's a testmaterial i made a few weeks ago but haven't finalized it, so i tossed it on the dragon for this testrender to see what it would look like. Vandigital helped me with that, but the solution was simpler than i would have thought of, all i had to do was to reduce the total polycount of the circular flash emitter. It was 64 polys in the first tests you see, the red and white one's. The third golden one uses a flat circular emitter with only 8 polys which renders at about the same speed but without any visible artifacts. :) not sure why i didn't think of this myself but i'm not always the sharpest knife in the collection if i say so hehe.

No worries kami, if studioprops is not something you have any use of then you don't need them, it's not something everyone needs. Most people will probably do just fine without them while others feel it's easier to work with 'real' studio equipment when lighting their scenes. Everyone's different.. :)

yanada: Hi! :) yep i know what you mean, and i have ported some of the props to Modo already and there i ran some quick tests, initially they sucked but i'll put them on hold until 401 has shipped so i can test with that and see if i can improve the quality of them with the new release. If all goes well i wanna release a package for 401 with all the props prepared and ready to use with the new Presets system so you can drag'n'drop your studioequipment directly in your scene. I'll try my best to make you too happy yanada. :)

d7: 3dsmax, hm yes.. that application has so many issues and different versions it could be problematic transfer to it. If so i need to convert it to 3dsmax2010, 2009 and probably 2008 with subversions for Maxwell, Fry and Vray. At the moment i don't know how and if i can pull such a big job off. :( i don't even have 3dsmax in any version or Vray. But we'll see.. let's sort out one thing at a time first of all now and then work on specific versions later on when/if it's possible. I won't exclude 3dsmax completly just yet, too early for that.

/ Max
By yanada
#296365
yanada: Hi! Smile yep i know what you mean, and i have ported some of the props to Modo already and there i ran some quick tests, initially they sucked but i'll put them on hold until 401 has shipped so i can test with that and see if i can improve the quality of them with the new release. If all goes well i wanna release a package for 401 with all the props prepared and ready to use with the new Presets system so you can drag'n'drop your studioequipment directly in your scene. I'll try my best to make you too happy yanada. Smile
I meant to propose something along these lines to you Max. I was thinking that the new preset system it may be a good business opportunity for you... you are master with materials + your light props Could make a very attractive package... Also think of all the SolidWorks and Microstation rookies :wink: I can spell cash
User avatar
By Maximus3D
#296366
yanada: Yeap it looks like we both thought the same thing when the Presets system was announced by Luxology. It looks great and it would make the use of these props so easy for anyone from newbies to pro's. And i have actually discussed this with Luxology and unfortuntely at the moment they had no time, but i will resume discussion with them sometime this summer again to see if they're interested in a cooperation. :) i sure hope so! the SolidWorks and Microstation people.. oh dear, i haven't thought of them at all until you mentioned them. I'm not gonna aim too high now in the beginning, first of all i wanna make it work for Maxwell, then Fry and after that Modo and what happens after all that i have no idea.

/ Max
By yanada
#296369
the SolidWorks and Microstation people.. oh dear, i haven't thought of them at all until you mentioned them.
Yup Solidworks has 1.000.000 install base and they all do studio Shots so trust me you gonna have more customers from that side than Modo. :wink:
User avatar
By Maximus3D
#296797
Hehe yanada, that would be a big target. A too big target for me to handle. I'm gonna aim alot lower than that if at all.. i had some doubts recently this will be possible to use for people besides me in their applications and with their workflows. This is built around my workflow and my apps so i'm now not so sure this whole idea can actually work. :( ..i been thinking about cancelling it all.

Anyhow.. i started setting up a studio for vehicle photography yesterday and these are very early testrenders from it. It needs a massive amount of work before this looks anything like what you can get from a real studio for vehicle photography.

Image
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http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/750/ma ... hootte.jpg
http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/750/ma ... hootte.jpg

I'm also trying to figure out how these should be sold and distributed once they're finished. At the moment i'm thinking about using PayPal as payment method and accepting orders via email and distributing the package(s) via email. The costs i've seen when selling via a online store of some sort is so high (around 50% or more) that it feels pretty pointless to sell via such a store.

/ Max
By rusteberg
#296800
Maximus3D wrote: I'm also trying to figure out how these should be sold and distributed once they're finished. At the moment i'm thinking about using PayPal as payment method and accepting orders via email and distributing the package(s) via email. The costs i've seen when selling via a online store of some sort is so high (around 50% or more) that it feels pretty pointless to sell via such a store.

/ Max

True about the 50% profit loss, however you should think about the market exposure it can provide when weighing your options? Sales could be up 2-300% with greater exposure, offsetting the upfront loss plus the cost in time of manually managing accounts and acting as customer service. Something to consider?
User avatar
By Maximus3D
#296835
That sucks rusteberg, to compensate for the big 50% loss i have to double the price and loose 50% of the possible customers. That's not acceptable any way you look at it. :( i just don't know what to do at the moment so i'm trying to ignore it and brush it off until later. Thanks for your insight and comments.

I tweaked the car setup some more, tried to get the more commercial shot type of look but this ain't easy. Tricky part is to get the reflections in the right place and a setup like this is unique for each car. What i can do is provide a basic setup which users then tweak until they get the look they feel works for their car. But it's really not just to drop a car in the scene and render. It requires some hands on work by the user.

Image
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Direct links to the testrenders
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/750/ma ... hootte.jpg
http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/326/ma ... ootteg.jpg
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/750/ma ... hootte.jpg
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/750/ma ... hootte.jpg
http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/750/ma ... hootte.jpg
http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/750/ma ... hootte.jpg
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/7126/m ... ootteu.jpg

Btw, the tests above may look alot like eachother, but they're all different! trust me. :)

/ Max
User avatar
By -Adrian
#296893
Nice series, i like the balance in the 4th, even if it's one of the dark ones.

If you combine the tumbnail image and full-res path, you should be able to get around the nuisance that is imageshack.
Code: Select all
[url=http://fullres][img]http://thumbnail[/img][/url]
Image
User avatar
By Maximus3D
#298656
Tests...

The setup
Image

The results
Image
Image
Image
Image
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For some reason i am not satisfied with the results :( been thinking about scrapping this whole project as it seems i'm unable to get the results i want from it. It's definately not capable of producing high enough quality results to be sold.

I think i noticed a problem (unless i'm an idiot), when i set the units to centimeter in Cinema4D and Maxwell units are also set at centimeter the correct emitterstrength is not working as it should. But if i set the scenescale to milimeters instead of centimeters then everything renders correctly as it should, emitterstrength and all looks as it should. But then my entire setup is at the wrong scale. :( this makes it problematic to finish this unless i want it all at the wrong scale which would defeat the whole purpose of these props because they require real scale to work accurately.

/ Max
Last edited by Maximus3D on Sun May 17, 2009 10:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
By Maximus3D
#298668
More about the scale/emitter intensity problem :( in these examples below, both emitters are set at 150W. The only thing changed is the scenescale itself.

This is the scenesetup in milimeters, wrong scale but it renders the emitters at the correct intensity.
Image
http://www.pict.com/view/533238/800/max ... trenderamm
Image

This is the scenesetup in centimeters, correct scale but the emitters renders at the wrong intensity.
Image
http://www.pict.com/view/533237/800/max ... trenderbcm
Image

/ Max
User avatar
By simmsimaging
#298672
What is your fstop and shutter speed at? I'm not sure how you are gauging "correct" exposure but for studio lights like those you typically need a lot of power. 750w up to 5K watt lights are not uncommon, and when using strobes the power is very high as well, particularly for large softboxes etc. I think you could realistically expect your emitters to need to be around 500-1000W, easily, for a "normal" and correctly scaled scene.

Just my thought on it.

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