[vinced]

Hello,

this is something i`ve invested some time in. The Model is not perfect. There are some mistakes integrated for free .
But i would like to make the best of this model as i am able to. Perhaps with some help it could really look great.

I had in mind a grungy old house in a dark lit scene (Bladerunner-style). This is what i`ve come up with so far.
I know that it lacks quality compared to the product and archviz-renders presented here. That`s why i feel a bit uneasy posting it here and would like to ask for some guidance.

Some facts:
light is coming from the left roofside and from the right roofside mapped with a hdri. Left intensity is higher.
Then i have three planes emitting pure white light. The plane in the entrance area has the highest intensity while both planes on the left and the right of the huge block in front have only round about half of that intensity.

In post i`ve done some fog.

I would appreciate if someone woul find some time to give me some hints regarding lightning and texturing.

Greetings
Dirk

[Half Life]

great mood! I'm sure you'll get lots of tips from the arch viz experts -- but I would say that both this and the last image I saw from you both had alot of noise... is that a stylistic choice?

Best,
Jason.

[vinced]

Hi Jason,

thank you,
yeah, i hope i`ll get some tips from the archviz guys.

This one has noise in it because i stopped rendering too early. I just wanted to show something and as it is not finished i though this quality would be sufficient.
About the image before, i didn`t notice that there was so much noise.
Maybe it is bad use of the bump map?
For example in this image i have this red wall with broken out peaces. I thought this should have a very high bump and gave it 80.
Because the noise disappeared very slowly, i reduced it to 50.
Maybe it`s much to high and i should better use displacement?

Dirk

[Mihai]

Very nice mood If you want heavier looking bump on the walls, I'd really suggest using normal maps instead of bump. It can give you a more realistic bump effect than bump a bumpmap which after a certain value will just look 'noisy', especially if the bumpmap also has lost of fine grain in it.
You could also add fillets to some geometry like the stairs and floor edges, will make it catch some nice highlights to bring out the shape.

[Tok_Tok]

I would add a lot more contrast, darken the image so that the wall in the back is barely visible.
Maybe shed a lightbeam on the candelier so it will light up and give a dazzle effect. And add some color to the lights.

A small thing; the texture on the iron fence(is that the right word), in the front, is tiling

But the image is already looking great as it is! You should be proud of it!

[Half Life]

Ah, yep big bump values can do that -- I wasn't sure if you were shooting for a "grainy film" effect... if you have a powerful computer a small displacement value can give a much cleaner look.

A couple of things to be aware of with displacement:

1) Subdivide the surface you will be displacing -- the precision value and the level of subdivision are directly related... meaning, if you have low subdivision you will need higher precision. Higher precision amounts will result in longer render times.

2) Use a 16-bit greyscale file (png preferred) for displacement texture.

3) Do not turn on "interpolation" as it will increase render time, do use "smooth" as it will decrease render time.

4) I like to use "absolute" measurement as it gives me more precise control of the amount of displacement.

5) Make sure your displacement map is "normalized" in Photoshop or some similar app (levels or curve adjustments) to make black=black and white=white... this will give crisper detail.

Best,
Jason.

[vinced]

Thank you Mihai,

doing some more fillets is a good idea.
I know a bit of doing bump maps, but i don`t know how to do normalmaps. Is there a simple way to convert a bump map into
a normal map?


hi Joep,
thank you

"add some color to the lights"
do you mean the frontal lights? Maybe a bit yellowish?

"I would add a lot more contrast"
Darken the image in general, or maybe only the light coming from the top so that the frontal light has more weight?

"the texture on the iron fence(is that the right word), in the front, is tiling"
Yeah, you`re right i will change that.


hi jason,

1.) i will try it with displacement first, as i don`t know how to do a normal map myself
2.)good idea, never thought about using 16 bit images. Why is png preferred? Is it because of compression artifacts in jpg?
3.) Do you mean adaptive in displacement layer? I can`t find interpolation.
4.)I scale my scene with the custom factor for export units. Do you know if the centimeter value of displacement is in
MaxwellUnits or in my case cinema4d units?
5.) I`ll try that


Thanks guys for these many suggestions.
I`ll try them out and post here again when i have some results.

cheers
Dirk

[Half Life]

Hey Dirk,

PNG is actually a really fantastic file format that has many benefits for the Maxwell user -- as you already know it uses lossless compression so no nasty artifacts to mess up your finely-tuned displacement map.

It supports a alpha channel and therefor transparency -- the alpha channel can be called up as a clip-mask in Maxwell without the need to load a separate file.

16-bit greyscale native support -- no wasted information (file size) on RGB channels if you don't want them.

I'm sorry to say I'm not familiar with that particular plugin so I'm not sure where the interpolation option might be located -- in MXED it is located in the texture picker pop-up window. And I would imagine the displacement would be in Maxwell units.

Here's a link to some free Photoshop plugins that allow you to make normal maps easily:

http://developer.nvidia.com/object/phot ... ugins.html

If you use Z-brush for texturing it can also product excellent normal maps as well.


Best,
Jason.

[vinced]

Hi jason,

found interpolation in the materialeditor.
I don`t use zbrush, but that nvidia tool could be useful, thanks.

Another question:
How can i turn a signature on below my posts, haven`t found it in the user control panel?

regards
Dirk

[Tok_Tok]

"add some color to the lights"
do you mean the frontal lights? Maybe a bit yellowish?

"I would add a lot more contrast"
Darken the image in general, or maybe only the light coming from the top so that the frontal light has more weight?

Yes, a light tone of Yellow/Orange. Or green/blue. The light from the top could be plain white, like the moon is shining through the seiling. (i'm just thinking out loud )

If you darken the image you can get a more focus on the subject of your image. That could be the candelier if for example the moon shines on it.

Good luck!

[Half Life]

Options > Profile > Edit Signature.

Best,
Jason.

[vinced]

Hi,

here comes an update.
This time without fog in post.
I have used normal maps instead of bump maps, added fillets, changed textures a bit and changed the lightning.

What do you like better or don`t like at all? Anything i should improve?

cheers
Dirk

[Tok_Tok]

A lot better! Although it might be a bit too dark. Try to avoid the full black spots, so a bit more contrast.

Nice touch of the man walking away.

[vinced]

Hi Joep,

on my Eizo monitor the dark places show something from the railing, while my noname monitor shows a pure black area. Both are calibrated now with an ICC-profile.
Not sure which one i can trust, but i think the eizo should be nearer to the truth.
Are you working on a Mac? As far as i know Macs use a gamma of 1,8 while PC`s use a gamma or 2,2.
Could that be a reason that some people just see pure black areas while others think it is o.k?
I don`t know if there is some compensation mechanism for that?

Dirk

[Half Life]

Looks much better -- as far as gamma and calibration is concerned I would say I would trust your Eizo monitor and Photoshop over a web browser... assuming you are working for print media.

Best,
Jason.