[Eric Lagman]

Whoops! ok sorry i completly misunderstood how it all was done my mistake. I apologize for this but at first glance i did think it looked like a GI rendering

I'm sorry

/ Max

Dont worry dude. I thought the same thing. I got confused just like everyone else. Now there is jd, a jdhill, a jjs in these forums. Attack of the j names man!

jjs if you fillet those edges it might disquallify you watch out! mwhoohaha There seems to be strict rules as to not touching the awful model and camera Camera flash is a good idea. The contest just said photoreal not I dont know how to use a camera photoreal I guess. I always get a good chuckle when I see people using the flash with every picture they take. The flash in braod daylight is the best. Or even better is at a large sporting even when everone in the stands has their flashes going like it is going to make a difference from that far away.....It doesnt right?

[Eric Lagman]

Jd its not bad for only 3rd try. It beats the hell out of any photoworks renering I have seen also espicially with how fast your time to setup the scene was. You could struggle with just the light setting in photoworks for quite a while. My suggestion would be to use emitters instead of skydome, or a combination of skydome and emitter. What I usually do is set up emitters all around my object. Example one from top, rear, front left, front right, rear left and rear right. I then use the multilight function and tweak the emitters until I get something I like. Sometimes I will only use 2 of the lights in my scene, but at least with all of them there I can try out different scenarios. If you need to do a high res render which ml can present a problem because of ram, I would suggest doing a smaller test with ml say 340 x 240 to get the result you want then go in and adjust your emitters based off of the multilight percenteges. Hope this helps. It does take a lot of time to fully understand what is going on with maxwell. Once you get the hang of it though you might never go back to anything else. That has been my finding.

[jjs]

jd - no problem. The SW camera in the Assembly supplied does work in Maxwell. So if everyone uses the SW camera then the views will be the same. Your ref rendering will be the only one slightly out , but you have to look closely to see.

When you open up Maxwell, left click on the Camera in the Camera list and then Right click and "set camera Active" ( or something like that), and you should get the camera view as in SW.

A flash does not exist in Maxwell, but you can mimic a flash, by placing an single emitter right next to your camera and then point it in the same direction as the camera. The effect is to give the shadows and washed out look that you get by using a real flash.

The skydome gives the quickest renders but when we start adding lights , and a few metals and godknows what materials Eric has been keeping in his secret lab, the rendering times will go through the roof .

Jonathan

[Mihai]

Participants will not be permitted to add anything to the the scene other than the supplied model.

You are not allowed to add any other emitter geometry or change the lighting setup?

[rockguy]

Hi guys. This Rob Rodriguez, I'm the guy that set up the contest you're all posting about. I'm glad to see some Maxwell users showing interest! I just wanted to say I'm a Maxwell owner and believer also. I own to licenses of the software (although I really haven't used it since beta and I really haven't taken time to learn it properly). I'm not trying to create a software vs software war I just want to see (for myself and I think others are interested also) what kind of results different types of rendering software can achieve (in capable hands) and in what time frame a rendering can be produced.

I have a PhotoWorks image I created of the stapler model. I'm not sure how to post the image though? Anyone care to explain that to me?

[jjs]

Rob - use Image shack

http://imageshack.us/

uplaod to there and 'Copy' the the link it gives you for your picture - the one for forums is best.

Then click on the Img box - then Paste the link and then click on the Img box again.

This should embed the picture into your next post.

Jonathan

[rockguy]

Thanks JJS.

Ok here is the image. I created this image with SW/PW 2007. It took me about 65 minutes to set up everything. I had a decent image after about 45 minutes but I played with lighting and materials for about 20 minutes when I decided this was a good as I was going to get.

This image took 36 minutes to save to a 1200x1600 jpg file. I don't have the exact specs on my machine (don't have access right now) but its about 4 years old, a p4 2.0 processor, 1 gig of ram and an Nvidea 900 XGL praphics card. It's not the best thing out there.

[img][img]http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/2430 ... jk5.th.jpg[/img][/img]

[rockguy]

Here is a larger one.

[img][img]http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/6080/r ... xp1.th.jpg[/img][/img]

[rockguy]

So, is this image going to be the most photo realistic. Probably not but I don't think the image is bad considering it took about 1:45 from start to finish.

The real issue, this is probably the best image image I can achieve with PhotoWorks. Even if I could take more time and play with the settings any gain in quality or realism will be minimal and probably not worth the time.

[jjs]

Rob - can't post anything yet - still rendering

Seriously - not yet had a good look at it - I loaded it onto sw2007 and put some SW textures on all the parts so that John Layne could have an mxs file that he can use. If there are no textures put on in SW , then image mapped textures in maxwell will not work. We await improvements in this with great anticipation.

This took about 3 minutes. I think the set up in Maxwell will be quicker ,considerably quicker than PW and as I have a library of SW lights that I import into the assembly. I can then use the multilight in Maxwell to see which gives the best look, after ( and while)the rendering is done. Its just the rendering will take hours and hours especially at 2000 res.

Jonathan

[rockguy]

I see posts where everyone is taking about 2000 res?? What does this mean.

I asked that images be submited at 200dpi 6" x 8" in size which would equate to a 1200 x 1600 image. Am I missing something here?

[superbad]

I always get a good chuckle when I see people using the flash with every picture they take. The flash in braod daylight is the best.

Actually, a flash in broad daylight is often a good idea when you're shooting people- it fills in the deep shadows on a face and gives much better results than a shot with no flash. You might also use a flash in daylight if the subject is backlit.

Most people are using cameras on full auto and have no idea how or why to change the settings, so if the flash wants to fire for whatever reason, it fires.

[Eric Lagman]

I always get a good chuckle when I see people using the flash with every picture they take. The flash in braod daylight is the best.

Actually, a flash in broad daylight is often a good idea when you're shooting people- it fills in the deep shadows on a face and gives much better results than a shot with no flash. You might also use a flash in daylight if the subject is backlit.

I had no idea on that. I will have to give it a try next time I take photos of people with sun at their back, or harsh shadows on the subject. Thanks for the info.

[jjs]

I see posts where everyone is taking about 2000 res?? What does this mean.

I asked that images be submited at 200dpi 6" x 8" in size which would equate to a 1200 x 1600 image. Am I missing something here?

oops - thats me being dumb - miss read the rules - no wonder I never win

Jonathan

[rockguy]

I'm open for comments on the image. Don't worry about being nice, I have thick skin.

I actually thought you guys would have had a field day with this.