back online finally
Hi List : Not dead . My computer was , for 2 1/2 months however . Myself , I spent that time mostly out of town , 1 month on vacation and 1 1/2 months on another Hydro generator rebuild project . Home once and a while on Sundays and the time I did put toward getting the virus's out was mostly wasted ... they turned out to be on the network as well . Anyway , I hope all is well with everyone here , and that all had an enjoyable summer and a nice autumn , so far . Thousands of emails to catch up on now that that out of town project has ended and I'm finally back online , with a good firewall this time ! Cheers Garry Curtis
off topic , hard drives
Sorry : Strictly off-topic , but since my recent hardware disaster I need a couple of new hard drives . However , everywhere I surf I see all these incredibly fast and super cheap hard- drives that are supported for 1 year only by the manufacturer . I need drives that are of slightly higher quality than what appears to be readily available . Anyone have any links to good solid high-quality drives ? TIA Garry Curtis http://www.niagara.com/~studio
Re: WorldMachine (V3.53)
Hi George All You Guys From 1998 : Anyway , here's another example of RS mesh displacement , however , this is a V3.53 example (image2mesh) . http://www.studiodynamics.net/images/moonmesh_1998.jpg Turned out not bad , actually . Input is an awesome POV utility that also supports errosion/craters etc . Garry Curtis http://www.niagara.com/~studio Posted this earlier but didn't come through so I've reduced the size of the attachment. Did you try using the bitmap to displace a nurbs mesh? No not yet - over to you - A George tute addendum :) Most things in 3d defeat me but this one is dead simple. Create a nurbs rectangle then in ToolsNurbsToolsDisplace mesh select the bitmap file output from World builder. You can specify the displacement to apply to the mesh. The image will then make your mesh into a landscape. The picture attached shows the example file in World Builder (I haven't tried the program yet) saved as an 8 bit bmp, then used to displace a 200x200 mesh in Realsoft 4.2. Dead easy but the disadvantage is you end up with objects with mucho geometry. I just tried the 16bit tga and it gave very odd results. Gotta go shopping. Let me know if you need more explanation on this method. George No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.362 / Virus Database: 267.12.6/151 - Release Date: 10/28/05
Re: a few more landscapes (Re: WorldMachine (V3.53))
Anyway , here's another example of RS mesh displacement , however , this is a V3.53 example (image2mesh) . http://www.studiodynamics.net/images/moonmesh_1998.jpg Hi Mark : Nice, it's still valid software, V3! Of course, it doesn't have real displacement so I'll stick to V5... OK , just in case there is a misunderstanding or some confusion , the above V 3.53 image is not bump-mapped , but is actually exactly what George did in V5 ... physically displace a mesh with an image. As George said, it's dead easy to do (and was 7 years ago as well in RS V3.53) . As you point out , it's not displacement mapping though . Nice hires NASA links; hm, I'm starting to wonder if NASA really went to Saturn ;) Or the moon ? (there's currently a cool Imax3D film about NASA's moon) I now have a workflow that suits me fine, but surely there are many options... made some more scenes utilizing WM's flowmaps as VSL input. Once the mappings are correctly aligned with the mesh, a few lines of VSL will do the rest! Thanks all, Mark H Very nice renders Mark ! These simple heightfields are more than inter- esting enough , I think . The VSL is really going to be the key , don't you think ? Hmmm ... I don't think there would be anything illegal about posting a screenshot of the World Construction Set's Rules of Nature panel , just as an example of how WCS uses many mesh variables to arrive at a certain colouring for any particular polygon (WCS does not support bump-mapping) . Thanks very much for sharing your amazing progress , Mark . Your initial renders show so much potential it's actually quite exciting , I think . Garry Curtis http://www.niagara.com/~studio
Re: WorldMachine (V3.53)
www.catmtn.com/images/pond1-10-28-05.jpg www.catmtn.com/images/spectrum-10-29-05.jpg www.catmtn.com/images/blanca_massif-clouds-10-29-05.jpg Hi Zaug : Thanks for the jpeg's . I didn't know you were in Colorado . Must be pretty nice , by the looks of it . Good you made it back safe and sound . Garry Curtis http://www.niagara.com/~studio Garry, The 1500 miles is a round trip total (plenty for me though), and well, since I have made the trip several times, from here, near Ft. Garland Colorado, to St. Joseph, Missouri, where I am from, picture taking along the way is not something that I, usually, bother with. To be honest, the drive across Kansas is not the most picturesque :P Here are a few, however, of other sites, a nice view of the little pond at my friend's place in northwest Missouri, a rainbow-ish phnomena projecting on the foothills of the Wet Mountains, north of LaVeta Colorado, and one of the Blanca Massif mountain range, taken just before turning off the highway toward our property. www.catmtn.com/images/pond1-10-28-05.jpg www.catmtn.com/images/spectrum-10-29-05.jpg www.catmtn.com/images/blanca_massif-clouds-10-29-05.jpg Enjoy :) Zaug -- My love of the halfling's leaf has clearly slowed my mind. 8?o studio wrote: Getting caught up on the latest threads after my 1500 mile road trip and wanted to say that this landscape stuff is quite inspiring and to thank those focusing their efforts in this direction. Zaug Hi Zaug : 1500 mile road trip ? Hey , no teasing allowed ! Let's see some links to .jpeg's , or a web page or 2 . Garry Curtis http://www.niagara.com/~studio -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.362 / Virus Database: 267.12.7/154 - Release Date: 11/1/05
Re: New Icons : Anyone else seeing this ?
So sorry about that extremely messy mail . I just switched over to Internet Exporer V5.5 (for Firewall reasons) and I can't believe what a piece of crap this mailer is . Somehow a work in progess mail slipped out , but was still in my Outbox , and not in my Sent Items . How can such a huge corporation make such a piece of useless junk ? About the flyover help ? I just uninstalled and re- installed V5sp2 and all was well . Minor glich on a nit-wit operating system . Gott'a get another mailer ... Sorry about that one . Garry Curtis http://www.niagara.com/~studio
Re: Boolean Logic was Landscapes/World machine
As I was saying once a polygons qualities can be deter- mined , using boolean logic , then any number of operations can then be applied , from texturing to particles to displacement map- ing ... , the mind boggles at what can be done to a polygon in RS ! Hi Don't start a project/material thinking about its gui. Think about what you need it to do first, simulate the maths (spreadsheets are quite nice for this, actually), make it happen, _then_ worry about the gui and workarounds for this, and only if it is generalistic enough to have reusability value in other scenes :-) I'm confused now . Are saying that Boolean Logic presumes an interface ? Ya lost me . Garry Curtis http://www.niagara.com/~studio
Re: Boolean Logic was Landscapes/World machine
The polygons are still pretty big even in a quarter-million-points mesh, you're asking for triangle artifacts this way... Example: a poly has a single slope value because it's flat. This needs camouflaging. The materials depending on slope should be 'smeared out' by adding some noise or something, if not the polys stand out too much. I actually saw that happen, it's not theory. Hi Mark : Yes , I agree totally , and is actually what I meant about averaging neighboring polygons , so as to eliminate a single poly from sticking out . Yes , all sorts of disguising would be required , with noises being very usefull . Sounds like I'm talking through my hat here , but I have done my share of RS landscape stuff , years ago . Tried all kinds of things and got some very good results too , but since VSL I haven't tried anything , but have been keenly watching the list for renderings , and find your efforts most interesting . A few more tips: - big meshes like 500x500 (25 points) are NOT hard to render 5 min for a 800x600 picture is normal on a 1.5 GHz machine - lots of memory is nice, 1 GB or more - editing scenes with such big meshes can be very slow. Disabling Undo helps a lot (set Undo depth to 0 in Prefs) - don't convert triangular faces to quads. Maybe a big tutorial when we figured it all out... or a book: How to attack a mesh with VSL , that title will draw millions of readers ;) I'll keep you posted, Mark H Great ! Thanks Mark . Garry Curtis http://www.niagara.com/~studio
Heads Up ( an old Gi Post Thread Again )
Hi List : Just a heads up that I'll be re-posting a couple of mails to the list from this time last year . Cleaning out my To-Do folder and this one of David Coombes was sitting there , waiting for V5 to get settled in . It concerns the Gi shader , and David gave the list a cool HSV control and a couple of example jpegs . RGB color space controls lack the contrasting abilities of HSV color space controls (you may remember that huge Gi thread Mark David and myself had going at the time) . Anyway , at first glance I don't see any HSV controls in the V5 Gi shader , and it looks pretty much the same as the V4.5 shader , although I didn't dig deep and see if it's line for line the same . So , is it still the same ? What are users doing differen- tly now ? Is everyone still working in RGB color space , or is David's Realman HSV control standard fare amongst advanced users ? Did anyone even try it out ? Is everyone still using the stock Gi shader , or has it act- ually been tweaked in certain areas since V5 ? Etc etc etc ? Thanks In Advance (I'll post my old reply as well ) Garry Curtis http://www.niagara.com/~studio
Re: Heads Up ( an old Gi Post Thread Again )
AFAIK RGB is still the only color space used. I don't know that anyone is incorporating the Realman HSV code into their renderings but I'd be interested to hear if they are. I'm surprised that the industry as a whole seems to have totally overlooked the possibility of using alternative color models. If you look at the latest real-time game graphics rendered in HDR you see over-saturation in the highlights with additive RGB. Someone ought to develop a GPU that can handle HSV natively... David Coombes [EMAIL PROTECTED] Hi David : First thing I noticed when doing that Cornell Box experiment last year was that there was no way of _increasing_ contrast in post , and commented on it heavily to the point that I thought it was worthy of consideration . As I mentioned many times , some of our Amiga paint programs did allow you to select HSV and I think Opal Paint even presented both RGB and HSV sliders on the same panel , so that a user could tinker with both and then observe how the other Colorspace's sliders were moving ! Very cool ! Thankfully you did provide a first step along the way , but how about all the other points I raised concerning using HSV in the Gi shader , and in other areas of RS Post ? A super-simple Post-Contrast filter using HSV would seem to be a must-have tool . Seems to me there is a ton of potential for much greater handling of contrast in Post using RS's awesome curves , it's 64bit deep images and Realmans HSV ability . I'd love to hear if anyone else is using your awesome plugin , and if anyone else is in agreement that RGB color space is limiting and really needs HSV along side it for many rendering and Post situations . Don't mean to be preaching to you , David , since you obviously see the need and potential , hence your PhotoGrey plugin's use of HSV , but it doesn't seem to be widely accepted or even acknowledged that we live in an HSV world, not the RGB world found in CGI raytracings . Thanks again for your reply and excellent efforts . Garry Curtis http://www.niagara.com/~studio Hi List : So , is it still the same ? What are users doing differen- tly now ? Is everyone still working in RGB color space , or is David's Realman HSV control standard fare amongst advanced users ? Did anyone even try it out ? Is everyone still using the stock Gi shader , or has it act- ually been tweaked in certain areas since V5 ? Etc etc etc ? Thanks In Advance (I'll post my old reply as well ) Garry Curtis http://www.niagara.com/~studio -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.362 / Virus Database: 267.12.8/164 - Release Date: 11/9/05
Re: Heads Up ( an old Gi Post Thread Again )
Don't mean to be preaching to you , David , since you obviously see the need and potential , hence your PhotoGrey plugin's use of HSV , but it doesn't seem to be widely accepted or even acknowledged that we live in an HSV world, not the RGB world found in CGI raytracings . Hi Garry, OK, you got it, I just re-installed Realman for V5 and I'll check it out first thing tomorrow . Hi Mark : Great ! Not sure if David's one plugin will convert you though . Being able to work in HSV colorspace at every step of the way , might , however , like is possible in some Paint Photo programs . Really I should just send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and see what Vesa and Juha think about this matter , instead of beating my chest here , but I really am curious what other RS users think about HSV use . BTW Realman makes the whole discussion about Booleans futile: I suppose it's much more flexible in this area than plain VSL! Time to finally learn it, no more excuses. I always assumed VSL was powerful enough, but a little bit more power couldn't hurt ;) Also worth considering might be RPL . We still have RPL in V5 , and I'm sure you have the RS manual's documentation on RPL , and I remember you having some RPL knowledge as well . As I was saying recently , the Eval word in RPL , and all RPL's many boolean options might open up all kinds of elaborate programing that can be passed to the mesh , or maybe even into the VSL pipeline . Ya , I was wondering about Realman myself , but thought I better not throw that idea out there , considering I know only a tiny bit of what RM can do . I've read a couple tutorials and that's it , but if you say that might be part of the solution ... that's awesome ! Thanks for the HSV plugin David, and sorry for neglecting it all this time... -Mark H Godspeed Markus ! Garry Curtis http://www.niagara.com/~studio
Advantages of Using HSV (Hue-Saturation-Value)
Hi List : I think most users struggle with oversaturated renderings that will take forever to color-correct in RGB . A user can spend eons in an RGB color editor (while building his scene) trying to fix obvious oversaturation , and never get there. With HSV it takes one control (Saturation) to slowly tweak and watch the rendered results , or in Realsoft's case , just simply Postprocess the file and watch the almost instant re- sults . I think with RGB , the average user struggles enough with scene tones , and even when tones have been nailed and are textbook , all kinds of saturation errors can appear due to scene lighting placements or lighting strengths . Trying to balance all that in RGB can give a user fits . The simple and most obvious point about HSV colorspace , is the way it mimics the world our eye's actually live in . We live in a world that actually contains much more grey , or lack of saturation than we might first assume . Advertisers use this to their advantage by surrounding us with oversaturated posters and billboards etc , but if we decide to ex- amine a typical street scene , we may see a whole lot of grey be- fore anything else , with patches of natural color hovering over that grey , slightly more saturated , then areas of deep colors . So what does any of that have to do with HSV advantages ? Basic- ally , it's all in the wrist action . That is to say , it's all in the 'Saturation' control/curve/slider on the HSV interface . Slide it up and your reds become redder , but slowly move it down (in Post or while setting up your scene tones in the Color Editor) and you can observe those gobs of color slowly melting towards a more realistic neutral . Not only that but with RS , we can create unlimited channels ! So we can de-saturate any channel we want , any way we want simply by tweaking a Saturation curve (Tweak the Value or Hue curve to ad- just tones) . If this doesn't make sense , look at it this way . Create a chan- nel for that problematic table , or vase , or light , then in post , apply an HSV operation to it , and tweak that to slowly desaturate or saturate that part of the scene that has too little , or too much contrast . The workflow I would suggest is to begin with RGB colorspace to seek out your scene's tonal direction , then move to an HSV colorspace to slowly dial the scene into it's photorealistic potential . [Rant End] Garry Curtis http://www.niagara.com/~studio
Re: X-mas is coming soon
Hi all, two downloads added. http://www.matthias-kappenberg.de/index.php?id=72 Simple VSL-Shader. Best wishes, Matthias Hi Matthias : Sorry , but the link leads to a page which seems to be Greek or Arabic or something ... Most heavily suggested download types are .zip of course . Do we currently have a list administrator , since Satu has , sadly , left that position ? Just curious . Thanks In Advance . Garry Curtis http://www.niagara.com/~studio
Re: X-mas is coming soon
http://www.matthias-kappenberg.de/index.php?id=78 click on the images to go to the simple view. Look there for : Dateien:(zipicon) sun.zip at the bottom of the sites. Hope this is helpy. (Germany is a country in europe ;-) Germany is a county in Europe ? Thank You . I'm sure if I had time I could actually figure your site out , but I'm busy . Again ...Do you have a direct link ? (A direct link allows a person to just click once and see whatever it is you are talking about without having to wander about like a lost Jew) . Garry Curtis http://www.niagara.com/~studio
Re: Advantages of Using HSV (Hue-Saturation-Value)
You mean this checker-board, where a white square in the shadow has absolut the same color as a black square in the light? http://images.google.de/images?q=checker+illusionhl=debtnG=Bilder-Suche Yogi Marc Michael Hi Marc : Nice link ! Say's a lot , doesn't it ? Thanks for that . Garry Curtis http://www.niagara.com/~studio
Re: RGB Hunt Peck Was : Heads Up ( an old Gi Post Thread Again )
Can't you use the already existing RGB2HSV and back proc libs? Never tried proc lib calls in an image processing shader though. At least the code inside the lib could be expressed as a normal material, and it would work nicely with postprocessing. Do you actually think everyone understands what it is you mean when you talk in CGI jargon , or do you simply not give a shit ? Then again, why do post processing in RS3D in the first place (except GI processing)? Regards Karl Ya gotta lay off the Magic Mushrooms . Preferably , a user will eventually have the ability to select colors from an HSV dialog screen , which could very easily be transfered to RGB values for actual Raytracing or Postprocessing . Garry Curtis http://www.niagara.com/~studio
Re: Advantages of Using HSV (Hue-Saturation-Value)
I'll also add that this goes to show the difficulty we'll have getting computers to really SEE things. A camera will just find grey pixels of the same intensity. It won't have any context to interpret the image. David Coombes ... ... ... What ? : Now you nit-wits are actually talking-in-tongues ! Could you please take 5 minutes to attempt to formulate in an email exactly what it is you mean to say so that the rest of us might understand ... please ? TIA Garry Curtis http://www.niagara.com/~studio
Re: Advantages of Using HSV (Hue-Saturation-Value)
To us it's easy to pick out a dark square in the light or a white square in the shadow, but a computer would need some complex processing rather than just comparing pixel values. Looking for pixel values of (120,120,120) isn't going to find and distinguish between light and dark checkers. David Coombes David : Thanks you most sincerely for that explanation (below) , and please forgive my top posting an edited version of your reply , ... but I think the whole point of that link was that we _can- not_ easily tell the difference at all ( I aplogise for what an awefull mess the MicroSlop mailer does to your replies) . Anyway , Timo's initial link that Yogi resent to the list : http://images.google.de/images?q=checker+illusionhl=debtnG=Bilder-Suche shows just how bad our perceptions can be in extreme situations . Garry Curtis http://www.niagara.com/~studio Not related to 3D work but image recognition, so off topic. Present image recognition tends to work by finding similar shapes or following edge contrast. Stick a camera on a computer and it'll capture a colour value for each pixel. From that it can try to guess what it's looking at by programming shape recognition etc. In the example picture it'll see the same level of grey (120,120,120) for the dark squares in the light and white squares in the shadow, and not be able to recognise there's a difference. A human viewer doesn't see each pixel of the image, but an overall image. The onlooker sees the green cylinder, the apparent shadow, the pattern of squares, and concludes it's a 3D scene with checkerboard in shadow, so adjusts the perception of the colours accordingly. To us it's easy to pick out a dark square in the light or a white square in the shadow, but a computer would need some complex processing rather than just comparing pixel values. Looking for pixel values of (120,120,120) isn't going to find and distinguish between light and dark checkers. David Coombes [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: NOT! Re: Working with channels in javascript, even further OT,
Did not mean to weird anyone out Zaug My love of the Meskanen's code has clearly reconfigured my mind. 8?o uh huh ... : OK fine , ... and if the Meskanen's code _IS_ your mind ? Ya , you could just say aaahhh ... then Fuck it ! I dunno ... me ? I think if I ever had a chance to ask the Dali Lama a single solitary profound question , I would simply ask which is your very favorite Sienfeld episode? Garry Curtis http://www.niagara.com/~studio
Re: RGB Hunt Peck Was : Heads Up ( an old Gi Post Thread Again )
What kind of color selector dialog do you have then installed on your system? I'm sorry but I've forgotten what mine looks like. Care to share a screenie? I thought you selected from a HSV plane, although the output was RGB. Hi Karl : Yes , RS does indeed provide HSL on it's color wheel . For sure major prop's have got to go to RealSoft for that . It's an advanced way of selecting saturations and intensity's . Hmmm ... I wouldn't be surprised that RS is actually limited by the microslop interface , in this case . Myself , and what I am so profoundly asking for , is (3) three sliders for picking colors (Hue , Saturation , Luminosity) , and then the same (3) controls in Post Processing . How we get there doesn't matter . Java ? VSL ? A simple conversion utility would be better than nothing ! As it is now , we get to post ... our image is oversaturated in places , or too much intensity (in HSL Language) but now what do we do ? Ya , re-pick and re-render (go for a SMOKE) . I'm asking here (and also sent a mail to RS development) for options to change things outside of the handcuffing RGB crap we'- ve been raised on . As David perhaps eludes to , convergence requires a whole new system of color recognition , and in _our_ case , the case of the creators , ... a whole new simple system of color selection . In my opinion . Garry Curtis http://www.niagara.com/~studio
Re: Working with channels in javascript
Anyway I was reminded of doing this by the current discussion on landscapes. You could, for example, analyse your landscape and assign channels for slope, rate of change of slope, northfacing etc and then reference your channels in the VSL shader. I had other applications in mind, but can't remember them now. I'm hearing the echo again : Anyway, same with RPL . I know many of us clamoured for a language that was easier to use than RPL ... Realsoft pro- vided it (Java scripting) , but outside of BB , I personally haven't seen it used much but has tons of potential . So is if possible. I'll keep asking until I know :-) George The screenshots I posted a few weeks ago of a Landscape rendering interface did of course provide many different ways of texturing a mesh , depending on the many , many qualities of that mesh . I only suggested booleans as a method for examining the feedback a user got from the initial analysis . The discu- ssion seemed to show VSL lacking , so then Java or RPL was suggested , along with possible Realman usage . I asked if VSL could talk to a Java/RPL script , but no reply . You're saying it is possible , and if so , sounds exactly what is needed to go beyond a simple 3 or 4 textures per landscape scenario . Garry Curtis http://www.niagara.com/~studio
Re: X-mas is coming soon
Hi Garry, here are the links: http://www.matthias-kappenberg.de/uploads/media/sun.zip and http://www.matthias-kappenberg.de/uploads/media/weihnachtsstern.zip Best wishes, Matthias Hi Mathias : I was so hoping to reply with a positive comment but have been up to my neck in alligators recently . I did D/L the files however (thanks so much for the direct links) . As soon as I get all the bugs worked out of this regretfull dual boot MS project (on my new 200 Gig Barracuda) I will re-install RS (for the 699th time in my life) and render them up . Cheers thanks again ! studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Re: Working with channels in javascript
Hi Mark (sorry to do such a heavy edit) : Very nice renders ! Best landscapes yet to come out of RS , no doubt . Is that possible, combining VSL with JS or RPL? Worth a look... I remember that in V3, RPL scripts could be attached to materials - in fact I already made an RPL slope-dependant material in V3. It would be strange if this wasn't possible in V5, but the great power of VSL alone makes it less necessary. Enough ranting for today - back to the landscapes, George just commented yesterday that it was indeed possible . Actually , the mail that you replied to was my reply to George on that topic . No prob's anyway , obviously you are very busy , but there have been very many key points tossed back and forth in the last while ... long mails might be making those elaborate points mute , however . -Mark H Please do keep up the awesome work Mark ! studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Re: Working with channels in javascript
George just commented yesterday that it was indeed possible . Actually , the mail that you replied to was my reply to George on that topic . No he didn't - the thread is a bit tangled :-) The thread started with the question can you work with channels in javascript. You would then work with the channels in VSL. The question is as yet unanswered. George Yes , sorry : I read , you could , for instance... and thought that you meant ... you could ! Obviously you meant that _IF_ you could , then you could also . Hmm ... booleans everywhere . (this freakin' version 6 MS mailer is like a hundred steps backwards) studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Re: New tutorial
Hi List : Feeling a little tenative , but the below mail was the last mail from fellow Realsoft list member Ross Hopkins . He mentions that he is ill and working toward completing a promise to list members incl- uding Neil Cooke , a fellow Kiwi . Perhaps Ross has moved on to another 3D mailing list or perhaps I missed his goodbye or maybe he is just extremely busy like the rest of us . Cheers Rossco studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net Sent: Monday, 9 May 2005 7:58 p.m. Hello Neil and list, Well this is hard to do and rather embarrassing for me as I have made some promises to the list and especially to Bernie and Garry regarding making video (Flash) tutes of RS3D. However, given that Neil is a Kiwi, and has requested that others from Kiwiland speak up, this is an opportunity to tell Neil that I am a Kiwi, living in Wellington and have RS3D too! Plus it is an opportunity to front up and apologise to those that I had promised tutes etc. This goes back some time now and while I have been still checking out the list messages, due to my health taking a few backward steps (just when I thought I was well on the road to recovery), Sadly, I have not been able to come up with the goods. To those that I promised, please accept my apologies. I have had, and still do have the intention of getting into RS3D and making the tutes, as this is how I would learn more myself etc, as many of you on the list have alluded to recently. I cannot give any timeline though as I have done that already and not delivered, so I will wait until I have completed something before I actually say I will do it, then it will, hopefully be a nice surprise :) Seems to me that what you are all doing with version 5 is pretty amazing! Well that just about does it for now... Hope to be more involved soon ;) Regards Rossco Get Firefox! -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Neil Cooke Sent: Monday, 9 May 2005 7:58 p.m. To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: New tutorial Hi List Testing hugeness, is there anyone else on the List from kiwiland? Just curious, Neil Cooke www.neico.co.nz - Original Message - From: Robert den Broeder [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, May 09, 2005 6:42 PM Subject: RE: New tutorial Hi Chris, Hi Robert, If I haven't thanked you yet for this, THANKS! If more of this type of info leaks out, RS might be huge! :o) cm I have more info where that came from... My guess is that RS IS huge!! :P Best regards, Robert http://members.chello.nl/rbroeder
Re: New tutorial
Off the topic but, on learning that i was not alone on this south sea kiwi island, I wondered about a National Convention of New Zealand Realsoft List members Neil Cooke have you heard from ross hopkins
Re: New Tutorial online - planetary.zip
http://www.studiodynamics.net/tutes/planetary7.html Thanks for the nice words guys . Had to giggle when I checked the Astronomy Picture of the Day site , this morning . Seems I wasn't the only one having trouble finding craters . APOD link below . http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap051121.html studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Re: New tutorial
Hi Jyrki : Nice looking stuff there ! I really like the nice soft boundaries of your clouds . Best I've seen yet with such a nice solid looking cloud . Very good looking Gi , and thanks for the link . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net - Original Message - From: Jyrki Hokkanen [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: user-list@light.realsoft3d.com Sent: Monday, November 21, 2005 5:36 AM Subject: Re: New tutorial Nice tut Garry! Now that you mentioned my cloud scetches, it came to me that I never showed where I ended up http://staff.csc.fi/jyrki.hokkanen/cloud_s.wmv (lower quality but more universal mpeg1 format here: http://staff.csc.fi/jyrki.hokkanen/cloud_s.mpg) Another outdated issue - remember the Sibenic cathedral GI-renders? Well I also rendered the Sponza Atrium http://staff.csc.fi/jyrki.hokkanen/sponza1.jpg One spotlight (sun) and a blue sphere (sky) are the only light sources used. The Sponza model came from http://hdri.cgtechniques.com/~sponza/files/ Cheers Jyrki -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.362 / Virus Database: 267.13.4/175 - Release Date: 11/18/2005
Re: New Tutorial online - planetary.zip
1) Load a project or just start RS (startup.r3d will load) . 2) Select Load Startup . 3) Look in your Material Window (only aluminum?) but if I use RMB in the Material-tab and select sort alphabetically all materials are visible and at the right place. Matthias Hi Matthias : Yes , same here . Odd bug with a workaround . I see [EMAIL PROTECTED] is the correct address . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Re: New tutorial
Hi Rossco : Glad you are still monitoring the list . I thought you had made a move to LW/Max or something ? I knew that you're not the lurk- er type , so I figured if you were around , you would say so ... Anyway , also very glad things are going your way . Sounds like a kind of dream come true , no ? Looking forward to seeing a tute or two from you ! Cheers Rossco ! studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net Hello Neil, Garry and the list, Well Garry, you pretty much got it in one regarding reasons for not being around on the list etc. As it happens, while my health was improving I landed a job which I could not turn down. Funny enough it is at the Hospital I was being treated :) They got my CV and after seeing my computer experience etc, they decide to take me on board, regardless of health condition :):). I was wrapped to say the least:). On the health side, that is always improving, with the odd hiccup here and there, but the overall trend is in the positive and certainly appears to be more of a permanent improvement, which is great. Given the job, Garry is correct in saying that I have pretty much been very busy, however I still watch the list. The sad part of it all is I have not had any time to do anything 3D. I have got really into my job and focusing on that has been my main priority. That said, I can now see a light at the end of the tunnel and from early next year I will pretty much have most of the job running smoothly enough for me to schedule more time into my long sought after hobby - - 3D. Yes, I also still plan on completing video tutes, but cannot give any time frames :( Good to see the list has been pretty active lately, and from what I see, some amazing work being done in RS3D. Anyhow, this was just to let you know that I have not dropped of the face of the earth (yet:)) and an opportunity to say a big HELLO to you all as well :) Cheers and regards Rossco Get Firefox! -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Neil Cooke Sent: Sunday, 20 November 2005 22:08 To: user-list@light.realsoft3d.com Subject: Re: New tutorial No, only that one post as you quote. Neil Cooke - Original Message - From: studio [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: user-list@light.realsoft3d.com Sent: Sunday, November 20, 2005 9:38 PM Subject: Re: New tutorial Off the topic but, on learning that i was not alone on this south sea kiwi island, I wondered about a National Convention of New Zealand Realsoft List members Neil Cooke have you heard from ross hopkins -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.362 / Virus Database: 267.13.8/183 - Release Date: 11/25/2005
Re: This is an experimental website I did in full 3D
Nice clean look to it ! studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net HI, This is an experimental website I did in full 3D www.maxiforet.com this is my first contract for a website. It's slow the first time you open the pages, but after they have been loaded once, it's fast. Note: there is sounds effects if you use InternetExplorer. If some aspect of the page are hidden by the UI, press F11. You comments are welcome. Only the monitor of the visit page was modeled in Realsoft5 www.realsoft.com Everything else was modeled in Shade8Pro www.e-frontier.com And finally all the rendering was made in ProjectMessiahWorkstation www.projectmessiah.com Rendering time of one image is 8 minutes 50 secondes on a AMD 1400Mhz 512 ram Jean-Sebastien Perron www.neuroworld.ca (not working) -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.362 / Virus Database: 267.13.8/183 - Release Date: 11/25/2005
Re: Message to the REALSOFT Mother Ship .... CHARACTER ANIMATION!
Hi Guys : Finally installed Xvid codec (couldn't find an install.exe file on the Official site) and got to view some very cool anims for my trouble . Thanks to all you guys for the great eyecandy and awe- some tutorials and projects . Great burst of energy there with all kinds of information and how-to's on the subject . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net http://www.the-final.com/footstep/the_4leg_robot_film_old1.avi (Make it walk was 5 minutes, understanding how footsteps work: some hours with try and error ;-) Matthias
Re: CHARACTER ANIMATION STUFF and RS ....
For those into Character Animation and to keep a recent topic on same going - Blender 2.40 is out with a rewrite of same: Hi Aidan : I guess you missed the short thread last week on Blender's 2.40 release ? Anyway , the very first tutorial in the Manual is about quickly building a gingerbread man and then boning , skinning and animating him . I'm sure we must have something like this tutorial in RS , no ? I know some listers have threatened to write a tutorial or 2 on the subject . Off topic , but the Blender arena reminds me a lot of the RS community . So many people contributing selflessly in an effort to progress their dearly beloved app . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net For those into Character Animation and to keep a recent topic on same going - Blender 2.40 is out with a rewrite of same: Blender has had another long development cycle resulting in a release packed with rewrites, new features and improvements. The major additions this release are the Character Animation rewrite, the added Fluid Dynamics system, improved editing and rendering of Particle Based Hair, and the Modifier Stack. http://blender.org/cms/Blender_2_40.598.0.html Have a look. Just spying on other 3D Camps for Character animation stuff, Cheers Aidan -- Internal Virus Database is out-of-date. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.371 / Virus Database: 267.13.8/183 - Release Date: 11/25/2005
How to batch load and render one imported object per frame ?
Hi List : Another great thing about RS is the ability to script in java or RPL , things that can't be done in the GUI . OK , say I have 10 .obj's (01test.obj , 02test.obj,etc etc) . Now I want to bring them into an RS scene and render only the single corresponding object for that frame (07test.obj for frame 7 , etc) . So I need to batch load them , for starters and then script a rendering solution . How do I set this up without all the manual labour of loading and rendering one object at a time ? (what if I had a sequence of 200 objects to import and render ???) Thanks In Advance . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Re: CHARACTER ANIMATION STUFF and RS ....
Yep, it can. And lots more to go: there's a game engine which really works AND a whole package with examples a book (you have to buy THAT from them but it's worth the price the engine itself is FREE). Don't know if Blender can replace RS anywhere soon (I doubt it, because they rely on polygons and RS on mathematically defined primitives which is far superior as a modeling toolset) but surely there's a lot of stuff in Blender RS is still missing so you should consider it as a an ADDITION to RS. All the best for 2006 happy rendering whatever tools you use from Wolfram Hi Wolfram : Sorry to edit your post so much . Congrads though for seeing the pot- ential of the Free GPL directive and contributing to it . I have to agree with most of what you say above . I'm just getting to know Blender now and think it's a pretty cool partner app to be running alongside Realsoft , or Max or LW etc . However , the free Personal learning Edition of Maya might also be an app one might find worth check- ing out too . The fluid dynamics of Blender drew me , but I think Maya's stuff is far superior , from what little I've read . Anyway , the bottom line for me is the ability of RS to do so many , many amazing things that it's potential is never-ever going to be real- ised to anywhere nears it's full potential , simply because it's depth is so vast that only a small handful of people are able to grasp it . Put 10 guys in a room with RS and a short animation project and if you have some key guys in there you will accomplish incredible things . RS is awesome but I think it really needs the community to write some more elaborate , in depth articles and tutorials , much along the line of what is happening over in the Blender camp . (this is the part where I sound bitter) . It's great to be able to show the world what you can do with RS , big huge pat's on the back to you people ... but how about throwing the community a bone and telling us HOW you did it , exactly , in step-by-step form . Time and time again we see list geniuses shoot VSL code from the hip and say it should work , but I don't have RS running in front of me right now Then wait till you do and then try it, then create the material , then share it (explain it would be nice too) . Zaug has just shared this very cool script with the list , and I know it must have taken him through a very steep learning curve that required a lot of his precious spare time . Fantastic ! Now , if we were to do it the Blender way , Zaug would then write a nice HTML tutorial explaining how he did it , and any other stuff he learned along the way . In fact , doing it the Blender way would probably see Zaug pioneer the 'Scripting' section of an on-line Dynamic manual , like Blender has on their Wiki site (I thought I created a new idea [dynamic manual] but the Blender people have had it for a long time) . So , [rant mode off] perhaps the best thing about Blender , in the end, is for RS people to glimpse at just how great it is to see a community share knowledge , give their time , and not in any kind of haphazard way but in a way where info get's taken in, in an effective manner , with an end result that see's a 3D person constantly upgrading their skill level . There used to be a ton of sharing on this list , not all that long ago, but seems to be almost dead now except for off-topic threads and my late night rants . A logical question might be what good is an extensive app like RS if the average person doesn't know how to use it ? There is lot's of info in the manual of course , but so much knowledge has been learned the hard way , over and over again by dozens of people . Better to have one person find the solution or workaround to a problem , then document that solution for the rest of the community . Happy Hanukkah/Clone the Meskanens studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Re: A little script
Hello list, Here is a little script, that I have been working on for the last several weeks, that some of you might enjoy playing with. http://www.catmtn.com/realgreeblez.php Thankz to Fredrik Bergholtz for much advice, tutoring, testing and patience; and also to Juha Meskanen for answering many questions so quickly. Cheers, Zaug Hi Zaug : Thanks for the script ! Those renderings on Staffan Norling's web page look really awesome . Procedurals are the best , for sure , and your Greeble stuff will prove that by looking so unique in every render . Thanks again . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Re: Tutorials needed was Re: CHARACTER ANIMATION STUFF and RS ....
Thanks for the promotion and your kind words Garry! Much appreciated :) Keep an eye on that site if you're interested in following the developments of V6 features. Best regards, Happy new year to all! Robert Hi Robert : Will stay tuned , but I find it hard to believe RS can move from V5 to V6 so quickly . Is Satu a coder ? (just kidding) I hope to convert a tutorial this weekend using the style- sheets that are common on your site . Hope you don't mind , and it will probably take some heavy duty editing on your part to make it fit in properly , since I don't understand stylesheets . Anyway , it's a chance for me to put your money where your mouth is (english expression) . Cheers Robert indeed Happy New Year to All !!! studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net Others take the time to create really awesome web sites full of tutorials and links and projects and materials etc like this one http://members.ams.chello.nl/rbroeder . -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.371 / Virus Database: 267.14.9/183 - Release Date: 12/29/2005
Re: Tutorials needed was Re: CHARACTER ANIMATION STUFF and RS ....
Hi Robert : OK , understood . Thanks for the reply ! studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net Hi Garry, Will stay tuned , but I find it hard to believe RS can move from V5 to V6 so quickly . Is Satu a coder ? (just kidding) I never mentioned a quick release of V6. Only that I will show more info on how V6 develops :) So you can all see. I hope to convert a tutorial this weekend using the style- sheets that are common on your site . Hope you don't mind , and it will probably take some heavy duty editing on your part to make it fit in properly , since I don't understand stylesheets . All tutorials I published so far are plain HTML and the only style I use is the manual format. That means same font and same use of titels. Anyway , it's a chance for me to put your money where your mouth is (english expression) . OK Garry take that chance while you can ;) Best regards, Robert -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.371 / Virus Database: 267.14.9/183 - Release Date: 12/29/2005
This Bud's for you !!!
Cheers all the Best in the coming year !!! studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Re: Video Tutorials for RS / Apps for same - Formally: Happy new year grom Germany ....
If making these tutes involves compositing seperate audio and video OR if there is any grunt work involved in doing same - the number of people willing to participate in a potential RS video tute library will be very small. - ITS HUMAN NATURE - also people have other things to do in there lives Cheers Aidan Hi Aidan : Same applies to making HTML tutorials , of course , but as I've said , there are so many good and totally free HTML editors out there that I wouldn't even consider trying to list them here . So why then do so few people bother to take the time to create tute's ? (just a retorical question , no need to attempt to answer) . It's also human nature to feel good when you've contributed to the community . One of my main points which I don't remind repeating , is that info posted here just goes down a sinkhole and dissapears . Unless you've saved the file and remember you did , finding that valuable info can be tough , and more importantly , if you're a newbie just trying RS , all that archive info is of no use to you . If you post to the Forum at least it's there for anyone to see , if they have the time to dig all the way back through pages of posts ,and only if the thread was labelled properly . If it wasn't that info is probably not going to be read again . So that brings us to the HTML tute . It's quick , it's simple , it's free , it's easily linked to from many web sites ... it's perfect , but it's rare . Your slowly disappearing mail on video screen captures could be an awesome HTML tutorial . Download a few of the freeware S/W's and put them through their paces then write a tutorial about your experience . Now you've really done something ! Now you've saved dozens of other people the time and trouble of having to do it . Write it properly and you may even inspire others to create video tutorials . I can punch key words into Google , surf a bit , then post links to this list , but what have I accomplished ? Easy to do but how much time have I saved anyone , or what have I taught them ? I don't think it's a question of time at all . Even if it takes a month or two to do a tute , who cares ? A little bit every week and in no time it's done . Even better , find a mate who is also inter- ested in that topic and team up to create one . Seems to be some kind of fear (fear of the unknown?)preventing people from offering their gained knowledge or expertise to the community . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net At 12:50 03/01/2006, you wrote: My little boy uses aviscreen classic (freeware) to capture video from the screen for school projects - http://www.bobyte.com/ I'm using Microsoft Movie Maker2 with 9 year olds and they can cope with it. PCAdvisor UK Feb edition had a ULead video editor on the cover disk - it looks more competent than Movie Maker but I haven't tried it. We use Bink and Smack (radgametools.com) to do any batch conversions - my digital camera only does .mov which Microsoft Movie Maker won't recognise for some strange reason. Anyway, Bink and Smack converts satisfactorily. Geo Aidan O Driscoll wrote: Hi Guys, Re - video / audio / screen capture for tutorial vids, here are some ideas. Free where possible: *Windows Media Encoder (free) - specific to windows though: *http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/9series/encoder/default.aspx I have not tried this out, but I am sure if one uses the WME the output will be WMV, one could then convert the WMV to any other format. *Wink [ as others here have pointed out ]: *http://www.debugmode.com/wink/ This app makes screen grab files for tutorials. Not sure if it does audio. *Audacity: *http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ Freeware Audio editor *Wax: *http://www.debugmode.com/wax/ is a high performance and flexible video compositing and special effects software. May be possible to use to combine the video and audio files ONES THAT COST: *Bulent's Screen Recorder 3: *http://www.thesilver.net/index.htm Not free, but does the lot it seems - $24 or so *Capturewizpro: *http://www.pixelmetrics.com/CapWizPro/index.htm $30 *1st Screen Recorder Video Capture: * http://www.screenrecorder.us/$30 - looks ideal and good *Desktop Screen Record 5: *http://www.recordscreen.com/ $30 ANY ONE ELSE WHO CAN SUGGEST = F R E E = APPS FOR MAKING SCREENGRAB TUTORIALS Cheers A -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.371 / Virus Database: 267.14.9/183 - Release Date: 12/29/2005
Lead a Horse to Water was : some :-)) and more beginner tutorials ;-)
Hi Neil : Man , that is some huge post of good info . I really have to ask , however , with a little imagination could you not have used some of this info in a very small tutorial ? You say no need for a tute , then you write this big long email (that will disappear forever into the void in a matter of days) . Except for the few people who actually took the time to read the whole thing , it's very close to being a wasted efort , compared to a tiny HTML tute that is sitting comfortably on a few servers around the world . Thanks very much for your time , but I don't really have any- plans to print anything right now (I'll hang onto your mail) . HTML tute's ... they're free , they have a long shelf life , they're entertaining to read (even if you just look at the pict- ures ...) , they are always there for newcomers to learn from , or help longtime community members upgrade their skills . Let me put it this way ... what if I had just wrote about my cool experience with RS displacement mapping in an email ? How much would that have helped anyone compared to the experience of doing a step-by-step learning experience ? http://www.studiodynamics.net/tutes/planet1.html Then again , I'm amazed at how much I actually learned simply because I wanted to try and make the tute interesting to others . It's a win-win-win situation when someone actually makes the commitment to teach others effectively . (rant-mode / off) studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net Hi Garry, No tutorial needed since the way to render as bmp is all that is needed and is in render options as well as the manual. Get your models done, line up the lights, set your camera and render to file as bmp. Tutorial finished. Print requirements depend entirely on printing device/machine. The people who know exactly the optimum file parameters are the people (the Printers) who own and run each device. Go to those people for file parameters. This answer could profitably stop right there but here's some more anyway. So, render to bmp in RealSoft. Convert to whatever the Printers want or let them do so if needed. Render large file sizes since these can be reduced if necessary at little or no loss in sharpness (resolution) but small files can not be so easily enlarged without image distortions like pixellation, etc., showing. However don't be scared, if all you have is a small image lifted from a website then that's all you have. Massage it as much as you can in Photoshop or whatever (I use PhotoPaint) and get on with it. The rule is simple what you are looking at will be what is printed unless someone messes up and they usually dont. For USA Letter size paper and A4 the usual for Offset is about 300dpi so files over 25 megs have more than enough information for top results. DPI means Dots per Inch, it more or less means pixels per inch, therefore with a calculator in hand you can sort out the dpi for anything you need. A small confusion might occur if you dig deeper and come across LPI which is an old screen ruling term that Platemakers used when converting photographs to printed dots. These days just let the Printer worry about this side of things since there are optimum rulings for each of the machines on his factory floor plus, if the file is clean enough he might run stochastic ruling which is fun. A good machine will easily handle 175 lpi but unless it's newsprint, flexographics (on cartons usually) or silk screen dont accept anything less than 133 lpi. A small trick here is a frequency clash that can happen between a printed image that has been printed using dots (LPI) and the reprinting of a scan of that again using dots ... the effect is called moire and can be a horror. Best to press the remove moire button in PhotoShop after scanning before handing it over to the Printer ... except they will usually see what's going on and fix it or hand it back to you for fixing. The file size is the total dot/pixel count multiplied by the number of channels multiplied by the information type in the channels used ... CMYK used Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black which is four channels and if it is in 32 bit format then .. etc. RGB used three channels and is generally 24 bit. Straight Line Art, or Black and White is One Bit ... so yes, these can be very very high resolution with relatively small file sizes ... I usually run Line Art files at no less than 600 dpi. Greyscale is generally 8 bit ... an 8 bit pixel object can carry 256 values of grey from white through to black. So, you might want the render to fill an A4, you will render to bmp as mentioned. Your camera aspect ratio will be 1.41 (if the A4 is portrait format and 0.71 if it's landscape) ... I use 1.5 and 0.75 so that I can crop the image if I want to ... anyway, rough enough. A long edge pixel count of 8000 is heaps ... which more or less gives 8000 x 5600
Re: Video Tutorials for RS / Apps for same - Formally: Happy new year grom Germany ....
WOW! Great post Garryand you are right about the FEAR factor...well for me anyhow, that is the fear of the tutes not being good enough. I would complete a tute, think it was OK, then later decide that it is not very good so don't even get to post it on the web ...something I have decide to tackle a bit harder this year and stop being so self critical..:) Cheers Rossco Hi Rossco : Thanks , and good luck with your lighting problem . I got to tell you though , it was so much better being able to look at your renders on a web page than in an email ! Can't explain it really , but once on your site I almost felt compelled to try and help , somehow . Chris echoed my thoughts on the problem so I won't get involved just yet , but will stay tuned . Your apprehension is understood ... about tutorials I mean . The great thing about this community is the ability that some here have to 'proof- read' . Robert was very helpful , and Bernie is always there to offer advice too . You're not alone here , and you are an artist that has much to offer . Please consider making the tutorial group effort . I'll help you out any way I can , with pleasure ! Cheers and hope you are keeping cool (down under)! studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net Hi Aidan : Same applies to making HTML tutorials , of course , but as I've said , there are so many good and totally free HTML editors out there that I wouldn't even consider trying to list them here . So why then do so few people bother to take the time to create tute's ? (just a rhetorical question , no need to attempt to answer) . It's also human nature to feel good when you've contributed to the community . One of my main points which I don't remind repeating , is that info posted here just goes down a sinkhole and disappears . Unless you've saved the file and remember you did , finding that valuable info can be tough , and more importantly , if you're a newbie just trying RS , all that archive info is of no use to you . If you post to the Forum at least it's there for anyone to see , if they have the time to dig all the way back through pages of posts ,and only if the thread was labeled properly . If it wasn't that info is probably not going to be read again . So that brings us to the HTML tute . It's quick , it's simple , it's free , it's easily linked to from many web sites ... it's perfect , but it's rare . Your slowly disappearing mail on video screen captures could be an awesome HTML tutorial . Download a few of the freeware S/W's and put them through their paces then write a tutorial about your experience . Now you've really done something ! Now you've saved dozens of other people the time and trouble of having to do it . Write it properly and you may even inspire others to create video tutorials . I can punch key words into Google , surf a bit , then post links to this list , but what have I accomplished ? Easy to do but how much time have I saved anyone , or what have I taught them ? I don't think it's a question of time at all . Even if it takes a month or two to do a tute , who cares ? A little bit every week and in no time it's done . Even better , find a mate who is also inter- ested in that topic and team up to create one . Seems to be some kind of fear (fear of the unknown?)preventing people from offering their gained knowledge or expertise to the community . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
RE : Vacationing !!!
Greetings : Here's a little web page with some pictures of the Rocky Mountain area of Alberta and British Columbia , Canada . Might inspire someone to do a little terrain creation . http://www.studiodynamics.net/roading/road1.html Pop in once and a while to see what I've been up to lately (heading for Colorado) . Take 'er easy . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net --- This message was sent using Niagara.com Webmail. http://webmail.niagara.com/ http://www.niagara.com
noise conyroller
http://www.neico.co.nz/3d/neico0601.html#gcnoise Hi Neil nice renders, very great :-) Matthias Yes . nice render . I did notice a small red arrow pointing at the side of your image ... is that leading to new renders as well ? Anyway , just wondering if those driftwood ima- ges are done using the noise material too (not sure)? OT PS: Man , this is wild ! Moving through the Donner Pass in California and I found a Wi-Fi to do my mail on while the train stops for a bit ! Cheers ! studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net - Original Message - From: Neil Cooke To: user-list@light.realsoft3d.com Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2006 4:08 AM Subject: Noise Controller Thanks Garry for the tute and Karl, et al. Tried it today and think it'll have a permanent place in my paint box in some form or another. Makes a passable wood pattern in this case, I reckon ... http://www.neico.co.nz/3d/neico0601.html#gcnoise Neil Cooke No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.371 / Virus Database: 267.14.18/230 - Release Date: 14.01.2006 No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.371 / Virus Database: 267.14.17/226 - Release Date: 1/10/2006 --- This message was sent using Niagara.com Webmail. http://webmail.niagara.com/ http://www.niagara.com
[no subject]
http://www.studiodynamics.net/tutes/planet1.html a very latent response : Garry,Thanks for the tutorials, I worked with these concepts extensively when it was being initially discussed. Nice to have an organized resource, in a familiar format, to refer back to. Hi Zaug , and thanks for the feedback ! I so agree about the HTML format . Let me re-post the (very flawed) HTML Tutorial Template's URL , in case everyone is ignoring it (kidding - from awesome Iowa) http://www.studiodynamics.net/template/template_rs.html studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net studio wrote: Hi All : Thanks to some gentle and very effective suggestions by Robert Den Broeder I've redone the Planetary Project . http://www.studiodynamics.net/tutes/planet1.html Please check it out , as I've added a dozen or so Real- Soft V5 renders to it , as well as much more detailed step-by -step procedures for arriving at some very cool results (I think). Download it , have a look and see what you think . Man , he is good . I only wish I could inspire others to create the way Robert does . Not just by the very , very help- ful tips he offered me privately , but by the calibre of Real- soft web site he maintains modestly and unselfishly . That's pure devotion on Roberts part , and it really works . Thanks again Rob , I only wish I could inspire others to simply take the time to share the way you so humbly do so well . This Bud's for you ! studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net Zaug -- My love of the halfling's leaf has clearly slowed my mind. 8?o -- Internal Virus Database is out-of-date. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.371 / Virus Database: 267.14.17/226 - Release Date: 1/10/2006 --- This message was sent using Niagara.com Webmail. http://webmail.niagara.com/ http://www.niagara.com
[no subject]
Hi all, fast rendered shading test. (only VSL no textures) http://www.matthias-kappenberg.de/fileadmin/rs3d-modelle/filme/terminator-2e yes-xvid.avi Matthias Is this link working ? I had no luck . TIA studio --- This message was sent using Niagara.com Webmail. http://webmail.niagara.com/ http://www.niagara.com
test
I think your problem downloading was that the link spanned over two lines. You had to cut and paste the last part onto the first in the browser window. Hi Chris : Yes , there were 3 lines of URL and I only copy/pasted 2 of them . What was this anim demonstrating , again ? It looked nice but I didn't see any action . TIA --- This message was sent using Niagara.com Webmail. http://webmail.niagara.com/ http://www.niagara.com
robot eyes
it's one VSL-Shader for the lids and one for the eye. The colored parts are done via IF-levels and the UV-Coordsys/Map-Coordsys. Hi Matthias : Thanks for the link , and a very nice looking anim , good lights and nice colours , but I thought it was to show eyelids , or something ? I watched it a few times on my laptop but only saw camera movement . TIA studio --- This message was sent using Niagara.com Webmail. http://webmail.niagara.com/ http://www.niagara.com
[no subject]
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 2006 06:59:53 GMT X-Posting-IP: 66.199.80.157 X-Mailer: niagara.com webmail Standard Edition v3.2.7 Hi Garrs, it's the: Die animierte Version als WMV ca. 3mb or: Die animierte Version als XVID-Avi ca. 2mb one the same site Best wishes, Matthias Hi Matthias : OK , is this just a shading test ? It say's eye's open/ close but I don't see any movement . Anyway , it looks good as I said before . In fact , since I,m using my laptop with it's LCD screen , I find that a lot of the CGI looks bad , but photo's and film look great . Your test looks polished . Your animation looks very good on my LCD monitor . Did you do any postprocessing to help smooth things out ? From now on my CGI stuff will be made to look good on both CRT and LCD monitors . Thanks studio --- This message was sent using Niagara.com Webmail. http://webmail.niagara.com/ http://www.niagara.com
ooops
Sorry , my web mailer kept telling me there was an error sending that mail . studio --- This message was sent using Niagara.com Webmail. http://webmail.niagara.com/ http://www.niagara.com
I'm Back !!! (off topic)
Hey Y'all : Back from a 27 day train trip around North America , and I can not only recommend it , but will promote it via an expanded web page or 2 . One thing , don't go coach , but go first class with your own private acc- ommodations as well as all meals included . Fly into Denver Colorado and train it to San Fran- cisco , California . You will pass through some of the most incredible geography known to man ... words fail when trying to describe a canyon trip like this one ! If anyone has any questions about setting up such a vacation just mail me and I'll provide all the do's don'ts and the in's and out's of travelling the U.S. and Canada by Rail (it's a lot of fun!) . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Re: exclude or include lightsources for objects
The lightsensitive shader adds the possibility to dim the lights . Make sure that you have a float channel which is named exactly Light Sensitivity in your channel tab. Thank you : What an excellent opportunity you guys have pro- vided for one to step in and say What . Great that we have encountered yet another situa- tion where we can utilize the advanced tools of RS , but the solution from Boris and Matthias totally lost me . Was that 2 different solutions ? Or one solution , with a twist . Then , as if that wasn't confusing enough , we have a link to parts of Tim B.'s expl- anation about something similiar (I guess?) . Think about it ... if an ancient user like myself can not follow along with what you guys are yammer- ing about , how do you expect newcommers to Realsoft 3D to learn anything ? We keep on saying ... RS is an extremely capable 3D application , but can also be a steep learning curve . This thread is an good example of how hard it can be to try and grasp a new procedure . So , anyway , who had the solution ? Boris ? Matt- hias ? Boris with Matthias's help ? Boris with Tim's tutorial and then adding Boris's suggestions later ? How much does Maya cost now ? studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net The lightsensitive shader adds the possibility to dim the lights Make sure that you have a float channel which is named exactly Light Sensitivity in your channel tab. Matthias there is the lightsensitivity shader in the RS' materials in misc. You have to apply this shader to the certain lightsource. For the objects that should be influenced by this lightsource set the value for the lightsensitivity channel in properties col-Attribute-lightsensitivity to 1. -- Bye Boris - http://www.3ddart.com - Realsoft Image Contest - http://www.realsoft.org - -- Internal Virus Database is out-of-date. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.371 / Virus Database: 267.14.9/183 - Release Date: 12/29/2005
Re: I'm Back !!! (off topic)
BTW, I heard the US railway system is in worse condition than for example Bolivia's... it must have a certain romantic charm ;) Looking forward to the new pages! Mark H Hi Mark : Thanks . The USA's rail system is not bad at all . Doesn't compare to France or Germany but it's huge 2 decker superliners are really fast and smooth . Problem is just so much freight is moving on the same pathways and the passenger trains must sit and wait and are of- ten late . We were 12 hours late getting into L.A. one day (night) . Slept (sort of) in the train station , but the ride next morning along the California coast was awesome (and so was the girl I met!) . Can't wait to get going in RS again ! The rail trip web page may have to wait a while . Also , my local Union caught wind of my page about the Turbine job I was on and want me to build a web site for them too . See my humble Hydro work site here : http://www.studiodynamics.net/millwrights/mill-5.html studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
OK , show us some fur !
Seriously : Has even one single user managed to create some cool ex- amples of hair or fur ? 10 points if you provide a link to a .jpeg ... 100 points if you tell us how you did it . 1000 points if you create a fur/hair tutorial . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Let's get the Ball rolling .
Well : We have a generous sponsor or 2 for the Realsoft Image Contest . Fine . Got a better idea ! How about sponsoring the monthly Realsoft tutorial contest ? Seriously ! Let's turn this whole thing around ... about face , sort of . No bull , this advanced 3D application needs more direct input from advanced users in order to comp- ete with the much much more expensive applications . Maya (with Fur/hair) costs 10X what Realsoft3D costs . OK , fine , but is it worth it ? No , not if you can ... Do it with Realsoft3D Seriously . RS can blow any app out of the water when it comes to price vs ability , but that ability seems to be hidden or perhaps even unused , for the most part . Can we , as devoted users change that ? studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Re: exclude or include lightsources for objects
I don't know why this statement 1 causes any confusion. Other values than 1 make the lightsource stronger or weaker than the original value. Boris - http://www.3ddart.com - Realsoft Image Contest - http://www.realsoft.org - Hi Boris : Please forgive my heavy editing of your reply . This thread is getting long already , but hopefully has some use . Boris , great job of telling us about this 'LS' shader , it was not in my default startup , and even if it was I wouldn't know what to do with it anyway . Please take what I said about the confusion issue with a grain of salt . What I was really trying to do was draw attention to how information is bandied about on this list like golf balls on a driv- ing range . You said set the value to '1' . That is not 100% correct , is it ? In the computer world , '0' is off , '1' is on . When I personally first read your post I thought we only had a choice of 'on' or 'off' , but obviously that is not the case , as I said and you have re-stated . It's no big deal , and was just an opportunity for me to point out how difficult it can be for newbie's to learn sometimes . Same with Matthias adding a non-existent shader to the 'root' of his example project . It's no big deal , it's just wrong , is all grin . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Re: exclude or include lightsources for objects
Hi Matthias : Thanks for this awesome shader and example project . It is over my head right now , but I do understand the reason you created it , and will master it shortly , and then make a little tutorial on how others can easily modify many lights in a scene . As a sidenote , my tests show that we do not need to create a Lightsensitivity channel to use that 'LS' shader , but just need to apply that shader to the light in question , so is an easy way to adjust lighting for objects affected by that part- icular light , as was Arjo's situation . Your advanced project has that 'LS' shader added to the 'Root' of your example project for some reason , and if you explained why so above , I'm sorry , but I still do not under- stand why you added it there . Anyway , give me some time to get caught up on things and I will explore and then share my trip through hell ... err , I mean , my delightful time working with this new and wonderful material you have created (just kidding) . Porsche should be arriving in your driveway any time now . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net Hi Garry, to the Light Sensitivity channel hint, this was only for users who have cleaned up the channels tab, and get an error with the shader, after copying it into another scene. Or people who have loaded a scene without the Light Sensitivity channel and Replace all in the Load file Window switched on. (Then you can run into trouble, if you assign the missing channels by hand, because you don't know what kind of channel it was: color, float or vector.) In the last attched file I've renamed the channels to avoid conflicts with the RS-Tutor files, not to confuse people. Why this shader? Well, my idea was: A scene with lights in different levels and an easy solution to control them. If the shader is attched you can easily switch on/off or dim the lights where the shader is attached, without going trough the levels and modify each light. Think about the following (ok, I'm confusing now): You've imported 40 lights with Timos's great lightgen-script, a corner is too dark illuminated by 10 lights, each light has by default the intensity 1 or whatever, but you've modified the Intensity for some lights, then you only need to drop them into a level and assign the shader to adjust the overall intensity or switch them all on/off without selecting them or any other modification of the scene, and this on a per object base. I found this an interesting solution for the: Exclude or include lightsources for objects Topic. I'll redo it with color-channels to dim the lights with color-dim and a explanation. It was a little bit a quick solution and was not made to confuse people. Matthias BTW: Many thanks for the most confusing project file ever sent to this list title :-) Have I won a Maserati (a Porsche 356b is ok, too) Let's start out by giving thanks to Matthias for the most con- fusing project file ever sent to this list . It's an awesome att- empt at showcasing this new shader , but the root contains the 'light sensitivity shader' (for some unknown reason) yet no such shader is even in his RS project file ??? Never mind , my goal for tomorrow is to study that project file and then create a nice little tutorial so that future RS users can easily see and understand the very cool looking trick Matthias has constructed for us (oh , by the way , thanks Matthias grin ) . By the way #2, contrary to what Matthias said last night ,you do not need to Make sure that you have a float channel which is named exactly 'Light Sensitivity' in your channel tab . All that is required , as Boris has stated , is to load the 'Light Sensitivity' shader into your Materials Tab , select your light source (not the root as Matthias does in his example project) then simply 'drag and drop' that LS shader into the RS Viewport Window . Now ... contrary to the confusion Boris unfolds above , the selected objects do not have to be set to 1 in order to be affected . They can be set to 1 or .5 or 1.5 or 5.1 . That's the beauty of this simple new shader ! (stay tuned for a simple tutorial demonstrating the options) . OK , who else can I attack here ? How about RS for not drawing our attention to this amazing shader in the first place ? Vesa say's to Juha Hey , let's give them every single tool known to mankind (at a very cheap price-point) ... then sit back and watch them bang their heads against the wall trying to figure them all out (ha ha ha) . -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.371 / Virus Database: 267.14.25/247 - Release Date: 1/31/2006
Re: Move over Gary - Aidans turn to rant :) Some of my thoughts on RS ...
Hi Aidan, You hit the nail on the head! Apparently, at RS they prefer to spend their energy at the software itself rather than tutorials etc. Hi Mark : Again forgive my heavy editing of your post , in order to save time . I won't even begin to respond to Aidan's post , but will chime in with you and say yes , yes , and yes ! . We users can wait and sit back, or do something about it - we can't force RS. Mark H I partially agree . We can't force RS of course , but we can perhaps influence them a little bit , and we can certainly change things for the better . You have changed things many times with your selfless efforts and sharing , and I implore _ALL_ RS users to stop and think about what they can bring to the party . Last year there was talk of a Dynamic Realsoft Manual , where we could add tutorials as we go , but that is not going to happen soon. Blender has a Wiki site , but it is a hackers paradise and problem- atic . We _CAN_ however continue to write tutorials and give examples , and share our knowledge gained . To teach is to learn too . There are many selflessly giving users here who have been changing things for years and years , and is in fact the whole spirit behind RS . Without the generous user community that RS has , RS is nothing but an app that only very very advanced users can even begin to attempt to use . RealSoft may count on us as much as we count on them . My attacking is merely a weak attempt at drawing attention to the fact that we need much , much more sharing in order to get non-advanced users up to speed in advanced 3D animation , with RS . All it's going to take is for advanced users , to sit down and share their knowledge with simple easy to follow HTML web pages , and for those that come here to this list seeking answers , to write those an- swers down in HTML once they have been received , as a way of saying Thanks . To put it simply , this list is an Abyss ... same with IRC . Only the Realsoft Forum saves info for the future users to view . Only tutorials created by RS users make the learning of advanced tools and methods an easy and enjoyable experience . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
New Tutorial online ! (light sensitivity shader)
Hi List : http://www.studiodynamics.net/saved/lightsens1.html Hope this tutorial on the latest cool shader to make the news will make life a little sweeter for those that are try- ing to tweak a Gi scene , by adding a few well placed lights to carefully adjust the lighting on certain objects only ... I should mention that it is worded for newbies . Very slow to write and may be a bit too slow for advanced users to read. Took around 6 hours to do with Editplus text editor . I would appreciate it if someone would proof read it for me and let me know where it may need some refining or clarity . Thanks In Advance . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Re: Realsoft 3D WIKI
Wow : This is like Christmas in February ! Thanks to George for getting the ball rolling , and for Matthias's awesome site . This is wa tooo cl ! Please Matthias , don't limit our article's size . I'll do- nate some cash to help secure a few Gigs of space . I'm on 5 gigs and it's less than $100 USD per year . I say , put the whole RS manual up on the wiki , if it's not illegal to do so that is (is it?) . One last point . I don't agree with allowing any hacker with a chip on his shoulder to be able to enter the wiki and hack away . Editing should be a restricted priviledge . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net Maybe a combination from all of this is a good starting point for our wiki. The online manual is more or less a copy of the delivered manual, with no chance to alter it by users if they found a mistake or something else. With the wiki we have a chance to alter articles, post workarounds, setting up tutorials while explaining a RS-Tool really in depth and much more. But now it's up to the RS-interested people to make a good pool for all of us to share information in a unique layout, with search function and easy access for sharing hints and tips. The reason why I prefer build in wiki articles and not only links to other sites is the search function of the wiki. It should be from all for all, if somebody has a good link: write an article with a link. If somebody comes to the conclusion the linked sites content should be in the wiki, he can do this (please with info from where it comes, if not written by himself) If somebody likes to share his knowlegde, he's welcome to write an article. Use the wiki as wiki as you like. Matthias - Original Message - From: Aidan O Driscoll To: user-list@light.realsoft3d.com Sent: Saturday, February 04, 2006 3:22 PM Subject: Re: Realsoft 3D WIKI Hi George and all, I also think fully formed tutorials (like Garry's great new one on lighting) belong at realsoft.info. The wiki could contain a summary and the link. My intention was never to duplicate resources. The user manual is already online, so there is no need to include more than a link (the whole Blender manual appears to be in the wiki). My two cents - I think the WIKI should evolve with all information to do with RS. See how it develops and as content builds have discussion about the structure which will be more informed as we can see what sort of content is appearing. I wouldnt discourage people at an early stage - within reason I think any contribution is good and will build peoples confidence in how to use this great resource. Yes, their will be cross over and duplication, their has to be. But as the WIKI evolves organically this will all sort itself out. With our WIKI God - Matthias - Looking over us shur we will be OK :) At the top of the WIKI I added a note to KISS - Keep it simple Stupid. I hope ye got the sentiment. I could see tutes on VSL, Scripting etc getting a little heavy on the techy side, it would be nice if people could think outside themselves a bit before committing info and don't assume things when they write. If possible, come from a point of no assumption, that the reader is starting from scratch. This way the WIKI will be a resource FOR ALL. In this note I also said Dummies Guides and in plain english please. I used the word English here - I apologise to people of other languages and did not mean it in this way. BUT, if someone wants to change the sentence to be more inclusive I hope they do. This was the best way I could think. Finally - A BIG HUGE THANKS TO MATTHIAS FOR THIS RESOURCE AND FOR BEING PRO ACTIVE ABOUT IT. AT THE IRC WE WERE RECENTLY PASSING AROUND A MAGIC FLASK THAT GIVES THE USER AN ENDLESS SUPPLY OF THERE DRINK OF CHOICE. I PERTAINED FROM THE LITTLE FOLK - PESKY LEPRECHAUNS. ITS YOUR TURN NOW MATTHIAS - WHAT DO YOU WANT TO FILL IT WITH? AN ENDLESS SUPPLY OF __ :-D Cheers Aidan At 11:29 04/02/2006, you wrote: Well 24 hours is a long time in cyberspace. We have a fully functional wiki and promises of content (and contentment). I'll drop tiddlywiki (the mailing list of users is overloading my inbox anyway) except for my personal notes and transfer what I've written to the new place. I think it was Timo who said yesterday that we should use it to build tutorials in a conversational way. I agree. Which means if you have an idea but not much time, start a topic and make some notes. I have no objection to languages other than English. I think if you have found out something great and you only have time to write 3 lines in Swahili, it's best to do so and come back to it later. Or wait for some kind soul to translate it. Also if you get an answer to a question on this list or in the 3ddart forum, you could quickly copy it to the wiki and clean it up later. I also think fully formed tutorials
Re: New Tutorial online ! (light sensitivity shader)
Good one Garry, But I think it should be on the Realsoft info tutorial collection. Arjo. Hi Arjo : It could go there too , but the last article I wrote , the Planetary Shader article , never made it on that site , but did get a link placed there instead . Personally , I would like to see the Wiki contain all the available Realsoft3D tutorials and articles , with the authors' permission of course . Realsoft.info has a great collection , but they are not cat- agorized like the wiki already is , and they are locked anyway . For me it is already a lot of fun to visit the wiki and see what awesome information has been added ... while I slept . Many thanks to all the gracious contributors ! studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Greeble me this Batman !
Just some mussing : Finally got around to trying Zaug's awesome greeble Java Plugin . However , Zaug recommends a 10 x 10 meters long and wide (why is the RS SDS Cube a rectangle?) rectangle , but I get way too much camera perspective distortion when working with sizes this big . (I scale it down so no problem) Which brings me to another point ... the actual size of our objects is not in the Object Property Window , anywhere , is it (I couldn't find it) . I use a View Grid to approximate how big my created Cube? actually is . Guess I could use the Numeric Window to approximate as well . So anyway , I'm curious what kinds of scales others think is best when working with RS ? I like using the perspective mode for composing shots , but scales like 10 Meter X 10 Meter cubes look bizarrely distorted . I use 10% of that scale size . I'm probably doing something wrong . Any thoughts or tips are appreciated . TIA studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Greeble Update ( Doc's only)
For those that choose to bog down in html vs wiki , have a look at this typical side-by-side comparison . Here's the link to Zaug's instructional file , which is very helpful , but once it's on a user's hardrive , there is no way of knowing which format this file is in ... html or txt or whatever ... http://www.catmtn.com/realgreeblez.zip And then the link to ... http://tinyurl.com/9w68g ... what a typical user decided this plugin may have needed in order to help newbies and newcomers understand the intro , skip the re-encoding of the critical java script file, and take a chance at using this cool new Java Script Plugin . Instant information : The List is an Abyss , but instant information can be garnered and gained with a Realsoft Wiki . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
What Scale are you using to build your scenes ? was Greeble me this Batman !
So anyway , I'm curious what kinds of scales others think is best when working with RS ? Forgot to answer this part ;) I always work in CM scale. Best regards, Robert Hi Robert : Actually , I wasn't very clear on what I was asking . I mean , in terms of size , how 'big' is your viewport window... 1 meter across ... 10 meters across ... 100 meters across ? Mine is 1 Meter across (aprox.) and this is very comfortable to work with and is what I get when I hit the Reset to Native State button on the RS View Port Control Window . http://www.studiodynamics.net/saved/native_view.jpg The rectangle in that scene is .5 X .5 meters , and this is the 'scale' that I work with , that is , the Native State size . Not sure if this Native State is user configurable or not , but I use this and I like it . If I size up so that the Viewport is 15 X 15 meters in size , I get a lot of clipping issues that re- quire me to drag and drop the scene root into viewport window to correct it . I get a nice perspective view , and can switch to parallel mode for modeling with very little difference in appearance . So that's what I'm basically asking , and it looks like you are probably us- ing that same working method too . How about others that are working with much larger scene sizes? Can you switch back and forth between parellel and perspective mode easily , without clipping plane issues etc ? Thanks in advance . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Re: Greeble Update ( Doc's only)
Hi Zaug : Man , glad too hear you are so busy with your cool plugin . I think it's very cool and a great example of what can be done with RS and Javascript . I only did the help file because I had no luck viewing your original help file on my computer . When I dbl. clicked on it I got an error message , so changed it to a text file and it was very hard to read so I thought I'd Wiki-it . Turns out all I had to do was drag and drop your help file into a browser window and it looked good and very readable , so it was kind of a wasted effort on my part , in a way . How- ever if you don't mind I'll add a screen cap and a couple of your renderings to it , and when you update the interface I'll re-do it , I'll change the link to the .zip file to go to your web site . Yes , the Native State seems small , but I like working with it for various reasons (see my recent or pending mail) . Maybe I'm doing something wrong here ... don't know . Thanks again for your selfless efforts . Don't be afraid to go commercial with this when you think it's ready . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net Garry, Thank you for your trouble on this. Not sure I agree about the awesome part, perhaps you should claim credit for that adjective ;) I intend to put together a proper documentation and tutorial for this thing but development is still pretty hot (at least if you consider the size of the RealGreebleZ! team :D), four additions/improvements finalized yesterday and at least a couple more before the next release :) Additionally, the interface is about to to be overhauled; it is getting too cluttered and the work flow is quite restrictive. Even then, it will not be version 1.00 worthy :] That said, your efforts have made the instructions very easy to read. About the only change I would request is that the links only point to the Real Greeblez! main page or the gallery page, just a quirk with me ;) As to your issue with the size of the objects, I have tried to work in real world units, per suggestion by Bernie, I am sure among others, to do so. I chose ranges that I thought produced plausible sized structures, taking cues from the use of greebles in art, cinema, etc. ; cm in the case you have RS set to metric measurement. Did you try the f(focus) key with the mesh selected, or moving your camera back from the object, the camera icon, next to the zoom icon, in the view control window. At least here, perhaps I set it and forgot, the default/Native view seems to be scaled for doing small still life type scenes :P Cheers, Zaug P.S. About the javascript file, I had not posted a fixed version as it is copy written material. I mean no disrespect, but was surprised to learn that RS had not released a fixed version for Windows, as the fix for the Linux version came within a week of the issue being reported. I do not know if the bug was ever filed for the win version. -- My love of the halfling's leaf has clearly slowed my mind. 8?o studio wrote: For those that choose to bog down in html vs wiki , have a look at this typical side-by-side comparison . Here's the link to Zaug's instructional file , which is very helpful , but once it's on a user's hardrive , there is no way of knowing which format this file is in ... html or txt or whatever ... http://www.catmtn.com/realgreeblez.zip And then the link to ... http://tinyurl.com/9w68g ... what a typical user decided this plugin may have needed in order to help newbies and newcomers understand the intro skip the re-encoding of the critical java script file, and take a chance at using this cool new Java Script Plugin . -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.371 / Virus Database: 267.15.1/250 - Release Date: 2/3/2006
Re: Realsoft 3D WIKI
One last point . I don't agree with allowing any hacker with a chip on his shoulder to be able to enter the wiki and hack away . Editing should be a restricted priviledge . I strongly disagree, if this turns into a problem, then we deal with it. Until then let all registered members edit. (Allowing unregistered visitors to edit is too much freedom, though) Fredrik Bergholtz I would like to agree with you , but the act of registering is really nothing to a hacker . It's like a 6 foot high chain link fence around thousands of dollars , to a thief , that is . To honest people it's enough , of course . Anyway , just my opinion and as you say , if it's not a problem then there is really no need to address it ... yet . Hmmm , I just noticed that you have been promoted to sysop on the RS Wiki ? I was (erroneously) under the impression that there were no sysop's or administrators , that it was a total Open Concept kind of information medium . Just out of curiousity , what are the duties or functions of the Realsoft3D Wiki sysop's ? Thanks In Advance . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Re: RE : Vacationing !!!
http://www.studiodynamics.net/roading/road1.html Thankz!, Beautiful. But, I think that locomotive needs some greeblez on it :) Zaug Hi Zaug : You know , it's funny , but I have pictures of Colorado canyons that are littered with Greebles ! I'll see if I can dig them out (maybe they're not developed yet) . Could be another cool usage of GrebbleZ ... placing boulders and rocks on RS landscape floors ? Also , would it be possible to have the greebles set in the mesh in order to do Boolean cut-a-way's of buildings and such ? Thanks . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Realsoft Wikii - The Planetary Project
You see : A simple 10KB file attached and if this seems interesting , click on this link to the file showing RS displacement mapping .(160KB) http://www.studiodynamics.net/saved/listsend.jpg And if that interests you , click on this link to a simple tutorial on the Realsoft3D Wiki site , where you can learn how to build similiar displacement mapped planets ! http://tinyurl.com/bj243 Wiki means (in Swaziland piglatin) huge amount of Realsoft3D information gathered together in one place for the whole world to look at and wonder ... ! Do it With Realsoft3D! studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.netattachment: listsendb.jpg
Re: blueprints (and a cool Baked Gi virtual scene .)
For those people who seek blueprints for specific modeling tasks, here are two more: http://www.3dm3.com/blueprints/catalog.php http://www.3dm3.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2396 Robert Hi Robert : I was actually working on a post that also pointed to blueprints , among other things . K-UDA pointed the list to these 2 guys and one of them links to blueprints he used. http://www.onnovanbraam.com/ and the fellow linked (below) has tutorials also . He http://www.suurland.com/ did some cool Gi rendering also , and another company took his nice Baked Gi scene and with aid of a free viewer , you can travel around this virtual art gallery scene in realtime . Here's the direct link to the scene and viewer . 6.4 MB D/L . http://www.digitalarts.dk/cases-gallery.htm . It's also rend- ered in 3D Stereo , but not in red-green but some proprietary color (have to request their special glasses) but no matter , just install it and select 'n' for normal when running (it's still worth seeing without the stereo) . Just hit the 'space bar' to cruise . Requires DX9 and a fairly new graphics card , I think . Not sure about Linux users . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
How 'big' is your viewport window ? was : What Scale are you using to build your scenes ? was Greeble me this Batman !
Hi List : Sorry to be bombarding lately . Anyway , this topic seems to be much more important than the response it has gotten so far (2 mails) . Maybe I should take it to the forum ? I'll try one more time here though ... OK , I'll give an example of what I'm so concerned about . I looked at my Planetary Project (on the Wiki) and thought I would scale it way up , from a Planet with a 2.5 Meter diameter to one with 30 Meter diameter , and the Noise mat- erial was no longer effective , even when I cranked the displacement and Bump height Scale up too . I don't know , but from what I saw , using scales where you have objects in your scene that are of realworld sizes does not seem to be a very good way of working with Real- soft3D . Just the simple task of switching from parallel to pers- pective mode seemed very non-intuitive cliiping plane issues too . I'm not an advanced user of RS by any means , so I could be quite wrong about this and am quite possibly missing some- thing very obvious , but it seems to me the best way to work with RS is to use the default scale which you will get when you click the Reset View to Native state button . http://www.studiodynamics.net/saved/native_view.jpg (Please see text below for more on this) studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net Hi Robert : Actually , I wasn't very clear on what I was asking . I mean , in terms of size , how 'big' is your viewport window... 1 meter across ... 10 meters across ... 100 meters across ? Mine is 1 Meter across (aprox.) and this is very comfortable to work with and is what I get when I hit the Reset to Native State button on the RS View Port Control Window . http://www.studiodynamics.net/saved/native_view.jpg The rectangle in that scene is .5 X .5 meters , and this is the 'scale' that I work with , that is , the Native State size . Not sure if this Native State is user configurable or not , but I use this and I like it . If I size up so that the Viewport is 15 X 15 meters in size , I get a lot of clipping issues that re- quire me to drag and drop the scene root into viewport window to correct it . I get a nice perspective view , and can switch to parallel mode for modeling with very little difference in appearance . So that's what I'm basically asking , and it looks like you are probably us- ing that same working method too . How about others that are working with much larger scene sizes? Can you switch back and forth between parallel and perspective mode easily , without clipping plane issues etc ? Thanks in advance . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Re: Missing people
Note :*** Sent: Sunday, July 04, 2004 3:56 AM I haven't heard anything from kuda, piotr or tija lately are they still around? Frank The Rookie Dodd Hi Frank : How about adding yourself to that list ... and Steph , er I mean Stef ! Piotra and Tijai ? Ghosts from days gone by ... Hope you don't mind but I would like to add this tutorial or at least a link to it , to the RS Wiki (as well as a ton of other stuff you have added to the mailing list through the many years . http://www.frankdodd.screaming.net/ForumFiles/LightingTutorial.jpg Let me know if it's cool with you (if you're still here) . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Mailing List Info ?
Hi Guys : Just wondering what the general feeling is about infor- mation that was sent to this list and it's place (or not) on the Wiki ? Here's the discussion page on the wiki ; http://tinyurl.com/d4yz3 Not so much these days , but in years gone by there were just an absolute 'Ton' of info added to the list every single week . I managed to save a lot of it in my archives but new members have no way of knowing about it , so I'd like to start linking to it , or taking some of the attached .zip files and adding a link to them on the Wiki .(with the Authors name date) . A lot were Version 4.5 so maybe are not so good , but some are very good still . Some mails had links to tutorials on the Authors site and I would like to add those to the Wiki too , again with the Authors credits . So , the authors posted the tute's here ... do I still have to try and contact them and ask if I can link , or can I assume that since the link has been made public , here , that it is cool to add it to the Wiki ? What I would like to do is add it to the Wiki and then post the addition here in a mail ,where the original link was added . I don't see a problem with that , but maybe some of you do ? Any comments would be greatly appreciated . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Re: How 'big' is your viewport window
Hi Chris Bernie : Thanks for the reply . So you are saying that you would probably not have much use for the Native State control. http://www.studiodynamics.net/saved/native_view.jpg When you click on this control button you are presented with a 1 meter by .75 Meter (depending on your aspect rat- io) and that is where I start to model everything from buildings to microbes . You are suggesting to not do this but to have a viewport window that actually covers a distance from edge to edge of whatever the realworld model is ... 100 feet or 100 meters or 500 hundered meters , even up to 2 Kilometers wide ? This blows my mind . Could you please upload a simple project file for me to try ? No intricate model is needed , just a simple cube that is a couple hundred meters wide will be fine . I must be doing something very wrong here . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net Scale should generally be set to real world units. As RS has not locked down what a Unit should be - some people use this as feet, some cm, but as a general rule one should set it to metres. ie 1 unit = 1m. If importing scenes, scale the scene accordingly. As RS effectively uses 1 unit = 1 metre. (Displacements / Nurb wire widths etc.) Its just a matter of acclimatising yourself with the decimal points - I set to 3 decimals as this then goes down to mm. eg: 1m = 1.0 100mm = 0.1 10mm = 0.01 1mm = 0.001 Occasionally you may get clipping plane problems on enourmous sites (I've only had a few that were several km wide). If your object is clipped in ortho views - simply drag and drop the object into the view window to set clipping planes accordingly. Regards Bernie I use full size in architectural work. This is so I can consistently import work in from cad programs. If it is a humongous site, I will use units=feet rather than inches to reduce precision error. To go from ortho to perspective, I just select a big object and zoom to object. As Vesa has mentioned, it is important to set your viewport/clipping/ near and far to a range that is not much bigger than it needs to be. Chris Mungenast -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.371 / Virus Database: 267.15.1/250 - Release Date: 2/3/2006
Wiki Tutorial
Thanks to Juha Sinnari for his Fractal shaders and to Richard Swingwood for his awesome FREE Realman Plugin (now at V1.05) . Get started with them here ; http://tinyurl.com/8vodr studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Re: How 'big' is your viewport window
I don't use grids at all so I can't help. Neil Cooke I don't use grids either , but what I'm asking (again to the power of 3) is to go into View/Properties and then in the Input Tab , select a grid that allows you to determine the size of your actual working environ- ment . Hey ! I think we may be able to hit a new worlds re- cord with this question . Next reply ... I can see it coming ... what's a view- port ? . Then ... in Lightwave I don't use views , but only output whatever the camera spits out , then composite it with Photoshop and trade it on the Blackmarket for mucho water buffalo . This could be the mother of all threads ... studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net However , what I'm actually very curious about is , How 'big' is your actual Viewport window , and as of yet that has not actually been answered . There is only one way to answer this question ; Go into View Properties and assign a Grid of whatever size you think might correspond to an actual typical scene that one might be working with , then count the numer of grids shown to determine the actual size of your viewport . As I've mentioned , I work with a size of 1 meter by 3/4 of a meter (using the above method to determine that), but others appear to be saying that we should be using a window several magnitudes larger . Unless we are breaking down in terminology (again) . Thanks . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Re: How 'big' is your viewport window
About size: I found Vesa's answer very interesting. But I can say that it's possible to use quite a broad area in size without trouble. For my city project I built everything in real meters. So details go to as small as a couple of centimeters. But the Size of the sky dome around the whole project has a radius of 2 kilometers. The city itself covers an area of something like 700 x 400 meters. Arjo Hi Arjo : Thank you thank you thank you . and thanks again Chris Bernie . You basically implied the same thing but I just wanted to make sure that we were actually all saying and also meaning the exact same thing . I have my Units set to Meters too (File/preference/metrics) but never have a scene (city or planet or galaxy or universe) actually go over 2 meters in size (for reasons previously mentioned) . Hope that settles it . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net Thanks Vesa : To me , your mail explains a lot . Thank you very much . Still , I am curious about how others have been working with RS ... but not it's not that important .
Re: nearly on topic
Does anyone know of, or can anyone recommend the 3D RPC (people, trees, cars, etc.) that is being offered by Archvision? Is it what it promises to be? Frank Bueters I've only seen the animations a few years ago and they looked pretty good in Max/LW etc . http://www.archvision.com/ Which reminds me ... does anyone remember the script that Frank Dodd wrote for us several years ago that allowed one to use an animation that would frame-forward or back depend- ing on the camera's position ? Seemed like a pretty cool idea but I never tried it and can't seem to find it again . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Image of the Year Contest
http://www.3ddart.org Man : What an awesome collection of renderings this year ... 50 images in all to vote for . Takes a bit of time to vote for this many but it's well worth the effort . Images range from good to outstanding , and the total combined amount of time put into these works must add up to several man years . It'll only take you a matter of minutes to give these hard working artists some of the acknowledgment that they deserve (add comments too , if you like) . Very , very close race for the first few positions , so even if you simply don't have the time to vote for them all you could add your vote to the 'Best of the Best' Top 10 ! Cheers and Congrad's to all who made it into the Year's End ! studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Wiki Mailing List Tidbits An Easy Text Based Information Option !
Yep , me again ... : Sorry to be flooding but this will be interesting to many here . As you know we now have a Realsoft Wiki and it is a real first class operation (thanks Fre Ber and Matthias) , so you may not have the time to write tutorials or to place some of the stuff you think is vitally important up there . OK ! I've created a little section that is strickly text based and is Titled : Mailing_List_Tid_Bits and it is very simply , stuff that has been on this list ... of any kind ... of any topic ... of any format ... no limits ! http://rswiki.matthias-kappenberg.de/index.php/Mailing_List_Tid_Bits or http://tinyurl.com/cpxu4 if that long url wraps on you . Think about it guys ! All that work you put into enormous emails explaining elaborate work arounds and methods can simply be copied and pasted there !!! Provide an internal or external link ... whichever you prefer. If you add an internal link others can follow behind and edit and add to your efforts with .jpeg's or suggestions ! Started the ball rolling there with a miniscule fraction of the information that you all have so selflessly offered here . I know it can be time consuming to write Wiki tutorials , so here is a chance for you to contribute in a very quick manner . If you ever used someone else's interesting email advice , please take the time to post it for the others here that may also need that important info today or tomorrow (or yesterday!) . Please Think About it ! Cheers ! studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Re: nearly on topic - Franks Script
Which reminds me ... does anyone remember the script that Frank Dodd wrote for us several years ago that allowed one to use an animation that would frame-forward or back depend- ing on the camera's position ? Seemed like a pretty cool idea but I never tried it and can't seem to find it again . studio Hence its feasible to save out all 360 images, or even 18 or 180 for example as jpg images then use Franks excellent VSL material that used camera angle to read in the relevant image. Bernie Bernie : Do you have a link to Franks script and maybe a tutorial or mail ? Thanks In Advance . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net - Original Message - From: Bernie @ VRgrafix [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: user-list@light.realsoft3d.com Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2006 1:25 AM Subject: Re: nearly on topic Does anyone know of, or can anyone recommend the 3D RPC (people, trees, cars, etc.) that is being offered by Archvision? Is it what it promises to be? G'day Frank - Yes, have been subscribed to RPC content for almost a decade now - they do some good stuff, and its improving all the time (carparks for example are cool). However, the content is specific to RPC enabled plugins - eg Max, LW, Maya. You can get a standalone Photoshop plug however that allows you to read in any frame and save out with alpha. This is great for RS - you simply load in a few angles of people, then save them out as TGA or 2x JPGs (1 alpha, 1 colour). As for if I'd reccomend buying them - no. Its highly overpriced, the library is limited although expanding all the time. The 2.5D and 3D RPC libraries are interesting (the 2.5d is animated - can look really effective in flythroughs) but again no RS support there. Frank and myself toyed with the idea of reading in the RPC file a year ago (Basically a new format that compresses 360 images into one chunk of file - ie 360 jpg images 1 for each degree of angle - and saved with angle information) Hence its feasible to save out all 360 images, or even 18 or 180 for example as jpg images then use Franks excellent VSL material that used camera angle to read in the relevant image. So in summary, for RS its of little use other than to save out frames from photoshop (Certainly the 2.5 and 3d libraries cannot be used). I have heard that some users had approached RPC to make a plugin for RS - but I don't know if that ever eventuated. Personally, I make all my clipmaps ( http://daemon.realsoft.com/Tute_Clipmaps01.htm ) as its not hard, just time consuming ;) Regards Bernie VRgrafix -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.371 / Virus Database: 267.15.1/250 - Release Date: 2/3/2006
Re: Wiki Mailing List Tidbits An Easy Text Based Information Option !
Hi Good idea. For the most important things I think you should immediately do a draft article with a link from the main section so it can be found from the front page. This page needs linking to from the main page as well. Or we make a miscellaneous section (which could include a glossary too). George Hi George : The page I mentioned _ IS _ linked to from the Main Page . http://rswiki.matthias-kappenberg.de/index.php/Mailing_List_Tid_Bits or http://tinyurl.com/cpxu4 if that long url wraps on you . One of the problems with Realsoft 3D and a Main Page is that RS has so , so many facets to it that we can have many such links from the main page that are wayyy too important to be on a Misc. page . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Wiki Tutorial -- Distributed_Rendering
Hi : New Wiki Tutorial on getting Distributed Rendering working on Windows . If someone could have a look and do a little proof- reading while their machines are rendering away I'd appreciate it . http://tinyurl.com/dlvh5 or http://rswiki.matthias-kappenberg.de/index.php/Distributed_Rendering I finally found out why RS was crashing on me when I tried to distribute . Man , all this time I thought it was because of an old AMD and a new Dual Xeon . Now I have the Dual (and the new laptop and the old AMD) and am getting the FISH benchmark in 17 seconds ! Don't worry Arjo , I've got the laptop up off the desk and it's running pretty cool according to Everest Home Edition . http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html Thanks in advance . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Typical ? (why we need a realsoft Wiki)
OK : I hate to admit it but I have not as yet tried HDRI rendering in Realsoft3D . I know , just about everyone has tried , but I put it on my back-burner until recently when I thought I would use it in a tutorial I'm working on . Sooo ... go to the Realsoft.info page for the Plugin and the tutorial , right ? Wrong . No tute' and no plugin . Search around and find a Plugin link on a Contest Forum discussion page . It's a broken link to Henrik Nyqvist site . While on the Forum site I find a discussion to a completely un- known thread that tells us how to EXPORT hdri's from Realsoft !! but no luck finding links or info on setting up a very typical scene and how we can use HDRI images to our advantage . Hmmm ... Find HDRI plugin on Robert Den broeders site . Look at Robert's excellent tutorial on environments assuming he would use hdri's in that example . No . Found a link to Matthias's awesome collection of environment jpegs on the old render daemon site : http://daemon.realsoft.com/Environments.htm While searching right inside Realsoft by pulling down the Sample Menu , (RSV5.1) I see that there is a collection of typical Scene_ Templates featuring some (unknown) awesome Landscape scenes !! I haven't given up yet , but I'm sure others have . Then again , I'll guess that there have been many links to specific HDRI info given on this list ... somewhere , somehow ... studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Re: Typical ? (why we need a realsoft Wiki)
I'll add some basic hdri stuff to the GI section once I find the time. It's not that hard really: the HDR image is just used as an environment map to light the scene. You'll get the basics by reading tutorials for other programs. Thanks Timo : I'm sure it's fairly easy to do , especially with your Env- ironment plugin (thanks) but it just struck me as odd that the info is so spread out all over the place , or totally non-exist- ant in some cases (why we need a realsoft Wiki grin) . Actually , in your section of the Contest Forum is a great thread on HDRI , but the link to the complete HDRI project that Boris constructed and uploaded for us all ... is broken . http://www.3ddart.com/wip/hdri_lightgen_gi.zip With your plugins and Henrik's HDRI Plugin and Boris's project I could have gotten going on this whole thing in less than 10 minutes , instead of 2 afternoons of searching . Thanks again . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net On 2/13/06, studio [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: OK : I hate to admit it but I have not as yet tried HDRI rendering in Realsoft3D . I know , just about everyone has tried , but I put it on my back-burner until recently when I thought I would use it in a tutorial I'm working on . Sooo ... go to the Realsoft.info page for the Plugin and the tutorial , right ? Wrong . No tute' and no plugin . Search around and find a Plugin link on a Contest Forum discussion page . It's a broken link to Henrik Nyqvist site . While on the Forum site I find a discussion to a completely un- known thread that tells us how to EXPORT hdri's from Realsoft !! but no luck finding links or info on setting up a very typical scene and how we can use HDRI images to our advantage . Hmmm ... Find HDRI plugin on Robert Den broeders site . Look at Robert's excellent tutorial on environments assuming he would use hdri's in that example . No . Found a link to Matthias's awesome collection of environment jpegs on the old render daemon site : http://daemon.realsoft.com/Environments.htm While searching right inside Realsoft by pulling down the Sample Menu , (RSV5.1) I see that there is a collection of typical Scene_ Templates featuring some (unknown) awesome Landscape scenes !! I haven't given up yet , but I'm sure others have . Then again , I'll guess that there have been many links to specific HDRI info given on this list ... somewhere , somehow ... studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net -- Internal Virus Database is out-of-date. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.371 / Virus Database: 267.15.1/250 - Release Date: 2/3/2006
Analytical Sphere bug ?
Hi : Could someone please verify this bug before I submit it ? 1) Create an analytical sphere in a Parallel Top or Side View . 2) Open it's view property window to the 'SPEC' tab . 3) Note Sphere's symmetrical 'Lengths' (same number 0.259 etc.) 4) Render to confirm symmetry . 5) Modify the Sphere's dimension by 'pulling on a sizing handle . 6) Note the difference in the Sphere's length number now . 7) Render to confirm lack of symmetry . 8) No problem , type in lengths to any same number again . 9) Render to confirm bug . Thanks in Advance . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Re: Analytical Sphere bug ?
I followed your steps to the letter and I notice nothing extraordinary. If I put in the lengths fields 3 identical numbers, I get my sphere back. So, could you elaborate a little? What is the bug you get? Hi Robert : Hmmm , on all three of my machines I get a non-symmetrical Sphere back (effect was worse on my Laptop so maybe it has something to do with Aspect Ratio or Screen Resolution) ? What Screen Res are you using ? Try it with my 1280 x 1024 and see if that's the culprit . If not contact me privately and I'll mail you the project files from all 3 machines . Thanks . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net Hi Garry, Hi : Could someone please verify this bug before I submit it ? 1) Create an analytical sphere in a Parallel Top or Side View . 2) Open it's view property window to the 'SPEC' tab . 3) Note Sphere's symmetrical 'Lengths' (same number 0.259 etc.) 4) Render to confirm symmetry . 5) Modify the Sphere's dimension by 'pulling on a sizing handle . 6) Note the difference in the Sphere's length number now . 7) Render to confirm lack of symmetry . 8) No problem , type in lengths to any same number again . 9) Render to confirm bug . I followed your steps to the letter and I notice nothing extraordinary. If I put in the lengths fields 3 identical numbers, I get my sphere back. So, could you elaborate a little? What is the bug you get? Best regards, Robert http://members.ams.chello.nl/rbroeder -- Internal Virus Database is out-of-date. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.371 / Virus Database: 267.15.1/250 - Release Date: 2/3/2006
Re: Analytical Sphere bug ?
I know what the problem with analytical sphere is. Garry created the sphere so that its geometry points are not aligned to world's XYZ axis system (just click the sphere's radius point to some unusual direction, not directy to in the x axis). Ahhh : OK Vesa . Understood . However , I always trusted the Reset View to Native State button to help me find my way back to 'World View' From that state I do _all_ my scene modeling , since I assumed this was my Fail Safe button . What must a user do to properly align their Startup projects (or any project) to World Space when modeling ? (a drag drop method , I would guess?) Thanks very much for your reply . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net Hi, I know what the problem with analytical sphere is. Garry created the sphere so that its geometry points are not aligned to world's XYZ axis system (just click the sphere's radius point to some unusual direction, not directy to in the x axis). By default, sphere's object space will be aligned to world space even when you define the geometry points to unusual directions. Therefore, stretching the sphere from its scale handle skews the sphere geometry. Resetting lengths of elliptic axis directions does not remove skewing. You will simply get a skewed sphere whose elliptic dimensions are equally long. To understand what happens, just put the sphere into edit mode and examine the positions of the three handle points, and their distance from the center of the sphere before and after scaling. To summarize briefly: a 3d ellipsoid surface with 3 equal radius lentgths is not a sphere when the axis dimensions are not perpendicular to each other. Best regards, Vesa -- Internal Virus Database is out-of-date. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.371 / Virus Database: 267.15.1/250 - Release Date: 2/3/2006
Re: Recycling HDRI ? Know what I mean ?
Hey Mark : Brother's in the house , eh ? Uh oh . Explains why you didn't actually read my mail before replying to it grin . No problem, I'll take just about any kind of reply I can get these days . Yes , I do remember those images very well , and considering the lack of info on RS HDRI usage , they are just as relevant today as they were then , to many RS users anyway . I have Timo's plugin and in case you missed it , here's the link to outputting RS HDRI . http://www.3ddart.org/index.php?name=PNphpBB2file=viewtopict=611 What you're doing sounds very interesting , and now you can out- put those images in HDRI . My point was using an HDRI of a Cathedral interior (only as an example) to do details on things like the golden Challice on an Altar . IE : Do the render of the Cath interior , output the HDRI of that interior (using the Chrome Sphere method) , then use that resulting image in Timo's plugin (to render the Challice) . It's no big idea , just an obvious workflow . Anyway , looking forward to your resulting panorama's . I still have that java 360 panorama program somewhere if you'd like it . A small blind spot at top too , I think , but zooms and the Real3D project already has the camera set up perfectly (no RSV5 project for it yet , however) . Take 'er easy ! studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net Sorry for the late reply, offering shelter to my homeless brother (really!) makes it hard to focus. I toddled a lot with HDR in the past. Found it difficult to use as GI lightmaps. It all depends on the HDR picture: if it contains small very bright areas you're in trouble. The 'big room with one small window' problem: because only a small number of GI ray hits will hit the bright spot, you end up with much noise, even with high raycounts. But with a suitable HDR picture, you can get nice results, remember these little tests http://www.xs4all.nl/~ath8n0r/div/GIspheres-lowdynamics.jpg and http://www.xs4all.nl/~ath8n0r/div/GIspheres-highdynamics.jpg But even without GI, HDR has its uses in scenes with many reflections/refractions. I rendered the standard Realsoft glass scene with a HDR background and that makes a big difference. About outputting HDR: sorry, I can't come up with a quick answer. Can we make a HDR output object? Much to learn about output objects, bindings, post processing, capturing channels etc. I have a feeling it can be done... If you don't have the HDR plugin, I can send it... it's a must! Coincidentally: I'm currently experimenting with 360 degree panoramas. I use 100% reflective mirrors (analytical spheres are perfect) seen from below and convert these to latitude/longitude textures with HDRShop (great software!). One nice advantage of 3d is that you don't get a reflection of camera+photographer in the middle of the sphere ;) These textures I use in a little custom Blitz3d program to get a full 360 degree rotating view. Since a few days, I can render a RS scene and convert it into full panoramic lookaround :) OK, with a little blind spot above your head. The idea is to make a short interactive demo, with pre-rendered panoramic views a la Myst3 and Myst4. I'll have a deeper look at this, thanks for the input, Mark H -- Internal Virus Database is out-of-date. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.371 / Virus Database: 267.15.1/250 - Release Date: 2/3/2006
Re: Recycling HDRI ? Know what I mean ?
http://rswiki.matthias-kappenberg.de/index.php/Exporting_images_to_HDRShop http://rswiki.matthias-kappenberg.de/index.php/Importing_LightGen_lights Hi Garry, Thanks for the tips again, great stuff! cheers, Mark Hi Mark : Don't thank me ... thank Timo . (saw Timo's name in the 'Recent Changes' section of the Wiki for these tutorials ) This is great stuff and the kind of stuff all Realsoft3D users should be working with , since RS handles it so well , with awesome eyecandy to show for your hard work . However , RS keeps being promoted as an advanced user's app when it is not ! Only the keys to using RS are partially hidden . Man ! The Wiki is born and suddenly all the RS promoters go mute (except for motormouth Timo) ! W.T.F. ?? studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Re: Material, seamless_circular_noise-cloudy
The first attached image is showing the outside. The other has camera put inside the cloud (using different settings also). I used 100 volume samples, so rendertimes? Yes, there are rendertimes... So although it looks good it's pretty unusable due to insane rendertimes Remember Mark's Marble ? : Summer of '05 ? No ? Basically it was the usage of Mark's cloud Mat (I trimmed the six thousand lines of trailing text from the bottom of your mail so that I could include it below) . ** Mark : Here is a really simple rendering , of a sphere with an Earth mapping (thanks edmond) using your Volumetric Cloud shader . I don't think I did too much there , except change your Distant Light out for a Spotlight . Anyway , a 36 Minute render , Ray Traced shadows ... http://www.studiodynamics.net/images/marks_marble_shad.jpg and then shadows turned off Four minute render ; http://www.studiodynamics.net/images/marks_marble.jpg Cheers Mark ! studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Re: Material, seamless_circular_noise-cloudy
Jyrki did some experiments some time ago - see RS web gallery/Animations/Experimental. Vesa Yes (hi Vesa) : As I make mention in the Planetary Tutorial ... http://rswiki.matthias-kappenberg.de/index.php/Planetary_Project_Tutorial Jyrki did get the ball rolling with his volumetric cloud animation tests using Mark Heuymans shader (someone please correct me if I have my facts mixed up) . I did some more work in this area and the 'Mark's Marble' renderings were a kind of result (below) . http://www.studiodynamics.net/images/marks_marble_shad.jpg Really should do a tutorial about that whole era of RS procedural experiments , since they appear to be a bit forgotten already . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Re: Material, seamless_circular_noise-cloudy
Jyrki did some experiments some time ago - see RS web gallery/Animations/Experimental. Mark , your 'Mill.avi' is just above Jyrki's cloud anim . Nice Mill ! I didn't know you ever finished such a polished collision detection anim . Some nice anims on the gallery page to download . Seems something's wrong with the big 19MB Divx 'Seasons Greetings' . The smaller mpeg1 on the experimental page looks great though . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Nurbs Curves/Objects Order Attributes ?
Working a bit with Franks Nurbs Curve Helper plugin . Franks plugin creates Cubic (maybe)? by default , but I noticed that , typically , there is no way of seeing if nurbs curves or Nurbs objects are Polygonal or Quadric etc unless you render it . That is , there is no infor- mation in the Property Window (that I could find anyway) . SDS objects shows Type on the SPEC Tab . Am I missing where that info is ? studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Re: Nurbs Curves/Objects Order Attributes ?
From: Timo Mikkolainen [EMAIL PROTECTED] This is a bit far fetched, but you can tell them apart like this: Select the curve and look at the toolbar: On a cubic curve, elev is greyed out- On a polygonal curve, reduce is greyed out- On a quadric curve, neither is greyed out . Ah yes , thanks . Curious why the 'Type' got left off the Properties Window . Guess SDS is getting all the attention now , maybe . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Camera Mapping vs Pyramid mapping ?
Hi List : I've used the RS Camera Mapping tool and found it to be really awesome for combining CGI and pre-rendered animations or video . Never used the 'Pyramid Mapping' technique and am wondering what the Pro's and Con's of the 2 methods are ? Seems the 2 methods are very similiar but there obviously must be a slight difference in exactly how and where each method should be used . RS has a cool little mpeg in it's gallery showing the use of Pyr-mapping with video but am wondering why 'Camera Mapping' wasn't used in this case ? http://www.realsoft.fi/gallery/images/semetaball.mpeg Thanks In Advance . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Re: M.Blur on off for objects
is it possible to turn M.Blur off for some objects ? Like a propeler yes and the airplan not ! Nandor Kertes I'm guessing it would be a good candidate for a 2 pass render which would then be combined later . Not sure if the seperate passes could be composited in post or not . I'm guessing it is possible but haven't seen any Doc's on how . Might need a program like Premiere/After Effects to do the composite. Also , no idea about the Alpha channel in RS when motion blur is used . That would probably be another area for experiment . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Re: My first Alien with some hairs but with more faults on modelling areas ;-)
Hi Frank : Hope you find help for your Alien Guy ! I found a couple bugs in your Plugin . Check the Forum ( you know where B- ) studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Re: Camera Mapping vs Pyramid mapping ?
Hi Gary, was on topic long time ago with pjotr akkurra, reproducing a LW scene. the big difference is, that the pyramid can be used, even if the camera is looking from another point. Think about the following, you have one photo from a scene, and then you like to move your camera a little bit, in this case you need the pyramid mapping (projected from your's photo position). If you use this one shot as camera mapping, no camera movement is visible. Matthias Hi Matthias : Yes , of course , but what I was asking (that Vesa replied to in the forum thankfully) was why , in that animation example on the RS site , was camera mapping not used , since it was an example of a Synth-Eyes camera import script and a background video (not a still) . That is to say , since the camera is going to be locked to the script , and not looking around at all , the very quick and easy camera mapping method could have been used for every frame . Vesa replied yes , it could have . I was scratching my head thinking that maybe I didn't understand something about camera- mapping with RS , but I think RS was just trying to show another method in that anim . Anyway , it was a good forum thread and I think a new tool will be added to V6 as a result of it . Also , I am almost finished my elaborate tutorial on RS Camera Mapping/Gi/HDRI and should be done with it tonight , if I'm lucky . Thanks for your reply . Where have you been lately ? I thought maybe you fell down the same hole Frank Dodd and all the others fell down grin . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net Hi List : I've used the RS Camera Mapping tool and found it to be really awesome for combining CGI and pre-rendered animations or video . Never used the 'Pyramid Mapping' technique and am wondering what the Pro's and Con's of the 2 methods are ? Seems the 2 methods are very similiar but there obviously must be a slight difference in exactly how and where each method should be used . RS has a cool little mpeg in it's gallery showing the use of Pyr-mapping with video but am wondering why 'Camera Mapping' wasn't used in this case ? http://www.realsoft.fi/gallery/images/semetaball.mpeg Thanks In Advance . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.375 / Virus Database: 268.0.0/268 - Release Date: 23.02.2006 -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.375 / Virus Database: 268.1.0/269 - Release Date: 2/24/2006
Re: AW: M.Blur on off for objects
http://www.tijai.de/galerie/big/monster/copter.jpg the propellers of the helcopter are just pre-blurred textures with an alphamapor fademap...or clipmap...hmm i forget the right one:-) best regards tijai tijia ? ... what the ... ? They told me on IRC that you were dead ! Did you get my messages on the ouija board ? studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
Camera Mapping Tutorial On-Line
Hi List : Another RS Tute , this time on Camera Mapping/Gi/HDRI . Started a thread on the RS Forum as well if anyone has any comments or suggestions they would like to share . http://www.3ddart.org/index.php?name=PNphpBB2file=viewtopicp=5070#5070 ...or http://tinyurl.com/env75 if that link wraps . At the very end of the html page there is an example animation based on the tutorial for downloading . studio www.niagara.com/~studio www.studiodynamics.net
