Hi Guys,
K-UDA was running into problems so I decided to do an SSSish scene and
model for all of ye fellow level 2 types and below to try out, along with
detailed explanation / tute. Here it is:
http://www.tidalsound.com/3dstuff/sssthing.zip
This is the R3D file inside a zip file, so unzip. The materials are
included I hope. SSSishV2 etc.
HERE IS THE FINISHED RENDER: http://www.tidalsound.com/3dstuff/sss_scene1.png
===========================================================================================
Tips, Hints, things worth noting in my travels:
BEFORE DOING ANYTHING, MAY I SUGGEST YOU MAKE A COPY OF THIS FILE AND USE
THE COPY FOR DOODLING. AT LEAST YOU CAN FALL BACK ON THE ORIGINAL IF
PROBLEMS ARISE.
To speed up rendering with GI - Go to the Rendering Settings tab under the
select window [ normally left, where all your meshes, lights etc are ].
Double click "GI_Rendering":
1. Under Raytracing set the Anti Aliasing and Threshold to 0. AA is being
done POST in the GI_Effects [ I think :) ]
2. Under the Distr tab turn off Box rendering
3. Under the Misc tab set Geometry Quality to low.
Close all that and now go to the Post image Effects settings tab in the
select window. Double click GI_blur and set Iterations down to 2 [ if not
already ]. Again this speeds things up.
About the lights - I have one point light INSIDE the wax jug model and one
above toward the back of the scene. In both cases I set the color of the
lights to a white/yellow. No light is pure white. To do this just right
click the light, properties and the Col tab. You can see the color swatch
under Surface Properties / the clear button. I have set the light inside
the model to NO Shadows and its falloff to local. Do this by right clicking
the light, properties, Spec Tab - both Falloff and Shadow casting sections.
Here also the intensity of the lights is set to low enough. You can doodle
with this yourselves - that is the intensity of both the lights to see what
happens. For GI generally - you keep the light intensity way lower than
for normal rendering. Lets say GI is more sensitive to light, so treat it
gently :) [ HEHE - one of the level 3 guru's can get into why this is so
if you ask nicely I am sure ].
The Sphere surrounding the scene is an Analytic sphere. Huge. If you right
click it, properties and go to General Properties you will see that it is
set to Hollow and inverted. It is also set to Reflection Invisible, Shadow
Invisible and No Shadows. I also dropped its color down to RGB 7 7 7 - near
black.
The table top has a simple shader made up with a dark purple color,
reflection and specularity. The two other shaders to the Wax Jug are the
standard Wrinkled shader [ adjusted ] and the standard marble1 shader [
adjusted - changed its colors and reflection etc ]. Just open these shaders
to change. Test render and see.
All Cameras in the scene are set with Flashlight at RGB 0 0 0, as in black
OR off. To set this - right click the Camera, properties, Camera tab, set
flashlight to black. This is done so that the only lights in the scene are
the ones you added and GI rendering will be happier :) . The flashlight
also illuminates the scene when on - outside of your lights. To set the
flashlight of the default camera in the scene, right click the View window
anywhere [ not the models/meshes ], camera tab, flashlight black.
I am test rendering using a View Window. If not opened go to Windows menu,
View Window. Just right click this window - Render, Raytrace. Also right
then select Camera, a pop out menu appears - note Perspective and Tracking
are ticked. This is used so you can control the view that YOU wish to
render. To make sure tracking works [ as in when you rotate the scene, its
the camera view you are seeing - tracking with the camera ] Right click the
view window, view properties, Camera Tab - make sure TRACKING ALWAYS is
selected under the Tracking section in this settings box. Now use your
keyboard shift, alt and your right mouse button to move the view to your
liking. This is what will be rendered.
For the view window test renders I am using the following setup - right
click anywhere in the view window [ not on an object ], view properties,
the Render tab. Note I have Rendering Settings set to GI rendering. I also
have Effect/image set to GI _DRAFT [ not GI_effects ]. This is set this way
while I am tweaking the scene. GI_draft gives lower quality, but faster for
testing.
Final render is done via the File Menu, Render. Note here in this window
that Rendering Settings should be set to GI_Rendering and Effects/Image is
set to GI_EFFECTS here, not GI_Draft. In my case the resolution is set to
640x480 - Height / Width is locked at 0.75, up to you is this as to how big
/ small the final render image will be.
Hopefully I have not left anything out - if so ask, I will do my best to
answer. I DO ENCOURAGE YE TO LOOK THROUGH THE FILE WITH THIS EMAIL HANDY
BEFORE ASKING.
Again big thanks to Level 3 TIMO for this shader. Hope to see some nice
renders on the list from it,
Cheers
Aidan
PS - just a reminder :)
The RS user base division:
level 1 - The Ultra 3D beginner in general
level 2 - The 3D enthusiast who has experience, but is more artistic and
not a techy in any way
level 3 - The proggy / techy Experts where 3D is secondary to redesigning
and turning RS code upside down
level 4 - A mix of 2 and 3 above
