The 3DCG Thread: Revenge of the NURBS

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > The 3DCG Thread: Revenge of the NURBS

The Merkinman: Apr 22, 2007; I sell only quality merkins. What is a merkin you ask? Why, it's a wig for your genitals!

Well I'm a little confused.
First thing I figured I'd tackle was the brick material.
I did as suggested an instead of bump, used displacement. But the displacement has an odd effect (exaggerated here to illustrate effect)

Figuring my displacement map was misaligned or scaled, I swapped the Diffuse and Displace maps, but keeping the exaggerated amount of displace and get this:

Which doesn't have waves, in the displace or diffuse and looks more like what I want but monochromatic.

# ? Oct 22, 2009 18:28

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# ? May 14, 2024 02:15

Chenghiz: Feb 14, 2007; WHITE WHALE
HOLY GRAIL

The Merkinman posted:

Well I'm a little confused.
First thing I figured I'd tackle was the brick material.
I did as suggested an instead of bump, used displacement. But the displacement has an odd effect (exaggerated here to illustrate effect)

Figuring my displacement map was misaligned or scaled, I swapped the Diffuse and Displace maps, but keeping the exaggerated amount of displace and get this:

Which doesn't have waves, in the displace or diffuse and looks more like what I want but monochromatic.

Looks like you just need less contrast between brick and mortar in your displacement map, or just a smaller displacement value. I'm not sure what wave effect you're talking about though, the first image just looks like an exaggerated displacement map to me.

# ? Oct 22, 2009 19:02

EoinCannon: Aug 29, 2008; Grimey Drawer

Slow day at work so time for another speed sculpt!
This one took 5 hours or so, the subject was my colleague's idea.
I wee bit of photoshop to bring out the eyes and add in a bit off shadow where the hair meets the scalp.

# ? Oct 23, 2009 06:58

Yip Yips: Sep 25, 2007; yip-yip-yip-yip-yip

^ I recognized him.

# ? Oct 23, 2009 19:24

tuna: Jul 17, 2003

John Lithgow? Awesome stuff. I think it was his slightly bigger eyes that stopped me from instantly recognizing him, though.

# ? Oct 23, 2009 21:44

mashed: Jul 27, 2004

I also recognised him

I think its just the perspective but the way his hairline comes in at the sides makes it look like the top of his head is bulging. Could you post a 3/4 ?

# ? Oct 23, 2009 23:55

EoinCannon: Aug 29, 2008; Grimey Drawer

I'm glad he's at least a bit recognisable. I find doing likenesses pretty hard.

I left the sculpt at work so I might have to wait till monday to post a different view.

# ? Oct 24, 2009 00:49

Jefferoo: Jun 24, 2008; by Lowtax

Hey guys! Been lurking this thread for a while, love all of your work.

Anyways, in January I take office as Student Body President for the University of Advancing Technology, (Tempe, AZ) and I was wondering, what do you guys feel a University full of nerds, a good number of which are studying 3d art, would benefit most in the sense of events, general encouragement, and things they should know before getting out into the industry?

My platform resides on improving the academic atmosphere of the place and not being a glorified party planner, so anything in my ability (and then some, since the Dean loves me already) that could help accomplish my goal is what I need to do.

# ? Oct 24, 2009 07:09

Synthbuttrange: May 6, 2007

Networking and social events.

# ? Oct 24, 2009 07:12

EoinCannon: Aug 29, 2008; Grimey Drawer

Jefferoo - I'm not sure how this would gel with the actual curriculum but encouraging non 3D specific art apreciation and knowledge in some way would be something people could benefit from

I'm getting close to finishing this piece, it will be posed slightly to break up the symmetry and the base will be redesigned a bit I think. I think it was BigKofJustice that suggested I model an animal so thanks for the idea dude, I had heaps of fun doing it.

MAX for the base mesh, Zbrush for the sculpting, one gigantic 32 bit displacement map, pflow for the grasses, mental ray for rendering

# ? Oct 25, 2009 22:11

Alan Smithee: Jan 4, 2005; A man becomes preeminent, he's expected to have enthusiasms.

Enthusiasms, enthusiasms...

EoinCannon posted:

Jefferoo - I'm not sure how this would gel with the actual curriculum but encouraging non 3D specific art apreciation and knowledge in some way would be something people could benefit from

I'm getting close to finishing this piece, it will be posed slightly to break up the symmetry and the base will be redesigned a bit I think. I think it was BigKofJustice that suggested I model an animal so thanks for the idea dude, I had heaps of fun doing it.

MAX for the base mesh, Zbrush for the sculpting, one gigantic 32 bit displacement map, pflow for the grasses, mental ray for rendering

I'm consistently amazed by your work. The only thing about the John Lithgow one, and I'm one to talk because I don't know the hipbone from the neckbone, but the cranium struck me as relatively large

# ? Oct 26, 2009 00:26

Veritonsils: Sep 14, 2007; For. Eh. Ver.

Been lurking in this thread for a while but here goes. Recently finished an animation class and made this as a result.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srsK9DwRFb4

I animated the batter, my partner did the pitcher. I think it's pretty mediocre especially due to the fact that every pose is one key. I didn't even try 'offsetting' keys of the arms or legs to try and get more life into it. Didn't help that the rig had messed up orientation though.

# ? Oct 26, 2009 01:53

KiddieGrinder: Nov 15, 2005; HELP ME

EoinCannon posted:

Jefferoo - I'm not sure how this would gel with the actual curriculum but encouraging non 3D specific art apreciation and knowledge in some way would be something people could benefit from

I'm getting close to finishing this piece, it will be posed slightly to break up the symmetry and the base will be redesigned a bit I think. I think it was BigKofJustice that suggested I model an animal so thanks for the idea dude, I had heaps of fun doing it.

MAX for the base mesh, Zbrush for the sculpting, one gigantic 32 bit displacement map, pflow for the grasses, mental ray for rendering

You know what, gently caress you man...Just gently caress you.

# ? Oct 26, 2009 10:05

brian encino man: Nov 19, 2008

Jefferoo posted:

Hey guys! Been lurking this thread for a while, love all of your work.

Anyways, in January I take office as Student Body President for the University of Advancing Technology, (Tempe, AZ) and I was wondering, what do you guys feel a University full of nerds, a good number of which are studying 3d art, would benefit most in the sense of events, general encouragement, and things they should know before getting out into the industry?

My platform resides on improving the academic atmosphere of the place and not being a glorified party planner, so anything in my ability (and then some, since the Dean loves me already) that could help accomplish my goal is what I need to do.

I think people would benefit a lot from getting people in industry to come and give talks, perhaps run mini competitions like a month to make a character and the winner gets _something cool_. Special workshops perhaps again with industry people (I bet loads of people would be up for it, I would if my Uni asked me..)

# ? Oct 26, 2009 10:19

pistolshit: May 15, 2004

EoinCannon posted:

Something seems slightly off in the skin. Like it's too hard and plastic. Almost looks more like a rhino model as apposed to a rhino. I don't know if it's that the bump is a little too deep or that the skin fold edges are too hard, or something else, but just something I noticed. Seems like it needs to be softened just a bit.

# ? Oct 26, 2009 18:55

The Merkinman: Apr 22, 2007; I sell only quality merkins. What is a merkin you ask? Why, it's a wig for your genitals!

Well I just realized I can't use displacement map for bricks at all if you look at the previous pictures I posted, the displacement map is causing the building to 'open' at the corners.

cubicle gangster posted:

Same goes for the windows - they're all flat. Get some internal white boxes, fresnel reflections on the glass and some depth to them. The frames/glass looks mapped too - make sure the frames are modeled with depth to pick up some highlights and shadows.

Do I just put white boxes behind the windows (which are already modeled)? I tried putting background images for them to reflect (albeit blurry), but that doesn't seem to be happening.

# ? Oct 26, 2009 21:41

Jefferoo: Jun 24, 2008; by Lowtax

EoinCannon posted:

Jefferoo - I'm not sure how this would gel with the actual curriculum but encouraging non 3D specific art apreciation and knowledge in some way would be something people could benefit from

Yeah, I just need to figure out a way somehow. Cutting a deal with local art exhibits and what not? I have time to figure it out, so I have time to figure these things out.

brian encino man posted:

I think people would benefit a lot from getting people in industry to come and give talks, perhaps run mini competitions like a month to make a character and the winner gets _something cool_. Special workshops perhaps again with industry people (I bet loads of people would be up for it, I would if my Uni asked me..)

Getting speakers is a major part of my platform, I'll look into competitions/workshops.

# ? Oct 26, 2009 22:25

EoinCannon: Aug 29, 2008; Grimey Drawer

pistolshit posted:

Something seems slightly off in the skin. Like it's too hard and plastic. Almost looks more like a rhino model as apposed to a rhino. I don't know if it's that the bump is a little too deep or that the skin fold edges are too hard, or something else, but just something I noticed. Seems like it needs to be softened just a bit.

Yeah I agree. I think the displacement is a little too high, also it's a bit soft and blurry. I'll see what I can do to change that. I don't mind too much if it doesn't look super real, as long as it looks alright.

Today's speed sculpt, a slightly human-ish orc creature, maybe 3 hours or so spent on this. I hope work never gets busy again (before I quit anyway, which should be soon hopefully)

# ? Oct 27, 2009 03:17

brian encino man: Nov 19, 2008

God drat man one of those a day and your portfolio is going to look killer.

# ? Oct 27, 2009 09:38

Synthbuttrange: May 6, 2007

The Merkinman posted:

Well I just realized I can't use displacement map for bricks at all if you look at the previous pictures I posted, the displacement map is causing the building to 'open' at the corners.

I'm pretty sure there's a displacement setting that joins up edges like that. I remember staring at a tutorial which addresses this exact problem of a building edge opening up when a displacement is applied, and an 'after' picture, which has the gap closed up.

# ? Oct 27, 2009 10:03

cubicle gangster: Jun 26, 2005; magda, make the tea

Use 2d displacement (you are using a modifier? the material displacement is poo poo) and displace the mortar in instead of the the bricks out. The face stays in the same place and any weird edges can only be seen if you're rendering an ultra closeup.
The displacement that fixes that is slow as balls, cheating it is so much easier. just invert the map and switch the amount to a minus value.

It is white boxes - ideally you'd have some half open blinds or curtains behind these too. You absolutley need that depth and the reflection, just reflection wont cut it.

edit: oranges!

Material still looks a little off to me, but I dont know what it is. Cant shake the feeling it's lacking something.

cubicle gangster fucked around with this message at 14:07 on Oct 27, 2009

# ? Oct 27, 2009 10:11

The Merkinman: Apr 22, 2007; I sell only quality merkins. What is a merkin you ask? Why, it's a wig for your genitals!

cubicle gangster posted:

Use 2d displacement (you are using a modifier? the material displacement is poo poo) and displace the mortar in instead of the the bricks out. The face stays in the same place and any weird edges can only be seen if you're rendering an ultra closeup.
The displacement that fixes that is slow as balls, cheating it is so much easier. just invert the map and switch the amount to a minus value.

It is white boxes - ideally you'd have some half open blinds or curtains behind these too. You absolutley need that depth and the reflection, just reflection wont cut it.

I tried a negative number and it had no effect. Also, displacement modifier? Are you sure? I tried it and that displaces the polygons, so I'd have to have every brick modeled.

EDIT: Oh there's a VRayDisplacemntMod, let me see what that does.

EDIT 2: Looking a lot better

cubicle gangster
Maybe the oranges look off because it's just completely the same texture and doesn't have the navel or whatever the ends of an orange are called.

The Merkinman fucked around with this message at 17:27 on Oct 27, 2009

# ? Oct 27, 2009 16:29

Handiklap: Aug 14, 2004; Mmmm no.

The Merkinman posted:

cubicle gangster
Maybe the oranges look off because it's just completely the same texture and doesn't have the navel or whatever the ends of an orange are called.

I see one on the second from the right, albeit quite small. I was going to mention playing a little with the diffuse, get some slightly more yellowish patches. To me they look too orange.

edit: The specular is good, but the reflect amount is getting me. Organics are going to have a subtle bit of sss which would naturally diffuse the reflection, though some fiddling to bring the reflect down while keeping the highlight might help without having to go through the trouble of tweaking an sss.

Handiklap fucked around with this message at 17:50 on Oct 27, 2009

# ? Oct 27, 2009 17:45

EoinCannon: Aug 29, 2008; Grimey Drawer

That looks cool gangster
I like the vignetting

# ? Oct 27, 2009 22:13

pistolshit: May 15, 2004

They seem like they're just a little too shiny to me. They look metallic.

# ? Oct 27, 2009 23:35

DefMech: Sep 16, 2002

Yep, if you squint, it looks like they're coated in gold paint.

# ? Oct 28, 2009 00:42

cubicle gangster: Jun 26, 2005; magda, make the tea

I'm going to have another go at the oranges tomorrow - i'm going to bring an orange into work and start the material over from scratch

Today I did some luxury cosmetics...

It's not supposed to be this detailed but I wanted to practice poly/meshsmooth modeling.

edit: eoin cannon - as usual, god drat.
I dont get good zbrush/mudbox work. I've used both, but I dont understand how people get that good and it's so far removed from what I can see myself ever being able to do.

cubicle gangster fucked around with this message at 11:27 on Oct 29, 2009

# ? Oct 28, 2009 16:30

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

cubicle gangster: Do those liquids have a SSS shader? That looks kind of like milk and I know milk needs SSS. I imagine lotion would be the same but I am not sure.
Do you have a reflection or environment map fed in? Is it HDR? I have noticed that some say to feed the HDR into the environment map slot and some say the reflection map slot. Which is right?

EoinCannon posted:

Today's speed sculpt, a slightly human-ish orc creature, maybe 3 hours or so spent on this. I hope work never gets busy again (before I quit anyway, which should be soon hopefully)

Fantastic for 3 hours. Have you ever thought about making a time lapse of your modeling? Zbrush can record / timelapse your video as you work and then you can export as a quicktime. Can you tell us the zdepth trick? I would be curious to know how to get a zdepth pass out despite the temptation for DOF abuse.

EDIT:

Forgot to mention this:

3d total has a new free texture bank.
Autodesk lecture on IBL

sigma 6 fucked around with this message at 23:53 on Oct 28, 2009

# ? Oct 28, 2009 20:57

EoinCannon: Aug 29, 2008; Grimey Drawer

To get a useable Zdepth pass out of ZBrush you just need to go into the render menu and go into the fog settings. You basically need to set the fog to be black and the far depth of the fog to be the back of your model so you get a nice falloff. Set the material to flat colour white so you get a flat white model that falls of to black as it gets further from the camera (I don't have Zbrush open here at work so I'm going from memory, hope that makes sense).

I just got my normal render from Zbrush and without changing the view, set it up as I've described above to get the ZDepth and used a lens blur in photoshop for the DOF.

As for timelapse, my models go through a lot of looking-like-poo poo phases before I get something alright so I'm embarrassed about anyone seeing my workflow. I'm a trial and error type guy unfortunately. I will try and do one sometime though, I promise.

EoinCannon fucked around with this message at 01:18 on Oct 29, 2009

# ? Oct 29, 2009 01:09

cubicle gangster: Jun 26, 2005; magda, make the tea

sigma 6 posted:

cubicle gangster: Do those liquids have a SSS shader? That looks kind of like milk and I know milk needs SSS. I imagine lotion would be the same but I am not sure.
Do you have a reflection or environment map fed in? Is it HDR? I have noticed that some say to feed the HDR into the environment map slot and some say the reflection map slot. Which is right?

Yeah it's SSS - probably a bit of a mess, I kind of stumbled my way through it a bit and still dont really understand how it works in vray.

Where the HDRI goes doesnt really matter, it depends what you want.
The main environment slot contributes to gi, reflection and background. Then in vray settings, you have environment (gi), reflection and refraction override. SO if you want it brighter in the reflection but contributing less light to gi you can, then you can put a completley different map in the background. Theres no right or wrong way.

Unless you're talking about putting them into the material itself, which is a bit weird and I do neither.

Had a play with caustics yesterday... And failed at getting good results. So I switched on brute force/brute force and GI caustics and sent it to the farm in strips.
It also uses dispersion in the glass which is slow as balls. My boss would be in tears if he knew how long this took to render. :3:

# ? Oct 30, 2009 11:01

Odddzy: Oct 10, 2007; Once shot a man in Reno.

EoinCannon posted:

I'm a trial and error type guy unfortunately. I will try and do one sometime though, I promise.

I too would REALLY like a timelapse.

Did you ever study anatomy? I would like some suggestions on an excellent and complete book on human anatomy if possible. (this question isn't only directed to you but to all other posters)

# ? Oct 30, 2009 17:53

Hinchu: Mar 4, 2004; Please keep a watchful eye out for hinchus. They are very slow and dumb, and make for easy roadkill.

http://www.amazon.com/Atlas-Human-Anatomy-Artist-Galaxy/dp/0195030958/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256928150&sr=8-1

I've really enjoyed this book for my figurative sculpture. I've done a lot of sketching out of it. It's got lots of great detailed drawings that really show the muscle groups and bones.

# ? Oct 30, 2009 19:44

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

I have the book Hinchu pointed to and it really is excellent.
In addition I would recommend the Bridgeman books.
I don't recommend the Hogarth books as the anatomy is really exaggerated.

cubicle gangster:

Thanks but I was referring to Max + Mray. I was feeding the HDR into the environment slot in the Arch and Design materials. Since a lot of the materials have reflection instead of environment, I was using that slot for the HDR image.

EoinCannon:

Thanks for the zdepth trick. Ironic that people can use a zdepth pass to simulate fog / mist in post anyways.

In other news, it looks like the Unity indie license is free!
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=25840
2.6 went live and free yesterday!
http://unity3d.com/unity/download/
http://unity3d.com/unity/whats-new/unity-2.6

sigma 6 fucked around with this message at 21:32 on Oct 30, 2009

# ? Oct 30, 2009 21:16

EoinCannon: Aug 29, 2008; Grimey Drawer

I have this book which is pretty cool and I've found it useful
http://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Artist-Sarah-Simblet/dp/078948045X

What helps me a lot with anatomy is my little anatomy model standing right next to my monitor, you can get them from http://www.freedomofteach.com/

# ? Oct 30, 2009 21:51

Travakian: Oct 9, 2008

I'm working on a new project, and I'm wondering if there's any sort of way to make what I'm trying to do more procedural.

I'm working in Maya right now, not really all that willing to move to Houdini even though it may be way simpler there.

Anyway.

Let's say I've got a grid of identical cubes, all right next to one another forming a plane. I'm trying to set it up so that as a null/locator passes above them, the cubes move down (-y) based on how close the null is; think of somebody pushing their finger on a cushion; it depresses the most right where the finger is, then lesser around it, and that deforms as their finger moves.

I've been hand-animating it for my test pieces, but for the final this just won't do.

Does anybody have any thoughts / ideas on how to make this more procedural?

# ? Oct 31, 2009 19:17

Applebee123: Oct 9, 2007; That's 10$ for the spinefund.

Travakian posted:

I'm working on a new project, and I'm wondering if there's any sort of way to make what I'm trying to do more procedural.

I'm working in Maya right now, not really all that willing to move to Houdini even though it may be way simpler there.

Anyway.

Let's say I've got a grid of identical cubes, all right next to one another forming a plane. I'm trying to set it up so that as a null/locator passes above them, the cubes move down (-y) based on how close the null is; think of somebody pushing their finger on a cushion; it depresses the most right where the finger is, then lesser around it, and that deforms as their finger moves.

I've been hand-animating it for my test pieces, but for the final this just won't do.

Does anybody have any thoughts / ideas on how to make this more procedural?

One option is using MEL scripting and some kind of: for t a to b, cuben.pos = f(locator.pos , cuben.startpos) , my scripting isn't very good though but if you understand how it seems like the kind of thing you can solve with a few lines of mel script

# ? Oct 31, 2009 20:19

EoinCannon: Aug 29, 2008; Grimey Drawer

In max you could use a volume select or a space warp for this kind of thing. Unfortunately I don't know the equivalent of these things in Maya but I'm sure tey exist. Maybe someone who knows MAX and Maya (God I wish I did) could elaborate.

# ? Oct 31, 2009 22:09

tuna: Jul 17, 2003

Travakian posted:

I'm working on a new project, and I'm wondering if there's any sort of way to make what I'm trying to do more procedural.

I'm working in Maya right now, not really all that willing to move to Houdini even though it may be way simpler there.

Anyway.

Let's say I've got a grid of identical cubes, all right next to one another forming a plane. I'm trying to set it up so that as a null/locator passes above them, the cubes move down (-y) based on how close the null is; think of somebody pushing their finger on a cushion; it depresses the most right where the finger is, then lesser around it, and that deforms as their finger moves.

I've been hand-animating it for my test pieces, but for the final this just won't do.

Does anybody have any thoughts / ideas on how to make this more procedural?

As an experiment I just built something that basically does this (although to points instead of objects for simplicity) in ICE in XSI in about 5 minutes. I don't have much ICE experience other than simple expressions and such.

All I did was get the distance between the locator/null and the points themselves, put it through an If comparison so it's only affecting objects closer than 6 SI units. You then get the distance between the locator and the point at its original state, and add that value to the point's Y direction.

You could probably do it several other ways too. All without writing a line of code.

In Maya you could probably do this exact same thing using expressions.

# ? Nov 1, 2009 00:06

Travakian: Oct 9, 2008

I've been working on this some. Here's what I've got so far.

code:

string $objName;

string $xPos;
string $yPos;
string $zPos;

float $xDist;
float $yDist;
float $zDist;

float $dist;
float $range;

$objName = "pCube14";
$range = 6;

$xPos = ($objName + ".translateX");
$yPos = ($objName + ".translateY");
$zPos = ($objName + ".translateZ");

$xDist = MAIN_LOCATOR.translateX - $xPos;
$yDist = MAIN_LOCATOR.translateY - $yPos;
$zDist = MAIN_LOCATOR.translateZ - $zPos;

$dist = sqrt(pow($xd,2) + pow($yd,2) + pow ($zd,2));

if ($dist < $range)
 $yVar = $range - $dist;
else
 $yVar = 0;

Now, theoretically, this would mean all I'd have to do is type in the name of the object at the top there (see 'pCube14') and I could just put in this code and it'd all be hunky-dory. Hell, I could even make this so that it goes through every obj in the scene.

The only problem is this doesn't work. The $xPos is a string; it's a line of text saying "pCube14.translateY" as opposed to a variable containing what pCube14.translateY actually equals. This means when I try to subtract it from the locator's position, it gives me an error ("Cannot mix string and numeric data types in arithmetic expressions").

How can I refer to the object by a variable but get the data it holds, without capturing it as a string?

Also, I know square roots are taxing and it's going to be a bitch to run in real-time once I get more than a couple dozen objects, but that's not the point. Sort-of.

---

And what if I wanted to do rotation instead of translation? Say I wanted an object to rotate between 0 and 90 -- if the locator is behind it, rotation = 0, but as it gets a certain distance away, rotate to 90 and stop. Hmm...

Edit: Nevermind. Code below untested, but should work. The dist/range play is there so that when the locator's closer to the object, it rotates more than the rest for the same effect as above, the amount-by-proximity thing. This was all typed here, so if it's wrong please do correct it - just working in my mind at this.

Assuming we care about rotating in X when the locator is in front (again, in X) of the object...

code:

if (($xDist >= 0) && (obj.xRotation <= 90) && ($dist <= $range))
 obj.xRotation = $xDist + ($range - $dist);

Travakian fucked around with this message at 10:35 on Nov 1, 2009

# ? Nov 1, 2009 10:25

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# ? May 14, 2024 02:15

PowerLlama: Mar 11, 2008

The Foundry has just purchased Katana from Sony Pictures Imageworks and are planning on rolling it into Nuke.

# ? Nov 1, 2009 23:37

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > The 3DCG Thread: Revenge of the NURBS

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