upshot

Amazing wide shots... I'm wondering how you model those massive contexts?? To be honest there is this strange dichotomy between the quality of the context vs the quality of the actual project your portraying. It's almost like the the stuff around the project looks better than the project itself!

I used a sigma 4.5mm on a Nikon D70s (pointed directly up) bracketing +2,0,-2 eV. I'm going to experiment with a Panasonic G1 as I believe the 4/3 sensor will have better coverage than the aps sensor (with the 4.5mm the coverage on the aps is actually quite small). The ultimate would be a 8mm on a FF sensor like the D700 or 5D. Exactly... The first time I saw the IBL Parthenon I started wondering if it could be done with dynamic images! Thus my journey started...

I hear what your saying... I need to work on capturing longer sets and the technicalities that come with that.The HDR sequence (only 300 frames) was captured after sunset and stops well before dark (only a little over half an hour). So the entire thing is in fact that ambiguous time of day... Some shots are forward and others backward making it even more confusing in that "what time of day" way.

This is a concept I've been thinking about for a while... Using HDR timelapse sequences to illuminate a scene. I did this mostly as a proof of concept so the scene is quite stripped down to get decent render times... The next step would be adding more detail as well as people and cars in quick/blurred motion to finish off the timelapse look. It worked quite well nontheless... This is using max2009/vray 1.5

Very interesting! So is the deliverable limited to windows .exe? Are there other deliverable options? With the 'living room' example on the website it references Vray... Could you explain this a little more?

I figured it out... you have to add a clipping plane to your vray camera! then it works fine. I'm happy as a clam. ;-)

Okay.. I'm an admitted finaltoon addict. Lately I've been trying to get cebas's updated plug-in to work with vray (1.5/max2009) with little luck... The only way I've found to get it to work is to convert the camera to a perspective view and mess with logarithmic exposure control or the vray color mapping or render a second scanline pass and compost it.... Anyone else have a better approach? TIA

anyone heard of a plugin similar to infini map (for lightwave) that works in MAX?? Basically I've needed something like this for a long time... A way to render really big textures without chewing up ram! My other dream would be a way to map PDFs maintaining the vector quality and small map file sizes...

It's interesting to note that autodeath just released another photomatching plugin for max recently.. To be honest i've never been able to get the camera match utility to be effective! For me it's easier to work the model into a viewport background manually. Now if you want a workaround... export a camera and some reference geometry from sketchup! that photomatch utility is extremely easy to use.

we use layers to break down our linework... then file link the reliant layers and add modifiers to turn them into 3d. The nice thing about this technique is that updates to the dwg need only to be 'refreshed' in max. The downside is that cad linework needs to be well organized and make full loops (ie be closed... but you can set the welding so that they need not be 'perfect')

How did you do that??

sweet procedurals! thanks for the heads up. I love the distortion modifier!

Thanks all! -NPR=non-photo real aka faked hand processes! -Definatly was overtly accenting the auditorium as the 'heart' of the project. -Here is a little rundown of this process: 50% max modeling (plan links with modifiers) / 50% skechup stuff (mostly skin and site info) Vray4Max: vray material madness (lots of multi-vray materials, edge and coatings) stratic lights some objects others materials with masks hdri GI/background/reflection the result is almost ready for 'photo-level' then slapped with a photoshop watercolor around 2200x1100 and play with the vray_zdepth channel 'screen-layer'. Finally little 'puddle' burn around the edges to steer clear of 'photo frame'. ;-)

I thought I'd finally post some images here (since I never do). Here are some images for a schematic design package. We've been working on the design of this central library for about 9 months now... Unfortunately it's been put on hold due to the economic conditions in southeast Michigan which I'm trying not to freak out about. C+C welcome (I know I should have added cars but time ran out...). Enjoy: Overall Shot: Reverse Angle: Toward Main Entry: Section: