Film-Quality Renderings?

[pipjor]

Christopher,

Thanks for the great post. I've printed it out and hung in it my office..

I have a couple questions on how to go about some of your tips.

 

Texturing:

- Provide high res textures for everything

Most my final animations are 720x480, what would be the largest texture size you would use??In the past I"ve used 3000x2000 for the ground plane etc, is this a waste??

 

Rendering:

- use motion blur on every shot no matter what

I use AE. Is this as simple as checking the "motion blur" box in the AE timeline??

 

Compositing:

- Edgeblur all the CG elements to make the less CG in your scene. If you used proper fresnel reflection with your plates, you can reduce the amount that is needed

Not sure how to go about this? render each element seperate the blur edges in AE??

 

Thanks for your time,

My software is

3DS 7.5, Brazil RS,

Photoshop

AE

FCP

DVD-Pro

[Christopher Nichols]

Christopher,

Thanks for the great post. I've printed it out and hung in it my office..

I have a couple questions on how to go about some of your tips.

Texturing:

- Provide high res textures for everything

Most my final animations are 720x480, what would be the largest texture size you would use??In the past I"ve used 3000x2000 for the ground plane etc, is this a waste??

Not really, it depends on if the object is close to camera. Things like floor etc.. may need higher textures.

Rendering:

- use motion blur on every shot no matter what

I use AE. Is this as simple as checking the "motion blur" box in the AE timeline??

Nope, the motion blur in AE is for text and stuff that you animate in AE. AE has no idea about the motion in your 3d scene... What I am talking about is 3d motion blur. This is generally ignored by most architects since it can seriously increase your render times. A compromise for this is to do a post 2d motion blur in 3d studio. It is better then nothing. Do it by doing:

- Render -> Effects -> Add -> Motion Blur

- Issually do a 0.5 motion blur which is a half frame

- If you are using straight 3d studio, make sure and turn it on in the object properties

But if you are really serious about, you will need a full on 3d motion blur with a serious 3d rendering engine such as MR, Vray, Renderman, etc... I have not use Brazil in a VERY long time, but there were some issues with their motion blur which was more of a 2.5D blur (way back when) not sure if they fixed it. Still I think it is generally good enough for architecture.

Compositing:

- Edgeblur all the CG elements to make the less CG in your scene. If you used proper fresnel reflection with your plates, you can reduce the amount that is needed

Not sure how to go about this? render each element seperate the blur edges in AE??

This is only when you are compositing CG elements over live plates (images, video etc). It helps tie the CG into the non-CG.

[William Alexander]

>>>If you used proper fresnel reflection with your plates, you can reduce the amount that is needed

 

Christopher,

 

elaborate please, are you refferring to adding a frensel reflection to all 'technically' non reflective objects in 3D?

 

WDA

[Christopher Nichols]

>>>If you used proper fresnel reflection with your plates, you can reduce the amount that is needed

 

Christopher,

 

elaborate please, are you refferring to adding a frensel reflection to all 'technically' non reflective objects in 3D?

 

WDA

 

All objects are reflective... every single one. My DVD explains that ...

 

Basically the edge blur helps get that very edge of an object that will reflect what is behind it at the glancing angle. If you add the right specular (reflection) with the right roughness (the opposite of glossiness) and have a proper fresnel falloff for a non-metalic surface (although Debevec would argue that metal surfaces has a fresnel falloff as well), you will get the background to reflect into the object at the very edge of where cg element and the background meet. It is sometimes hard to do this unless you use the background for your reflection map, which does not always work, since you may be using an environment map. A way around this is to "fake" it by doing a very slight edge blur on your cg element... approx 1 pixel (depending on resolution). This should be done on top of a general blur to simulate focus. Nothing is ever as in focus as a CG element.

[William Alexander]

Thanks Cristopher

 

All materials are reflective...yes alluding to that with the 'technically' adjective.

 

Slicing deep, if you don't mind.....a shot down a long brick building really does through the frensel reflection start to mix/reflect with the background/plates behind, right at the edges the strongest,....that particular reflection pass's alpha can be used for the edge blur e.g. garbage & hold matte on the alpha as the mask for the rgb node or layer, levels call or maybe edge detect and a bit of a blur in those areas will work better (more realistic) than a normal blur & levels call on an un-premult mask.

 

....yea it's hard to explain in detial...LOL I know buy the CD. Maybe when some 'manna' falls from heaven.

 

Thanks great tip;)

 

WDA

[marklazaro]

A way around this is to "fake" it by doing a very slight edge blur on your cg element... approx 1 pixel (depending on resolution).

 

I wasnt able to follow this, how does one do this in an architectural still? or is this only for animation ?

 

btw , i have your dvds and my renderings have benefited hugely after i started to use fresnel in most of my shaders. I largely do stills for the AEC industry.

[leoJones2002]

my guess would be that the images are of the proper color space and resolution for film output.

[marklazaro]

hi leo

 

i think you got me wrong there, i was refering to the edge blur, how does one do that in an architectural still.

 

whats the workflow for achieving that?

[William Alexander]

Similar to 'compositing techniques' you would use an edge detect (find edges, glowing edges) to create a mask for a layer of a cg element that is blurred, allowing only the blured 1-2 pixel edges to show.

 

Of course if you have an object buffer alpha for the CG element/s it's really pretty easy, if you don't it can be a challenge.

[Christopher Nichols]

You only need edge blur if you are compositing a cg element over a photograph, such as a building over a photograph.... or a robot or plane over a film plate.

[deevee84]

pretty hardcore

[Limbus]

Get this Book!

 

It explains alot about lighting, compositing etc... for 3D Artist and it is writen for all 3D Apps.

 

Florian

[lyca]

Get this Book!

 

It explains alot about lighting, compositing etc... for 3D Artist and it is writen for all 3D Apps.

 

Florian

 

this book a must have, i'm reading it at the moment and it very good

[Mister3d]

- only model what you see

 

But can this be concerned about lighting for realism?

I was trying to create some scenes, and the most believable was that I created based on references from a movie. The problem here is that you can stick to a chosen photo and it will be easy to create similar lighting etc., but if you go from your imagination, it's hard to make it realistic. So:stick to a photo-no creativity, or experiment, but then hard to get it look believeable. In films, as you said, Christopher, lighters work with already shot material, so confitions are known, maybe it-s a key to succes of realism - just stick to a photo, in all matters?

If to make an analogy:I haven't seen a photo-realistic human face not made with a reference photo.

[giraffe]

A compromise for this is to do a post 2d motion blur in 3d studio. It is better then nothing. Do it by doing:

- Render -> Effects -> Add -> Motion Blur

- Issually do a 0.5 motion blur which is a half frame

- If you are using straight 3d studio, make sure and turn it on in the object properties

But if you are really serious about, you will need a full on 3d motion blur with a serious 3d rendering engine such as MR, Vray, Renderman, etc... I have not use Brazil in a VERY long time, but there were some issues with their motion blur which was more of a 2.5D blur (way back when) not sure if they fixed it. Still I think it is generally good enough for architecture.

 

This is only when you are compositing CG elements over live plates (images, video etc). It helps tie the CG into the non-CG.

 

hi chris:)

I am confused about motion blur.

I mean for still scenes, when there is no motion, u mean to add some blur so it looks like one camera is moving or imitating the effect of shaking of hands when holding camera?

[Mister3d]

It would be interesting to know about the speed of a scene creation for a production. You created "the bridge scene" in a week, which is IMO fast. Is it the good speed for an experienced generalist for 1 camera view? I understand the question is vaque, but still interesting to have those numbers to orient.