Ernest Burden III Posted January 7, 2004 Share Posted January 7, 2004 All right then... I am having trouble finding out about ways to setup and control cameras. I am used to placing cameras/views in plan, with a cone-of-vision. Can that be done in C4D? Then I would want to adjust the result numerically--I see the camera dialog, but it has XYZ for location only, I want XYZ for target, as that matches Lightscape and CAD methods. The heading and rotation by angle are useful, but I also want the more direct method. Is the skylight object only adjustable by its color? If you set it to a blue/cyan it cast a blue/cyan light color, which is NOT what I was looking for. Do models import with correct world coords, or do they get centered by default? I was working with the 'let there be light' model via DXF, and my camera positions are wrong when typed in. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STRAT Posted January 7, 2004 Share Posted January 7, 2004 Hi Ernest. Jeez, all these noo0b questions! first off - RTFM! hehehehe. j/k 1) cameras - I was a staunt max user up until i used c4d so switching to c4d was a bit of a learning curve. like you, i found the UI and basic scene setting up operations most quirky and strange. but they'll soon become second nature believe me. easiest and quickest method is to make the perspective view active (usually the top left view), then goto the light object tab, hold the left button down and go onto the target camera. Then in the perspective view window, go on to the 'cameras' tab, then the 'scene cameras' and select the camera you want to be active. To adjust the camera double click on the little camera icon in the objects tree menu on the right hand side, which will bring up it's properties. Make sure projection is set to 'perspective' then set the focal length as per normal. 2) skylight - the skylight object is a method (amoungst many) for overall scene environmental backround imaging or image based lighting. You can asigne any material you wish to it and amend the material's properties to ur heart's content. (ie, sfx, any colours, any maps, anims etc etc). I personally dont use skylight objects any more like i did when i first started. when i light my scenes using image based lighting or HDRI i always use plain old spheres for my environmental lighting. these spheres can be made invisible to camera, but visible for lighting, via the image tags. What exactly do you want to do? 3) world coords - all my c4d scenes are models imported either from max, viz, or mainly autocad. The co-ordinate system works perfectly between them all. it doesn't center things like you say. i have 100% seamless integration between max/viz/autocad and c4d. dunno what happened in your case :???: also, take a look at the old threads in this forum and look in here - http://www.cgarchitect.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=12;t=000002 it needs updating and amending a bit now since i wrote it, but the principles are the same. Hope this reply helps. you'll soon never look back Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted January 7, 2004 Share Posted January 7, 2004 Hi Ernest, Cameras: There are two types of cameras in C4D - normal and targeted. A normal camera can be manually or numerically positioned in any view port using the co-ord manager. To aim a normal camera it must be rotated. A targeted camera is comprised of two objects - a camera and atarget null (uses an expression). These two objects can be positioned manually or numerically in any view port. Sky Object: The sky object is not really a light. Instead it is an infinitely large sphere which remains centered on the scene. Any map can be applied to this sphere. Importing: I imoprt all of my models from FormZ and have no issues. As long as I consistantly use the same units in FormZ, my models remain at the same location in Cinema. This is useful to me because I often export/imoprt only a portion of a scene at a time. General Lighting: Try a ring method using three soft spots and three arrays. I set my arrays around 11 and set up my heirarchy as follows.... array>null>>soft spot. I have found that using this method and adding a key sun creates a very warm, soft, and highly adjustable lighting setup.... not to mention fast rendering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted January 7, 2004 Author Share Posted January 7, 2004 you'll soon never look backRight, though I'm trying to learn HOW to look back. I AM reading the ...manuals, all 12 pounds of them. I hadn't gotten the part about the different types of cameras though. I was actually confused because I though the scene had a default camera, but I was in fact just viewing with the 'editor camera'. I should re-check what the units were on the model I imported because they are definately OFF in meters. I was sure I had worked metric, but maybe not. My first run with radiosity produced a very interesting result (stochastic), not fit to post because the exposure is way off, but very nicely accurate on the bounces. The 'normal' one is less beautiful but the non-adaptive divisions produce a painting-like effect that is pleasing, although not photo-real--not up to LS standards. Settings, settings... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted January 7, 2004 Share Posted January 7, 2004 I'd love to see your early attempts and settings notes ernest. Its kinda cool to see how different people work through the learning process. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STRAT Posted January 7, 2004 Share Posted January 7, 2004 yeah, post up ur attempts, all artists have their own un-orthodox methods of working. i certainly do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted January 7, 2004 Author Share Posted January 7, 2004 yeah, post up ur attemptsOh, sure, so you can all have a laugh at me! Look at the noobie! don't ask me about settings, I'm not really sure. I can explain one thing about this picture--I was working on subsurface scattering even though its supposed to be a solid material. It works, but causes a 'light leak' like artifact. That can be modeled around in future. I was wondering if it would only work on solids, but it seems to work on this surface model, too. I later figured out where some of the brightness controls were. But I liked this image. You asked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STRAT Posted January 8, 2004 Share Posted January 8, 2004 nice first bash m8! only you'll find that stochastic mode rendering is 1000000 times slower than normal gi mode rendering, even if it is nicerer. i personally opt to use normal gi mode test to 100% accuracy. just as nice as stochmode, but allot faster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted January 8, 2004 Author Share Posted January 8, 2004 nice first bash m8!Thanks. I will try following your advised settings (the other thread) next to esptablish a beseline and then get silly. I think that image took an hour and a half at fullscreen resolution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STRAT Posted January 8, 2004 Share Posted January 8, 2004 hehe, think i was a bit green when i wrote those. they really do need updating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archrendr Posted January 28, 2004 Share Posted January 28, 2004 Wow! Really nice render here - especially for a first one too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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