NPR-techniques

[nisus]

Hi all,

 

Parallel to the latest poll - http://www.cgarchitect.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=3;t=000013 - we're diving in NPR inhere, because this is a better place to share tips&techniques.

 

Back in 1998 I used several filters (charcoal, graphic pen and a few others) with different blending modes and transparant settings on different illliminated levels (shadow - main - highlight) in photoshop.

 

More recently I fever to combine the highpass (threshold=1) with autolevels, crystallise & multiply BM*, glowing edges and poster edges(+paintdaubs) with several other BM's likes overlay or soft edges.

A nice color effect is to add an adjustment layer (colorize HSL 30/40 50/75 0) with transparency set to 25% on top of your effect.

 

for animation, I recommend a fps of 12.5 (half of normal video) or even less

 

But these tips are photoshop only... What else is there to share?

 

rgds

 

nisus

 

*BM: blending mode

[STRAT]

we do alot of brochure work in work which contain things like site plans, location plans, sketch schemes etc. most of this is usually a 3d model rendered in plan or evevation form with text and other elements in photoshop added to it. i'll post up a couple of small examples to show what i do in a day or 2 when i get back to work.

[Ernest Burden III]

Originally posted by nisus:

[QB]Hi all,

But these tips are photoshop only... What else is there to share?

 

There are really two approaches. The first is like you describe, where you do regular rendering out of 3D and either run an action on all the frames with Photoshop, or do them as an effect in an animation package. I don't think Premiere can do this, though I haven't become very skilled in it yet, but After Effects probably can.

 

The other approach is to build a non-photo-realistic environment and render stills or frames out of that. I like the 3D approach because it is more dynamic than 2D filters of frames. But the limitation is that you have scaling of NPR textures as you approach/leave an object, and that has the potential to be distracting. However, you do not get the 'shimmering' that can happen with a filter applied to an animation.

 

So either method will work, you just have to plan your approach from the start, because they lead you in very different directions with modeling and texturing.

 

In between these two, I guess, would be 'cartoon' type shaders that produce NPR effects without either special environmental treatments of secondary image processing. There are some fantastic examples being done in commercials, like the ones by Volkswagen. I think we CG artist had better develop these skills fast before we lose the ability to define the genere ourselves. If we don't, Madison Avenue will do it for us.

 

Ernest Burden III

[STRAT]

hi there

 

as promised, here's an example of NPR stuff i regulaly knock out (hope image works).

 

This example was drawing up in AutoCAD and exported into photoshop where colours and text etc, were added.

 

[HeDaCoM]

well STRAT... this is not NPR it is photoshop painting. heh

[nisus]

indeed

[STRAT]

fair point chaps.

 

i'll look again.

 

i know what NPR stands for, but how do you define it anyway? until i heard nisus mention it the other day i'd never heard of the term before. did you make this term up? because it's a new one on me. just curious thats all

 

to me, NPR isn't applying photoshop or paint package filters to a rendered model/image, to me thats the same as painting autocad drawings, but more like applying these filters before the rendering process. ie, cel rendering for example.

[nisus]

Hi strat,

 

I didn't make that term, I just picked it up somewhere a year or more ago... In my database of articles I use the term 'Fine Arts Techniques', which is basicly the same, and not...

 

(* nisus vs mosquito: 1-0 *)

 

For me, NPR means simulating Fine Arts techniques... or trying to achieve the look of anything NOT made by a computer-tool... man-made art so to say...

 

Eventually this idea can be extended to anything that does not look like an ordinary render anymore, whose goal is to similate reality.

So NPR is not necessarly simulating Fine Arts Techniques anymore, but it can be - like my own interest - a kind of generation of computergrain/noise.

 

Like Ernest mentioned, you can apply these techniques as textures before rendering - everybody knows 'Gas Planet' by Eric Darnel? - or afterwards as filters - remember 'Plugin'?.

 

(* nisus vs mosquito: 2-0 *)

 

Although no one was really paying to much attention to those techniques, nowadays it seems to be a real hype... Everyting seems to be NPR...

 

rgds

 

nisus

 

ps: damn mosquitos!

[nisus]

Hi all,

 

After some research - mainly a handful of early siggraph papers - I think there are three ways of NPR.

 

1) map the fine arts texture to the model

2) render using a npr-renderer (illustrate, animo, penguin, npr1, cartoonreyes, expressive effects, piranesi, finaltoon,... more?)

3) add filters to the rendered image

 

Of course all these techniques can be combined... but who wants looney soup?

 

rgds

 

nisus

[Ernest Burden III]

Originally posted by STRAT:

>This example was drawing up in AutoCAD and exported into photoshop where colours and text etc, were added.

 

Some of my clients do that sort of image a lot, but they often use an AutoCad add-on called M-Color, check it out if that sort of image is something you regularly produce.

 

What I have started to do to show them other ways of looking at computer-colored plans is to do a plan rendering out of Lightscape, since I usually have built the entire scene. What I do that really works well is send the file into the 'solution' stage and raytrace the image with NO light calcs first. If you set the ambient percentage correctly (for me usually around 15%), you will get a beautiful plan that has lighting variations on pitched roofs (but flat color, no real gradations except for shiny surfaces)and proper shadows from buildings. Because you did not shoot the sunlight, you can do this image very fast.

 

This file can be printed to scale, or brought into Photoshop to have the Acad linework overlayed, and any areas missing in the model touched up, and if there were not trees in the model, they can be dropped in thenm as well.

 

My clients often like to hand color plans (through their workforce of low-paid interns who get to work around-the-clock) so they sometimes just use my Lightscape plan as an underlay to get shadows right without having to hand construct them.

 

Ernest Burden III

[STRAT]

Originally posted by Ernest Burden III:

Some of my clients do that sort of image a lot, but they often use an AutoCad add-on called M-Color, check it out if that sort of image is something you regularly produce.

cheers m8.

 

yup, i have used this product before when it was in it's development stage, but due to our current office proceedures and way of working we happen to use the photoshop method.

[nisus]

Hi Ernest,

 

Where can we view these colored plans?

tnx

 

nisus

[Ernest Burden III]

Originally posted by nisus:

Hi Ernest,

 

Where can we view these colored plans?

tnx

 

nisus

I'll have to dig one up. Since I'm only doing these to help the client out because I already have a built environment, I haven't been careful about preserving them, or putting them on my site, since I'm not pushing plans as a product.

 

The same process works well for elevations, too, by the way. Although Lightscape has no addressable ortho views, just front, back, side, other side and plan.

 

Ernest Burden III

[nisus]

Hi Ernest,

 

Pls dig one up if you have a moment of spare time, as I (and probably many others) would really want to see it.

This is even more true after I've seen your remarkable NPR-animation. I've not been so impressed by any new techniques anymore lately, but this is really rocks!

 

Maybe you can explain how you made it and how long it took you to finish? Tnx.

 

Check out this amazing animation at:

http://www.cgarchitect.com/upload/forumImages/WC-LS.avi (4MB)

*It in DIVx format so you will need the DIVx codec installed.

 

rgds

 

nisus

 

*cut'n paste from Jeffs post in the poll section:

[DelfoZ]

amazing video

i gonna try tomake somthing like that .

 

A: i need put that textures directly in 3dmax or i need a Plugin Out in Video post in max, or maybe in adobe premier ?

if i need texturize all with a crokis style in Max sound very hard.

 

tnx for share the video

[Jim Kessler]

I have developed similar techniques using Photoshop and Autocad to render plan/elevations. It is a process of creating closed polylines and then exporting individual layers (via TIFF export) to Photoshop and then coloring the layers.

 

Here is an example:

[Ernest Burden III]

Originally posted by nisus:

Hi Ernest,

 

Pls dig one up if you have a moment of spare time, as I (and probably many others) would really want to see it.

Here is an example of what I was talking about.

 

http://www.acmedigital.com/temp/planRT.jpg

 

This is rendered out of Lightscape with zero light calc and only the sun for light, so no radiosity is done. But the raytracer will still give you a fairly typical procedural shading that works well for a plan, plus you get accurate shadows. Ambient is on, and set to about 15% so the image doesn't get 'burned' in the RT. If you used texture maps or procedural effects in materials, these will show up, although rendered plans usually require a more scematic flat treatment. Notice in the image how the shados respond to the surface they fall onto, which looks great, I think.

 

You can tweek your materials to get the coloration you want, contrast, etc. In this example I used 3D trees, but you can see that they appear a bit sparse, so you could either Photoshop clone them around, or put 'em in as 2D elements only.

 

You can take a plan view like this and use it as a to-scale bitmap underlay in a CAD program (or Illustrator), so the CAD lines of the plan and the text lay over it, and plot from CAD for the final. The benefit of this is that the linework is output in vector, which will look beter than if rasterized into Photoshop.

 

Anyway, this is not an example of final work from me, just something that was easy to do so I have given a client to help them get their work done on a big project in a short time.

 

Ernest Burden III

[nisus]

Tnx

[nisus]

Hi matt,

 

Pls, start a new topic and add tons of links

rgds

 

nisus

[Jeff Mottle]

Hey Matt, I'd ike to see what you have got as well.

 

BTW, your post seems to have disapeared. hehe. The dumbass admin pressed edit insted of reply and knid of messed up your post. Sorry man. (Feeling a bit dumb right now.)

[matt_vinoir]

better sack your admin staff eh jeff!. I'll get some stuff together for you.

[matt_vinoir]

well by the magic of television here it is again!

 

these are nice techniqus for colouring up 3d stuff. But for real npc stuff we need to look to the new Achitectural Design Magazine people. LIke the ex bartlett guy Neil Spiller and also new architects like Pierre D-Avion and and Bernard Tchsumi. Other great examples are from Marcos Novak from LA and of couse Ben Nicholson. These are primarly architects and so,no offence to cg artists, the new wave of architects delvelop new and differnet ways to show off stuff with computers. This artistic flare is a strong driving force in producing orginal stuff rather than phtot real. I have soo much stuff on these people so if anyone wants to see them i can scan them in. If you want them on the web then i can emailto someone who can do that. Its up to you.

 

It will deifinately open your eyes a litle.

[archkre]

This ist a small tut on NPR I found time ago in some UK web:

 

Open any photo or rendering into Photoshop.

 

First of all, duplicate the current Background layer by simply dragging it down to the Create New

 

Layer icon, while holding down the ALT key. You can now rename this layer to 'Find Edges'.

 

With the Find Edges layer active, run the FIND EDGES filters by selecting it from the FILTER...

 

STYLIZE menu.

 

Bring up Levels Command Dialogue Box by pressing CTRL+L together. In the INPUT values, enter

 

'0' in the far left box, and enter a number between '200-208' in the far right box. What this does is

 

bring more of the white out on this level, removing some unwanted picture data.

 

Now remove all colour from the layer by either pressing CTRL+ALT+U or by selecting the IMAGE...

 

ADJUST... DESATURATE command.

 

Once again, duplicate the original Background Layer. In the Layers Palette, move the duplicate so it

 

sits on top of the Original Background layer. Rename this layer to 'Paint Brush'.

 

With the Paint Brush layer active run the Median filter by selecting Filter ' NOISE ' MEDIAN. When the

 

dialogue box appears, enter a value of 2 and click on OK.

 

What this has done is 'soften' the image, reducing the harshness of the brickwork.

 

Bring up the Levels Command box once more (CTRL+L) and enter a value of '21' in the first Input

 

Range field (far left), and enter a value of '255' in the last box of the Input Range field (far right). Click

 

OK to apply the new settings.

 

Ok, so now we are at the halfway stage. You should have on your screen, an image that is looking a

 

little darker and slightly blurred. Don't worry that you can't see the layers beneath - that is still to

 

come.

 

Our next stage is to add the actual paint effect:

 

With the Paint Brush layer still active, run the Fresco filter via Filter 'Artistic ' Fresco. When the

 

dialogue box appears, enter these values: Brush Size = 10, Brush Detail = 2, Texture = 1. Click OK to

 

apply the new settings.

 

Once the Fresco filter has been applied, change the Blend Mode of the Paint Brush Layer to Soft

 

Light. Simply do this by clicking on the Black arrow that is just under the word 'Layer' on the Layers

 

Palette. Select Soft Light from the sub menu.

 

Click on the 'Find Edges' layer in the Layer Palette to activate it. Change its Blend Mode to Soft Light

 

Click on and drag the 'Paint Brush' layer on the Create New Layer icon in the Layers Palette to

 

duplicate it.

 

Remove all colour from the duplicate layer by running the Desaturate command from the Image '

 

Adjust menu, or by pressing the key combination Shift+CTRL+U.

 

Run the Find Edges filter from the Filter ' Stylize menu.

 

When the filter has been applied, change the Opacity of this layer to somewhere around 63%.

 

Final part now. Bring up the Curves dialogue box. When it appears, alter the diagonal line until it

 

looks something similar to the one provided here:

 

Optional: You don't have to stop there. Why not add a canvas to the painting to give it a little more

 

texture? Flatten the painting image, and then rename the Background layer to Painting. Change the

 

foreground colour to #EAC578, and then run the Texturizer command (Filter menu, Texture...

 

Texturizer). Change the opacity of the layer to about 63% and the blend mode to Soft Light.

 

Add more effect by running a program such as Extensis Photoframes to add a border around your

 

image, or create one yourself.

[Christopher Nichols]

If you have not already seen this, it is fairly noteworthy:

 

http://www.steve-weber.com/show.php?id=3&year=2002

 

Steve Weber used finalrender's new finaltoons, which can do some great strock techiques.

 

Personally, I am not a fan of cebas products anymore, but I think this would be a great tool to look into for those looking at doing NPR animations.

[nisus]

Why are you no longer a fan of cebas christopher?

 

rgds

 

nisus