hiddenline rendering

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

in your (anyone) opinion, what is the best way to generate a hiddenline in max? ...i have max 6, and vray to work with. max 6 comes with mental ray, and i found a tutorial to generate a vector format hidden line, but as of yet, i have not got desired results. i was wondering what method others use.

 

here is the mental ray tutorial....

http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.asp?p=169506&seqNum=30

 

i know about the toon plug-in, but i am trying to do this without purchasing additional software.

[Ernest Burden III]

Is it important to have a vector output, or is a pixel image all you need?

 

I use Photoshop to generate line drawings by working from several flat rendered images. This may seem an odd way to do it, but once you have the materials or render settings set, they render in a few seconds. One advantage is that you can include various amounts of reflection and transparency. Or not.

 

I think I have detailed how to do this in another thread, so if you want to know more, let me know and I will try to find that thread or explain myself further.

[muzzy]

Have you tried MAX's INK n Paint Shader. Assig it to all objects.Change the color to white and ink thickness to 1. I got quite nice results with it.

 

Use either VRAY or Scanline. I used Scanline but I remember Rick Eloy uses inknpaint with Vray to render fast.

[Ricardo Eloy]

Well, the thing with the Ink'n Paint shader is that it's really heavy, pure raytracing. To get fast results, you can use VRay or even Mental Ray. They'll give you really fast render times, and you can play at will.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

i'll try the ink'n paint shader.

 

i will probably end up processing the images in photoshop the way Ernest does.

 

actually, Ernest, we are trying to process a handful of renderings using a similar process that you have discussed on the forum before. our client gave us a sample of what they thought they were after. they were traditional hand renderings with people. not great renderings though. my immediate response was that we can do that, and i believe i can do i better than the samples they showed us.

 

right now we are searching for a illustrator to do the people by hand, then scan them in, ect.. ect.. we are limiting our search to local people we know through networking right now. i think we have someone we are going to use for the first 3 images. the first 3 need to be done ahead of time. there will be 13 or 14 in all. if we like his work, then we will contract him for the rest. i would like to take a crack at it myself. i think i could do a decent job, but my schedule is crazy as it is.

 

hopefully everything works out.

[Ernest Burden III]

actually, Ernest, we are trying to process a handful of renderings using a similar process that you have discussed on the forum before. our client gave us a sample of what they thought they were after.

 

right now we are searching for a illustrator to do the people by hand, then scan them in, ect.. ect.. we are limiting our search to local people we know through networking right now. i think we have someone we are going to use for the first 3 images. the first 3 need to be done ahead of time. there will be 13 or 14 in all.

 

13 or 14 figures, or renderings?

 

What style of drawing are you looking for? The Entourage CD my father did has a lot of drawings of people (and a lot of those I drew, more by my sister).

 

Can you post the 'sample'? I suppose not--not your work. I wish I could see it to advise further.

 

My Photoshop process is easily automated. I have used it to produce lines for animations, so 2700 drawings...

 

There are more drawings in the books (Entourage) than on the CD. Most of the CD stuff is photographic, either B&W (why, you must ask) and color. Of the drawn stuff much is so out-of-date the styles will be back soon. This is one that I drew, I always liked this one...

[abicalho]

Have you tried loading the mental.ray.hidden.line.contours preset that comes with MAX 6?

 

Alexander

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

13 or 14 figures, or renderings?

 

What style of drawing are you looking for? The Entourage CD my father did has a lot of drawings of people (and a lot of those I drew, more by my sister).

 

Can you post the 'sample'? I suppose not--not your work. I wish I could see it to advise further.

 

My Photoshop process is easily automated. I have used it to produce lines for animations, so 2700 drawings...

 

There are more drawings in the books (Entourage) than on the CD. Most of the CD stuff is photographic, either B&W (why, you must ask) and color. Of the drawn stuff much is so out-of-date the styles will be back soon. This is one that I drew, I always liked this one...

13 renderings with ?? number of people.

 

the hospital the following images for examples of what they were looking for. they are not the hospitals images, but images another hospital commisioned for a fund raising book similar to what we are putting together.

 

http://www.phase22.com/temp/la_1.jpg

http://www.phase22.com/temp/la_2.jpg

 

i referenced this image of yours when we were discussing our approach for the renderings.... http://www.acmedigital.com/AOLTW/FL-final-halfsize.jpg hope you don't mind. i didn't steal it, just used it for reference.

 

the digital renderings are already completed from a previous animation i did. we are basically going to take still images from it plus a few other images, and dress them up with people, and soften them so they are easier to grasp, and do not look final.

 

i found the entourage book on amazon, but the cd was out of print.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0071407243/104-5134804-1026319?v=glance

 

...any other sources for it?

 

...should this thread be moved to another forum????

 

____________

edit:

 

...the people will need to be in specific poses. a child sitting on the bed with a parent comforting them. people in a surgery room. ect.. ect...

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

Have you tried loading the mental.ray.hidden.line.contours preset that comes with MAX 6?

 

Alexander

thanks, i have not tried it yet. i will try it in the next couple of days.

[Ernest Burden III]

the hospital the following images for examples of what they were looking for.

 

Gee, I cannot see them because they have DO NOT DISTRIBUTE written all over them. Kidding. They are nice images, except for the incorrect perspective layouts. They actually do resemble my recent stuff.

 

the digital renderings are already completed from a previous animation i did. we are basically going to take still images from it plus a few other images, and dress them up with people, and soften them so they are easier to grasp, and do not look final.

 

i found the entourage book on amazon, but the cd was out of print....any other sources for it?

 

That would be me.

 

The process you described is pretty much exactly how I work when I have to drop in people, especially to an interior. When figures have to interact with furnishings it's near impossible to use stock images, you really have to draw them and matte in Photoshop. Unless you can get the artist to paint them on prepared acetate, you are going to have days and days of fun cutting the people images out in PS and mating them to your underlay--plan for it.

 

Whatever you do to 'soften' the digital renderings probably should be used on the figures, as well.

 

While I do not use the images on my site, I was forced to add people to all my Disney Cruise Line renderings--10 of them. What joy that was. Especially since I got cornered into doing it for free (client had an attitude it was 'simple' and had control of my final payment, a large amount. It pissed me off, cost me a lot of time and money, but sometimes you just get squeezed).