Messages

511

[Max] I need help! / Re: trees

« on: 2016-06-20, 18:58:33 »

Honestly it depends on the scene. If they are a prominent element in the scene I would go with geometry. But if they are in the background and are obscured by the rest of the scene, I usually just use a backplate with trees that mimic the lighting conditions/direction.

Here is an example of what I'm talking about of a scene I made awhile back.

the trees in the background are a backplate with foreground geometry (although the tree in the foreground is quite shit now that I'm revisiting it).

512

[Max] Resolved Bugs / Turning off clear vfb clears alpha regardless

« on: 2016-06-17, 17:37:35 »

Hey there,

so just noticed a  quirky thing.

Turning off the clear "VFB inbetween renders" option clears the alpha channel regardless.  is this intended and can it be fixed? It's kind of annoying.


scenario:

1. Render a full image with clear vfb turned off
2. region render a small section
3. vfb clears the alpha outside the region area in the vfb

513

[Max] Resolved Feature Requests / Re: EVO

« on: 2016-06-14, 22:56:31 »

Holy Crap that's amazing. Being able to have automatically generated pixel perfect per object masks would be a god send in my work flow.

edit: Hierarchical too!

514

Gallery / Re: Vega House

« on: 2016-06-09, 22:37:00 »

Fantastic vegetation, great variety of species. Great work!  my only gripe is some of the rocks look a bit weird intersecting with the large sheets of rock.

515

[Max] Resolved Feature Requests / GHZ/HR counter in VFB?

« on: 2016-06-08, 22:49:10 »

I'm not sure if this is possible or not and is pretty niche.... but is there anyway for the frame buffer stats section  to display a real-time calculation of GHZ/hrs during a render?

Not really all that important, but it would be convenient in estimating render farm costs.

516

[Max] Daily Builds / Re: Daily Builds

« on: 2016-05-04, 17:30:54 »

Oh man, it's going to take me awhile to get used to hitting the stop render button instead of the cancel button if I want to apply denoising.

Is it possible to apply the denoising filter to an image in the frame buffer after it's been rendered? or does it require calculations from the render itself to apply the filter?

517

Gallery / Re: Martin house

« on: 2016-05-02, 17:36:34 »

Your couch models/materials look like really strange to me. It seems as if they have an intense Ambient occlusion going on, very distracting when compared to everything else in the scene.

518

[Max] I need help! / Re: Height Based Texture Blending

« on: 2016-04-28, 18:24:47 »

Here is an alternative for elevation based blending that gives you a ton of control in changing the blends, and allows any number of layers.

Use the gradient ramp map!  What many people dont know is that if you right click on the colour flags and select properties, you can actually replace the colours with any kind of map.

Here are the steps I made in my example

1. mapped my elevation with planar mapping in one channel,
2. flip the uvw so it's oriented from top to bottom
3. add in your different colour flags in your gradient ramp map to determine your different levels.
4. add in your textures to each flag on a separate mapping channel, add in additional uvw mapping for said map channel
5. move the flags on the fly to make adjustments!

edit: and if you only want hard line transitions just change the interpolation to solid. <!-- you can change the blend curve here too -->

Obviously the downside is that it can be quite cumbersome once you add in additional gradients ramps for other map channels such as bumps, and reflections. but if you work on it incrementally I think it's manageable

519

[Max] I need help! / Re: remove a light reflection from one material

« on: 2016-04-27, 23:57:12 »

As far as i know you can't do it by material; but you CAN do it by object, by excluding the object that you don't want the reflection on from the light and then toggling the occlude other lights in the visibilty section.

I'm not sure what your scene is like, but hopefully this works for you.

520

[Max] I need help! / Re: Seamless floor/background C4d

« on: 2016-04-25, 19:59:37 »

I just mimic what photographers do in real studios by modelling a floor that curves into the wall.

521

[Max] I need help! / Best Practices? Lowering Albedo or darkening bitmap?

« on: 2016-03-24, 17:12:52 »

Let's say a texture in your scene is coming off as too bright. I'm just curious what is the better practice, lowering the albedo value, darkening the bitmap directly, or using adjustments either through color correction/outputs?

Are there any differences between these methods; such as in rendering performance or how they interact with light sources. Or are they ostensibly the same thing?

I'm curious how other people tackle this scenario.

Cheers,

522

Work in Progress/Tests / Re: trying to build up a scene

« on: 2016-03-21, 23:56:45 »

Wow, this is incredible work. That lemonade is amazing.

One criticism. I think the scratches on some of the metal pieces could benefit from being toned down quite a bit, the ones that really stand out to me are the oven and the tap. it looks like someone took some steel wool and had a hay day.

523

[Max] Daily Builds / Re: Daily Builds

« on: 2016-03-11, 17:13:32 »

Boom! worked. Thanks a bunch.

524

[Max] Daily Builds / Re: Daily Builds

« on: 2016-03-10, 23:17:39 »

I'm having some trouble installing the daily builds.

 I follow all the instructions as directed but keep getting this error message.

I'm using 3ds Max Design 2015 and I can confirm all the files are in the correct folders.

Thanks a bunch.

525

Work in Progress/Tests / Re: Help me achieve a realistic look!

« on: 2016-03-07, 22:19:54 »

Hey there,

I raise your first topic with my first post! :D

I think as a raw render it works well enough.  However, these are the things that immediately jumped out at me that didn't look correct or detract from your image:

-your sky looks a tad underexposed
-generally speaking for shots like these you really shouldn't have any tilt in your camera, your verticals lines should be perfectly straight
-add some subtle depth of field, so the trees in the background aren't in perfect focus

I hope you don't mind, but I have attached a version I came up with after 5 minutes of quick and dirty post production.
-I fixed the perspective lines
-increased exposure on the trees and sky
-cropped a little bit from the right so the spacing between the image boundaries and the building are consistent on both sides.
-added some curves adjustments
-blurred the background elements a bit
-subtle sharpening on the main elements
-accentuated some of the coloring to match the time of day.

Let me know what you think!