Topics

1

Gallery / Guitar amplifier Sigma III

« on: 2021-03-12, 21:09:00 »

My design of a guitar amplifier inspired by Audio Assault Sigma VST amp plugin.
The project is not an official design, and I'm in no way affiliated with Audio Assault.
HDRIs from hdrihaven.com

2

[Max] I need help! / Any way to speed up this material rendering (layered glass)?

« on: 2021-03-07, 17:50:24 »

I have an object, glass bulb that has it's top covered with mirror like material on one side, dull material on the other side. So technically three materials, but I cheated with Corona Front Back map for mirror/dull one, and used just a regular glass one for the other. Mix them with gradient map in Corona layered material. They have to gradually transition from glass to mirror.
Turns out this layered material slows the render down, a lot. In my scene expected render time 30+ hours. With just the glass material assigned, or just the mirror one, it's about 12 hours. Usually render times on my PC end up being double of what is predicted after 5-10 passes, so 50-60 hours for a single image is a little too much.

Path tracing or UHD cache, the same.
Turning on "Thin (no refraction)", didn't help.
Turning off Shell modifier on the geometry helps a bit, but negligible.
Turning on Caustics helps a bit, but negligible.
Switching base material and layer 1, didn't help.

Test scene with the material attached.
Can anything be done to speed it up? Thanks in advance!

3

Gallery / Demons within

« on: 2018-12-22, 11:56:47 »

After a long pause, returning to 3D with an artsy farty piece. I contemplated ruining it by creating one of those "no color no saturation and above all no contrast" images, you know, something like this https://i.imgur.com/AizmtpO.png

But in the end decided against it and opted for this warm, almost sweet tasting atmosphere.

That's all, thanks for reading :)

4

Off-Topic / Mental ray discontinued

« on: 2017-11-17, 20:28:46 »

NVIDIA will no longer offer new subscriptions to the NVIDIA ® Mental Ray ® plugins for Maya and 3ds Max, as well as Mental Ray standalone from November 20 th , 2017 onward.
...
To bring AI and further GPU acceleration to graphics, NVIDIA continues to significantly focus on developing SDKs and technologies for software development partners who create professional ray tracing products.
...
With this focus, we have discontinued development of plugins and new features for Mental Ray.

Haven't used it for several years, still sad to see it die like this, not with a bang but a whimper.

http://images.nvidia.com/content/newsletters/email/pdf/Mental-Ray-FAQ-201.pdf?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWVRNME5qbG1ZekF6TkRJMCIsInQiOiJKV3FqYlwvYkVSUlcxN0V5NXdxcjRvYSt3SkpmXC96cW9JamRKU0Nmc0QrTnFHXC9DQjJLQ3VDVXB5ZlVjRUdZZUJ1NklSRDNzVUpjd01oYWRXUURTMnh4OEQ2cytpaDB5MTJRaEYxQUNRM1dXbFpEWTM0bGNCb2hOWXRSRUlpZHpnKyJ9

5

Gallery / A frame rethink (no post processing)

« on: 2017-04-15, 19:45:25 »

Ever since Coronas daily builds got post processing features I wanted to give a Corona only render a try. I stumbled on this cool "A frame rethink" house on Archdaily and decided to redo it and see just how far I'll be able to get, using nothing but Corona.
So here are the results, I think some shots turned out lame, but I worked on those materials, I'm gonna show them of damn it! :D
The only thing that was done in post (Fusion) is adding the background.

6

[Max] I need help! / How to use background images (LDR) and bloom?

« on: 2017-03-24, 17:38:46 »

I have this project and I want to do as much in Corona, and as little in post as possible. Besides, I really like Coronas bloom, it has directionality and it just looks nice so there is no excuse to not use it.
Except, it works only with what it sees, making it hard (impossible?) to get bloom from exterior, i.e. windows if there is anything other then CoronaSky as background.

Image 01
Let's start with nothing except CoronaSky as background, everything works as expected.



Image 02
Add background image as Direct visibility override, no more bloom.


Image 03
No problem, I'll just go the old fashion way with plane in the background and Light material, right? Wrong! Same result even though plane is set to not receive or cast shadows, or even visible to reflections/refractions.


Image 04
But, if I pipe it through Rayswithcher map, plugging CoronaSky for global illumination and background image as everything else, then it has to work, right!? Wrong! The same result.


So, does bloom work only with what it sees, making it hard (impossible?) to get bloom from exterior, i.e. windows if there is anything other then CoronaSky as background?
Or am I completely missing something?
Or is this a bug?

Thanks in advance!

7

[Max] I need help! / How to create thick fabric rug?

« on: 2017-01-27, 17:43:36 »

There are plenty of tutorials and workflows for fuzzy furry carpets, but what about... other ones?
Something like this:
http://i.imgur.com/Om9ImRw.jpg

This is what I got, considering it's just a texture and displacement, no complex material setup or modeling, it doesn't look bad. Any ideas how to make it better?

8

[Max] Resolved Feature Requests / "Reverse" reflection and glossiness values in materials

« on: 2016-11-13, 14:57:47 »

Considering new PBR workflow "reverse" reflection and glossiness values in materials, reflection to 1 and glossiness to 0.

9

Hardware / Would 3dsmax work OK with RX 470?

« on: 2016-08-10, 00:12:19 »

I don't know if things changed, if I remember correctly Max didn't like non Nvidia cards in the past. I'm not using iray.
Thanks in advance!

10

Gallery / Threeways cottage

« on: 2016-08-06, 12:04:58 »

Finally finished this, now I can move on to Corona 1.5 :)

11

Work in Progress/Tests / Keeper of Corona

« on: 2016-06-08, 17:16:48 »

Personal project, obviously :)
Inspired by a photo of my friend Mario Čehulić whose work you can see here http://www.dreamstime.com/m4rio1979_info

12

Gallery / Vivienda La Florida

« on: 2016-04-24, 23:16:20 »

My quest for photorealistic sunny exterior led me to recreating this nice house. There's always room for improvement, but I think I'm getting there, finally :)
Source found here:
http://www.archdaily.com/445573/vivienda-la-florida-otto-medem-de-la-torriente

13

Work in Progress/Tests / Sunny exterior

« on: 2016-04-22, 18:59:28 »

Hello everyone
So, while sunset / dawn renders are all nice and dandy with a great wow effect, clear sky midday sunny exterior is killing me. So I decided to find a good reference, try to recreate it and learn along the way. This is the one I chose:
http://www.archdaily.com/445573/vivienda-la-florida-otto-medem-de-la-torriente

That feel of a hot sunny day is what I was after, not recreating it 100% (nor could I with that crazy tree), even opted for a different facade finish, another problematic one for me.
Sprayed finish, like this one:
http://www.roefix.rs/var/fixitgruppe/storage/images/media/images/roefix/serbien/450x280-sisi/3082774-1-ser-SR/450x280-Sisi_fg_medium.jpg
Done with one of these:
http://toolshop.rs/upload/247937_600x450-a.jpg

Grass is always a problem, as is searching for reference,  \nice green lawn\ this is nice; look at next one \yellow dried up\ ooo this is even better; next one \lush meadow\ ooo this is even better; next one \nice green lawn\ ooo this is even better... Wait, what...
So many different types of grass, colors, photos, then I look at my own yard and it's completely different then all above. Anyhow, I opted for this yellowish variant.
Geometry wise, it can always be better, but I think it's a lot better then my previous exterior, so I'm satisfied with that.

Aside from added sky, and a little fix of a certain rounded corners shading error (already reported it on mantis), no post was done. What you see is what I was able to get out of Corona, so if you have any suggestions for post those are also welcome, aside from contrast, chromatic aberration, light wrap and other standards.
I also did a quick sunset / night render, just to see how materials hold up with HDRI lighting.

Awaiting C&Cs, thanks in advance!

14

Gallery / Bathroom

« on: 2015-12-28, 18:04:12 »

Just a bathroom, recreated in 3D from here:
http://www.houzz.com/projects/758202/forest-hills-modern-farmhouse

15

Work in Progress/Tests / Bathroom

« on: 2015-12-26, 21:31:58 »

Hello everyone
I stumbled upon this bathroom and decided to recreate it:
http://www.houzz.com/projects/758202/forest-hills-modern-farmhouse
I'm not hell bent on 100% accuracy, but would like a fresh pair of eyes. Whatever advice or pointer you can give me before I call it finished, materials, post...
Disclaimer: I am aware of AA problems (edge of window, highlights on glass), but even after 1000 passes and every trick in the book (changing filtering, internal res to 2, highlight compression...) it wouldn't go away, so i just left it. I'll blur it a bit in post for final version.

Thanks in advance!