Author Topic: Corona Custom Renderstamp  (Read 9087 times)

2018-03-02, 09:55:19

Frood

  • Active Users
  • **
  • Posts: 1903
    • View Profile
    • Rakete GmbH
Edit: Here is a rewrite of the idea for a Corona Custom Renderstamp. Run the script as whatever (prerender/startup/manually).

To use/test:
  • Create a new scene
  • Add a daylight system
  • Add a frame tag on a frame
  • Use for example the following stamp definition:"3ds Max §xv | ForestPack v§pfp | §sft | %v/%n | Time: %pt | Passes: %pp/§rpl | Noise: %pe (§rnl) | Daylight: §ssd • §ssth" in Render setup -> System -> Renderstamp
  • Close Render Setup

Please read the header of the script or type:

Code: [Select]
ccr.help()
in the maxscript listener to see all available tokens and scene overrides.

If you want to add your own tokens:

- define the token name and descriptive text in struct "tokens"
- add a function in the case section of "getTokenValue()" for the new token which returns the value as string to use for it

To test/evaluate all tokens use

Code: [Select]
ccr.test()
in the maxscript listener.



Good Luck



----
Original post:

I was searching for a simple option to have framebased arbitrary text and other information inside the corona renderstamp. Time tags (also called "frame tags") turned out to be the simplest way to do.

Any time tag of the current frame can be put in front of the stamp, so that if you work with animated cameras for stills (e.g. every fifth frame a shot), you can name them by simply adding a tag (see screenshot).

At the moment we cannot setup target noise level and target passes in the renderstamp by UI. The script additionally automatically adds target noise level and target passes to the tokens "%pp" and "%pe" by default when they are used in the render stamp setup string.

You can add your own features, the script is Backburner-proof (it logs into max.log for this reason, to see what's going on) and works also for the CInfo_Renderstamp render element with switched off stamp in render setup (a related bug was fixed recently, so you need at least a current Corona 2.0 daily for that special case).

To use/test:

  • Put the script into Pre-Render section of Render Setup -> Scripts
  • Go to some frame
  • Add a time tag
  • Render that frame


Good Luck



« Last Edit: 2019-10-18, 16:46:17 by Frood »
Never underestimate the power of a well placed level one spell.

2018-03-02, 11:55:50
Reply #1

Philip kelly

  • Active Users
  • **
  • Posts: 513
    • View Profile
    • Sketchrender
I have been searching for a frame stamp that will stamp a Solar Analysis for years.

The stamp has to be manuals typed for each frame that is rendered with time and date , month etc.

That would be very handy to have.

Is there anyway to do that ?

philip
Dell Precision T7910

2018-03-02, 12:04:14
Reply #2

PROH

  • Active Users
  • **
  • Posts: 1219
    • View Profile
Yes! I second that. That would be very useful :)
For now I've made a animated sequence with dates, times etc. shifting along with the sun, but it only works for those times and dates.

Any kind of automated time & date stamp (following the sun) would be a great feature, if possible :)

2018-03-02, 12:25:57
Reply #3

Frood

  • Active Users
  • **
  • Posts: 1903
    • View Profile
    • Rakete GmbH
Hmm, for (sun)light analysis purpose I scripted a camera HUD (text aligned and linked to the camera) quite some time ago (still MR scene because the sunlight is displayed so nicely in the viewport).

Good idea to put this in the corona renderstamp! I really have to look into that next time. As far as I can remember the only item which cannot be scripted (or easily scripted) was the date - the daylight system is somewhat obscure from maxscripts point of view.

You can animate a time stamp in editing software like AE as well btw.


Good Luck



Never underestimate the power of a well placed level one spell.

2018-03-02, 13:44:57
Reply #4

Philip kelly

  • Active Users
  • **
  • Posts: 513
    • View Profile
    • Sketchrender
Thank you.

I have done that in the past , for time line animations, buildings popping up etc,

But for the day to day shadow studies for Clients, it would be very handy to have say,
| Existing Structure | 21st March 2017 | 9am |

At the moment as I said it have to but in manually in photoshop for each frame.
Dell Precision T7910

2018-03-02, 15:58:28
Reply #5

Frood

  • Active Users
  • **
  • Posts: 1903
    • View Profile
    • Rakete GmbH
Well, if you can live with setting the date by hand: no problem. As for the date, this one sums it up quite perfectly:

Quote
As an important side note, the .solar_date property for the Daylight/Sunlight system objects is nearly impossible to control via maxscript. Instead of the logical day/month/year controls shown in the 3ds max interface, the .solar_date property uses a single integer offset from the current date (yes, seriously), even though there is no effective way to get the current date in Maxscript. Without a doubt, this is the single most idiotic feature ever put in maxscript...period. Because of this limitation, you can consider the .solar_date property to be effectively inaccessible via maxscript.

(http://forums.cgsociety.org/archive/index.php?t-495162.html)

I find myself googling this every year :-/ But attached for you is a quick modification which is able to print at least the solar time to the stamp, it uses the controller data from "Daylight001" by default (see top of script).


Good Luck


Edit: removed attached script, see first post.
« Last Edit: 2019-10-18, 17:55:42 by Frood »
Never underestimate the power of a well placed level one spell.

2019-05-02, 19:45:19
Reply #6

Frood

  • Active Users
  • **
  • Posts: 1903
    • View Profile
    • Rakete GmbH
The new sun positioner would solve the problem accessing the date for solar analysis, here is the feature request to support it:

https://forum.corona-renderer.com/index.php?topic=24528.0


Good Luck



Never underestimate the power of a well placed level one spell.

2019-10-18, 16:44:59
Reply #7

Frood

  • Active Users
  • **
  • Posts: 1903
    • View Profile
    • Rakete GmbH
I've been thinking about this topic lately while putting some displacement related values manually (OMG!) in renderststamps (where I got unsure if I had entered the used values everywhere correctly). So I completely reworked the idea of a corona custom renderststamp. I wanted to turn it into something more "solid", meaning

- an easy to use solution without the need to change anything in a script
- immediate feedback of changes
- a script working as whatever type (prerender+Backburner/startup/manual)
- something suitable to quickly extend
- option to override stuff per scene/file
- minimalistic UI

It turned out that it would be best done with no additional UI: By using custom tokens directly in the Corona renderstamp. The only requirement is, that the render setup window is closed. The benefit is a quite seamless integration.

Any kind of automated time & date stamp (following the sun) would be a great feature, if possible :)


I have been searching for a frame stamp that will stamp a Solar Analysis for years.


Me too. And finally it's possible. Using

"Daylight: §ssd • §ssth"

as any part of the stamp definition - does exactly this. Updated first post.


Good Luck


« Last Edit: 2019-10-18, 17:50:06 by Frood »
Never underestimate the power of a well placed level one spell.