Messages

46

[Max] General Discussion / Re: is this UI sluggishness normal?

« on: 2024-01-17, 13:56:15 »

In my personal experience, running file-server with 10gbit and SSDs on it for years, it was still sluggish. The reason was perhaps some inherent latency to standard network protocol, or perhaps 3dsMax introduces some additional latency when dealing with network locations, hard to know, not in my skill to investigate what is the actual bottleneck.

But local storage on workstation is indeed much more responsive in all aspects of work. For studio work though, this means synchronizing storage across multiple workstations and there are some easy real-time sync tools (like FreeFileSync), it introduces another level of complexity to fuck something up :- ). And of course, certain tools like standard Connecter don't like it (hence why they introduced SQL-based paid-tier).

My textures never even go below 4K (for 1m2) but usually are larger (8K), and I never really tested the impact on fluidness. Worth looking into it, but not sure what could be done about that, I need high-res textures. There was some proxy-tool for textures I think.

47

[Max] I need help! / Re: I switch to OCIO and the speed drops 4 times

« on: 2024-01-16, 13:48:25 »

Interesting report, I am glad I didn't move to 2024 yet. I am really looking towards color management, but if this is the current state between Max CC and Corona.. that's not good.
Hopefully this can help with more research and fixing by team.

2James: Max 2024 CC (to manage input/output, effectively just adds CC on top of basic Gamma 2.2. only), Corona's internal rendering Color Space (hidden within Devel/Debug settings) and ACES OT tonemapper are 3 completely unrelated things right now. They don't relate, or connect in any way. The ACES OT has nothing to even do with ACES color pipeline, it's just unrelated tonemapper.
And every possible combination (however weird, like sRGB input, AdobeRGB rendering space, ACEScg Output, etc..) should nonetheless produce fully stable, always identical result.

Corona has also never been rendering anything in basic sRGB (Vray was though, since Vlado had some strange argument with it..), it had this weird generic "WideGamut" color-space, which can now in DevelDebug change to either more industry-common standard AdobeRGB or ACEScg, neither will produce much different outputs. It's just different arbitrary limit to what space the calculations will run in.

Max 2024 CC will be most beneficial for correctly displaying colors on high-end displays, like in DCI-P3 (which all modern HDR supporting monitors offers, market-wide it defeating AdobeRGB, mainly because of Apple's support behind), offering seamless colors between Max and Photoshop (or other post-application). Right now you either downgrade your monitor colors to prehistoric sRGB, or Max will show wildly different colors than CC-managed app like Photoshop (hence 100 threads "why is my framebuffer different then image I opened in PS").

48

Work in Progress/Tests / Re: Juraj's Renderings thread

« on: 2024-01-10, 08:28:52 »

In this case yes, it's fully closed (the foreground shows shadowed side towards camera but also some light bounce).
But I also have some sets which are open (sometimes even without ceiling).

This case is just Sun&Sky for the majority of natural light (coming from windows), and then there are I think two big "soft-boxes" (some CoronaLight set to rectangle) on each side (to left and to right) to create more fill and more direction.

The second scenario is usually lit by HDRi that imitates some studio setup (like big industrial hall).

49

Gallery / Re: East Sussex England Georgian Manor House

« on: 2024-01-04, 13:09:01 »

The CGI gardening aspect is always flawless, must take tremendous effort making it so detailed and yet seamless. Fantastic job on that!

50

Work in Progress/Tests / Re: Juraj's Renderings thread

« on: 2023-12-13, 09:59:51 »

Full agree! Absolutely my words. Now we can focus on creative parts and not struggle with technical drudgery where not strictly necessary. It can really become a good tool.
It will be interesting how it will transform the field. In both good and bad ways at same time. But for now, I am mildly positive, even cheerful, less afraid of change.

After all, most of my issues this year were from clients and their financial situation due to downturn in many markets, hardly from AI or anything like that.

Not sure what and how much I can post here without this becoming AI playground, but I do have an example of some beautiful wrinkled cotton sheets :- ). I also don't really want to focus on the AI aspect alone, I like what it can do for my images, but they're still my images, my work, not AI's.
But maybe next I will experiment with heavier use.

Hi Juraj,

Very impressed with the result; the characters look incredibly lifelike, aside from some details that AI still struggles with, like hands and feet. But that's a minor point; the leap in quality from 100% AXYZ to the AI/AXYZ hybrid is huge.

Like you, I've always been (and still am) wary of anything related to AI, but, as you mentioned, it's interesting to learn how to use it, as long as it remains a tool in service of our creativity and not the other way around. I would be curious to learn more about your workflow if you're willing. I appreciate your mindset and the fact that you share your passion.

The motion blurred hand on walking woman is bit of my fumbling in photoshop. I was already lazy and tired and noticed it last minute before exporting to web. I think I will still fix that as otherwise I found the hand and feet almost excellent this time.
But motion blur & depth of field are things that are definitely among those confusing to AI and my source walking woman was motion blurred.

No tutorial for this, apparently there are already too many on youtube :- )

51

Work in Progress/Tests / Re: Juraj's Renderings thread

« on: 2023-12-12, 17:18:29 »

I am taking short break to finish some actual work instead of playing further with this stuff :- ).
I'll try to answer everything during Holidays, so don't think I am ignoring you if you ask something now.

52

Work in Progress/Tests / Re: Juraj's Renderings thread

« on: 2023-12-12, 14:46:25 »

Absolutely, here you go :- ). But that's for now, it needs a bit of mystery!

I use everything, and for foreground I use 2D people and retouch them myself. But it is a complicated hassle to get right so I always opt for motion blurred, ideally moving away or towards the camera :- ).

I think someone already asked about the bag, but that beautiful asset is in-house modelled already to great detail.
The reason AI works well for something like this, is the input is great too.
Fun fact: I tried it on NDA & Not-published Zaha Hadid project and no algorithm could make anything better out of it. The datasets just had nothing similar. And it really doesn't do well with marbles and complex&unique expensive materials. It's best for it to boost common basics.

53

Work in Progress/Tests / Re: Juraj's Renderings thread

« on: 2023-12-11, 22:28:43 »

Haha, oddly enough the one on the right is much closer to original :] Thanks for sharing your experience, it made me think maybe i should look at something like this one day.

I postponed any AI involvement by a year now, I started this testing just last week :- ). One Christmas party later though and my heart was racing, in bad way, to see if we're done or what.
Thankfully it really isn't that miraculous yet. But I am afraid we'll all have to adapt and use it. It will be interesting, the fallout from that.

But that's a big discussion waiting to be had..

54

Work in Progress/Tests / Re: Juraj's Renderings thread

« on: 2023-12-11, 22:15:32 »

It would be interesting to see original CGI people for comparison. I'm generally very negative about anything AI related, but won't lie, your result looks really impressive.

I get you. I am personally not negative, but neither am I positive. And it's just bizare logging into LinkedIn and 90perc. posts being AI influencers subtly lying about what it is they show.
Mostly because LinkedIn has super-small 1000px images and none of those miracles work like that in reality.

But I also don't want to be left behind and lose all my work to people who are prompt artists. So I did a lot of tests in past week and I have to say I am satisfied with what I learned. The AI at least in near future will benefit most those who already have good general creative skillset. For renderings, even the inputs need to be solid. Everything else falls apart when you look up-close and high-res.

Anyway, here is first comparison and some accidental AphexTwin moment on the right :- ). Original CGI on the left. That's the shittiest Axyz low-res model. The HumanAlloy are much much better.

55

Work in Progress/Tests / Re: Juraj's Renderings thread

« on: 2023-12-11, 21:19:10 »

I hope anything AI related isn't banned but let me know otherwise :- ) Here is fun exercise I did to fix 'zombie' faces of CGI people (credit for name to Lasse Rode).
This is otherwise regular commercial project, you're still looking not only at our visualization but also mostly our own interior design for this client. We chose every MillerKnoll and Eames furniture piece.

Anyway, go check it out if it's something that interests you :- ) https://www.behance.net/gallery/186535963/London-Wall-1-5-Office-Visualization-AI-tests

Disclaimer: Images below have AI elements overlayed on top of Corona visual. I used mainly A1111 tool to re-do human faces, details on the humans overall, and many small elements like plants, deco and carpet.
The difference is subtle but very nice, zero change of any silhouette or intended design. It took me whole day to make one image as the rendering is 7680px and I wanted all AI elements to match that fidelity. Effectively, for the result to be unable to distinguish where one starts, where one ends. Just one smooth image. I am not one for converting into hype addict, and I did worry I'll lose job like everyone else, but for now I believe we can take it and boost our own work with it where it can apply. And CGI people are the one thing where it totally applies :- ). I almost abandoned using them, since they tend to look horrible even motion blurred. Now they're back on menu.

56

Gallery / Re: Larose Guyon Lights | Wabi Sabi Interior

« on: 2023-12-05, 15:31:49 »

Incredible indeed, Juraj. Always interesting to see you work as your approach is quite different from the usual posts we see nowadays. Especially love the balance between warm light coming from the lights and a slightly cold blue haze coming from the outside. While it's not something you would capture in a real world, it creates a beautiful gradient that guides the eye through the image while the rest of the set is very neutral and leaves space for the protagonist, which is of course the lamps.

Absolutely gorgeous!

Heh, you definitely would find it in real-world (as I work myself from such references) but I over-do it on purpose that is correct too :- ). I am in phase where I enjoy bit of punchiness to visuals, but it is perhaps dictated by how we consume visuals today. I render the images in 8K and they have so many soft details... but this is completely lost on internet where we watch everything in tiny resolution on social media and mostly on our phones. So stronger blacks, 10perc. higher saturation that I would like for print and highlights & haze boosted.

For social media&forums I effectively do "second post-production" where I amplify everything. I am neither happy nor unhappy about that, it's just something I feel necessary to do. I wish we could just show each  other printed works. Most of my works was printed 5-6 years ago and it's so much better..

The mood in these images is perfect! I love the lighting and all the small details in the shaders/models.

Thanks man, I really tried to do as many small details as my skill allowed but.. at some point I ran out of patience as you can just go on-and-on with them :- ).

57

Hardware / Re: Threadripper & Ryzen only builds (3rd Gen starts on page 50)

« on: 2023-12-04, 18:13:19 »

If you want something that massively speeds up workflow (like Interactive Rendering for example), then I wouldn't even necessarily recommend the 96 Core model, the cores & I/O will compete quite a lot for their power budget (even if you overclock it to like 800 Watts, which is feasible with water loop), we can already see this in existing 64-core models. In theory Windows Scheduling should high-clock few select cores that maintain smoothness for single-core operations while the rest are in lower clock doing the parallel work of rendering but in practice this falls out of window (lol) and maybe not just on OS level with scheduler, but perhaps the I/O of the CPU itself.

The 32-core models always offered smoother workflow regardless of what is actually behind the behavior. So I would stay with the 32/48/64c models for workstation.

But if you want more performance to get images and animations rendered faster, then no amount of powerful workstation will ever suffice, this is where render-farm (home or cloud service) comes in.

Of course, there is always argument for "the best out of best".

Not wanting to discourage anyone from 7995X, I am sure some crazy builds will pop-up soon :- ).

58

Work in Progress/Tests / Re: Juraj's Renderings thread

« on: 2023-12-04, 15:22:28 »

You've convinced me, I might try something :- )

59

Work in Progress/Tests / Re: Juraj's Renderings thread

« on: 2023-12-04, 12:40:24 »

Wow the lighting and Materials are Awesome especially the Cabinet Material could you possibly do a breakdown?

I won't be able to open this scene this week, but I am 90perc. sure it's a nice map in glossines slot like this:
https://www.textures.com/download/PBR0035/133071 or this one
https://www.textures.com/download/PBR0032/133068

I am pretty sure it's just single-map :- ).

Wow, great lighting on that WIP of VIPP :) especially like the environment around the building - so much is happening yet it all looks very natural and real. Isn't building such environments even more fun than the architecture itself??

Heh well it's real photo :- ) I would expect it to look natural :- ). I considered building environment, but I would probably do so in Unreal Engine, the Corona version will probably keep Photography outside, it's 360 but this one is not photographed by us.

For me though no, building architecture, even virtual is the main point. I love Architecture and Interior design. And while I also love nature & outdoor perhaps even more, I don't like building their imperfect virtual copies. Too much work and it looks far too wrong anyway.

60

Gallery / Re: Larose Guyon Lights | Wabi Sabi Interior

« on: 2023-11-29, 23:47:03 »

Glad that you are posting again Jurad. Your works are absolutely stunning hopefully you don't abadon us again 👀

Thank you, very kind of you :- ) No abandoning again, I am in good mental health shape I think and posting work is ever more important now (volatile markets, AI and all..).
Actually I need to post my work before it even stands a chance against the AI onslaught :- ) Afterwards, gonna look like MentalRay renders from 90s in comparison.

(..slightly serious, about 70perc.).