Messages

31

[Max] Feature Requests / Re: Rendering Corona Volume Grid in Render Elements

« on: 2020-03-27, 18:25:43 »

I may be responding to this thread in bits and pieces to try and keep information as bite-sized as possible.

By having the VDB invisible in some AOV's, is the renderer wasting time sampling pixels behind the VDB, even though they are never visible in the beauty pass? That seems inefficient.

I guess what I am saying is that the VDB should be visible in all AOV's for maximum render efficiency.

32

[Max] Bug Reporting / VDB "Visible to Camera" attribute not working as expected...

« on: 2020-03-18, 04:24:53 »

I have come across another issue with VDB's, where the "Visible to Camera" attribute doesn't seem to be respected. In the attached image, quality issues aside, on the left the rocket smoke VDB "Visible to Camera" attribute is turned off, and on the right it is turned on.

Regardless if the attribute is turned off or on, I would expect the VDB to cast shadows on to the surfaces, but it seems that with the attribute off, the VDB seems to not even cast secondary rays as well as primary rays. More specifically, I would expect the surface area 'A' to have a similar amount of shadow from the VDB as surface area 'B'.

33

[Max] Resolved Feature Requests / Re: VDB's not holding out in some AOV's

« on: 2020-03-12, 08:42:33 »

Hey maru, yup, both points are correct.

Also your twist on carving out a fake hold out by using a pure black colour is a good idea for the time being. Thanks!

34

Work in Progress/Tests / Re: Njen's 'Cyan Eyed' work in progress thread (animated short film)

« on: 2020-03-12, 06:24:07 »

artofcharly: thanks again for your support :D

mferster: I intend to write up a number of making of articles after/around the release of the film. Stay tuned!

The next update involves showcasing an asset from the film: Captain Corliss 'The Red Snake' Vail's trusty side arm, 'Skysong'. Thanks for viewing!

35

[Max] Resolved Feature Requests / Re: VDB's not holding out in some AOV's

« on: 2020-03-10, 05:31:38 »

What makes it even more tricky/annoying is that because of the bug where if you have a visible VDB grid in the scene when 'Render selected' is set to 'Include/exclude list' then the list is completely ignored. I can't generate an alpha of the VDB grid with all of the scene lighting and materials affecting it in the RGB channels at the same time, and have the scene objects hold it out (objects can be in front, behind and inside the VDB grid at the same time).

I currently have to render a second pass where I apply a black material to all scene objects and make the VDB grid render with a constant white colour, then shuffle that into the alpha channel of the VDB beauty render in comp.

36

[Max] Feature Requests / Re: Corona Camera - Object Visibility

« on: 2020-03-10, 05:25:59 »

Am I missing something here, or is what you are describing simply turning off 'Visible to Camera' in the object properties?

37

[Max] Resolved Feature Requests / VDB's not holding out in some AOV's

« on: 2020-03-10, 04:33:21 »

It seems that some AOV's can not be used properly when a VDB grid object is in the scene. If there is pixel coverage of a VDB object, I would expect that coverage to hold out what ever data is behind it. As it is currently, I can not use a number of AOV's in comp because it is not being evaluated in those AOV's.

For example, I can't use an RGB mask to isolate other objects behind the VDB grid. Other AOV's I would expect the VDB grid to hold out is in source elements and texmap elements. There are more as well, though I'm not sure how they would be rendered correctly (zdepth, UVW, position, etc.).

In the attached example, there is a VDB grid of rocket smoke in the middle of the image in the beauty pass, but there is no evidence of it in the attached AOV's.

38

Work in Progress/Tests / Re: Njen's 'Cyan Eyed' work in progress thread (animated short film)

« on: 2020-02-28, 18:11:45 »

Thanks for the kind comments :D

A new image posted on the 'socials':

So much work has gone into Cyan Eyed to date, and a lot of detail can be missed. While not from any shot in the film, this teaser image is to show off the work done on the cloth materials.

39

Work in Progress/Tests / Re: Njen's 'Cyan Eyed' work in progress thread (animated short film)

« on: 2020-02-25, 05:37:44 »

Work on Cyan Eyed has continued on at a steady pace since my last post. 70% of all shot tasks (camera, animation, FX, cloth, hair, lighting, environment and comp) is done. Shots are now starting to get approved with final comps. I'm now going to be posting more images on various social media to help build more awareness up to the release of the film. I would be grateful if as many of you could like/share/follow/retweet/react to as many of these as possible.

https://twitter.com/NezuiFilms
https://www.instagram.com/nezui/
https://ca.linkedin.com/in/ryangrobins
https://www.artstation.com/njen

For this attached image: A super close up view of some of the detail in Cyan Eyed.

Thanks!

[Edit] I think this image could technically be considered a 'finished' piece of artwork, but since it's related to the film which isn't done yet, I posted it here instead.

40

[Max] Daily Builds / Re: Adaptive enviro sampler playground!

« on: 2020-02-22, 10:14:47 »

Yeah, I'm now finding that my earlier excitement is probably overstated too much. I mean, I think it is an improvement, just not to the extent I was reacting to before.

In the images below, the first image is a previous frame I rendered on one of my Threadrippers. I then rendered the same frame on my workstation (my render boxes are tied up currently). I still see a fair amount of noise in the new adaptive sampler. Is noise being calculated differently now?

I should have put this info in the images:
01 - v5
02 and 03 - v6 daily

41

[Max] Daily Builds / Re: Adaptive enviro sampler playground!

« on: 2020-02-22, 06:07:46 »

Holy crap, this new adaptive sample is blowing the previous one out of the water. I have only done one test on a small image for now, but the results are night and day. In the example 10 minute render below, v5 got to 8.46% noise level. the v6 daily got down to 0.43% noise level! FYI, the black areas are a hold out I setup to speed up rendering.

Also not to mention the speed ups in the geometry stage. This is insane, my renders are going to be so much damn faster. I am very impressed.

42

[Max] I need help! / Re: HDR image through Lightroom

« on: 2020-02-10, 07:46:51 »

FYI, Darktable is the open source equivalent to Lightroom, and it can read exr's. No need to screw around Lightroom's limitations with file formats and Adobe's predatory tactics in general.

43

[Max] General Discussion / Emissive VDB grids not visible to camera not working?

« on: 2020-02-09, 04:41:40 »

Just checking if this is currently expected behaviour, or if it's a bug that could be fixed. And if it is currently expected behaviour, could this be added to the list of fixes for the next version.

If I have a VDB grid that has an emissive portion, then set that grid to not be visible to camera, then the grid doesn't cast any light on other objects in the scene. I would assume like any other self illuminated object, light or object light material, then it should still be able to cast light when not visible to camera.

44

[Max] I need help! / Re: 3D Studio Max - macro recording

« on: 2020-02-09, 04:32:50 »

But if you don't already have the material you need in a material slot, you can collect all the materials in an array, search for the material by name, then put it into a slot. Then you can do what ever you want with it.

Code: [Select]

allMats = #()
matToGet = "NAME_OF_MATERIAL"
for mat in scenematerials do
(
    allMats = append allMats mat.name
)

selMat = findItem allMats matToGet
foundMat = scenematerials[selMat]
meditMaterials[1] = foundMat

45

[Max] I need help! / Re: 3D Studio Max - macro recording

« on: 2020-02-09, 04:06:40 »

meditMaterials[1].levelTranslucency = 0.25