Messages

1

Work in Progress/Tests / Re: Juraj's WIPS/Theory/Questions //Update with few PDFs from my recent presentation

« on: 2015-02-12, 16:52:30 »

My recent wips for clients are very noisy though :- ) I don't know if my scenes got too complex or if Corona got slower..but I am fighting a lot.

I have put my MSI down from 100 to 50. I see fireflies (very small) at beginning of render.
Cannot risk waiting 7 hours to see if they converge or not.

Might have to go back to Max 2014 to use A6 soon. Never used A6 before. maybe it's faster.
Seems Max is good every two years... 2014 good... 2015 bad.... 2016 good.
Just like M/soft Windows....

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Work in Progress/Tests / Re: Juraj's WIPS/Theory/Questions //Update with few PDFs from my recent presentation

« on: 2015-02-10, 13:14:05 »

Thanks for the reply, Juraj,

I just stopped my render based on what you just wrote. But, I have been working on the same scene for
two months now. Just not happy with it.... yet... though it did improve significantly when I read your thread.
Got alot of info that helped... especially rendering at 4k compared to 2k.

I think I will try pushing the Tent to 2.0 as you suggest. I went back to using filter. For some reason I cannot
come to terms with not using one. I feel I am committing a sin by not filtering. So, increasing Filter to 2.0
will smooth things out more I guess.

I was convinced that using HDRi's was the only way to go for good lighting. But I am surprised that when I compare
renders between HDRi and Sun & Sky there is a big difference. HDR seems cold and flat while S&S is warm
and friendly and has much more depth. For some reason I don't seem to trust S&S cos it is too simple.
But the results show that maybe HDRi for interiors is NOT the right choice.

I read about ArionFX on BBB3. But, was not convinced when I tried it.
I also learned from BBB3 to lower RGB of whites to 185. Every little bit of info helps. Become abit of a magpie.

Thanks for the update :)

3

Gallery / Re: Industrial Conversion

« on: 2015-02-10, 12:07:41 »

I like what you have done with the ceiling and floor. I am working on something similar but my ceiling is high... so you don't see it.
Which was a big mistake.... cos you need the ceiling to frame things. Nice work.

4

Work in Progress/Tests / Re: Juraj's WIPS/Theory/Questions //Update with few PDFs from my recent presentation

« on: 2015-02-10, 08:43:41 »

Oh yes, moment, I'll ask Veronika where it is, and upload them when I find them on disk.

This thread has been very useful for me in pushing the limits of Corona to see what it can do.
From researching the advice of Juraj, Rawalanche and The Keymaster, and rendering the same 800MB scene
over and over again, I have deduced the following:

1. Pushing the Record Quality from 256 to 2048 helps with creating more quality, though only for interiors.
    1024 is sufficient for exterior scenes. Anything more than this is a waste.

2. Have no idea if increasing Max records from 100 to 999 has any benefits as Maru suggests. I am intrigued if anyone knows better?

3. Rawalanche's advice to change Image Filter in (Tent) to 1.333 instead of 1.5, for sharper images, creates more fireflies.
    Keymasters advice that filer is not necessary actually works. I prefer not to use filter as a result.
    It is advised on the net (and using Vray) to only use filters for animation, not stills.

4. MSI produces small fireflies past 100. I would prefer to go to 200 or even 400 as Juraj suggests to achieve unbiased results.
   But, 100 seems to be the limit for me. Having 0.0 MSI produces a firefly plague.

5. Pixel density is very important. The bigger the image, the better, as Juraj advices. 1920 x 1080 produces flat, blurry results.
    You have to go to 4K to start to see improvements. Juraj says he has frame buffer problems going to 8k. I don't have any problems
    going to 8k but it takes 1 hour per pass, so after 5 hours and only 5 passes, I decided to ditch the potential of 8k and stick to 4k.

6. HDRi alone are not good enough for me. Even using CG Source. I find I have to support it with Corona Sun at very small 0.003
    settings to add warmth to the renders and flush the shadows more. I also increase sun size to 5.0 to diffuse the shadows.

7. PT + PT does not work for me. It creates extra noise and fireflies. PT + HD has best results for interiors.

8. Corona materials perform better than standard mats. For example, I noticed bump maps give more convincing results so you can
   avoid using displacement.

9. From using PP software, Alienskin Exposure7 works better than Photolooks and ArionFX. There sharpening filters perform better as do there
   colour filters, though this, I guess, is personal taste, but since most pro photographers use Exposure, this is a good sign.

All done on a 2012 iMac, i7, 12gb ram, 1gb Graphics card.

5

[Max] I need help! / Re: question for the post-prod gurus!

« on: 2015-02-10, 07:30:04 »

soory to bring back an old thread but I'm wondering something. I saved my renders in openEXR 32-bit and made my post work in photoshop with ArionFX. I want to put these images on my website but I noticed pretty much everybody have jpeg... Am i going to have to skip the 32-bits and ArionFX tonemapping for my internet stills? It would suck.

I too find EXR abit limiting when having to save out to other formats in PS.
I have ditched EXR. Instead I save to HDR (radiance image) un-clamped, in Corona. Then you can use it in ArionFX.

6

[Max] I need help! / Re: Heavy scenes struggle is hard

« on: 2015-02-10, 07:01:46 »

Been working with Corona for the past months and we ve managed two heavy scenes which was rly a pain in the *** because of corona crashing constantly.

Both scenes had huge amount of trees, grass, bushes an displacement. Not heavy meshs thought overall except tree ofc. Anyway both scenes eat between 17 and 30gb. We have 32 gb.
Anyway even at 17gb, while calculating "build acc struture" corona refused to continue. Totally stoped everything and only way to return was to turn off workstation and restart all over again. Sometimes without touching anything after crash, we re render same view same scene at it did it well! But this issue happened a lot and randomly.

Just wanted to know if people have had the same problem and if there is any solution.

Ps Attaching one of the heavy views we worked on so people can have an idea what the scene was all about.


Thkx,
Jacinto

If I open Corona for the first time and render.... Corona always freezes and crashes computer. I have to cold start the PC from scratch.

What I found works for me is when I open Corona for the first time and load heavy scene, I render first at (very small size), wait for the green to clear and then render again at big sizes like 4k or 8k. Then Corona never crashes.

7

[Max] General Discussion / Re: Material Converter Wishlist

« on: 2015-01-07, 10:32:07 »

If you dont have Vray installed, do same as I do. Dowload the demo, use all features you are interested in and never render using It :)

Yes, that's what I did. Thanks :)

8

[Max] I need help! / Re: Choosing Shader Type in Corona

« on: 2015-01-06, 22:35:54 »

Of the top of my head without being  an expert i found this explanation of shaders.
http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/3ds-max/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2015/ENU/3DSMax/files/GUID-D5D11F0A-0813-428B-B2F9-C60A54260726-htm.html
Basicaly a shader is code... simply as that. A code that interprets how a pixel is supposed to be seen.
Using this reasoning i would argue that a Coronamaterial is no better that a Standard one. BUT... a CoronaMtl is a shader writen by the maker of the engine that renders that shader so i'm assume that are highly optimized to work with Corona, and i could not say the same for a Standard shader even if Corona "supports" it.

Boris, I only have one question... Do you know what all the roll-outs mean on the Corona Mat?
Thanks

9

[Max] I need help! / Re: BRDF parameter

« on: 2015-01-06, 19:30:38 »

0 - Fong
1 - likes as Blinn
2 - default (Ashikhmin-Shirley. Some likes as Ward)
3 - Ward

Thank you for the answer!
Strange... I read alot about Corona Render, but I never see anything about this BRDF switcher...

uwelcome
I agree with Juraj and Maru - use default bcse it's realy pretty good looks in compare with other brdfs
After release you will not want to use any brdf apart from GGX (;

Firstly, hooray... thanks for the info on BRDF's.
Secondly, why put it there if it aint worth touching. The Corona rollout is mind bloggling. I don't know any of it.... what to put where..?

There needs to be more info on what all this does. I have reached the limits of my abillty cos I don't know the facts and I am experimenting blindly. If Corona Mats are better than Standard mats (as everyone keeps
banging on about) show us why.... (or show me cos I'm dim).

10

[Max] I need help! / Re: Fresnel (IOR) numbers

« on: 2015-01-04, 22:15:21 »

But, it's like painting a picture... you are never sure when you have finished... there is always something more you can change or add.

That's why I never work too much on personal works. I accept shortcomings and move along to next thing, long before 'diminishing returns' (too much effort for little progress) occur.
It's easy to get lost, loose focus and energy and waste time and effort. Better to complete something, learn from it, but put those learnings into use in next project. Sometimes...quantity matters :- ).

Good advice. Yes, at the end of the day to have to know when to say "fuck it"... and move on.
It is very easy to loose focus, especially when you are a freelancer... and get hung up on micro managing.

When I finish a project I can NEVER go back to it.... it's dead and I have no feeling for it.... but, while I am was doing it it was the most important
thing to me... totally consumed by it. Maybe that's why I am obsessed by getting it right... cos I know I will never touch it again.

11

[Max] I need help! / Re: Fresnel (IOR) numbers

« on: 2015-01-04, 17:35:34 »

You can use default 1.52 for all of them.

Non-metals vary only very little in specularity. The range rarely goes above >2. Lesser reflective like water start at 1.333, most woods, bricks, fabrics and even plastic are around 1.52 or slightly higher.
No magic here.

{not that it matters, but if it isn't measure here, you will not get exact number. Like expected, it's mostly liquids, crystalics,...   http://www.filmetrics.com/refractive-index-database }

Thanks for the reply. Very reassuring.

I am about to render my first render. I have spent weeks composing it. Like you, my standards are very high.
The render was actually inspired by your Iceland scene... using light woods... which is a refreshing change from dark woods.

But, it's like painting a picture... you are never sure when you have finished... there is always something more you can change or add.

12

[Max] I need help! / Fresnel (IOR) numbers

« on: 2015-01-04, 16:07:50 »

Hello,

I am creating a table of IOR numbers. I have the major minerals, but can someone please tell me the IOR for the following matetrials:

Leather
Velvet
Plaster
Rugs
Quarry tile
Slate tile
Brick rough
Brick smooth
Linen
Cotton
Stone
Concrete rough
Concrete smooth
Wood rough
Wood smooth
Bark
Pebbles

13

[Max] Corona Goodies - User Contributions / Re: Advanced Corona Material Converter (continuous updates)

« on: 2015-01-02, 21:39:28 »

@Ice_Juice: You're right, I will change the conversion to make the MR_lights standard directional/omni lights :)
About the mental ray materials: there are so many different shaders for the mr mtl, with so many different behaviors, an automatic conversion doesn't make sense to me (and would be a tremendous amount of work too)

@Black Sun
I will not do a Vray to Standard mtl converter. It's not the purpose of this converter and it's not adding anything that a lot of people would use (actually, I believe you'd be the only one).

About the interface, I'm thinking about it but I didn't have a good idea for a solution yet =/

About a notification when the conversion is done: Normally the button keeps being "pressed" until the conversion is done (in my case it's blue when it's pressed). For most conversions it only takes a second. It may take a bit longer in very heavy scenes, but that's seldom. You can easily see when the converter is done if you look in the left bottom corner (the white field). It prints "Conversion done."

Deadclown... I have enclosed a converter pic from a company called Motva. I like the simplicity of this layout... but only you know how best to set it out. It should be on your New Years list to do :)

I understand that Corona mats offer more.... but today I opened the additional parameters in the Slate Editor and I said WTF is all this stuff.
What does it mean? And how can I use it? I got both excited with having to learn new stuff and angry cos there is zippo info explaining
what all this stuff does. Hence my wish to stick with Standard mats and regular shaders.

If you know any links that explain Corona Mats I would be grateful :)

14

[Max] I need help! / Re: Choosing Shader Type in Corona

« on: 2015-01-01, 16:46:48 »

material editor > Corona material > advanced options > BSDF

Only GGX and Ashikhmin-Shirley are supported for now.

I have just spent weeks learning about 3ds Max Shaders and how to use them and now I am back to square one.
Never heard of these shaders... will research further.

I am having trouble with Corona Mats... I want to love them but I much prefer Standard Materials.
There is no info on how to use them.

Thanks for your help :)

15

[Max] I need help! / Choosing Shader Type in Corona

« on: 2015-01-01, 11:58:41 »

I cannot find how to change the shader type in Corona Materials..... Blinn, Phong etc...

Thanks