Leo Padua - Sketchbook

[leopadua3d]

Hi everyone,

Let me introduce myself, since this is the first time I post here. I have been working with CG since 2003, and most of my time I've used 3dsmax and another renderer. Earlier this year, I found Corona, and wanted to give it a try. It was on Alpha .6 at the time.

I've found it to be amazing. Very simple and effective controls, and the speed I get is just amazing. 4x faster than my previous engine at least, and what I like the most, I get to see my render in a few seconds.

So, enough of me saying....let me just share some stuff I have been doing.

With the exception of the very last image, these are some personal stuff I'm doing on my free time. The Mies van der Rohe Gallery and GH house were my very first renders with Corona, and I guess that tells a bunch on how easy this engine is.
Props and vehicles





Current WIP


Arch. Viz.




I hope you like and I'm looking forward to some feedback.

All the best,
leo

[leopadua3d]

Hi there,

I'm sharing a new image I made of the Mies van der Rohe Neue Gallery (Original model by Ronen Bekerman)
I have done the textures, shaders and render. 

I hope you like it. C&C are welcomed.

The stats were:
Primitives uniq: 36.463.949
Primitives inst: 416 M
Materials: 201
Lights: 122 (interior has lights)
Passes: 77 (by the time I got this image saved)
Time: 1 hour and 10 minutes
Resolution: 1920x960 (quite small...just for web)

[CiroC]

Great renders. The vegetation is quite realistic. What did you use to create them?

[leopadua3d]

Hi Cyrus,

Thank you kindly for your words. I'm glad you like the images.

The vegetation comes mostly from Arch models 61. and the materials converted from Vray (using the Corona converter), and then some fine tuning. Grass is custom made from individual blades and ivy was done with Ivy Generator + custom textures.

Most of the trees have displacement on their trunks and ground is generally done with 1 ground plane with soil texture + displacement and then the grass on top.

Cheers!

Leo

[CiroC]

I like in particular the last render. The vegetation feels very natural and realistic. I was a little bit disappointed with Evermotion models in the past, but I need to have a look at the volume you mentioned. Did you used HDRI for lighting?

I am looking forward to see more renders. Keep the good work.

[leopadua3d]

Hi Cyrus,

I'm using 1 hdri and Corona Sun (intensity at 0.1 or .2) to give sharper shadows.

To be honest, their trees are "ok". They generally use interpenetrating cylinders for the branches and that gives a bit of  bad result if you want to do close-ups. But there are a few of their trees that do have seamless main branches.

At any rate, you will certainly need to get the models in Vray, convert to corona, and then adjust the materials, because most of the time, they convert with very high refraction values that look like S***. What I normally do is to remove the refraction completely, then add a .15 for translucency fraction, unless I'm wrong, its faster and more predictable (no fireflies).

I tried using refraction on some trees before, and while it can be made to work, even a very small value can give you white spots that do not go away... bear in mind my scenes have over 200M primitives (at render time), most of them are leaves.

I'm iching to use GrowFX for my vegetation, but I will have to cash up some before...

Cheers.

[CiroC]

Hi leopadua3d,

That is a good tip that I might try with my scene, since my shadows are not as strong I wanted to be.

One thing I noticed with Evermotion's trees, at least with the old volumes, they are incorrect in almost every aspect. Pick a species and the leafs are wrong, the bark is wrong and the tree structure is not very accurate.

For the trees, I use refraction for the leafs with a texture and a small amount for the translucency. For me it gives a better look and I am not experiencing any fireflies. But, like you I need to save some money for the GrowFX.

By the way, what is the time you get for the scene parsing?

Thanks,

[leopadua3d]

I forgot to mention...

I also use XFrog plants. not as often...but I do. the Variegated Common Box on the last scene is Xfrog's LS04 (Landscaping).

You can find quite a few Xfrog plants for free at the Seek library. Their materials are normally very bad, but the textures are great.

cheers.

[leopadua3d]

Cyrus,

I agree. trees are one of the most difficult things. Xfrog's are pretty accurate, and the modeler is very nice. But it does require a lot of work. their libraries are very extensive.
I think integration wise its very lacking (unless I'm outdated).

To be honest, I don't know how long it takes to parse... I think a minute or so. All I care is that its much, much, much faster than anything else I ever worked with.

Regards,
leo

[CiroC]

I am working now with landscaping and accuracy is something that I really need. I wasn't sure about the Xfrog, but it good to know that is a possibility.

[leopadua3d]

Hi Cyrus,

I can understand. In such case, just go with XFrog (in my opinion). Its seed based, so you can grow to different stages and also randomize.

Bear in mind, to my knowledge, you need to export the model in OBJ, import, merge, make materials, export proxy.

So, the workflow is not as streamlined, but I know for sure its accurate.

Have a look, you might find what you need.

cheers!

Leo