Digital Art Zone

...well it is a bit older as I had to purchase the components when I could afford them (for example, I now could get 24G of memory for just a bit more than what I paid to get 12 - Of course that would mean having to upgrade to Win7 Pro (about another 100$+) as Premium only supports up to 16G.

However , considering what I have been struggling with all these years, it is a significant step up and I’m still very pleased.

The one nice thing about DIY is NO BLOATWARE or “hidden” stuff that competes for processor/memory resources.  I open up Task manager and the list of running processes is doesn’t even take up half the window in that tab (compared to three “pages” on my notebook).

With the memory in Tri-Channel configuration it will mean faster render processing as the pipeline between the CPU and memory is like a six lane superhighway compared to the two lane “country road” on my old notebook.

My intent was to build a lean mean rendering machine.  I think I succeeded.

jamiecaples9 - 17 March 2013 10:43 AM

on a side note, that render with lantios looks amazing. its the kind of “soft” look im trying to figure out how to make.

Thanks. Trial and error for me, with lots of help here on the forums. I am very far from having a solid grasp of anything.

I like your render - there is, of course, no one ‘right’ style or anything. If it works, it works, and I think this one works!

Kyoto Kid - 17 March 2013 01:56 PM

...well it is a bit older as I had to purchase the components when I could afford them (for example, I now could get 24G of memory for just a bit more than what I paid to get 12 - Of course that would mean having to upgrade to Win7 Pro (about another 100$+) as Premium only supports up to 16G.

However , considering what I have been struggling with all these years, it is a significant step up and I’m still very pleased.

The one nice thing about DIY is NO BLOATWARE or “hidden” stuff that competes for processor/memory resources.  I open up Task manager and the list of running processes is doesn’t even take up half the window in that tab (compared to three “pages” on my notebook).

My intent was to build a lean mean rendering machine.  I think I succeeded.

Cool, 12G is twice what I have!

Yeah, I hear you about bloatware, that was the only upside to this machine being over a year old when I got it, the warranty ran out quick so I could take it all off.

As you don’t have a net connection on it you shouldn’t have to worry about an Anti Virus program either.

CHEERS!

Kyoto Kid - 17 March 2013 12:57 PM

...just an FYI

As I have been laid off form my job (of nearly 18 years tenure - long story Details in ma DA Journal) I now have a lot of time on my hands.  Currently installing everything on the new workstation and setting up the runtimes. The process is going surprisingly smoothly (even though I’m doing it the old fashioned way, one file at a time) as this rig is really really fast. Getting my activation code for Reality 2.5 as I have to register offline since the workstation has no net access (on purpose).

Need to go out and get a 16 or 32 GB flash drive which would help speed up the process a bit more.

man that sucks chummer . first some corp slot starts laying off then you do a few runs on the side to make a few ¥ ta get by, and then teh next thing ya know Lone star is at your door and drek really hits the fan.(or if your lucks really run out looking at the business end of a chromed Gillette’s paper cutter)

...actually I do have it installed but only turn it on for certain operations.

...such as when I need to plug in the USB modem to register new software online or directly (some apps don’t have offline registration) or DL/install the latest Flash player so the PP2012 library system will run properly (for some odd reason this needs to be a direct DL/Install using IE, it won’t work from a flash drive, nor with FF which has better security).

The cool thing is I can be online or doing postwork on the notebook while rendering without interfering with the process (and I now have a second notebook primarily for writing and net surfing so that helps the workflow even more).

I have been comparing ways of simulating ambient light in 3Delight renders. I thought I would share some comparison renders I did for an outdoor test scene. This is very simple scene, a model and a sky dome. The lighting for the images are:

No Ambient - One distant light, intensity 100%, Color 255, 246, 234, Raytraced Shadows, 1% softness, Render time: 3 m 51 s

UE2 - Distant light as above but intensity 50%, UE2 intensity 50%, color same, Occlusion w/Directional Shadows, HDR KHPark preset rotated to align with distant light, 3Hi quality preset. Render time 6 m 40 s

Distant Lights - One distant light as in No Ambient, but intensity 70%, 6 distant lights to add ambient, intensity 20%, color same, diffuse only, no shadows, Xrot -10, YRot of 0, 45, 90, 180, -90, -45. Render Time: 3 m 53 s

Ring of Light - One distant light as in No Ambient, but intensity 70%. Ring of Light (no sky, just the light), Ambient 3.0 preset, Sky 03 Light preset (color 255, 255, 208), Quality 3 preset. IMPORTANT NOTE: You have to turn the opacity of the ROL to 0% in the surface tab, otherwise the ROL blocks the distant light and you get only ambient light. You can do this for the whole ROL at once, don’t have to do it for each of the 36 sections. Render Time: 1 h 17 m

UE2 Soft - same as UE2, but used Occlusion w/soft shadows. Render time: 6 m 48 s.

UE2 Ambient - same as UE2 but used Ambient mode. Render time: 3 m 58 s

Luxus - LuxRender via Luxus. One distant light translated to sky2. Only material setting was glass for the eyes. Render time: around 9 h, 5k s/p.  Note: there are problems with materials. I’m a newbie with LuxRender. LuxRender gave errors about the tif files for the eyes, which is why she has demon eyes. I think Luxus is lowering the resolution of all the textures by default. Translation of skin textures/shader seems weird. The DAZ skin material uses UberSurface and includes subsurface scattering. The way Luxus translated that makes the skin look strange to me.

I have posed the model looking directly into the sun. As photographers know, you should never do this. The dynamic range of a camera is not as wide as the human eye. Pictures posed like this come out badly unless you use fill flash. However, I’m not trying to render an image that would look like a photo, and the human eye has wider dynamic range than cameras do.

The no ambient image shows the harsh shadows you get with just a distant light. I’m guessing the Luxus image shows how much ambient scattered light you would really get, but I don’t like the look of this image because of the material issues.

I have never been able to get UE2 to produce result I like. Maybe I gave up too quickly on UE2 and never learned how to use it correctly. I get results I like better using multiple distant lights to fill in the ambient and it renders faster than UE2. The Ring of Light produces very good looking results too. There is a slight difference between the Distant Lights and Ring of Light images in the amount the shadows are filled, but this is just a mater of adjustment. You can independently raise and lower the ambient intensity in both of these images.

Kyoto Kid - 17 March 2013 02:17 PM

...actually I do have it installed but only turn it on for certain operations.

...such as when I need to plug in the USB modem to register new software online or directly (some apps don’t have offline registration) or DL/install the latest Flash player so the PP2012 library system will run properly (for some odd reason this needs to be a direct DL/Install using IE, it won’t work from a flash drive, nor with FF which has better security).

The cool thing is I can be online or doing postwork on the notebook while rendering without interfering with the process (and I now have a second notebook primarily for writing and net surfing so that helps the workflow even more).

Sounds like you’re well catered for then.

CHEERS!

mark - 17 March 2013 02:23 PM

I have been comparing ways of simulating ambient light in 3Delight renders. I thought I would share some comparison renders I did for an outdoor test scene. This is very simple scene, a model and a sky dome. The lighting for the images are:

No Ambient - One distant light, intensity 100%, Color 255, 246, 234, Raytraced Shadows, 1% softness, Render time: 3 m 51 s

UE2 - Distant light as above but intensity 50%, UE2 intensity 50%, color same, Occlusion w/Directional Shadows, HDR KHPark preset rotated to align with distant light, 3Hi quality preset. Render time 6 m 40 s

Distant Lights - One distant light as in No Ambient, but intensity 70%, 6 distant lights to add ambient, intensity 20%, color same, diffuse only, no shadows, Xrot -10, YRot of 0, 45, 90, 180, -90, -45. Render Time: 3 m 53 s

Ring of Light - One distant light as in No Ambient, but intensity 70%. Ring of Light (no sky, just the light), Ambient 3.0 preset, Sky 03 Light preset (color 255, 255, 208), Quality 3 preset. IMPORTANT NOTE: You have to turn the opacity of the ROL to 0% in the surface tab, otherwise the ROL blocks the distant light and you get only ambient light. You can do this for the whole ROL at once, don’t have to do it for each of the 36 sections. Render Time: 1 h 17 m

UE2 Soft - same as UE2, but used Occlusion w/soft shadows. Render time: 6 m 48 s.

UE2 Ambient - same as UE2 but used Ambient mode. Render time: 3 m 58 s

Luxus - LuxRender via Luxus. One distant light translated to sky2. Only material setting was glass for the eyes. Render time: around 9 h, 5k s/p.  Note: there are problems with materials. I’m a newbie with LuxRender. LuxRender gave errors about the tif files for the eyes, which is why she has demon eyes. I think Luxus is lowering the resolution of all the textures by default. Translation of skin textures/shader seems weird. The DAZ skin material uses UberSurface and includes subsurface scattering. The way Luxus translated that makes the skin look strange to me.

I have posed the model looking directly into the sun. As photographers know, you should never do this. The dynamic range of a camera is not as wide as the human eye. Pictures posed like this come out badly unless you use fill flash. However, I’m not trying to render an image that would look like a photo, and the human eye has wider dynamic range than cameras do.

The no ambient image shows the harsh shadows you get with just a distant light. I’m guessing the Luxus image shows how much ambient scattered light you would really get, but I don’t like the look of this image because of the material issues.

I have never been able to get UE2 to produce result I like. Maybe I gave up too quickly on UE2 and never learned how to use it correctly. I get results I like better using multiple distant lights to fill in the ambient and it renders faster than UE2. The Ring of Light produces very good looking results too. There is a slight difference between the Distant Lights and Ring of Light images in the amount the shadows are filled, but this is just a mater of adjustment. You can independently raise and lower the ambient intensity in both of these images.

The ROL and the distant light look to give the best results there.

CHEERS!

Dire Bunny - 17 March 2013 02:15 PM

man that sucks chummer . first some corp slot starts laying off then you do a few runs on the side to make a few ¥ ta get by, and then teh next thing ya know Lone star is at your door and drek really hits the fan.(or if your lucks really run out looking at the business end of a chromed Gillette’s paper cutter)

...

Yep, now one of the “SINless”.

Fortunately they gave me a bit of a severance so I have something to equip-er-fall back on as well as my incoming tax refunds.

Looks like it’s time to get fitted for a Securetech jacket and find a clinic to get that jack and SL II with Rangefinder implanted.  Hear WW has a spring sale on the Pred-III.

Also need to gut the old notebook compy and turn it into a matrix shredding deck.

Now where did I leave my Fixer’s telecom address?

http://bobvan.deviantart.com/art/465-360114049

http://bobvan.deviantart.com/art/466-360114037

http://bobvan.deviantart.com/art/467-360114025

Kyoto Kid - 17 March 2013 02:30 PM

Dire Bunny - 17 March 2013 02:15 PM

man that sucks chummer . first some corp slot starts laying off then you do a few runs on the side to make a few ¥ ta get by, and then teh next thing ya know Lone star is at your door and drek really hits the fan.(or if your lucks really run out looking at the business end of a chromed Gillette’s paper cutter)

...

Yep, now one of the “SINless”.

Fortunately they gave me a bit of a severance so I have something to equip-er-fall back on as well as my incoming tax refunds.

Looks like it’s time to get fitted for a Securetech jacket and find a clinic to get that jack and SL II with Rangefinder implanted.  Hear WW has a spring sale on the Pred-III.

Also need to gut the old notebook compy and turn it into a matrix shredding deck.

Now where did I leave my Fixer’s telecom address?

“YAKUZA” Hacking Device

...frag, that’s swiss.

Got it.

Still would love to see someone come up with a Predator (any series) and/or real “chrome”

mark - 17 March 2013 02:23 PM

I have been comparing ways of simulating ambient light in 3Delight renders. I thought I would share some comparison renders I did for an outdoor test scene. This is very simple scene, a model and a sky dome. The lighting for the images are:

No Ambient - One distant light, intensity 100%, Color 255, 246, 234, Raytraced Shadows, 1% softness, Render time: 3 m 51 s

UE2 - Distant light as above but intensity 50%, UE2 intensity 50%, color same, Occlusion w/Directional Shadows, HDR KHPark preset rotated to align with distant light, 3Hi quality preset. Render time 6 m 40 s

Distant Lights - One distant light as in No Ambient, but intensity 70%, 6 distant lights to add ambient, intensity 20%, color same, diffuse only, no shadows, Xrot -10, YRot of 0, 45, 90, 180, -90, -45. Render Time: 3 m 53 s

Ring of Light - One distant light as in No Ambient, but intensity 70%. Ring of Light (no sky, just the light), Ambient 3.0 preset, Sky 03 Light preset (color 255, 255, 208), Quality 3 preset. IMPORTANT NOTE: You have to turn the opacity of the ROL to 0% in the surface tab, otherwise the ROL blocks the distant light and you get only ambient light. You can do this for the whole ROL at once, don’t have to do it for each of the 36 sections. Render Time: 1 h 17 m

UE2 Soft - same as UE2, but used Occlusion w/soft shadows. Render time: 6 m 48 s.

UE2 Ambient - same as UE2 but used Ambient mode. Render time: 3 m 58 s

Luxus - LuxRender via Luxus. One distant light translated to sky2. Only material setting was glass for the eyes. Render time: around 9 h, 5k s/p.  Note: there are problems with materials. I’m a newbie with LuxRender. LuxRender gave errors about the tif files for the eyes, which is why she has demon eyes. I think Luxus is lowering the resolution of all the textures by default. Translation of skin textures/shader seems weird. The DAZ skin material uses UberSurface and includes subsurface scattering. The way Luxus translated that makes the skin look strange to me.

I have posed the model looking directly into the sun. As photographers know, you should never do this. The dynamic range of a camera is not as wide as the human eye. Pictures posed like this come out badly unless you use fill flash. However, I’m not trying to render an image that would look like a photo, and the human eye has wider dynamic range than cameras do.

The no ambient image shows the harsh shadows you get with just a distant light. I’m guessing the Luxus image shows how much ambient scattered light you would really get, but I don’t like the look of this image because of the material issues.

I have never been able to get UE2 to produce result I like. Maybe I gave up too quickly on UE2 and never learned how to use it correctly. I get results I like better using multiple distant lights to fill in the ambient and it renders faster than UE2. The Ring of Light produces very good looking results too. There is a slight difference between the Distant Lights and Ring of Light images in the amount the shadows are filled, but this is just a mater of adjustment. You can independently raise and lower the ambient intensity in both of these images.

Nice comparisons. For now since i dont know to much about luxus I’ve gone back to fiddling with the lighting in 3delight. For my test i used UberEnviorment2(4xhi quality) set to 50% intensity with 2 spotlights above her pointing down at her, one on the left with color 215-63-34 30% intensity, Deep shadow maps with 50% softness, and the right 91-101-255 with 45% intensity with the same settings for the shadows. As well as one spotlight in front of her slightly below her with the default light color set to 45% intensity with the same shadows as the others.

Then i have 2 distant lights 1 in front of her(slightly rotated to the right, or her left) set to 45% and same shadows as my spotlights, and 1 behind her set to 130% intensity with no shadows.

If anyone could give me some criticism it would be very welcomed.