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DAZ Productions, Inc.
224 S 200 W, Suite #250
Salt Lake City, UT 84101
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© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
Very quick render ... "Draaaaaaaagon!"
The detail in this is stunning. Here is my first render using it.
Very nice, guys. Thank you. "Vote for Skipper" - love it!! (I guess that she's looking at the hunk, right?)
Another classic, Skipper. Loads of possibilities here from every angle.
Thank you once again for another great model!
Ditto Dorseyland. I could spend everyday for the next month playing with this and never put the characters in the same place twice or use the same angle. I love new toys!!!
It's a bloody impressive model (no real surprise there!) and I would not have been disappointed had I paid for it!
Thanks, Skipper. I'm sure I'll enjoy using it.
Thanks Skipper
I hope I get time to play with it soon
The comments are very kind and the renders fun. Thank you all. :red:
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The render by Dorseyland revealed a serious error in the masonry under the entrance, which I have made haste to correct. I also took on board SimonJM's comment about the position of the cliff railings. While I was at it, I made a texture for the breakwaters and added some turbulence to the surf (a great improvement) and some sub-surface scattering to the sea.
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All of these improvements/editings are available at the same ShareCG address. Just download again.
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Neither DS nor Poser correctly import/export all parameters and so some time today or tomorrow I will prepare a tutorial on tiling, which has a particular effect on the pier decking and paved footpaths. When done, I will post it on this thread.
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Keep those renders coming! :-)
My first ever ShareCG upload ... http://www.ShareCG.com/v/64096/view/21/DAZ-Studio/Cromer-Pier-Lights
A very small, miniscule, thank you to Skipper!
I can confirm that the cliff.pp2 now loads it's materials without issue, thanks!
Those lights are lovely, Simon. A good idea, well carried out. Thank you.
The least I could do. Well ok, maybe not the actual least ... ;)
All I need do now is produce a proper render using them!
I guess that's what I was talking about earlier - the model-maker kicks a ball into play and others run with it. I am pleased for you too, that you have made your first ShareCG upload. We await your next offering with quiet confidence.
Thanks, Simon!
Tiling For All
Although the term "tiling" may conjure up images of bathroom tiles, in the context of 3D modelling it is best to forget them and start with basics. A graphic tile is any flat rectangular image that may be repeated over a given area. In fact, render engines treat >>> ALL <<< graphics as tiles with a default repetition rate of 1.0 along each axis, which is to say that the specified area is entirely covered by a single tile. However, one may specify a repetition of (say) 4.0 along one axis and 2.0 along the other, so that when rendered, the graphic would be repeated four times in a row, with two rows. Any combination of values is accepted and the render engine ensures that the whole of the specified area is covered.</p>
Why is tiling used? For accuracy, sharpness of detail and an enormous saving of resources. Consider a pier decking that is 6000 pixels long and 2000 pixels wide - to cover this with a single .jpg would require 12,000,000 pixels. However, one may easily use a single graphic of a mere 100 x 100 (or 10,000) pixels, tiling or repeating it many times over the whole area. What is more, the more repetitions that are specified, the smaller and sharper each becomes. There are limitations of course, but these are mainly of scale. For example, the standard house brick is 9" x 3" and one could easily make it appear much too small, which plays havoc with one's perspective. This is why my usual tiling is of stone masonry, concrete and so on, which have no familiar size.
What graphic may be used? Any that is rectangular and has no borders. It may be used as texture, bump, transparency or whatever takes your fancy just as long as it fulfils those conditions. If it has a border then the border too, will be repeated - and usually you don't want that. The best graphic tiles (termed seamless) have opposing edges identical so that when they are abutted, the join cannot be seen. There are apps that will do this for you, but it is easy enough to make your own in a graphics prog.
Can you mix tiles, as for example on a bathroom wall? No. For that, you must create a new and different graphic that combines the different styles.
But let's get down to cases. Consider the two renders below. The planking of the decking on the left is clearly much too wide. Teak decking usually comes in widths of 6" to 9", or about twice the width of the human foot, but this decking is much wider than that; it looks clumsy and unrealistic. What then? The user has unzipped the supplied package and done his/her best. What has happened is that the Decking.jpg graphic is intended to be used as a tile, but the render engine is working with the default value of 1.0 and so applies a single occurence over the whole area. In the render on the right, the tile has been adjusted; it has been repeated and repeated, thus giving the correct scale appearance and is much more elegant, hence more realistic.
Now things get a little complicated because DS and Poser use different methods. Personally I consider the DS method better and simpler to use, so let's start with that.
In the graphics menu we scroll down to the tiling section and see that the horizontal and vertical tiling parameters are clearly differentiated. What is more, we can see the effect that we are having even whilst we adjust. The pic shows that for this deck tiling graphic, the horizontal value was 6.47 while the vertical value was 8.0. That is, the decking tile was repeated 8 times along the X axis (top to bottom in the picture) and repeated 6.47 times along the Z axis (right to left). These are not hard-and-fast values, but we may adjust them until we are satisfied with the results. It may be thought - rightly - that in this case the Z value is not so important as the X which adjusts the plank width, but adjustment of the plank length brings a satisfactory repeat of the fixing screws and plank ends, all helping the realism.
My final pic shows the settings for Poser. It will be seen that the writers have elected to use technical terms rather than ordinary English; that we are to adjust the U scale and the V scale. The value to be entered is the proportion that the tile makes of the whole, or 1 divided by N, where N=number of repetitions. Different thinking; same result. The tile is to be 0.12 of the height (0.125 = one eighth) and 0.5 of the width. More or less the same as the DS values. Select the prop, then the surface and then the texture name of the tile. Note very carefully that bump files (or any other affecting the issue) must have the same values in the U-scale and V-scale.
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The only other point is that we must make a render in order to see the result, whereas in DS it is shown instantly.
If you wish, you may save the prop with these new values. In any case, it would be wise to save the PZ3 scene file.
Now for the bad (??) news. I have utilised the tiling method on several surfaces as well as the pier decking and in every case it has been in order to keep down the file size. Thus it is only the large and simple areas that have been tiled. The footpaths beside the road; the breakwaters, sea state and the sea walls spring to mind. How do you know which have been tiled? Easy - look at the .jpg's and recall what I have said - a tile is rectangular and has no borders. Even if I have not used such a graphic as a tile, there is no reason at all why you should not do so, if you do not like what I have done.
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If you ask nicely, I could prepare a table giving my UV values, but I imagine that most of you will have much more fun in experimenting for yourselves. The pier decking is the most important, anyway. What about it? Do I give you all the tiling values?
Just a quick post to say thanks for all the hard work you've put into this model Skipper...
And of course a massive thanks for giving it away so generously (as usual). :-)
A set of quick postcard type renders, done in Bryce7 Pro.
That's great, Dave, and I just LOVE what you have done with the sea and background. Wonderful stuff! Thank you.
Have to agree with Skipper, Dave, those are terrific.
Hope you are going to post them in the Bryce render thread as well.
Thanks... Wasn't sure you'd appreciate me changing some of the materials, but when I got it into Bryce some of them were reacting strangely to the Bryce lighting so had to tweak them and then I just replaced the sea and sand with some Bryce materials and generated my own wave and beach terrains.
I did want a shot of the pier looking directly down it from the top of the cliff but there are some odd shadow issues on the pier decking surface that I couldn't figure out.
It may have something to do with the tiling you explained and which I didn't fix in Poser before exporting it to Bryce... I'll maybe get a chance to have another look at it today sometime. That's not a criticism by the way, I think your model is great and as Bryce does water so well, anything that can be used in sea scape scenes is much appreciated. :-)
Meanwhile, here's another I did this morning, high tide, late evening.
Thanks. :-)
Yes, I probably will eventually but was thinking if I can solve some of the material issues then I can post the render along with a link to the model and some work arounds for anyone wanting to use it in Bryce (as long as skipper doesn't mind).
My husband is a great RNLI supporter and has asked me several times if I could do a scene. Cromer Lifeboat Station was just what I needed, but I couldn't find a suitable lifeboat anywhere, so this visiting French Rescue RIB will have to do. Rendered in Bryce with some added yachts.
Terrific Dave. I have explained my philosophy of kicking a ball into play and letting others run with it, so you go right ahead. The only points that I insist upon are (1) that others shall not make cash out of my work and (2) that if published, I shall be given due credit. Other than that, do what you will; I shall be watching with great interest.
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A very nice render, Wendy. Thank you. The water looks really wet, all the boats look great and I am sure that your husband will be very pleased. I once did a lot of boat building (steam or electric radio-controlled models) and have right here a set of full plans for a lifeboat that I intended to build one day. I am getting old alas, and it will not happen now, but I might well make a 3D model to go with the pier. It will just have to take its place in the queue!
dam you got the new version done
skull
As ... promised, threatened ...? A use of the light set, plus one additional Distant Light for the moon. I did, stupidly, 'cheat' and converetd all the point lights to be ray-traced *slaps head* ;) All else unchanged from loading.
Sorry, don't mean to derail the thread... so let's pretend this lifeboat is based at Comer. :cheese:
The best I've managed to find is this one on Google Sketchup; Google Sketchup RNLI Lifeboat.
You can download it and import it into Bryce... but as usual it needs a lot of work to make it look anything like.
I spent this afternoon fixing some bits of it roughly and managed this quick render:
For sure, completely understandable. :-)
Rest assured anything I do with it will only be to share ideas and techniques with the good people of this forum.
My best intentions however are easily sidetracked by my grasshopper mind... this afternoon for instance I got sidetracked by a lifeboat. :lol:
But hopefully I'll get back to the pier over the weekend, in fact I'll make a start on it now and then..... ohhh look... a kitten.....
;-)