Creating scenes with LARGE numbers of people in them

DAZ_Spooky

Madbat said:

DAZ_Spooky said:

There are some interesting comments here many of which don't really apply in 64bit. 

1. Instancing will help but does have its limitations. . 

2. If rendering in 3Delight the render engine will mip-map textures for you (reduce texture size as it gets further into the background. ) so there is no need to reduce texture sizes. 

3. With 64 bit, while it won't fit onto a video card it will use virtual memory on the hard drive. 

Granted this is not quite as dense a scene as some may be interested in, but it is 4 million polys. (Note this was done before Iray.) The goal was 4 million Polys and designed to stress test both DS and a new computer. LOL

Have you thought of converting that to an Iray render? I bet it would look great!

I am sure it would. :) I no longer have the scene file, but even if I did, to do it justice would require lots of shader work. LOL I occasionally still do that though. LOL. I just wonder if I can get it to stay on a 12GB card. :) 

Oso3D

By the way, thank you guys SO MUCH for this thread. I have a number of situations where I need a bunch of figures or items at long distance, and... wow, this makes it easier.

Also FORESTS. Man.

 

ANGELREAPER1972

don't know if this would work or not but was thinking of a crowd trick done in games is where they use a small group of characters spread out over a scene then copy layer that scene of characters over the top and slightly to the side so was thinking if did something like this rendering small groups in different positions saving as png and layering them up in paintshop/photoshop/gimp/extra with background as seperate render, take a long to build up though, but a quicker option may be the Kaleidoscope  with this you could create a large group from only a small number of figures http://www.daz3d.com/kaleidoscope

Ati

ANGELREAPER1972 said:

don't know if this would work or not but was thinking of a crowd trick done in games is where they use a small group of characters spread out over a scene then copy layer that scene of characters over the top and slightly to the side so was thinking if did something like this rendering small groups in different positions saving as png and layering them up in paintshop/photoshop/gimp/extra with background as seperate render, take a long to build up though, but a quicker option may be the Kaleidoscope  with this you could create a large group from only a small number of figures http://www.daz3d.com/kaleidoscope

This looks interesting.

Valandar

One of the most common methods "In da old dayz" was to simply render a series of characters to PNG's, and use that as the texture and transmap on flat planes, maybe with a ZDepth displacement. Then have a whole bunch of them, and you have your army!

 

Case in point:

https://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/siege-s03-/322332/

One of the most impressive such images I have ever seen done with the software we use. Flak RULEZ.

And he also did:

https://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/the-other-side/1911828/

and

https://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/the-line-s08-/629175/

and more... by making flat planes all transmapped and stuff.

DAZ_Spooky

Valandar said:

One of the most common methods "In da old dayz" was to simply render a series of characters to PNG's, and use that as the texture and transmap on flat planes, maybe with a ZDepth displacement. Then have a whole bunch of them, and you have your army!

 

Case in point:

https://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/siege-s03-/322332/

One of the most impressive such images I have ever seen done with the software we use. Flak RULEZ.

And he also did:

https://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/the-other-side/1911828/

and

https://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/the-line-s08-/629175/

and more... by making flat planes all transmapped and stuff.

A similar method I used in the past is to render (usually png but any lossless format will do, and not with a transparent background) from back to front, small groups, then use the previous render as the backdrop for the current render adding it to the until I was done. 

XpiderMan

There is a new product that came out this week called Magical Daz Studio 2.5D Effects. "The best of two worlds, 2.5D blends 3D graphics with 2D elements for maximum creativity, rendering speed and design flow–without the sacrifice of quality. Learn how to create 2.5D effects right inside DAZ Studio without the need for Photoshop."

http://www.daz3d.com/magical-daz-studio-2-5d-effects

Ati

XpiderMan said:

There is a new product that came out this week called Magical Daz Studio 2.5D Effects. "The best of two worlds, 2.5D blends 3D graphics with 2D elements for maximum creativity, rendering speed and design flow–without the sacrifice of quality. Learn how to create 2.5D effects right inside DAZ Studio without the need for Photoshop."

http://www.daz3d.com/magical-daz-studio-2-5d-effects

Keep in mind, that this is a tutorial video.

nicstt

K T Ong said:

I'm thinking of doing an 'epic' sort of scene where there'll be dozens of people, possibly a couple hundred. (Most of them won't be seen up close, of course.) Now I believe most of you would already know it's out of the question to load that many G1 (or G2 or G3) figures into a single scene; the sheer amount of memory required would be murderously large. So how could a scene like what I described be done?

I've been to Turbosquid and found some low-poly human models which can be loaded into a scene in large numbers; the only trouble is that I'm looking for figures with a medieval feel about them, besides which most of the figures are very expensive and don't seem to be poseable. Does anyone know of any (poseable, please) medieval-style low-poly human models anywhere which cost less than say $80? (With ideally at least a small range of skin textures to choose from for applying on them, as opposed to one skin only?)

Alternatively, can I reduce the number of polys a G1 figure has, thereby reducing the amount of memory it requires and hence making it possible to load more such figures into a scene? I seem to remember some sort of 'app' found in DAZ Studio which does this or something similar. Can anyone enlighten me on what it is, where in DAZ Studio to find it and how to use it? Thanks!

Try to use the same textures as much as possible; it helps i've noticed.

Silver Dolphin

K T Ong said:

Silver Dolphin said:

If you are strapped for cash this Holiday season. I would suggest MakeHuman. It is OpenSource so it is free. You can export the mesh once you have the one you like with clothes and hair then just change textures in Gimp to give you different characters. When you import the mesh Obj with textures into Studio you can then use the genesis or M4/V4 bones so your character can use the poses and animations you can get for free or cheap. You can also take this mesh into wing3d for Blender and modify them for your own use. Just remember the bones for genesis and V4/M4 were created by daz and is owned by them you can use them for your own use but don't share your new creations unless you make a bone rig for your charater from scratch.

Will MakeHuman reduce the memory size of the mesh?

No, but you can use decimator to reduce the mesh resolution or do it inside of Hexagon or blender or whatever modler you own.

McGrandpa

Large numbers of people.  NeelzOnline paved the way for the genre I think.  His tool of choice, Vue.  And Photoshop.   I bought a poster print of Low Tide back when he finished that.  Love looking at that print.  Then we all followed his thread for Rush Hour.  He did the "Where's Waldo?" thing with a lot of us, putting our names in that image somewhere somehow.  Fantastical images.  I started my Coffee Corner back then, but ended up offline, got sick, am now a cancer survivor and picked up working on my image again.  It won't stand up next to NeelzOnlines work, but working on it allowed me to work out how I can accomplish similar things using different tools.  In my case, I went for Poser (from P7 up through PP-11 now) and PS CS4 Extended.  Gotta admit, rather than being tedious, it was fun!   So here is what I have so far.  Oh I know it looks more like a flashmob at the Coffee Corner, too many of the characters are looking at the camera!  But hey, here it is, and it was fun to do!

McG.

 

Kendall Sears

If anyone is interested, I'm going to be attempting a scene with 30,000 figures in it in the near-ish future.

Kendall

McGrandpa

I think we'll all need season passes to that one!   :)

 

Pack58

Kendall Sears said:

If anyone is interested, I'm going to be attempting a scene with 30,000 figures in it in the near-ish future.

Kendall

Are you gonna record the process so you can show the rest of us mere mortals how you do it :-)

McGrandpa

Yep!  C'mon Kendall, pics too or it din't happen!   

 

McG.

Kendall Sears

Oh, there will be pics -- hundreds of them.  It is an animation.

Kendall

stitlown

Kendall Sears said:

Oh, there will be pics -- hundreds of them.  It is an animation.

Kendall

Hey Kendall - did that ever come off?  Interested to know.

Kendall Sears

stitlown said:

Kendall Sears said:

Oh, there will be pics -- hundreds of them.  It is an animation.

Kendall

Hey Kendall - did that ever come off?  Interested to know.

It's in progress.  The sequence in question is being pitched as a possible thesis proposal for a Master's Degree (my daughter).  However, it turns out that they (Purdue University) will not consider a proposal for which actual work has started before the thesis project is approved so her professors recommended that she hold off on it until then -- hence the delay.  She's scheduled to meet with her Graduate Advisor about possible thesis topics in early August before the fall semester commences.  Either way (approval or not) the project moves forward.

Kendall