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Deleted. Moved to Reality forum.
Hi Wonderland.
If you don't mind, please re-post your question in our forum, in the troubleshooting area, I would like to keep this thread on topic, which is about tips to get specific things done in Reality.
I will gladly tell you what you need to change in your scene. Please make sure to post the settings for the materials that you want to address. screenshot will be best.
Thank you very much.
OK, figured out how to add images there. I moved it there.
Thank you.
So I finally was able to figure out the basics and had fun switching the film presets while it was rendering and ended up with something I'm happy with. Thanks for your help and hope you like it!
HI Alicia.
That'a very nice result, especially for playing just a few hours with a new program.
Thank you for sharing it.
Thanks for all your help!!! :)
Hello,
I'm completely new to Reality, so I was wondering if it is possible to render an image in Reality without a background. Even when I don't add a background during setup, it is filled in when rendering in Reality. Can I leave the background with transparent pixels? A lot of times I like to just render the subject, leaving the background transparent, so I can work with both subject and background separately in Photoshop. Thank you.
Hi Lyam.
Sure, just enable "Transparent BG" in the Render | Output panel.
Cheers.
Thanks Paolo. Well that's easy enough. Feel like a bit of a dunce.
Please don't feel in that way. As you said, you are completely new to the program, we all know how that feels :)
Hi Paolo, I noticed some interesting things under "save as." Can you save an image as a HDR light in Reality?
Hi Wonderland, while you can export HDR images from Lux, those images have to have a spacial layout in order to be usable as IBL. They need to beeithe rin "latlong" or "angular" layout, and Lux does not provide that feature right now.
Cheers.
Bump map, normal map and displacement map
Create by Marcel2586
Bump map
Bump maps work only with greyscale to provide either up or down information.
I try to simplify a bump map
See a bump map as water.
Black is 0 percent water and white is 100 percent water.
Now take a glass and pour black in it. (0% water, the glass is empty)
Now pour dark grey in it. (25% water in the glass)
Now fill the glass to grey (50% water in the glass)
Now fill the glass with light grey (75% water in the glass)
And now fill it to white (100% water in the glass, it is full)
This is the basic how a bump map works.
Black is no bump and white is full height all the shades of grey are calculated as height.
This is the picture I used on a simple plane
Here the result, only bump map added
Normal map
Normal maps are bump maps on steroids.
It holds more information in it on all axis.
It gives you high detail on low poly objects.
Next-Gen game consoles rely heavily on normal maps.
You have two kinds of normal maps.
1: Tangent Space normal map. The most used in Poser and Studio. It is a mixture of purples and blues.
This is very good for animations and characters.
2: Object space normal map. This is a mixture of rainbow colors and is a little bit more advanced.
Here the two different normal maps
How do normal maps work?
In a normal map, all the heights and depths are stored in the RGB and is translated into X, Y, Z axes.
So basically it tells how much water is there in the glass and is it a glass, bucket, or swimming pool. This is not completely true, but it is very near.
This is the normal map used
Here the result, only Normal map added
The displacement map works in a similar way as a bump map, but this time, it gives real physical depth.
A displacement map can be baked from an object or like a bump map made from a bitmap. Normally the bitmap will be 8 bit, but this is not so good for a displacement map.
The higher the bits, let’s say 16 bit or even 32 bit. The render will benefit from the detail of your displacement map.
Displacement Mapping is very much dependent on the amount of polys in the mesh, a high poly mesh will give better results & more detail than a low poly model. Unless use of such things as "Sub-Poly Displacement" (called Micro-Facets in Reality) which subdivides the amount of polygons during render time giving the appearance of more polys in the model than there actually is. (Thanks, Fuzzy70, for clearing this out)
But is displacement mapping the holy grail? No, it is not. Displacement is hard on your system when rendering. But if you use it, it will definitely pay off as the surface is transformed. That will bump maps and normal maps never do, they are just shaders telling the light how to bounce of the surface. That's why the borders never have depth. (look at the examples from bit map and normal map)
If you use only, lets say, normal maps for a wooden floor with only a top light, your normal map will have a real problem. It shows flat all the way.
It needs angle light to work.
Here the result, only displacement map added
Using These Maps Together
Regardless of which map you choose to use, understanding how each map works and both it’s strengths as well as it’s weaknesses will only make your decision easier. Ultimately the map you go with should be the one that best fits the needs of the scenario you find yourself dealing with.
All the maps together.
Here some handy sites to help you!
Online normal map generator and displacement map generator
http://cpetry.github.io/NormalMap-Online/
I cannot use it, Chrome has no Web GL
It should work with Firefox, but i cannot confirm this.
I have used "Know the difference" as a reference.
http://blog.digitaltutors.com/bump-normal-and-displacement-maps/
Thank you Marcel and Kim for reposting this.
BTW, the Normal Map generator works fine in Chrome and Mac OS, I just tried it and it's an incredibly useful resource.
Reality has many way to make you save money. Not only it gives you the most realistic results, but it includes many features that, with other solutions, require additional products. And that is because, among other things, Reality uses the most awesome renderer of them all: LuxRender. In this article we are going to see how we can achieve several different looks for the renderer image without even whispering “Photoshop.”
Desaturate, baby!
For many decades, visual artists used the black and white film, B&W to its friends, to convey an aura of mystery and sophistication. Many film directors used B&W to make their debut feature look more artistic, more intellectual. Both Spike Lee and Kevin Smith made their first movie in B&W to give it a better look than the 16mm film stock, or the cheap digital camera used in Clerks, would deliver. Black and White even became the signature look of an entire cinematic genre, the French “film noir.” Black and White is elegant, intriguing and fascinating. A clear case of “less is more.” If you never used it in your renders, here are some quick tips on how to get a great B&W look for your images just using Reality and LuxRender.
Once your image is completely clear of render noise, and not before, click on the Gamma + Film response panel in Lux and reveal the Film Response dropdown list (don’t call it a menu). “Film response” is a geeky term to indicate the ability of Lux to imitate film stock. In the days of film photography there were several makers of film, each with their distinctive look. Even among a single maker, there were different types of film, each with a different way of reacting to light. I personally remember choosing Fujifilm 35mm film because I though that it created images with warmer, more brilliant colors than other films.
Today we have all that power to our fingertips, without having to change roll of film, or lugging multiple camera bodies with us. In case you ever wondered why photographers carry different cameras with them, in the old days, meaning ten years ago, that was one of the reasons. Today we can emulate all that with ease via LuxRender’s Film response. Once we select one of those film stock names, Lux will automatically adjust the image to look as if it was shot using that type of film. The simulation is extremely precise, since Lux uses actual measured data from laboratory tests and the result feels so much more organic than by simply desaturating the image. The response curve of film has a very distinctive look, created by how the specks of silver halide in the film emulsion react to light.
A few options in the list above produce B&W images. I will use the promo for the Austrani Outfit Automatic Preset for Reality to demonstrate how we can create multiple looks from the same scene. This is the original image:
And these are the results, left to right, of applying the Agfapan APX 025, 100, and 400 presets in LuxRender:
If you find that the first and the second images are the same, that is because they are. It turns out that the 025 and 100 of the Agfapan are not showing any difference. The 400 version has a slight change of tone. The difference is subtle but it is visible if we flip between the two images. In making these variations I did not change the exposure of the image. So, is this it? Three B&W settings which are actually two? We actually just started.
By changing the Gamma value in the same panel we can shift the mid-tone point in the image, creating different configurations. This works for all kind of images, but it is very effective with B&W modes. Here is the same Agfapan Apx 025 preset but with a gamma of 1.63:
There are other effects that can be added to an image directly in LuxRender. Bloom adds a diffusion layer than makes the image look as if it was shot through a smeared glass. The effect can be very subtle or very pronounced. It adds a dreamlike quality that can be useful for flashbacks or other “altered state” situations. A vignette is the darkening of the edges of the image, an effect that was very visible in the first years of cinema, when lenses where of low quality and they “clipped” the edges of the film frame. Today that effect is very much in use to add an artistic touch, and to focus the attention of the viewer on the subject in the center of the frame. This is the result of adding both bloom and vignette to the above image:
More B&W presets
Did you notice that when we click on the dropdown list of the Film Response in Lux, there is an option named “External…?”. That option is used to load a film response preset from an external file. So, where can we get more film response files? I have found a few more B&W film emulations that are not included in Lux and I created a free package that you can download from our site. Once you do that you can use the External option in Lux to load any of those files. The set includes emulations for these films:
The “minutes” listed for the Double-X film probably indicate the length at which the film has been exposed to the fixer or wash during development. There is no information about it, but the development manual by Kodak outlines the plausible times. The “push” and “pull” variants for the Agfa Scala film refer to an old photographic trick of under or over exposing film. If you’re interested in the technical details you can read this interesting article that explain the process.
Here is an example of using the Agfa Scala settings:
And here is an example of the Eastman Double-X:
You can download the B&W presets, for free, at our website. Please let us know your impressions in the comment section below. We love hearing what you think of Reality. Even better, give us a link to your artwork.
Stay tuned for more tips about Reality and Lux in this thread.
Nice Alicia. In case you are wondering, those artifacts on the skin is from using some of the accelerated modes. I use CPU acc no boost with 1 mesh or the sunlight usualy avoids them.
http://fav.me/d9uf0vj
Thanks Paolo for the B&W presets! Will make good use of them for sure. :)
You're welcome.
Looking forward to seeing some of your "noir" artwork, Lyne :)
Cheers.
Will try to cook something up! :)
If one wants to create their own film response preset, what is the best way to find out if there is data available for a specific type of film. I look around the 'Google' but couldn't find any pertinent information.
In my days of darkroom and film photography, I used to shoot with KODAK PROFESSIONAL T-MAX 100 Film (used D76 to develop). I found that the T-MAX 100 was the finest-grained of all 100-speed black-and-white film. It was my choice of film primarily for enlargement and image quality with nearly invisible grain. Loved the way it brought out the details in my images.
I would love to be able to reproduce the T-MAX 100 (and 400) as presets.
Hi Lyne.
The camera response files have been created by the Columbia Automated Vision Environment (CAVE) as part of their program on analyzing the tonal response of film. The paper is here: http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/CAVE/publications/pdfs/Grossberg_PAMI04.pdf
The database is at http://www.cs.columbia.edu/CAVE/databases/ , look for the DoRF & EMoR: Camera Response Database and Model link. The only way we could get new film response files is, IMHO, if you contacted Grossberg and Nayar and ask them to analyze than film. They might do it.
Cheers.
Thanks for all the info. I will certainly try to contact them and see if they are willing to analyze the film. Will let you know how it turns out.
Cheers,
Lyne
:)
Render from anywhere
This is a simple tip, that I'm presenting here because several Reality users are not awar of a convenient keyboard shortcut.
If you want to render a scene you don't have to click on the Render tab. You can simply press Cmd-R on the Mac, or Ctrl-R on Windows, and Reality will rendee you scene from any tab you are.
Cheers.
I used one of the B&W film response presets that Paolo shared earlier in this thread. I elected to use the "Agfa-scala-200-pull1" since I wanted to reduce the contrast in my image which was too high contrast for my taste. Here's the result:
Used only one light in this case a Spotlight and an environment with a fog volume and some Bloom. The only post done on this image was to insert a background image.
Hope you like it,
Cheers,
Lyne
That is a beautiful image Lyne, the B$W really looks organic, like it was shot on film. If you have the time to post your lighting setup, I'm sure that the readers of this thread will love to see it.
Cheers.
Here's the general setup for my scene:
Material:
Volume:
Output:
Scene Config:
LuxRender:
fram1963, I cant seem to be able to view your image, All I see is a big red sign with the words - 'You Are Not Authorised To View This Image' below it.
Lyne, thank you vey much for posting the detailed plans of your lighting setup. In addition to showing your mastery of the subject, this is a great demonstration of the techniques that we discussed in the past. Reality includes volumentric simulation, which is results into the effect of the light being split into beams. The B&W preset give us absolutely perfect simulation of real film stopc, resulting into an organic look via LuxRender's services. And everythign is included "in the box."
Thank you again for the great tip.
I redid the upload of the image ... can you see the full size / thumbnail now?
All looks good. Thank you Lyne.