BLENDING LIFE 2 — Blender 3d realistic human portrait challenge (Q&A + Discussion)

[Len]

Blending Life 2 main thread:
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=177427



This is the discussion, feedback and Q&A thread for Blending Life 2.

Please keep the main contest thread clean and use this one for discussions etc.


FAQ:

Is this comp going to be exclusively tied to the use of the 2.5 versions of blender or open to earlier versions as well?
No not at all, older versions of Blender can also be used.

Is it okay if we use tutorials to help or is that considered cheating?
By all means use any tutorials you wish. At the end of they day what matters is that you created, placed and moved each and every vertex, or created every texture, yourself.

Are only official Blender releases allowed or are custom builds allowed as well?
Custom builds from Graphicall are allowed.

Can I make a portrait of someone who is famous?
Yes.

May we use materials from the material repository?
It may be used for small things, ie. a metallic material for jewellery.

What is a meant by Portrait only?
It means the head and/or bust. Basically the focal point needs to be the subjects face, but it may include shoulders and upper chest.

May we submit more than one entry?
Yes, but they must be completely different.

Can I use more time on modeling and less time on texturing and rendering, or do I
have to spend three weeks on each?
Yes you may. The 3 weeks each is a guide only.

Modeling and rendering a background "set" along with the portrait model isn't required here, right?
No not at all, you may use any background including photos.

Do we need to rig the model?
No.

May I include props in the portrait?
Yes you may, but keep in mind that the main focus is on the portrait/character, regardless of what else you add.

Must one be able to animate the scene along with the character?
No. It is a stills contest, so the scene around the character need not be animatible.

Why must we include an alternate angled render?
The only reason for the need of a simple alternate render of the character is to make sure there's no cheating with regards skin texturing.

Must the alternate angled render include the scene and or background?
No

May I use the defocus filter in the Blender node editor?
Yes

Must we have a WIP thread?
No

Are we allowed to use previously created base meshes for sculpting?
Given that it still takes work to transform a base mesh it will be allowed it BUT only if the contestant created the base mesh herself/himself to begin with, and ONLY IF it gets transformed in such a way that it's in essence a completely different mesh.
Be warned that we know what Make Human's mesh structure looks like. DON'T EVEN think about it! Be honest, make it yourself and learn how.

[bigbad]

Good news that no wip thread is necessary. Rather do one in finished projects with how to's.

I really really like the part that one is picked random for a price.

[Michael W]

Cool, will probably do it this year..... looks like fun.

don't care much for the rules or criteria, too much emphasis on the technical aspects, not enough on making a "compelling" whole.. (the only one I really care about...) but will enter anyway sure in the knowledge that I'm not "ticking the boxes"....

[Len]

@bigbad: Lol it wasn't compulsory last year either Looking forward to see what you come up with this year!

@Michael: I hear ya. But fleshing out criteria was something that was requested heavily last year, hence here it is. However I think I understand what you mean by creating a compelling whole. It is important too. In the end everything needs to come together as one big masterpiece.

Guys and girls, let me say this right now up front. Don't expect this contest to be perfect yet. If one looks at last years contest as Blending Life Alpha, then this year is Blending Life Beta. Unforeseen issues will come up, which will be taken note of to improve this contest in the future.

BUT I HOPE YOU ALL HAVE FUN!

[lucasfalcao]

Hi Len!

Let me see if i understand right, only the final entry must send to blendinglife@gmail.com and posted at the main thread ?
and the wip thread must be create at Blender Artists Forums > Artwork > Work In Progress ?
Sorry for my stupid doubt...

[Len]

Originally Posted by lucasfalcao Hi Len! Let me see if i understand right, only the final entry must send to blendinglife@gmail.com and posted at the main thread ? and the wip thread must be create at Blender Artists Forums > Artwork > Work In Progress ? Sorry for my stupid doubt...

Hey no worries, yes the final entry must be e-mailed and also posted in the main thread, but a WIP thread is not compulsory hey. Only if you want to. Actually, if someone doesn't want to post their final work to a placeholder under the main thread I won't hold it against them. Just make sure you e-mail it to me, and that I confirm receipt.

[lucasfalcao]

Thanks Len!
I've been waiting for this contest, will be so cool !!

[BenDansie]

Notes the resources list for the competition:

I had a look at the list of resources and noticed my thread with head texturing tutorial was on there. Then I looked at that thread, noticed that the link was out of date:

http://www.bendansie.com/BD_BlenderHumans.pdf - now a .pdf

Looked deeper into what I wrote at the time and:

• the image files on the reference site are out of date / offline
• was written for Blender 2.45 and Gimp 2.4rc (not such a big deal in this case, but shows the age a bit)
• I didn't even recognise the shading node setup in the file. I was using an earlier version of the shader by Pixelvore, now I use a similar but simpler one I made that I still tweak a lot
• most embarrassingly I have learnt about linear workflow since writing it so that is also making realism harder by leaving it out.

http://vimeo.com/3485932 - there is a video version of the projection part though for now so I hope that helps people.

So, what I thought I might do is at least dig through some of my files and post a .blend and some textures that are a bit more up to date with how I do things now. Hopefully this weekend, shouldn't take too long.

Ideally I've been meaning to go through and write a better version two of the tutorial, go more in depth into the material settings and so on. Seeing as the comp starts in a few days and I probably wont have a genuine increase in spare time until the Durian Premiere in June-ish (nothing too concrete) I don't think that is going to happen any time soon though.

_____________________________________


Other links that people might find very useful for the contest:

http://vimeo.com/5093588 - Projection painting tutorial with a practical example of a human head texture. By François Tarlier.

http://www.ypoart.com/tutorials/tone/index.php Gamma and tone information by Yves Poissant. Helpful information for realism in general but it will help with texturing and material setup.

BUT

http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/blender-250/color-management/
Blender 2.5 has the beginnings of a colour management system, the aim of which is to take care of a lot of the issues for the artist. So if you are using a Blender 2.5 build for the competition, take note of 'Colour Management' and whether it is turned on in the render settings or not near raytracing and so on.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1393798/tuto...l/general.html
and
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1393798/tuto.../interior.html
by Marek Skrajnowski

Two very nice lighting tutorials that I quite like and should be quite helpful for the competition in general.

_____________________________________


Finally, would love to enter because I didn't finish last year, but due time and the fact I'm working directly and indirectly with two of the judges anyway I'll have to give this year a miss. Which is a bit disappointing in a way, but heaps cool in another way. I love the idea of this comp and if I'm not in it, I am free of wanting to win it so I can go around and try and give critique, feedback, hints and such where appropriate which I really enjoy doing. Yay!

Best of luck to all contestants and a huge thankyou to the organisers and sponsors!


____________________________________



http://bendansie.com/blendinglife/bl...ife2010_bd.tar - about 93mb

One last thing, the file renders fine on a netbook. So it should hopefully be a nice accessible resource for anyone wanting to enter the competition. Hardware obviously helps but it isn't everything.

[Len]

Thanks Ben, much appreciated hey

[francoistarlier]

thx for the link benDanise

[Month]

Hi len,
Thanks for hosting this again, last year was jolly good fun
and thank you ben for those links, they will come in handy

[tyrant monkey]

I just have a suggestion can how much of the body that is shown be left to the artists discretion; focusing on the head or bust is a bit limiting IMHO.

In painting even if the whole body is shown it is still considered 'a portrait, a portrait of madame x' by john singer sargent comes to mind.

it just that I am not really intrested in just doing a bust a full body portrait will work better for my needs thanks.

[REiKo Rhoemer]

I will make full body even if it isnt in rules .

[BenDansie]

Ack! No luck yesterday, my day got hijacked. Probably have to try again next week for putting the files up.

[tyrant monkey]

Originally Posted by REiKo Rhoemer I will make full body even if it isnt in rules .

I think I will also take this route

[Len]

@Month: Pleasure hey.

@tyrant monkey & REiKo Rhoemer: Where I live the first thing someone usually thinks of when one say "portrait" is pretty much someone's head/face + shoulders and maybe upper chest, however you are right technically it can be full body also.

For this contest however I want the focus do be on the head and I'd rather have people spend their time in perfecting and creating a super realistic head than having to worry about the rest of the body at this time.

Having said that, if you guys would like to create full bodies by all means go for it. But keep in mind that at the end of the day I will crop the head + shoulder area and judging will be done on that only. Anyways ... have fun!

@Ben: No worries dude, I still need to update the outdated link of yours as well when I have a moment.

[Senshi]

This seems like an amazing contest and I'll probably enter, just for the experience. =) However, I do have two questions remaining, even after reading the FAQ. Sorry in advance if they've been answered elsewhere before, but here goes:
1) I understand the mesh has to be created completely from scratch, but what about textures? Are royalty-free images (like those of www.cgtextures.com) allowed, or frowned upon/ prohibited?
2) Does the final render have to be created through Blender's internal renderer is can an external render engine like LuxRender or Octane Renderer also allowed?

Thanks in advance and good luck to all the entrants!
-Patrick

[LoopyShane]

@Senshi -
With 1. I am not certain - but I would think you could use other pictures to help create your character textures, and any surrounding props you may use. But you couldn't use someone else's uv map on your character - it has to be a texture that you create specifically for this model.

As for 2. - From the rules -
<quote>
2. Modeling and rendering must be done in Blender internal. Texturing can be done in an external application like Gimp or Photoshop.
</quote>
The whole point is to showcase what blender can do.

[lucasfalcao]

Thanks for this materials BenDansie...I really want to see the skins of durian finished!
Ops i think my avatar it's a little bit the similar of yours, i will change...

[Vortagen]

hi, i was gonna DL them refrence 7 pics from the link provided for the 3d.sk on the blending life 2 comp page but it comes up with a viris warning. im posting here cos that page seems only for place holders.
might just be avg being over protective but sholud prob be looked into