I work for a stone company in Ohio and I’m modelling some of our limestone fireplaces. (I’m also pretty new to modelling software - about a month of exp. just messing around with Blender and reading tutorials). Of course ALL criticism is welcome (and could help me in the long run), but since I work under a time constriction, photo-real may not be a realistic expectation.
I originally designed these fireplace in autocad for shop production. Then in autocad I drew each piece in 3d according to spec and pieced it all together. Then I exported to blender as an *.obj file. In blender I applied a technique I read in a tutorial that has a good effect for soft shadows by dupliverting a spot light on half an icosphere.
My main concern right now are the lines inside the fireplace and the vertical lines running up the side of the wall. I realize it’s a lighting issue, but more specific advice on how to blur that out would be cool.
Also, the icospere idea might not be the best one for me - suggestions there are also welcome.
Upon closer inspection these “strange shadows” seems to be caused by incorrect Clipping distances in the lamps or incorrect Dist for the lamps (too short).
If you want me to look at your blender file just PM me for the email address.
Hey there!
Being a n00b myself I can’t give a lot of help, but I wanted to compliment you on your work. Every pic is very professional looking and well-executed.
Oh, and Ambient Occlusion is only grainy if you use a low number of samples, I think. Of course, the more samples, the higher the render time, so it all depends on your time and your hardware.
the yafray render looks rather dull. re adjust ur material settings i suggest to get the sheen back to the stones like in ur previous render. also, even ur yafray render has grains, try using the GI with atleast medium or preferably high settings.
one more thing, u can get rid of ur icosphere with spotlight rig. the lights in yafray need to be readjusted though.
Jimmey: True and I’m willing to do so, but my concern is that there’s something I’m doing wrong and these artifacts could be avoided in the future.
Quantum: Thanks.
Anuraag_01: I agree that there seems to be something missing overall. I’ll continue tweaking the new material’s spec. and hardness. The last example was using skydome GI at “best”. Also b/c I have GI, I already deleted the icosphere. Maybe since GI is now my only light source, it’s too sureal. Perhaps turning GI down and adding a spot or two would help.
Thanks everyone for checking this thread and all your input.
there u are…u gotta have some light to have good lighting for a scene ( that’s what i think). GI is kind of an aid towards a more realistic illumination. the primary work has to be done by a light source or two. ofcourse it’s not a rule, but for a scene like this (product showcase), it very much is.
think it this way, for a REAL photograph, u wouldn’t just use the diffused light available. would u?
I put some sheen back and I do like it - thanks anuraag. When I drew these up in Acad, I ommited the mortar in the joints. Now, if my camera’s in the wrong angle you can see right through. Just curious, is there a quick fix to sort of web objects together? That would save me some time filling those joints in.
I now use a UV for the image texture - musgrave applied to normals as a cube doesn’t look very good. Should I scratch that idea? Currently using Yafray, skydome GI @ best, and a single spot light.
Hi,
I had a simmilar problem. Whenever I had flat faces, there were these strange patterns on them like the pattern you mentioned in your first post. The problem arises through sharp edges, in conjunction with “set solid” and “subsurf”. What happens is that the subsurfing mechanism tries to “bend” the faces. This bending results in these weird shapes. You could applie a higher level of subsurfing (3 or 4 or even 5), but this would only result in more lines.
From what I did to solve this I guess you should do the following:
Applie “set solid” on the flat faces
do one of the two following:
– on each of the four border of the faces add applie a loop cut via “<ctrl>+r” and move the new edge to about 95% of the original border. Do that for each of the four borders.
– OR apply “edge sharp” (<shift>+e) to the edges of the relevant faces but DO NOT set the sharpness to +1. This will result in an almost black line at the border. Use values like +0.95
It’s been awhile and I’ve been through hell and back testing all kinds of ideas. I’ve learned a lot in the process, but I figured before I turn these images in to my boss, I’d update this thread and make one last request for ideas on how to improve my work.
Here’s an updated pic:
I used the Indigo renderer (up to 0.5 beta 3!), GI only, and MLT. Here’s the rooom setup. (The window is left over from when it was a closed box)
After some frustration googling for a decent wood floor texture, I used a chinsy little app called Wood Workshop, and came up with the following tile.
The floor turned out surprisingly good, considering the quality of the texture.
Considering that the image is to showcase the fireplace, any more suggestions? Post-pro in Gimp suggestions welcome, too. Also keep in mind that I have to implement this workflow for 80 fireplaces! So something formulaic would be nice, so I don’t spend weeks on each one at a time.
