Renders of Reaper's Theater

[reaper]

First time poster, so forgive me if there is a lack of interest. However, I felt I should share my meager Blender accomplishments with the forum. This is my first attempt to ever use the tool, so it’s nothing super exciting. I also must admit that I got the chair models from a friend :).

I am planning to remodel my basement into a home theater and used Blender to render a theoretical view of the room. This process was very helpful as it allowed me to preview what certain designs may look lile. It also allowed me to discover that some ideas I had just would not work. So, it was very useful. I am not 100% sure that the finished project will look exactly like this, but it should be relatively similar.

You can check my website for any progress pics, but they will be slow in coming.

http://reaper.us/html/renders.html

regards, reaper

[Enzoblue]

This is the kind of blending I like to do alot. One room with nice touches throughout. You’ve done pretty good here

I wouldn’t be afraid to take some time to fine tune, you carpet for instance needs some shader work, (pic db_i) and you could possibly do more with wall and ceiling textures - they make the lighting look a bit flat.

The idea is madly original though, and I like the simplicity. Nice work!

[piovasco]

The links do not work because they point to a html page instead of a image file directly.
Try to substitute the existing links with

and so on.
Bye

[reaper]

The links do not work because they point to a html page instead of a image file directly.
Try to substitute the existing links with
http://www.reaper.us/assets/images/db_images/db_Basement1.jpg
and so on.
Bye

Thanks… that should have been obvious to me. Duh… anyways… it’s fixed now.

reaper

[reaper]

This is the kind of blending I like to do alot. One room with nice touches throughout. You’ve done pretty good here

I wouldn’t be afraid to take some time to fine tune, you carpet for instance needs some shader work, (pic db_i) and you could possibly do more with wall and ceiling textures - they make the lighting look a bit flat.

The idea is madly original though, and I like the simplicity. Nice work!

Thanks… I guess it’s not bad for a first time effort. It certainly accomplished what I wanted… which was to get an idea of how the room would look with the changes in mind. If you look at my web site, you can see some before pictures and the render is much different then the before room.

I agree that the carpet model is horrid. I tried following a tutorial to make it look a little better but it came out looking like cheap plastic. Any recc’s on a good carpet tutorial would be appreciated. I doubt I’ll spend much more time on this render. But, since posting it on my fav home theater forum, I’ve been approached by a few people who are considering paying me to render their Home theater ideas for them :). What is pic db_i? I have no idea what that means :). Self-professed newbie here.

What would you suggest for the walls?

reaper

[SamAdam]

try just turning down the spec on the carpet.

[_Tr]

Hey nice pic for your first, good job, like the posters.

[reaper]

try just turning down the spec on the carpet.

I gave it a try and that helped quite a bit, thanks :).

I did have one question. I have largely been doing this on a laptop with 512MB of ram. It’s a 1.4GHz Pentium M with a Mobility Radeon 9000. The drawing really taxes the machine. It’s getting to the point where it’s hardly worth it to try much more just because it is so difficult to move around. Is this typical. How can people do so complex of drawings like that castle post? Does this require a beast of a machine or is there something about the laptop that is sub par?

reaper

[reaper]

Hey nice pic for your first, good job, like the posters.

Thanks for the compliment. I appreciate it. It encourages me to try some more when I find the time

reaper

[piovasco]

About your problem related to the slow drawing, I don’t exclude that is due to your video card. I read something about Ati, within Elysiun, in the “Blender general” section. On my laptop i have a Ati mobility too, and I experienced the same problem. But I remember that in the forum there were solutions to this topic.

Talking about the carpet, soon (so I read) the blender magazine n. 1 will be downloadable from blenderman.org. Inside you will find a complete tutorial explaining how to realize a carpet.
The link is:
http://www.blenderman.org/index.php?filename=SXCOL/about/archive.html
The pdf file will be around 10mb.
Bye

[reaper]

About your problem related to the slow drawing, I don’t exclude that is due to your video card. I read something about Ati, within Elysiun, in the “Blender general” section. On my laptop i have a Ati mobility too, and I experienced the same problem. But I remember that in the forum there were solutions to this topic.

Talking about the carpet, soon (so I read) the blender magazine n. 1 will be downloadable from blenderman.org. Inside you will find a complete tutorial explaining how to realize a carpet.
The link is:
http://www.blenderman.org/index.php?filename=SXCOL/about/archive.html
The pdf file will be around 10mb.
Bye

Cool, I’ll definitely grab the mag whenever it is available. I’ll check around for ati problems on the forums.

reaper

[EnderWiggin]

That’s it, do you mind if I move into your basement?

Walker

[shul]

Reaper, very nice render,

About the home theater itself , looks like your back speakers are too way in the back, pointing at each other (instead at the audience) and are big for back speakers. I am using bi-directional speakers at home, which enable two way sound emittion, but if you have the regular one directional the speakers should be aligned differently (on the other hand, if you have a special kind of speakers which should remain behind pillars and point at each other, you don’t),

edit: this turns out to be a render c&c after all… checking your render again it looks like you rendered the speakers as I suggested above, only it doesn’t look that clear, because of the total blackness of the speakers, maybe you can fix that by (as you see in brochures) render the actual speakers on the body and not the black cloth the hides them. about the home theater -I think you should take the back speakers a bit to the sides of the room, this way the people closer to the speakers and farther away will get the same (more or less) volume, but in your current config you will have the back row asking to lower the volume while the front row saying its not loud enough…

my 0.2 cents

[reaper]

That’s it, do you mind if I move into your basement?

Walker

I think my wife might have something to say about it. But if you hide in the closet when she’s down there, and live off of the popcorn and soda and beer in the mini-fridge, you should be OK.

reaper

[reaper]

Reaper, very nice render,

About the home theater itself , looks like your back speakers are too way in the back, pointing at each other (instead at the audience) and are big for back speakers. I am using bi-directional speakers at home, which enable two way sound emittion, but if you have the regular one directional the speakers should be aligned differently (on the other hand, if you have a special kind of speakers which should remain behind pillars and point at each other, you don’t),

edit: this turns out to be a render c&c after all… checking your render again it looks like you rendered the speakers as I suggested above, only it doesn’t look that clear, because of the total blackness of the speakers, maybe you can fix that by (as you see in brochures) render the actual speakers on the body and not the black cloth the hides them. about the home theater -I think you should take the back speakers a bit to the sides of the room, this way the people closer to the speakers and farther away will get the same (more or less) volume, but in your current config you will have the back row asking to lower the volume while the front row saying its not loud enough…

my 0.2 cents

Yes, I am still struggling with rear speaker placement. I agree, they seem too close to the back row of seats. They are however, facing forward, not to eachother. I am tying not to put them behind the pillars or out in the back aisle. This placement may have to change somewhat though. Just not sure how.

I’d like to make those a mono surround channel in a 6.1 setup and buy a pair of bi-poles to mount on the wall to the sides of the seating area. but I am feverishly saving for the projector now. Can’t afford more speakers.

So, I know it’s a problem. Just not 100% sure how I will address it.

reaper

[orion119net]

nice theater.

[Erufailon]

There are some stuff which I can’t decide if they should be modelled, or simply posters on the wall. For example, Mel Gibson
Ehe, J/K, but there are some hardware which don’t seem to be modelled, but I don’t know if they should be.

[reaper]

There are some stuff which I can’t decide if they should be modelled, or simply posters on the wall. For example, Mel Gibson
Ehe, J/K, but there are some hardware which don’t seem to be modelled, but I don’t know if they should be.

What hardware are you talking about? Mounting brackets for the projector? I know that is missing… so are wires for the speakers. But overall, I think most of everything is in there.

reaper

[BlackMage]

is this a finished product? looks to me like a WIP… i mean… there is next to no texutring except for the posters and the screen…

[reaper]

It is a finished product for me and what I wanted to accomplish with it. I 100% realize that a lot could be done to make this render look much more realistic. But on the other hand, my goal was to get a general design idea and feel for what the room would look like. I am not trying to win any blender awards or make a photo-realistic image. I am trying to use Blender in a manner which can be productive and helpful for construction. I know drawing fully textured dragons and such is cool, but this application seemed more practical to me and may do more to advance the Blender toolset if pickup up by other members of the home remodeling community.

reaper