Trying to render a table scene: need help

Hello !

I m trying to render a table scene: i put 2 pics as attachment.

Flowers are horrible i know: i ll correct them some day
_ Do you like the vase ?
_ I would like to know how to create soft shadows : they look horribly crisp right now…
_ How is it possible to have nice caustics ?
_ Is there another Render machine availaible IN Blender (i m not qulified to tweak xml files…). I mean is there way to control POVRAY or INDIGO from within Blender like Yafray ?

That’s quite a lot of questions !
Please fire up as many crits as possible: i m eager to learrrrrrrrn !!!

dosant look bad, jyst afew things i notisd

the glasses havent got castics
the bottal has 3 shadows

Use Ambient Occlusion in the WORLD SETTINGS panel to soften shadows and increase realistic light.

theres no caustics there that i can see…
Indigo does not neccesarily require you to edit the xml file. Read through the tutorial,:
http://www2.indigorenderer.com/blender_tut/
also with indigo shadows are automatically soft. :yes:

Thank you for your answers.

I ll try to have a look at the tutorial you pointed LSBlend… Thanks for the link !
It seems very promising to me but a bit daunting too… Maybe i should concentrate on the Internal Renderer and when i m confident enough move to Indigo.

I admit it does seem a daunting…:eek:
but follow bullet 5 (the step by step part) and its simpler, and even a noob like me was able to do it :eyebrowlift:

About the internal renderer, i dont think you willl be able to acheive the effect your looking for with just that, there is no caustics support.

Yafray can do caustics well too, though I don’t know much on the subject. It does render faster than Indigo it would seem.

Cheers!

hello

I ve tried to use Yafray but i only get extremely dark pictures, without color.
Is there something to tweak when you swap from Internal to Yafray ?

The only visible things are the knifes and forks…

The render is much slower than Internal and the console mentions a “kd tree” between all objects…

Can someone help ???

hmm first off all dont worry about slower renders, you can always render small quick render to see how it will turn out and then render overnight for the final one.
(I do that with indigo :smiley: )

And yes, u need to tweak the settings, materials and lighting. however i dont know exactly how in your case. If you pm me a blend i may be able to help… :cool:

i think i got an element of answer: light have to be quite a bit more powerful it seems.
My scene is quite big in scale so distances are huge… I’ try to power the spots more…

Edit: Yes that was it: all my 4 lamps are at max power and it is better…

But there is another pb look at the pic: the glass is now dark !
Pitch black !
Anyone has a clue ?
It seems the panels are different when Yafray is the renderer, and i ve tried to tweak but no results: the feet of the glasses is black. It wasnt with Internal…

sorry i ve got to double post to bring this up again…
Someon knows what s wrong with this glass ?

Post the blend somewhere and wut up a link to it, then someonen can really look at it and find a solution
One site you can post is www.uploader.polorix.net you need to create an account but it is free

Check your normals! I’m willing to be that, at least some are pointing in the wrong direction.

Nono: no normal pb… They are all facing outward…
The glass has an IOR of 1.5 & it doesnt make a difference anyway.

If i lift the glass 10 cm (you see what i mean) then it is better, but if it is near the table it becomes black…

Here are 2 quick renders to show you the PB.

On the left one the glass is close to the table ( but doesnt touch it)
On the right one, it hovers over it…

Why is it damn black ???
I ve spend two days on that now…

PLIIIIZ ! Someone helps me !!!
I couldnt find the answer in the old threads or in yafray tutorials…

try assigning a texture to the bottom of the glass that dosn’t cast shadows. That will solve your problem.

Sorry if i bring that up again but i really need help on that…
I ve tried to learn Yafray a bit and i m getting better at it, but there is still a long way to go…
My question: Concerning the shadow problem (2 posts above), is it that Yafray cant make transparent shadows ? I dont want to Use GI: This is indoor and i want many long shadows on the table, not a nice surrounding blurred shadow.
But then the shadows are either black or none(if i tick “traceable” off) so what sould i do ???

Put a dim lamp inside the glass where the shadows are. if you are using spot lights,
there is a setting under buffer shadows called soft. (Softens the shadows)
try setting it to 7.0 / 10.0.

try increasing the ray depth- next to the metherd list. your last render looks to light.
look for a tutorial on yafray caustics.

Thx Remix, i thought of that, but i think this is a rather pathetic solution if i may say so…
Why on Earth is it so complicated to have normal transparent shadows ?
Internal does it better it seems, but then i loose the caustics…
I cannot play with the softness of the shadow: i m using Yafray, not Internal: this possibility disappear as soon as you select Yafray.

@hessiess: it doesnt make any difference: even at max for everything, my glass is black if lightened by another light source than GI… This is sooo annoying…
Besides, i dont want to use GI: i want a normal classical spot lightning for Inside scene, with some photon lamps for caustics…