I have to say, I don’t think the lighter splotches are a reflection from the fretboard. It looks like the same thing that’s being reflected in the chin rest. It’s a little distracting, whatever it is 
Regardless, tho… That is one hell of a nice looking violin.
Why use BI if there is Indigo? It’s free so why not?
Regarding Animal’s post, I think that when discussing the respective merits of renderers - like in any discussion of software in general - there’s a real danger of getting trapped into theological arguments or dubious issues of loyalty.
There are three reasons I tend to use Indigo: 1) It is so easy to learn, 2) it achieves photorealistic images with minimal efforts, 3) I’ve just got used to it and inertia and laziness keep me from spending lots of time learning other renderers.
I used BI too, quite a lot actually, but you rarely get to see these images because I mainly tend to use it for test renders, testing geometry, cooking clay and wireframe renders and creating additional layers and masks for Indigo renders.
The rational approach to this would be to agree that we should use the tools that produce the best possible results with the minimum effort for what it is we’re trying to achieve. BI is good for illustration, stylised images, some types of abstract or cartoony work, tests and concepts, and when you need fast renders. I’d never use it for photorealistic images, although I know it can do these, because I find Indigo does a better job in that category with less work.
Likewise, I stopped using Yafray because I found it to be just as slow as Indigo when the quality settings were put high and the results weren’t as convincing.
My point here was just a reflection on the fact that such a realistic and intricate model would lend itself well to photo-realistic treatment.
Hi,
Thanks for the comments and the Indigo suggestions.
I will surely look into Indigo, it appears to be quite simple .
Nevertheless, I do mainly illustration and BI does the job well for volume representation.
Yes I did, which I overlayed in composition.
I agree It does indeed seems strange, but it’s is indeed a fretboard reflection.
Since there’s currently no way to blur reflection in Blender, I blurred reflections in PS.
Here’s an early shot straight out of blender to make you see what I’m saying.
Cheers,
Tarc
Just a quick pedantic note:
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t it called a fingerboard, since there are no frets?
sorry if i’m asking too much of you, but could you share some light on how did you modeled the scroll part of the neck? i’m trying to make a violin myself and i got stuck to that: using nurbs or lattices seams too complicated and lots of vertices wasted, and screwing…well with the screw tool i get weird stuff. maybe even a .blend file with just the scroll part? i would really appreciate it!
Hi,
The head was the hardest part and took 70% of model time. It was done with sweeps based on two drawing projections. The whole project was done in nurbs, an excuse to learn mr. Gibson’s outstanding application: Moi3d.
Thanks,
tarc
This is the third time a thread has been bumped up showing a very stupid comment of mine. 