#Render Cubes
11 messages in this thread
Jonas,
I am comparing the capabilities of 3D Studio 4 with that of a traditional hand
renderer and photography. The exercise involves rendering 4 cubes. In the 3D
Editor construct 4 cubes. Place 3 cubes on a base adjacent to each other to
form a corner or right angle. Place the 4th cube above the corner cube to form
a triad of cubes. Place a camera at 45 degrees to the cubes so that the
picture plane is 45 degrees to the cubes. Only 3 cubes will be visible. Place
a spot light so that the lighting is parallel to the picture plane. The
exercise is to change the material of each cube and compare the rendered image
to a similar photograph and hand rendering.
With all the cubes being opaque the tone of the shading and shadows are
comparable to both hand rendering and photography. With ray tracing shadows,
3D Studio does not start the shadow at the corners of the cubes. Instead there
is a little offset which implies that the cubes are not all touching but
somehow offset from each other. I can live with this problem but I would like
to figure out how to cast the shadows correctly so that the shadows originate
from the corners.
The real problem I am having is with assigning a reflective material to the
cubes using the automatic reflection mapping. The reflective cubes to not show
the reflection of any of the adjacent cubes. Instead the cubes appear to be
opaque. When I use the Render/Setup/Make.CUB command it makes all the six
reflection maps and they seem to be correct. These reflection maps never
appear on the cube with the reflective material.
I'll try and upload the project file so that you can render it. I'll call it
WAYCUBE.PRJ. I would appreciate your help in this exercise or pass it on to
someone who would be interested in helping. It is important to me to make sure
that 3DS 4 can render this simple project correctly. If it can't do this I
would question what it does in more complex scenes. I need to show this work
to the established Architectural rendering community to prove 3DS credibility.
Thank you,
Wayne
>>The real problem I am having is with assigning a reflective material to the
cubes using the automatic reflection mapping. The reflective cubes to not show
the reflection of any of the adjacent cubes. Instead the cubes appear to be
opaque. When I use the Render/Setup/Make.CUB command it makes all the six
reflection maps and they seem to be correct. These reflection maps never
appear on the cube with the reflective material.>>
I guess the material you use is set wrongly for reflection, I have no manuals
near me but my experience is that when you see no reflections using automatic
reflection some of the material settings for that material is wrong. Check
those settings, check all the sliderbars.
I have done it without a problem.
>> I need to show this work to the established Architectural rendering
community to prove 3DS credibility.>>
As an architect mysself I think 3DS has long earned its usability for
architectural visualisation.
Concerning the shading offset, I have no clue and never had a problem with that
as to my knowledge.
Could be influenced by some settings for raytracing that you can change in the
3DS.set file. I forgot which one, but one certainly is important in that field.
Make sure you first check all the available settings for raytracing in the
manuals.
Christophe Van Oyen
Architect
Christophe,
Thanks for the reply. I was able to correct the ray tracing shadow offset by
adjusting the RENDER/SETUP/SHADOW/RAY TRACE BIAS to .05. The default was 1. I
wonder if this has any affect on rendering time.
I'm not successful in making the cubes reflective. The Material editor
settings are as follows:
Ambient = middle grey Diffuse = middle grey Shading = metal
Shininess = 90 Shin. Strength = 100
All other property controls set to 0
Mapping Assignment
Reflection = 100 Map = Automatic A
With this setting the sphere will render in the material editor. When
changing the sample to cube and rendering sample, the cube always apprears
opaque in the material editor. This opacity is what I get when returning to
the 3D editor and rendering the view.
I uploaded the project file called WAYCUBE.PRJ if you are interested in
playing around with the cubes. It is a classic excercise in architectural
rendering. I appreciate any help.
Thanks
Wayne Leong, Architect
I will try out your settings, but I will have to wait until it is available in
the libraries.
However I will check out what you say, maybe one thing:
Did you assign the Automatic reflections to the object, because if so It will
not work, you have to assign it to the faces, so do a SELECT FACES and then
assign the Material to the selected Faces.
Christophe Van Oyen,
Architect, Belgium
Christophe,
I tried your suggestion by assigning the material to selected faces. I still
get an opaque cube. I will uploand the file WAYCUBE.PRJ to you. I would
appreciate it if you could make it work. This excercise comes from Paul
Stevenson Oles, AIA book "Architectural Illustration". He is a well know
Architectural Illustrator and does work for I. M. Pei and friends. He is
currently working on a book with M.I.T. Dean of Architecture William Mitchell,
entitled "Visualization, Tradition + Technology". I'm comparing how rendering
programs like 3D studio create scenes in comparison to the rules the Steve Oles
have established. His hand renderings are done with wax pencils and are close
to photorealistic. It is what I call "right brain art".
I did not realize that you are located in Belgium. I am located in St.
Helena, California in the heart of the Napa Valley wine country about 60 miles
north of San Francisco. I'm always amazed that I live so close to AutoDesk and
the Yost Group in S.F. yet get responses from clear across the globe.
Thanks again for your help. This simple problem is driving me crazy.
Wayne Leong, AIA
Architect
St. Helena, CA
Wayne, I've been reading this thread and feel that there are some basic
mis-understandings about the way reflection maps work in 3DS. As it is a
scan-line renderer, effects like reflections (or more specifically, the way you
want your reflective surfaces to appear to the viewer) can be quite confusing
as there are multiple approaches for this in 3DS.
As this is something I've beat on quite a bit in the last few years, I'd be
glad to help you out, but feel a real-time conversation would be much more
effcient than trying to explain everything on-line.
So if you'd like, I'll Email you my phone number, and I'll do my best to help
you out. In the mean-time, re-do the tutorials concerning reflection maps,
paying special attention to the different kinds and their various applications
(this just might fix you up alone!).
Let me know…
-Alan
Alan,
I finally did get the cube to render with reflective surfaces thanks to all
the help I got. The problem I had was my concept of how 3D studio should work
rather than how it really works. I would be glad to talk to you.
Wayne
See your Email, Wayne.
-Alan
Wayne –
When you upload your WAYCUBE.PRJ file, do you want it left in the public
libraries for anyone to take a look? or did you mean the file for Jonas only.??
Much better to have it public if the project file will render – you will get
more input that way. Let me know.
Anne
Anne,
The project file WAYCUBE.PRJ can be made available for the public.
Thanks,
Wayne
Concerning the reflections C. Van Oyen already answered that one, when it comes
to the shadows, that might just be your own personal bias… <bg>
Adjust the BIAS in the shadow controls and you can have the shadow move further
or closer from/to the object… Must be a "page 7-163 not read error" <BG>
Jack