Ni:Zu vault

Cycles doodle

nizuvault — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:02:27 +0000

I’m leaving for project Mango next week , so not many posts lately as -of course- i’m busy preparing and testing for mango.

Just a quick doodle and Cycles shading test :

It’s just a desktop background , if you redistribute it : Licensed CC:By , non-commercial.

I must say , Cycles kicks a** , it now has render passes so it’s even more flexible ,even if still quite impractical for tough interiors …but, creating materials ? it’s simply too much fun :

it’s easy , quick and very flexible , material creation is really something that doesn’t work with ‘buttons’ , with nodes -instead- things can be setup ‘freely’ and makes much more sense.

Mango : Dirtmaps and Cycles shading tests

nizuvault — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:10:48 +0000

I’ve just published a post on Project Mango blog , about tests i’ve been doing on environment modelling/shading.

Click to read it on Mango blog !

New cmiVFX tutorial : Vray Blender part 3 – Arch.Viz.

nizuvault — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:54:35 +0000

Hi, i’ve just finished it, and it’s now available for purchase at cmiVFX :

Blender to V-Ray: Volume 3

In the third part of the V-Ray-Blender tutorial series Nicolò Zubbini will show you intermediate to advanced shading and rendering workflows with V-Ray and Blender. In the two previous parts by Sebastian Koenig you have learned how to setup your Blender to V-Ray Rendering Pipeline and fine tune Lightcache, Irradiance Map and DMC Sampler. Now you can take it to the next level and create believable materials for your architectural renderings. In this over 3.5 hour tutorial you will learn all the professional techniques, hidden tricks and rendering cheats like V-Ray-Proxies, Particle Scattering, Render Passes and Compositing that will help you to really master the Blender to V-Ray Rendering Process.

LINK:

http://www.cmivfx.com/tutorials/view/413/Blender+to+V-Ray%3A+Volume+3

Chapter Descriptions

Glossiness

Since in real life you rarely have a perfect diffuse surface it is essential for photo reealistic rendering to fully understand how to use subtle glossiness to give your materials the final polish. In this tutorial you will learn how to setup and tweak glossy and fresnel effects while keeping render times on a reasonable level.

Textures

But to really make your materials believable the most important thing is to know how use textures. Nicolò shows you how to apply textures to the different material channels, which mapping to use and how to setup displacement and dirt-textures. Even the most subtle details can turn an ordinary white material into a vibrant wall surface.

Advanced Techniques

In the main part of this tutorial Nicolò is walking you through the setup of an architectural indoor rendering, explaining light-setup, materials, textures and render settings. You will also learn how to use a camera-loop with fly-through rendering to efficiently render out a series of images of your scene by re-using the GI-calculations.

Even though we are rendering an indoor scene, it is also important to create an outside environment. A blue sky is all nice and fine, but without some vegetation the outside world behind the window will be just boring. One key-technique for fast and easy vegetation setups is the use of V-Ray Proxies. Blender is capable of creating these proxy objects for V-Ray so that you can have hundreds of trees with billions of polygons in your scene without any slowdown of viewport or mesh-export. And to easily distribute these proxies in your scene you can make use of Blender’s particle system and weight-painting.

Compositing

To get the most out of your rendering you can make use of Blender’s built-in node-editor. Nicolò shows you how to setup and use V-Ray’s render channels so that you can render out your image in single passes. These passes can be composited together with Blender’s compositor for a maximum of control. By comping the passes one by one you can really finetune the light and color contribution, color-correct each one of them and add some nice and subtle post-processing effects. This tutorial will really take you to the next level of V-Ray rendering with Blender!

About the Author

Born in 1982 , bachelor of architecture degree, Nicolò works as cg-environment-artist in the fields of architectural visualization (mainly shop interiors) and game development (Galactic Bowling pc/Wii, Rocket Racing League iPhone). He started with Blender in 2008 for low poly game modeling, but it quickly turned into his favorite app and main tool, and immediately he got passionate about the open source world . He is mainly interested in modeling and texture paint, but also render engines, VrayBlender in particular. In 2012 he will work on as environment and texture artist on the Blender Foundation’s next Open Movie, codename “Project Mango”.

Website: http://nizuvault.wordpress.com/

Project Contents

All cmiVFX videos come with all the training materials you can need right from our website. No matter what time of day, your location, or how your feeling, cmiVFX will be there waiting for you!

Mango !

nizuvault — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 13:59:08 +0000

Yep. I’m part of the Mango Team !

Great news , i’m quite happy , humbled , and perhaps more than a little scared

Check the official blog : http://mango.blender.org/

More to come !

Video logo C25

nizuvault — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 12:20:34 +0000

I’ve just finished this video-logo for a series of events that will take place here in Torino in the next month , i did it because the logo they designed is pretty cool and was begging for being animated and also to support the work of my friends who run that place , where i’ve spent almost all my free evenings in the last 3 years.

It’s done completely in Blender ( + gimp for textures ) , and i like the result as another good proof of Blender’s potential and completeness for ‘videos’.

By ‘video’ i mean -of course- video-logos , titles , and moving graphics . Sure, Blender wouldn’t be a perfect choice for the montage of a full-lenght live-action-only movie,

But still, this video logo isn’t really about ’3d’ or shading/render, it’s about 2d graphics , text , their motion , color effects and the final montage / assembly and scene transitions.

As it happened with the FITeL video-logo , Blender handles all that quite well , and keeps everything inside 1 UI and 1 scene file .

So i’ve been able to make this in about 2 afternoons , and not rushing either : i spent a lot of time tuning and tweaking the effects.

An interesting case … as i often say , 3d graphics are difficult to ‘estimate’ : generally doing something 3d/cg is slow and expensive ..but not necessarily , with the right choices and limits it can be quite simple and fast and even beat some more traditional methods (like 2d animation or shooting video) for things like advertising/logos and ident videos.

Problem is … clients have no idea of this , graphics designers not very often and some times even the 3d people themselves -like me- fail to see how their tools could be used in very simple and effective ways !

And yes , i’m thinking this in terms of how much more work is potentially available for 3d-artists , at the low-budget end of the scale.

Again , this makes particular sense in the field of low-cost video-logos/idents , but it suggests something in general about 3d-cg … That has a lot of potential that we don’t know how to exploit in ”everyday’s” work situations ..just because it’s still quite new and very complex to learn !

keep watching the skies

nizuvault — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 20:07:48 +0000

Original post :

Sooo .. View conference is over , i’ve had the pleasure of attending Sebastian König ‘s workshop on camera tracking , and the organization (Kino) made available some very interesting footage to experiment with tracking.

I just couldn’t resist doing experiments with some nice hd footage of Torino : the idea is simple : spaceships floating over the city.

I started today , modelling a spaceship ,and to make it quickly , i used the ” SHIPYARD v07” library (90% of mesh is made straight from those blocks) .

Great resource , some quick kit-bashing (1 hour) and there i have a ship to play with.

Then i spent some more time testing render settings : i’m loving BI with approx ao , env light and emit gi. (also did some Cycles tests .. overlayed on the BI render in this pic)

I’ve started painting textures for main pieces , and used tileable maps and vertex paint on the rest.

I’ll try the actual tracking next , but the thing i’m most curious about is the render – integrating the lighting with real footage .

I always lean to illustration and non-photographic renders , so i wonder how this will turn out..

updates below :

UPDATE 6 & 7 :

More fine tuning … added the ships’ shadow on right building , and now i fixed a ugly seam where it meets the existing shadows.

Added some breakdown shots to the video , and kept tweaking the shading and comp nodes thanks to the suggestions at Kino3d.com.

This version is a bit ..too bluish .. but anyway, i’m trying to balance showing details with trying to hide the fact is CG :using blurry effects and color grading.

Ok, making it look good and detailed could also be done by refining model and shading quality (more bevels and custom textures) but i’m focusing more on the render and what i can get out of the quick model i kit-bashed out of Shipyard with minimal custom textures…

UPDATE 5 :

Much better reconstruction ! and more ships !

Watching again Sebastian Koenig’s workshop , i found the infos i was missing for good reconstruction (setting origins and axis , undistortion in previews)

So now reconstruction is pretty decent (i used a sat. image for the plan and markers for height of the building and it worked fine , it’s no longer a distorted mesh as before , so i could also map reflections on windows )

Many thanks, for all the suggestions and infos on the thread on Kino3D ! : http://www.kino3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8927

UPDATE 4:

Better lighting and reduced error in tracking markers . still having problems learning the reconstruction part.

UPDATE 3 :

A quick render of the sequence , as it is now … some ‘wobbliness’ towards the end : some is actual camera movement but there’s also some bad tracking … i’ve also used some 2d stabilization on it but it’s not perfect yet.

Also the reconstruction of markers to a 3d / mask object is very approximative , i guess i didn’t remove enough bad markers. Maybe i’ll try with different footage to get a cleaner track.

The light and color matching is not as hard as i though (but still difficult !) , i still have to try using an hdr pano and reflections to see how better it will integrate.

UPDATE 2 : i switched to another footage piece from the workshop , that was easier to track , and aptly named “spaceship lookup”

In terms of tracking i’m just getting familiar with the very basics , but the render is already more interesting : it’s BI using approximate gather only.

The approx. AO works nicely , the indirect/emitters are quite useful and very fast (total is 15 sec render +20 sec comp on a 3ghz core duo2 … great!)

No proper reflections (no raytrace and no hdr pano from the site) , but -as i hoped- the handpainted specular map improved a lot the spec. realism…

This gives me interesting stuff to think about … in terms of realism / integration with footage but keeping in mind practical issues (from renderspeed to using kit-bashing to quickly detail the model , to unwrapping only some pieces and using many low-level tricks .. and see how decent …or good the result is )

About the re-constuction and masking … i did it very quickly and cheaply , there definitely must be better, more ‘proper’ workflows for that..

UPDATE 1 : very early tracking and render test :

Talks

nizuvault — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:04:23 +0000

I’ll be doing 2 talks here in Torino in october :

A ottobre terrò una presentazione e un workshop qui a Torino su 2 dei miei temi preferiti nella grafica 3d:

Linux Day 2011 – introduzione a Blender - 1 ora – 22 ottobre 2011:

Nel corso del Linux Day 2011 a Torino , Farò una presentazione breve e generale di Blender : ‘Il’ programma opensource di grafica 3d.

Sarà una panoramica delle diverse sezioni /funzioni di Blender : modellazione,animazione,render e altre .

La presentazione è pensata per chi si vuole avvicinare alla grafica 3d , ma può interessare anche chi vuole usare parti di computer grafica per campi come webdesign , visualizzazione per architettura o medicina , prototipazione di software o design industriale ; e per questo può usare Blender per animazione di titoli , prototipi di UI , scripting , realtime 3d ..etc.

http://linuxdaytorino.org/2011/

Topix 2011 -VrayBlender - 4 ore- 26 ottobre 2011 14:15 :

Il workshop presenta l’uso di VrayBlender : installazione e setup iniziale, esempio di settaggi standard per illuminazione di una scena di interni, global illumination , camera e esposizione, creazione di materiali e texture base . VrayBlender è un plugin sviluppato da Andrey M. Izrantsev, che permette di usare Vray Standalone di Chaosgroup come motore di rendering in Blender.

Unisce l’incredibile strumento di computer grafica open source che è Blender con la velocità di render e le moltissime opzioni di Vray, un motore di rendering molto popolare in campi che vanno dall’architettura al cinema, al 3d realtime.

Saranno presentati esempi di utilizzo per still renders e lightmap bake.

Si concluderà con un accenno a Blender e Python (in questo caso insieme a Vray) per personalizzare i propri strumenti di lavoro anche per chi non è un programmatore professionista.

http://digital-media.top-ix.org/

EDIT : Il Linux Day e View sono passati , tutto è andato perfettamente, ringrazio molto entrambe le organizzazioni , ho incontrato molta gente interessante , sono sopravvissuto ai miei primi 2 talk pubblici , e a breve posterò il link per vedere il workshop di VB online , …quindi ottimo !

k700 turntable

nizuvault — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 11:32:24 +0000

I will update this post with new versions of turntable videos of the K700 tractor model :

Not final , needs tweaking and some more props (in time).

But it already shows better the speculars in motion … and i like the shader i got now in Blender that uses part point-light speculars and part mirrorball reflection map .. which helps getting the right amount of spec (not too strong and localized )
I tried Marmoset , which kicks Blender’s ass in terms of super-sampling , post effects and lots more , but i couldn’t yet tweak the spec shader right.

Still for the final turntable i prob. should use some standard tool , to ‘prove’ the shaders work , maybe UDK … its node shaders really intrigue me

And some pics of the crane :

this part was textured in Blender and Gimp , using a B/W controlmap as before , but not using node shaders , it was assembled directly in Gimp .

I paid attention to the issue of AO in diffuse meant to give low-freq details, as well as painting a layer for pure color (red /beige ) with soft gradients of discoloration for the same reason of having low-freq / big scale details that help reading the volumes and making the model more solid .

Edit : last version of turntable has a base and a pillar :

Vray Blender Test Scene

nizuvault — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 15:53:45 +0000

I’m working on a test scene for VrayBlender , to release free (CC license) :

A simple architectural interior , lit by daylight only , with relatively small windows : big enough to get the room decently lit in a sunny afternoon , but still small enough to create technical problems for GI calculations.

Here’s the rendered scene (after some compositing in Blender Nodes) :

Still work in progress : mostly. I will also post and discuss this on FORUMS :

http://www.kino3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8856&p=95937#p95937

ABOUT THE RENDER SETTINGS :

The settings in this scene aren’t defaults , not much different but tuned for this scene , and in general for interior scenes that are a little “nastier” than usual : because of small , distant light sources that require lots of bounces to fill the scene with light , scenes with very localized strong reflection higlights , with a discrete amount of glossy reflections , etc..

So have a look , but keep in mind there’s a reason if the factory defaults are different (they’re the most universal) while settings in this scene are more tuned to a scene like this one.

Rendertime and quality : this thing renders in 30mins on a core quad 3ghz at 1080p. Quality is not extra-high , GI noise splotches are mostly gone , but still some noise in reflections.

Anyway good considering rendertime.

Link to download the scene from my dropbox (later vers. will be on BlendSwap ): http://db.tt/2mD0kkD ( V 04 )

CREDITS :

Some textures (wood , stone floor) by Ideasman42 (http://www.graphicall.org/ftp/ideasman42/textures/) : images from his libray , edited by me.

Model and scene settings, textures by me (Ni.Zu – Nicolò Zubbini) , license is : No Commercial , Attribution , Share Alike :

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

EDIT UPDATES :

i will post update notes below (‘changelog’) and edit the picture and dowload link when there’s a new version :

V02 : fixed some textures missing in packed blend file , some modelling issues. Changed GI settings a bit : more quality in LC less in IRMap . Makes more sense , LC is where scenes with lots of indirect light get solved , the irmap doesn’t need to be that high-quality , better LC is more efficient here.

V03 : replaced textures from CGTextures with edited versions of CC textures by Ideasman42 (http://www.graphicall.org/ftp/ideasman42/textures/)

Tweaked GI settings some more , moved sun position to front to get a bit more direct light (better aesthetic result , yet this doesn’t make GI easier , as the area of direct light remains very little and overall light is more contrasted and complex for the engine..)

Small update : original v03 blend had incorrect adaptive subdiv settings (too high , -1/3) fixed keeping download link (now is -2/2)

V04 : getting there , some technical troubles and relative fixes. updated main post.

UPDATE : V05 – sky texture fixed , AO moved to separate render layer and added to nodes setup , added 2 benches.
Model , textures should be final now , i will still tweak nodes and gi setup (based on feedback)

JerryCan

nizuvault — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 15:33:52 +0000

A small prop for the K700 tractor (the idea is to make it into a diorama scene)

A ‘jerry can’ . I used the node shader an controlmap method , but also ‘traditional’ painting and photo sourcing on canvas in Gimp.

This time , the clone stamp tool in Blender texture paint was very handy to fix seams : i started applying one of my favourite painted metal tileable photo maps , looked fine but with terrible seams , the clone stamp allowed to paint over those seams quickly and with a good sharp result.

Also that base metal was nice but too uniformely dirty and weathered … Funny how sometimes it works to literaly ‘clean up’ textures by quickly painting over by hand with flat colors on an over-grimy texture as if you were cleaning the object (so , leaving more dirt in recessed areas and ‘cleaning’ bigger , flatter surfaces)

I experimented a bit with pinning UVs to get a good use of uv space : the pinned vertexes are shown in red in the pic.

I unwrapped with the usual lscm (defining edge seams ) then stretched the resulting islands by pinning to get more regular shapes and reduce the space between them .

Works well , but i was curious about possible distortions : pinning stretches faces , and distorts the projection : generally not by much so it isn’t a problem.

But if you pin corners , you might be pinning 3 verts of the same quad ..and you quickly end up stretching that quad a lot.

So best to pin the least number of verts possible, especially in corners, and leave the island to auto-relax as much as possible (inside the pinned boundaries you imposed )

And rocks …

Another small prop for the k700 tractor scene , some rocks :

Sculpted and painted in Blender + gimp for tweaks , uses a bake of inverted normal Vray dirt , as a guide for edge highlight .

I put quite a strong edge highlight in diffuse : i didn’t want to make that excessive , a kind of fake lighting , i just wanted dirt and edge scratches .. still this doesn’t look excessive to me, i guess it makes sense for rocks material.

For the sculpt .. i think i got the edges and flat faces look right for rocks .. still maybe the edges (/ridges) could be better , maybe a bit sharper , or crackled..

Btw , great inspiration on this thread here on Polycount : http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=83605

images : full shader / diffuse only / spec + norm only :