The other night, as I was submitting some shots to my Backburner queue, I realized that I have never formalized a method for estimating render times for jobs that are in progress on my farm. Backburner does give some job info such as average task time and an estimate for how much remaining time before the job finishes. That’s not quite enough info to give me...
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I decided to write this blog post because honestly, I wish I had read one like it years ago. After 12 years of making my living as a 3D artist, I can tell you this is not a career path that inspires healthy living. The realities of any CG artist’s daily life can steer one into a cycle of unhealthy behavior which can be very difficult to fully recognize and break free...
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I was thrilled when Lynette Clee, News Editor at 3D Artist magazine, informed me I had been selected for their February issue’s “Artist Spotlight”! It’s issue 38 and hit shelves just a few weeks ago in Europe and should be available in the States by now. You can also buy it online HERE or pick it up for your iPhone or iPad. It’s a nice...
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Using IES photometric data in 3D applications like 3D Studio Max is a must for any architectural visualization artist. Aside from saving time and the accuracy that comes from using lighting data based on the actual fixtures in your lighting plan, it just looks better! Even when specific fixtures are an unknown I would recommend using IES data with your photometric or VRay...
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I was just informed that my “Balsa” House architectural visualization which took 1st place in the Maxwell Render challenge at ronenbekerman.com makes a brief appearance in the Maxwell Render Siggraph 2011 showreel! I also received an email from the Maxwell folks asking if they could put the Photofly Garden Angel animation I rendered with Maxwell up on their...
Learn MoreAfter having created a number of models with Photofly 2.0 I thought it appropriate to start looking at various real-world applications for Photofly. A few jump to mind like game asset creation, architectural visualization, historical preservation, forensics and so on. But I think the really fun one is Visual Effects so I thought I’d start there. Little variable...
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Just a little render test of a model I made the other day with Photofly 2. The subject is an old weathered and broken “Garden Angel” Statue from the yard. Photofly picked up all kinds of nice detail in the mesh and texture. In these two shots displacement is off, only a little bump. Rendered in Max with Maxwell Render 2.5. BTW this was rendered @ 720p to SL 8...
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Just this week Evermotion released a FREE Beta of their unbiased render engine NOX available for download HERE. The NOX gallery shows some pretty impressive renders so it peaked my interest and I thought I would give it a try. Also being a Maxwell user I am always interested to see how others handle unbiased rendering, materials, postwork etc. This post is more about...
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RESONANCE is an intense, creative and beautiful collaboration between various sound and visual designers brought together by SR Partners. It contains some truly gorgeous procedural and particle based animations as well as an eclectic blend of aesthetics and sound design for the eyes and ears. It runs about 12 minutes so take that short break you skipped 2 hours ago and...
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Mexican architect Richardo Agraz recently posted a series of his beautiful modern residential projects on Behance. I found the design and photography of his 1,423 square foot HG House in Zaponan, Mexico particularly inspiring. The large interiors space effortlessly segue out into the patio/yard area. A strong, masculine yet inviting design that appears equally attractive...
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I’m always looking for examples of creative and well executed 3D camera projections but I have to say this one by DrawLight in collaboration with artist Rabarama takes the cake! This appears to be the first application of 360° 3D projection to sculpture. The combined effect of the physical sculptural form and the 3D projections is quite striking and really holds up...
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Thanks to Miles Pettit’s recent blog post “Is 3D Always the Best Approach” over at Escape Studios I was introduced to the brilliant, beautiful and mind blowing work of Dutch artist Levi van Veluw! In a world where we are faced with a constant barrage of incredible CG imagery and animation it is exciting and refreshing to witness an amazing work created...
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It was an honor to learn my balsa model renders took 1st place in the NGA House Maxwell Render visualization challenge held over at my favorite Architectural visualization blog/forum, ronenbekerman.com The brief was simple: In this mini challenge you are being asked to submit 3d exterior visuals of the NGA House using the 3d model provided to you. You cannot change the...
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So after having my Spartan helmet accepted by Valve for use in Team Fortress 2 and the addition of Medieval Mode in the Australian Christmas update, I thought it a real shame that the soldier has only a shovel and pick-axe to run about with. A true soldier should be well armed! So I give you my latest TF2 submission, the Full Spartan Kit! Now the soldier can finally give...
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Screen capture is a bit off topic since it really has nothing to do with 3D visualization but I thought it might be of interest to any other 3D folks out there that want to start making their own video tutorials or whatever else to put up on YouTube or post on their blog. My goal here is to point you to all the tools you need and provide a basic tutorial on how to...
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So, this past Monday Next Limit released Maxwell 2.5 which, just as every Maxwell user had hoped, included “Fire”. Fire is the new integrated interactive preview render engine fully capable of all the features within Maxwell which is built to conveniently run within your host 3D application via plug-ins or withing Maxwell Studio itself. Since the first sneak...
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Here is a quick test I did using Autodesk Photo Fly and my car. I took about 18 images of the car as I walked around from a roughly consistent distance. I then uploaded the images to the Photo Fly cloud computing service. When it was done computing it e-mailed my a link to download the finished “Photo Scene” which I then opened up in Autodesk Photo Scene...
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This is not completely new news but seems to have gone under the radar for most folks. Over at Autodesk Labs they have a number of very interesting projects in development. The two that catch my interest at the moment are Project Photo Fly and Project Helix. Photo Fly seems to be a cloud computing version of Autodesk Image Modeler, in the end you can save out an FBX, DWG...
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One of my upcoming tutorials will cover the sometimes tricky subject of rendering interior 3D animations out of Mental Ray in 3D Studio Max 2010 flicker free while using Final Gather. I will most likely use the kitchen scene above as well as a larger corporate office scene I’m currently working on. For now you can look at two residential interior examples of the...
Learn MoreHad a little fun creating this Spartanesque head gear as a contribution for Team Fortress 2. Created these couple render’s with Mental Ray for the submission process. Had to keep the hat poly count below 800 which was a challenge an the entire helmet texture is 512×512. I guess that makes it my first “Game” model. If this one goes through I will...
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On Nov 10th Ralph Lauren put on this live camera projection extravaganza! Very impressive work! MPC was the vendor on the 3D end of things. Although I do find it disturbing that Ralph Lauren has made the false claim of this being the FIRST such camera projection piece or “4D experience” as they call it. [Correction: OK, after watching the "making of" and...
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Introductions Open .EXR’s can be mysterious things. My first couple encounters with them left me initially underwhelmed. Why did it look all washed out? Why’s the file size so bloated? Why didn’t they just send me a .TIF? I had been more of a .TIF, .TGA, PNG man most of my computer imaging life and Open EXR just wasn’t getting me excited. Then...
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Let’s try this again. After seeing what some friends of mine have been doing with wordpress combined with my lack of attention to my old blog I decided it was time for a blog reboot. I have a number of tutorials in the works and hope to get them up ASAP. Reliable work flows using FG/GI in Mental Ray for animation is in the works. Also I am also working on an...
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