I recently also added some other tricks and I want to share this tips with you!. It’s about 10 photoshop’s tip you can’t miss. I hope this will help you with your work!

1) Isolate a level – Hold the ALT key and click on the eye that indicates the visibility of a layer. The leyer selected will be that the only one visible. A fast wat to isolate the level you’re working on.

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2) Finding the cursor - Sometimes we can lost the cursor, especially in very large images. Simply press and release the spacebar. The cursor will change its appearance for a moment, revealing himself instantly.

3) New merged levels - Pressing CTRL + SHIFT + ALT + E all visible leayers will be merged in a new one (great tip!)

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4) Opening Styles – In order to open all styles just press ALT and click on the arrow next the folder icon. It’s great to open all styles in a simple clic.

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5) Special Undo – With Control+Z you go back one operation, repeating the operation it returns to the starting point. But by pressing CTRL + ALT + Z will go still further back in history.

6) Fast Opening – Double-clicking in the gray background of photoshop will open a document quickly, but if you hold down CTRL you will create a new document.

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7) Change Tool – Hold the ALT key and click on an instrument in order to change it. For example switch brush to pencil tool by clicking on the brush tool, holding ALT key.

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8 - Document Center – This is just an idea. To find the center of the image just select the background layer and press Ctrl + T. We don’t need transform anything, just look at the cross and mark it with rules.

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9) Fast zoom – Use CTRL + 0 to fit the image to the screen. Use CTRL + ALT + 0 to restore 100% zoom.

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At last but not least, my favourite photoshop tip:
10) Drag and drop an image into another by holding SHIFT. The image will be placed in the middle.

Understanding through the parameters seems to me a great bullshit. It’s necessary to deeply understand things, then just apply to the software.

That’s because 90% of this article is devoted to a simple explanation of what the depth of field is and what it depends. The softwares does not invent anything new,  once you understood the fundamental issue so the application will be really simple.

* * *

For each picture there is just one place where the photo is perfectly sharp. There also is a space in front and one behind the subject, in which blurring is so minimal as to be imperceptible.

Outside of this space objects start to appear increasingly blurred.

This space is called Depth of Field and the objects in this space appears perfectly sharp.

WHAT DOES AFFECT THE DEPHT OF FIELD?

There are 3 importants things:

• Focal lenght
• Distance from the subject
• Aperture (f number)

How to increase Blur DOF effect?

1. Using a bigger focal lenght
2. Reducing the distances from the subject
3. Decreasing F Number

If you already fixed your camera/view, the only way you have to give a strong DOF effect is decreasing F Number, but there is a problem: more light will came!

So, how to balance this phenomenon? I want a very strong blur effects with the same brightness.

The secret is to know EV (Exposure Value)

Basically the amount of light entering in a lens is the result of two factors:

1. F number (the aperture)
2. Shutter speed  (expressed in thousandths of seconds)

In this table “f” and “shutter speed” are associated with a number (EV).

Keep EV value constant and you will get the same brightness! C’est facile!

PRATICAL SCENE EXAMPLE

I completed my settings and I have VRay Physical Camera with: f=8 / Shutter speed = 250.
In the table  I can read the EV is  14. (image below)

(Rememebr: Our goal is to keep EV constant!)

Do you want to get a blurred image? (I know you like thaaat!) if I decrease  F number = 4 I have to check in the table the right Shutter speed value in order to preserve EV=14

The right values is Shutter speed = 1000 (Click image below)

( F=4 and Shutter speed = 1000 will keep EV = 14 and the brightness will be constant! )

It’s easy: I told you!

Now just flag depht-of-field (in V-Ray Physical Camera object) and remember that “subdivisions” affects the grain coming from the Dof. High values (30-40) will give a better image but the rendering time will increase drammatically.

Remember that the distance where we  have the perfect focus will be determined by the VRayPhysical Carmera TARGET.

For the application I used V-Ray but the concept is the same for any software simulating a real camera.

Last good news: these concepts are also valid for your REAL Reflex!
Have a good rendering!

>> FREE SCENE: http://www.cg-blog.com/…/dof-final-scene.zip

Greeble is a nice & free plugin and I invite you to visit this amazing Greble gallery!

It is easy to use but it has a strong impact on your scenes increasing considerably
object details with a few clicks.

Greeble instalation: so easy! (-:

1. Download the plug in from official the site
2. open the zip file
3. select the file to use related to your windows version (32bit or 64bit)
4. Copy the file in the 3ds max plugins folder
   ( usualy the path is C:\Programmi\Autodesk\3ds Max 200X\plugins )
5. Done! Now just open 3ds max and…

How to use greeble plugin?

Create – as usual – a teapot:

Keep the teapot selected and clic on Modify tab. Scroll down the modifier list looking for Greeble. Clic on Greeble.

You’ll see the teapot change at once. The changes that we can see are the result of the parameters that Greeble was set by default.

Here the panel to control Greeble effects. Don’t worry, the parameters are really simple to understand.

You can easily change the maximum and minimum height of the new details, the density of the details themselves, the rastremature, the size and type of detail you want to create.

The effect that Greeble has on the teapot you see in the 3rd immagine is also related to the number of segments of the teapot itself (see box red in fig1). 4 segments in this case. Change the teapot segments and see the final results change.

Just increase this number to see grow so impressed the amount of “greeble” on the surface of our object.

But beware! With too much ‘greeble’ the PC could suffer and maybe crashing! Do not worry, tick the last option: Modify for render only to leave the viewport and see the effect only in the final rendering.

> Visit the famous Greeblelicious Gallery and have fun with Greeble!

You need to render a rock surface and you just have a diffuse map. ( Look here for Free Textures! )
How to convert it in a useful displacement map?

Most of times you open the texture in photoshop and work it in order to get your displacement map. But often we just get really rought surfaces. How to improve it?

In this cases a really useful tool in Photoshop is Cutout filter:

Cutout reduce the nuances present in the image, thus solving most of the problems!

The classic steps to create a displacement map is:

• Transform it in black and white texture
• Contrast the image
• Save and apply it in the displacement channel

Ok guys, today I want to suggest one step more:

Apply the cutout filter (to reduce the color variations):

Look at the difference in the image below:

If you want to refine the displacement map you can use Gaussian blur filter.
The displacement will be more soft.

Why I see duplicated textures on my 3d surfaces? How to make tileable texture?

This often happens when we use picture taken from us s a texture. The best solution is to take pictures with cloudy sky. Thus light evenly spread solves the origin of the problem.

But what if we have a texture and the brightness is not uniform? Inevitably give signs of duplication .. how to solve the problem and make tileable texture?

I found here my inspiration: we use a photoshop filter called High Pass Filter!
Watch the video and everything will be clear!

* * *

Resuming, this is the right workflow to understand how to arrange the levels on photoshop:

( Texture from fantastic  Mayang collection – link texture )

So, here the 3 steps to balance luminosity:

1. Duplicate the layer
2. Apply it Filters> Other > High Pass Filter (choose the right vaule in order to preserve details)
3. Assign it  ”Luminosity“

I hope this simple tutorial can help you to create wonderful tileable textures!

If you want to simulate Caustics with V-Ray con can’t miss my related post!

If  you want to simulate the sea with V-Ray as you see in the picture above? Download the free scene – LINK! (V-Ray + 3ds 2009)

- – - – - Became a fan of CG BLOG on Facebook! – - – - -

I’m also pleased to talk a little bit of this method. I often say in my courses: there are methods and principles. Who knows the principles always find the solution, but who knows only the methods (tutorials) will have many more problems!

What is the main principle in this case? The classic “noise” is not suitable to simulate the sea because the sea has some undulations, within which there are other small ripples, within which we have very small ripples … and so on.

Now that you know this principle, create a new image in Photoshop by clicking: Filter> Render> Clouds. The result is an image like this:

It appears with large areas of black and white, within which there are smaller variations of the same. Do not you think her behavior very similar to the sea? So use this texture in “displacement” channel of the sea material and it’s done. (The value of the displacement regulates the height of the waves)

About “sea” material: It’s nothing special! Dark green (RGB = 32,61,64) with fresnel reflections: when the angle increases, increases the reflections. I putted the sun inclined to emphasize the effect.

Free for subscribed and new users:

I went on holiday, I spent two wonderful weeks in Zante – thinking in a V-Ray Sea Simulation – and I must confess it: these days I was particularly attracted to those amazing play of light that you see on the bottom of the sea and swimming pools.

This is a physical effect that takes the name of “Caustics” and you have probably already read somewhere that you can simulate this effect with V-Ray. Let’s see how.

The light passes through a curvee and transparent body (glass, water ..) , so the light will tend to concentrate it in some areas. (Read a full explanation of caustic )

Very often we create material “Water” material using “Affect shadows” option. In this way the light passes through the object. If you do not want the caustics this  is a good solution. If you want to simulate the caustics mark “on” here:

• Panel rendering (F10) > Indirect Illumination> V-Ray Caustics > ON [X]

Here a little explainiation of the main 4 parameters you’ll find there:

• Multiplier: caustic intensity  (1,0 default = ok)
• Search dist: projection distance (..follow the tutorial)
• Max photons: maximum number of photons used to calculate (10 = ok)
• Max density: Resolution limit (0,0 default = ok)

CAUSTIC SUBDIVISION parameter:
It ‘important to manage the details of the caustic. It is governed by the value “Caustic subdivs.” you can find by clicking on Light Setting in:

- Rendering panel > Setting > Light Setting (at bottom) and checking the light: Direct Sun, in this case.

Note: In this V-Ray version I use  I prefer to use “direct light” because it works better than VRaySun

(In the attached file, “Caustic subdivs.” setting is 30000. It’s high enough to get sharped caustics. Attention: for your first test you can start using “3000″.)

As you know I love simple explanations, and especially love the “results” without too many technical and mental complications, so let’s concentrate on the main actor. Do you know who is?

>>> It’s the WATER SURFACE!
“Create a good water surface in order to get a realistic caustics effect”

Without a suitable surface the effect is never pleasant. Surely there are many ways to make a good surface that simulates the water, in this tutorial I do so:

• I create a box with a high number of subdivisions (1cm thick)
• I apply the Noise modifier with “fractal” active (Z = 1cm)

You just turn on the caustics and assign to Search. dist. a suitable distance to let the caustics “reach” the bottom. (Eg.: If the pool is 200cm deep, setup Distance search = 300cm, this value will be more than sufficient.)

In this render I just use “affect shadows”: It seems the sun doesn’t penetrate the water!

But if we activate the caustics, thus allowing the light to cross the water, generate caustics, projecting towards the bottom and upwards … then the result changes! (Unfortunately, also the rendering time)

I hope you liked my simple tutorial about V-Ray caustics!

• Original post:  ”Cosa sono le caustiche?” – Italian
• V-Ray Official page about Caustics

From Kansas City comes one of the best short films I have ever seen, both in terms of technology put into the field and the perfect partnership with the history, based strictly on 3d … more on 3d modeling!

The Branit Vfx – companies often outsource work for my serial Favorite: LOST – is the company that has realized World Builder, a short movie directed by Bruce Branit.

The short is very exciting especially exciting for 3d fan! The protagonist is an expert modeler, but in his case it represents neither a job nor a speed contest … this is love: a unique and special gift for the woman he loves.

Please, stops your thoughts and enjoy this little masterpiece, filmed in one day but followed by nearly two years of post-production.

• World Builder

PS The only thing that surprises me is why at the end he don’t  ”Save As”  …ehm…  I’m just kidding!

Have you ever placed objects in quite casual in a scene? Coins on a table, marbles in a container, even the rocks along the beach… it’s a quite boring and hard work.

In such cases, you first – reaching best results – using the physical simulation. The Physical simulations are weapon every day under the eyes of all: smoke, water, electricity and even actual physical contact between objects.

Concerning the simulation of physical objects in 3ds Max we have a plugin (for years now incorporated) which is Reactor. Powerful and complex tool that I can not describe a single post!

The best thing is to see him in action now! So to give you an idea of how quickly you set a scene with objects physical collision, I did a quick video. I created some inclined planes and 4 / 5 balls. So I gave it mass=0 to the plans (if no weight is not moving!) and mass=1.0 to the balls and … it’s done:

• RB Collection (Reactor) setting –  Video / 3mins

In conclusion I link you a tutorial from Evermotion.org that explains how to simulate coins falling on a floor, with the same principle as the previous video:

• Coins – Tutorial Evermotiong.org

The concept is very simple: Just put an RB Collection object in the scene, involve the various items, get the “weights” and just run the simulation. Truly instant!

Have fun!

Among the 3ds Max modifiers, there is one – EDIT POLY – that rather than a lot of parameters, in fact there’s a “world” behind: the world of the polygonal modeling!

Polygonal modeling (nurms)  is an approach for modeling objects by representing or approximating their surfaces using polygons and 3ds Max especially  works in this way.

One of the most important things is to assimilate the “combination” of 3d low poly models with modifiers like MeshSmooth or TurboSmooth in order to get smoothed objects.

The typical application is: Primitive Geometry + Edit Poly + Meshsmooth (or TurboSmooth)

But the most important thing is to understand << What polygonal mesh I need to get the 3d model I want?>>. (Is supposed: “using meshsmooth modifier”).

My last sentence is crucial, so you I recommend you to read it again carefully: it is the focus of polygonal modeling. (I feel sorry for my poor english)

In this article will not explain how to handle technically the Edit Poly because there are tons of tutorials and videotutorial too.

I have prepared an image that I call TABLE’S SMOOTH because it contains 12 examples of basic items: they are what you get adding a Smooth modifier to a Low Poly model.

Observe my “table”: I hope it will help you to develop the awareness you need in order to get the smoothed object you want.

• Original Post: Tabellina dello Smooth (ITA)

If you open the material editor (shortcut = M) you’ll see just 6 slots to create materials. Of course you can creare more than 6!

At first, if we you on a slot and and click the right button, you can select options like “5×3” and “6X4“: try to select them. The available slots will be 15 or 24, depending on your choose.

But.. Is 24 the maximum number of materials you can have? Certainly not.

I admit that the system is not very intuitive! In fact the material editor is a limited space to create, refine and assign materials, and there’s no limit to do that! Let’s take a simple test.

Building a box / create a “stupid” material / Assign material.

Now, click the “X” (reset map to default setting): A window will appear with 2 choices!

1) if we choose the 1st option:

• you reset all the material parameters
• the object in the scene continues to be connected to this material
  (Just note that the box in the viewport suddenly turn gray)

2) If we choose the 2nd option:

• object and material will be “disconnected”
• the material in the slot will resetted and associated with nothing
• the object in the scene will preserve the material that was before the cancellation

NOW THE QUESTION IS

How could I edit a material removed from the material editor, but it is still associated with an object in the scene?

Just go to the material editor and bring it back in the Material Editor as follows:
Get Material -> Scene -> Double-click the material you want back

CONCLUSION

The material editor is a sort of  ”palette” where temporary support materials to create and associate them easily.

If you want to to create a new material and the slots are all occupated, click “X” and choose the option 2… don’t be afraid!! You don’t loose anything! Your material will be safe among the material scene (-:

After Sphere, the gallery with all the creations that complies with the simple rule can be brought to a sphere (with absurd results!) here Greeblelicious: a gallery of images made using Greeble plugin!

For those who do not know what Greeble is… I say quickly that it is a free plugin for 3ds max, very easy to use, which allows you to quickly add new geometries (“science fiction” style) to any object in the scene (see review Greeble).

Many people like to create imaginary worlds and scenarios with Greeble, so Richard thought to create a gallery for this kind of images: made using greeble plugin. In this gallery you can also vote and comment every single futuristic creation!

Many images enchanted me. Here my favourites:

Want to know how to install Greeble? Read my Greeble Tutorial!

And now what are you thinking to do?

You browse the whole Greeblelicious site or you’ll run to download the plug Greeble (recently updated to 3ds max 2009) and create the next new world?

But Compositing is the most powerful technique for manipulating images in computer graphics is it could be fine to understand a little bit better what Psd Magaer do automatically.

However, in architectural rendering not many people use this technique. Infact, there are not many articles on the web and – anyway – you can render and render again still images 100 times, this will not a incredible problem (With the animation that would be impossible!!)

Anyway, compositing technique allow us to save our time so we can  add the compositing to our list How to reduce the rendering time!

A few days ago I read an article explaining a very basic compositing, just to see how it works: the article is comping of Basic Vray Renders, Then I start from there to present the topic: a small compositing tutorial!

I don’t want to bore you with words-words-words and I hope the following image and a psd file will clarify the matter in a few seconds:

With Vray, Mental Ray and several other rendering engines we can render specific channels.

I can choose to render only “certain parts of the scene” for example, direct light, the reflections or shadows. Overlap then – with different fusion methods (multiply, screen etc. ..) – all these images using compositing  softwares such as Shake, Combustion, Fusion .. or simply Photoshop.

The result will be (almost) the same image! The difference? Control.

Yes, because having all the separate channels we can choose whether to have more or less global light, manipulate the reflections, reduce or fix some color, simply adjusting on its channels. So you can manipulate the image with a great facility.

Download the PSD file below see with your eyes how to control everything.

• Basic compositing – (Photoshop File)
• Compositing | V-Ray Lighting Techniques – Dvd for sale

<a href=”http://www.mystudiyo.com/act71574/mini/go/are_you_really_expert_in_gc?” mce_href=”http://www.mystudiyo.com/act71574/mini/go/are_you_really_expert_in_gc?”>are_you_really_expert_in_gc?</a>

[ Free Vray scene ] – If you have a boat, a yacht or anything else and want to render it on the water, perhaps Charles Hollemeersch’s plugin is for you.

Already a few years ago Charles realized this fantastic plugin that – simply – adds a geometry “sea”.

INSTALLATION

Unzip the contents of this zip file into the [maxfolder]/plugins directory, so for example: c:\3dsmax6\plugins

Then just go to Create> Geometry> Hollemeersch.NET and select the object OceansWaves. Then click anywhere in the scene to create it.

You see a surface that immediately gives the idea of “sea”. Fantastic?  Try now to operate the button of animation… isn’t it super fantastic? yeees!!!

There are various parameters that can be set as the height of waves, wind speed, the speed of movement, the type of crimp and the number of subdivisions (which adjusts the level of detail of the object).

This parameter – the number of subdivisions – is the sore point. OceanWaves uses a large number of polygons (70,000> subd = 7 / 2,000,000> Subd = 10) and is easy ultizzando a subdivision even higher standard should be a PC crash for lack of memory. (Mine is gone crash to 11).

Here the plugin link and my scene, just tu test it! 3ds max + vray 1.5 -Enjoy them!

• OceanWaves – Plugin

3ds max 2009 training – The user Mak21, present mainly on the3dstudio.com, continues to supply its virtual library of interesting and low cost videotrainings.

After Mental Ray training it’s time to take a look at 3ds max and exactly 3ds max 2009 design, the last born at home Autodesk, which is nothing but 3ds max oriented modeling and rendering architectural and design.

As the same author says:

In this video course you will have the opportunity to study the new features of 3dsmax 2009 and mental ray at a competitive price, from the comfort of home or office or wherever you prefer.

All files of the course are included and free use for your projects interior and exterior design.

Mak21 is an operator 3ds max Discreet advanced level certificate and this is a guarantee of quality, finally it should be noted that the cost of entire pack course (Metal ray training included) is $129!

The first volume contains 20 lessons, the second in 36 of and Mental Ray training homage – only for the summer – consists of 31 additional lessons. 3 volumes in total for this 3ds max 2009 training!

Ideal for the users who already have some knowledge of 3ds and intends to approach the new version, but also for those who want to learn Mental Ray, taking advantage of the offer, will take home the course of deepening on 3ds max 2009 design!

• 3ds max 2009 design – Training

I loved very much to read your comments on the previous post! It’s quite difficult to tell fake or real… I see.

If I had found similar pictures , without knowing the origin, I have no doubt that: <<but that kind of debate is this? Think of images… what the argument therefore? I don’t understand something? >>.

The software is at the stage of evolution that the complete photorealism is possible, at least for still images. Let me add that this is not enough, we need also that the “artists” decide to work with!!

Finally this is the result of the combination of great representation artits and advanced rendering and modeling software.

Do you recognize these images? They are the 3d models of Old man and Sexy Model before the texturization. The incredible artists are Lee Perry-Smith and Stanislav Klabik, whose gallery are among the most interesting of Cg Society.

3ds max, BodyPaint, Lightwave 3D, Photoshop, ZBrush dor the Sexy Model and… “just” 3ds max, mental ray, Photoshop (this is the discussion related) for the Old Man.

I fear when I see similar things… but don’t, if someone is asking “but how do you that?” I have the solution:

• Workflow: how to model a 3d actress

PS Who is the dog? Simple, he’s Billy…

Images made with Photoshop, 3ds max, Maya, Z-brush … or Canon reflex, hp photosmart… or what?

Please, leave your comment and tell us what do you think about!

(The solution is here!)

I remember that some years ago, have produced a rendering in 10/15 hours was cause for pride. Now it simply means that you are a newbie!

Reducing the time in the rendering production is a goal to keep in mind. We need improve our skill reducing our rendering time too. Then go ahead! But how do? I wrote down some points that I hope can be a starting point for an analysis of your personal “rendering behavior“:

1) Use Low resolution for rendering tests.
I know, everyone likes to render a big image, but we risk to waste too many time if we always use 800×600 minimum.

2) Use Rendering Region: render only what interests you. Time to time check your shaders, verify the little differences.. and quickly find the result you’re looking for.

3) Do not add Glossy effects. Add it just when you think that the scene works fine. (I know that everyone loves Glossy effects, but we risk wasting much time.)

For V-ray users:

4) when we start the scene use fast parameters for GI:Primary buonces:
Irradiance map / -4 -4
Secondary bounces: Light Cache / 100

5) In the Vray Global Switches rollout use Override Mtl. We can use a very simple material like gray to test the light in the scene. When we are convinced of the light scene add the various shaders.

6) In DMC Sampler rollout, increse Adaptive amount from 0,85 to 1,0
The image quality will be lower, but also the time to render it!

7) About Vray Light, check the option “Store with irradiance map“. Even here, lose a little of shadows but the time is decidedly lower.

All this attentions will allow us to lower a lot the time setting. The final time rendering will be only a small part of a comparison!!

Have I forgotten something?
I hope it is a useful reminder and I hope to improve this post with your suggestions.
I await your comments and advice!

Do you like this image above? Probably you already downloaded my useful 3 Scene Template about interiors, exteriors and objects. Ok, go on with this great scene, full setted, totally free.

I made this rendering using 3ds Max 9 and Vray render… and I want to give you that scene as a present for you readers!

3d model to add nice ditails in bathroom scenes type. Toothpaste, toothbrush, liquid soap, box and something else with V-ray 1.5 high photorealistic setted scene. Just Clic render button and get a photorealistic shot!

I hope you’ll like my 3d files! It’s a good opportunity to investigate my V-ray settings, to compare my setting with yours… to help each other about settings and lighting concept.

Tell in your 3d forum, tell your friends…. Download and enjoy it.

My first tutorial to start learning 3d modeling was Joan d’Arc!! almost 10 years ago!

Actually Joan d’Arc is the most famous tutorial for poligonal modeling in the world. But during these years many users added to the web their own contents about 3d modeling.

One of the last tutorials I liked is Head Modeling by Hatice Bayramoglu. Very detailed tutorial that start from a sketch and conclude with a finished 3d head model. Here the link:

• Cg Arena – Head Modeling

Reading on the Hatice Bayramoglu site you can understand that this tutorial start with “head tutorial” but the idea is a complete tutorial about an human body!! Eye, hand, foot, lip and 3d nose.

Enjoy this fantastic tutorial and tell me… How many tutorials about human 3d modeling do you know?

Mental Ray training: A new videoguide to learn the excellent render engine that rendered the cult movie Matrix.

Even if there are many render engines on the market, Mental Ray is still used from many users. Mental Ray is very power to create special effects and it is excellent working with layered rendering!

As I wrote in my italian post Tutorial per Maya there are many resources about it especially for Maya users. A very interesting community is Mymentalray.com.

Recently I found this video guide that I think very interesting. Here a brief description of the author:

The only video course in english for mental ray. his video course is compound from 168 lessons for a duration of 22 hours. The treatment includes all the versions more important of this powerful motor of rendering. Examining the courses of the version 3.4 3.5 and 3.6 you will be able to manage all the versions
included in 3dsmax8.0 3dsmax 9.0 and 3dsmax 2008.

Besides the vision of the evolution of the sundry ones versions it will give you a mastery superior respect to a single video course or similar text in once of reduced learning thanks to the video.

Inside the course they are present the files 3dsmax for the tutorials.

The entire Metal Ray Training is based on 5 volumes but purchasing all together you will have a saving of 136 $ in comparison to the purchase of the single-hit 5 video course valued 295$

•   Mental Ray – The great guide

Have a good Lessons!

Recently I rendered a lot of 6m x 3m Posters for Buildings under construction… and I want to share with you my idea to choose how many pixels I need setting my rendering panel.

Everyone knows that a book is printed in 300dpi: that’s the best standard resolution.

But if I see this book to 5 meters I don’t need to increse the resolution, I’m not Superman!!! I just need to increase the format. That means I’m reducing the resolution!

Ok.. look at this file: it will explain my idea in a look!

• The Visual field – 3d sketch – Formats: File for 3d studio 9 / *.3DS
• If you don’t use 3ds > Images 1 – 2

Considering the Visual Field: looking a book (21cm x 29,9cm) to 30 centimeters is the same thing than looking an imaginery Big Book (574cm x 395cm) to 5 meters!

So, this imaginery book is 19 times bigger than an ordinary book: that means I can print a big poster with a resolution 19 times smaller: 300 dpi / 19 = 16 dpi!!!It will be a good resolution.

Checking resolution

If you want to check your rendering resolution, print a little part (20dpi!).

The quality image is not so good, but just see the printed paper to 2 meters: Perfect!

This is the method I use to verify the quality image.

Concluding

To print a 6m x 3m rendering:

• Set rendering out to 4724 x 2362 pixel
• Create a new document with Photoshop (6m x 3m / 16dpi)
• Put your rendering into new photoshop document

Last suggestions

• I prefer 20dpi that 16dpi… it’s my safety margin
• You can render 80% and increase up to 100% with Photoshop: Render time will be cutted and nobody will notice that
• If you have problem with memory errors, render your image in 2 parts

Et-voilà, Les jeux sont faits!

[ Vray Tutorial ] – In the 2005 the Nine Inch Nails made a new video: Only. It was a great success, especially among 3d lovers in the world!

Many people like its music, but the 3d lovers like the videoclip because it’s made totally with Vray! Vray Render is the really main actor in this 3d short movie!

The Photorealism is amazing, but the special effect who surprise everyone is that you can see at 1’30″: the singer appears in the Pinscreen singing!! That’s a gret effect… but not so complicated to realise.

Suppose to start from a 3d head model. This is the idea:

• Render a sequence with Z-Depht (front view)
• Use these images as Vray Displacement Map!
• Final Render

Et-voilà, it’s done!

This is the summary of the Alzhem Tutorial. Here the link… enjoy it!

• Only – Videclip
• How to create a Pinscreen – Vray
• Behind the scenes!

I would to see your results! Send the images at my email address! I’ll publish it with your name. Subscribe to the Newsletter!

Work at Pixar Studios: what a dream for many 3d lovers around the world!

Yes, I’m sure there are a hundreds of young 3d modelers who think every day in working for Pixar! So… maybe you don’t know, but that’s the moment to realise our dreams beacause Pixar is searching for a new 3d talent!

Here some information about the responsabilities and qualifications for this job:

Responsibilities

• Receive with each assigned shot: storyboards, story reels, recorded dialogue, set layout, and direction. The Director shows each new sequence in layout and describes what is expected for every shot at a blocking meeting
• Read soundtrack and plan shot
• Block in movements in rough animation and show for the Director’s approval in a daily review
• Finish work for Director approval in a timely manner
• Attend animation dailies

Qualifications

• Degree or certificate in classical animation, film, or related field, or equivalent production animation experience
  
• Must have a DVD or VHS demo reel that demonstrates application of the principles of animation to tell a story with meaning through movement
• Ability to work collaboratively
• Must be open to direction and able to embrace change
• Proven storytelling skills
• Ability to use acting skills, which bring characters to life, as well as clearly communicate simple ideas with which an audience can empathize
• Strong understanding of traditional animation principles
• An art background, which shows a thorough, understanding of physical motion, weight, balance, texture, and form
• Computer animation experience preferred but not required

So.. don’t waste more time and introduce yourself to Pixar Animation!! Follow the link for more Careers information, included 3d Animator!

• Pixar search for an Animator
• Tornado: the 3d Lamp used by Pixar

[ Vray Tutorial ] V-ray has various method to control the light in the scene. You can tune the lights and the environement but also you can play with Color Mapping settings.

With Color Mapping we can manage the shadow intensity and the brigtness, so it’s very important to understand perfectly this rollout.

There are different type of algorithm with Color mapping in vray 1.5: Linear, Exponential, Exponential HSV, Intensity Exponential, Reinhard and Gamma Correction … and we can read the official guide to understand all about it:

• Vray – Official guide about Color Mapping

But I also found a very nice tutorial explaining the differences between Linear, Exponential, Exponential HSV… is an italian tutorial but it’s very simple so you can use the google language tools to read in english this tutorial!

• Understanding Color Mapping
• Related post – Linear WorkFlow

Enjoy it!

Rsizr is flash macromedia application, it works with jpg, png and gif format and its main fatures are about cutting and image resizing. This last feature is the most important and it is based on a new and revolutionary algorithm: Seam Carving

Probably, Seam Caving will be very important in the next Photoshop fatures!!

This technic allows to resize images preserving the most important parts in the image, so it can delete some informations and preserve the important ones: at least the image will appear perfect. This feature offers many oppurtunity in web applications.

If you want to see how Seam Caving works, watch this video: Resizing Video

• Here the free web application: Rsizr – Enjoy it (-:

With the last version of Google Earth new features caming! The most important of all is Google Sky.

Googlesky allows us to see the sky and the earth just clicking on the button “alternate sky and earth”. You know that the stars you can see are differents, it depends on your position in the earth. So google sky will show you just the stars you could see from you are in that moment. Have a lookon Google Sky Features.

Another funny feature is “flight simulator”! I’m not so expert about this kind of softwares but you can have a look on this page: Keyboards control – This document describes the various keyboard combinations that you can use with the flight simulator features of Google Earth. To enter the flight simulator mode, press Ctrl + Alt + A .

Once you have entered flight simulator mode for the first time, you can re-enter the mode by choosing Tools > Enter Flight Simulator. To leave flight simulator mode, click Exit Flight Simulator in the top right corner or press Ctrl + Alt + A.

Have fun! – Google Sky

Vray Training.

It’s no possible to find all for free, sometimes wee need to buy ; ) but it0s important to choose the right products…

VisMasters delivers high quality training to your desktop. Industry experts present carefully developed curriculums to help you achieve your goals. Whether you are seeking to improve a technique or need a crash course, VM Online course offerings provide you an ideal online training solution.

• Vray training and more..

Vray 1.5 final is out! Some important new features:

• New render elements: VRayMatteShadow, VRayTotalLighting, VRayRawTotalLighting;
• Increased rendering speed for some types of scenes;
• New photometric models for VRaySun, VRaySky, VRayPhysicalCamera and VRayLights;
• VRayMtl has a new “hybrid” SSS model;

For more informations look at

• Vray 1.5: new features