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Pixie Hiding
About Truespace Archives
These pages are a copy of the official truespace forums prior to their removal somewhere around 2011.
They are retained here for archive purposes only.
Pixie Hiding // Work in Progress
Post by kena // Feb 4, 2007, 10:29pm
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kena
Total Posts: 2321
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I got the idea from another thread. Strange where inspiration comes from.
Thanks Wizard.
I used Daz 3d to pose the pixie boy as well as for the mushrooms and grass.
I used Terrain Generator for the ground.
Then I imported all that into TS 7.11
I used what I learned in the Tutorial on Multi layer Textures for the ground and the walls.
Thank you also X-Pax.
AAAaaand, I used an HDRI image for the background.
Any Comments would be welcome. |
Post by Shike // Feb 4, 2007, 11:42pm
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Shike
Total Posts: 511
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Looks good! :D
Are you using the HDRI for lighting also?
Out of curiosity I would've liked to see how it would turn out with HDRI samples around 50-80 and raytraced shadows....would give it a softer look.
Mapped shadows would probably fail around the smaller objects.. like the grass.
(and take longer time so, not good if you plan to animate it...)
BTW: I checked the Wikipedia Pixie link you posted in Wizards thread, and from the books they referred to, I guess I wasn't alone in believing that pixies had wings... ;) |
Post by kena // Feb 5, 2007, 5:43am
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kena
Total Posts: 2321
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I used an infinate lite for shadows, so the HDRI was used only for the backgreound effect. settting the lighting to a meer 2 washed everything out completly. Let me try a smaller version with HDRI.... I do use ray tracing in m,y renders. |
Post by kena // Feb 5, 2007, 6:22am
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kena
Total Posts: 2321
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ok - HDRI only light - ray traced
first one is at 40 samples
second one is at 60 samples
third one adds the infinate light and my 2 other lights to the HDRI
HDRI intensity was set to 1.02 |
Post by Shike // Feb 5, 2007, 10:56pm
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Shike
Total Posts: 511
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Your first infinite light setup was best, it has a nice warm tone, I was just curious how it would look with HDRI. :)
The last one became a little bit too bright (too much with fill lights+HDRI), and the HDRI ones too dark.
To use HDRI as the only light in the scene you'd probably have to increase it's strength, and increase samples even more to avoid visible banding.
But still... what you originally was doing was better, and you could control the lights to achieve a feeling/look. :D
One problem with HDRI I've experienced: Lightworks HDRI doesn't seem to look for the brightess part (the primary sun/light...VRay however seems to do that.), and instead you have to increase the samples to around 100-200 (slooow render)...or just until it looks right.(when enough of the samples find the bright spots)
I usually do a quick test first with just a plane and a reflective ball and increase samples until the shadow matches the reflected highlight.
And with HDRI I can't control where the light is coming from in a good way, so I've sometimes had to skip HDRI and use standard lights just to get the lighting I want ;) |
Post by kena // Feb 6, 2007, 4:06pm
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kena
Total Posts: 2321
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with HDRI, you have to change the position of the objects to get the light in the correct place instead of changing the position of the light.
Anyway, I agree that it is very difficlut. Here is a new version using a skysphere for the sky. I decided that the Pixie just looking at a wall was a bit boring, so I put in a house instead. |
Post by W!ZARD // Feb 6, 2007, 6:40pm
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W!ZARD
Total Posts: 2603
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Wow that's cool! I inspired someone!!
I like your pixie. He looks a little lost in the scene though. Also I suggest finding ways to individualize your mushrooms too, even if it's just scaling them differently.
Your pixie looks a little like he's hiding from something or someone. |
Post by spacekdet // Feb 6, 2007, 6:47pm
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spacekdet
Total Posts: 1360
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"It's a really big shoe" - or a small window/shutters. |
Post by kena // Feb 7, 2007, 3:24am
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kena
Total Posts: 2321
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both good comments. I happened to notice that my poor pixie wsa not to scale witth the window or mushrooms. In my next incarnation, I made the house bigger. I will try two different cameras and plan on adding a butterfly for him to be looking at. Or maybe a bare foot walking away... Probably the butterfly. I have one that I modeled in TS 4 that would probably work. Just will need a bit of adjustment. I've already added ehough grass to make the bare earth look a bit better. |
Post by kena // Feb 7, 2007, 3:16pm
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kena
Total Posts: 2321
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Ok. Here we go. I changed the maping onthe shoe a bit to make the sole and laces a bit dimmer. Then I played aroudn with the flower and did some alpha mapping to get actuall leaves and petals, then I added more grass, then I fiddled with my old butterfly and got him to work in TS7.11.
Two views. Ond at Pixie level and the other at human level. I like the first one better, but what do you guys think? |
Post by RichLevy // Feb 7, 2007, 4:08pm
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RichLevy
Total Posts: 1140
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Hey Kena
I usually do not comment on scenes like this
1)because I am no good at setting up scenes and lights
2)My own scenes when I do set them up are horrible :)
That said, these are the 2 things I think you should change
1)the grass is too bright
2)the window is too clean
I like the pixie level picture more.
Nice job, keep em coming!
Rich |
Post by kena // Feb 7, 2007, 7:42pm
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kena
Total Posts: 2321
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good sugestions Rich. I will see what I can do about the window. the grass should be a cinch to tone down, but I was going for that "just seeded" look. Like the owners of the house had just put down seed and it was starting to grow. You could be right though... I will try different tones of green to see what I can do. |
Post by W!ZARD // Feb 8, 2007, 12:26am
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W!ZARD
Total Posts: 2603
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As Rich pointed out the Pixie level shots work way better and the grass is AWAAAYY too bright. Try finding a photo of grass on the net and using that to derive the colours of your grass.
Another recommendation would be to add some more geometry to details like the window frame - CG can provide sharp corners that simply don't apply to the "real" world. Champhering the corners will lend a better sense of scale and better shadows etc.
HTH
Stephen
W!ZARD |
Post by 3dpdk // Feb 8, 2007, 3:20am
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3dpdk
Total Posts: 212
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I echo the impressions on the grass and limited geometry.
Try a subdue procedural texture (not bumps) on the mushrooms, they just seem too smooth to me.
The addition of more grass helped (and I bet really slowed down your render time) but one technique that has worked for me in the past is to use a grass image on the ground plane and add the object grass where you need that to show in front of another object and scattered throughout. You will have to match the color and relative brightness of the image. This will make the grass seem more plush.
It's hard to say if that will work in this case given the scale of the grass. The main thing I notice is that rarely are all the blades of grass in the back yard the exact same color.
Aesthetically speaking; the visual weight of the image seems to be a bit too much to the right side. This seems to be caused by the contrast of color and light in the too walls. Maybe toning down the brightness of the back wall ...
My personal preference is for a little darker shadow especially for outdoor sunshine. Try dropping the intensity of the non shadow light, probably your infinite light, by a gnat's hair.
Just for a "I wonder if ..." a little depth of field in the render might help to give a feeling for the size of your character. Most close up photography has a lot of background blurring.
I like the "pixie level" image. If I was going to photograph a pixie I would lay on my stomach to do it.
Over-all these last two are the best images so far ... keep it coming. |
Post by kena // Feb 8, 2007, 6:31pm
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kena
Total Posts: 2321
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OK looks like we all agree that a Pixie eye view is best here.
OK - I darkened the grass... beveled the window and re-textured the mushrooms a bit.
Then I tried a chrome shader on the grass and it mad a bit of variation in the grass colors.
What do you think? done? needs a bit of something else? |
Post by W!ZARD // Feb 8, 2007, 6:46pm
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W!ZARD
Total Posts: 2603
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Getting better all the time. Some of your textures look a little too bright to me. Try rendering the scene with all lights turned off - everything should be black. Anything not black has too much luminance in the materials reflectance channel.
The bevelled window frame looks heaps better. |
Post by kena // Feb 8, 2007, 9:18pm
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kena
Total Posts: 2321
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I did as you sugested, and the grass mushrooms and flower pettals still had color. It was not the luminesance though, it was the Dif. I toned it down until it all renedered black, but the grass cam out so dark green that It looked black even with the lights on. So I got the color from the leaves of the flower and made THAT darker until it looked better.
How is this?
and in response to 3dpdk's sugestion, I did the second one with depth of field. |
Post by W!ZARD // Feb 9, 2007, 12:57am
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W!ZARD
Total Posts: 2603
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Oh yeah - that grass looks way better - good work. There still seems to be too much brighness in the scene, particulary in the shadowed area under the window sill - at least that's what I see. Good on you for sticking with this and working it to get the most out of it. |
Post by X-PaX // Feb 9, 2007, 1:25am
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X-PaX
Total Posts: 12
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Good work kena. The results become better and better.
I like the last picture without the depth of field. |
Post by kena // Feb 9, 2007, 4:27am
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kena
Total Posts: 2321
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perhaps what I need to do is add a layer to the brick on the house... something to make it darker. The brick is a standard texture from the files... I think. lol. I get turned around as to where I get my images from sometimes. I will fiddle with it a bit and see. |
Post by kena // Feb 9, 2007, 3:04pm
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kena
Total Posts: 2321
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ok here it is... I re-did the brick picture and used it as a new layer with a layer mask.
What do you think. |
Post by kena // Feb 10, 2007, 2:13pm
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kena
Total Posts: 2321
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OK - I was looking at the picture above, and I really did not like the wall once the house got darkened. I decided to try darkening the wall, and I think it is better.
4270
What do you all think? done Picture? |
Post by W!ZARD // Feb 11, 2007, 8:14pm
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W!ZARD
Total Posts: 2603
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Fabulous effort Kena. The brick textures look much better.
You ask if it's a 'done picture' - I'd say that you are the only person qualified to answer that! There's a saying that goes something like: Great Art is never completed, merely abandoned. There is always something more that can be done to any artwork - only the artist can really decide when they've 'done' with it.
Hope this helps :D . |
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