Hotel Balcony Composite
This render is a final render of this balcony. I have adjusted the camera height so that the focalisation of the scene is from an occupants point of view. This creates the feeling of presence in the viewer and a sense of implicit involvement in the scene. The items in the scene have been re-arranged so that they are used to better effect.
Renders for current project (updated)
I started using Layers to organise the main model, the second row of buildings and then the background flats and the occupation signifiers in the scene. It made it much easier to manage the scene and considering that I use layers in all the other apps I know I’m not sure why I didn’t think to look for them earlier. I think my attention got diverted by the way you can spin a model around in max. Layers fundamentally is the same but feels more like a way to hide things you don’t need right now in order to simplify what you’re looking at rather than the central core of object management like in Photoshop. I really need to get another monitor the layers palette is a pain in the rear. You need it fat more often than you think and its not just like the Materials and Render dialogs that you can open up as and when you need them because of the function they provide.
This render took two days to organise but now thats done the next ones are coming along far quicker (see further down the post.)
This last one ^^^^ has an Ambient Occlusion pass applied to it in Overlay mode, but the Fill level has been reduced in order to balance the result correctly.
Pop-up book city
I have loaded last nights renders & opacity maps onto planes and uses the Orientation Constraint to get the planes to follow the camera as it turns. This is really useful as the planes don’t actually move position, but rotate on the spot to face the camera as it moves.
These are the results from this evenings investigation into using this technique in my scene composition.
I have realised that using entire rows of buildings isn’t going to cut it, so I have rendered a set of individual buildings to use instead (see above gallery). I have found that while the Orientation Constraint is great, my opacity maps aren’t and need to hide everything but the building itself. I initially thought that I should leave the ground in view (not sure why, it just felt right) and leaving the buildings shadow in view seemed the right decision too.
Tonight’s work has shown me that the opacity sillhouette of the buildings cast good shadows – even from a plane. I have also learnt that having the ground in view on the background buildings just doesn’t work. I’m going to have to change that.
Optimisation (aka: Poly gone!)
I have looked carefully around the scene and reduced the poly count of many of the items in the scene.
- Telegraph wire lofts (each): 2400 faces to 428 (this is still high but allows for a smooth curve in the wires).
- Scaffolding frame cylinders (each): 216 faces to 20.
- Corrugated paneling (each): 8784 faces to 8.
The scene has gone from over 900,000 faces to only 130,000 without the replacement paneling in place, but luckily this won’t take it back up to what it was.
I think that these are great. Getting the materials to align was easier than I thought but getting the curves on the edges to look even half decent took a few hours of experimenting in Photoshop.
Replacement window structures
The other item that was too high on the poly count was the window structures. Each one was made of individual cylinders. This new one is far lower in polys and was made using splines and extrusion.
This is a render of the one that I am going to use. I initially forgot about the quick slicing of the Jambs, Transoms and Mullions which was creating stretched effects on those parts which shows as extra unwanted shading. I seem to be unable to create a window frame that doesn’t have irregular normals. Whilst the AO material overide is on you can’t see the problems, but under normal conditions the sides and top outer faces are transparent which indicates that their Normals are the wrong way around. I have tried to reverse them by selecting each polygon but not only do I seem to end up with a mess, I get the feeling that this shouldn’t be happening at all. I am going to ask my supervisor about sorting this out. I have a fix for the time being: Force 2-sided in the Render options gets rid of the problem completely which is ok for this project. In future when I might be designing for a game where the polygons will be moved around in realtime this isn’t an appropriate solution as I imagine it doubles the numbers of polys in some situations leaving the graphics card / renderer with the work load.
Replacement corrugated panels
I have tested two low poly methods of making corrugated panels. The two are reasonable in their appearance. I have chosen to use the single plane (left) as it looks more convincing than having a visable join of the other method (right). The only thing that I will have to remember with this is that the other side of this panel is transparent. This won’t be too much of a bother – wherever this issue arises I will clone a duplicate and spin it around 180degrees and use it as the reverse side.
8000 faces
This is to log todays tutorial with my supervisor.
I took my model in as I was having severe difficulties keeping max open with a file with close to a million polys in it. Quite why it didn’t occur to me that this might be the problem is embarrasing. I think I thought that Max would be able to handle several million polys. Some of the really good models I have seen sure do look like they have that many in them. Maybe they do. However at the meeting it was made plain to me that 1 million is the upper limit. My computer agreed. When I got home I deleted the offending parts of the scene to find that it would let me work with it again instead of kicking me out of Max back to the desktop. I looked at one of the corrugated roofing panels and it had over 8000 polys in it. With altered duplicates of this element all over the scene – no wonder Max kept giving up.
I am going to make better roof panels and window cages. The telegraph line lofts are already sorted out (2400 faces to 428).
I was shown a technique whereby the items in front of the camera can be made to face the camera without relocating (by rotation) called Orientation Constraint. I tried it this evening and its easy to set up and will be useful for creating background “flats” for my scene. It will save me having to rotate or reposition the background as I move the camera around.
I need to start using layers to help me more easily hide and show scene elements for making composites.
Using Photoshop for post production is standard, so I can use that for Depth of field effects instead of the Camera DOF in Max.
Now that I have removed the corrugated sheeting the file has lost 3/4 of a million faces.
Preparing scenes
The position of the camera in a scene can create opportunities to involve the viewer in the work or to seperate them from the work to reduce personal involvment in the scene and create a more objective viewpoint.
In all cases the positioning of the camera needs to be done with purpose and intent.
In Narrative & Media there is a list of signifiers that give meaning to the position of a camera in a scene. All of them make good sense when you consider examples from movies, TV and photographs you have taken or have looked at.
Four of my favourites are:
- Medium Shot: Involvement, Internal Focalisation.
- Long Shot: Distance, Context, External Focalisation.
- Close Up: Intimacy, Internal Focalisation.
- Big Close Up: Emotion, Internal Focalisation.
The Focalisation indicates whether you as the viewer are likely to feel that you are involved in the scene (internal) or not involved in the scene (external).
The book goes into further detail about Focalisation, but I am still reading up on that. This small amount of information is making a big difference on my choice of camera angles. I think I need more practice, but its interesting all the same.
Current renders:
The Room scene shows how the individual is protected from the outside world by the corners that surround them. The window becomes a vantage point from which to safely observe the surrounding world from the safety of your nest.
Currently…
I am rendering a balcony scene that shows signals of occupation. I’m going to run an Ambient Occlusion pass and overlay it in Photoshop. On top of this I’m going to add a photo background in the very small areas left that show the rest of the world. This will be one of the final renders will be shown at the presentation.
Material Scales / Memory Use
I’ve been wanting to get my head straight about materials. Knowing that they need to be square and in binary incremental sizes eg 64×64 / 128×128 / 256×256 / 512×512 / 1024×1024 2048×2048 etc. I decided to do an experiment with a soft drink can that I’m currently using. I knew that this object would be small in the scene so I made the material 512×512 instead of 1024×1024 or 2048×2048 that I have previously been using.
As you can see from the picture I began with the 512 map and reduced it in increments, initially without reloading the image which is why the first 4 on the top row (from the left) get increasingly worse in quality. Realising that this was happening I reopened the original file and scaled it to 64×64 with the Nearest Neighbour Interpolation switched on so that the image would retain its sharpness at the smaller size, this it did but as you can see it also made the map blocky. So finally I chose to reopen the original file and make a 128×128 map using BiCubic Sharper Interpolation, this has resulted in an image quality closer to the 256×256 image size but with half the data file size, so less memory used at rendertime. This is an important find when you consider that I am using CM as the units in this file and can measures 62x67metres! So I can transfer this knowledge to buildings and objects that should be this large.
In conclusion, my question about whether the size of an object in max bares any relationship to the print size of the materials applied to it has been answered: No, not at all! In Max you can use a first class stamp to material the side of a skyscraper. It could be argued that I still don’t understand whats actually going on, however frankly, knowing that I can save memory without losing render quality completely makes up for any fracture in understanding. (As I am regularly reminded I am doing an MA not an MSc.)
1 hour very well spent!
I welcome all comments on this post especially tips on saving memory when creating high poly count scenes.
Occupational Signals : Models
These are the models that I will use to indicate occupation in the scenes. Some of these items I have created, some I have used (under a free licence for use) from the websites artist-3d.com and turbosquid.com. If I have used your model, please accept my gratitude. 
Memory issue solved
After going through all the materials used in the most recent file that I thought was corrupt and altering them to either 1024² or 2048² as appropriate; the scene renders like a dream. It looks like buying the additional RAM was still a good idea, but at least the file actually renders instead of crashing out.
Lesson learnt.
OMG!
I have just deleted one of the materials that Max and mr where both moaning about in their endearing way and now the scene renders. Having looked at the material in Photoshop it was a 5mb file with bump and cutout versions measuring roughly 3000 x 3000 pixels. Having removed this file I remember an early tutorial where using materials of 1024×1024 was mentioned because that size is enough adn because the number is straight forward for the processor to handle.
As I am writing this it is dawning on me that I may have brought this trouble upon myself. The point is that I am SO HAPPY that I will be able to provide a printout at the next presentation, I’m so excited, I really do need to settle down! lol.
The memory chips have arrived…
… but they haven’t made too much difference as it seems that my files are as corrupt as the mafia!
Mental Ray is not able to allocate enough storage to render the scene. Max is moaning about not being able to allocate memory to random materials that have been used.
I’m going to composite different scenes together, but even that seems a long way off when I can’t seem to get a basic scene to render.
This is all after installing 4gb ! Thats what annoys me the most. It seems like installing more memory has just given the computer more rope to string itself up by. <foul language> Is this Vista? </foul language>
64K RAM SYSTEM 38911 BASIC BYTES FREE READY…
4Gb of RAM is on its way to me right now. No more running out of memory with Mental Ray or complete closures of 3D Max.
(Well, we’ll see.)
9/9/9 Tutorial
Points discussed during the tutorial include:
- Camera placement for scene composition should aim to include Tertiary, Secondary and the Primary object of focus.
- I should grid my scene by the square inch (roughly) and ensure that there is valuable content of interest in each square. I need to aim for 5% sky too !
- I should refrain from overworking the structure and use a simpler and quicker method of creating the shell of the buildings that I want in the scene (see Gallery images).
- I should use the repetition model of the hotel with some kind of separation device (eg a pathway and fence) in front of it to create the perception of the perimeter of the hotel grounds.
- In the scene the left will focus predominately on the structure the right can focus predominately on occupation.
- To fin the mr Rendering error (see previous post) I can either remake the electric lines and use the Generate Mapping Coordinates tick box or use the Normals modifier to unify the normals in the loft.
- Ideas for occupation: Trellis, plants, motorcycle etc. Each flat has a different person in it! Make it look that way!
- Remember to make an ambient occlusion composite of the scene just before adding the people in PS.
- When making windows, delete the polys to create the gap and then use the Border poly editing tool to select the edges of the window and then use Bridge to create the window cill rather than extruding the inside through the gap and then usiing Vertex Snap to align the verts in to place.
- Realism is for documentary images where accuracy is important.
- Believeability is for pushing the boundary of what people will consider to be Dramatic and impressive.
- “That must have taken YOU ages” vs “Thats fantastic! Look at how the ….” The image has presence and demands to be noticed in its own right. (eg without reference to the artist.)
- I should bring my Balchelard work together with my Modelling. (Its currently miles apart!!!) (damn!)
- Remember to use “Interpolation steps ” when creating bezier wall lines for extruding. This prevents blocky ambient occlusion too.
I was set an exercise to create “crazy spaces” these are the results. I have found it more fun to create exterior spaces rather than interior as you can see.
During the tutorial we briefly discussed the issue that I am modelling exterior sspace yet reading Balchelard who wrote about interior space. I need to write, justify and illustrate what I understand about Interior vs Exterior (good title) prior to the presentation for this section.
These are the spaces I created during the exercise. Each one shows the shape first and then a couple of views from the inside. All with AO as the overiding material so that I can see the corners more dramatically / effectively.
Number 13 is the best composition in terms of the camera angle and interest available in the scene. Ambient Occusion creates a fantastic effect!
Mock up for tutorial
With the mr Ambient Occlusion light shader applied (just to see what it does).
and without it.
With the AO light shader applied the scene looks like it belongs in a computer game and is far less realistic. Although I can imagine that Ambient Occlusion is very useful for evening scenes.
Things I have down to do but are not yet done:
Write up my research on Balchelard.
Write up how it applies to my work by linking it to the current piece in progress.
Make a Cyclorama for the background.
Add dirt and more detail (several rounds of this).
Write up the list of occupancy signals and check that they are all applied to the scene.
Write up the lists of common building materials found in India.
Write up the analysis of my research images.
Write up the analysis of proximity of the different buildings in the images I have.
Use photoshop to place people into the scene in appropriate places to bring the scene to life and suggest occupancy in the strongest way possible.
Find an appropriate HDR image to get the very best out of the scene once complete.
Also I need to adjust my proposal hopefully to get more time to complete this as I think the end of September is pushing it now.
What a difference a few Mental Ray Area Omni lights make
This model was freely downloaded from Turbosquid and while I am going to use the model in my scene, the way the lighting was set up was interesting in itself. The darker image is where I turned off the three mrArea Omni lights that were positioned in the opposite corner of the plane to the furniture. They each had a whopping 150 multiplier which I was surprised at. Great result. It’s made me think about lights more again. I have relied upon the mrSun solution alone until now. There are some great FREE models on Turbosquid when you figure out how to find them!
Questioning & Considering…
Looking at the picture in the previous post, I have had to ask myself: would there be walls of a different shade/type of concrete in the structure of a hotel?
When I look at the images of the shanty buildings I see different shades of concrete all over the place as the building has been modified and built upon or maintained with what is currently available rather than a duplicate of the original material that might be too difficult or costly to source.
When making a new building like a hotel the concrete will probably be mixed either on site and poured into plywood mouldings or created elsewhere and shipped in, in either case the mixture and type of materials should remain reasonably consistant.
Therefore, I think that to create a realistic looking building, I will need to use a wide variety of textures, BUT have them colour matched to a single image so that they all look like they belong to the same set. This will give the image the consistant look and feel that I want yet retain the natural randomness of the texture of the concrete that would be found in the real world.
Having looked into just using a variety of bump materials, this creates the finish that I want. Painted uniformly, but with a different concrete texture to create a real world effect. The other textures are good and look good, but are too dirty for use with the hotel.
The wall moved forward shows the style of bump texture that I intend to use. I will use a range of different textures to minimise the perception of pattern repetition in the final render.
Building Materials In India
During a tutorial a while ago and more recently in my last presentation I was reminded that the most common building materials used in construction are the ones that are easily made and found locally. Which makes natural sense once you realise. I found myself choosing materials for the hotel that I am building and I was about to add some decking to the balcony floor and I stopped. Is decking found in India? Does India use wood in this way? Would it be found in a hotel? Would it be found in the locality of Banares/Varanasi? The brief answer is no! All the images that I have of the Varanasi and Calcutta show that concrete and stone are the most common forms of building materials in this region. To support this I found a book about the subject and this supports my assertion. The book also showed me the common materials used generally.
Common Building Materials Of India
Burn’t clay brick & tile
Stone
Building lime
Gypsum – Plaster & Plasterboard
Glass
Ceramics
Steel (Door and window frames / reinforcing brick concrete and stonework)
Aluminium (Bad for environment due to common waste products of red mud, fluoride emmissions and spent pot lining or SPL)
Cement
Concrete
Vegetable fibre composite boards
Wood and other lignocellulosic products including:
General purpose plywood
Marine plywood
Shutter plywood
Structural plywood
Particleboard & Fibreboard
Insulation board
Laminate Veneer
Bamboo mat board
Common Flooring Materials Of India
Concrete in the form of:
Portland cement concrete
High alumina cement concrete
Rubber latex cement concrete
Bitumen mastic
Polymer concrete
Decorative marble floor tiles
Granite floor tiles
Agglomerated marble
Gypsum marble
Cork tiles and sheet flooring
Vinyl tiles and sheet flooring
Gupta.T.N., 1998, “Building Materials In India: 50 years”, Building Materials and Technology Promotion Council, New Delhi, India.
Choosing appropriate materials
The centre and left partition walls show the concrete material the flat yellow of the remaining structure is the original stucco render that only shows its texture when the camera is close up, which is unlikely to be the view in the final renders. So the concrete texture is an improvement. I am going to need to scale up the texture a little to enable me to prevent patterning in the texture on each successive wall. This was clearly evident in the first project and I want to prevent it this time. This will help bring a more realistic feel out of the final renders which was absent in past.
