We have a bathroom (and new carpet)!

Well; it's finally done.  It was only an 8x5 foot bathroom; but we went down to the studs and put in a new sub-floor.  It was all new to us, and my wife ended up doing a large part of the work (yes, I'm a lucky man).  I'll have to post a picture of it later; but I wanted to get in a long overdue update to the blog.

I'm now trying to get back to a somewhat solid/reliable schedule for 3D work, and I'm hoping to do so by next week.  I have something that I'll be doing to add to the crate scene; both to be a bit different in this go-round, and to catch back up with my skills (and hotkeys).  I'll see you in a few, and get some more images going!

-Keith

Intermission Extended.

Just a quick update.  Bathroom should be done by next week (also having carpet installed upstairs today); so I'm hoping to get back to this next week, starting with the little side-project to the Crate (which will help me refresh anyways).  Stay tuned....

-Keith

Intermission

Well, as with all things in life, sometimes things just happen.  We have an unexpected renovation to make in our house (specifically one of the bathrooms), which is why there's been no recent update.  Fear not; I'll be back at it soon.  This is a good lesson, for those that may be prone to procrastination; keep your eye on the ball, no matter what comes your way.

Till then...

-Keith

Day 12

Videos: 23

Total time:  30 minutes

Goals: The Crate (Texturing/Decals).

This is where I want to stop with this project.  There is a bit more; but I want to incorporate those last few Crate videos into my little surprise I have in store for the final render.  The main thing you'll get out of this video, is how to attach stencils to objects, and blend layers together (in this case, to get a weathered look).  It's short and sweet; but, as usual, I drug it out a little playing with settings.  So, for now, here's the final render of the crate.

Handle with Care

You won't see me till Friday at the earliest; depending on how long this little side-project takes me.  It will be interesting to see how fast I can get done with something when I'm just working on it, and not trying to keep up with a video tutorial!  I'll be sure to take plenty of WIP pictures, so don't worry!  Till then...

-Keith

Day 11

Videos: 22

Total time: 110 minutes

Goals: The Crate (Lighting and Texturing).

Important Sanity Tip of the Day: When moving an object; always grab the layer that everything is parented to.  This is something I rediscovered today, after a few hair pulling moments.  Today, I started by fixing the layer issues I left off with yesterday; then applied textures to all the layers, as you can see here (which took me almost 30 minutes...before starting the actual video).

Initial Textures done

There are a few areas on some edges that need some love; but I'm done tweaking it for now.  Next, we move onto dressing up the texture maps themselves; with bump mapping, specularity, etc.  Here's the result of that endeavor.

Texture and Light tweaks

I tweaked the lights a bit, and added the bump and spec mapping, to the above render.  The results may not look much different to the one above it; but, upon further examination of the close-up images below, they add a little more realism to it.  I did not add a gloss layer however.

Without Bump and Spec Maps

With Bump and Spec Maps

You can also see, in the above images, the errors I came up with on some of the ends; where the textures seemed to run amuck a bit.  At the distance I'm rendering at, however, it's not bad.  I think this will wrap up the main texturing and lighting portion of this project.  Tune in tomorrow, when we add some nice decals to this old crate of ours, and shoot for a final render.

-Keith

Day 10

Videos: 20 and 21

Total time: 90 minutes

Goals: The Crate (Lighting and Texturing).

Well; here we are back at it again.  I didn't get to spend as much time as I'd have liked, on this today; but still, there is progress.  First off; I'll show you my render panel, which will give you all the settings I used in making a particular render.  I show you this, not as something for you to go off of; but rather, so you can see that you don't have to have the exact settings that Dan does throughout the course.  Experiment a little.  Remember, this course was made many years ago now; machines are quite powerful at this point, so render times have reduced dramatically.

Render Panel

We've switched gears a bit on the lighting source as well.  I'm now using an area light, rather than a spotlight; it gives off a much better result for our purposes here.  In this image, I'm using a single light (along with ambient and Global Illumination from before).

Area Light

Finally; here's a nice example of why you need to pay attention to your surfaces.  Notice how nice the wood lines up on the outer bracing on some sides, but not all.  I'll need to go back into Modeler and reconfigure some surfaces (renaming a few).  It's tedious, but it'll be worth it in the final render.  I've used an extra light on the right, to illuminate the side beams better (so I can be assured the textures are being applied correctly).  I'm quite happy with the choice of floor texture as well.

Surfaces are your friends

At any rate; I'll sign off here for the day.  See you all tomorrow!

-Keith

Day 9

Videos: 18 and 19

Total time: 100 minutes

Goals: The Crate (Set-Up and Lighting).

Today I finished with the set-up of our scene (positioning of the camera and lights), and began to set up the lighting.  As I said previously; you'll spend plenty of time tweaking the lights, rendering, tweaking, rendering, etc.  Get used to it.  Keeping your render settings low can help speed up things (via shorter render times) however.  In these videos; Dan shows you the different types of lights and shadow types, and how they work together to create the look you are going for.  In the following renders below, you'll see how I progressed from the static set-up (Lightwave default light and camera set-up), to a more robust scene...utilizing radiosity, backdrop ambient lighting, and additional lighting.

You'll also notice that Dan takes you back to modeler for a quick tweaking of the boards; to "mess" things up a bit.  Nothing's perfect, right?

Default Render

Added initial shadow

Spotlight, 2nd light in rear, Ambient Light

Looks like this crate's been dropped

Next up will be more tweaks in lighting, and finally texturing it all.  See you guys on Monday!

-Keith