Eagle Series II WIP

Mandrake · March 29, 2009, 08:17:39 PM

Space: 1999's Eagle Series II
I've been working on this Eagle for a while now and hope to start uv mapping, next month sometime. Hehe

I'm curious if any of you folks have figured out the extra settings and how to best apply them to the primitive, for the most part, shapes of models like this. I have a suspicion that the default setting will be the best. Or possibly the Catmull-Rom (sharp). To jitter or not to jitter. Or is it still just a matter of taste, that some like it sharp and others, like the Cubic B-Spline (soft). The later, I'm shying away from as it's not a heavily populated forest glade, that might need softening. Does the effects tab, aid or generate the wave pattern on the panels of the crew cabin?

This render is set at default, as far as extra settings go, quality 1,15,3,4,8
I will try a couple tests, to see, but I'm curious what you think.

Thanks for looking.
See you next month in version 2

Luminos · March 29, 2009, 11:10:09 PM

So far, this looks like it's coming along really well. I haven't got much experience so I'm happy you tagged the big scary words with smaller ones.

Keep up the great work

domdib · March 30, 2009, 04:29:04 AM

V convincing model, and nice moon scape. Takes me back to the day I had the Dinky model

By the way, do you need such high AA because of all the straight lines in the model?

Mandrake · March 30, 2009, 06:44:10 AM

Quote from: domdib on March 30, 2009, 04:29:04 AM
V convincing model, and nice moon scape. Takes me back to the day I had the Dinky model

By the way, do you need such high AA because of all the straight lines in the model?

Thanks, haven't done much of anything with the moon scape yet.
I jump the settings up because this type of render is not slow, and it does help with clarity.

rcallicotte · March 30, 2009, 11:13:06 AM

Nice looking model. The moonscape, and especially the landing base, need more texturing.

Mandrake · March 31, 2009, 08:17:27 AM

Quote from: calico on March 30, 2009, 11:13:06 AM
Nice looking model. The moonscape, and especially the landing base, need more texturing.

Thanks Calico, I'm still modeling, I haven't even started the things you've mentioned yet. WIP
I was just curious about the extra settings, not surprised no has answered as I had to ask about 20 times for transparency help. hehe
But i can see where people have other things on there mind right now.

cyphyr · March 31, 2009, 10:01:15 AM

I've used this method on fractal based stuff, changing parameters via an animation to see which comes out best.
If you have the animation version then:

In your camera settings Set your motion blur to 0.
Look next to the AA settings and you'll notice an "Sa" button.
Press "Set Animation Key"
Now move forward a frame and select a different AA setting.
Press "Set Animation Key" again
Repeat till you've done all the AA's you want to test.
Now render a short animation (6 frames ?) and compare your results.
This should give you enough information to choose the best AA settings for your scene.

For a lunar scene I would expect a very harsh light, no softening at all so maybe a crisper AA would be good.

Hope this helps

richard

rcallicotte · March 31, 2009, 11:04:20 AM

Sorry I didn't read your entire message thoroughly. Did Cyphyr help?

Quote from: Mandrake on March 31, 2009, 08:17:27 AM
...I was just curious about the extra settings...

Mandrake · March 31, 2009, 11:06:01 AM

Not really, I don't run animation yet, but that ok, it's all good..

Oshyan · March 31, 2009, 11:53:06 PM

The Pixel Filters are really just a matter of taste, for the most part. Your AA setting should probably be at least 6 for any normal render. If you find things sharp, you could increase beyond that. I'm not sure Detail Jitter even affects imported objects, although it might. If you find the "wave pattern" on the panels objectionable, I'd say higher AA would help, and you might also try Detail Jitter. I know this is kind of a cursory answer, but there's a lot going on at the moment.

So just ask if you have more questions...

- Oshyan

Mandrake · April 01, 2009, 11:54:38 PM

Thanks Oshyan,
General export/import question.
It's become painfully plain to me that TG2 does does not make use of the phong tag in c4d.
I don't even know if .obj export contains this information.
I know as a standard obj is all over the map. Is this the same type problem with other programs out there?
I know the sphere is procedural but it sure is smooth.

Oshyan · April 02, 2009, 12:58:09 AM

I think what you're after is smooth rendering of normals. This is an option in the OBJ reader, but it depends on the normals being properly setup in the OBJ file, which C4D may not be doing. Running the object through Poseray may help. Then just make sure "Render smooth normals" is enabled.

- Oshyan

Mandrake · April 02, 2009, 09:48:12 AM

Thanks again Oshyan, I'll have to do some comparisons. In this one I used the free riptide exporter.
I'll see what poseray does.

cyphyr · April 02, 2009, 09:58:57 AM

If your chasing "smoothing" options remember that it applies to the whole object, but not on a surface by surface basis. So if you need different levels of smoothing they will have to be on separate models. Also note that when you make your model in the first place you should be able to set a smoothing angle, (if you haven't already done this you can easily do it in Poseray) so you could have a smoothing angle of say 23° on one model/surface and say 35° on another but they will have to be on different models.
richard

Mandrake · April 02, 2009, 10:07:09 AM

Thanks cyphyr, that was a big help.
My phong smoothing angle is not getting through with spanki's free exporter, so, I'll try poseray.