Leave That Blog Alone

Bath to the room

2011-12-13T10:26:00.000-05:00

Have an update on the room I've been working on finally. My render out of Max is on the top. I messed in Photoshop and got the colors I liked better in about 1 1/2 hours or so to get the image below. I also fixed some levels and added the light fixture on the top. I have some more work still, such as the reflection in the mirror and a few other minor things but right now it's a near complete image and will next been seen on my website!

All done.....

2011-11-08T08:54:00.000-05:00

My friends at CGArchitect said this is a very well put together, finished piece. So if they like it then I am done! I'm on to finish up work on that bathroom rendering. Some time by mid December it should be done. Bust next few weeks coming that'll prevent much work on it. Then I'd like to finish a truck I started modeling about 4 years ago!! Wow!

Another update on this apartment

2011-11-05T19:06:00.002-04:00

Update alert!!!! Update alert!!!! Update alert!!!! Update alert!!!! I have this sucker almost in the bag. I've left it open to some C&C on a forum site so get an idea of what some people think about it.....but... I think it's come along way. You can see the changes if you read along. Camera changes vegetation types (3d or 2D), skies, lighting, colors, ect.... but I think it's looking closer to a finished piece now. Maybe a few minor tweeks and I think that'll do it.

Fast update on 2!

2011-11-01T10:49:00.003-04:00

Been working on two pieces at the same time so wanted to get the more recent images up here and to show off the 2nd of the two. It's a bathroom interior. Still have a bit of work to go on it but the texturing and lighting is coming around. Need to add a few more set pieces to it and get it cranked out of Max and into PhotoShop! Will have updates on the way shortly. I am aiming to get one of the two completed some time in the next week. Maybe over the weekend? Stay tuned!

New direction

2011-10-25T21:21:00.002-04:00

I pushed the camera way way in and tilted it more upwards. Going to see if this ends up giving me some thing I like. I wasn't feeling the other compositions much. Hope I can get something going with this. It's much more dynamic so here's hoping!

Strolling a long

2011-10-22T21:49:00.001-04:00

Added and changed a bunch of the elements to the composition. Got my reflections into the window and messing around with some foregrounds. I kind of like this one. We have nice rolling hills in the back so it makes it seem as if these were built up a long the top of some others. Not much to right I'm in a rush to get out the door so this is going to be a small entry. Just getting my newer image up there!

Update on new composite work

2011-10-16T22:17:00.001-04:00

Here is an update. I wasn't going to show but figure I might as well since it's all about showing my work flow more or less on this Blog. I've changed some things such as the sky and added my detail into the wall and add a few pieces of detail. Some thing feels off on this for some reason though..... can't figure out what it is for some reason though. My Mat ID rendered my windows and another piece that is close to the same color so having problems picking them out to do the sky reflections correctly so I have to run a matte off the selection through Max. Other then that It's a nice high rez image and it looks better then what I had going with it last time...... nothing!

Old project reborn

2011-10-15T19:56:00.001-04:00

Old project I did in 2006/2007 area. Never finished it because client ran out of funding. Figured I'd actually use it and do something with it. Got these renders out and did a basic composite. Some reason I have things not rendering...such as the glass balconies. Files is from a while ago so need to figure that out. Over all not a bad start. Have a new render going through but it'll take a few hours sine I'm rendering out a bunch of different sets with it. I'll get some updates soon as I can!

Revit Building

2011-08-14T15:22:00.000-04:00

So I started on Revit a week ago more or less and here is where I am at. I can see the advantages to this once I can full understand how to manipulate things in here correctly. I keep wanting to do 3DS Max techniques to move things around because...its there...it's in 3D...ugh...! How ever I like the wall feature to build up your walls and quickly lay your floors. Then to pop in the windows and doors in with easy is nice. I went as far as I can with it for now. So I imported it as a FBX into 3DS Max and made some cleaning and some minor changes. Once I learn it more effectively I shouldn't have to do any of this! As far as what I got below. I could have modeled this in 3DS Max in half the time and had it cleaner looking for sure..... but.... I have to start some where! Once I get this done I was thinking a minor league ball park might be a nice one since there's so much going on with those.

Revit!

2011-08-03T23:06:00.000-04:00

Was starting a new model for my portfolio but have decided I wanted to do it differently. I was going to model it with Sketch up but after some talking looks like I will be learning Revit. With this program in my software skills I give my self a larger chance to get back into 3D. So this weekend I will just dive in head first by importing the CAD file of the building one one screen and tutorials and youtube on the other as I work my way through building this sucker. After which Ill export it and bring it into Max for texturing, lighting, and rendering!

Here goes...

Gaming and beyond...

2011-08-01T23:20:00.000-04:00

So I've been reading a lot on some of the new tech that may be coming to the next gen systems. There's a new AMD chip set that is suppose to promise some amazing advancements in graphics and run time. Talking graphics as good as Avatar in terms of rendered game graphics. Then you add in what I just found from a Australian company called Euclideon, They say they have made a software program that turns our 3d mesh into atoms. There software is said to be endless in terms of amounts of information you can show on screen and in detail. In the video below they zoom into the ground to show grains of dirt! If these two things can come together and be for real then the next systems have the chance to be mind blowingly real! Not to mention movie quality animations are going to sky rocket as well.... very awesome stuff. Makes me think about every thing Ray Kurzweil has said is absolutely bound to happen.

1 Complete Comp!

2011-04-03T22:35:00.000-04:00

Completed a render from one of the camera angles. I'm having problems with the other angle. I have some weird artifacts render out on the ceiling but I'm starting to think perhaps it's just the texture of the ceiling causing it. I've worked through every thing I can plus online help and nothing works. Going to need to change the bump of it and try it out. Also that same angle is rendering out the Shadow pass in a very strange way so need to work that one out as well. It looks very nice minus those two problems. As far as this shot it's done. I may tweak some thing here and there but I'm pretty happy with it. I modeled and textured every thing in this my self except for the potted plant which I had stashed away from a magazine or some other place I track these things down at. I'll get the next render up and completed as soon as I can. Might send a render off tomorrow when I get home from work so may be a few days away still.

Coming together nicely

2011-04-02T17:38:00.000-04:00

Here's a newer render I did this morning when I ran out to the store. Looks fine but not sure what's going on with the lights on the left under the window. I've posted on Area to see if I can get some help because I've tinkered with my sampling but still it wont go away...? Very strange! In any case I may add some thing else to the scene but not sure I will. Once I can get that lighting figured out I will render out all my scene elements and composite up a final render. Also will still need to render out my 2nd camera angle I have looking down the hall into this room and composite that up as well. As for now here's my update and so far I'm happy with it. I've spent at most a day and a half - 2 days creating assets, texturing and lighting. Almost there!!!

Office Rendering

2011-03-27T20:14:00.000-04:00

Hey I switched it up and have returned to do a internal viz rendering. I'll keep working on that game level still but had the urge to make this plus I have one more in mind as well. Every thing in this and the one I'll be doing right after will be modeled and textured by yours truly. The only thing I have in this render is a plant I think I got from a magazine....? I can't keep up with the free stuff I find and get for being a member of something. these 2 renderings are set a bit higher then draft but are not the final render settings. Just was for me to see while I was out of the house when I got back. Every thing is done using Poly modeling as well.

Also I get all my textures from....

http://www.cgtextures.com/

....almost exclusively. They're great!

I had an urge

2011-03-12T22:22:00.000-05:00

I just had this urge to fix my Violins UVW and get a better map texture. So here ya go!

Done done

2011-03-06T18:33:00.001-05:00

I finished up the horse's today and textured them up. Plopped them into the merry go round file and saved out. Here's what I got and the textures to the horse. Also I made the Normal map using ZBrush and exported it out.

Merry Go Update

2011-03-05T18:44:00.001-05:00

Update on the model. I have a Normal map, Spec, and Diff done. I just need to make the rides seeting and this will be done. Not much more time to get to this point. Maybe an hour in total to make the 3D change and to dirty up and crate the Normal map.

Merry Go Round

2011-02-27T15:37:00.001-05:00

I need to get back into my football character but I got an urge to try and get some game modeling out there to show yes I can do this and I can texture them as well for a nice environment. So I have a level planned out in Max already and a basic layout for buildings. I Started work on this marry go round and got it UVed and set up in Photosop. I've got a nice looking model right now but need to give it some more love. Dirty it up and add the sleighs and what not to the piece. Here's what I got so far.

Helmet update

2011-02-13T17:16:00.002-05:00

Not much here other then I duplicated some pieces to give more details to the helmet. Other then that it's all about the texturing. I was a pain at first as it usually is with texturing but it's looking pretty good right now with the logo and striping. Just got to get in there and clean up the stripes some and it'll be very nice! All I got left is to model the inside paddings that will be seen. Then I can get to the cleats. I wish I'd be able to work on this stuff every day but I have other things that are preventing me from doing so. I think those things will end up being whats best since they go hand in hand :) I've gotten closer too! Just missed on the last chance I had!

Helmet

2011-01-23T15:17:00.000-05:00

Began work on the Helmet today. Maybe and hour...eeeh...hour and a half tops on the modeling so far. Started with a Sphere and for the mask it was splines (that was a pain in the butt!) Mesh smoothed it down and tada! Still have a bit more to do as far as the basic inside padding that you'd see and the UV and texturing. Maybe get it done after some football today other wise will get something up shortly!

Football Player Update

2011-01-22T16:34:00.002-05:00

OK It's becoming apparent to me that I can't texture this character. I was never into modeling and dealing with characters before so maybe I'm just not sure the full process. I'm CLOSE! just not in the ball park yet. I was using a ZBrush application called ZApp. I used that to get the text and the base colors on the character then I just poly painted the rest till I had what I wanted. Problem is as soon as I bring that texture into Max it doesn't work the same? The seams aren't lining up around the arms anymore....nothing. I'm thinking maybe I should just finished the model up and start off with something of a more simpler texture scheme. Theres a lot going on in the uniform and I KNOW how to texture but it's just not co-operating with me. I'm bummed..... I dont give up on anything but I think I need to study more to really get a full grasp on the work flow. The model I think looks great so as far as my ZBrushing goes I think I've definitely am getting the grasp of that...... I just need to work on the work flow on the end portion!

One more Thing I wanted to add the texture that was created out of Photoshop/Zbrush :)

Football player coming into color....

2011-01-09T18:07:00.000-05:00

We'll since I'm stuck in a retail environment I didn't get a chance to do anything with this guy for well over a month. So today was my first day at it again. I have lots of plans going forward from here. I want to get this done and completed the best I can. Then move back over to AutoCAD and re-kick start my brain on that. I have a truck I started modeling almost 5 years ago I need to get some one to convert into a .3ds for me so I can bring it into my newer max and I am very close to finishing that model.

As far as the texturing goes it's slow. I've never been into texture painting or characters for that part. Still learning the ins and outs of ZBrush as well as I move along. So I downloaded UV Master for ZBrush to help me with the UVs and that was a great time saver as soon as I figured out how to paste and export the mesh out with the UVs and textured polypaint I made. Looking at it right now I may have gone about it differently to make the flatten UV mesh. It's proving difficult to texture the back of the character the way I did it but you learn. I will leave it and move forward but I will just have to keep this in mind for the next one I do! This is how you learn! Other then that it's coming together pretty well. Lots of things to get in there before I start to really pile on the actual details but as of now as you can see I have the base jersey color the small logo patch, and the numbering. Skin tone for face and arms will also be worked on later. Enjoy!

Football Player

2010-12-03T23:22:00.000-05:00

I started work on my first full bodies sculpt that I want to take to completion and have as a "game ready" model. I found a basic male sculpt starter on Zbrush Central and then went to town adding the paddings and clothing folds. Here's where I am at now. Bit more sculpting on the main body then I'll be off to do the helmet and texturing! oooh yeeaa....

Santa Claus

2010-11-26T18:06:00.000-05:00

So I tried my hand at it again today. Maybe 2 1/2 hours of work all total on my Santa Claus. Lots better detail on this one as far as that nose and mouth and even eyes go. I can't seem to figure out the best way to make the eyes yet. Anyways as you can see I'm still getting better with each one and that's all I care about! :) Happy Thanksgiving!!

1st True ZBrush sculpt

2010-11-20T12:37:00.000-05:00

I spent about 2 hours this morning modeling a dogs head and polypainting it. It came out pretty nice I think but nothing like the stuff you see on the ZBrush websites! I'm still having problems understanding how some things work still though. I know some people say its a great interface so maybe I'm just use to how 3DS Max and Photoshop work..... I don't know. In any case here's my doggie head!

All ready getting better!

2010-11-13T21:56:00.001-05:00

As you can see I am already getting better! I created this using ZSpheres and sketching on additional spheres to get the muscle tone. After that I made it into a tool and brought it in to sculpt (which is on the left) and the final result of the sculpt is on the right. This one was again around the two hour mark but I got much nicer results at the end of this two hour mark then on the first sculpt earlier this morning! I know it's not exact as far as location of muscles how ever. I was just trying to see if I could sculpt something that looked very muscular.

As I said this morning, I am planning on having an actual piece that be portfolio ready by the end of the year. If not two. I'd say I'm right on schedule so far. I think I may settle down and do a face sculpt and try to take it to completion. With texturing and all.

First crack at Zbrush!

2010-11-13T15:41:00.000-05:00

OK so I finally took my first shot at ZBrush. I started with just a regular ZSphere then started to move and sculpt. I know it's not that great to look at but what I'm happy to see is that on my first try with out having a tutorial blasting next to me and having to look things up I was able to make a very clear sculpt out of just a sphere! I didn't save this because there's no need. I plan on having portfolio type pieces by the end of the year so I got a ways to go. Also a plus to this is I just got my Wacom tablet and it was also my first time using it while creating in ZBrush! So I have that to get use to as well. At the beginning I was making marks all over my model while I tried to move and rotate but by the time I finished I wasn't doing that anymore. So I definitely made some nice strides today!

I'm never happy with what I create so you know I'm not happy with the end result here so expect the next sculpt....then the next...and the next.... to keep improving on what I have here! Also I think this was like 2 hours. So I know that is a long time to have nothing so that will need to be improved upon as well!!!

Zbrush and counting...

2010-10-16T18:34:00.000-04:00

Not much to post other then I'm about 40% through the Zbrush training. Least folder wise I am. Not sure exactly how long each section is. It's pretty difficult going so far but not because of the program its self. It's the different function keys and how to make them work in Zbrush. It's very different from say 3DS Max. I keep finding my self wanting to hold down the shift bar to help me scrub along the screen like in PhotoShop but inside Zbrush you hold down the key just next to it (ALT). Once I can get my brain accustom to knowing where it's at (which I don't know where I am right now....oh wait....I'm in the office...I think...) then I'll be just fine. I'm still on course to get this training done and be able to pop out a model or two by the end of the year!

ZBRUSH!!!!

2010-09-28T08:57:00.000-04:00

I've begun my wonderful spiral down the Zbrush trail!! I messed with Mudbox a few years ago and got a good grasp of its tools and made some small things here and there but I'm starting to concentrate and learn Zbrush and hope to put up some wonderfully yummy images I create some time before the end of the year!

............stay tuned

Finished Product

2010-09-26T20:29:00.000-04:00

I have it completed! I do have to admit the texturing isn't the all time best. I need to work on my UVW unwrapping skills but this is the most difficult model I've worked on. It looks good I'm happy with how the modeling came out and I will get some sort of wireframe view up as soon as I can get a little more free time to render it out.

Violin Update

2010-09-25T13:01:00.001-04:00

Small update. I haven't gotten a chance to really do much. I have just a small update....maybe and hour worth if that. It's just the strings and tighteners. Looking good so far though! I'd have to guess maybe 2 more hours of work to get the final small touches in the model and to texture it.

Violin

2010-09-16T09:05:00.001-04:00

Been working on a violin model off and on the past week. I have put in maybe 3-4 hours on the product here in the images. However I tested out about 3 or 4 ways to make the neck from reading different blogs since I never really made some thing like that before. It's almost there how ever. Another hour or two of modeling the rest of the neck and the bow and I'll be ready for some texturing! As you can see by the messy slew of images it's come together very nicely. I started with a plane that I molded into the shape of a violin. I but some symmetry to it. I created a shape from the out line and used the sweep modifier to get the nice rounded edge then scaled it down cut and created the side paneling. Another symmetry and we got the bottom (with additional cleaning to remove the holes). The neck was a helix that I lofted along then spent time bridging polys together and fine tuning. I'll admit I'm not 100% happy with it and know it could be better but it looks good and like all my stuff I always think I can make it better. So at the end of the day I'll add a mesh smooth modifier to the stack and call it good. The image below is what it'd look like wit that modifier applied.

I just had to take a break from architectural modeling and try to start adding other pieces to my portfolio to show that I can model and render out more then just an architectural interior or exterior scene. I'm a good modeler and I really want to better my self so I need to start working on improving in the things that I don't do often. I'd really like to start modeling characters. Never been able to do them well sine I never actually sat down to model one really. So that could be a fun project to do next along with learning Maya again since EVERY one of the companies I know of use Maya and I'm in 3DS Max....the ugly cousin....

Been busy with other things...

2010-09-04T14:32:00.001-04:00

I've been just taking a break and also been looking into other techniques in graphic design. I created my first ever digital style painting. I believe I did a good job. I watched over YouTube videos and read articles and how-too's on how people are getting what they get and how they go about getting there. My next step would be purchasing a Wacom table but that wouldn't be for a while they are up there a bit in price..... least the ones I like! hah

Been sick for a bit over a week

2010-07-28T10:52:00.001-04:00

So nothing new on my modeling unfortunately. I'll be getting back to it in the next day or two. I been feeling much better. I did come across some awesome tutorials on 3dtotal.com, check 'em out!

http://www.3dtotal.com/tutorial/best_of_tutorials/3d_vehicles/best_of_3d_vehicles_01.php

Escalators!

2010-07-10T14:21:00.003-04:00

Well I couldn't find 4 of my 3D World disc. They were from a long ways back and I'm thinking I left them at TE aka Hell..... which I'm beginning to understand why they called it that there. So I had to make my own! I found a site that gave measurements for me to use. I used a 30 degree incline for these. I guess they go from 30-35 degrees just in case you wanted to know. Once I get the modeling done I'll get to texturing these, which is hard for me to wait cause I think they'll look really good once I texture them! Next is the garden area around them then might get some tiles down on the floors and walls. I'm moving along well. I'm at an additional two hours of work.

Mall small update

2010-07-05T12:32:00.003-04:00

So woke up today and wanted to get a little bit of something done before I started my Monday. So I did the store fronts. I laid out the entry ways and the window placement throughout the scene. Took me maaaaybe an hour for the whole thing. It was fairly easy. I laid out the bottom floor first and did my insets and extrusions in bulk. After that was done I copied the bottom left side to the top left side. I took a piece from the right to make the top right. Then I moved some thing and created the others that I did not copy. I have a little cylinder in there for scale to help me out but so far so good. I decided to move the escalator away from a wall that I was going to place it on over on the bottom right side 45 degree angled wall. I started to realize as I made this that it has the exact same lay out as the Cherry Creek mall in Denver has so the escalator will look perfect in the new scooted up location! Anyways that's all for today. I got a bunch done in a short time so I'm very pleased with what I have going. All in all I think I've spent maybe 3 hours on the whole thing the past 2 days.

New Project!

2010-07-04T16:01:00.003-04:00

So going to start a new project. It's been about 3 months since I finished my kitchens so I been really wanting to start something new. So I had two ideas of something I'd like to make. One was a camera match and to put some sort of office building down and the other was a interior of a mall. So I choose the mall. I did a couple sketches to give me an idea of what I'd like it to look like and I've started to block it out now. So far I have the interior walls and ceiling as well as the floor down in place. I have a model of a actual working escalator in one of my 3D World discs so soon as I can find that I will use that for the scene. Think it even had some peeps attached to that scene! So my goal is to try and get a little some thing on this done every week as usual and to post up the screen caps as I go. I think what I have for a lay out is a pretty modern looking lay out. You can see from the screen grab I have a nice floor plan and will have sun light coming in from the ceilings windows up above. Hoping this comes together really nicely! I'm also planning on getting into Illustrator to come up with some nice signage for the store fronts! Wish me luck!

Gears

2010-07-04T12:13:00.007-04:00

So I had to model a gear from some one the other day and I never modeled one before. It came out pretty OK expect for the fact that I couldn't remember Max's default short cuts for the life of me since I been using my own for the past 4 or 5 years. The way I made that one that day was pretty much the same way as the one I did here today. I made a circle spline Then drew the pieces of the gear in then arrayed it around the circle. Attached multiple then welded the vertices. Well after tinkering I found a better FASTER way!

I started off the same way with a spline circle but this time I made another smaller one off to the edge of the larger one. I shaped it the way that I wanted the gear to look then I arrayed that piece around the larger circle. After that I attached all the pieces to the larger circle. Then in the sub object level I selected spline and picked the larger circle. From there I choose the boolean feature inside the edit spline roll out and subtraction to delete the outside portions of the circle then BAM! I got myself a gear!! After that to make the edges nicer looking I selected the larger outside faces and beveled them slightly. Very quick very easy! I knew I could do it.... I'm great under pressure but terrible with tests haha.... and its cleaner!

Every thing held with in this site is owned by me

2010-06-17T16:53:00.002-04:00

Just wanted to let it be known that every thing found within this blog were done by me. I have all pieces of software used to create blog posts. Every single piece held within blog was created from scratch by me..... nothing here is from purchase or taken.

Completed

2010-03-16T19:48:00.006-04:00

Here's the completed kitchen render I have been working off and on for the..... well since I got laid off in October. Nice new piece to call my own. I modeled the room and cabinets. The set pieces such as the fridge, stove and sink came from models I have accumulated over the past few years thanks to magazines and just nice people on forums. It was done using Mental Ray and I rendered off the normal, Diffuse, Specular, Shadow, Reflection maps and composed it in Photoshop. The composite didnt take up much time it was the render time. About 33 hours for the images looking out of the window and 24 hours for the images looking down the front of the kitchen counters. Used I anti-aliasing and GI and feel I got a very nice lighting solution. Posted the image in The Area when I was stuck and was told it was looking great. So here it is... oooo- and - aahhh please!

Short and Fast

2010-03-10T22:34:00.002-05:00

Going to make this a fast Blog. Just want to get my image up and what not. I'm pretty close. Need some critiquing and then I'll have the final image. I'm close. I got my composites into Photoshop and started to chip away little by little till I got to the image you see here. I like it. I don't LOVE it but I'm in the range of adoption....

Coming into color

2010-02-27T19:41:00.003-05:00

I've added lots of nice pretty textures to my kitchen render today. I've got most the scene done. There's a few pieces in the back ground, the fridge, and the stove left but aside from that I got it all. I will have to do another couple angles and add maybe dinning room type furniture to the background room I think to fill that area out but I'm happy with what I've got here today. I know after I added the textures that the lighting is a bit strong coming through the window so I'll have to cut it back a bit but overall with that fix in mind I think the lighting looks great! Also I think maybe some more reflection on the counter tops which came out amazing....will help them look even better. I'll update the blog when I get a newer farther along render!

Home Render

2010-02-21T11:59:00.005-05:00

Looks like I never updated the Blog like I updated my own site! I went back and read and watched some tutorials on different techniques and photo shop out put as well as 3DS Max out put and came up with a much, MUCH nicer cleaner final piece. It was maybe only a period of 2 months between the "final" piece I have posted here and the "final one I'm now showing you but there is a BIG difference, I grew as a artist in those 2 months ten fold.

Long lay over

2010-02-18T20:08:00.003-05:00

So not really been doing much 3D lately. I had lots of personnel things going on since one of my last posts, then the place I was working for laid me off cause of no work....miss handling the working coming in really then none coming in at all....but I paid the price for no paid 3D work going out the door. So I was laid off in October and pretty much lost my drive to do much since I had been already looking for work and nothing coming to fruition. So here I am.....only place to get any 3D done is here at home and I'm finally getting that feeling to start up and get going. Finally read 2 of my last 4 or 5 3D World mags and having ideas of things I'd like to work on.

One of those projects is a kitchen. Which I actually started working on 2 days after being laid off. Lots of modeling is done really. I have maybe 5-6 hrs invested in it already so I might as well get it done. I'm hoping making this blog will push me to the point of doing it....which I feel like I'm already at! I have modeled all but the sink and the dish washer. The only thing in it that is not by me is a Fridge model. I wish I could give credit but I've accumulated so many models off of sites and through my magazines that I'm not sure who is who. In any case I just need to do a bit more modeling, fix up the lighting just a bit more, texture and I'm done. I'm already maybe 70% through! So maybe 2 weeks if I can keep on this and have the time, it'll be completed.... YAY!

Just Do It...

2010-01-27T09:40:00.001-05:00

I have not posted in a loooooooooooooooooooooong time. Things have happened to me over the past 6-8 months that took a turn for the bad. Laid off from a job that I took in Florida cause they just never knew how to get and keep 3D in the house. So here I sit. Trying to find a job, working on new material to show, and updating my website. Here I sit.....

Flicker

2009-05-06T10:22:00.003-04:00

So I read Master Zap's blog fairly often. It's how I've learned so much the past year. That plus lots of surfing the internet for anything to help me out when I got stuck. One of the things that was killing the animations I am making here was the flickering and I had read his blog on how to fix it but it never came up as something that bothered them here but I could see it. A animation I recently created with an overpass had tons of flicker problems because of the amount of shadow you saw so I figured great time to try his solution.
It's pretty simple actually. As far as I have read about the new Max 2010 they have this fixed but if.....if you still need to fix it Zap's way works wonders. All you need to do in Mental Ray is set your Final Gather settings all the way down and dumby down the rest of the quality. It's not needed. The section under Final Gather Map needs to be turned on to Read/Write File. Render the animation out. You dont save any files but the Final Gather Map. Then when its done (which should be rather fast since it's a basic render) you uncheck the Read/Write File and check on the Read Only. This file from how I understand it has now saved your FG maps from every frame and doesn't make it create one for each render which speeds up the render time I noticed some but also now gives the render no flicker.
My animation is great and clean! Awesome short cut and if Max 2010 fixed this I hope it works as good!

Nice helpful Modifiers

2009-03-26T07:03:00.004-04:00

Haven't posted in a long while but wanted to throw this one in there. It'll be short. I have been using 2 different modifiers in my stack for the past few months almost all the time now and it's been making my life sooooo much easier.

One would be the Xform. The use of this mod is to allow me to scale my object without causing damage to the actual models scale. Because I'm scaling the gizmo of the Xform modifier it doesn't harm my main model. Which I have read is good for when you get into wire parameters and such when animating. The second would be a very simple one but has made my models cleaner in the Vertex Weld. I've had to do a lot of small models lately..... I mean small. I've never made a 2cm by 11mm model before up until about a month or two ago. So going in selecting a group and hitting the weld button can be a pain. I use this mod for when I get to a point when the model needs cleaning or at the end to make sure it's clean and all parts are welded. It's nice, simple, and fast!

Leave That Thing Alone

2009-02-25T12:45:00.001-05:00

Here's the song that got me the title of the Blog.

2, 2 post's in one...

2009-02-10T13:17:00.004-05:00

...day.

Here is a test I was doing at work. I was asked a while back if I can make a helicopter crash into the ocean. So I did. Then they wanted to add some splash. So since then I have tooled around with Particle Flow and have started to get the hang of it a bit. It's a big program as far as all the different ways you can create the events but I'm getting there!

Room rendering

2009-02-10T13:11:00.004-05:00

Well I sent off a render last night and here is what I got. There are a few little funky things going on here on the couch but over all it looks pretty nice. Sent it off on the highest settings. Still going to try an clean up a few spots but I think it looks pretty good over all.

Mental Ray skies

2009-02-04T12:21:00.011-05:00

Here's another tip I just recently learned from various websites. Very nice pretty clouds built directly in Mental Ray and not with a panorama back ground image. As shown to the left it can come out pretty nicely with some tweaking.
So how is this done? First you need a sky map. I read that you can use either color or black and white, I seem to have better results using the black and whites better. Make sure to play with your brightness and contrast settings though to make the image pop. That will help give you more blues and whites in the render. I made this one with a standard panorama, doubled the height and added a small gradient under neath. You need to have it look this way in order to have your horizon line be in the correct spot. First time I tried this I used a plan panorama and it just didn't look correct at all.
Now open your Max and drop in your day light system. turn your mr daylight system on. Under the Environment tab you'll need to drag the shader into the Material map. From there you'll get all the settings you'll need to make your sky.

The first set of settings you must adjust is in the mr Physical Parameters. Un-check the Inherit from mr Sky box. This will get you access to all the Haze settings, which is what you use to create the skies. First one is the Haze setting. Iused these settings to get my image the way I wanted but you's may be different depending on the image files. By razing the Haze level you begin to show off more haze... so this way your cloud image with be shown. I believe this maxs out at 15. From there you must select the bitmap and head to the output dialog box. The RGB level is what brings out the color. Go to high and your image becomes very saturated. In my case with this image it becomes extreamly yellow at around the 12-13 mark. I have at times found that playing with the other settings such as RGB offset and the multiplier controls for the haze have given me decent results, but you can generally get something nice without using them.
One thing to keep in mind is the over all image controls in the Environment tab. Changing the contrast, saturation, and so on can have a vast effect on the render of the image as well.

Gamma corrections

2009-01-22T12:15:00.008-05:00

I just wanted to add this both for I and anyone that may be looking for a reason as to why this is happening. What I am talking about is a color looking very bland and faded when rendering in Mental Ray. What causes this is the Gamma fields being incorrect. To fix this problem you simply have to add a Utility Gamma shader before inserting your bitmap. So here's what I am talking about and how it's done.

To the left you can see what I am talking about. The ball on the left is faded and not the same as the one on the right, the correct color. Again it's just a simple shader that you can add to correct this. Just before you add your bitmap to your diffuse layer make sure to add the 'Utility Gamma & Gain (mi)' as shown to the right. By adding this it will color correct you to the correct intensity. Wood looking dull? Add the Gamma and Gain shader! Red's looking pink> Add the Gamma and Gain shader! It instantly places your Gamma at a 2.2 setting. From the best I can tell from reading it's almost always the correct setting. I haven't read much that says you should change it. But by adding this shader you will correct your texture like the image above of the 2 red balls.

Need another way to do this? Maybe you need the entire scene to be corrected and you don't want to place this into your texture stack every time? Well you can go into your 'Preferences' tab and do this as well. By activating this you will turn your Gamma settings on in the same way that you did when adding it just before your bitmap is in place! One thing I noticed when doing this is every time I open Max up it would have the settings still the same as I left it. So if I activated the Gamma then when I opened Max it still would be and in the new scene I'm working on everything may be rendering incorrectly now. So just keep in mind when using this way of correcting your Gamma settings!

New update

2009-01-13T13:03:00.004-05:00

It's been a while since I have written on here but I have a small update to add here. I have continued my work with my room. Since the last update I have adjusted the camera and some of the textures as well. I have tweaked the settings of the camera as well so that the contrast is more evident. I have some more work I'd like to put into this such as curtains along the windows and books on the shelving in the back of the room. Also needing some sort of image for the windows. Don't want to see strange lines floating around out there now do we?!

All in all it's coming along here in a short time since I started the scene back up.

Video of finished Scene

2008-12-03T09:02:00.004-05:00

So I have a video I can show everyone. I am upset..... of course as usual I want to add some things to this. I'm learning some techniques of adding some very nice looking clouds to the Mental Ray Physical skies. Like to add some other small details too. That stuff I may add eventually. Now it's onto the interior render I was working on before I started this scene!

Not done!

2008-11-21T13:22:00.003-05:00

OK.....not done. I thought I was but I was way off. I am working on something for my job right now and again using Mental Ray. Well my reds were coming out to be pink. So had to figure out why. I found out it was a Gamma issue. I have never used the Gamma settings before in Max but found that that was most definitely the issue I was having. In anycase I tried the one was of actually changing my Gamma settings over all for the Max software and found that it was changing colors that were correct. So there is this shader you can put into the Diffuse slot then place in your bitmap. It does the same thing but only to that one texture. So I cleared out my texture loaded in the Utl Gamma shader and placed my red color into the slot and all was good.

Now that I had learned this I wanted to go and fix a few things in my scene here. So I loaded it onto my trees and then I finnaly got the rich green color you'd expect to be seeing. All is now good and believe this is more closer to what is a finally image. I am working on rendering out some sort of video so I will upload that as soon as I can. Till there here is that image....

Ta-daaaa

2008-11-09T00:08:00.004-05:00

Well I'm pretty happy with it. I'd put it at about 98-99% complete. I'm sure I'll want to change or add something to it here and there eventually. Plan on rendering off a short, slow, soft pan eventually. There are a few things I'd still like to teach my self while I created this. It was one of the first times I have used the render to element. I plan to learn how to use that to my advantage. Need to find some good sites or something to help me figure it out a bit better. All in all though I believe I did a good job here. If you add up the time spent I want to say it was no more then around 25 hrs I believe. Nice round number....

Far as what I added. The roofing was fun. Yea.... lots. I used a script to make the tetto roofing but I still had to get in there and edit and shape it to the roof using pro boolean. Found a wonderful site that hand plenty of trees to download for your use. I wish I could remember the name but it escapes me right now. It is 12am after all! I'll make sure to get a post up to the guys site here soon. Added a car model from a small library I have from models I recieve from 3d World magazine. So that's it, next it's on to finish the interior. I sure do hope this blog reads well. I'm half asleep as I type. I just wanted to get this up and out there.

Sooooooooooooo close......

2008-11-02T17:22:00.001-05:00

Real fast update. I worked on this for another 4-5hrs today while watchin some football....GO 'PHINS!!!! I'm at about 90% now I feel. It's looking pretty damn good too I think. I do wish I had some nice trees., whether it be 3d or image based. The ones I have are OK I just don't think they are "great". Anyways.... enjoy! I'm going to add that nice geometry roofing in the next week or maybe tomorrow so I'll get a new update soon.

70, 80, 90.....?

2008-11-01T15:01:00.004-04:00

Who knows how much the percentage is? I'm close though! Just need to do some texturing for the most part now. I don't see anything left to model on this beast. Still having some issues with the stairs. I picked a happy medium for the one on the left. Every view seems different and wont match. The one of the right is perfect so I don't get it?!
As you can see I made a texture change on the front porch. Got the stair railings in place. I modeled the balconies in the back. I should get a few more views up maybe huh? I'll work on that! In any case it's close. Still thinking I may use geometry on the roof and need to add a few more minor geometric pieces to say the stair steps, so that's still coming eventually. I got the terrain squared away too. Now the steps are only a few feet long from the building and not extending off to no where and the drive was is now in place. I'm excited it's coming along nicely!
I have been learning as much as I can about Mental Ray as I can lately too. Lots of Max help and MyMentalRay.com. Learning how others create their textures and lighting skills. It'll pay off in the end I'm sure of it but so far it's starting to shine through I believe! OK I'm off to buy the new Killers cd and Iron man.....adios!

Softimage gets bought...

2008-10-30T07:00:00.004-04:00

Why not add a fun lil ditty on here. A friend sent this to me. Talks about the acquisition of Softimage by Autodesk. Some very interesting comments here.

Back and forth

2008-10-19T16:31:00.003-04:00

Ok back to working on the Home model. Spent a few hrs over the weekend. Still have the room model going pretty well. Did some new things there as well and will update that soon.
So Here's is my update image. As you can see I've added a bunch of stuff and some textures. For now I'm using texture of the roof but I'm thinking of using actual geometry on there later on. Trying to give it a Colorado feel by having lots of foresty type colors. Things will probably change there as well eventually. I finished putting in all the windows and added a glass physic phen texture to it. The terrain is shaped as best as I can tell it's suppose to be from these CAD files. I'm having problems figuring out how the lay of the lad is suppose to look. Same with the stairs. For some reason everytyhing lines up great but the steps. So it may just have been the drawer of the fles. I really can't figure it out but they look correct when you render it off. In any case it's coming together very well and I'm happy with it so far. Just those few hours of work and it makes it look like I'm right there on finishing it off!

I'll hopefully work on this a few times during the week on the coming weeks and get this finished off by the new year....... that's bad huh? Oh well. Hard to work then come home and do the same thing at 7-8 at night. Add this Florida heat and I just want to lay in the bath or pool all day long! So that's my goal. Have this completed with texturing, lighting, and vegitation all in there December 31st. Same with the room. Done by the same date...

Update

2008-10-06T16:52:00.002-04:00

Here's a small update for. I have added some wall paints and a wood floor. Marble for the back end. Still needs some work done to make the flooring really look better but gives and idea of what I am going for. Same with the texturing on the furniture. it's getting there finally. I have had a lot of small distractions but its still coming along a bit slow but it's going at least!! I'm going to get it together here a bit faster I hope. I really would like to get both this room and the home done in the next 3 months atleast!! That's bad huh? 3 months!? Just a bit busy and hard to get going when your computer that you use is acting all funky! Till then...

One small update

2008-09-21T12:15:00.005-04:00

Here's a small one. Just wanted to show some of the details I've added to the room and the 2 camera angles I have decided to use. I added shelving to the stairwell wall and a small protruding shelving from under the windows. Moved the furniture as well. Will add more to it as I go and start texturing here shortly.

A.D.D. anyone???

2008-09-15T22:49:00.003-04:00

So if you didn't know me like I know me..... I can't do a project on my own for very long. I always get ideas for something new to do every time I start something. I'm great when I'm at work and I have to do this or that and have it done by a certain date. I should try this at home....eh. So I decided to start on a inside scene. Using Mental Ray. I want to get this renderer down. As you can see from the image it's a work in progress and I'm going to do every thing in my power to complete this one!!!
What I did. Simple box modeling to get to this point so far. Used the Max walls and windows to make a fast cut and set up on the window areas. Modeled the floor using splines and added the Max stairs ( which is not scene here ). Models were found off of Archibase.net. The are free but you need to really look around for some good high poly and clean ones. As far as the lighting goes All I have now is the Daylight and the light portal I believe is what it is called. Placing the light portal infront of each window will focus the light into the room. All you have to do is make sure the window is nicely cut out. Some how I have pieces of geometry infront of mine! I put up 1 bounce and Final Gathering with some GI and there is the out come. I plan on added more detail and I actually have since this was rendered off. Adding wood beams across the ceilings contours. I plan on making a nice wood varnished floor and perhaps a nice decorative carpet in the scene. I'm going to work on making this a nice finished piece. Till then......adios!!

p.s. I will get back to that home!!! I still have a nicely modeled SUV to complete from last year and a Human face to boot!

Denver

2008-08-27T11:04:00.004-04:00

Not really much going on I just really miss Denver alot lately. Listening to the local station up in Denver 103.5 the Fox. Lots of DNC stuff on t.v., the cold air I hear about, uuuuggggh!!! I'm making the most out of the move to Tampa and it is a nice city but it's no Denver....it's no Colorado period! It's a beautiful city and great people. I think that's what I miss most of all.

As far as more work on the home it's coming along. Taking a 4 day weekend and will get more stuf up on it soon.

This firm is absolutely amazing!

2008-08-04T23:05:00.002-04:00

I'm not sure where these guys are from or located cause they have numbers and address for every where but there stuff is some of the best architectural renders I have ever seen. Check them out..

idrawfast.com

New website

2008-08-04T10:31:00.003-04:00

Hey there! I have done some freelance now for the past couple years and my friend has had me doing lots of the work for him that he needs. He's a very good business guy so he started up a website in the hopes to get a business up and running. There is me, him, and a few others that will help work on projects as we get them. A good 4 or 5 total at start up. Not too bad! Here is the site link

kingkonggraphics

Also I did a couple new renders of a building I had created and still awaiting payment on. Here's one of them....

Windows, doors, and roofing oh my!

2008-08-04T10:11:00.003-04:00

Haven't had much time lately to give updates been very busy with lots of personal things. What I have here in this post is my progression of my project. I have spent maybe another 2hrs on this as of this moment. I have added the roofing, the trim, and windows and doors around the front and the right side of the building. I did this using a technique involving AEC windows. As you know I used the Walls that's located in the crate tab. These two things work very well with each other in creating a sort of boolean. The trick is snapping from one side of the wall to the other. You must create edge to edge to make this operation work. And when you do this it will automatically cut out the hole for you. You are free to then move the window and size it accordingly and the wall will take shape around it! Very nice trick. I have decided that I will create this in Mental Ray so I have placed my mr Physical sky light in and set it to a Denver morning lighting. It'll give it a nice soft light and I miss Denver so...

I forgot I wanted to give a few tips I learned while watching the video a few weeks ago. Some I knew but had forgotten and some were just very helpful I thought. Walls of a building are generally in the 8" thick area on average but can get to 12" at times. When using the left command you can hold the 'ctrl' key and click the object to loft in the other direction. So if you make a hook and its lofting to the right. Hold 'ctrl' next time and it'll loft to the left. Use the sweep function when ever you get a chance. Awesome feature added not long ago. I sweep every thing! I'm my own personal maid. A couple ways to create walls of a building are lofting from splines created in CAD and merged in alone. You can use these to create the walls and trim fairly quickly. Just need the wall outlines and the wall base paths to create a fast model and then there is box modeling which is what I prefer.

So now to the right you can see my model as it stands now with the lighting. Obviously things will change as I go forth but as of right now it's coming along very well. I'll get a new update soon as I can!

Start of a new model

2008-07-15T18:03:00.002-04:00

Here's my first main post and kind of the reason I started this whole Blogging bit. I'm very much into architecture. I wanted to be an architect for a very long time when I was in high school. If it wasn't for the teacher I had my Sr. year I probably would have gone into that.......maybe. In any case I have done some learning this past week and wanted to put it to some use. So here is my image of where I am at let me explain.
I often go to cgarchitect to read the post and to check out tutorials made by a Brian Smith. The Visualization Inside gives lots of nice helpful ways and ideas to go about creating a visualization. In any case I just watched his 1 1/2hr long video on how he goes from CAD to Max. The reason was to show different ways to make walls. Lofting, Sweeping, or box modeling. I generally do box modeling. It's easiest for me and I can go about it fairly fast. I liked the idea of sweeping though and wanted to give it a try. With the building having two differently shaped floors I went with another method that was taught to me by a ex-coworker Dave Sparks.
In this method you use the walls feature already built into Max and just snap them to the CAD splines. The reason for this is simple. As you snap they will automatically give you the height and width as you go BUT...... you can add windows and doors now without having to cut into the wall surface. It's a nice little feature in MAX.
So now I have my scene set up as you can see. The base floor plan and the 4 side elevations are set to go as well. If I look in any of the main directions you will see that the building lines up with the CAD elevations. In the background is the 2nd floor and the overall plan with vegetation. All this was done in both CAD clean up and MAX work in about 2hrs I believe (I should have kept track!).

As far as my Blog lay out I want to link it to my actual website. So I will be trying to make it look more and more like my page as I get the chance.

Welcome to my Blog!!

2008-07-15T09:26:00.001-04:00

My first entry and I will make sure to write here often. I'm not making this with the intention to have thousands of people read let alone 3 or 4. Just a place for me to post my progression with any art work I am in the process of creating as well as any thing else I may want to post.
The name of the Blog comes from a great Rush song called 'Leave That Thing Alone', awesome instrumental piece! Anyways if you did find this Blog hope you enjoy it!