interstellar

Hi James - Thanks for responding; I got an iMac from my local Mac dealer last night. I networked it but with only two cores, it's not helping much!

I need to render a simple EIAS 9.1 project at 4k, 29.97 fps. The only plugin it uses is KMyst v1.0.1 which is applied to about 100 uberspheres. My Mac will take a week to render 750 frames, and it needs to be done much sooner. My Mac can't communicate with the internet because its OS 10.6.8, is incompatible with our internet gateway device. Does anyone know how I could get my file to a renderfarm? Thanks, Joe Tucciarone

Thank you very much, Tomas. I'll try that. CIao, Joe

I'm using a displacement map to make a moon. The resolution for the scene is 3840 x 2160. The map is a digital elevation image from NASA, measuring 11,520 x 5760 pixels. The moon is an uber-shape sphere; in the plugin, the latitude and longitude are both set to 3,600 (Camera). The Camera is set to 64 bit Architecture and Memory is set at 8,000 Mb. The attached picture is a closeup of the nearest part of the moon to the Camera. It's a composite; in the top, the NASA map is used as a bump map rendered with Phong. In the bottom image, the NASA map is used as a displacement map and is rendered in Raytrace. Using the map as a bump gives a nice image and doesn't require a sphere with so many polygons but raytrace rendering gives me nice shadows. The raytrace rendering must be done with "smooth" disabled on the sphere's uber-shape; unfortunately, the polygons are visible in the picture. The Camera crashes if I divide the sphere any more than 3,600 x 3,600. Is there a way to set this up so the polygons aren't visible in a raytrace render? Thanks for your help! Joe

The UHD Alliance has announced its standards for hardware & content at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Here's one of many articles regarding their announcement: http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnarcher/2016/01/05/ces-2016-high-dynamic-range-tv-finally-gets-a-standard-you-can-just-about-understand

Hi Alex, My favorites are the first and the last images. Joe

Hi Derryl, You definitely create an impact with this - nicely done! Joe

Hi Steven, That's a very nice reel. I like the different rendering styles; they add to the visual interest of your scenes. Best Wishes, Joe

Hi, KMyst worked for me using EI 9.1 in a 3840x2160 (60fps) project on a 2008 Mac with OS 10.6.8. I had about 30 individual cloud objects; KMyst was on every cloud object, each with unique KMyst settings. However, I didn't fly through any of the cloud objects; I've never been able to figure out how to do that. Joe

Very nice, Steven!

Thanks Tomas . . . it looks like those improvements worked!

I rendered my asteroid in Ray Trace mode with shadows enabled on the light source, cast & receive shadows both enabled on the asteroid and with Motion Vector blur enabled. At one point, the asteroid came very close to the camera. All shadows and blurs look great.

Years ago I read that you should never use Motion Vector blur when rendering ray-traced shadows. Is that still true? I'm rendering a project in passes; in one pass a single asteroid flies past the camera. There is nothing else in this pass except for the asteroid. There are two Shaders on the asteroid: Fractal Noise and Rust. When I render it in Ray Trace mode with Motion Vector enabled, the blur looks fine. This will be a long render-pass so I want to make sure it is set up correctly. Is combination of Motion Vector and Ray Traced shadows okay in my case?

Here's a brief update on the state of UHD television. SMPTE is expected to set standards for UHD broadcasts sometime next year (2015). A few, limited broadcasts have already begun by companies like the BBC. The Production Hub now features a news digest called "4kHUB-NEW!". And, a 60-inch UHD television set has just appeared at the local Sam's Club discount store; that more than anything else shows that UHD TV is on the way! Joe

Ola Tomas, Thanks - I found it. I didn't realize you had put it on the Special Tab of the Fractal Noise shader. Joe