Buggsy

Thanks Alex, I've had mixed experiences with this workflow. Sometimes there is missing geometry, or all the normals are backwards and inside out or there isn't appropriate smoothing of the normals for the object to render properly in EI. Anyone else got an alternate workflow? Or maybe a modelling program that can support import, tweaking, creation and export with predictable results in EI. I have looked at buying a modelling program but I can't find anything that appears to work really well with EI. Comments and help are much appreciated. Michael

Hi, Been a while since I was here. Was wondering if anyone can give some feedback and suggestions on purchasing models from Turbo Squid, for use in Electric Image. I need to buy some furniture for my internal architectural scenes. The obvious one is format. I am on EIAS v8.0 and don't have the funds to be able to migrate to EIAS v9.0 yet, but hope I can soon. So are there any pathways I need to follow? I have no modeling program to tweak things in so I need it to work straight out of the box or find a way that does't violate use terms of Turbo Squid. Let me know. Many Thanks Michael

Hi Tom, Thanks for your response. It turns out that I forgot to push the on switch, on my brain?@#! After I downloaded the plugin, I simply clicked on it, thinking it was a package that would install for me. I have now dragged and dropped it to my plugin folder in Photoshop, and feel a lot less nervous now that is working. By the way, do you sleep? Or are there multiples of you? Your response time is fantastic. I'll ask your clone to thank you for me when you're awake. Michael

Hi Tom, When I download it and try to install it, it tells me that 'You can't open the application "Adobe ImageReady CS" because PowerPC applications are no longer supported.' Am I clicking on the wrong download at Telegraphics? Mac CS5/CS6 Michael

Hi, Can anyone tell me what format to render an image out of EI v8.0.0 so I can open it in the latest version of Photoshop (CC v14.0 x64) with alpha channels and the same quality as prior to me installing the latest Apple operating system? 2.8 GHz iMac 27inch i7 - 8GB RAM Photoshop CC v14.0 x64 Electricimage v8.0.0 OSX 10.8.4 Many Thanks Michael

Hi Thomo, Have you tried the 'Anisotropic' shader? Excerpt from the EIAS3D manual: 'This shader allows you to specify a non-circular shaped highlight. It will even let you define different layers of highlights, so that you can easily simulate things such as a car paint finish, which is actually a color coat of paint (which has a grain, and therefore a highlight direction and shape that is not circular) underneath a clear coat (which has a more conventional highlight.)' Maybe a combination of different shaders might do it? By the way, how did you do the grass in your image? Michael

Have you checked that your Renderama Slave IP numbers correspond to your IP numbers in Renderama? I sometimes get a situation where the IP numbers in my Slave change for some reason and then the IP numbers I have entered into Renderama no longer correspond. I then have to reenter the new Slave IP addresses to get them hooked up again. Just a thought. Michael

Hi All, Can anyone tell me if Silo is still worthwhile to buy as a modeller? I don't do much free form modelling, I don't have the dollars required to buy FormZ or Rhino etc but I did purchase Silo when it was first paired with EIAS. I found there were a lot of deficiencies with it though, such as conveniently organising a model into groups etc. I saw a thread in the EIAS3D forum that said Silo's forum was moving to CG Society and that users speculated it would be the death of the program. I notice also Tomas likes the application. I have a personal project that I am doing which will require modelling people, animals and the like. I don't know if Silo has grown substantially better or if the price tag is indicative of an application that is still unrefined. My point is, I suppose, that I can download Wings 3D for zero dollars and it appears to be as good as Silo was. Needless to say I need to be able to import the models into EI, whether that be via transporter or not doesn't really matter, there just needs to be a reasonable workflow to get them into EI and not have them compromised in the process. I vaguely remember having problems with Silo when it came to sub surface scattering, the model needed to be welded or something for it to work half decently in EI. Some direction would be greatly appreciated. Michael

I need some help with animating a quadruped, more specifically a goat. This is my 'kind of' first attempt at this and I'm starting to get blood shot eye's! Trying to get bones to behave themselves is difficult and understanding how to rig the model with IK handles is an arduous task. I think I'm learning the thousand ways not to build a skeleton and a rig. If anyone can point me in the direction of some current EIAS3d resources on rigging a quadruped, I would be greatly appreciated. Michael

Hi vic3d, Nice shot. You could maybe improve it as follows: 1. The camera angle makes the scene feel a little too distorted. Maybe make it a little more regular. 2. The people in the foreground and in the centre of the couches look a little too bright for where they are standing/sitting. 3. The texture behind the right reception counter doesn't look right. 4. The ceiling is too perfect on its plastered surface. 5. Timber floor on the ground would likely have some reflection/fresnel. 6. Material on the left of the scene (maybe suppose to be a timber material) looks too large and unnatural. 7. Ceiling timber looks too bumpy. 8. Front desk on the right of the scene lacks interest. 9. Open space outside right hand side needs some background images/noise. 10. Tiles in the foreground look a little too reflective. Michael

Ok, did my own speed comparison between V8 and V9. Rendering is around 6 to 7 times faster for the work I do, which is always welcome, but certainly less than some of the figures here. The quality of the render is different, but in a good way. The one thing I'm worried about though is the speed of the re-draw in hardware mode. Has the better quality representation come at the expense of speed? Or am I missing a setting or something? V8 was lighting faster in hardware mode, but v9 is tolerable. Michael

Hi Greg, I have used shaders quiet a lot and the rendering penalty can be high. I can't remember off the top of my head but it can sometimes double the time and you also have to use higher sampling levels when animating. If it's just still work, I think shaders are great, but from a planning perspective, if your going to animate, avoid the shaders...kind of. If I want to use a shader, if it's say a floor, I do a high resolution snapshot of if from the 'top' camera view port, edit it in photoshop and then apply it as texture map. Or alternatively hunt down free texture maps on-line and use them. I'm not using v9, at the moment, so I can't answer your question specifically related to the shader you're talking about. Hope this helps though. Michael

"BTW the cores are accounted for in my calculation. EIAS 8 isn't this slow, after all." Can you please clarify this atlantis. Thomas says, "1 core against your 8 cores, EIAS 9 vs EIAS 8 is almost 72 times faster". I want to know the real performance gain, as I'm guessing this will feed into quicker production times. The figures that are being thrown around seem to be inconsistent? I'm sure its faster, but really how much, and in what real production terms? Michael

These are the still internal & external shots that we did for this project. I was really happy with how the internal ones turned out and I wanted to see them animated. Michael

Hi Tom, I don't want to appear to mislead you with the comments about using area lights with no shadows. I sometimes find that I need more light in a scene than the area light is giving me but I don't want the added hit of the shadow that comes along with it. So I add another area light with an Intensity of say .1 which adds the subtle amount of light I need without much additional rendering time. It reminds me of the EI user that won the EI user forum CG Society challenge "Phoenix". I can't remember his name but his rendering times were in the seconds from memory and I just remember that he used very few shadows if any. I'd like to see his winning entry again and have him share some tips with us how he achieved his image. Michael

Don't mean to sound short but I use the same setup as the Animator manual prescribes. Page 262 EIAS Animator. Michael

Ok, I downloaded the file but the "Dynamic" quadrant of the footage doesn't work. It goes about half way through the video ok but then breaks up. It's just this one though! Strange. Anyone else having this problem. Michael

Hi, How do we download them Tom? Michael

Yes I'm not happy with the contrast in my images. I have experimented with reducing gamma and adding some area lights with no shadows to improve contrast. It's working extremely well at the moment and even faster rendering times. 30mins with 470,000 polygons. I'll post another update tomorrow. I haven't imported the quicktime to Final Cut Express at the moment so no colour correction. I just want to get the shots right first then put it all together. Michael

Hi Everyone, Started my next animation which will hopefully be part of an architectural animation demo reel. To view it in its full quality select 720p from the Youtube viewer "Change Quality' menu (the cog). Michael

Hi Everyone, My first serious attempt at architectural animation. The first half of the video is just zooming in and out on the still shots but the last part is internal animation. There are 7.5M polygons in the external scenes and I'm not sure how to animate them yet. This link was posted in the general section of this forum but thought it should be here. Make sure you change the viewer to 720p if your internet connection is quick enough, its colour correction is better and obviously the image is sharper. Michael

Here's my final product. Your constructive comments would be welcome. There is room for improvement and it has everything to do with colour correction and quality of final output. I'm guessing it is due to the video editing software and my skill level. I'm sure they will improve as I do more and more of these. I am having so much trouble controlling gamma, colour saturation, colour variations, namely reds turning a slight purple tinge and the resulting video looking a little blue. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjfyTr-148A&feature=youtu.be Michael

Tom, I am still rendering the final animation including the second pass. Once I'v finished I'll post it in Vimeo also. Thanks for you help. Thanks Richard. Not my design with the unit, only the interior items. Your camera movement ideas are a different approach than my thinking. I'll explore small movements with more looking around the unit. Thanks for your comments. Other people have commented that the first two parts are a bit to fast. I kind of like the variation in speed but need to develop a better understanding of whether it is a viewer orientated preference or a specific approach 'needed' for architecture. I think slower camera movements give a sense of prestige. I'd like to know others thoughts on this. I have 4.0 Color Tolerance but there is still some sizzle. Michael

Ok............. First animation preview. I have separated the external yard etc so excuse the black outside as there will be plants in it and I am going to render it hopefully without raytracing to speed things up on a second pass. The first 5 seconds has the final resolution but downsized for Youtube at 360p. I'm making headway. I have ended up with an average time per frame of 38mins at 1920x1080. 5 seconds (25 frames per second) is taking around 20 hours rendering time on 4 instances of Camera. This is almost bearable given the quality that I'm getting. If I had a second iMac i7 I think I'd be happy. No shaders at all, I removed the reflections from the internal walls and optimised lighting and shadows by consolidating lighting into 1 light per 4 down lights. I'm also rendering out of EI using the Quicktime Codec "PNG" and then outputting from Final Cut Express HD as H.264. Give me your comments and more tips would be great for quicker rendering times. Find here link to first preview: Michael

I use NX shader a lot. There were a lot of textures that came with it and I have developed them further over the years to be a valuable means of me getting done quickly what I needed to. NX is great for my detail props where I can't effectively texture map them. I also use digital camera photo's, web based image sources and rely on photoshop heavily for creation and modification of the maps in my scenes. A shader though can do what a texture map can't and that is to put a texture on a complex shaped object without it looking wrong. I know you can buy another piece of software that unrolls your model and allows you to paint it on in photoshop. This is time consuming for the market I am producing for. I don't have the luxury of applying what ever surface I think looks good. It is mostly prescribed what it needs to look like and I normally don't get a sample of the actual item to photograph. I just get an email with a photo of the selected tile, carpet etc which I use to create a similar looking noise using NX Shader. In essence I am using EI to take a photo of my NX Shader map which then gets applied to what ever channel I want to use it on or used in photoshop to create the end texture map. My architectural work is really customer driven which works commercially for me. This exercise has been great provided me with a broader approach and bringing the idea of an animation product much closer. I need to be thinking at the outset of any still work that I want to be able to animate it so need to concentrate on reducing polygon count, minimal use of procedural shaders in the final shot/animation and staying away from higher anti-aliasing levels. Michael