Re: The CGI Thread
Keep blender.
I have a friend who used it on a Mac, and it was fine.
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Keep blender.
I have a friend who used it on a Mac, and it was fine.
If you are big into CGI, switching to a mac is not a wise move.
If you are big into CGI, switching to a mac is not a wise move.
Um, I have both Blender and Maya on Mac and they work just fine. Also, if I remember correctly, Pixar largely uses Macs for their films.
I haven't used blender in a while... and I'm not very good at it. I recently tried cycles, and this is the outcome. (Bricks from LeoCad, I didn't model them). Sorry they look metallic. I couldn't find a good look using cycles.
LEGO Bricks in Blender 3D by Emayesoen, on Flickr
I imported them, added bevel (.009), edge split, the set shading to smooth.
EDIT: Just so you know it has 720 samples and it took 40 minutes to render this image. I wanted a good look.
Last edited by Mason (November 7, 2011 (03:58pm))
Um, I have both Blender and Maya on Mac and they work just fine. Also, if I remember correctly, Pixar largely uses Macs for their films.
I'm not saying that CGI doesn't work on Mac. I know Mac is the standard in the industry so obviously it will work fine.
However, everyone in this thread is on a budget. When you buy a Mac you are paying a premium price for "shinny" features and the name brand that comes with a Mac. Those things might be important to you, and if so, awesome. But they have nothing to do with CGI performance. If you compare the specs of Mac vs what you can get from other suppliers, the other suppliers will almost always be cheaper. Thus, if CGI is important to you when buying a computer, you need to realize that the extra money spent on getting a Mac is money that could be spent on better specs or software.
Also, the reason Pixar has Macs would likely be because they were run by the same person. If someone offers you a free Mac, totally go for it!
Last edited by JamesW (November 7, 2011 (04:21pm))
Did you use Cycles?
Yes, as I stated above. (If you were talking to me...)
Anyways, I've attempted another scene. Now thinking about it, it seems to be a tad dark. Oh well. This time, I used (once more) cycles, but instead of having one setting for the LEGO pieces, I used a mixed shader. I had Diffuse, and Glossy on, and glossy being slightly brighter that the diffuse. Here it is:
LEGO Spear and Block - Blender 3D by Emayesoen, on Flickr
(in text to clear up from being too spammy) In my opinion, this looks more realistic than my previous version, but not entirely. Better luck next time I say (which the next one I won't be posting here to clear space.)
[snip]
Fine, but you could have been a little clearer in your post. The way you worded it made it sound like you were just being negative towards Macs for the heck of it.
ZP wrote:Did you use Cycles?
Yes, as I stated above. (If you were talking to me...)
Anyways, I've attempted another scene. Now thinking about it, it seems to be a tad dark. Oh well. This time, I used (once more) cycles, but instead of having one setting for the LEGO pieces, I used a mixed shader. I had Diffuse, and Glossy on, and glossy being slightly brighter that the diffuse. Here it is:LEGO Spear and Block - Blender 3D by Emayesoen, on Flickr
(in text to clear up from being too spammy) In my opinion, this looks more realistic than my previous version, but not entirely. Better luck next time I say (which the next one I won't be posting here to clear space.)
Wow! 
That looks really good!
May I ask what settings you used?
Wow!
That looks really good!
May I ask what settings you used?
Ok, I'm not entirely sure, since I wasn't really paying attention. I mainly messed up random settings to make it look right. Here's what I remembered that I changed:
In the render tab, I set the samples to 1000. This took over an hour to render this one image.
http://i.imgur.com/SssMO.jpg
In the world tab, I did something, which didn't do anything....
http://i.imgur.com/DvB2P.jpg
In the modifiers tab I used these settings for both.
http://i.imgur.com/ZIyPU.jpg
And finally the materials tab
For Brick: http://i.imgur.com/TWpJM.jpg
For the Spear: http://i.imgur.com/C4joL.jpg
If you have blender with cycles in it, you can see for yourself my model: http://www.mediafire.com/?6d14m9sdvabz1ac And if you open this file up in regular blender, without cycles, nothing interesting will happen.
Just testing out texture in blender. I know I suck at Blender! 
EDIT: Never mind, I found out.
ANOTHER EDIT: I can't get Blender to work properly on a different computer. I downloaded it just fine, but when I click the icon, it says:
"The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0150002). Click OK to terminate the application."
I fixed it before, but I have no idea how. 
YET ANOTHER EDIT: Never mind, I fixed it by re-downloading Python. 
Last edited by Rusty (November 14, 2011 (08:29am))
A little test to see how good Gimp is at simulating depth of field:
EDIT: Whoops! Double post! 
Just testing out texture in blender. I know I suck at Blender! mini/tongue
No true, everyone starts somewhere and textures are an important thing to master 
@Rusty: How does one add a depth of field in the Gimp? I did not know that was possible.
And finally, just wanting a little input on an update of the pic I posted previously...
Endeavour Hallway
Stats: Blender Cycles, 1280 x 720, GPU CUDA, 200 Samples, ~3 min
Thanks for your thoughts!
Wingman_mn
And finally, just wanting a little input on an update of the pic I posted previously...
Endeavour Hallway
Stats: Blender Cycles, 1280 x 720, GPU CUDA, 200 Samples, ~3 minThanks for your thoughts!
Wingman_mn
If you're up to it, I'd really like to see the outcome of that image set to 1000 samples. It makes it unbelievably real, but takes almost an hour and a half to render (for me it did with this image)
How does one add a depth of field in the Gimp? I did not know that was possible.
Use the blur/sharpen tool.
I don't see why you would do DOF in GIMP; the DOF in Blender works fine last time I checked.
Perhaps it's the rendering time required to calculate and render DOF? Assuming they're using full raytracing.
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