NOX Free Render Engine

"Nox Renderer is a rendering software based on unbiased methods. Development is currently in beta stage." Evermotion.org

NOX Renderer is available for download here.

This is how I got on with NOX renderer in 3ds Max, this is not so much a review but my first impressions. Once the Renderer is downloaded and you have also installed the Material Library open up 3ds Max and choose NOX as the render engine.The next step was to set up the scene, I used the Fendi Dorchester Chair which you can download here. The Sunlight System is in the Standard Lights Menu in 3ds Max and Camera is in the Camera Menu.

Next up was applying the materials. Open up the Material Editor in 3ds Max and click on Standard and choose Nox Material. The material Libery that comes with Nox is very nice. I then applyed the fabric to the chair and wood to the legs and floor.

After hitting Render this is what I was getting, in fact it was a lot more over exposed. Also I turned off Real-World Scale in the UV Maps on the Chair. The problem was with the exposure, aperture and camera distance. Once I had adjusted these three I got the render below which took 21 minutes.I found Nox Renderer nice and simple to use and I am looking forward to working with it more in future and seeing it develop. NOTE. After writing this post Evermotion have posted some tutorials here. Check them out, there are some great features and you will probably get on better than I did.

Autodesk University

Just wanted to post about Autodesk University. This is a great site with content on most of the Autodesk products. Alot of 3ds Max which is great for me. With presentations in all fields of 3D and CGI I highly recommend checking it out. You can log in with an Autodesk or Facebook account. I particularly enjoyed Ramy Hanna's Is That a Photograph? Architectural Photography for 3D Rendering.

New Multi Control App, 3D Connextion, Wacom and the Ipad

Maide Inc have come up with this great way of using the ipad and iphone with 3ds Max and Maya.http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BI_pnzES7F0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=V7V-UkDQUQo

I saw this metioned on Evermotion in their monthly newsletter and gave it a go at work. Not being an Ipad or Iphone user the intuitive functionality did not come as easy as if I had experience with the 2 devices. The Maide Control needed a bit of a learning curve but does have a lot of potential. I got very excited and thought about purchasing an Ipad instead of the Space Pilot Pro I have been dreaming of for a while now. I am currently using the Space Navigator and a Wacom Intuos 3

I started looking into Ipad/Wacom alternatives, there was not as many as I thought there would be. I found a few things of interest then I stumbled upon this actually made by Wacom. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tbuZ_ulQfLA So being very comfortable and happy with both my Space Navigater and Wacom, but being due an upgrade at some point this year is it worth combining the 2 and having only one device on the desk, plus having all the other functions the ipad has? Is it worth the learning curve? Or should I look at this as great potential and go for what I know and love. I have been looking for an excuse to get an Ipad for a while now and as I am looking for a mobile phone contract to use in Monaco, maybe an Ipad could be the way to go instead of an Iphone.

Monaco Rally Vintage Car Show

On the way to the port I stumbled across the Monaco Rally Vintage Car show. Here are a few pictures + the VW spotted in Menton!

Night HDR Images

I am currently in the South of France and this is the view from my appartment in Menton, Italy is on the left.

This image is from back in April 2011 of Montreal.

Work featured in 3d World Issue 150

Sable Vivant, Brighton White Night

It was White Night Nuit Blaunche here in Brighton on Saturday night. It was great fun, one of the highlights was getting to use Sable Vivant's project - Third Eye.  "ThirdEye is a simple and portable motion capture. Although we have originally designed as a tool for analysis of sign language, we quickly found that this base allowed us to many other applications. This extension of the project resulted in several devices. An example of these applications is the installation that we call 3D and calligraphy that allows for real-time enrollment in a three-dimensional space. The calligraphic gesture is released from the constraints of paper and took possession of the third dimension. Beyond its attractive technology, the installation invites the viewer to continue his action in a virtual space, blurring the boundaries between the real world and that of numerical simulation."                                                                                                                            Sable Vivant - Third Eye

VW Camper Van

After seeing all the VW Campers in Brighton (see post here) the other week I decided to create this one. The Camper Van was modelled in 3ds Max and rendered in Mental Ray using the HDR lighting technique I described here in HDRI Reflections. I applied all the materials using a multi-sub object.

iPad Product Design Work

Here is a iPad model. It is part of project I have recently been working on. It is modeled and rendered in 3ds max using Mental Ray.

VW Camper Vans in Brighton

On the day I moved down to Brighton there was a VW Camper Van Show. Here are some pictures from the event. It has inspired me to move on with the Vespa project to a VW Camper. So stay tuned.

Eurogamer

It was Eurogamer this week and I headed down to Earls Court. The range of games on offer was incredible, sadly though I didn't get there early enough to take advantage of the early bird ticket. I did manage to play the Nintendo 3DS for the first time. I think I may have one weaker eye as I struggled to focus on the 3D. I had to turn it down to half way-ish. I haven't looked into it but maybe you have to focus it to people's eyes. A statue of Link greeted me on the way into 3DS booth. I played a little of Zelda which I think has alone encouraged me to purchase a 3DS. I also played Mario 3D which I found hard to figure out how to play with Mario in a 3D environment compared to the normal platform that I so enjoyed. Maybe my lack of experience playing Mario 64 and Mario Galaxy had something to do with.

I also played one of my favorite games ever, Pokemon! But it was not the Pokemon that I had spent many hours leveling up, but it was SuperPokemon Rumble, I struggled to work out what I was meant to be doing. I was playing as a Pokémon, rather than a trainer. I think the game had more emphasis on battling (although I couldn't find a battle) than collecting, which I think the two combined help make Pokémon so successful. Stereotypically the battling and collecting appealed to the boys and the collecting and nurturing appealed to girls. I didn't really play enough to pass proper judgment but all in all I will be purchasing a Nintendo 3DS.

After the 3DSing I hunted down the Creative Assembly and passed on my new work, so figures crossed. I then bumped in to one of the best areas, reliving parts of my childhood playing on Crazy Taxi on the Dreamcast, losing at Mortal Kombat and seeing a Saga Saturn for the first time in years at the Replay Expo. World of Tanks deserves a mention for giving me a t-shirt and two tanks. The game basically involves selecting and loading up your tank and playing on a multi-player map in teams trying to destroy the other team. One of the best bits of this game is the ability to smash through everything that dare be in your path.

Undoubtedly the best thing about Eurogamer this year was receiving a free Onlive console and controller. Onlive looks great and seems to be in many peoples eyes the future. It also promises to make indie developers lives easier in the way of getting on the console and the inability to be pirated. It comes with a 30 day trial plus 3 months free if you are a BT customer then £6.99 after that for access to hundreds of games including Fear 3, Batman and Assassins Creed. I have been playing it for a couple of days now and I love it. I am even considering getting rid of the PS3! On the way out I had a go on Uncharted 3 multi-player, it was the first Uncharted I have played and it was incredible. Of all the games I played this was the best.

HDRI Reflections

This post is to describe how I got the reflections on the Vespa in a studio environment. I think you can just add a HDRI to the environment slot in the material editor. But I did it like this.

I created a sphere around the Vespa and applied the HDRI checking it was 2 sided and in the Self-Illumination slot. The Vespa is on a plane with an omni light with a multiplier of 0.01. When it came to rendering I added a Object ID pass and a separate object id to the bike, plane and sphere in the objects properties. The pass and render are below

Using the pass in Photoshop I masked out the background and added a gradient. I hope this all makes sense please feel free to add any comments and ask questions below.

Vespa

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I have finally got around to finishing up my Vespa. This images was influenced by my time in Brighton. The Vespa took two days to model and adding materials, rendering and post-production took another two. Rendered using Mental Ray and post in Photoshop. The lighting set up is described in this post.

Brighton Digital Festival

As part of Brighton Digital Festival studios in the area have opened their doors. On Thursday I went to visit the guys at Persistent Peril. They create some really cool animations, check out there showreel. They gave me some great advice and let me colour in some of their wall. The blue bomb is my handy work. Next week is Eurogamer Expo and a Augmented Reality conference called Improving Reality.

New Mental Ray Aircraft Render

I have just completed a new render modelled in 3ds Max, rendered with Mental Ray and some post production (Light flares and ambient occlusion) in Photoshop.

Develop

On Wednesday I attended Develop Conference in Brighton. I made a personalised business card for the event, each card had a unique piece of artwork and a brief summary of my experience and awards. I managed to chat with some really inspiring people and had a great time and Fate of the World was up for the Indie Award too. Thank you to all that attended and I hope to see you all soon!

Cambridge, UK Modular Buildings Project.

This week I shot some textures in Cambridge for a modular building project I am working on. The benefit of modular building is the ability to use parts of the building like lego blocks to create variations using the same materials and without lots of modelling work. See below for example the blocks on the left can be used to create many variations of the building on the right. The Cambridge photo shoot Texture Pack is available in the Downloads section on this site along with the 3d Models, Photoshop .PSD files and a Prezi tutorial of how to create your own buildings quickly.

How To Easily Create Nice Renders in 3ds Max

This video will go through how to quickly add materials, lighting and render good looking images in 3ds Max. I created this video with Adobe Captivate which I am trialling at moment for teaching and it is turning out to be a great program. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDBTOrgDdt4

Panorama's from Montreal, Canada

I am over in Montreal at the moment and I have had the chance to check out some of the beautiful scenery. Just using my compact click and shoot I have managed to get some nice panoramic images. More Panoramas in the Photography section on this site.

Mont Royal, Montreal, Canada

Olympic Stadium, Montreal, Canada

Montreal, Canada

Montreal, Canada

Ambient Occlusion How To: 3ds Max, Mental Ray and Photoshop

As mentioned in Basic Compositing in Post Production I will go through how I create an ambient occlusion material and use it in Photoshop. Ambient occlusion can be used to enhance shadows in renders. I have set up a model of a Vespa that I previously made and added some lights to the scene. This is how the render currently looks.

In a new material slot in the material editor (M on the keyboard) the first thing I do is change the Ambient and Diffuse colours to black and tick on Self-Ilumination.

Add a Mental Ray Ambient/Reflective Occlusion material to the Self-Illumination slot and change the samples to 64.

Open up the Render Settings and in the Processing Tab tick Enable under Material Override, then drag the Ambient/Reflective Occlusion material into the Material.

If when you render it is all black make sure Exposure Control is off in the Environment Settings (8 on the keyboard).

Then up the max distance in the Ambient/Reflective Occlusion Parameters until you get your desired result. Here is mine.

Save the render and open the original and Ambient Occlusion Render in Photoshop and whilst holding Shift drag the Ambient Occlusion onto the original render and change the layer style to Multiply. You can also change the opacity if need. Here is the final result.