mer photos Options

[dilo]

Thanks for the info, S.Lord!
Cannot wait for material render of the RAT !

I'm posting different size versions of a new wallpaper, now focalizing on details of last two renderings:
1280x720 1680x960 1920x1080
I have also an higher resolution version (2365x1440) if someone is interested...

[scooterlord]

Hello again.. I guess this is what you've all been waiting for. This is just a sample of what you should expect of the quality of the final model.



..The program I am using is at its beta stage, so I have some trouble with the texture mapping. Previous version of the program seems to be working fine, but it's waaay slower, so I'll have to wait for the final version. So far, I've managed to do it properly but the textures on the rat are relatively easy.

The above render took 16 hours (!) to complete, that's way too slow, but I am using displacement for the cables that literally kills the performance to almost less than half. For the time being I wanted to show you a full quality render, although a bit grainy, but will have to find a workaround for the final renders. I can't imagine how much time it will need for the final thing to be render. I HOPE for a render/week (at 3400x2000px).

Comments expected and welcome as always

[dilo]

Well, definitely is what we've all been waiting for!
Result is above my expecations, with impressive realism of brushes and foreground cables. Steel parts seems too shiny and gold wires jacket in background isn't well defined like other parts... but these are minor issues. What worries me is the rendering time, considering this is only a small part; however, I see you're confident so I'm not really scared about!

Edit: only now I noticed the scratches on steel parts contacting the rocks... fantastic detail!!!

[scooterlord]

Hey,

Well, the shininess is something very difficult to realize. The picture below is an unedited screenshot from the documentary 'Roving mars' that shows the mer BRAND new and shot indoors. As you can see it can't get any shinier than this.



And this one:



I had a lot of trouble picking the materials, that's why I spend a whole day (which is too long for this), but if you notice carefully enough, the render above has 16 textures - with 6-7 different chrome shininess levels, etc. I am doing my best to reproduce the best results, provided the reference I have helps me.

Moreover the cables can't be more defined than they already are, I spend like 5 days sorting them out from the reference I have The camera angle doesnt help as well, the next render I am doing atm from the other side will give you a better opinion of what's going on.

..and glad you noticed the small things! That's the whole purpose of good texturing. If only I had a render farm and could let this reach its best sampling level. To reach 25 sampling (which is the best) it would need 150 hours more... but that's normal with this specific renderer. Awesome quality in expense of time..

edit: forgot to say, that the materials seem SO different depending on the lighting you'd be surprised, in outdoors lighting, it seems completely different. In most reference pictures for example the cables seem yellowish, but in some others redish.. I just have to pick what I think is the most accurate by experience with lighting..

edit2: here is a brand new render from the other side. This one took 5 hours to render, lower sampling level than the previous image (17 instead of 20):



I was so excited to start rendering that I forgot to texture the metal end of the cable :/

[Dominik]

Hey scooterlord, absolutely stunning work! Very impressive!

I've never created a rendering on my own, so I've no idea how this works. I don't know if it's possible but, if you outsource some of the render calculations to other workstations, may be some of the users here are able to spend some of their CPU time for this project ;-).

I've got a VMware ESXi test machine with an AMD Phenom II x6 @ 4,2GHz and 16 GB RAM, which is currently not in use. If possible and needed, I would like to donate the calculation power of this machine for test renders.

I can't wait to see the final texturized version of this model! Keep up to good work!

[scooterlord]

Thanks! That would be awesome but not now. Now i test render all the time and huge amount of data has to be sent. Once I am finished we'll see

[Juramike]

Wow! That is absolutely beautiful work!

[dilo]

...may be some of the users here are able to spend some of their CPU time for this project ;-).

I see "MER@home" project on the horizon!
Seriously, is a nice idea and I would like to offer my CPU time too (however, I suspect that my poor PC, a Phenom with only 3GB Ram, isn't useful...)

[scooterlord]

Good morning...

..and here is the moessbauer spectrometer:



..I hope you aren't getting bored with me posting! I will try to texture (and post) one item per day... This way the community will have detailed renders of each part

[djellison]

I literally giggle at the quality of these - it's breathtaking.

[scooterlord]

Thanks! Lets just hope that some company will giggle as well and give me a job! thanks again for the support people. I knew what the quality was going to be like when I first started, it was tiring, but the idea of what would come -comments and people's giggles- was what kept me going..

[remcook]

Really amazing indeed! Looking forward to the final result.

[Astro0]

I love the touch of the 'SCLORD2011' text on the ribbon cable.
That's excellent!!

[scooterlord]

I have to admit that many of you are really observant!

[scooterlord]

Good morning everyone,

here is the apxs.. I must have started the render about 20 times, I always made silly errors and I had to wait until the render cleared... grrr.. I think now it's all done and as it should be: