Testing Studio environment with Zen

[Kage]

I bet you all think I'm mad now, rendering this Zen Vision M out all the time, but, at the moment, I'm trying to make a good studio environment, by testing out lights etc, and it makes a good test subject.

This was renderered in 1 hour 1 minute at 1280x1024, and in Photoshop I've done some light brightness/contrast adjustments, and also faked the DOF using blur tools.
The image is naturally high processor intensive since its using blurred reflections on the player itself which takes alot of time up yet, shows the lights well.

Its using 3 Sphere Vray lights, and some diffuse materials of different colours on the walls, and thats it.

I'm very happy with the result, and its looking very photo like now :

Comments always welcome

Like I said, I'm testing out studio environments, so you may get a few renders here. I always find the scenes the hardest to produce to work well with the models.



Its limiting me to 1024x768 but yeah
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b9...ncomplete2.jpg

[brentagain]

it`s getting there Kage,may be my monitor but the players look very dark,hard to see the details.
As for a studio enviroment the 90 degree wall makes a hard edge thats kinda distracting.Are you aware of the fillett enviroment?
Basically you draw a line then another at 90 degrees then fillett the corner then extrude it.It`s a classic enviroment for product shots as it has a very soft edge from the floor to the wall.

[Blytheye]

That looks real, but mostly due to it looking like a poor quality photograph, I think due to the blurring you applied post-prod. Still, you did great on the lighting side; and as brentagain suggested, a rounded bevel to the vertical wall will look far more pleasing and studio like.

Watching this thread, I want to see more!
Henrah

[Kage]

Brentagain, thanks for the reply Black is a very hard surface to get looking right on all monitors My LCD shows it up rather well. I wish there was a way to make sure an image looked right on all monitors, because in Photoshop, you can only go by eye.

I'll try a curved one on the next render

Blytheye, thanks Haha, it looks real because of the poor photography look?
I might try to apply Vray DOF next time again, as it produces better results, yet render times double approx.

I seriously wish I could put this model to one side and forget about it, but its been a stop start thing since I got good at max, and has been like a template model to keep modelling to get better results each time, as its rather simple...but as I found with materials, not so...

Its still not finished all around. To tell the truth, only the fronts completly modelled, which is why you don't get to see anything else... I really need to finish it in spare time... but for test renders, its pretty much perfect.

I'm going to render out different coloured models too next time to see how they look.

Glad you'll keep tuned Night for now.

[tillaart36]

Hi Kage,

it's looking quite good, I also have a bit of a weird feeling about the sharpness of the models...I understand you used some dof technique in photoshop but I think there should be at least a part of your model which need to be 'razor' sharp...

As for the environment or the studio lighting setup...There's a quite good tutorial on the net somewhere of setting up this environment and make some pretty decent lighting...I'm searching for it right now...

And found it :

http://www.aversis.be/extra_tutorial...o_lighting.htm

Don't know if it's exactly what you're looking for but I think it's a good looking end product...it also uses a rounded edge in the back just as the others suggested...

Your materials look good!! Keep it up...

P.S. Do you know a lot about vray dof or do you know any links where I can get some information about it? I'm trying to learn more about it so I can use it for my ipod...

Good Luck!

[Kage]

Hey, thanks for that tutorial I'll have a look at that!

Haha yeah, I did a full blur before trying to simulate DOF to get the realistic softening effect I wanted, yet probably went a bit far.

As for knowing alot about it... no...

I tend to just leave it at default, and set to 'Use Camera', and using the target to select where I want the focus to be. It works well, but could do with more control of how it does it, so will have to look into it myself.

Heres a render I did which is in the finished section with a render I threw together, showing DOF at play, yet its earlier than the studio render:

(I have Vray 1.47 so I don't get the physical camera )



It did take over 2 hours and 36 minutes to complete though but looks alot better than trying to fake it! But all I did was selected to use camera, and put the target to focus to the one on the right. Worked well So give it a go!

[samuelspode]

holy **** kage its wicked, looks like real life!!!!

[Kage]

Glad you like it. That comment made me smile, lol

I'm hopefully going to get the model finished all round, and still work a bit on materials.
I think the Zen has a slightly transparent glass layer ontop of a black gloss, possibly standard diffuse layer, since in the light, you can see underneath, to what stabalises the buttons, like a thin line, and I've had a few goes at getting that, but maybe I need more detail in the model underneath the main mesh work first, yet I'll keep playing about.

Know what I mean, about the player though?

I'm carrying on blueprinting the Xbox controller too, so soon, I should have some more models of that, and will hopefully finish it, ready for an animation! Heres hoping.

[Blytheye]

Definately looks better now Kage. Try placing some pure white boxes above and behind the camera to give some good reflection highlights.

[Kage]

Thanks

Considering the image with the DOF is an earlier render though ...

I'm going to use DOF from now on though, even if it does double times. I just prefer the look.

I'm working tonight and working some of the weekend, but hopefully I'll be able to render some things out.

[Blytheye]

Why don't you scrap the DoF until the final render, so you can experiment with the realism of the lighting and materials without having to wait ages for a render?

[Kage]

You may be right...

I'll add more planes possibly today when I get home to help with the reflections, and post the result

[tillaart36]

Yup, planes for reflections sounds right...

You can also use the bended cylinder from the tutorial I passed you...I'm using it right now for my renders of the iPod...the idea is that you have a cylinder with a very big radius...and a very small height...then you use the bend modifier on the cylinder so you get a curved cylinder...by moving the gizmo of the bend modifier you can make the place where you have your objects flat and make the surface of the cylinder behind the objects go up...when you then render your objects they will reflect the bended part of the cylinder which is opposite of your viewing point...

well maybe my explanation makes no sense, in that case check out how they do it in the tut...

Keep it up and thanks for your support in my thread...appreciate it!

[Kage]

No probs

Yep, that tutorial was really good, and will start working from it when I get home from this dump I may head home now actually. Takes me an hour.

[Blytheye]

What tutorial was this? Mind posting it so I can see it?

Thanks,
Henrah