United3dArtists Archive

RAYMAN · Post by **RAYMAN** » 13 May 2018, 15:14

There is no problem with any of them..and you can get to crash everything! Difference between the engines is that some are gpu only and some are hybrid! Which means that if your grafics card has 6 gig thats all you have for the scene! Big scenes dont render at all! With hybrid engines it uses its own resources..and when it reaches the limit.. it uses either a second card like in prorender..or it uses the rest in cpu like prorender..and thea....hybrid!
Some apps like Clarisse are almost realtime but are cpu exclusive....and only use cpu! But are blindingly fast and can host billions of polys!

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 13 May 2018, 17:32

What I'm looking forward to is Prorender's in-between render mode. It is part realtime and part photoreal. Faster than photoreal and better quality than realtime. This could be a valuable option. I'm not sure if it is currently in the program or is for later. Of course other programs will get that too sooner or later but Prorender is free.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 13 May 2018, 23:43

Note: My test of Cycles rendering trees with and without instances was flawed so I edited this post. There were errors in my procedure. I'll try again sometime.

The test and its flaws: With instanced trees, as hair particles on a landscape, the scene reported 16k polygons. Mostly the landscape object. The original tree object has 187K ploygons but is on a non-rendering layer. I converted the instances to real meshes by pressing the 'convert' button on the modifiers tab. Then the scene reported 19.5 million polygons. I observed that selection of these trees in edit mode behaved strangely. Also, 207 trees with 187k polygons should be about 38 million polygons. Roughly twice what Blender displayed as the scene's poly count.

Rendering with instances took 24 seconds and with converted trees took 37 seconds. In each case the maximum gpu memory used was 790Mb. I expected the non-instanced render to use much more memory than the instanced one.

So the memory use and poly count was not as expected and object selection behaved strangely. Neither version of the scene was demanding of the available gpu and computer resources so I doubt that is it a glitch.

I suspect my method of modifying the sapling add on tree into a mesh was incorrect and/or the 'convert' button is not the correct way to change particles to real meshes.

I'll try again. I need to try this with trees since the point of this was to estimate the size and complexity of forest that my gpu can handle.

bitkar · Post by **bitkar** » 14 May 2018, 09:35

it doesnt want to install on Bforartists... :( Havent time to fidle with it, maybe renaming the .exe file could work?
I have new Radeon RX580 8GB card, so iam curious what it can do.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 23 May 2018, 03:54

I don't know Bitkar. I will have to get Windows 10 before I can try it with my Nvidia cards.

I keep learning about simulations and generators in Blender but I've neglected the basics. Time to learn the modeling tools and shortcuts.

I'm overloaded with work. Not quite keeping up with it all and I'm tired a lot. I get extra work cleaning up yards for a guy who remodels houses.

The yearly hang gliding and paragliding Fly In is this week end. I'll go and drive for them and make another video. This time I'll have a tripod, ask pilots to let me use their videos, and try to get them to tell stories on camera.

RAYMAN · Post by **RAYMAN** » 23 May 2018, 07:51

The basics in Blender...well there arent many..thats the point! All the most necessary basics are there....nothing realy missing from the basics...! But thats the problem of Blender..! For modeling its a very very basic tool! Not bad at all... but basic!
What other tools make it easier is that..you are much much faster in doing some stuff! I.E if you do modeling of houses..nothing is easier and faster then modeling in Sketchup..! If you do technical...nurbs is much much faster....!
Blender can do almost everything ..and its a good alround package..but its not specialised to do everything quickly...unless..well yes you ..use plugins! There are a lot of tools that can make your life..much much easier! Its a question of building up your workflow!
Example: You make a simple cube and with the door and window maker in Blender addon you make one prop after the other in Blender and export it as a 3ds file! Reopen it in Sketchup select the door and right click and make a component out of that door and store it in a component library! Fully texture it in Sketchup..which is much easier there then in Blender! Once you have a big library of items all you have to do is drag it onto your house or object and it snaps and cuts the hole in one go...! it only takes seconds to do and every item comes in fully textured and can be moved around fully textured! It slides on the surface and can be duplicated..all with textures applied!
Second example: If you model a car...or an airplane all you have to do is...start in Blender and using simple box modeling with subd and mirror applied..which works very well in Blender..and is very easy to learn..and then export that basic shape into a nurbs package that can handle import of poly and conversion to nurbs! With nurbs you can ad and cut details much much faster then modeling detail in polygonal software!!!! You are about 5x to 7x faster in nurbs!!!! Wheel trimming etc..etc!
A good basic alternative is the fast bool tool ad on in Blender..! It works very similar to nurbs cutting!
Modo also sports fast bool nowadays!
Cinema 4d is nurbs as such..! They call it hypernurbs!
Well you see Blender is very valuable.. but all in all its mainly about establishing a fast workflow!
Blender is very valuable! But just learn tool by tool its sometimes all you need!
Plus...in Sketchup....all components are instances so the footprint of your model is very very low! Different to poly modeling where every door or window is a full poly object! But be carefull..transfering to render engines you need a software and a file format ie fbx that can handle instances when exporting and importing!!!

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 06 Jul 2018, 16:11

Eevee character animation
https://youtu.be/nxrwx7nmS5A

Looks like eevee will be more than enough for me. Photo realism is not my thing but if needed beyond eevee there is still cycles or Daz-Iray. Whenever I get windows 10 then prorender could be an option.

Blender 2.8 is looking good with several improvements.

I can't see the embedded video above. Can you?

RAYMAN · Post by **RAYMAN** » 06 Jul 2018, 17:08

You dont see the posted link to film?
Thanks for the naked girl!

Charakter looks very nice!

bitkar · Post by **bitkar** » 09 Jul 2018, 20:27

wow, realtime... wow.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 23 Aug 2018, 18:42

Adventures looking into the abyss. I researched making a deep web site. That would give instant secrecy for a project work place avoiding the difficulty of hiding from goolag and others in the surface web. I also had an idea for viral marketing with a goofy humorous version of the cicada 3301 puzzles.

I found that it is difficult to host such a site on your own server and ISP's often forbid connection from your machine if it has one. So connection to the internet could be a problem. There are few web hosts for the nether world, they need payment in bitcoin, and the service is often unreliable. The largest most reputable deep web host went down from a hack and took a good percentage of the invisible world with it. Using the TOR browser can arouse suspicion by authorities if you are otherwise disreputable. A TOR browser alone is not enough for secret surfing of the deep or surface web. You'll also need at least a VPN. The deep web is mostly used by companies, governments (the U.S. Navy made TOR and uses it) and others who want to communicate privately for legitimate reasons. Some normal hosts and ISP's are beginning to provide their services in "onion land". If that continues I could see an exodus from the "clearweb" due to privacy, big data, spying concerns.

Conclusion: This is not something I can do for a fun project. Private surface web surfing with TOR+VPN might be good.
Conclusion: I'm supposed to be working not researching this stuff.

trueBlue · Post by **trueBlue** » 23 Aug 2018, 21:57

You could use trueServe 7.61

Might be kind of lonely though

In Deep... 3D Space, nobody can hear you scream!

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 09 Sep 2018, 02:40

I'm trying out NordVPN. Easy to use. Advanced features if you want them. I seldom notice any slowness. Cheap enough if the 2 year deal is still available.

I want to go here again. It is open in October. Too long a drive for my old truck.

trueBlue wrote: 23 Aug 2018, 21:57In Deep... 3D Space, nobody can hear you scream!

3D screaming occurs when learning Blender. The hot key for screaming is shift-alt-S*7-right mouse button.

bitkar · Post by **bitkar** » 11 Sep 2018, 08:44

btw: i saw some discount coupons for NordVPN on some youtube channels.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 13 Sep 2018, 18:15

Strange observatory mysterious closure It is a nice place to go for a break or hike in the area.

bitkar wrote: 11 Sep 2018, 08:44btw: i saw some discount coupons for NordVPN on some youtube channels.

Signed up and got a deal.

UPDATE: Free of the bubble that ubiquitous profiling creates, I see "recommended" and "you might also like" suggestions that are more varied and so are more useful and interesting. That's right, without goolag style profiling I see more recommended videos, pages, products, or even ads that I might click than in their bubble. I also found that:
- My bank doesn't like me trying to log in "from" unusual locations
- I should pick US servers to check weather sites so I get the temp in Fahrenheit.
- One email address, through a third party, notifies me every time I check email "from" a new location. Security, good.
- I see ads in other-than-english languages, for "foreign" products, different way of advertising etc. that give an interesting view into other cultures

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 18 Oct 2018, 00:01

Playing with Blender's fire simulation. Steinie Brew's Red Fire beer. The only beer with fire.

jamesmc · Post by **jamesmc** » 18 Oct 2018, 02:44

I think I've had that. Jalapeno deep fried in beer batter.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 02 Nov 2018, 15:35

Halloween hexed my FBX. I tried exporting a DAZ scene as FBX to Blender and the figure was distorted in spooky ways.

jamesmc · Post by **jamesmc** » 02 Nov 2018, 17:36

Dunno about FBX to Blender, but here is a video on a OBJ import from DAZ3d to Blender and sending objects back.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z88bInNmrA

RAYMAN · Post by **RAYMAN** » 04 Nov 2018, 06:07

Well there is no documentation on the fbx format! In the long interview even the head of Blender admitted..they are getting a hard time with fbx...because..well go figure! Even Eon..vue suggests to rather use the collada format!

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 04 Nov 2018, 15:30

Thanks. I was trying to export/import with rigging and animation so obj won't do it. The FBX export had a bazillion options. I'll try collada or just stop playing with Daz to Blender transfer with rigging and animation since it is unlikely I'll need it.

jamesmc · Post by **jamesmc** » 04 Nov 2018, 15:49

Programs that I have:

Lightwave is the only program (non Daz) that will import Daz3D figures with pose, animation and bones.

Carrara does it, but in T-pose. There are other ways to do it, but don't know how.

Hexagon will import the pose and the figure's clothing, but no animation because Hexagon doesn't do animation.

Bryce will import the figure with pose and clothing, but don't know enough about Bryce animation to work with it.

3Dcoat will import the t pose

Zbrush will import the t pose and morphs and send it back to Lightwave or Carrara if you have GoZ for them.

There is a GoB for Blender to Zbrush that will give you the pose, I'm not sure if it transfers the clothing or props.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 04 Nov 2018, 16:24

I've seen how to's that are complicated and useful only if really needed. The least bad I saw was use collada for mesh and bones in T pose then export a BVH file for pose or animation.

I would only want to ex/im poses or animation from daz to blender if it was easy. I don't foresee any need that merits difficult methods.

FBX ex/im had bones, an animation track (didn't try playing it), and the pose was semi-present. Distorted but not a T or other standard pose. If FBX lacks documentation, not just documentation for Blender but generally, then its definition is unstable and any working path found might change to be incompatible or suffer from different implementations.

RAYMAN · Post by **RAYMAN** » 07 Nov 2018, 01:30

Finis its not unstable..its meant to not work properly..!
Thats a hint from the long interview! Collada is an open file ..but has different slangs..and alembic is open..but fbx is Alias proprietory...!

I posted about nugraf some time ago..its the only company that Alias..and Sketchup and all are working together on and it has TS SCN and Cob import! But the basic version is 300$ But its worth it!!!! It pays off in very short time! There is a free trial that drops every 5 th poly or so! Its also a reason why I use Vue! Its works together with all big studios and swallows every format! Even Poser files! TS cobs..!!!!

Thats also a possibility...!
http://download.autodesk.com/us/fbx/Con ... ber=d0e892

https://blenderartists.org/t/fbx-import ... er/1125977

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 02 Dec 2018, 02:04

This method works to send a Daz figure and its clothes to Blender with pose and textures but the animation does not work. Be sure clothes are children of the figure in Daz. There are keyframes but no movement. The skeleton is present. You can select a bone and rotate it to pose but IK doesn't work so far. That is, you can't grab a hand and move it and have the arm follow. I don't know much about that in Blender so it might be settings or I don't know how to do IK there. You may need to check force connect children in Blender import too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27jcSK7tlPw

Edit: Well, some weirdness occured with rendering a character with cycles. The character and clothes were ok with cycles in the viewport but when F12 for full render disappeared and became invisible in the viewport with cycles. I found no settings that should cause the invisibility. Only Cntrl-Z, undo, would make it render in the viewport again. It wasn't deleted, just invisible. Another character worked well. So there is something to learn.

RAYMAN · Post by **RAYMAN** » 02 Dec 2018, 13:53

There is only weirdness with the fbx format in Blender!
Its the same issue people have with some third party lenses on system cameras! Its not broken..Blender tried to decompile the fbx format..and you will always run into issues with fbx!
Its up to a point where Vue advises people NOT to use fbx on im and export to Blender on Vue Stream!!!
They use and advise to use Collada instead!!!
Collada has different slangs but many of the problems have been sorted up till now! FBX can work..but must not! I wont say that in all cases it doesnt..but in many it doesnt! To be honest....Alias isnt interested! They have the format sorted for the own products but the rest well they dont give a...! Alembic is a different story it isnt Alias its Sony consortium..and is well documented and open!!!!
One of the many reasons I use Vue is that it opens almost all files..TS Cob included....FBX import...because Alias shares with them the sdk..and they use Alembic file import as scene standard import! Even ...with that in mind no fbx export to Blender!
But everything works including Collada import from TS workspace! You can throw mdd at it works.. LWS..LWO...Poser...!

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 02 Dec 2018, 16:32

For me, transferring Daz to Blender is just a form of kitbashing. It is more about transferring stuff I already did or is easy to do in Daz. So high quality results with all abilities would be nice but certainly aren't needed for what I intend. If I try to do ambitious or high quality projects I'll create in Blender and use programs known to work well with it.

Collada does look like the better way. Most report that collada plus bvh works well for Daz to Blender transfer of figures with pose. I should learn about bvh in Blender anyway since that's how much mocap is applied. I'll try Alembic transfer too.

My current project is an animation for video Christmas cards. Just fun.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 07 Dec 2018, 03:31

Daz to Blender export/import with collada. Animated in Blender. I used the pose library to store poses, T and ready, and paste them into the time line. The pose library looks like a useful tool. I saw tutorials about using actions to make clips of animation. That looks like a similar function to Daz's aniblocks.

https://vimeo.com/304961261/85ff9d5d33

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 12 Dec 2018, 17:41

I've studied some methods for character animation in Blender. Specifically walk and run cycles. I'm a beginner in that so nothing fancy. For my Christmas animation* I plan to key frame a walk cycle per tutorials. Each pose in the cycle will go into the pose library. Then I'll use actions to create an animation block for the cycle and maybe other movements. That allows walking along a path, blending movement actions, and other nice things.

I had an idea that the animation nodes possibly could be used to do walk cycles. Maybe with features to avoid foot slide. Might experiment with that sometime.

*Not for the challenge but I''ll try to enter something.

RAYMAN · Post by **RAYMAN** » 13 Dec 2018, 06:49

Just a hint....you get those in aniblocks for daz...they can be exported as bvh! Poser..even the oldest version you can get off ebay like poser 5 has a walk cycle designer in it that allows you to export via bvh!!!
If your skeleton and T pose conforms to Blender you should be able to hook it up as bvh in Blender!

https://youtu.be/NoRCwyyPXiI

https://youtu.be/x5wTzV1M-QY

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 21 Dec 2018, 03:54

In Blender I keyframed a run cycle for a collada export/import from Daz. Each pose is in a pose library and I made an action for the cycle in the NLA. I got it to repeat the cycle and run along a path curve.

Question:
UPDATE: This video shows how to do it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gb152Qncn2s (bring in from a blend file with Append then find the action on the thing on the Action Editor. I did this and it was pretty good. Will need some clean up since the bones are aligned a little differently.)
Does anyone know how I can copy that run cycle action or the pose library or the keyframes to another character? I don't want to do the run cycle from scratch for each character. I want the action/keyframes/poses copied and applied to the armature/bones of the second character. No need to change the weight connection of bones to skin but just how the bones move.

I did sort of transfer the run action to another character by duplicating the armature and connecting it to the second character's skin with Parent -> Automatic Weights. Even though they were Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 characters that worked minus some weight mapping trouble for the toes. It made a big mess of the parenting of the original object though.

I could not use the copy keyframes and paste reversed to do the last half of the run cycle with the Daz imports. I think it is naming conventions.

trueBlue · Post by **trueBlue** » 21 Dec 2018, 13:55

BVH in Blender

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBSC10euloY

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 21 Dec 2018, 17:15

Thanks. Here is a bvh tutorial that tells about retargeting and some add-on bvh tools too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux959so49Xk

Unlikely I'll get my Christmas animation done by Christmas. That's ok. Learning to animate in Blender is part of the project but using bvh has many benefits and will be part of future projects.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 27 Dec 2018, 04:29

The Christmas video will probably be for Christmas in July. Trying BVH. So far the character gets twists and is reshaped in unexpected ways with retargeting. So far nothing fixes that well enough. There is little information about fixing it. I am using imported Daz characters. I see that BVH works well with MakeHuman and rigify rigs. I tried bvh's that were fixed for Daz but no better luck.

Attaching the mesh directly to the BVH skeleton produced the results in the video. That loses Daz's fancy weight painting and the clothes don't work. I want to use the cloth simulation on them anyway. That is ok for some things but I'll learn to fix the problems and attach the bvh to existing rigs.

https://vimeo.com/308360543/e5a95cf984

RAYMAN · Post by **RAYMAN** » 29 Dec 2018, 08:23

What is it? Blender you are exporting to???
If yes ..with the clothing you need to enable soft body dynamics!
If the rig doesnt come in look into the naming sheme!
There is a lot that can go wrong...!

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 29 Dec 2018, 20:05

Snow! Icicles! New gas pipes and stuff have not been inspected yet so no gas yet. At best inspection will be Monday. Couple of electric heaters make it ok.

RAYMAN · Post by **RAYMAN** » 29 Dec 2018, 21:48

Nice House Finis! Good luck! Yup know that problem..have same thing in my aunties flat..she died 2 years ago..in there with electric and my coat!!!

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 02 Jan 2019, 00:01

Icicles on my house. Other house is neighbors.

RAYMAN wrote: 29 Dec 2018, 08:23There is a lot that can go wrong

You can say that again. Mocap gives you the natural movement but it can need tuning and fixing. In the future I'll rig characters in Blender using mocap friendly ways.

Here is Jedi Tevu with a cloth simulation kilt.

https://vimeo.com/309015474/0d7f73ecc9

The kilt is not weight painted or controlled by the armature (rig, bones) with one exception -- it is constrained to one bone and otherwise reacts to movement and collisions with the cloth sim.

Blender 2.79 Basics of cloth sim clothes that I learned.
- Model the clothing in a low poly way.
- Make the character mesh and any other objects the cloth will touch be collision objects in the Physics panel.
- Position the clothing on the character.
- Give the clothing mesh a Child Of constraint tying it to an appropriate bone in the armature.
- Set a vertex group from the clothing mesh that should follow the bone and not participate in the cloth simulation. Set that group as pinned in the sim panel. For this kilt that is the waist band.
- Add a Subdivision Surface modifier to cloth mesh. For high resolution cloth put it above the cloth sim in the modifier stack and use more divisions for the final sim. For low res it can go after or be omitted.
- Optionally add thickness with Solidify and avoid geometry intersections with Corrective Smooth modifiers.
- Set the cloth simulation parameters as needed to produce the desired results.
- Play the animation in the timeline to run the simulation. It will be slow the first time through.

It is necessary to have some time being still in a pose before the action starts to let the cloth settle. He still teleports from the T pose to the first mocap pose. I don't know why. A smooth transition would be better for cloth.

The cloth simulation collision and self collision parameters have distance factors. They are in Blender Units and small values cause errors. Larger values can make the cloth hover or not hug the character closely. Solution: make the character larger, around 7 BU tall, so larger distance settings allow the cloth to look close to the character.

I had some strange artifacts rendering with Cycles but closing and reopening the file fixed that.

The sim ran at about 0.7 frames per second on my AMD FX8320. The Cycles rendered video took about 5.7 seconds per frame with my GTX 1060 3GB.

pugman 1 · Post by **pugman 1** » 02 Jan 2019, 06:11

Your doing a great Job so far. Looking sweet

bitkar · Post by **bitkar** » 02 Jan 2019, 09:42

nice snow..i thought you live in new mexico. You have more snow than we have :)

RAYMAN · Post by **RAYMAN** » 02 Jan 2019, 18:04

Finis that looks awsome! A little gay..

..but 3d technically awsome! Yup! its all a question of trying things out!
Mocap is very cool! If you look into ipi software there are even was to capture mocap just with one or two webcams!!
Not to expensive..for the quality of animation you can get inside Blender!

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 03 Jan 2019, 00:42

@Pugman Thank you sir.

@Bitkar It gets cold here in Winter. 4400 ft (1341 m) elevation. Not European cold but most years there is a little snow. Mostly too dry for snow even when cold.

@Rayman Everyone says he looks gay. Maybe the complete Jedi outfit and different mocap will look more manly. I've looked at IPI Soft. Not cheap enough for me but it is low priced and does a lot. It used to support only pseudo obsolete sensors but now it can use many cameras and sensors. The sensor systems like XSens are getting cheaper but still not for hobbyists.

Tevu is from this project v ... 1&start=20

Question: How do you all who have done animations organize your files and resources for multiple scenes. Meaning that you will "shoot" several scenes and edit them together to make your movie. Do you use one file (like a .blend) to hold it all? If so, how is that organized? Do you use different files or what?

RAYMAN · Post by **RAYMAN** » 03 Jan 2019, 13:48

That is something very important and called asset management!
For someone serious in 3d thats one of the most important things..especially for people who need to make money with 3d!
The most important thing in 3d is to establish libraries! Of materials of shaders of hdri of models...trees !
Thats one of the most important things!!!
Do not throw away things you have created!
This also leads to a second important thing..dont use all to many redersolutions or stagers!!! You need for ever render solution a special Library and assetmanagement..which gets confusing!
The cons outway the benefits! Once you have a workflow..stay with it ..and establish your content management based on that system!
In Blender that is still not final because the new assetmanagement isnt implemented yet into beta! It didnt make it yet on time..its only in a few testbuilds!
The way its handled now..with appending isnt a good or great way!
When you make an animation you can at its best if you use Blender.....let all your resources...work at the same time.....frame for frame..but distributed to your resources ..even older ones..or laptops deprnding on the workload!
When your finisched you cut your files..and do tonemapping on them just like with every film you make!
For cutting try to render out the whole film in a non compressed version..and make compressed variants of it depending on your use! Yes you can save the whole project like any othee but be prepared that loading sometimes isnt easy and fast!
I dont use Blender for cutting..I use Movavi which is 50 Bucks and renders 10x faster! Letting your puter render at full load for hours costs quite some money! But for compositing Blender is a very good option...! It also has a very good tracker!

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 06 Jan 2019, 22:37

I tried auctions on Ebay to get a used gtx 1080 ti. The bids always went far beyond my level. So now I'm trying for a used gtx 1070 ti. That's more sane spending for me anyway. No luck yet ... (checks item) approaching my limit. There will be others. Patience. Persistence. I noticed a lot of "to good to be true" prices and prices that were ridiculously high. Much more than the cards cost when new.

Played with Blender 2.8 beta. Many UI improvements. Still a steep learning curve but I think it will be easier to get started with Blender. I discovered that Eevee renders faster if you minimize the window. Watching the frames render it took 2.23 seconds per frame. Minimized window and it was 0.8 seconds per frame. Self shadowing of objects was not present but I have near zero knowledge of Eevee. B2.8 cycles handled multi-gpu plus or minus cpu rendering well and might be a bit faster than B2.79. Before, a slow item plus a faster one could be slower than just the fast one. Now more hardware equals faster.

Update: Eevee self shadowing is present. My lighting was obscuring it.

bitkar · Post by **bitkar** » 07 Jan 2019, 15:00

renders faster if you minimize the window

oh btw: i saw this in tS too... not about the speed too much, but the memory usage - it drops significantly when you render vray and you minimize tS window. I find it a bit strange.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 07 Jan 2019, 16:32

bitkar wrote: 07 Jan 2019, 15:00oh btw: i saw this in tS too...

Don't know about TS. My guess about the Eevee speed is like this: If frame "calculation" takes 200 secs and displaying it takes 1 sec then the "display" time is only 1/201 of the total time. If the calculation takes 1 sec and displaying it takes 1 sec then the display is 1/2 of the total time. Removing the display time makes the fast render twice as fast but is insignificant for the long render. Iray in Daz has a setting for how often the screen image is updated.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 23 Jan 2019, 01:49

I'm disappointed. I got a used gtx 1070 ti from Ebay. Price ok but lower would have been better. Thinking of selling it.

The 1070 ti has twice the cores and runs about the same speed so it is like 2 1060's. I expected the 1070 ti alone to be almost twice as fast as the 1060 and together to approach 3 times. In tests with blender cycles it rendered in 86% of the 1060's time. Both did it in 53%. It is faster but not enough to be worth the money.

Pictures with longer render times benefited more from the 1070 ti and multi-card. Probably the set up time is a large portion of the total with a quick picture. So it is not beneficial for small pictures or animations with frames that render quickly. An animation test took 7 minutes with the 1060 and 6 minutes with both. The frames took only seconds to render so the quick picture effect was there.

Eevee will be good but I wanted more ability with cycles type renders too.

pugman 1 · Post by **pugman 1** » 24 Jan 2019, 06:12

Hi Finis, All These hi end Cards like yours are built for gaming .with that 1070ti you can run a high demanding
game with a very high Frame rate maxed out . if you realy want fast renders it Costs .the Quadro Cards are built for
3d work so are the firepro ,These Cards are crap for gaming but very quic for Rendering .i had a firepro ,still have it somewhere
but by gaming ist overheats and is extreemly loud

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 24 Jan 2019, 22:12

I'm happier after testing with longer renders of1080x1920 animation and HQ still pictures (when I should have been working, London rocket weeds all over town). Multi card performance improved to 43% of just the 1060 when it counts on these longer ones. Close enough to 33%. In the future, depending on finances, I might sell both cards and get one larger one.

Someday I might try an animation scheme for final renders where I start two instances of Blender each using one card to render a different set of frames.

RAYMAN · Post by **RAYMAN** » 27 Jan 2019, 08:30

Finis the render farmer!

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 03 Apr 2019, 02:14

The Flowers of Spring challenge reminded me of these.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 04 May 2019, 00:30

Help create a story. What are your ideas for this?

It is a Christmas CG video where toys come to life. What I thought of so far is:
- Toy train carries Christmas things like presents, decorations, or whatever. It moves through a room with opened presents, Christmas tree, decorations and the usual furniture.
- Villainous Vic, action figure, is doing something to derail the train.
- Jedi Tevu, action figure, (from this picture viewtopic.php?p=48527#p48527) sees this and cuts a hole with his light saber in the side of his box/packaging.
- Tevu approaches Vic and uses the force to undo Vic's preparations to derail the train.
- Vic approaches Tevu menacing him with a candy cane. Tevu activates his light saber and vic runs away.
- While Tevu works clearing the tracks Vic prepares another obstacle elsewhere.

... Then what? What are the obstacles? How does Tevu save the Christmas train?

Since it is a video Christmas card the end should have "Merry Christmas" and the recipient's name. I want that to be spelled with toy alphabet blocks with some falling into place to spell the name. That should happen with the safe arrival of the train. How to get there from the above?

I would also like the three legged creature from the picture in this. What could he do?

I'll kit bash things from my other CG projects to be toys.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 16 May 2019, 16:28

So no ideas for the story above.

I looked for a free terrain generator that can be used for commercial and private projects. There is Bryce. I found that Blender's ANT landscape generator is pretty good. It's not Vue or World Machine but it can do some good things. It can make a vast and detailed terrain if you have a very powerful cpu or a lot of patience. It can transform the terrain between flat and spherical. It has many methods to produce terrain and features like erosion. Will look for documentation to learn more about it. Here's a quick planet.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 08 Jun 2019, 01:26

Steinie wrote: viewtopic.php?p=54726#p54726
I turned on your microphone and recorded you singing in the shower. Unless you pay me 0.4123164 bitcoins I'll post the singing to your MySpace page.

It is time for my annual inferno hike. There's no inferno. It's cooler than most years so I'll try to reach Lost River for the dunes hike.

jamesmc · Post by **jamesmc** » 08 Jun 2019, 14:20

RAYMAN · Post by **RAYMAN** » 13 Jun 2019, 04:19

Look into the ne terrain editor called Gaea!
There is a free version and its open for commercial
what I remember !

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 19 Jun 2019, 17:08

Thanks Rayman. I'll look at that.

Dragneye · Post by **Dragneye** » 20 Jun 2019, 03:48

If it ok, some thoughts...
- since its Christmasy/holiday theme, the characters should appeal to young children, so maybe they should look quite young.
- how about the elves riding the train as 'security guards'.
- when I read the original post I got the 'Dasterdly n Mutley' look of the villain in my head (Mr. Dasterdly).
- the villain might tie candy canes to the tracks creating a derailment. (cuz they curve away at the end)
- the whole thing shouldn't be too violent since it's a festive theme.
- the ending to the villain's deeds might be the hero dowses the villain with water, which freezes him in the cold. - Maybe the ending is it starts to snow right before they throw the water... the choo choo going away from camera into the distance as the frozen villain is left behind
- the rock character is stuffed into a present box - "Look Johnny, we got you a pet". Lil Johnny opens the box and is surprised. "It's a Pet Rock!"

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 21 Jun 2019, 16:31

Although there are very few people here now days it is disappointing when not one can offer a little advice or imagination for a story. Fortunately, here is Dragneye to fill that empty void! Thanks!

Dasterdly and Mutley. Hmm. A cartoon style could be best. Easy textures and fast rendering too.

Yeah, action but not violence since it is for a festive occasion. That's why they threaten with candy cane clubs and light saber but there is no fighting. It is not for kids or not only for kids. It is a video Christmas card for family, friends and such. Must be kid friendly though.

Johnny? Humans? Non-toy character? Hmm, what if at the end Johnny's hand reaches down, clears the track and picks up Vic? What does Tevu do then? It is like "Deus Ex Machina" ("god from the machine") where a superpower fixes everything.

I like the idea of elves, or other toy characters, on the train but since I'm just beginning in character animation (this is also for learning that) I'll just have two characters. Maybe Three Legs too.

Candy canes to derail the train? That provides something the Jedi can mostly clear with his telekinetic power but some are hooked in the tracks which keeps Tevu busy while Vic builds another obstacle. Also provides the cane for Vic to threaten with.

Ice! That could be interpreted as killing Vic but he could struggle to show he is just trapped. Freezing and water present interesting CG challenges. It is indoors though so not cold. I want the action figure toys scenario but a story with outdoor decorations could have freezing, snow, etc.

Three Legs could lumber around moving things and knocking stuff over in the background. The second obstacle could be letter blocks. That way clearing the obstacle also creates the customized message. Tevu could tie or mummify Vic with ribbon or gift wrap paper (Jedi telekinetics again). Then he tries to clear the track of blocks but they are too heavy for his Force or to move physically. Three Legs moves the blocks from the track which pushes some into a stack of blocks. The stack falls and spells the message. The train passes safely and stops at a toy train station in the near background.

Suggestions, advice, ideas?

Dragneye · Post by **Dragneye** » 22 Jun 2019, 04:53

- Can keep it all inside so only requires one scene.
- How abt the final shot is Cam panning backwards, the scene is 'under the tree', the train passing by, (whoever) throwing out the presents that land under the tree, as snow falls in that lil area instead of the whole living room
- someone steals the presents?

Two points - doesn't give the Christmas vibe - how abt your main character (imitating a 'wisemen') pulling your rock (horse,camel), walking towards a lit area (back lit; we don't see it as the manger(?); keeping it neutral for PC bs). It's at night (less details to create/creates mood/sticks to the original story; the light source for the scene is hidden behind the structure, but lights your characters). Close up of guy breaking a big smile as he looks towards light. Next shot he bends down to offer gifts.

Why not keep it simpler - the train passes by Cam as your character is throwing presents under the tree? The snow falling in that small area, Cam pan back and all stays the same. - You are setting yourself up for a lot of work if you want action scenes.
- Or how abt the exit of the train tunnel freezes over (timelapse)...(mood turns to quiet)... and then we see the shape of a snowflake cut into the frozen ice, then your guy riding the train comes busting thru, laser in hand, throwing out presents.

- the presents can each have a letter. Shot of guy throwing the presents. Next shot is the presents piling up into the phrase.

Fin, its the summer drought we face every year with participation. I feel ya buddy, but don't sweat it.
That said...
YEAH!... Finis is right!

Hey! Come on in!
Come on down!
Share your mind
that is your Crown
Participation is free... the inspiration you may trigger... priceless

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 23 Jun 2019, 10:58

Here is my latest computer graphics animation.

https://vimeo.com/343938537

jamesmc · Post by **jamesmc** » 23 Jun 2019, 13:03

candy cane striped mummies - hmmm
ufo's blending as holiday lights...

a windup key acting as a kinetic force unraveling traps and tracks

as pages fall from a paper calendar with no holding, the event horizon distorts an analog clock running backward and forwards with distorted clock face and hands all the while light escapes to a destination and departure at the same time

evoking curved Mobius strip space whose ribbon dissects reality into a stepped pattern of random of light/dark

the consistent and inconsistent silent drum beat which is seen but not heard

a conduit of nothingness evolving into a railroad track without perspective

finally, a shoe drops and the scene goes to credits

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 25 Jun 2019, 02:40

jamesmc wrote: 23 Jun 2019, 13:03a conduit of nothingness evolving into a railroad track without perspective

Poetry! It is something a narrator would say at the start of a film noir.

MikomDude · Post by **MikomDude** » 25 Jun 2019, 17:48

Very cool animation Finis. Dark atmosphere, I like. Like the logo as well!

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 27 Jun 2019, 20:07

Thanks Mikom. I'm thinking about making another version sometime. I want the glowing objects to light the fog, trees, and ground a little. Problem: It would take eons to render with cycles using enough samples for fog effect in the light. Eevee doesn't cast light from emissive materials. Also it doesn't do area lights well. Blender 2.8 beta. Maybe that will improve in future versions. So I am left with putting a point light inside the glowing objects to light the trees etc. Problem: how to make that light ignore the glow objects? I'll probably composite two movies together to do it. One with point lights illuminating the environment and no glows. The other with just the glows.

The master of logos likes my logo!

bitkar · Post by **bitkar** » 28 Jun 2019, 10:55

you can add some effects in post... in after effects or hitfilm (express)

jamesmc · Post by **jamesmc** » 28 Jun 2019, 16:41

Carrara can eliminate the light source, can shine the light on specified objects or ignore objects.

I know you are not using Carrara but figured some talented person could write a script since these are Camera attributes.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 28 Jun 2019, 20:13

I discovered that the glow object is not illuminated by any lights but there are shadows. It only has an emission node and stuff to generate the procedural texture but no diffuse or glossy or other to receive light. I've found no eevee way to stop the shadows just for the glow object.

No problem. I'll make a movie with a point light or two moving in place of the object. That will illuminate the environment and fog as I want. Then another movie with just the mysterious object to overlay. I may need a mask movie too.

With 1000 samples cycles took about 3 minutes for one frame and I estimate at least 3000 samples to get good light in fog effects. Much faster without the fog of course. Cycles doesn't look the way I want for this anyway. Too real.

Yeah post production fx could do good stuff and it would be a good thing to play with and learn.

The original animation does add mystery and strangeness. Since the mystery object doesn't interact normally with the surroundings it is like James' poetry. It simultaneously is and is not there.

Here are the material nodes for the animated glow. The distortion is keyframed between -5 and +5.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 08 Jul 2019, 15:21

Too much trouble to fix the lighting problem on my ufo animation with compositing. Shouldn't be that way anyway. Controlling shadows is a normal part of CG and rendering software that shouldn't be missing from B2.8 or eevee. So I'll fix this when the shadows work right in eevee. I see that there was once a "shadow mode" material setting that included "none" and worked but that is now missing.

@Dragneye, Good thoughts and suggestions for the Christmas video. Most are for another story but still helpful for this one since they inspire ideas and might become future video Christmas cards. Good point about it not being so Christmasy. I think the presents, tree, decorations, gift wrap, etc. when seen will give a secular Christmas vibe but the religious/spiritual aspects could use more attention. The action story line isn't so Christmasy either but it will amuse some recipients and I learn animation.

Who wants free trueSpace manuals? You pay shipping. viewtopic.php?p=54836#p54836

Dragneye · Post by **Dragneye** » 09 Jul 2019, 03:37

Pretty cool exterior idea. Nice anim.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 11 Jul 2019, 01:09

Thanks Dragneye!

I have an MSI gtx 1060 gaming X and a used Zotac gtx 1070 ti amp. I planned to get another used 1070 ti amp on ebay then sell my 1060 there. I found a good deal. Arrived just 2 days later. Not a ti though. Reviewed the item listing and it didn't say it was a ti. Looks like there are amp editions that aren't ti's. New plan, sell the 1060 and 1070 and get another 1070 ti amp.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 21 Aug 2019, 16:37

I've been trying to export a rigged human model from Daz Studio, import into Blender, and apply mocap BVH from the cmu archive available at http://www.cgspeed.com. Some progress but no full success yet.

I'm using the Daz friendly sets. I export/import a daz figure using .dae collada since that is the only daz to blender pipeline I've found that sends the rig and mesh and textures.

In blender the figure becomes twisted when the mocap is applied. I think the thigh bones are rotated or have a bone roll that is incompatible with the mocap. Changing that fixes one area but twists another. The Daz friendly cmu sets are said to be for genesis 3 and 4. I found that they do work in Daz for genesis 1 and 2 but not with 3 or 8. None of them work in Blender so something is happening with the transfer.

Attaching the skin to the bvh skeleton works (https://vimeo.com/309015474) but I want retargeting to use the mocaps on various figures with their own skeletons. Reattaching should be suitable for my Christmas animation.

Blender 2.8 does not have the motion capture tools add on and the add on may not be maintained anymore. There are other add ons for that.

TO DO
- Continue to surf the web for solutions.
- Try various for options for collada export/import.
- Try the motion builder friendly mocaps.
- Detach and reattach the imported daz model's own skeleton in blender.
- Explore the tools and their options more.

RAYMAN · Post by **RAYMAN** » 23 Aug 2019, 19:38

Daz collada is not Collada! 2 pairs of shoes!
Collada is a fileformat that peaked around 2007 and was developed for around 3 years! Its not developed anymore and fbx was a fileformat until motionbuilder gave it to Alias!
Dont transfer the rig in Blender but retarget with the Blender autorigger! That works..and works with mocap!
Collada is a good format but has never been implemented well!
To many variations!
I posted the solution for Collada mess some time ago!
Its Okino!
Okino even transfers Truespace to Blender!
Not my words but Landsdales words..and he closely worked together with Roman and Pavol! He IS THE file format expert!
He closly works together with Nasa.... Pixar...Disney....
.

RAYMAN · Post by **RAYMAN** » 23 Aug 2019, 19:42

https://blendermarket.com/products/auto-rig-pro

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 23 Aug 2019, 21:54

For ambitious projects I'd make characters from scratch. For things like my Christmas animation attaching the skin to native, non-imported, skeleton is good enough. Tevu is a morph from Daz attached directly to the BVH skeleton. (See my video linked in earlier post.) I had some success with a rigify rig.

Thanks for noting auto-rig-pro Rayman! It looks good and can replace the outdated re-targeting add on that is missing from B2.8. It has a full set of rigging tools including face controls. Reasonable price. Probably will buy it.

I found that the Daz to Blender collada transfer works quite well when not using mocap. If I move the bones the skin deforms nicely. The textures come with it too but can need tuning. IK is lost. Shouldn't be too much work to add IK. So it is ok for still poses and animating the character by hand. Retarget (map bones to bones) a bvh skeleton to the Daz skeleton and there will be trouble.

Discovery: With the mocap rig retargeted to the Daz rig some bones in the Daz rig are displaced and rolled or rotated. So detaching and reattaching an imported Daz skin to its own rig doesn't fix it. For mocap on imported Daz characters the Daz rig must be replaced.

RAYMAN · Post by **RAYMAN** » 24 Aug 2019, 00:00

Give the Alembic exporter for Daz a try!
Im experimenting with it too!
Alembic works differently..because it bakes the motions ...its not a file transformer per se!
Could be the way to go!
I got it through a sales thing a few weeks ago!
Might be something for cyber Monday deals!
It moves whole daz scenes to Blender..and Alembic is newer and not an Alias thing! Fbx is good because it moves instances..but not for Blender! Alias deliberatly makes it not nice to use for Blender..and thats not my words ..I heard that in a dutch accent from somebody who should know Blender better then I do!

https://www.daz3d.com/alembic-exporter-for-daz-studio

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 14 Sep 2019, 23:42

I got Auto-RIg Pro for Blender 2.8. So far it is good. Having some trouble undoing mocap re-targeting or applying a new mocap instead of an existing one. Contacting the programmer about that. Then I'll learn about it's face rig.

RAYMAN · Post by **RAYMAN** » 15 Sep 2019, 06:15

The problem with rigs is that there are no standards and standard naming convension!
Very often because of that models with bones come in as scrambled eggs!

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 24 Sep 2019, 00:21

That's not this problem Rayman but it happens! I've had some funny "transporter accidents".

The maker of Auto-Rig Pro answered my questions. It was me misunderstanding how ARP works and lack of knowledge of Blender's NLA.

I tested render limits on my system. I found that 5 million polygons takes 30 seconds or more to prepare in Cycles then renders in several seconds at 1440p on the two used 1070 ti's I got from ebay. 7 million produced a Cuda error out of memory. Cycles has partial out-of-core memory in B2.8 to use system ram but it only puts textures there. Geometry ate this memory.

A much smaller scene with more lights, closer to my current animation project, took around one minute per frame. That's tens of hours for two minutes of video. Plus extra frames for editing and renders for some customized parts. Work season is still going so I don't have a lot of time but I need to get the bulk of this done well before Christmas. See Christmas Card 2019 thread for updates.

RAYMAN · Post by **RAYMAN** » 28 Sep 2019, 17:19

Cant reproduce why you need so many polygons??!!
Please make a very rough scribble of what you plan to do!
I doubt your scene needs so many!
With realtime renderings you can always save on memory and you have to!
Lod...or backdrops or front scrimms..or low poly with normal maps...!
Since this doesnt sound like a George Lucas Star Wars city it shouldnt need that much ram!

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 28 Sep 2019, 21:21

RAYMAN wrote: 28 Sep 2019, 17:19 Cant reproduce why you need so many polygons??!!...I doubt your scene needs so many!

My curiosity and thoughts are not limited to the immediate things around me here and now. I like to know things just to know them.

I'll guess the Christmas project will have less than one million polys.

I learned to use the resources more effectively and my system can handle 15M polys or more with a long preparation time. At 20M the system runs out of ram and virtual memory/swapfile. Then it becomes unresponsive.

Hyper-poly scenes impractical for animations of course. As Rayman pointed out there are plenty of ways to avoid them.

Time to work on the Christmas scene.

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