Maestro! <kneels and worships>  ;)

Sweet, Jaime. I hope I can do some more testing of your macros this week. :)

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Hi again:

  Thanks to everyone for the compliments, tough most of the merit must be 
given to the POV Team: they have done a fantastic job with 3.5. 

  I finally managed to finish the 64 blur_samples version:

  http://www.ignorancia.org/images/boltstill3.jpg (124Kb)

  Anyhow, the result isn't much better. There is still some grain on the 
metal, but it's mainly due to the technique used for the texture. To avoid 
making a lot of replies to this thread, here a little explanation:

  + The metal texture is a simple, one-layer texture: it does not use the 
nice "averaged reflections" trick. Rather, it uses an averaged pigment_map 
used as normal pattern, wich mix rotated versions of a quilted pattern 
scaled down very small, with some other (granite and bozo) scaled not so 
small. This of course needs a lot of blur_samples or very high aa settings, 
and it's slow, of course (the whole image took about 5 hours on a Athlon 
1.2Ghz).

  + The wood texture it's a standard one from "woods.inc", with some 
reflection added. The real trick is that it is applied to a thin 
height_field done with the function image pattern. This function uses a 
pigment_map of several woods and a turbulent leopard pattern. It's a bit 
slow to parse for a decent hf resolution, but it traces really fast.

  + Yes, this is done entirelly with POV-Ray! Well, I used Imagemagik to 
adjust a bit the contrast, but that's all.

  Appart from this, I've lied on my first post: there are 3 area_lights, 
not 2 as I stated. And they are placed randomly! I suspect I'm getting 
really lazy, if I use rand()+trial&error even for the lights placement!! 
;)

-- 
Jaime Vives Piqueres

La Persistencia de la Ignorancia
http://www.ignorancia.org

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Hi James,  :o)

I actually thought the wood was an image_map, since it looks so realistic! I
also thought you used a specular map, but no?

I especially like "boltstill2" because of the cleaner look. It's a challange
these days to have *clean* CG objects that *also* looks realistic. Your
metal texture is brilliant! How is the surroundings? Empty? To use a quilted
pattern never striked me. Do you think these micro patterns are too slow for
general purpose? Obviously, render speed is the biggest limitation in todays
3D, and I doubt this will change soon.. I'm trying to gather knowledge about
the best looking, AND fastest methods.

Do you think these special textures work in other enviroments without
tweaking? I experienced this myself at my recent attemps to imitate realism.
My settings didn't look good in other scenes - and rendering almost died.
Way too slow.

Btw, when you use the names "bolt-STILL" does this means you're planning
animations? Just curious. Not that I see a big potential for animating
*these* particular scenes.

Okay, that's all.  ;o))
Regards,
Hugo

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Hugo wrote:
> I actually thought the wood was an image_map, since it looks so realistic!

  It's better than an image_map, but only for planar surfaces (hf), 
although it can be done with isos for any shape (i.e. isowoods from 
Christoph). 
 
> Your metal texture is brilliant! How is the surroundings?

  The enviroment is a simple 5x5m room with hf-walls, a white ceil and a 
checkered floor.

> To use a quilted pattern never striked me. Do you think these micro
> patterns are too slow for general purpose? 

  Yes, the use of the quilted patern for this isn't very obvious. It works 
well because I average multiple rotated copies. I found that simply by 
using the old & good "trial&error" method with all patterns. :)

  The "micro patterns" (paterns scaled lower than pixel size) are slow, no 
doubt. As with the "averaged reflections" trick, it depends on the number 
of patterns averaged, but it's not so slow, as it only averages normals. 
However, you need to use much higher quality settings on aa or focal blur 
to get ride of the grain. So finally, it's hard to tell wich method is 
slower... :(
 
> Do you think these special textures work in other enviroments without
> tweaking? 

  Well, I'm lately trying to make things valid for any situation. For 
example, this texture works with surfaces oriented in any direction (the 
bolts and nuts shapes demonstrates this), because the normal averages 
multiple rotations of the same "micro pattern", in the hope to face any 
posible surface. For the rest of the texture, it is simply "T_Chrome_2C", 
so it must work on any scene, I think.

> Btw, when you use the names "bolt-STILL" does this means you're planning
> animations? 

  :) Not really... my relation with animations is view-only. I fear all the 
work and organization involved on good animations (that is: I'm really 
lazy). The name comes from the fact that I'm managing the idea of making it 
more like a tipical "still life"... replacing the fruits with different 
kinds of bolts and nuts...

  Will see, I've too many projects pending... :(
  

-- 
Jaime Vives Piqueres

La Persistencia de la Ignorancia
http://www.ignorancia.org

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Jaime Vives Piqueres wrote:
>   Here is a test of my lighting macros with the last beta.

I find it hard to believe it's CG picture. Amazing work of art!

-- 
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