Dumb rendering question, as promised...

Dumb rendering question, as promised...

Following on from my gallery posting:

http://cheetah3d.de/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=2091#2091

A few q's about the rendering:

Image rendered using HDRI. I've got great shading, but no shadows (shadows turned on for that particular camera). Also when I use Radiosity with a distant light (no HDRI), I get no shadows. Is this a Radiosity/HDRI thing, or is it just me not setting something up right?

Also, what's the best way of setting up a circular path for a camera? I want to do a 360-deg walkaround keeping the same upward-facing camera angle. Can you attach cameras to splines?

Also, is there a way to turn on a 'cone of vision' for a camera in the Editor windows? that would make set-up a lot easier.

TIA,

Tim
 
Did you turn on the shadows on the distant light ? That's the only thing I can think of right now. HDRI and distantlights are a great combination by the way.
I'm sorry but I can't answer your camera question. Maybe by putting keyframes/camerapositions every 90 degrees ?

Regards,

Peter
 
Re: Dumb rendering question, as promised...

Hi,

TimD said:
Also, what's the best way of setting up a circular path for a camera? I want to do a 360-deg walkaround keeping the same upward-facing camera angle. Can you attach cameras to splines?

Attaching a a camera to a spline doesn't work yet. But it is already on my todo list.

TimD said:
Also, is there a way to turn on a 'cone of vision' for a camera in the Editor windows? that would make set-up a lot easier.

Yes, you can do that. You can use the "Perspective" view port mode for example. See the screenshot below.

Now if you select the camera a cone will appear.

By,
Martin
 

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Thanks, Peter, Martin

Problem with setting the camera is -- I just can't do it! I keep getting weird angles, and I'm trying to move the camera only in the XZ plane and rotate only in Y...

Shadows ON for distant lights.. ha ha, that makes sense... :oops:

BUT -- Is there a setting for soft-edged (fuzzy) shadows?

Martin -- I DO have cones of vision -- it's just that they're really small in relation to my model. A way to set them to a constant size in the Editor windows -- regardless of Zoom level -- would be nice.
 
Re: Dumb rendering question, as promised...

Tim,

TimD said:
Also, what's the best way of setting up a circular path for a camera? I want to do a 360-deg walkaround keeping the same upward-facing camera angle.

I think the QTVR Object helper script can help you here. But you may have to play a little with the settings for your particular case. I have tried at the time to fully detailed the instructions. Email if more help is needed.

François
 
For soft shadows you can also use an arealight, but these are more renderintensive.

Regards,

Peter
 
Peter --

Tried Area Light, but still have hard-edged shadows:

Settings for Area light also shown. No other lights were active. Antialiasing on, 4x, 8x.
 

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Hi TimD,

Nice Modeling. Nice angle!!
You can get more softshadow using the width and height values in arealight properties.
By the way, I saw your Image in SU Gallery. How you got the depth of field? Was that mede by Cheetah?

Macjiii
 
Macjijii --

Thanks for the tip about the area lights.

Depth of Field -- cheated, I'm afraid...

I just used a Black-to-White channel gradient in Photoshop, converted to a selection and Gaussian blurred.
 
TimD

Aha, photoshop.....
Since it was the praise thread of Cheetah3D, it has been hoped that "depth fo field" may be in the specification of Cheetah for a moment.
I was deceived successfully :lol:

Macjijii
 
what a fantastic render TimD... great to see some more architecture related renders with Cheetah...

I am sure in the help files there is info on getting softer shadows... and a render I was mucking around with last night... a crappy looking setup but used to mere check transparency settings etc... and it had really great looking soft shadows...

any chance of you posting the model to see if anyone here can get it ot have soft shadows without resorting to the Big PS...

cheers... and bless us with more of your great renders...
Trevor
 
Thanks for the kind words, everyone.

Trevor -- I took Macjijii's suggestion -- it was the size of the area light in relation to the model. I now have soft shadows. Hurrah!

I'll be sending Martin an image for the Gallery when I get back to my computer.

Fame at last! :wink:
 
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