Feature experiment

[_jaro]

Can't wait to get all of that new features for testing in new release

[cpnichols]

Feature experiment

So I decided to give some of the new features of Vray a solid test drive. These are features that I am NOT covering in my new DVD since they were not ready for release when I used them. I took the scene with the bathtub and decided to use the Vray physical sun/sky as well as the new Vray physical camera.

A few things to note:

Notice the colors change as the sun moves through the sky. This is done based on "real" world values from the syn/sky system. Also notice the slight area shadow. It is subtle but it is there. This is based on the "size" of the sun. I tend to like to add more of an area than that to simulate more atmostphere and haze, but it is still nice to see it.

The camera is a fairly wide lense with some curvature to it. This is really great as is breaks the orthagonality of CG cameras. Nornally you would add camera warp in 2d, but it is nice to have it in 3d at no cost to the render. DOF, does cost a bit more to render, but looks great and is accurate, as it is based on true fstops. You can see the focus being slightily off at the edges of the lense.

Now I am not going to lie to you, these renders took some time. I really bumped up the senttings and the raw frames look great. The compression sorta screws it up. But I rendered these at 720x405, with two level AA, QMC + LC for GI, with the QMC set to 60. With all the DOF, etc, the rendertime of 2+ hours a frame is high, but still ok.

Granted my computer is pretty old, I have a dual 2600+, and considering the benchmarks I have seen, these new dual proc dual core AMDs would do the render in around 30min a frame... based on the benchmark comparison from this site. Hey... maybe if enough of you guys buy my DVD I will buy myself a new computer...

Anyway... like I said, this is just an experiment, not really for critic or anything, but I figured you may way to see it. But feel free to comment away if you want.

http://www.redeyetales.com/forum/Vray/Sunset.mov

[cpnichols]

You talked before about the workflow of Stealth. Basically it all was left for postproduction to take shape, only deciding the position of the light on 3d. Do u think it would be possible with vray too in its current state? In other words, with all the new features you are testing right now, would you say vray could be used to do some serious vfx work in a similar way to what maya-renderman-nuke does? Maybe a vray-combustion/flame/toxic workflow?

For sure. There is no reason why Vray can't do very well. In fact, would say that V;ado and Peter worked with us in terms of develping all those G-Buffers based on those needs. All you really need is a rendering engine that can split out all that data (like vray), and a compositing program that can recombine it correctly (like Nuke). The "wall" between rendering and compositing is very thin these days. There are a lot of "things" being developed at VFX houses. I bet you will see a lot of it t the next couple of Siggraphs.

Oh, but on this one, I didn't do that. One big beauty pass... old school.

[DaForce]

mmm quite interesting!!!

Where is the bathroom scene from?

[jujubee]

that's awesome.

[panthon]

Your test looks really cool . I guess a lot of people are willing to test all the new features you are testing right now! I like the idea of changing the light like simulating an accelerated day going on. Here in our studio we have tried to do it but weren´t able to recreate the accurate color variation u get on that animation.

You talked before about the workflow of Stealth. Basically it all was left for postproduction to take shape, only deciding the position of the light on 3d. Do u think it would be possible with vray too in its current state? In other words, with all the new features you are testing right now, would you say vray could be used to do some serious vfx work in a similar way to what maya-renderman-nuke does? Maybe a vray-combustion/flame/toxic workflow?

[Mirko]

The animation is great! But my boss would kill me if our computers would need more than 5 min for one frame (for an animation job). )
So I should stay working without GI in animations.

My PC @ work: Intel Dual P4 3,06 GHz, 2 GB Ram.

Mirko

[jacksc02]

nice one Chris!

All its missing is some slight volume light

[siliconbauhaus]

Cool

Any chance of explaining some of the parameters for the new features? I'm stumbling my way trying to figure them out.

[jacksc02]

Siliconbauhaus, what are you stuck on?

[Gijs]

Very nice test Chris,

does this new camera work with current colormapping too or does it have its own tone mapping settings, exposure, etc?

[cpnichols]

Very nice test Chris,

does this new camera work with current colormapping too or does it have its own tone mapping settings, exposure, etc?

The the camera does not have exposure controls through f-stops etc, just dof. That is still done through the color mapping. That part is actually critical when using the vray sun/sky. Most of the lighting work I did was in the exposure of the color mapping to get the sun/sky right.

[throb]

You talked before about the workflow of Stealth. Basically it all was left for postproduction to take shape, only deciding the position of the light on 3d. Do u think it would be possible with vray too in its current state? In other words, with all the new features you are testing right now, would you say vray could be used to do some serious vfx work in a similar way to what maya-renderman-nuke does? Maybe a vray-combustion/flame/toxic workflow?

vray could exceed the production flow of stealth.
the renders would be faster, and have many more features (real refraction, gi, soft reflections, etc) that would make the plane (or whatever) totally photographic.

we just finished 2 commercials using the latest vray technology and they look pretty nice. we could NEVER have done the work as effeciently in renderman. no way at all. in fact, the technology in vray completely exceeds the renderman tech for our lighting and rendering pipeline we setup. we didn't really do multiple passes for compositing. it simply wasn't needed. the renders looked great. the time for hacking and slashing in compositing is kinda over i think. well, for my productions it certainly is.

[RErender]

You talked before about the workflow of Stealth. Basically it all was left for postproduction to take shape, only deciding the position of the light on 3d. Do u think it would be possible with vray too in its current state? In other words, with all the new features you are testing right now, would you say vray could be used to do some serious vfx work in a similar way to what maya-renderman-nuke does? Maybe a vray-combustion/flame/toxic workflow?

vray could exceed the production flow of stealth.
the renders would be faster, and have many more features (real refraction, gi, soft reflections, etc) that would make the plane (or whatever) totally photographic.

we just finished 2 commercials using the latest vray technology and they look pretty nice. we could NEVER have done the work as effeciently in renderman. no way at all. in fact, the technology in vray completely exceeds the renderman tech for our lighting and rendering pipeline we setup. we didn't really do multiple passes for compositing. it simply wasn't needed. the renders looked great. the time for hacking and slashing in compositing is kinda over i think. well, for my productions it certainly is.

So when do we get to see them?

[throb]

You talked before about the workflow of Stealth. Basically it all was left for postproduction to take shape, only deciding the position of the light on 3d. Do u think it would be possible with vray too in its current state? In other words, with all the new features you are testing right now, would you say vray could be used to do some serious vfx work in a similar way to what maya-renderman-nuke does? Maybe a vray-combustion/flame/toxic workflow?

vray could exceed the production flow of stealth.
the renders would be faster, and have many more features (real refraction, gi, soft reflections, etc) that would make the plane (or whatever) totally photographic.

we just finished 2 commercials using the latest vray technology and they look pretty nice. we could NEVER have done the work as effeciently in renderman. no way at all. in fact, the technology in vray completely exceeds the renderman tech for our lighting and rendering pipeline we setup. we didn't really do multiple passes for compositing. it simply wasn't needed. the renders looked great. the time for hacking and slashing in compositing is kinda over i think. well, for my productions it certainly is.

So when do we get to see them?

as soon as they hit the air (next weeks or so) then i can post quicktimes.
2 spots with 1 min each of completely cg environments. you can catch a single frame at http://throb.net