Good efficient workflow

[Exon]

I have a project coming up where I'll be creating a whole :30 commercial with a CG environment (characters on greenscreen). I admit I'm more compositor than animator and don't use VRay very much, so I'd like to make sure I understand the Vray workflow to make my process very efficient and smooth.. I have a very fast turnaround time, compositing will be done in combustion..

My main question is: I start on a scene of an orchard inside a factory. I assume I'll use Onyx Treestorm for the trees (from what i've read here they work the best, or maybe the L-System trees).. Get a few good ones then duplicate them and make VRay Proxies out of them, right? Grass will be Vray fur.. I will have a person at each tree picking 'fruit' from it.. Are there any tree solutions out there that allow you to PULL a fruit from a tree and the branch/leaves react? That will probably end up being a small, hand-made hero shot and not a full tree (or a real tree-branch for a tight shot of a hand grabbing the fruit)..

When rendering out for a cg envronment, I assume I render to layers and use the z-depth for actor placement..? This is where I select 'Split G-Buffer channels' in the vray render dialog and tell it what channels I want to use..

I have other scenes, but they are similar (yet not as complex) as the orchard.. Another scene is of a room full of writers/artists.. I assume the same: create one desk/art table, make a vray proxy from that, and duplicate it for the "infiniti of workers" look)..

All textures will be either Vray or Darktree..

I don't have a renderfarm, but I have a notebook and desktop..

I'm sure I'll be posting more questions as I get closer to working on it..

-Matthew

[Da_elf]

actually you have your tree, then create a proxie then duplicate (instance) the proxies.

[paulison]

Id just like to say that with vray furr for ground and trees and all of the rendering to layers etc you may end up struggling to meet your deadline without enough computing power to quickly re-render. I could be wrong though!

if you are struggling then possibly look at paying to use someone elses renderfarm or at least have this option as a contingency should things not go as planned.

[panthon]

Well. it looks like it won´t be an easy task.

-Characters on greenscreen: Your 3d quality must be really good to match seamlessly with them. I haven´t got it to work properly so far! You always get that RPC look. I hope u´ve got a real good camera!

-Picking fruits from trees: Difficult. Two options. Hand animated branches with 3d+real person interaction, or reactor to bend the branch. Picking a 3d fruit can be real tricky. Have u considered a closeup with a real branch and a real fruit?

-Actor placement: You don´t need z-depth for that, only mattes to make objects look like they are in front of actors.

-Proxies: they are definetely the way to go.

-No renderfarm issue: No problem at all. I´m assuming the camera won´t move. If this is the case u only need to render one frame to composite in combustion. I recommend rendering larger than u need to ensure flexibility in composition.

Hope it helps.

[Exon]

Id just like to say that with vray furr for ground and trees and all of the rendering to layers etc you may end up struggling to meet your deadline without enough computing power to quickly re-render. I could be wrong though!

if you are struggling then possibly look at paying to use someone elses renderfarm or at least have this option as a contingency should things not go as planned.

The shot is daunting.. In fact, there are two shots, one photo-realistic, then a snap back to reality where the trees don't have to be as realistic (a stylized beetlejuice look).. I'm going to run some tests and see if I can get away with a few rows of hero trees in front, then duplicating them as planes in combustion..

Well. it looks like it won´t be an easy task.

-Characters on greenscreen: Your 3d quality must be really good to match seamlessly with them. I haven´t got it to work properly so far! You always get that RPC look. I hope u´ve got a real good camera!

We'll be shooting HD.. The client isn't worried about them looking like they are out of place in the scene, but we are going to run some tests first..

-Picking fruits from trees: Difficult. Two options. Hand animated branches with 3d+real person interaction, or reactor to bend the branch. Picking a 3d fruit can be real tricky. Have u considered a closeup with a real branch and a real fruit?

Yes, we very well may go with a prop treetop and fruit.. Amazing how something so simple is extremely hard to recreate in the computer!

-Actor placement: You don´t need z-depth for that, only mattes to make objects look like they are in front of actors.

I've had great luck working with z-depth in a past project.. I could literally move the characters around in the scene and place them right where they should be instead of scaling everything and forcing the perspective.. it will be easy enough to either use it or not, though..

-Proxies: they are definetely the way to go.

I've not used Vray in awhile so I need to refresh myself with the new features.. I'm hoping proxies will save me a lot of memory and allow me to still render these scenes in a reasonable time..

-No renderfarm issue: No problem at all. I´m assuming the camera won´t move. If this is the case u only need to render one frame to composite in combustion. I recommend rendering larger than u need to ensure flexibility in composition.

The camera will be moving. But, we might can get away with just camera movement in combustion.. If we do move the camera in the MAX scene, whats the most efficient way to render that? Can't I bake in the GI so I don't have to re-calculate it each time (as long as nothing moves but the camera)?


-Matthew