Room-set 2...

Although not as complex as the first room-set, this was an interesting and challenging experience for reasons explained below.  The more observant among you will notice the scene is missing a few items.

"almost perfect room alignment"

3D room-set 2 render produced as part of my photography BA Honours.

Thanks once more to Ton and his development team for the incredibly powerful open source Blender software, also Brecht Van Lommel for the amazing Cycles render engine.

3.5 weeks to get this far...

Applying previously learned techniques I was able to model the room-set more rapidly.  Really wanted to finish this scene but unknowingly at the time, I was working with a version of Blender that suffered from the delta scaling bug, once discovered I decided to suspend production until a 'fix' could be found.  After the files were repaired, using the previously blog post mentioned solution, there simply was not enough time left to complete the scene before the course work hand in date, at least not without sacrificing creation of the third room-set.

As an indication of progress from the first room-set, this time I modelled everything except for the flower heads and leaves, this was mainly due complexity of models required within available time constraints.

• Flower model (adapted, simplified and materials applied)

Overall, compared to the photograph, I was able to create an almost perfect room alignment this time, hopefully this is an indication of progress.

Once degree work is completed, I hope to be able to revisit the above scene to finish modelling and colour grading.

"photorealism"

Some people have a dislike for photorealism, I am not opposing anyone's opinion here, everyone is entitled to their views.  From a personal perspective, I feel once something close to realism can be achieved, then anything becomes possible.  My second room-set certainly has a long way to go in that respect but as long as new techniques are constantly being learned, old ideas adapted and improved, then difficulties encountered actually become self-development building blocks. 

Below is my main room-set reference photograph.

 Thanks also go again to Graham Nelson at Set Visions for allowing me to photograph this room-set within their studio.

In keeping with a theme, here is a clay render for those who are interested.

Thanks to blenderartists.org member liero for their very useful Blender Clay script.

Image Links...

Minor blog update

Just updated all the image links after switching to a new hosting service, please let me know if you have any image viewing problems.  Image loading should be much faster and more reliable.

If no one reports any issues, I will post the second room-set later today.

Extremely busy last couple of months...

So what have I been doing?

Firstly, apologies for the lack of updates.  Since the previously featured room-set and room-set variations, I have created a further two room-sets, these will be featured over the next few days, created further "Variations on a Theme", 180 in total, consisting of 90 day and 90 night variations.

Anything else?

Created CGI for a 4D projection.  Since I am still fairly new to Blender this was a massive undertaking, being my first Blender animation.  Over 1000 people were invited to the building re-launch event, one of the main features being the 4D projection, so not much pressure really!

For those who are not sure what 4D projection consists of, the building to be projected onto is modelled in 3D, this is then (after careful alignment) projected onto the surface of the actual building, allowing for (depending on production time) all sorts of visual effects, virtually changing the lighting and moving parts of the building around.
Over the next few days I will provide a blog post, after the other two new room-sets previously mentioned, with images during 4D modelling production plus a video link.

Also

Tweaked the original room-set slightly and produced a 40 megapixel render version, the detail is amazing!

Variations on a Theme...

For another area of my degree work I am looking at interactive website creation

To this end I have been experimenting with the original room-set render, creating various wall colours and floor types, some work better than others.

Experimental Night Time Render

Since I am not a stylist, I must admit that choosing certain colour combinations can be surprising difficult.

If you can think other colours that will work well I will be very interested to hear your ideas?!

PS:  For extra realism I will be adding a rug under the table on the versions with wooden floors.  Currently experimenting with Blender's Particle System.

Modelling Showcase 2...

Happy New Year everyone!

Today's Featured Models: Coffee pot, cup & saucer and spoon

Due to completing degree work, ready for hand in, it has taken longer than expected to post the follow up modelling showcase.  So without further ado, I present a look at some of the other models I created for the room-set scene.


Firstly, the completed models.

Stage 1-2:

To help gauge scale I decided to use another of my photographs as a template, this proved to be a big help.

1. Left image - trying carefully to followed the original coffee pot outline, I added points starting at the coffee pot base centre (orange dot), working my way along and up the right hand side, until finally finishing at the top of the coffee pot (below the lid) back in the centre.  Next, added a 'Screw modifier' to spin the points 360 degrees around the centre axis, so creating a completed object.

2. I used the same method to created the coffee pot lid, probably went a bit far with the level of detail, also modelled the lip on the lid and recessed area on the coffee pot, where the lid rests.

Tip:

After applying the 'Screw modifier' it is important to enter 'Edit' mode (make sure the whole object is selected), under 'Mesh Tools' click 'Remove doubles', also possibly 'Recalculate', to remove extra faces and correct mistakes with surface normals.

Stage 3:

3. In this image I simply had a look at the models from different angles, making sure everything looked in proportion.


Stage 4-6:

4. Next, the part I was not looking forward to, modelling the spout, I had various ideas how to accomplish this, in the end (rightly or wrongly) I used a cylinder with the top & bottom removed, rotated and scaled.

5. Centre image - After tweaked the mesh, I used a 'Solidify' modifier to provide form for the inside of the spout.

6. A little more mesh tweaking later, added a handle and created a Cycles node based material trying to replicate the look of a glazed pot, as seen in the above Cycles render.

I am still not totally happy with the spout but due to time constraints had to move on and create other models for the room-set.  To finish on a positive note.  I like how the showcase scene turned out, Cycles is an amazing render engine.

If people are interested I can also post images of the spoon construction.

Scandal and Corruption...

Well okay, just corruption!

If anyone was affected by recent versions of Blender, which suffered delta scaling problems, there is a solution to repair your files, read on.

There was a solution posted originally but I discovered that while it allowed damaged .blend files to be opened in new versions of Blender, if the same .blend file was opened in an older version of Blender, all objects were still scaled incorrectly and the scene appeared messed up.  So in effect, the file was only being interpreted to appear correctly in new versions of Blender but actually remained corrupt.

For some people this might be acceptable, but for me, producing work for my degree and having already invested a lot of time in my current room-set scene (new one, not yet shown) plus lots more work to do, I did not feel comfortable progressing knowing that the file was in effect, still corrupt.

As many of you may already be aware (if you read Blender Nation news), I thankfully was able to find a solution to repair files (process repeated below), once again they can be opened in any version of Blender and are correctly scaled.

Before the fix:  How my corrupted scene appears in older versions of Blender

There are a few steps to the repair solution.

1. Open your corrupted .blend file in an older version of Blender (I found revision 42181 and revision 42195 works). Update: any version of Blender from before the delta scaling problem works but be aware that very old versions might mess up your Cycles nodes.
   
   
2. In a python console window enter the line below, then press ‘Enter’ on your keyboard twice.
   for ob in bpy.data.objects: ob.delta_scale = (0,0,0)
   
   
3. Save your fixed .blend file with a different test name.
4. Test the newly saved .blend file by opening it with Blender 2.60a, everything should appear correctly scaled. The fixed .blend file also displays correctly in new versions of Blender.

This method has worked for me (tested several times) and have now fully restored 5 of my corrupted .blend files.

After the fix:  (exactly the same view) the scene is scaled correctly and can once again be opened in any version of Blender

Hope this is helpful and works for others!

PS: Found a Blender revision 42195 Windows version available here, Linux and Mac users, sorry couldn't find that version for you, try graphicall.org for revisions before 42195.

Modelling Showcase...

Today's Featured Model: Wooden chair with cushion

Thought it might be interesting to showcase some of the models I have created for use within the room-set scene, also some of the actual modelling stages.  Will post another one over the next few days...

Firstly the completed model.

Stage 1-3:

I actually found modelling to be quite relaxing, almost therapeutic, the feeling of creating something, the fact that it is virtual in this case doesn't seem to make a difference, it still feels quite rewarding.  These feelings of course greatly depend upon things progressing well, although even when things go wrong, problem solving can be satisfying.

1. To create the chair leg, I began by adding a plain cylinder, next added loop cuts where I wanted the details to be, selecting various loop cuts allowed me to scale some areas while leaving others, the closer the loop cuts the harder the angles.  The aim was to create a turned, lathed look and hopefully match the proportions of the chair in the photograph.

2. Another cylinder with loop cuts, edges tapered.

3. Previous part duplicated and used to form the central bar.

Stage 4-6:

4. Jumping ahead a little... I angled the leg, then used a 'Mirror' modifier to complete the chair legs, or so I thought!  Later found out, after looking at another photograph, that the back legs are angled differently to the front legs.  So instead applied the previous 'Mirror' modifier creating a front and back leg, adjusted the angles and used further 'Mirror' modifiers to duplicate the legs left to right.

5. From the previous image it was also possible to see that I had begun work on the seat.  Even though the chair (in the final render) is behind the door and not really clear on the web size version, I knew that the final render resolution might be quite high (for a large print), so I wanted to create the chair as accurately as possible, even to the point of (as can be seen on the next image) sculpting the seat.  Attention to detail is everything.

6. The chair is now starting to take shape, contrary to what you may think the pieces added here are not the chair back but armrest supports.

Stage 7-9:

7. To create the back I used a cylinder, rotated, compressed in size, top and bottom faces as well as some of the side vertices deleted, remaining sides scaled downwards.

8. The previous process leaves a back looking far too thin when viewed from the front, so I used a 'Solidify' modifier to provide form.

9. After angling the back, it is now starting to look like a chair.

Stage 10-12:

10. Chair arm modelling.

11. Check the chair arm looks okay before proceeding.

12. 'Mirror' modifier used to form the opposite chair arm.

Stage 13-14:

13. Simple cylinders added, scaled, angled and 'Mirror' modifiers used to form the chair back.

14. Central backrest created from a scaled cube, loop cuts added, parts scaled.  A cylinder added, scaled, positioned in the centre, then applied using a 'Boolean' modifier to create a hole in the middle of the central chair back.

Finally all modifiers were applied, a suitable Cycles material created, then I UV texture mapped all parts to give full control over the position of the wood bump maps.
Various parts were further tweaked, like position of the rings on the legs and armrest supports, plus the angle of legs and armrest supports to more closely match the real chair in the photograph.

To conserve space I won't go into details about the cushion creation, except to say that it was an interesting experience.

Overall, I feel quite happy with how the model turned out and as mentioned at the beginning, the model creation was both enjoyable and satisfying.