michalis

select an object, object properties panel, wire (and draw all wires). One by one.

Thank you Timmy

OK Here's a small tutorial. on displacements. Always valid and the only we have so far. (Soon you'll be able to apply disp easier in the cycles node editor. Still experimental and works with procedural tex only. It discards UVs, please avoid it.) Displacements are happening in real geometry, nothing to do with cycles so far. However, you can always ask for different subd density on 3dpreview and the renderer. You have a few on preview and as much as your memory can handle on the render. For CUDA Cycles users, keep in mind, there is a limitation, depends on your Vram. (the posted images, well they came the wrong order sorry) (so, backwards) DispTut1: 1, Add a subsurf modifier, 2. a displacement modifier Your 3dview mesh will become an extruded thing, Don't panic LOL DispTut2: I had UV unwrap before these, you will obviously import the mesh from 3dcoat so, skip it. Just demonstrating the wonderful "follow active quad" UV blender method. DispTut3 Go to the texture properties panel (this with the read and white grid icon) Under the drop down menu, select displacement. (It appears there, after you have an active displacement modifier) DispTut4 Under texture, type (of tex dropdown menu) is ImageOrMovie. DispTut5 ImputColorSpace is NonColorData, for exr 32 bit or B&W tifs 16 bit. Never use 8 bit images for displacements. As you do all these, try not to panic with what you see in the 3dviewport! LOL DispTut6 Back in the modifiers panels Displ modifier, texture coordinates = UV ! DispTut7 Almost finished. Fine tuning now. 1. try one or two more subdivisions to have a preview. (depending on your hardware, ask as much you can handle maintaining 3dviewport performance. You can ask as many you like in the render value 2. the MidLevel is the midvalue (the grey tone) as in 3dcoat exporters. The strength of the displacement as you like. A 0.1 or 0.2, but it is possible up to 1 (depends on the app you used for baking) On the top of the blender window, watch the density of the mesh as you add subs in the ViewPort. Watch the memory consumption too. This gonna be different under cycles render though. (lower probably)

These days when you ask for donations you get nothing. So, these people found a way, not really nice way to ask for some money. You can still download it for free. II can understand them, though. We have to realize one thing only. Blender foundation needs the money. To use blender, to vote it as the best 3d app, etc etc without paying, donating some money isn't the best. When I first met 3dcoat, I decided to pay for it, in a few days. I considered it rather as a donation to a wonderful developer than buying a consumer product.

Cycles SSS is still under heavy development and it uses almost the same approach and algorithms as in Arnold. Vray SSS is better organized. So far. If you don't have multiple maps (epidermal, subdermal etc ) to use, you might prefer cycles already. Most people when they are talking about SSS, they mean human skin mostly. Cycles, so far, tend to produce a bit blurry effects (a little more than expected from SSS). We're experimenting and working on this.

LOL I mean, sorry. I was afraid of it. I had similar issues with posted setups in the past. Select any node you like, N for the right N panel, you can rename it. Or, select a few nodes. go to nodes menu (down there) ctrl+J mean join them into a frame. On the N panel again, you can rename it or colorize it. Nice tips for presentations. Post any question you may have, glad to help. Or, maybe, I should post some simple setups. The most confusing for newcomers is the real displacement setup in blender. In the near future real displacement will take place inside cycles (devs are working on this, probably based on the pixar subd algorithm). This is why you already see a displacement socket on output. Don't use it, it is under development. I also have a question related to 3dcoat. 1. I have a sculpted mesh (voxel room) 2. I did retopo it, UV unwrapped it. The goal is: to bring it to blender, subdivide it at level 3, add real displacements. For the hi freq details I will add a normal map. So, I have to directly bake a disp map in 3dcoat. OK, However, I need to bake a normal map after 3 subdivisions. If I use the default n-map in blender, on top of a real displaced mesh, the results will be rather ugly and unnatural. What's the best way to go?

As Mr Spock used to say, it is logical. A B&W map can always be used as a value. To control a logical filter. You can always rename nodes, by entering the N panel under nodes editor. I renamed the tex map as spec map. I hope it wasn't confusing.

Just reminding: normal maps and spec maps as NonColorData. The specmap, probably this way. How it works? This second mix shader, spec maps B&W image is connected as value, allows all the light areas to pass as glossy, the dark areas won't work so. A curve may needed for fine tuning. If you connect the spec to the first socket of the mix node, it will do the opposite. So, many use a invert node. No needed, just connect it to the second socket. You may think of them as filters. If we use a color specmap, well, connect it as color to the glossy BSDF. To have an idea of how advanced this node system is: A color spec map can be split into three RGB nodes. You may add offset parameters to these RGB values, driving more complicated setups. Now, it starts looking like a code... in blender community we start calling them noodles (LOL)

Thanks Beat, LOL, Indeed I stared a whole blender thread on such workarounds, after a debate on the prometheus movie. It goes the opposite way. Bake first, UV unwrap after. Sculpt by UVs and displacements. http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?273033-Sculpting-with-UVs-and-displacements&p=2245866&viewfull=1#post2245866 3dcoat can't do this. But, it can do the most important part of it, to sculpt a geometrical relief and bake displacements on a single quad. http://3d-coat.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=12787&p=92071 The rest can take place on a typical 3d app/renderer. BTW CG Awards 2013, winners. 3d world. http://www.3dworldmag.com/2013/09/05/cg-awards-2013-winners/

Prometheus movie was entertaining indeed. However, some scenes were not of the same quality as some other amazing ones.

it goes to blenderartists. It doesn't? http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?216113-Brecht-s-easter-egg-surprise-Modernizing-shading-and-rendering&p=2459893&viewfull=1#post2459893

Sorry Timmy, thank you, I fixed it. However, I was very exited on the new sss. It seems that lot of work has to be done. SSS is of great quality but tends to blur details a bit more than expected.

I'm not really convinced that we have a left and a right brain. Whatever scientists claim. Why don't you try zbrush? The tools-brushes are great. You gonna need a third and a forth part of your brain though. You can create very interesting things in zbrush. How you gonna export them is another case. Here comes the third and the forth brain use, I guess. But you are an artist, it shouldn't be your concern. As in real world. It is never a concern of a sculptor, how to start carving in real marble, how to cast clay, such things. And a painter demands, "i like oils, dry at this moment", answer: try acrilics, reply: No, I don't like them, I like oils... Watercolors: have a wet paper of good quality, reply: No, no, it turns to a washed mess, answer: this is watercolors, what do you expect? Reply: something clean, reply: on a washed mess, start adding darker crisp forms and the rest will become nice lightened areas, Reply: ???? Good luck. I agree with you on one point though. 3dcoat's sculpting tools are behaving weird, at least. They don't follow the well spread predictable tool set behavior around 3d sculpting apps. Pity. Andrew will not change them. So take it or try another app.

For anyone who's interested, a new implementation of subsurface scattering in cycles. A better one. You'll find it in newer official builds. http://builder.blender.org/download/ Here some tests, the whole thread is chaotic but explains many new things. Impossible to read all these pages. But I was tuned to it, from the first day of cycles. This is how I learned this renderer. You won't find good tuts around. Most of them are simply nonsenses. http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?216113-Brecht-s-easter-egg-surprise-Modernizing-shading-and-rendering&p=2459893&viewfull=1#post2459893

Am I cryptic, BeatKitano? I'm not an ignorant, is this what I read, hidden behind your comments? No? I hope so, Such methods have been used the last few years. To animate humanoids. When they try real human figures, the results are not that convincing. Maybe in a few years. There is a danger though. It already became a style. The use of the CG camera, by example.

Besides this amazing craftsmanship, this wonderful technique and knowledge, do you still find it beautiful? Convincing? Not a CG thing? During the next few years, it is more possible to start seeing these scenes as physically correct, than being so. Good luck to all.

Yes, Beat, I noticed this new stylus for the ipad. It doesn't turn ipad to a hybrid wacom tablet though. I mean, to connect it to a PC or MAC. To share the screen.

I always wonder, how difficult is to convert an ipad to a hybrid wacom tablet. But apple doesn't seem to like such things.

A specular map is a B&W map right? Here, a possible setup, a filter. See, I connect glossy BSDF to the second socket. first or second socket works like inverting the map. The value stops the white values (#1 socket), the black values on #2 socket You can always add curves, or coloramp, or math multiply values etc) to possibly fine tune these maps. Similar results can be achieved if you just connect the spec map as color to the glossy BSDF. However, it won't let you play with spec colors then.

OK Malo, understood (the spec map, has to be B&W, when you use it as value, values are B&W) So, here's my quick test. A quick nonsense voxel ~5M Auto retopology, manual UVs. (I did try to have a lot of islands, just to test if anything is wrong with the n-maps) To make it more difficult, 1024x1024 px maps, jpg. 3dcoat Prefs: as maya baking method, maya-blender compatibility. I'm confused what maya method means (G inverted?) and what maya compatibility means then. I tried to make renderers look similar. Some kind of jitter in the cycles renderer, because I forgot to subdivide UVs (added 2 levels of subd for rendering issues)

Yeah, I know... lot of nonsenses everywhere. Most of blender tutorials are full of such mistakes. And a lot of ignorance around. I remember how many were "against" the use (or the implementation) of normal maps support in cycles !! Normal maps is not good, it is wrong, blah blah. All these people, gathered on the blender development threads, never posted their artworks (if any), these people are trolling, by all means. The only they care about is the isolation of blender and its community. But, this is coming to an end. Cycles is a big step to the right direction. I still recollect my first experiences on rending older 2.49 projects in bl 2.5 x. Trying to figure out what was happening with my normal maps (3dc n maps) Now I'm confused, because there was another debate on normal maps recently. They stated, they were changing the n_maps in cycles to be compatible with the old BlenderInternal engine. They decided not to, I think so. So, recently I haven't use normal maps, except of some baked internally in blender. I still have the idea to invert G of the RGB n maps. when exporting from zbrush. I'm totally confused about 3dcoat to blender. See what's happening when a majority of ignorants is voting all the time? Blender must be compatible with the whole 3d community. A democracy of untalented ignorants is not the best way. Add some idiots and you have the picture. On your posted nodes setup. OK, I don't quite understand. Some questions 1. You are inverting the whole normal map. Why so? 2. You are using the same N-map to control the mix shader, why? 3. You also use the same map (color this time) as diffuse color. OK, it is a test, but, we can talk further on this. I'll do my 3dc-blender cycles tests as well. Let's try to clear this important matter. After all this is not the blenderartists forum. LOL BTW, new fresh and, most importantly, official betas, almost daily updates from http://builder.blender.org/download/ Graphicall is good for out of official branch build tests. Bug reports, always under branch builds (from buildbot)

@Malo Blender calculates normal maps differently in Blender internal and cycles? Keep in mind, bump maps should be connected to the normal sockets of the BSDFs. (via a bump node, or a normal (for Nmaps) node. BTW recent builds of cycles have a normal socket on normalmap node, to connect a possible bump node as well) To connect bump (displ B&W) maps to displacement output may works. But it comes from the earlier versions of cycles. Displ output socket is there for other reasons. Still under heavy development and very experimental. It goes for micro displacements or similar. Especially after the implementation of pixar's subd system. People in blender are not confused on what normal maps are. This is why I'm there in BlenderArtists forum, to kick some asses, when nonsenses become too many LOL . Just saying.

Thanks Tony The new cycles SSS is a wonderful tool. Much superior to the previous one. The older SSS was eating details as hell, now all details are visible as they should. Of course, sculpting on a real marble is a little different than sculpting on real clay/bronze. So, once again, cycles is among the few physically correct render engines. Avoid contrasted matcaps, some smoother will be closer to the rendering. Carve a bit deeper. You may think that using displ/normal maps you can control such issues. This is not the right way.

Many new goodies came, after these days. Normal maps are supported in cycles. Anyway, new SSS implementation in cycles. Now, three SSS modes, compatible (the old method), cubic (the correct fall off) and gaussian (this is still under development). Select cubic. Oh, not to gorget, SSS node now supports bumps. So, connect any n map or bump to the normal socket. Download latest builds from buildbot. always. To have fun with the "excellent" new SSS implementation. http://builder.blender.org/download/ A fast doodle, some kind of aged marble with oxides. And, something more Gigeresque (LOL)

If these n_maps are generated in Zbrush, invert the G channel. There is some confusion in blender development though. What blender version are you using?