Anim8or Community

Artwork => Finished Works and Works in Progress => Topic started by: KiwiNM8OR on September 16, 2008, 03:43:39 am

Title: Max reflections
Post by: KiwiNM8OR on September 16, 2008, 03:43:39 am
I've been experimenting with the number of reflections glossy reflector can do and I think I've hit the limit but ya never know - somewhere out there in Anim8or Land someone can probably do better...
Title: Re: Max reflections
Post by: thecolclough on September 16, 2008, 06:52:14 am
i also noticed the ceiling reflections look a bit broken in places, ie. the hemispheres aren't fully shown in some cases.  is that a deliberately designed feature of the scene, a design flaw, or a program bug?

- colclough
Title: Re: Max reflections
Post by: KiwiNM8OR on September 17, 2008, 03:37:44 am
I'm not too sure myself. I suspect a design flaw because I accept that at a programming level I don't understand exactly how the reflection process works. But I have had that flaw in other experiments. It could be an alignment of the mirrors too. I started off with a sphereinder with a flat top and base and experimented with different numbers of sides to see what offered the best reflections. Therefore the top and base are not "flat" but divided (like a pie chart) according to the number of sides. I'm not sure if that makes a difference but that was how it was made. In this example I just used 4 (flat, not divided) sides. Then I used Edit=>Subdivide faces a few times so that I could then use the taper modifier to "lift" the view of the ground grid in the distance. In Scene mode it is rendered with a FOV of 90 degrees. The file is there for interest and inspection. Cheers for the view.
Title: Re: Max reflections
Post by: Steve on September 19, 2008, 02:17:57 am
The max level of reflections (and all other things like refraction, etc.) is set to 12.  But I'll add an attribute "RayDepth" that you can set to change the level.  Here's your image with the value set to 64 (but I think a value of 30 or so would give the same result).

Note: dielectric materials become horribly slower as the max depth increases, up to a factor of two for each increase of RaDepth by 1.  Be careful how you use this new setting when it's available.
Title: Re: Max reflections
Post by: KiwiNM8OR on September 19, 2008, 05:44:47 am
Awesome Steve. Cheers very much. I like the improvement. Looking forward to the update.
Title: Re: Max reflections
Post by: thecolclough on September 19, 2008, 06:38:14 pm
...and so we finally see kiwiNM8or's original vision, in all its glory.  looks great.  roll on 0.97d, steve!
Title: Re: Max reflections
Post by: KiwiNM8OR on September 20, 2008, 04:50:45 am
Now that I know that currently the RayDepth is set to the default of 12 I can shape my current experiments more effectively knowing the actual setting. Cheers.
 
Title: Re: Max reflections
Post by: Steve on September 20, 2008, 08:44:26 pm
I almost have the v0.97d update ready to post.  It will support user settable max ray depth plus ambient occluders.  For an example of what they can do, I am posting an image that has no lights, but uses ambient occlusion an ambient intensity of 3.14 to treat the whole sky as a light.  It takes a lot of samples to get rid of the noise for this.  One image uses 64x AA and the other uses 256x.
Title: Re: Max reflections
Post by: karate5662 on September 21, 2008, 07:58:59 pm
maybe steve should have a thread for all the test renders with the next version.
Title: Re: Max reflections
Post by: Darkjesture on September 21, 2008, 08:12:02 pm
How are you guys making these reflections?
Title: Re: Max reflections
Post by: KiwiNM8OR on September 21, 2008, 11:35:02 pm
Darkjesture : rather than explaining here please follow this link where I have provided an explanation there. Cheers for your interest. http://www.anim8or.com/smf/index.php?topic=1064.0

Thanks again to Steve for your attention in this area

Also some examples by thecolclough can be found at : http://www.anim8or.com/smf/index.php?topic=1288.msg9394#msg9394
Title: Re: Max reflections
Post by: Darkjesture on September 22, 2008, 12:14:21 am
Wow thats insightful i didnt know you could do that ;)
Title: Re: Max reflections
Post by: VBSmiles on September 22, 2008, 02:14:24 am
Cartoon madness :)

(http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/3783/anim8cartoonpk5.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
Title: Re: Max reflections
Post by: onespirit5777 on September 22, 2008, 10:28:04 pm
just having some fun
Title: Re: Max reflections
Post by: onespirit5777 on September 23, 2008, 11:38:54 pm
I've tried playing with RayDepth but not doing something right.

do the settings go under

float, int, ?
Title: Re: Max reflections
Post by: onespirit5777 on September 23, 2008, 11:43:48 pm
OK - I figured it out - In the scene mode attributes -

type - RayDepth and select Int
Title: Re: Max reflections
Post by: rufsketch1 on September 24, 2008, 04:04:25 am
I almost have the v0.97d update ready to post.  It will support user settable max ray depth plus ambient occluders.  For an example of what they can do, I am posting an image that has no lights, but uses ambient occlusion an ambient intensity of 3.14 to treat the whole sky as a light.  It takes a lot of samples to get rid of the noise for this.  One image uses 64x AA and the other uses 256x.



ah! anim8or has ambient occlusion?!

>_<  sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.

I've been gone too long.
Title: Re: Max reflections
Post by: KiwiNM8OR on September 24, 2008, 04:46:17 am
Good example onespirit5777 for the simple fact you have front and back printed on the sphere and of course reflected back to front and upside down.

I think for my next experiment I will combine all three attributes : reflections, glass and the mysterious sounding AmbientOcclusion ... excuse me I have to go as I have to look up Occlusion in the dictionary.
Title: Re: Max reflections
Post by: VBSmiles on September 24, 2008, 09:23:19 pm
Good example onespirit5777 for the simple fact you have front and back printed on the sphere and of course reflected back to front and upside down.

I think for my next experiment I will combine all three attributes : reflections, glass and the mysterious sounding AmbientOcclusion ... excuse me I have to go as I have to look up Occluder in the dictionary.
Already attempted reflections and glass on one material. No go. However, Occlusion will work with either material.

TIP: kill the specular in materials when using AmbientOccluder

Title: Re: Max reflections
Post by: KiwiNM8OR on September 25, 2008, 08:00:13 am
Thanks for the tip VBSmiles as I usually use a high setting for the specular in materials to brighten the objects I want to reflect. This seems to aid in seeing the most distant reflection.

I actually hadn't thought of combining the quoted factors on one material so thanks for that too but what I did have in mind was something like this :

It's only a test render but I'm just doing testing stages so I don't know what structure the final project will have yet
Title: Re: Max reflections
Post by: thecolclough on September 25, 2008, 09:29:12 am
that's only a test?!!  you've made awesomeness yet again, kiwinm8or!
Title: Re: Max reflections
Post by: 3D Joe Wiltshire on September 25, 2008, 04:39:31 pm
Sorry if this should be obvious, but what is the wierd creature / shape in the middle.
Title: Re: Max reflections
Post by: KiwiNM8OR on September 26, 2008, 02:38:18 am
The shape that you see 3D Joe Wiltshire is a torus or donut. All I did was use a modifier to twist it and then another modifier to taper it a bit. It was also made with 0.97c so the reflections are set at the default RayDepth of 12. What I am going to do at some stage is anim8 it simply by rotating the torus. My spaghetti bolognaise is ready so I must go have tea.

l8r anim8or and a big cheers for all the interest.