Tile Test inset

Tile Test inset shot

Tile test

CGI tile test

  BCT-Padua_INSET COVER WithGraphics.jpg

https://youtu.be/g2bcElbCBS4

Fstorm test

Continuing Fstorm testing and am really impressed. I'm using 2 gtx980's so it's quick but we're talking 20minutes is for a 4k final render. Very quick. I really like the ray limit feature. It seems to speed things up a lot without sacrificing much on the lighting quality. 

The interface and controls are so simple which focuses attention on the creative process. 

This was done while my son was napping in the afternoon.

360 testing

Here's a quick test showing iframe implementation of Sirv service..
I set my free account up here: https://my.sirv.com

Studio Rat bike

Here's a render of the bike I've been working on for a really long time. It's a Blender project aimed at expanding my skills in the program.
I generated this model using Agisoft Photoscan from photographs taken by a colleague in North Carolina. It's a highly modified Yamaha XV 750 Virago. 

I'd noticed the cheeky USD forks but really wanted to know where they came from. Well it appears that they are from a Suzuki GSXR. I don't know much more than that except to say that it must have taken some serious work to replace the entire front end. I wonder how she rides?

Blender lens whacking motorcycle photogrammetry

Here's a detail of a shot I've been working on for quite a while.

Someone I've been working with sent me a tone of photos of his sons rat bob motorcycle. I ran them all into Photoscan and produced an amazing result. It wasn't perfect and needed a lot of clean up... that being said, all the base detail was there, it just needed retopologising and textures projecting.

So I started out work wit the bike, taking it apart piece by piece. It took a while but I finally finished the asset. I really wanted to put this into  a New York apartment style bachelor pad. Lots of brick, beams, floor boards and motorbikes inside :)

So as a challenge, I decided to attempt this in Blender. Almost all, modelled and materialed when I stared playing around with Blend4Web  https://www.blend4web.com/en/

It's an amazing tool that allows content from Blender to be published directly to html or json. Very very cool.

So as a test I cleared all my materials from the bike set and exported... apparently I also saved at some point too. As a result I list ALL the material and texture work I had done. You know what they say... 'it's always twice as fast the second time around'! :)

I sat down a couple of nights ago with the challenge to produce 'something' before I went to bed. This is the result. 

My aim is now to compete the set and produce a series of shots exploring the space and it's content.

​

Tech breakdown: This is a photoscan model pulled into blender. Zbrush for retopo and UV mapping. Mesh lights for light leaks and synthetic lens and obstetricals producing the 'doubling' effect.

 

More Blender testing

This was a bit of a happy accident to be honest. I've been getting really inspired by a few studios on Instagram lately and have decided to my fledgling Blender skills to use.

Rendered, composited and exported in Blender.

Blender fluid tests

Blenders fluid simulation takes some tweaking but it can produce some really great results. That being said, it seems that it's a single threaded process and as such takes quite a while to process. It would be amazing to see a tool to distribute this process to a network..

Sarah & Duck

My daughter is 2 and a half and loves Sarah & Duck... which is a bonus because so do it!! It's fantastic. Sarah is this super cool emo-chick in a hoodie and the duck is.. well, just a duck. I'm working on my Blender skills right now and decided to use this as a test bed for building a very simple character.
This is a fairly rough first draft. Eventually I'll recreate the textures properly and pay some more attention to the materials. Perhaps at some point I will do a lighting study or create a scene for Sarah to have an adventure in... but for now, there's just this

Fork design

I was on pinterest the other day and became really inspired by all the amazing utensil design.
Here's my crack at a fancy fork..

Vray DOF recreation

This is a like for like recreation of a shot I found while trawling the internet. I can't find the reference for this so if anyone knows PLEASE let me know and I will credit it.

Post-production depth of field plugins have been round for a while and do a great job in production. That being said, when it comes to refractive and reflective surfaces and materials... well, a normal z-depth pass can't handle it.

Granted there are some obvious differences between the render and the photo but the test achieved what I set out to find out. (how rendered dof reacts for interacting reflective and refractive materials)

  

Leica camera Corona test

This is a test for the newly released Corona renderer. At the time of rendering Corona was still in Alpha testing and I decided to see what it could do. In comparison to other iterative engines that I have trailed I found it extremely straightforward to use. The render times are long compared to a biased rendering system but I think the results are worth the wait.

This image also has some creative post production which was not part of the initial render.

The second shot is a straight render using Corona Alpha.

https://corona-renderer.com/

Jet Fighter circa 1850

I was inspired recently by a piece in a magazine. It showed an element that was really out of place but had been made to blend in with the surroundings. This Harrier jet in a pre-ww1 street scene is my effort.
Modelled in 3ds Max, rendered with very and composited in Photoshop.

WIP character

This is a character I've been working on for quite a while.. I've picked it up and put it down a lot while the concept evolved. The initial idea was some sort of post-apocalyptic snow soldier...

This is a work in progress shot. The face and hand are photogrammetry captures (thanks to my willing wife for modelling). Hopeful I'll wrap this up at some point soon.

Star Trek wear and tear

I love Star Trek, including the original series.

I've always appreciated the design style of that series but always wanted to see more dirty, wear and tear. 

This adaptation of the TOS Phaser aims to describe the more functional, mechanical nature of the design. 

A bit of fun for the most part but I also used this as a test bed for Ddo. Really interesting software.

Aim low, play bass

I started modelling this bass guitar while I was at uni in 2001. After a few re-models I decided to do a lighting study for gloss material properties.

My aim on this was to achieve the finished result using the least amount of direct light as possible, relying predominantly on bounced/reflected light.

slitscan prop rendered result

This is an example of the seamless texture generated by the slitscan technique.

Because the captured texture is so close to the final requirement, the time needed to produce the final piece is minimal. 

Render including DOF in post

Processed in black and white.. (even though it's CG I still love black and white)

Processed using a Holga/Lomo style.