Hello fellow Keyshooters,
If anyone is interested, this is an easy way to add a little razzle dazzle to your turntable rendering (or single frame if you like).
-First download Blender from here: http://www.blender.org/download/get-256-beta/
-Check out my mark up screenshot for a quick look at the interface and what some of the settings mean.
-Download the blender file below, I have it setup and ready to go.
If you like this and feel comfortable using it, we can get into some more complex editing. Like rendering passes, masks and how to bring them in and composite them together.
Please post some screenshots you have made or even better, a turnable animation.
Happy rendering and compositing,
Chad
Great guide!
Thanks for posting!
THX cholton!
Very interesting
I'll try
You both are welcome. Looks like a whole 4 people are going to try it out. :D
That's 3 more than I thought would. This little bit you see is only the tip of the iceberg. ;)
I'll give this a try. I've mess around with blender a bit, it is pretty cool :)
Does this work with exr, so that you have 32 bit data?
Good question, I'm not sure at the moment though. It will export in the exr format, I would think it would import as well.
Please post what you end up with. :)
Oh yes, exr and tiff 32 bit work nicely with this method.
The 32 bit data from these formats allows you to control the threshold for the streaks much more precisely.
This image, started with a tiff32 render from KS, has the threshold up to about 100. I kept pushing the threshold up to around 500 to finally get above the light range of this image (I purposefully rendered it with really bright bright points in the factory environment)
(http://keyshot.com/images/JeffM/FlareDiamondTest.jpg)
This is the same render, first converted to an 8 bit jpg then put through the Blender.
In 8 bit images white is white and there's no data beyond that, compared to the 32 bit where there are exposure values saved beyond what is seen as white and what is seen as black. In 8 bit images you stay in the 0-1 threshold range in Blender.
(http://keyshot.com/images/JeffM/FlareTest8bit.jpg)
Here's a more evenly lit environment. I added a little extra fog glow effect as well.
(http://keyshot.com/images/JeffM/DiamondFlare.jpg)
Thanks again for posting this Cholton, it's a great simple way to use Blender!
I'll have to set up a turntable next with a nice full model :)
These look great, Jeff! :o Nicely done with the 32 bit data!!!
I'm anxiously awaiting the turntable.
Tip for anyone interested in rendering diamonds alone - Most environments have light colored grounds, you may want to consider adding a plane to place under your diamond and "paint it black" (newbies - changing the background color will not do this). If you don't you may end up with a washed out or "dirty" diamond.
Excellent post Chad - I'm going to give it a try. Looks much more realistic than the Photoshop filters I've seen.
Would be nice to have a "Glare Filter" built into Keyshot :)
Ed
Thanks, Ed! :)
Thanks to Jeff - the TIFF or EXR looks like the definite way to go when trying to create flares.
Hopefully more "how to's" to come!
I couldn't resist redoing one of my original diamond turntable in the EXR format. I'll admit now that I got carried away with the glare...
Looks very impressive
I like it:)
What is a filter applied for multicolored flares?
my diamond
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiC_L-PZ0cs
Strange. Flares were visible.
Now on Youtube, they are not visible :-\
(http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/6914/ringpm.jpg) (http://img19.imageshack.us/i/ringpm.jpg/)
The multi color comes from the color of the bright pixels the filter is working from. The dispersion in the rendering is helping get that color in those areas.
Quote from: cholton on February 01, 2011, 08:00:52 PM
I couldn't resist redoing one of my original diamond turntable in the EXR format. I'll admit now that I got carried away with the glare...
Only a little carried away :) but very cool!
Strange, but I did not get a colorful flares on Diamond as a Cholton
http://www.multiupload.com/AVX9FKA6BW
animation ring
http://www.multiupload.com/J3K6SELOGN
Looks to me like it's getting color from the color of the bright spots...
Looking good John!
To get the bright colored glare - are you using the EXR format? What threshold value are you at?
EXR
http://www.multiupload.com/PUE3F0WN6W
Hi John,
I did have a moment to check out your file. I can't get the threshold very high - I do however have a way around that. I will slap together another blender file with more options and a mark-up screenshot to help out with what the nodes mean and upload that here, hopefully before the end of the week. You will have bright multi-colored flares all over the place if you like - it'll be worth the wait. ;)
wow Cholton, it will be fantastic!!
THX
Here it is - how to add the bright spark.
This version you will need two passes:
-The background pass (either single or turntable) - which will be your final render and can be any file type you want (JPG, TIF, etc.)
-The sparkle pass will only be used to add the spark, so just focus on that. If you are doing a turntable for the background pass, then you must do a turntable for this too for the spark to match up with each frame. Render out with the gamma turned down to .5 and brightness at around 1 (of course this depends on your HDR - these values has given me the best results with the default KS environments) . I made my ground plane (an actual ground plane, not the KS one) flat black to render out faster and to take out the HDR ground reflection. This pass must be either EXR or TIF32.
Check out the screenshot below - I only point out what the new nodes do. Let me know if you have any questions.
Enjoy and don't forget to post what you end up with!!!