Various Renders (some random RenderWeekly challenges)

[JacobFine]

Honestly this is STUNNING. I doubt I speak for just me, but I would really enjoy a break down of this scene. Things I am trying to understand/analyze about this image.

- Custom HDRI used? what did It look like?
- Droplets on the inside of the beaker. HOW?!? I feel like everyone has their own technique but I am interested in yours
- Material Graph on the flame
- Material Graph on the metal
- Was this one single render? Composited render passes? or multiple unique renders?
- What is your process for something like this? Do you use region render to asses your choices or render out full images to decide what to refine?

X_X so good. Would appreciate any level of insight! Thanks

Jacob

[JonWelch]

really great flames! would love to see the material graph.

Thanks! So it's nothing complicated, but it still took some trial an error for me to get it right. What I ended up doing was building two surfaces for each flame: one blue, one orange. Then those both use the same setup for the material graph, which is that the base material is X-Ray, with an opacity map that fades off the bottom of the surface. Then I applied an emissive material as a label with an opacity map that allows it to fade into the X-Ray material. So just the tip of each flame is emissive. The last thing I did was apply a small vertical translation animation and allow the renders to process with motion blur on. This helped blur out the edges of the flames a bit and look more natural I think. In general I think I need to work on this technique more, but I'm satisfied with how these turned out.

Excellent !

Thank you

Jon, really loving the condensation on the inside of the flask, that's a subtle and yet, super-believable touch

Thanks man! That's basically what I was going for

Fantastic set of images! Yeah, I have a stove I want to add flames to. Haven't decided how I want to approach it yet. Yours look good though!

Thanks Will! I hear ya, I've wanted to try a stove top for a while now, but hadn't quite figure out what to do for the flames. This process I used sorta did the trick, but still needs a lot of work if you ask me. I'll definitely keep an eye out if you find a better solution

[JonWelch]

Honestly this is STUNNING. I doubt I speak for just me, but I would really enjoy a break down of this scene. Things I am trying to understand/analyze about this image.

- Custom HDRI used? what did It look like?
- Droplets on the inside of the beaker. HOW?!? I feel like everyone has their own technique but I am interested in yours
- Material Graph on the flame
- Material Graph on the metal
- Was this one single render? Composited render passes? or multiple unique renders?
- What is your process for something like this? Do you use region render to asses your choices or render out full images to decide what to refine?

X_X so good. Would appreciate any level of insight! Thanks

Jacob

Crap, I wish I had seen this before I posted my explanation on the flames. But I'll answer your questions now haha

Droplets: I've struggled with this for a while, and I'm hoping to get into some other modeling programs where I can actually create droplets as Geometry, but at this point, what I did for this scene was offset the surface of interior wall of the beaker by something very small, like .1mm. This just allows the surfaces to remain separate and not cause any weird tessellation lines inside KS. Then I have a Normal Map, and a matching Opacity Map that I found online some time ago. They took a lot of editing to get to where they are now, so perhaps I should share them so others can use them. But they are simply applied to that offset surface as a Bump (set to Normal) with the Opacity map in sync, the opacity map is also combined with a gradient to allow the visibility to fade away as the droplets run higher up the beaker. The material itself i just set to a refractive glass, and I messed with the refraction index until I was happy with the look.

Flame: See the above post

Metal: I've attached an image, but its pretty simple. Two noise textures, applied with a very very small bump, just to give the surface some irregularities, I actually try to do this with almost every surface in my renders in order to add realism, but it depends on the type of shot/material you want to achieve. Then the roughness mapping is what I really like to use because this allows the surface to have varying strengths of wear and tear. I use this map quite often and believe I got it from a Porsche scene that Nils Piirma posted on the website for download some time ago. As for the strength of the roughness on this metal, you can see my Output From and Output To values. I like to keep them pretty close so as not to create a huge difference between the rough/smooth areas.

Render/HDRI/Process: For the most part, these are 5 unique renders that I setup all in the same file using Studios. I have 5 total Studios, each with their own Camera, and their own Environment, but can very easily switch back and forth from using the Studios panel.
I started with the basic "3 Point Dark 4K" enviro and made edits from there for each Studio. This allows each one to have a very similar look, where I then just added extra light where I wanted, or took away light that I didn't like.
As for my decision making in the process of what I want to show. I decide early on what I want to show off with the close up shots and I zoom in and out finding angles and positions I like for each aspect of the product I want to show . So those cameras are all exactly positioned as you see in these final images. Each one has their own unique DOF and their own environment for custom lighting.

Thanks for the compliments and hopefully everything I said makes sense, I love how willing to learn/teach this community is.

[sleby]

The last thing I did was apply a small vertical translation animation and allow the renders to process with motion blur on. This helped blur out the edges of the flames a bit and look more natural I think. In general I think I need to work on this technique more, but I'm satisfied with how these turned out.

great idea!!! it came out perfect if you ask me:)
the only thing that bothers me really are the droplets inside the liquid.

[Will Gibbons]

Thanks for the breakdown @jon! Close, to the way I was thinking of approaching the flames. I'll let you know when I try mine!

[JacobFine]

Awesome! I think that all made sense to me

Such a quick and thoughtful response! I really appreciate the time you took to answer that. Look forward to seeing more from you....

T H A N K S  A G A I N !
Jacob

[JoshASharp]

As a graduate product designer I look at these renders with disbelief, absolutely amazing. The eye you have is fantastic, I might share some of the catalogue renders I do and get some feedback on them, as you guys are all superb!

[JonWelch]

idea!!! it came out perfect if you ask me:)
the only thing that bothers me really are the droplets inside the liquid.

You and me both haha I'm not happy with how that part looks but didn't have the time to change it unfortunately.

Thanks for the breakdown @jon! Close, to the way I was thinking of approaching the flames. I'll let you know when I try mine!

Looking forward to it!

Awesome! I think that all made sense to me

Such a quick and thoughtful response! I really appreciate the time you took to answer that. Look forward to seeing more from you....

T H A N K S  A G A I N !
Jacob

Thank you very much Feel free to message me if you ever have any questions.

As a graduate product designer I look at these renders with disbelief, absolutely amazing. The eye you have is fantastic, I might share some of the catalogue renders I do and get some feedback on them, as you guys are all superb!

Thanks man, that means a lot! I was in your shoes not very long ago. You should definitely share your work and get feedback, that's what we are all here for 

[DMerz III]

XRay Shader... why have I never played with that? Nice breakdown!

[mattjgerard]

As a graduate product designer I look at these renders with disbelief, absolutely amazing. The eye you have is fantastic, I might share some of the catalogue renders I do and get some feedback on them, as you guys are all superb!

Please do share, we all get inspiration and ideas from the most unlikely places. I'm just a simple corporate 3d hack rendering products for websites and print, but I'm better at it (much better) than I was 2 years ago when I started because of seeing what is possible on this forum. Plus getting the fantastically positive feedback and suggestions from both other artists and luxion team members has helped me push my renders beyond what I thought I was capable of.

[Will Gibbons]

As a graduate product designer I look at these renders with disbelief, absolutely amazing. The eye you have is fantastic, I might share some of the catalogue renders I do and get some feedback on them, as you guys are all superb!

Please do share, we all get inspiration and ideas from the most unlikely places. I'm just a simple corporate 3d hack rendering products for websites and print, but I'm better at it (much better) than I was 2 years ago when I started because of seeing what is possible on this forum. Plus getting the fantastically positive feedback and suggestions from both other artists and luxion team members has helped me push my renders beyond what I thought I was capable of.

I'd add that you've become a valuable part and contributor to a community of 3D creatives.

[JonWelch]

Realized I haven't shared some of the renders I've done recently. So here are a bunch of random things that you'll recognize as challenges from RenderWeekly. Feel free to comment or critique, and I hope everyone has had a great holiday!

[JonWelch]

Mostly just wanted to share the Razor concept I created for this weeks RenderWeekly challenge, it was a fun little minimalist project.

Then I have two renders I put together for my website: One of which really helped to visualize the Instruction Design ability, and the other to show off Keyshots toon/sketched look ability.

Lastly is the button that was for last weeks RenderWeekly. Simply put, the concept was born out of the impression I get from working with clients that aren't as educated on just what our field involves.

Feel free to comment and critique

[Rex]

Great images Jon!

Is the powerblock_sketch a toon render?? would love to see the process behind it.

[Zeltronic]

Nice.