September 2008 Fish feeder [Archive]

shamoii

08-30-2008, 04:42 AM

OK so I have no idea why I am working on the aquarium when I still haven't finished the corner. Focus you fiend!
Having said that, I'm after a little 3rd party perspective as to whether the refraction in these 2 pix is too much. I've the glass set to 1.5 & the water to 1.33, though they seem so over blown.
Also I'm getting some artifacting on the reflections of the fluorescent tubes. I'm using the standard dielectric material. Is there somewhere in MR to bump up samples or something like that?
And don't worry, the sphere fish will be replaced shortly.

Thanks in advance :)

http://www.whispersmith.com/images/dt/aq/aquariuma02.jpg
http://www.whispersmith.com/images/dt/aq/aquariuma03.jpg

DjVoyager

08-30-2008, 08:20 AM

Are you using FG? Generally the artifacts happen with that.
Under MR settings increase the FG Accuracy to around 500.
Then comes the Min and the Max radius (check use radius quality control), which differs depending on the scene size.
Go to Create > Measure tools > Distance tool, and measure the length of your scene. Divide the value by 10 for Max. Divide the Max by 10 and this will be your Min. So for example, my length came in at 21, making the Max 2.1 and the Min 0.21. The result is this.
http://www.digitaltutors.com/uploads/gallery/data/500/aqua2.jpg

I've used 500 Accuracy for FG but you can play with to get the kind of result you want, mind the value needs to go higher for that. Hope it works for you.

shamoii

08-30-2008, 09:52 PM

Thanks for the reply DJ.
Haven't used any FG, GI or AO yet. Or anything else that I would presume to have any kind of sampling quality. It doesn't really matter as they aren't that visible, I was just curious.

dielectric material.
http://www.whispersmith.com/images/dt/aq/aquariuma06.jpg

Phong. Same scene. Same everything else.
http://www.whispersmith.com/images/dt/aq/aquariuma05.jpg

P.S. Nice sphere fish by the way DJ:loud_laug

DjVoyager

08-30-2008, 10:16 PM

The dielectric looks pretty good but I see why the water seems a bit off. There's too much wave bump on it. In real aquarium the water is not completely still but smooth enough, except for the parts where bubbles are rising, which creates subtle ripples and displacement.
http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/choosing-aquarium-equipment-2.jpg
You can apply ripple and wave bump map on parts of the water surface where bubbles will be hitting.

Nice sphere fish by the way DJ:loud_laug

Red ones, they're more exotic than the grayish ones in your tank :D

safaki_lemur

08-31-2008, 12:07 AM

Wow, the lighting looks awesome in those dark lit scenes. Can't wait to see the finished product!

shamoii

08-31-2008, 03:14 AM

In real aquarium the water is not completely still but smooth enough, except for the parts where bubbles are rising, True true. Though I do plan on having bigger than average fish in there.
Some red ones too if i can afford them.

Thank you Mr lemur. I want to see it finished too.

So far as my refraction problem, I was more concerned with the sides of the tank. I've a aquaterrarium at home & it doesn't seem to bow the light quite like this.

DjVoyager

09-04-2008, 10:13 AM

So far as my refraction problem, I was more concerned with the sides of the tank. I've a aquaterrarium at home & it doesn't seem to bow the light quite like this.

Your light doesn't look bad, IMHO, but if you are concerned, try using a ramp on the light with blue around the white so that it kind of applies a variance in the brightness of the overall tube.

shamoii

09-11-2008, 06:43 AM

Been busy.
Doing some work on the gravel in the tank (http://www.whispersmith.com/vid/nclothaballtest.avi) .
Even though its an Avi, it likes to be played in quicktime.
13Mb.

shamoii

09-12-2008, 07:33 AM

Getting some plants in.
http://www.whispersmith.com/images/dt/aq/aq07t.jpg

metryx

09-12-2008, 08:56 AM

Funny, I thought about do the same thing to get gravel in my tank too.
Either that or there is a feature in Realflow that can do the same thing, but like you I haven't had time. I've been training on Lightroom 2, Photoshop Elements 7 and now have to get ready for Adobe CS4. My brain is getting fried.

DjVoyager

09-12-2008, 09:25 AM

Good choice on applying gravel through simulation :bang

One issue though; isn't the water level a little low?

shamoii

09-12-2008, 07:47 PM

I've been training on Lightroom 2, Photoshop Elements 7 and now have to get ready for Adobe CS4. Don't forget, Maya 2009 is coming too! Moo ha ha ha ha ha ha.

isn't the water level a little low?Yes it is. For 4 reasons.
1. My tank at home is never more than half full & I guess that's what I'm used to.
2. From the angle the front camera is at, the closest edge of the waters surface would obscure the back wall completely. This is aesthetically displeasing to me. Also the subtle colour differences between submerged & un-submerged wall, helps convey the look of water in the tank.
3. Big fish make waves. If the tanks full, the waves have got nowhere to go.
4. I drank some.

DjVoyager

09-12-2008, 10:52 PM

I guess you've got a point there. Human body is approx 60 to 70% water, so whenever you feel like its level going down immediately dive for the closest water source, ha! :D

I can't wait to see the animated waves. Btw, try using xvid for compositing your videos. It's a huge bandwidth saver.

shamoii

09-13-2008, 03:09 AM

Does that mean next time I'm thirsty I should jump on someone? I like that idea.

I don't use Xvid as many people have had trouble with the codec in the past. Good thing I didn't post the 1.5G playblast i made of last months project!

Been doing more gravely stuff. Here's the latest test (http://www.whispersmith.com/vid/16BallDrop.mov) using nCloth squares as drivers for the geometry. Notice how some of the balls act a little jelly like. Kind of gross.

shamoii

09-15-2008, 08:16 AM

Here's what the gravel looks like at the moment.
http://www.whispersmith.com/images/dt/aq/aq10.jpg

shamoii

09-16-2008, 11:18 PM

Unfortunately with the depth of the gravel, I've had to raise the level of the water.
I'm almost happy with the lighting & position of included objects. Though with a few more to add (including an environment) this may change.
Almost finished "hero" fish, but probably wont post on him till the due date.
http://www.whispersmith.com/images/dt/aq/aq12.jpg

Anyone with an unhealthy love of CG gravel should like these next images.
http://www.whispersmith.com/images/dt/aq/aq11.jpg
Mmmmmm. Gravel.
http://www.whispersmith.com/images/dt/aq/aq13.jpg

metryx

09-17-2008, 09:46 AM

:bow :bow :bow :bow :bow :bow :bow :bow :bow :bow :bow :bow :bow :bow :bow :bow :bow :bow :bow :bow :bow :bow

wow!!

I just decided to use a displacement map for my gravel, but man that looks good enough to eat. Like rock candy, yum, or not. :bang

Farla

09-17-2008, 10:50 AM

Looks great just need the Liquid substance H2O :D

DjVoyager

09-17-2008, 11:19 AM

Unfortunately with the depth of the gravel, I've had to raise the level of the water.

AHA! :D

I agree with everyone, the gravel looks awesome. How long did it take to render?

Will that scuba diver swim around the tank or just stay in one spot wiggling his legs?

bianconero90

09-17-2008, 11:54 AM

Great work shamoii :)

Keep it up!

I have a suggestion. Add bubbles

shamoii

09-17-2008, 08:28 PM

Metryx:
Thanks for the :bow X22. Yes, something about those rocks just says "eat me".

Farla:
I know its hard to see, but the water is already in there :( . When animated with the fake caustics & moving surface it is easier to tell though.

DJ:

AHA! :D Thought you'd be happy :) .
The gravel doesn't take too long to render, however with the reflections/refractions through the roof it's looking tight render wise for the 30th!
One thing that may be of interest to someone is that my batch renders were taking twice as long as when I just hit the render icon. I changed my parallelism setting to 4 (quad core CPU?) & now am rendering in half the time.
The scuba diver will... well... I'll give you a hint. Jonah.

b90:
Thanks to you too for the support & bubbles should be making an appearance.

Here's where I'm up to. This tank belongs to an old lady with 40watt globes all over her house, so sorry about the darkness of the scene. At least it makes the tank stand out as a focus.
Because you can't read it, the fish food container reads "Captain Shamoii's all natural fish food".
Getting closer to final look before i can unleash the render tron.
http://www.whispersmith.com/images/dt/aq/aq16.jpg

DjVoyager

09-17-2008, 09:36 PM

Just had an excellent idea to reduce your render time. Use level of detail swap out geometry :)
http://www.digitaltutors.com/store/video.php?vid=895

shamoii

09-18-2008, 01:04 AM

Thanks for the link DJ, though I don't think it will apply much to my project as I have taken everything to pretty low res geometry anyway.
Each pebble has 8 faces (on each of 16k pebbles) and I cant really go any lower than that & still get the correct dynamics going on with the nCloth. As I said before, the refractions etc are what's causing the real time usage & I REALLY hope I don't have to drop them!

As ain indication of what I mean here's a proportional breakdown of render times.
All elements included render time 100%
Remove gravel 14% quicker.
Remove glass & water, keep gravel 78% quicker.
I'll have to play round with the different elements to get their refractive limits as low as poss, fingers crossedhttp://planetsmilies.net/animal-smiley-4923.gif

DjVoyager

09-18-2008, 09:48 PM

I reckon you'll be using render passes/layers with so much going on. But your render time sounds good, Captain Shamoii ;).

Here's a fiend, I mean a friend for your little fishy.
http://www.happytimescharters.com/_borders/swimming_shark_animated_gif.gif

shamoii

09-19-2008, 02:03 AM

http://img2.mysmiley.net/imgs/smile/scared/scared0016.gif Argh! That fish looks scary!
On another note, I've tweaked & cheated my way to below half my previous render times & am relaxed about the drop in quality. This means I can spend a bit more time fiddling about with the little things I thought I wouldn't have time for. Hooray for fishies everywhere!
Just on the off chance anyone feels they need it, I've made yet Another test (http://www.whispersmith.com/Vid/DropGrav15fps.mov) of dropping bits of stuff in Maya.

DjVoyager

09-19-2008, 09:30 AM

Nah, it won't bite ya. It doesn't have any teeth :D

That animation looks tight! The gravel drop is so realistic that I can feel hearing the sound when they hit the bottom. You're thinking of putting any background poster in the tank?

shamoii

09-19-2008, 09:01 PM

This was something I was working on a while ago, but I like the glass look. It's uncluttered.
http://www.whispersmith.com/images/dt/aq/aq09.jpg

shamoii

09-22-2008, 08:36 PM

OK now the hard part is over. Or has it just begun?
Any way, it's time for another update. (http://www.whispersmith.com/vid/aa15.mov) 7.4Mb

DjVoyager

09-30-2008, 08:11 AM

Awesome animation! Looks very realistic, though I wish granny had bought some bigger fish to put in there as well. Or did she, and her cat ate them :D

I'll use the above image as a poster for your animation. Btw, for the future projects, try to make the animation less than 2 or 3 MB, why not convert to flash. It kills some quality but if you make it big enough that can balance out :)

shamoii

09-30-2008, 10:28 AM

Yeah, unfortunately the rest of the project is still rendering out & probably wont be finished for a couple of days. :(
I put the test up on youtube, so link to that if it makes life easier.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71-eRU1nCi8

DjVoyager

09-30-2008, 10:31 AM

It still looks good. Btw, are you using render layers?

shamoii

10-03-2008, 09:41 AM

Or did she, and her cat ate them
No she's allergic to cats. that's why she has fish.

are you using render layers?
Again no. I really know I should & I guess I paid the price for being lazy this time. ( Big slap on wrist for me)

Oh well, this is as far as I think I'm going to take this project. It's not what you'd call polished... Though I guess making something for DT is supposed to be a learning experience first & foremost, & it was.

I delayed uploading it a bit longer so that most folks would have a chance to vote for the entries that made it in on time. Hope it's OK to link.

I popped it up on Youtube again for the bandwidth challenged.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOF3dZQeXjo

And even though DJ will be unimpressed, I've uploaded "my" version & included a link. BTW its 69 meg (http://www.whispersmith.com/vid/fishfeeder.mov) :redface: