Mental Ray Or Vray??

Humm,,, a fellow twitter friend ask me which renderer I use and which one I prefer? Personally I use mental ray and the default scanline renderer in max. I think both could give good result. Take a look at these two image. The first is a mental ray generated image and the second a render done with the default scanline renderer.

Both images are interesting. Some may prefer the mental ray one and other the scanline. Personally I prefer the mental ray one. I think it kinda give that clean and photo realistic look to the picture. I remember when Ive finish this picture people at work prefer the right one (the scanline one) They said the image as more personality to it. I think you can achieve great result in scanline, you can even fake global illumination but it is more difficult to get that pelicular effect as in mental ray. You really got to work the light and the shadows to do it. Here is a picture that I'm proud of entirely done in scanline.

But enough talking about my work. Is v-ray good? Of what I heard it is more easier to get a photo realistic image with v-ray. Some even say it work better and that it is more easy to set a good render than with mental ray. I may not tell it myself but it is the subject to this post. I want to know which renderer you use and why. I'm planning to use v-ray as it have a really good reputation but doesn't it worth the purchase or may I continue with mental ray?

here is a link to a forum on it but I want to hear from you here to get some action! :

http://www.cgarchitect.com/vb/8300-mental-ray-vs-vray.html

a link where you can download a demo version v-ray:

http://www.digimation.com/home/Downloads.aspx?sm=vr


Sam The 3d Blogger
www.the3dblogger.blogspot.com

Good Sunday Morning!

Hi everyone! Just a little word to takes everybody who follow me directly or by rss. I'm about to reach the 1000 page impressions since a start this blog. I am pretty happy of it, that show it is beginning to grow! The week-end I'm never to much into 3d arts but this week Ill try to write a good article by day so you can enjoy it more.




Right now on the Nick 3d Project except for little things to correct and the belt to do in zbrush, I'm almost done with the sculpting. Next stage will be to generate the normal map for all the pieces and maybe reexport all the low subdivision in 3ds max if needed. Originally I planned to use the original meshes of 3ds max but I don't know yet if the mesh is not to different now... I should have use the store morph target button. In this way he should have remain the same. What happen with zbrush is that if you subdivide the mesh and you got the smooth button on the way the algorithm works is that it smooth also the first subdivision. The result is that when you came back in example from the 6Th level to the first it kinda smooth the mesh in reverse to... Don't know really why but it is what it do. So Zbrush have now the store morph target... If any have question on how Ive modelled some details please feel free to ask. Ill may do a small tutorial or video to show how I do it this week.





Here is an other project that Ive done in November 2007. It is a warhammer priest. Ive done it with a reference sketch that Ive found on the warhammeronline site. It is the first model that I heavily use Zbrush to put detail on the mesh. I kinda use the same technique as for the Nick 3d project. I used separated piece so I could put more detail in each one and each pieces have their own texture. Also As I'm not so good at rigging it is easier in this way to put it in a cool stance. However at this time I was using Maya and my computer doesn't want to generate the render for the character because it was to heavy so I manage to put all the pieces together in Zbrush and do a Zbrush render. Now I'm using 3ds max and the normal map seems to work better and easier in 3ds max for me so I will be able to do a nice render in mental ray.


So that's it for now I may send you some update this afternoon on the Nick 3d project. Stay tune and thanks again for the following!


Sam The 3d Blogger
www.the3dblogger.blogspot.com

Nick 3D Project is going fine!

Hi everybody! So today I work a lot on the Nick 3d project. I have almost done the zbrush sculpting part. So far I think it looks cool. It is the first time that I use zbrush to add so much detail on a character or object. Usually zbrush would crash but don't know why with this one nothing happen yet so I'm touching woods. Each part are separated sub tools that I will do a normal map and a cavity map of them. The sub tool are approximately 400 000 to 600 000 each so I could put a good amount of details on them. As you can see the left side is not yet sculpted but It is because I'm just gonna duplicate the rigth part and mirror them before exporting them to 3ds max.

It has been awhile since I didn't post anything on the zbrush forum because I got no time to do zbrush model and I was not so proud of the works done but I think I gonna try with it to see if it got any good feedback. As usual crit's and comment's are welcome here too so don't be shy to post a comment below! I put back the concept here so you can easily see where I'm going. It is not perfectly similar but I had to go with the flow and let myself express in the process.


Sam The 3d Blogger
www.the3dblogger.blogspot.com

Zbrush at Least! Nick 3d project

Hi! Sorry I didnt put really a lot of stuff since tuesday on the blog but I had the visit of unexpected guess hehe. However I manage to finish all the uv of the Nick 3d character this afternoon. Now Im beginning the Zbrush and normal map phase. Here a render of what the total armor/suite look in Zbrush. Hope to get some more screen shot until tomorow.

Cake Mania: In The Mix!

Good Morning!

This morning I receive a email from a friend of mine giving me a link to the review of a game we both work on. The game is call ''Cake Mania: In The Mix!'' Maybe you already heard about it if you got young daughter's or nieces. Here is the link to some review of the game:

http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/wii/cakemaniainthemix

The grade for the graphics are not excellent but decent. I mainly work on the pre-rendered scene interiors and on the character modelling. The Doctor , the penguin, the sumo, the alien human head etc. Ive done I think 17 character for the games but they are not all still in the game ! :OP Once you get use to modelled character it goes well in fast. Usually I was starting with the same base mesh depending on the morphology of the character. Often it was the Doctor`s mesh that I use.


Sam The 3d Blogger
www.the3dblogger.blogspot.com