Rich_Winsor

6 minutes ago, Alaskan_Son said:

 

Might not be relevant to the subject at hand, but your model looks like the head of a flat head screw which reminds me...

 

I decided a while back that the flat head screw is the worlds longest running (and perhaps most successful) practical joke.  Whenever we start taking apart a structure that was built 50 years ago...all tied together with 100's of flat head screws,  I can't help but think it was some diabolical genius that pulled that one on us and I imagine he's looking down from Heaven laughing his tail off.

Well I must be doing something right as that

plan is titled "Flat Head Screw".   I just

wanted to add a spot of realism to some 

hardware I was modeling.

Apparently Mr Phillips felt the same way you do.

11 hours ago, stevenyhof said:

I would like to ask, and I think I know the answer to this while I am waiting on the trace, is that, the picture shows up after like 2 or 3 minutes, so I am assuming that it is continuing to trace? I just took a picture of the screen and now while I wait, it does seem to slowly get clearer - but not really sure. Will it tell me when it is done? So far I have moved on and get a message that it is still working. And while I type this and look at the picture, I cannot say it is looking any clearer. Thoughts?

You do know that you can control the image size

and the duration of the ray trace in the Ray Trace

Options DBX? These settings must be made before

the ray trace is started, and once started can't be

altered other than to stop the ray trace. You can

set the ray trace to run from 1 minute to 24 hours

or you can set it to run from 1 to 999999 passes.

If you really need a million passes you can set the

ray trace time to no limit and it will run until you

stop it or your machine melts into a tiny puddle on

the floor. 

14 hours ago, raltd9245 said:

 

In this case why would I want to.....  

On the other hand something like this....

Hi Levina. What the little green guy is showing

is the effect the backdrop can have on the model.

In that plan we have the model (in this case the

saucer) and no other objects. The saucer has a

100% reflective surface but there is nothing else

in the plan to reflect except what might be in the

backdrop. Everything that is showing on the skin

of the UFO is a reflection of what is in the backdrop.

It's interesting that the reflected effect wraps all the

way around the saucer like a Spherical Panoramic

View even though the backdrop is flat.

Anyhow, in the situation you describe the challenges

will vary depending on the type of view you are

creating. But whether it be an overhead or street

level view the process involves getting a good quality

photo of the existing situation from the viewpoint you

want and then recreating that viewpoint in the camera

view in your plan. As Glenn mentions above (nicely

done BTW) it helps to have an image editing software

program to tweak your backdrop image to suit your

needs. Once you have an image you want to use for

the backdrop open your Library Browser and right

click on your User Catalog. Then go to New and then

Backdrop to add your image to the list of backdrops

you can choose in the camera specification DBX. Of

course there are many other considerations to deal

with such as matching the sun angle shadows and

how much, if any, of Chief's terrain to include and how

it blends into your backdrop image. 

Good Luck, hope this gets you started.

I will volunteer my thoughts on backdrops in ray

traced renderings. Backdrops in PBR's behave 

entirely differently and can cause unexpected 

effects on the outcome.

Backdrops certainly make a difference in ray trace

quality but have very little effect on rendering time.

They are after all just image files. The higher the

quality of the image you turn into a backdrop, the 

better it will look in the rendering.

To have a backdrop or not will depend on your

intended results. If it's just the view out of an

unimportant window in an interior scene, maybe

a backdrop will just be a distraction from your

intended focus. In other cases the background 

is everything. As below. 

Plan View

corresponding Ray Trace

This topic lingers like an unwanted virus.

Do a forum search for GDW (Garage Door

Wizard). After numerous resurfacings of the

topic I have no idea where we stand on the

availability of the program from the creator.

PM me if you are interested in a free trial.

GDW Test-2.calibz

I believe @lbuttery has worked on this kind of project.

He might have a lead for you.

Looks good to me Glenn. I don't know 

about the others but I'll give ya a +1 for

the effort.

What really caught my eye however was

the "close but no banana" reference. Is

that a Southern Hemisphere thing? Maybe

with smoking so out of favor the trusty old

"close but no cigar" in no longer acceptable.

If you don't want to roll your own (so to speak)

Chief has some distressed and rustic materials

available in their Bonus Catalogs. You might 

have a play with them and see if you can find

something useful there.

17 hours ago, Electromen said:

New major features not supported on my Mac Pro and new MacBook Pro are good reasons to not renew SSA.

Or maybe a good reason to upgrade to a Windows rig.....

OK OK, just joking, lord knows you Apple guys can be touchy.   

Seems like a lot of work for a God awful effect.

If it's for a faithful representation of the existing

condition, yeah, spatter it with MR's. If it's for

anything else, ditch the effect. JMHO

Like this?

I may have misunderstood the question. 

Very impressive. Did you model that door in

Chief as well? Looks like you are definitely

in good hands as far as the fabrication goes. 

The Live Oak Estates are really our inside

joke. They are actually a pair of 480 sq ft

one bedroom, one bathroom rental units

that we are now passing off as an exclusive

gated community. 

Nice Job JB. At 20' I'm assuming that gate

is going to be a slider. Will you need to put

a horizontal bar near the top for the rollers

to ride on? It can detract from the intended

design.

While no where near as ornate, I too designed

a 12' x 7' entry gate for the duplex on our property.

It turned out pretty nice. Hope you have a good

metal guy to bring it to life. 

3 hours ago, Alaskan_Son said:

Nope.

??? That's the tire symbol you made. 

BTW, that EPDM rubber material ray traces 

very nicely. 

On 10/3/2020 at 2:06 AM, Alaskan_Son said:

 

Maybe not super realistic and didn't take the time to detail lettering and such,, but here's a decent tire modeled completely in Chief...

Tire.calibz

Perhaps I should have chosen my words more precisely. 

Would "one can get a surprisingly believable old tire that

mere mortals could never model in Chief" have been more

appropriate?  That's a damn fine tire Michael but I will

still maintain that for my particular situation my cheesy 2D

image works better. 

If I needed to model the tire in 3D I guess I should model

the dragonfly in 3D as well. Does that tire look familiar? 

8 hours ago, Chopsaw said:

 

One night free stay at the Evening Star of course !  

6 hours ago, Ridge_Runner said:

That figures! I bet there isn't even room service! 

What the heck Mike. That free cup of Joe in the

morning doesn't do it for you? Maybe you need

a good soak in the indoor heated pool. 

So here is the original cropped image I purloined

off the internet to use for an old tire. I didn't really

notice the little guy on the left side of the tire until

I was editing the image. 

Using PSP I reversed the image to match the

sun direction in my camera view, edited out the

web site watermarks and changed the water

surface to a transparent background.

Then I changed the color to match the terrain.

Convert the .PNG file to a Chief image and sink it into

the terrain a couple of inches and you get a surprisingly

believable old tire that you could never model in Chief.

9 hours ago, robdyck said:

The cat on the chair is a nice touch! I'll be showing my daughter that one!

9 hours ago, ericepv said:

I always like to 'dress the scene'.

I too like to 'dress the scene' with a combination

of both 2D images and 3D objects. Here is a 100%

Chief image I have been playing with recently. All

of the items in the 'debris field' were created in

this manner. In this case the main point of adding

the debris was to disguise the transition between

the terrain and the backdrop. 

BTW, bonus points are available if you can spot

the dragonfly in the scene.

What are the odds? It's the +1420 Club. 

14 hours ago, ericepv said:

Many thanks, that's what I'm looking for. Do you have any others?

Sheepishly admitting that I never even opened the file.

Check with @Greg_NY61. He supplied the file.

BTW, how is it that dogs can look sheepish? 

18 hours ago, Greg_NY61 said:

Here you go Rich :-)

Orthodox Male.calibz

Thanks Greg.  Let's see if @ericepv can use this. 

Personally I'd rather see models of Orthodox Jewish Men.

What is the end game (exit strategy) for this charade? How

do I opt out? 

Armageddon it. Now we know how the dinosaur's felt.

Thursday the sky was so dark that by 3:30 in the afternoon

all the outside lights that are on photo cells came on.

When I was just getting started with Chief

I was struggling with trying to create a

swaybacked roof. Bill Emery helped me

to accomplish it using Polyline Subtraction.

Along the way I too encountered some

unusual results.