BigAl3D

Great sources everyone is posting here. Some of these sites I had long forgotten. Good to know they are still around.

Too bad Maxon isn't innovating as much as Insydium is. Very impressive. One thing that caught my eye is the lack of jitter in those collisions. Maybe there are more settings to be adjusted than they showed in this video, but the mass, gravity and lack of jitter looks fantastic.

I'll throw in a few that I've used and might not be well known. Many times, these artists that sell on TurboSquid will also sell their models directly on their own site and usually $25 cheaper. Also will give you discounts when buying multiple models at once. I've also hired a person to create a custom model for me, such as a car which is too complex for my skill level. https://www.thepixellab.net/products https://evermotion.org/shop/cat/440/summer_sale/0/ https://doschdesign.com/productlist.php?line=4&subrubrik=94 https://3dmdb.com/en/3d-models/suburb/ Mostly vehicles https://squir.com/ https://hum3d.com/3d-models/furniture/

I had a 90s flashback to when I first bought Bryce3D. That was the coolest thing I had ever seen. I was into the game Myst and had ideas of creating my own world like that. In fact, I think one of those renders is almost complete so I'll post it here when it's done.

@LonchaneyHa! Actually, if you were really designing stuff for print, QuarkXPress was where it was at. Period. I used MasterJuggler for fonts and most conflicts went away. Suitcase also worked. No printer would ever take a Ventura Publsher file for an actual pre-press and printing press workflow, but I guess it worked for you. Since OS X debuted, my technical know-how has faded since I rarely need to troubleshoot stuff anymore. I thought Apple would've upped the specs just a bit for the new iMac, but I guess getting the quality display, mouse and keyboard included ups the value. Hoping to see a much beefier ARM chip soon before I make a move.

OK, I'll give it a try. Thank you. Actually, the RollIt plugin does a great job with wheels too. You just have to make sure the axis is correct. The other curious thing with RollIt is I find if I render from frame one, it will sometimes flip my wheel 180°. If i move the playhead with Next Frame to let's say frame 5, this issue goes away. Thanks again.

I was excited to see they updated the free Rollit! plugin to run with most current versions of C4D. Has anyone here used it to roll car tires? It so simple to set up, yet I constantly get weird results and it gets very frustrating. Curious if anyone else has managed to get consistent results.

Ah, I see. I was a draftsman in my younger years and I did a little work drawing (by hand) plans for a structural engineers. I mostly drew plans for mechanical, electrical, plumbing and then moved to civil engineering. Mostly soil erosion and sediment control, site plans, etc. Then the machines took over and shortly after, became self-aware. 😉

@JBlongzI'm curious, what is a design engineer?

Yeah, I was more seeing how the HDR and the back plate played together. In that respect, great. Yes, I can see having the sun in the background can seem undesirable, but totally realistic. I did open up the aperture a bit to brighten up the car. I suppose if you were on the far end of the street and faced the opposite direction, you would at least provide more light an reflections on your subject. Also, in the past, I've seen full-range HDRIs that appeared very dark to naked eye, but actually contained all the detail you need when you turn up the brightness. I'm not seeing those types of images much anymore and am wondering if the tools have changed, or maybe the "thumbnail" preview of these files use a more normal light image?

Seem pretty good to me. I dropped a car from a scene I'm working on and it's very convincing, as long as I need a wintry and in-the-shade shot. P.S. Rendered using Corona Render v7.

If you read the comments on that Lab page, it does nothing to help if you have a r11 file. I didn't know anything was new on that site. I stopped looking after a while since nothing seemed to be added. I'll have to give it another glance.

Gabriel covered a lot of great points. I would throw in a couple more. Just because you have cool software, don't dismiss the importance of actual design and composition. I always tell the younger people I've trained over the years (mostly After Effects), "when your animation stops, it still has to look great." Would also be helpful to be familiar with traditional photography techniques and lighting. Render engines like Corona, which is what I use, attempt to be as real-world as possible. Depending on what you create, make your scenes real-world scale. This will help to get predictable results. Most of those examples you posted are pretty abstract, minus the cool dynamics sneaker stuff. Like they were made for a screen behind a DJ or something. Not sure what the market is for that sort of thing. Start with simple scenes and work you way up. To get to that level of work for the sneaker video, I'm sure there's plenty of Xpresso work in there. YouTube is your friend. Lots of free learning there, plus all the paid learning too. Mograph+Effectors and all the Deformers give you an amazing tool-set to create all sorts of abstract things. Many are non-destructive. I would be careful not to overwhelm yourself with tons of plug-ins up front, otherwise you'll be good at a lot of things, but a master of none. Don't be afraid to post back with a more specific question. There are plenty of people here (some from MAXON) that can point you in the right direction. I've talked too much....

In a related comment, I think MAXON should fix an issue that bothers me. Like me, many people have sizeable C4D assets and scene files from years ago, or they purchase pre-made 3D models. Every time I purchase a model, usually created in Max originally and saved out in r11 format. This cannot be opened in r20 or later. Luckily, I still have r19 which can open them. Once saved by r19, it is now compatible in r20. Either build in a converter or put out a free standalone app that only serves this purpose to make it compatible with r20+. Recently, I had to use another computer which did not have r19, only r20. I had to stop working find the installer and wait to install the entire Studio version and all the libraries. That's a big deal when you're on a deadline.

Fantastic in every way.

A couple things you could do quickly that will help sell the realism. First is the scale of the floor material. It looks took big which makes the car look small, like an R/C model. Second is the tire sidewall material. There is too much going on breaking up the reflection. I think you need to reduce the amount of texture in the reflections there. The headlights look fantastic! I agree about the floor. Soften the reflections just a little bit.

Wow. Thanks for the file. I'll definitely check it out!

Just wondering if anyone has used the Drive! vehicle simulation plug-in? Really wondering if it's overkill vs. let's say Magic Car from Nitroman? I don't need to simulate a NASCAR race or heavy traffic, just relatively simple drivebys or a car turning into a scene and stopping next to it's price. That sort of thing. Thanks for any opinions. Yes, I see there's a demo, but if it's too complicated, didn't want to jump in.

I couldn't find a forum for Team Render, so... Yes, I have reached out to our IT guy to help with this, but in the mean time, maybe someone here can shed some light. I'd like to start using Team Render Server since I'm still stuck at home. I also have a VPN to the office network. I can mount the office server on my desktop. So, I'm trying to figure out how to get my three render clients to show up locally at home. I have the IPs and the port numbers, but it won't connect in Team Render Server. Anyone have experience in setting something like this up?

From my previous experience in Unreal Engine 4, the real-time aspect is for your on-screen feedback. Not sure if they've changed this since I used it a couple years ago. For example, I was into creating levels for Unreal Tournament (which they dropped after Fornite took off. Damn them.) and yes the better your PC the more real-time the feedback was. BUT, when I wanted to see the real version of my creation, I had to change the settings and compile the level which included all the rendering of light and shadow. This process is very similar to what the rest of the world does in traditional 3D apps. Now, I have not used Unreal Engine 5 so there may be a new workflow to save out the GPU renders. Question is, is that GPU raytraced with physically accurate effects? I don't personally know. The engine has come a long way though.

Funny that everyone complains that MAXON doesn't hint at what they're working on. Now that they have shown some of the future, now it's "why can't I have it now?" Just make great stuff with what you have now and look forward to the future.