3D-Pangel

To put a bittersweet pin on this whole topic: Cinefex, 32Ten Studios, and the passing of the old guard ...sniff....sniff..... Dave

Thank you but I already have all 172 issues over the last 40 years sitting very nicely on my bookshelf. So no need for an archive. What I want is the creators (Jody Duncan, Gregg Shay) to come out of retirement as their writing and photo documentation was second to none. Sorry Ian Failes, you're doing great but it's just not the same. Jody is an amazing writer. Just finished reading "The Winston Effect" by Jody Duncan about Stan Winston Studios and the writing was just superb. Fast read. Couldn't put it down. Dave

How sad. The magazines I used to read through my lifetime love of VFX and then CGI...and in chronological order: 1) Cinefantastique - I still have the original double issues on the making of Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Those double issues lit the fire within me for wanting to learn more about visual effects. 2) Starlog Magazine - More into fantastic films than fantastic filmmaking but they still had some good behind the scenes articles every now and then. 3) Cinemagic Magazine - First magazine for the budding DIY VFX enthusiast. I still remember the article on how to build your own 8mm optical printer. 4) Cinefex - oh...how it hurt when that one shut down!!! I have all 140 issues over their 40 year run. I absorbed every issue as a young teen as the old photo-chemical days of VFX were too expensive for me. Best I could do was build a ball-and-socket stop motion armature and so some animation (it still is sitting on my desk). So when a Cinefex would arrive once every 3 months, it was a great day. I would just hole up somewhere and imagine what it would be like to work full time doing VFX. 5) Computer Graphics World - My first CG based magazine but talked more about what was being done with CG rather than how to do CG. It used terms I never heard of before (like ambient occlusion, roughness channel, etc) without explaining them and therefore was a tough read at the beginning. 6) Computer Arts - At last, a magazine that had tutorials and demo software!!! Now I could learn and try 3D graphics. 7) 3D World - Sorry to see it go. Read my bio to learn more about how much I got involved with this magazine but not in the way that you would expect. ....all gone or no longer in print. On-line is great....but there is just something about opening up your mailbox to find a much-loved magazine waiting for you and then eagerly flipping through the pages that you don't get from an on-line publication. True --- you can replace mailbox with a link in your in-box and holding an iPad instead of paper. But while close, it is just not the same. Dave P.S. Don't even get me started about book stores. Remember the days 20 years ago where there would be whole sections in Barnes & Noble on computer graphics? "Inside Lightwave", "Inside 3D Studio Max" books, etc. I still have a book called "3D Lighting" that is pretty much useless today (it's software was trueSpace) but the first 3 chapters on color space and the physics of light are still a tremendous reference.

Malte does have one other model available for free that is as equally impressive Venator-class Star Destroyer free 3D model rigged | CGTrader The work he puts into modelling is so good that I just have to import the UDIM's into C4D an re-texture it. But I think this one will be a more involved than the Tantive IV as I am having trouble wrapping me head around the UV maps as there are multiple different maps that comprise only portions of certain UDIMs (the guns have me confused and there are a lot of guns - each with a different UDIM even though they are all the same model - I hope). Still figuring out how to approach it. But download the model and just look at the topology!! Particularly the engines. Dave

Starting with the launch of Fab (a merge of Sketchfab and Quixel) which is to occur "sometime" in October 2024, all Megascan assets will be free for all 3D programs until the end of 2024. Read more here: "Fab" Content Marketplace Launches in October; Publishing Portal Opens Today - Unreal Engine Meanwhile, I am running out to buy 12TB of RAID 1 storage and up my download speeds to 2.5 Gb per second. Not really....but you get the point. Dave

I just wanted to call attention to the work of Malte Ullrich who modeled one my favorite sci-fi ships in Blender and then made it free to the public. This model was the Tantive IV (otherwise known as the Rebel Blockade Runner) and you can download it here at his CGTrader website: https://www.cgtrader.com/free-3d-models/space/spaceship/tantive-iv-blockade-runner-corellian-corvette The topology and detail of this model is just superb and the texturing even better. Unfortunately, it was done in Blender using UDIM texturing. While Redshift can read the UDIM tiles and convert them to individual texture tags, each texture channel was not made up of a single texture but rather a series of masks that did not translate well into Redshift. I had to go back into Blender to figure out how those masks were applied and then duplicate that in Redshift. I am not that experienced with Blender, but I am sure there must be a way to bake everything down to a single texture on export. There were 63 individual UDIMs that needed to have their materials redone with all the appropriate masking. It took some effort, but the model was worth it plus it helped me increase my muscle memory with Redshift nodes. Here are the results in C4D and Redshift Just look at all that glorious schmutz!!! Pretty confident that someone more skilled with either Blender or Redshift will tell that there is a better way this could have been done...so please share if you know it. I reached out to Malte and asked if he could make the C4D version available to all (again for free) via his CGTrader Website (link above) and he obliged. So, check out the link above for the C4D download. If he did not agree, then I would not be distributing his work nor making this post...so please be sure to thank him. To his credit, he realized that sharing a model with UDIM texture sets and tiles made that model a lot more difficult to use (gee...ya think?😆). A while back he baked everything down to normal texture sets across the 5 main areas of the model but never uploaded them to the CGTrader site. Based on my email and effort, he finally decided to do that which you can now find in the FBX version. But the textures in the FBX version will be at a lower resolution than the UDIM version I converted to C4D. So please use the C4D version!!! Enjoy, Dave

One thing that has worked is to make it cloth and set the stiffness level extremely high. Dave

I assume the top image is the rendered one and the bottom image is the AI generated one. While I have no experience dealing with clients and what they are looking for in a boot visualization, I am thinking that AI could be used for quickly generating booth concepts to help the client better define what they need. As these booths can become pretty expensive (both in floor rental space and construction), does the client want a more realistic presentation of the space from multiple perspectives prior to committing to any costs on the more expensive booths? If so, then would starting with AI but finalizing with a 3D render be an approach to take? I ask because I will agree that AI (even with stable diffusion) does only successfully bridge the uncanny valley by 95%. It takes a human eye to make the full crossing to total realism. Which does bring up an interesting question: Is there any AI program out there that can translate its generated image to actual 3D geometry and textures? If so, you now have quite the interesting workflow where you start with AI concepts, iterate quickly with the client to get agreement to a final design, but then convert it to 3D so that a true artist can add that last 5% to fully cross the uncanny valley of AI art and into true realism.

You are very brave to try and capture not only a real person, but someone who is a bit of a chameleon in that she looks different in every role she has played and in every publicity photo. She could turn her head 5 degrees to the left and how the light hits her cheek bones, forehead and mouth will create a completely different look. But amazingly, as I look at it you are about 95% there with a very good cartoon version of her. But it is always the last 5% that causes the most pain. Are you using either of these photos to model her? If you are going for a "Furiosa" look, the eyes and mouth good, but the chin needs to be a bit more pronounced and not so rounded. Also, not sure about what is going on behind the cheek bones. Dave

Honestly...I am afraid to ask. Amazing! It looks EXACTLY like the character. The mane and medallion on the horses' harness are perfectly done. Tangled is still my youngest daughter's favorite Disney movie even now at the age of 26. Question: I really had to dig to find this link: Character Design | Vectron3d Why? You have an amazing portfolio that I was surprised it was not the main link from your Core4D profile page. True top-level stuff for some really great studios like Aixsponza. Your humility is only exceeded by your talent. Dave

Thank you! The turn table was a huge bonus. I would have been happy with a still image. I fat fingered the thumbs down on the rating button because it was right next to the Thank You selection. I quickly switched it to "Thank You" but it still shows red in the counter. I am soooo sorry!!! Last thing I want is a Thumbs down on Vector's profile so if it really is there, could an Admin correct it for me? Thanks, Dave

Actually....it was more like begging. Please show us your topology!! Pleassssseeeee!!!😃

Really wish the wireframes were better presented: I can't even make out the work that went into those horns so we are missing out on all that "Vector-Magic" that went into them. Ideally, with and without SDS would be a wonderful addition that I could learn from, marvel at, and be inspired by. Dave

+ 1 for that file as well.

Very nostalgic and retrospective view of one the more revolutionary products on the market at that time. I remember playing with spectral atmosphere's and giggled like a child when I lowered the sun and the sky and clouds turned crimson red and very tropical. Or the amazement of being able to "paint" with tree's on a landscape. No one else was able to do this (or even come close) in the mid 2000's. No wonder all the elite VFX houses at that time like ILM and Weta embraced the software. Unfortunately, there were two events that crippled Vue's forward momentum in the 2015 and 2016 time frame: 1) The Bentley acquisition and 2) the major site hack that crippled all user accounts. As Daniel mentioned, Bentley's acquisition was for LumenRT and that product got all the love (just look at how much Bentley is charging for LumenRT today relative to what e-on charged for it prior to the acquisition). Though I am not sure of Bentley's "real" intent for the Vue product line, there was a multiyear period after the acquisition where there were no updates. Was this due to the site hack or a lack of funding for Vue in terms of development personnel and dollars as Bentley tried to integrate e-on into their company? Not really sure but from a user perspective, the combination of no updates and lost user accounts really painted an image of an abandoned product. In the 3D software world, those two events can really set you back. For another example, just look at Lightwave's fall from grace as they mis-managed their core update. There is no room for missteps in this industry. Honestly, it is a crying shame because Vue is a great product, and it deserves more love than it got from Bentley. But that is how some acquisitions go: Like a pirate, you take what you want and if what is left is not generating enough revenue to cover its operating costs, you get rid of it. The words companies use to cover that behavior is "maintaining focus". It's not personal....it's business. But here is my belief and a question: There is some very cutting-edge tech in Vue's product's. Their atmosphere and scattering engines are very mature and deliver amazing results. But while these products are "free" and unsupported, they are NOT open source. So, is Bentley willing to still sell the source code to another company? If so, it could be the cheapest technology acquisition any company could make relative to the quality of that technology they are buying. Bentey doesn't want it and might be willing to unload it for pennies on the dollar. Are you listening Maxon? You should at least ask about it. Does C4D have any plans for greater environment creation tools in the future? Remember that C4D was once viewed as a pretty good environment creation tool for matte artists with ProjectionMan. Do they want to get back into that market with landscape, tree and sky creation tools as well? Even if there are no plans to invest in integrating that code into your own products, you will be preventing your competitors from getting it. II wonder if Insydium is looking at purchasing Vue's source code? Insydium is going that way with Taiao and TerraformFX as their particle/fluid products are being attacked by C4D's recent releases. Speaking of Insydium, are they still viewed as a "partner" or a competitor by Maxon? Insydium did once fill an important hole in C4D's tool set, but Maxon is plugging that hole rather quickly. What I find interesting is that Fused products still support Maxon releases all the way back to R19 and R20. That was 7 years ago! Why? Well, maybe there is still a large segment of C4D users who are sticking with perpetual licenses and Fused gives them cutting edge simulation capability with older C4D versions. If Fused is keeping people from moving to MaxonOne, then that makes them a competitor. If Maxon made a big push into environment creation (or prevented technology investments like purchasing Vue's code into environment creation), that would hurt their competitors...especially Insydium. Remember....its not personal....its business. Dave

Excellent work with great results. I kept checking in over the upgrade period to see if Core4D was back or not. I will admit that it was getting a little scary at times especially when one log in attempt gave me this page: Glad those scary days are over!!!! Dave

Chris' YouTube page does have 76 episodes from Season 1 (EP1) through Season 4 (EP18). With a bit of searching on YouTube you can find other Season 4 and Season 5 episodes on YouTube. These later episodes are more easily located on his Patreon Page and as they are YouTube content, you can still play them from there rather than search them on YouTube without being a donor. But honestly, at $2 a month he needs to be supported given how much he supports the community. At $10/month you start to get the scene files. Something to consider if you feel like you are missing out on cool scene assets only available through Maxon One (though they will NOT be the same assets). Chris is an amazing educator. The fact that there is still so much of Chris's content on YouTube is pretty amazing. His "What's New in RXXX" are a staple to the entire community. Just amazing how much content he can pack into those in such a clear and concise way. We've just come to expect his video to be immediately available within hours of each C4D release which (I am sure) puts a lot of pressure on Chris to create it. We should not take for granted all the work he puts into them. The 4-hour session on 2024.4 was pure gold. Dave As an aside: There is a simple trick to see how much your content means to the community: Change people's expectations and don't produce the "What's New" videos like clockwork and wait for the reaction. If "What's new in R2025" did not come out within 2 weeks of R2025's release, there would definitely be a huge buzz about what if anything happened (IMHO). From people asking questions in the forums to checking the obituaries and local area hospitals. I honestly believe there would be that level of concern. (BTW: Same goes for EJ as well).

I thought maybe you could get around this by using a vertex color map that used a solid field to feed it a texture....but alas, it did not work.

100% agree. Elegant and endless. The opportunities for exploration are mind boggling. You could even tell during Chris' 4 hour video that he was struggling to decide what to discuss simply because all the possibilities with the new particle system are difficult to wrap your head around. The best analogy I can think of is being handed 8 musical notes and then realizing all the music that you could make with it. Amazing! Dave Not sure if Chris follows Core4D but I do wish he got the 4K version posted. So far, I can only find the low rez version on YouTube and was hoping the 4K version would be posted on his website. Also, with ALL the new capability that has been added to C4D since Recall was released with S22, has there been any testing of Recall with R2024.4?

As the 7950X is unlocked for over-clocking, if you intend to do that than you might want to rethink the fan based cooler and move to liquid cooling. Even without over-clocking, the AMD spec sheet recommends liquid cooling for optimal performance. Personally, I am not a fan of over-clocking from a long-term reliability perspective. One other thing I tried to find out about is whether the 9750X supports 4 or 8 channel multi-channel memory configurations. If it is 4, then you are well configured. If is 8 (which I am beginning to doubt as only their older CPU's support that....I think), then you might want to consider 8 x 16Gb modules. Relative to wedging in an older GPU.....my understanding is that the memory configurations need to match for most programs to appropriately manage passing data to both GPU's. I could be completely wrong about this. Given that it is 5+ years old GPU, my gut is telling me that it may be more trouble than it is worth. Relative to additional drives, a separate boot drive is nice but you may want to consider either an internal or external RAID 1 SATA drive for long term - and cheap - asset storage. I hate cluttering my high-priced SSD's with assets that I am not using. Not sure if fluids are in your future, but those caches can get huge (more than 300Gb are easily possible for a 30 second animation) and you may want to keep as much free space on the SSD for holding multiple versions of cache until the job is finished. After that, delete them and moved the finished scene to the SATA drive for archiving. Another option to consider is cloud storage --- though I have never looked into the long-term cost-benefit analysis of renting cloud storage vs. my own RAID set-ups. Another consideration to throw into the mix is that upload/download speeds from the cloud can match the R/W speeds from a SATA drive provided you are on a premium service plan from your ISP. There have been debates on this in the past...which I hope not to repeat here. Given the cost of the system, have you also considered putting some money into a very good combination surge protector/UPS. Your UPS needs to provide at least 85% of the wattage coming from your power supply for however long you think you will need to complete a frame render, exit the software and power down safely. I have separate UPS for the monitors and my workstation as they each have different power consumption needs. I also have a separate one for the modem/router/IP phone. Kind of nice to be on a conference call, have the lights kick-out then tell everyone that we need to wrap this up in 20 minutes before I go completely off-line. Of course, if you have high confidence in the reliability of your power company, a UPS may not be justified....but still think about a power conditioner/surge protector. Dirty power is always an issue (run the clothes dryer, and you get a spike. Refrigerator or boiler kicks in, you get a spike, etc). It all helps with longevity. Overall, your configuration and price are very good! You are definitely getting a monster for a fair price (IMHO). Dave

This whole thread is very entertaining!!!!!

Paul (and I got his name correct this time 😁) is a class act. I would never imagine he would talk about turmoil or intrigue from a company he gave 25 years of his life to and help turn into what it is today. Personally, I am sorry to see his departure from Maxon. I was also sorry to see Per Anders leave as well. But it is what it is and all we can do is wish them the best. Dave P.S. +1 for The Laurel Canyon Band. Californian rock from the 60's and 70's was the best!!! Rock music today can't hold a candle to it (IMHO). Just look as its longevity ---- 50 years is it?

Congratulations Vector!!!! That is a major accomplishment and well deserved!! When you look at the close-up photos and see all the details, you realize the amount of work that was involved not only in modelling (how did you curve back the shoe's tongue?) but the texturing as well. Amazing!!!! Dave

Quite happy to feel the angst only because it always leads to something good. But...with that said....I would have preferred that the photo was of a STRONG cup of coffee being POURED into the glass. Not sure what is in the glass.....it looks like the vinegar you use to clean the coffee pot. So not the most encouraging click bait of what is to come. But as the angst always leads to something good, I am going to assume it is a shot glass of tequila. Don Julio 1942 perhaps? Probably not as it is too light but I still like the idea of it being my favorite drink. Dave P.S. Is tequila big in Germany? I do a lot of business in Mexico and that is where I developed my appreciation for good tequila. One of the more memorable moments was drinking "the Mexican flag" cocktail (a shot of lime, tequila and grenadine which represent the green, white and red colors of the Mexican flag) while a co-worker raised in Guadalajara and a bit of a historian was explaining the history of the Mexican emblem on their flag. That was pretty cool.

Nice touch managing the reflection of the person holding the phone in the render. I looked for that as its absence would be a clear indication of it being faked. Honestly, I did not see it so I am glad they pointed it out.