Kevin Posted November 5, 2014 Share Posted November 5, 2014 I'm trying to recreate a similar look to the hexagonal objects in the video/images in this link. http://abduzeedo.com/motion-graphics-murata-yuzi I'm not too sure what program that they are using but I have done a simple mock-up of one of those hexes along with a couple "neon tubes". The problem that I'm having is simulating that neon glow. Any suggestions how to create a similar effect or look in FormZ and Renderzone would be appreciated. Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted November 5, 2014 Share Posted November 5, 2014 Hi Kevin, How about using a Material Reflection with a Glow factor, and a Center Edge Transparency (with a high edge transparency value)? If you need to simulate light coming from the objects, perhaps a technique similar to what is described here will help? http://wip.formz.com/forum/old/messages/16/13651.html Alternately, if you really need the objects to emit light, make them with as few polygons as possible, select it, edit a light, and change the Light Type to Area Light. Note that this will add more to the render times than the previous methods though... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Posted November 5, 2014 Author Share Posted November 5, 2014 Thanks for your response. I need for the object to emit light, as they are the only source of light (along with minimal ambient light) for the scene. I also need to have the objects present to represent the tubes. Thank you for your help though. I'm in the midst of trying a couple test renders and can see what you mean about the drastic increase in rendering times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Montoya Posted November 5, 2014 Share Posted November 5, 2014 I'd use a transparency map if you are struggling with rendering times. It's a good bit of work on custom shaped objects but... For just plain circular or straight illuminated objects are pretty easy to simulate using transparency maps if you can create or find some to use for those applications. I won't go into all that here... If you have a little extra rendering time, Line lights work great for this, but you need to understand how to set them up, as they are not very intuitive. First, you just need a closed line outline (surface) of the shape you are trying to represent as a light tube. This is pretty easy to create using the 2D Surface tool from a 3D object (light tube), or you can draw a new 2d surface on top of the 3d object. Then select that surface and create a new Line light. Try Falloff of Linear Unclamped, and TURN OFF SHADOWS. Adjust the Radius to 2" or so for small LED like effects, or larger if it's more Architectural in scale. Quality down to Zero. Play with the color of the light to fine tune. Each one of these lights will definitely add to rendering times, and is one area where our RenderZone engine could use a substantial boost... hint hint FormZ Support. Hope that helps! If it does, please share a shot or two so everyone can benefit. Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shibui Design Posted November 6, 2014 Share Posted November 6, 2014 Here is a .fmz file with two line lights. One just has to experiment with the various parameters to achieve the propper effect. This does add significantly to render times, but when done properly has a nice effect. This is one area where I wish there was a much faster and simpler way. lighting setup.fmz.zip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted November 6, 2014 Share Posted November 6, 2014 Hi Env, If you reduce the Quality of the Line Lights (from the Parameters Tab of the Light Parameters), this will then render faster without much change in the lighting in this case. You can also reduce the AO Quality and the file will render faster yet: lighting setup.fmz8.Copy.fmz.zip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Montoya Posted November 6, 2014 Share Posted November 6, 2014 Thanks Tech! Do you think you could ask the RenderZone engine developers if there is a way to increase the rendering speed on these types of lights in the future? Having some sort of GPU + CPU rendering ability would be HUGE!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Posted November 19, 2014 Author Share Posted November 19, 2014 Hello everyone, I've tried a couple options and haven't been able to get the results that I'm trying to get. I've attached an image of a compiled render but, as you can see, it's a far cry from the source material that I'm trying to recreate from the link in my original post (http://abduzeedo.com/motion-graphics-murata-yuzi). The light 'tubes' use a custom shader based on the suggestions. The scene is lit by a single ambient light and uses a .hdr map. Any suggestions to get closer to the result that I'm going for without adding exponentially to the render times would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pylon Posted November 20, 2014 Share Posted November 20, 2014 Maxwell is good at this type of thing. Below is a quick test-- a single rendering, 4 minutes 13 seconds.After rendering, I enabled simulens 'diffaction.' And saved the image with the diffraction value at 800, 1250, and 1800. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Posted November 20, 2014 Author Share Posted November 20, 2014 Thanks Pylon but I'm trying to recreate this in RenderZone. It seems to always come back to the point that, while I enjoy FormZ as a modelling application, its limitations with respect to rendering are a constant bone of contention. What probably took you minutes to do has taken me exponentially longer... and still no where close to the result that I'm looking for. Thank you for you help/suggestions with this. Maxwell is a program that I've looked at in the past but it just isn't feasible for me to purchase at the moment. The more I get involved with rendering, the more I'm realizing that I need a secondary renderer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Malinski Posted November 20, 2014 Share Posted November 20, 2014 ?? Photoshop? The original images and animation shown in your link were obviously done in post probably using After Effects (likely from a C4D base model)..... If you want to reproduce similar stills using renderzone, you could produce the base in renderzone and touch up in photoshop. You don't need fantastic ps skills for this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Posted November 20, 2014 Author Share Posted November 20, 2014 Thanks Martin. That's was I ended up doing just for the "depth of field" effect. I was just hoping to be able to streamline the process without having to do a number of additional steps in Photoshop. My hope was to get a couple scenes set up and render them... leaving little to do in post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Montoya Posted November 20, 2014 Share Posted November 20, 2014 I think the problem you are running into is there needs to be a material around the light for the line/area light to bounce off of. With RenderZone, I'm not sure there is a way around this? Typically when I've used them successfully, there were other nearby objects for the light to reflect off. I thought the GLOW function would work this way, but apparently not... Maybe Tech support can chime in here on how to make that work with RenderZone. My only other thoughts would be for you to put a 95-99% transparent plane behind each tube section as a backdrop, and then crank up the line light so it can be picked up on the mostly transparent plane behind it. Let me know how that works out if you try it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
setz Posted November 21, 2014 Share Posted November 21, 2014 Maxwell images look pretty nice to me. Zero post is a huge benefit. Render time is very reasonable. There must be a very strong reason to try to make RZ work for this image. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Posted November 21, 2014 Author Share Posted November 21, 2014 Hi Setz, There is a very strong reason... I don't own Maxwell and I can't afford to get it for this project. Also... the reason why I would like to do this work in FormZ and not Photoshop is because, while I will be using images in a printed document, I was also planning on having some looping animations in a presentation. I think I've just come to a situation where my limited knowledge/experience with these applications is butting up against the limitations of Renderzone itself. Had I known that what I was attempting would have been overly difficult or complicated with the programs that I have... I would have probably changed up what I was doing or used different programs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
setz Posted November 23, 2014 Share Posted November 23, 2014 Yeah, Maxwell is a costly option. Is it possible to use the trial version? - I'm not familiar with the limitations. If you will be doing much rendering Maxwell really is phenomenal. It's easy to use, pretty fast and has beautiful results. If there is any way you can justify buying it now, it is on sale till the end of the year - 25% off I believe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 Gentlemen, Rendering with Glowing Line Lights is certainly possible. Please see the attached file: Neon_Glow.zip It does add some time to the rendering, but that is as expected. Does this help? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Posted November 24, 2014 Author Share Posted November 24, 2014 Thanks for the post Tech. The image looks great but I can't open the file for some reason. I'm assuming because it was made in version 8. I'll have to see what the settings are and how much time it'll add to the rendering process as it might be cost prohibitive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 Hi Kevin, You should be able to open that file in the v8 Trial, but here is a copy saved as v7: Neon_Glow.Copy.zip In all honesty though, something like you show above will probably be easier to do using Maxwell Render... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Posted November 24, 2014 Author Share Posted November 24, 2014 Thank you for your candid response Tech. As much as I would love to be able to do everything in FormZ, I have to realize that there are always going to be limitations to programs... and that's where programs like Maxwell, etc. come in. Looks like I may have to come up with another idea and/or tweak it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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