United3dArtists Archive

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 21 Oct 2014, 20:35

Manta Seatrans has served your transportation needs above and below the waves for over 40 years. Our new Manta Submarine Ferry provides short to mid-range service for local and regional travelers. Economical, comfortable, modern and you will love the view through the new transparent Biome(tm) shell. Manta Submarine Ferries are already in service on ferry routes and as charters and are receiving very positive reviews.

The ferry's nearly silent gravity propelled water jet drive provides nearly limitless range when powered by feeding on plankton, fish, plants, or sifting silt for food or using the optional compact fusion source or both. The Biome(tm) shell can flex for swimming and reconfigure for hydroplaning in high speed surface mode. The Biome(tm) material is largely self repairing, healing, when provided the needed materials through feeding or from a RayFixR(tm) pack.

This versatile ferry vehicle is capable of use beyond is designed purpose. Customization available. Imagine what we can do for you! Contact Manta Seatrans today!

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 22 Oct 2014, 13:44

Trying to make a semi-manta ray shape for the ferry sub in Hexagon. Gordon surface seems like a good tool for that. No non-experimental results yet. I plan to render in Daz or Bryce.

If you have Daz check your account. There is more free stuff. The Genesis 2 figures don't have any free morphs to change their expressions or body shape. The free figures are equipped as surfers which works for this project. I won't use Daz figures in the challenge entry, if allowed, because voters might think I made them but there will be images for fun too.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 23 Oct 2014, 01:28

I succeeded at making a manta-like Gordon surface but it is too detailed. Interesting though. Unexpected details appeared. I'll make something simpler and less biological for the ferry.

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 23 Oct 2014, 02:23

Manta ray is looking good

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 24 Oct 2014, 17:38

Thanks. That was too much like a creature though.

Good old box modeling in Hexagon. Make a cube and edited to fit it to a top view outline. Then edited for rest of shape. The Bridge tool plus some editing make the tubes for the propulsion water. The top perspective view has the orange man for scale.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 01 Nov 2014, 16:57

Render tests in Bryce. Daz/3Delight probably could do better glass/transparent renders but I have found it difficult to control and the interfaces to 3Delight clumsy. Bryce's interface has its quirks and unusual design but so far I'm finding Bryce better for this. I would have liked DAZ for the non-challenge pictures with people since Bryce makes them look like mannequins.

Finding free underwater, or any underwater, HDRI's has proven difficult as has finding good panoramas or spherical images (Mercator projections for a regular sphere texture).

This will be difficult to render with the transparencies, volumetrics for underwater look, and making the ferry look transparent while also showing its suface. I want its outer surface smooth but visual clues will be needed so it will probably get a displacement or bump map. That could enhance its "bio-machine" nature though.

The UV's need work. Although a real vessel like this would be great with a transparent floor that is just confusing for these images so it will get an opaque floor. The side view for passengers looks through the "wings". That looks better than I thought it would. I'll try using just a little refraction instead of glass-like to reduce distortion.

clintonman · Post by **clintonman** » 01 Nov 2014, 18:34

This reminds me of the flying sub from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. When I was a kid I had a plastic model of it.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 01 Nov 2014, 21:34

It does! I had a Seaview toy powered by a rubber band. Wind it up and the band turned the propeller.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 02 Nov 2014, 04:57

Accidental art created in Daz. Trying to render the ferry with a good transparent effect for the shell, applied Omni Environment Light, and this appeared. Looks like a book cover.

Omni Environment Light is how you get photon mapped GI in Daz. I tried to make my own when I first got Daz but then discovered it was already done.

The Daz glass material doesn't have bump or displacement but looks good. Uber surface material has everything but I can't get it to look like glass.

Here is a Bryce question. In the Bryce materials lab on the material options menu there are options Normal, Blend Transparency, Fuzzy, and Light. What does Light do?

darkmage · Post by **darkmage** » 02 Nov 2014, 20:37

Finis wrote:Here is a Bryce question. In the Bryce materials lab on the material options menu there are options Normal, Blend Transparency, Fuzzy, and Light. What does Light do?

As far as I remember it either makes it invisible or a sort of flat transparent (not sure which).

Just try it and see.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 02 Nov 2014, 23:08

Thanks darkmage. Just selecting it has the effect you described well of "flat transparent". That doesn't seem useful so I think it is like Blend Transparency. I think something else needs to be done too to get an effect. But what else and what effect? I hoped it make the material a light emitter. I did not find anything about it on the web. I'll ask on the Daz/Bryce forums. Probably not something I can use for this project but I'm curious now.

I got a decent glass effect in Daz using Glossy Plastic shader. Looking better for rendering in Daz which I would prefer.

Wasn't I going to wait until I learn Blender to do more CG projects? As Dragneye once wrote, "I must create or I will melt".

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 03 Nov 2014, 04:55

Getting there with Daz. The default shader is working best for me now. Doesn't look good from inside yet. Still learning. These took about a minute to render at low quality settings.

The bottom view shows the water jet tubes. More ray bounces needed. It will get something to help show the surface. Maybe some diffuse color or glossiness.

Since the challenge is for interiors I won't make machinery unless I've finished a good interior view. Then I'll do that and add another ferry above the main one. That will show the engines and so forth and have an interior and exterior view in one picture.

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 03 Nov 2014, 17:28

Hehe, the background images are... pulling me out of the immersion.

But I do love it! Beautiful glass work, the model and the design. Really looking forward to the final!

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 04 Nov 2014, 04:06

Not many people working on entries. Is it just me and James?

I got the glass like effect I wanted. The finished item will have less diffuse and gloss. Just enough to make the object visible without the refraction. Displacement works with the material but I'll avoid that if possible. The non GI render took minutes. The GI one took about an hour and is on lower quality settings. The GI made little difference on the ferry. I might think of ways to render parts of the picture and assemble them post process to save render time.

Daz doesn't have volumetrics or atmosphere. There is stuff you can buy to do it not native to it. A free thing that comes with it will simulate volume lighting but the camera can't be inside the object it uses. That means either do the picture without volume effects, rays, to give the underwater look or do it in Bryce. Maybe I can make an environment image with Bryce and its volumetrics and put that on a sphere in Daz.

Render time would be centuries anyway with transparency, GI, and volumetrics.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 04 Nov 2014, 20:20

Animation of the ferry swimming. Rigged and animated in Daz. Normally the ferry uses its gravity generators to move water through the jet tubes for propulsion and subtle variations of its shape to steer but it can swim when needed.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 06 Nov 2014, 16:48

Company Logo

MikomDude · Post by **MikomDude** » 06 Nov 2014, 17:02

That's really cool Finis!

Dragneye · Post by **Dragneye** » 06 Nov 2014, 19:33

Really cool Finis.
'Welcome to the Abyss'

Your logo is cool also. I would think that if they are muted colors, underwater they would become a type of cammo.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 08 Nov 2014, 15:38

Thanks!

How would people enter or exit this? A manta ray style mouth in front would work and be big enough for cargo or vehicles. Not sure I like the look of that. They could walk over the wings to openings in the sides. Other ideas?

MikomDude · Post by **MikomDude** » 08 Nov 2014, 19:40

Airlock at the top maybe?

Dragneye · Post by **Dragneye** » 11 Nov 2014, 04:42

I agree with Mikom. When surfaced, the only good choice is the top.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 11 Nov 2014, 05:30

Yeah, top. A door won't be needed for the interior image but I want to make one for other images. I'll try a large opening in front on the upper surface above the water line of course. That will still look like a mouth but it has to be.

Side openings would require docks where a wing can fit under the dock to bring a door close or walking or driving over a wing. It is 255 feet wide so that's a good walk in rain, wind. The material isn't necessarily strong enough to support vehicles on the wings.

No hydroplaning configuration. With the water jet tubes on the bottom it would have no propulsion with the main body out of the water.

This one is a people transporter. I'm working on the seats now.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 12 Nov 2014, 16:06

Seats. The seats have storage under them, maybe a table, and TV/computer/phone screens that fold or retract out of the way. I'll make a curved bench in this style too. It can replace a set of 4 seats.

The triangular-ish areas at the ends of a set of seats (see top view) will be for storage of passenger items. I'll model a few items (bags, surfboards) for the challenge image and probably put Daz people in other images.

Not sure what to do for tables (triangles here). Might leave them out. The TV/computer/phone screen will probably slide out from the end of the backrest and pivot for viewing maybe on a mount arm for further positioning buy the passenger. There is a screen on both sides of the screen panel.

The screens and the lower part of the backrest will emit light if render time permits and it would be visible in the picture. The backrest light could

If I have time and ambition there will be areas with seats and benches and a standing area with poles (for shorter distance travelers). The poles will have 3 or 4 small seats attached radially.

pugman 1 · Post by **pugman 1** » 12 Nov 2014, 16:22

Looking cool ,keep going man

spacekdet · Post by **spacekdet** » 12 Nov 2014, 19:20

Jeez, give that guy a towel. Other people have to sit there, you know!

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 13 Nov 2014, 04:28

Thanks Pugman1. Spacekdet, there, this one's got clothes.

Testing the light emitting materials and render time in Daz. The image with the figure took 21 minutes to render but it has artifacts that need higher quality settings. I think the challenge image's light will be too bright for the light emitters to make a difference but it does work. I'll probably not use the light emitter on the TV/computer/phone screen. The GI works on the emitter light.

To make the light emitting material in Daz apply Uber Area Light Base to the surface. That will add controls for the light to the surface. The light controls will be on the surface tab not the light tab. The UALB makes the surface emit light but you have to use the ambient light surface settings to make the surface appear bright.

One chair image has only the emitter lights and one has them plus a sun light, GI, and soft shadows.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 13 Nov 2014, 17:03

The render artifacts were caused by me setting the GI light's shadow bias to zero. Giving it a small bias had the desired effect with no artifacts. They were most visible on the legs of the seat in the previous post image with figure but were everywhere with brighter light. Shadow bias sometimes separates the shadow from the object. Lower settings fix that. The default is usually good.

With brighter light the material light emitter effect is subtle. If I use it for finished images then only seats near the camera will have it and only a few seats will have the light on.

GI is from Omni Environment light in bounce light mode. This mode bounces light from other sources but the OEL doesn't produce light.

I removed transparency from the figure's hair which reduces render time a lot.

This render has good settings for quality and took 18 minutes. Super quality render settings will despeckle the image but salt and pepper noise remover filter in Paint Shop works fine.

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 14 Nov 2014, 02:08

Beautiful renders, love the way the light is filling things out.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 15 Nov 2014, 05:17

Thanks Draise.

I decided not to have the screens or tables attached to the seats. I don't like the way that looks. There can be a separate tablet PC left on a seat. Characters can hold them in the non-challenge images. Eventually, long after the challenge, I might add a vending machine area with tables.

The bench is trouble. The banana shape of the seat makes it hard to resize it. Hexagon uses the object's pivot point as the center of scaling and other operations. That distorts stuff. Moving the pivot point hasn't helped much. I need to make the edge of the seat overlap it's frame so no light gets through there. Good thing that Hexagon has several SDS methods. Some worked and others made shapes that converged on the pivot point. So did the Coon's surface function which is how I got a mesh on the chair seat.

Oh! I know what to do now. I selected the inner loop of edges on the frame and extracted a curve from that. That was the beginning of the seat. I'll select a different, larger, loop of edges and rebuild the seat.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 15 Nov 2014, 21:37

That was not easy. Here is the bench. 14 minutes render then post process to brighten and despeckle.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 17 Nov 2014, 07:05

About a quarter million polygons of chairs and benches. Render time 16 minutes. This is straight from Daz except for resizing and adding logos. Now to put the seats in the sub and add an outside scene.

There will be more color for the seats. I should rearrange them. This arrangement doesn't show them off well.

Ideas? There should be more types of objects or features to add interest. I'll model some bags, surf boards, etc. but what items or features could the ferry have?

Photographers help please. This picture looks distorted. The standing characters are 6 feet (1.83 meters) tall. The sitting character is slightly shorter. She looks tiny and Purple Dress (from my Golden Age picture) looks much taller than Surf Guy. What camera settings would you use to photograph this scene? Daz has camera settings focal length (mm), focal distance (unknown units but easy to place using UI), F stop.

jamesmc · Post by **jamesmc** » 17 Nov 2014, 16:46

Finis wrote:About a quarter million polygons of chairs and benches. Render time 16 minutes. This is straight from Daz except for resizing and adding logos. Now to put the seats in the sub and add an outside scene.

Nice!

There isn't an instance generator in the software you are using? That would save a ton of poly-overhead imo.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 17 Nov 2014, 16:55

Thanks James! Daz Studio has instancing but it didn't work well in vs. 4.5. I have 4.6 now (check your Daz account for new free stuff) so maybe it has been improved. Daz is not good at precise placement of items either so I placed the seats in Hexagon. I did drag them with a grid reference though so I guess that would work as well in Daz.

Here is the seating layout. Changing it. The floor is the bottom of the passenger part which is the inner bubble seen in earlier clear shell pictures.

Also a test with the submarine's transparent shell in place. Reflection and refraction look ok. There will be an opaque floor in the passenger zone. I'll add a displacement map to the ceiling to help define that shape and space.

Dragneye · Post by **Dragneye** » 17 Nov 2014, 21:58

Nice work Finis. Just realized its much bigger than I thought from looking at the exterior shots.

My guess is to drop the camera a bit. If it helps, the distortion is from 'fish-eyeing' perspective - the smaller number (average lens is abt 40-50 mm) makes it more fisheye warped, but you get a wider view. Also distance of item to camera affects distortion. The further away from foreground object the camera is, the more 'leveling' between near and far objects.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 19 Nov 2014, 04:36

@Dragneye: 40mm looked better but the camera is close to them. I'll arrange the scene so it can be father.

@James: I tried instances and had mixed results. The MantaU3DATempSeatsFigs.jpg (see earlier post) took 16 minutes but using instances of the seats took 20 minutes. Without the GI lighting each took 28 seconds. However I was able to use huge amounts of instances in another test. I did a test with 300 instances of the full set of seats. (1000 crashed my GeForce GT 610) That rendered in 10 minutes (no GI no people just seats) even though it used all 8GB of memory and started virtual memory with 100% disk usage. So, I think there is no time savings but there may be an ability to use large numbers of copies. I vaguely remember reading that Daz's instances aren't really instances.

Given 28 seconds vs. 20 minutes (one hour with GI and transparent shell) I might try traditional lighting instead of GI.

Edit: Here is what I have learned about reducing render time in DAz Studio.

-

No GI lighting. Traditional lighting is very fast vs. GI. Seconds vs. minutes.

-

Instances. Unpredictable. I'll count them as not useful vs. render time. They may allow larger numbers of copies in a scene.

-

Geometry shells of characters*. I found no difference in render time.

-

Shaders. Daz characters use the complex Uber Surface shader for realistic effects like SSS. The default shader renders in half the time. The realism is not needed for characters or objects in the background or in some scenes. The eye surfaces won't look right with the default shader.

-

Hair. Turning off transparency is the main time saver for hair. This is not good for final images. It looks like my test renders above. Of course turning off the hair visibility is best for tests.

-

Render settings. These settings work for me for nearly finished quality for computer screen display. I think print or cinema or very HD would require more.
--- Progressive rendering - Turn off. Good for a quick look at general lighting though.
--- Bucket size - 128 or maximum. Requires more memory for larger buckets.
--- Max ray trace depth - 3 for most scenes. Higher, even 6 or 7, may be needed for complex transparent or translucent items. This setting has significant effect on render time. Low = fast, high = slow.
--- Pixel samples. 3 for most scenes. Some pixelation or grain artifacts may need higher.
--- Shadow samples. 3 nearly always works for me.
--- Shading rate. Important! This is the main setting for speed vs. quality. Low = quality, High = speed. 1.00 is often good enough, 0.50 or less for best quality but slow, 4+ quick test renders.
--- Pixel filter. Sync.
--- Pixel filter width. 3. Similar to pixel samples for artifacts.

- Uber Environment Light. This light is used to activate photon mapped GI lighting (bounce light mode) or IBL. The main render speed related settings are:
--- Occlusion Samples. Low = fast low quality, high = slow high quality. 8 is often good but much higher is sometimes need. Blotches happen in areas with reflected/bounced light if this is too low.
--- Shading rate. Same as in render settings. This can usually be 1 or even 2 for final renders. 30 is not bad for tests.

* I read that geometry shells, copies of objects, could save time on characters since the shell has no morphs or rigging and associated overhead. The idea is to make a geometry shell copy of a character after posing, texturing, etc. and render that instead of the full character item.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 21 Nov 2014, 05:02

I'm frustrated now. I can't get anything like this image do ... p?id=10820 earlier in the thread. That is what I want for reflections but now I only get reflections of the seats by looking almost straight up. Also the edges of the poylgons in the model appear and countermeasures cause other artifacts.

Why did all my earlier renders look like glass without these artifacts?

Daz objects have the normals pointing inward. Flipping the normals on the shell removes the visible edge effect but causes trouble with the reflections. Daz doesn't have a "double sided" rendering option that I have found.

Since this is no fun this way, is taking too much time, and I'm learning too much about programs that aren't Blender I'll use the method that produces the least render strangeness and go on with modeling more items for the scene.

jamesmc · Post by **jamesmc** » 21 Nov 2014, 22:58

Finis wrote:I'm frustrated now. I can't get anything like this image do ... p?id=10820 earlier in the thread. That is what I want for reflections but now I only get reflections of the seats by looking almost straight up. Also the edges of the poylgons in the model appear and countermeasures cause other artifacts.

Why did all my earlier renders look like glass without these artifacts?

Daz objects have the normals pointing inward. Flipping the normals on the shell removes the visible edge effect but causes trouble with the reflections. Daz doesn't have a "double sided" rendering option that I have found.

Since this is no fun this way, is taking too much time, and I'm learning too much about programs that aren't Blender I'll use the method that produces the least render strangeness and go on with modeling more items for the scene.

Maybe the objects in the scene need to be children of the main object rather than groups or links?

Steve · Post by **Steve** » 22 Nov 2014, 01:34

quarter million polys...

My laptop cries for you. Good luck!

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 22 Nov 2014, 05:07

@James: Thanks. Na wasn't that. I made a mistake and cranked refraction strength up to awesome instead of reflection strength. SDS was needed to. Looks right now.

@Steve: Try 75 million polys in the 300 instances test.

I got render time down to 6 minutes on this interior image with GI on! I think I'll do this with no GI and traditional lighting though. GI can wait for Blender and Cycles. The reason is that I rendered in Daz for realism but I have to simplify the characters, especially their hair, until they look like mannequins. Without GI renders are fast enough to use the full materials.

I discovered two not so good things about Daz characters. I know of no way to move their eyes to focus them on things. They can't be made older. The "child" slider only make them younger. I'm sure there are products to buy that can do that but nothing standard. Make Human can do it but importing to Daz and rigging would be hard.

Now to model more items and put in more seats. I'll make surf boards, bags, maybe a snorkle and flippers. The back wall should have big screens for entertainment and info.

Putting a hexagonal bump on the ceiling helps to define the passenger space, let the viewer know there is a ceiling there without prior background knowledge, and gives a sense of scale. I'd prefer the featureless ceiling but it needs the structure.

Steve · Post by **Steve** » 22 Nov 2014, 23:10

I have a better idea.

I'll let you try 75 million polys and I'll sit here and watch the results!

Good seat details by the way, sorry I'm not able to read all the text you wrote!

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 24 Nov 2014, 03:44

@Steve been there, done that. This is the result do ... p?id=10825. Rendered in 10 minutes (no GI no people simple material just seats) even though it used all 8GB of memory and started virtual memory with 100% disk usage. Most tests showed no help from using instances but this had to be instance magic.

There won't be any people in the challenge entry image.

Getting some good images now. I modeled a vending machine and used the TV/computer/phone I modeled before for the big screens. The first two took 10 to 13 minutes. The people don't have hair because it really increases the render time. The last one is a screen grab from the Daz UI.

Things improved:
- Background image.
- Seat colors.
- Gobo plane to cast shadows simulating caustics from the water surface.
- Hexagonal bump on ceiling.

Things to improve:
- Model more stuff.
- GI bounced light is too strong. Brightens some areas unnaturally.
- Slightly brighter lighting.
- Turn seat back lights on if render time allows.
- Expand background image.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 25 Nov 2014, 03:19

I modeled a surfboard. One came with Daz free stuff but I made my own so I can use it in the challenge. I'll put this model and the textures in my free stuff thread here sometime.

I found that the hair will render in reasonable time with GI if I set ray depth to 1. At 2 it rendered for 1.5 hours with no hair finished. For non-challenge images with the characters I'll try merging a regular render with no hair with a ray depth = 1 render with hair using a mask in Paint Shop.

Surfboards are expensive! Most have fins on the bottom. I'll model them to make the model complete. I made their textures in Paint Shop with the tubes tool and some lines.

doing - Model more stuff.
done - GI bounced light is too strong. Brightens some areas unnaturally.
done - Slightly brighter lighting.
x - Turn seat back lights on if render time allows.
x - Expand background image.
x - Bounced light is too colorful.

What objects should I include? Swim fins? Bags. Two surfers, one resident of Hawaii, a child ready for beach fun. What would items would they have?

I lack the motivation to model snorkel or scuba equipment right now but maybe soon enough for the challenge.

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 25 Nov 2014, 04:04

Very nice! Love the beach feel you are putting into it, very nice. And good renders!

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 29 Nov 2014, 06:35

Thanks!

I changed the background image to wrap around the scene and modeled a toy pail and shovel and a snorkle and mask. I do a beach ball tomorrow and render a challenge entry.

I might do more on this after I learn Blender. Maybe a quick render soon with the ferry surfaced near Elegant Bridge.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 05 Dec 2014, 02:32

Not for the challenge.

Night Cruise

Suggestions? Improvements? Ideas?

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 05 Dec 2014, 13:34

Nice! Like an underwater beach! That moves around! Just... where are the changing rooms/bathrooms?

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 06 Dec 2014, 02:15

Not for the challenge.

@Draise: Thanks! If I continue much with this, mostly after learning enough Blender, I'll put bathrooms and technical spaces behind the back wall where the big screens are. A hallway will replace the vending machine. There will be machinery under the passenger floor such as the gravity generators that propel the water through the jet tubes, fusion reactor, baleen screens and other feeding related things (this model has both), etc. There may be a lounge area above the bathrooms/tech area in back. There is normally no crew on board the ferry but there should be a small control room for them in case needed.

Suggestions, advice, critiques welcome.

Issues I see so far:
- Render is still speckled but that is from time saving render settings.
- Lights on the seat and bench backs should appear brighter (light emission is independent from apparent brightness which is boosted ambiance).
- The toys in the pail might not be recognizable. Can you identify those items?
- The image needs something to be artistic or more artistic. Don't know what. Ideas?

The story, if any, is: the ferry is under way to Poipu Beach, Kauai, Hawaii. The surfers intend to surf there. Lael, from Golden Age, is a resident of Hawaii and is going home. The boy's association with the other characters is deliberately mysterious.

A Bryce image showing an external view with ocean, land, and trees will appear when I feel like doing one.

Otherwise, for Daz users, I found that you can move the character's eyes. Don't recall how.

clintonman · Post by **clintonman** » 06 Dec 2014, 02:34

The people are all in shadows. I would light them up a little bit. It looks like the pale of toys and the front seats are the most noticeable elements in the image. I think it would be better if they were toned down a bit and maybe add some depth of field to defocus them. Also some of the shadows seem a bit dark.

Edit: Oh yeah, I just remembered the whale background is way better than the aquarium background from earlier.

Edit (again): A slightly reflective floor would look nice.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 06 Dec 2014, 19:00

Not for the challenge.

Good points Clintonman. I'll work on those. The scene is supposed to be dark, night cruise, and the bench seat lghts won't be effective if too bright. But there can be more light on the characters. The dark shadows have been a problem with this. GI doesn't bounce much in there with dim lights and exaggerating it makes bounced colors too strong.

Here is a beginning for an external view in Bryce.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 08 Dec 2014, 19:51

Bryce. Submerged parts of the sub look better. Played with the volumetric slab of water and the surface plane. Booleaned the sub out of the slab and plane so water wouldn't be inside of it. Can't see the waves with the sun angle. Might use a different water material.

To do:
- Learn Blender.
- Improve Night Cruise image.
- Model a dock or pier. Walkway out to the sub. Some on land too.
- Add terrains for beaches.
- Submarine material more clear, less or sharper spectacularity. Less glossy.
- Add seats. The instances didn't come over from Daz.
- Passenger floor material.
- Add hexagonal bump to ceiling of passenger area.
- Spread plants on island.
- Work on water materials. Surface more ocean like. Volumetrics less depth visible. Color is right for ocean?
- Work on land material if needed.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 09 Dec 2014, 02:47

Next one. Not much left to do. There is a black band at the horizon due to using a large plane instead of and infinite plane for the ocean surface. Infinite planes didn't work for Booleans.

Bryce:
- Recent versions have GI lighting called True Ambiance.
- Set Priority to high in the render options for much faster rendering.

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 09 Dec 2014, 16:25

That's quite cool! Nice terrain and water and the system all put right in there. Pretty. It's a very shiny craft though?

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 15 Dec 2014, 02:56

I changed the sub's material to make it more clear. Now I like the material from the previous image better. I'll try to restore that material.

Here are images with sun light, IBL from the sky, and true ambiance (GI). I added a pier and two DAZ figures. Surf Guy is on the pier and Beach Baby is on the beach to the right of the sub. The pier is modular so I could fit it to the land. Changed various details and moved trees so their roots aren't so exposed. This is in Bryce. Some brightness and contrast in Paint Shop.

Thanks Draise. It is shiny. It should be sort of like glass except for the passenger area floor.

Edit 12-20-14: Replaced aerial view with a new one. Bryce. 2 hr 55 min render time with more glassy material, higher poly submarine mesh, and rays per pixel 36. Some brightness and contrast in Paint Shop.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 16 Dec 2014, 17:00

Night Cruise

Adjusted considering Clintonman's critique.
- Added light. Can't make it too bright since it is a night scene. 1.5 hours render time with sun light, area light from gobo plane above, area lights from the seats, and GI bouncing.
- Different view point and moved pail and toys.
- More light lightened shadows slightly.
- Reflection on floor. Would look nice but I think I'll go to the daylight scene now.

Paint shop for slightly increased brightness and contrast.

Dragneye · Post by **Dragneye** » 16 Dec 2014, 23:20

Bravissimo!
Very cool image and viewpoint.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 20 Dec 2014, 16:27

Thanks Dragneye. I may render one with more ray depth and HQ filter settings (Daz Studio). There are some artifacts on the hex bump on the ceiling.

I made a new render of the outdoor view from above and replaced the image in the earlier post with 3 outdoor images. Glassy texture for sub. Higher poly mesh. Three hours worth of 36 rays per pixel rendering.

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 22 Dec 2014, 03:54

Looking great! I just got back from a holiday, the forums went wild! Love it. And I'm happy you are finetuning your skills here. It's looking good - love the pictures and compositions you're doing. They just keep on getting better.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 26 Jun 2015, 04:04

Here are some render tests in Daz with the Iray renderer. One has three light emitting globes simulating lights near the ceiling. One has one light globe and the colorful wall is a light. One has one light globe and the seat lights and architectural mode on. That one is 6% complete but looks good.

Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry

Re: Challenge - LVI Manta Submarine Ferry