Started work on the corner coffee shop. this is where a great deal of the action will take place

Steve

Nice details so far!

The chair back looks uncomfortable, is that based on a real one?

But it's looking good.

Thanks. Based on a real one but I was going to raise the back and bend it back


Steve

Been pretty busy at work, but I have a question about glass. Is there some settings on the forum that gives realistic glass?

Steve

Aside from refraction (not a huge issue in flat planes of glass) the reflection of glass is other main thing.

Glass reflection is not uniform. Looking flat at it, it has fairly little reflection, maybe 10-20%. Seen on edge it is almost completely reflective, maybe 90%.


In A:M you can do this with a gradient combiner material, setting the first attribute to ~20% transparency and the other to ~90% and setting the "Edge Threshold" to 50%.

A very large or antique pane of glass with probably have some deviation from absolute flatness. "Roughness" can do that with the "Scale" set quite large.

Click to view attachment

Another element is that the reflection from the glass will be two if you're close enough. One from the front surface and one from the back.

And if the windows is dirty that can mess the reflections up too.

Robert Thanks. That worked well.

Steve

Finally starting to come along. I was having trouble with chor in which everytime i rendered a change i completed it still would render the previous output. Deleted the chor and then it worked

Steve

Looks great so far, Steve!

Especially like the reflection of the umbrella, table in the 2nd image.

Do all the glass panes have the same settings? I keep thinking there should be reflections in all the windows, especially the window with woman standing in front. Or is my mind deceiving me, and is the image technically correct?

It's looking pretty nice, Steve. I would say that the chair seats seem low relative to the table tops.

Thanks David.

Nancy, I think it was the reflection of the ground the windows were getting. I moved the girl infront of the glass and seems to be working

Gerry, the seats were too low and the table top was too high and I have corrected.

Thanks

Steve

nice new windows!

Are those done with transparent AO or not?

Just AO. I am going to buy fake AO just have not done it yet. How does it work in animations?

Almost done with exterior, got the interior of the first floor to put in. Curtains on upper. Have to build an escape stairs on back.

Steve

No, I meant the "transparent AO" option that regular AO has. The one that says (Slow!) I wondered if maybe with all the glass you had tried it.

But i guess that means you used regular AO without the transparent AO.


FakeAO is based on the depth map so it can't do transparent AO. But animation isn't a problem for Fake AO.

Sorry just ao not trasparent. Thanks Robert

ooooh, i'm liking this! looks like you left yourself a spot for an old-timey sign up above the door between the 2 windows...? Yes, FastAO works well with animation.

Matt you got it. working on the design of the logo now. I have my nephew ( graphic design artist) tasked with this logo.

Steve

I am trying to add a decal to the glass with alpha channel. The glass has a material that Robert gave an example of. When I apply the decal it seems to take on the characteristics of the decal transperancy. Any ideas.

Steve

Try using cookie-cut on a separate, floating patch.

OR- make another copy-paste of the window pane with 0% transparency... offset it ever-so-slightly in front (or maybe behind) your existing glass, and use the cookie-cut.

I find that when I use the cookie cut on a surface that is mostly transparent (like your glass) that the cookie-cut decal is only as visible as the glass is... which is 'not very'. This is a work-around I have used many times.

Thanks for the help Matt and Paul

Got the sign in place

Will we find out who lives above the store?

Looking good!

Roof details and the trick that Matt and Paul talked about, worked just fine

Looks great Steve! Can't wait to see it textured.

What a cool set!
I hope you get a lot of use out of it.
So many possibilities.

Thanks guys.

Mark I could really use your help on texturing of buildings. I really like the way you did your set.

Working on the stairs and safety ladder now. The rest of the city block will not have this detail. Half the short will take place here in and around the coffee shop

Steve

Sure, just let me know what you have in mind.

thanks Mark, will let you know!

Stairs in on the back and the saftey ladder will finish the exterior

Steve

Not sure but I think I have duplicate glass on the upstairs will have to do some investigation to why the back glass is rendering dark like that.

Also noticed that the height of the second floor was off by a foot. So I raised the roof by a foot. You can notice the difference in the front and back renders



Steve

That extra height helps. When I saw the ac unit I wondered about the thickness of the roof/ceiling. The added height remedies that.

You are right Gerry. Something kept eating at me but could not figure it. That is why I kept doing renders. I had the marker set but modeled the roof line to the same size as the ceiling line of the second floor

Ok a lot of mysteries solved today. Even though not much modeling was completed, I was able to figure out some problems. I guess it was late one night and I had duplicated the entire upstairs and then pasted it on top of the first floor. I deleted one of the duplicates but there were three. So I have deleted all the un necessary copies. Also the glass on the second floor is now in place. The floor is dark so with AO the windows are not showing through. In previous uploads there was no glass in some of the windows so that is why the shades were showing.

Anyway lot of things corrected. On the back go the openings to the roof for run off completed. got the guttering into place and finally onto the interior!

Steve

Looks good Steve.

Thanks Mark!

I placed the building on the city block and, well I goofed. I intended the building to be 20 wide by 30 long with a small area in the back of the building. I made the building only 20 x 20. I have added ten ft and rendering now and will show the area later

Steve

looks terrific

Thanks Nancy!

Installed v 16 and started back today.. Rendered the starting of the interior but this is what I got. Going to keep playing in hopes that AO is not broken

Steve

After several renders ao continues to render with lines and with artifacts. I have used the same model to render with. Has anyone else used ao with the release of version 16?

Steve

What is your AO resolution-setting in the rendering-options?
(not quite sure what it is called right now. You can find it by clicking on AO in the rendersettings. Under AO you will find a setting which is very likely at 30%.
Setting it to a higher level should minimize the patterns on your model but will increase the rendertimes.

See you
*Fuchur*

Thanks for the note I will give that a try. But it is the same settings I had before purchasing the release version.

does it render correct if you go back to version 15? Make sure you don't have a duplicate model in there. I have seen similar render artifacts when I have hit [E] by accident

Thanks Stian. I will give another look. That was my first thought. I duplicated several items and the worst area of artifacting is the duplicated items. I will make sure there is not two copies.

Steve

this is looking nice Steve. I really like the detailing in the fire escape.

Thanks Gerry!

I simply deleted the portion of the model that was causing the problem. I re-copied and everything seems to be ok. The thing I have noticed though in the release version compared to RC2 is that same shot rendered a lot slower under the release. RC2 rendered 6:20 and version 16 rendered 9:35

Just a note

Ok the extension is on and it fits in the city scene now. I have been working on the interior, borrowing, begging and modeling the furniture. Working on the counter now.

Here is the shot with a test texture that will have to be worked on the canopy

Steve

Just fantastic work. Really inspiring!

Thanks Chris