Open Rendering Season Contest 2016

[Ken Gilliland]

Yes, all my downloads were moved to my store pages in the website makeover a couple months ago. It made sense to me to put everything in one spot (Product link to buy, the PDF manual, any updates or free downloads and any promo movies) rather than it spread into 3 different places like it used to be.

The main link to the store is: http://www.empken.com/store. This page also holds my "Merchandise" links (Bird T-shirts, Mugs, etc) on the bottom row, which is offered as prizes for this contest.

I do have a couple "freebies" that are truly "free" (not requiring the require the purchase of a base product) here. I also have a section that has "support" products created by other artists specifically for my product lines; Anniemation has done some really nice crow flight animations that will work with many of the Songbird ReMix birds (besides crows).

 

[Britt]

Thanks mininessie! God Bless You!

 

[Britt]

Thanks Ken! God Bless You!

 

[Szark]

Media folder is now up and running now folks.

 

[mininessie]

 

[Ken Gilliland]

A rendering tip-- if you are rendering in iRay or SuperFly check-out my Songbird ReMix FAQ page which explains subdivision techniques. Both of these newer rendering engines can create blocky patches on the wings when rendering-- subdividing fixes it.

 

[mininessie]

A rendering tip-- if you are rendering in iRay or SuperFly check-out my Songbird ReMix FAQ page which explains subdivision techniques. Both of these newer rendering engines can create blocky patches on the wings when rendering-- subdividing fixes it.

thanks you so much Ken!

 

[Rae134]

Thanks Ken! I was wondering why that was happening.

 

[Ken Gilliland]

Thanks Ken! I was wondering why that was happening.

Yes, what's happening is the polygons in the wing feathers are very, very thin. They can't be one-side (plane) polygons because the feathers are often different patterning and color on each side. The Older renderers like Poser's Firefly and DS's 3D Delight were very forgiving when they thin feathers were bent and soften the bends. The newer renderers like Superfly, iRay, Reality, etc... are much less forgiving and create back-facing polygon issues. By subdividing then the feathers, this resolves that issue. I'd incorporate the subdivision directly into the model feathers if there was a way to preserve the all the existing wing morphs-- but I haven't found one yet.

 

[Miss B]

It always amazes me how much work you put into your birds Ken. Boggles my mind.

 

[Satira Capriccio]

Shore nuff!

Thanks to Lisa who created the Media folder.

Media folder is now up and running now folks.

So ... now let's see lots and lots of submissions! Maybe I'll even be able to get one created to submit! Not like I don't have plenty of birdies. And a whole batch of Aussie birdies too which I picked up in the sale.

 

[Miss B]

Media folder is now up and running now folks.

~runs over to see all the birdie renders~

Oh, we're off to a good start folks, keep 'em coming.

 

[Ken Gilliland]

It always amazes me how much work you put into your birds Ken. Boggles my mind.

Thanks, yes, a lot of work does go into every set...

I should also mention under "rendering tips", if you don't want to fool with the Sub-D conversions for iRay or Superfly, simply choose 3D Delight in DS or Firefly in Poser for rendering-- those work perfectly with the bird sets.

 

[Stezza]

When using Ken's SBRM in Carrara take your bird into the modeling room and select all the bird then in Subdivision select the option Smooth ( by default it isn't selected ) .. it will already be set at 1

Yep.. my entry this year is going to have Pelicans

 

[VortigensBane]

Only three entries in the contest thread so far? Makes me want to drop everything and spend the next month spamming the gallery with bird renders... Hopefully everyone is just working hard on their entries. I'd have more right to complain if I had actually finished mine already...

Speaking of which, are there any Iray gurus lurking about who know proper settings for feather glossiness and translucency? That's one of the reasons I'm so far behind...

 

[mininessie]

i have one more but is not still aproved...for iray i use the base shader and then use normal maps and bumpmaps to enhance the feathers..but not sure if you want a different effect.

 

[VortigensBane]

I've been working with that. What I'm really looking for, though, is the translucency settings to make the feathers transmit light like they do in reality. Some examples...

In this one, you can really see the effect on the leg, where you can see the "chicken leg" underneath, and then the feathers just sort of fade out...

This one shows a little bit of it on the wings and tailfeathers, although I'm going for a more pronounced look...

 

[Szark]

Diffuse map in the Translucency Colour Channel about 0.20, Scatter and Transmit but the key thing is making the transparency map into a Translucency Weight Map in Photoshop so it fades out like that.

 

[Ken Gilliland]

Only three entries in the contest thread so far? Makes me want to drop everything and spend the next month spamming the gallery with bird renders... Hopefully everyone is just working hard on their entries. I'd have more right to complain if I had actually finished mine already....

It's been traditionally slow at the start of the contest every year-- the last two weeks everything pours in

I've been working with that. What I'm really looking for, though, is the translucency settings to make the feathers transmit light like they do in reality...

The best approach that works in DS or Poser that I've tried is using a little SSS (10-20%). Age of Armour's Subsurface Scattering Shader for DAZ Studio works pretty well. In fact, in his original DAZ forum thread showcasing his product, he used one of my birds as an example.

 

[Szark]

Ken VortigensBane is asking about Iray but good tip nevertheless