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Volume 4 if 3DFluff's training DVD's provides you with three and a half hours of professionally edited footage and numerous tutorials to teach you advanced techniques. This disk is unique in that it contains a huge amount of training on advanced lighting and rendering not found in any other venue that I have seen to date. The tutorials will give you in depth training in the high-end techniques that will then allow you to apply them to your own renders for the utmost quality and realism. Even though most of the projects are aimed at professional users, Janine and Mash allow for the novice level also which means that there is something here for everyone.
In order to complete the tutorials you will need CINEMA 4D™ Release 9.5 and the Advanced Render module in order to use the majority of the content on this DVD.
The DVD contains:
- A long list of video tutorials
- All project files and images
- The Codec install for Win and MAC OSX & OS9
- A "goodies" folder with HDRI images, models, scenes and materials
- High quality video that makes this a pleasure to follow
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Main topics covered:
- New lighting features incl. area lights and light falloffs
- Global illumination
- HDRI output
- Color mapping
- Ambient Occlusion
- Baker
- Sky generator
- Photoshop finishing touches
Janine begins this DVD training session with a study of shadow caster lights. She also explains the different types of falloff and how they can best be used to light your scene while using the shadow caster light with different settings to produce some wonderful soft shadows.
In the next section she discusses how light shapes can be used in different ways to create new lighting such as neon lights and different bulb shapes. I found this especially informative since in the setup of the scene she leads you through some setups in the object manager that allow you to further refine the light, shadows and much more in the scene. By duplicating some objects and using them in the light attributes panel shadows and effects not before available can add much more realistic lighting to your scenes.
Janine also leads you through color mapping which is now included since Release 9.5 and how it can help immeasurably with the lighting and depth of your renders. Further enhancements can be added in Photoshop as well. By following her methods, I found that the amount of tweaking that can be done in CINEMA 4D as well as finishing touches added in Photoshop can produce fantastic results with very little work. In the images below you can see the difference that color mapping can make. Image one shows the scene with color mapping off, image two with color mapping on at the default settings and image three shows color mapping with just a tiny bit of adjustment. It's really a wonderful addition to the CINEMA controls.
One of the tutorials that I found helped me so much was her instructions on setting up an area light for a room. I often find that my interior lighting is lacking so much in the realism that I am trying to capture. Especially when simulating light coming in through a window. Janine walks you through setting the scene up with an area light and GI settings in your render panel that produce fantastic interior lighting as you see below.
Another feature found since Release 9.5 is the ability to set the output for HDRI files that can be used in your scenes for many things including backgrounds, reflections and environments. Janine instructs you in the steps involved in outputting an HDRI image and applying it to your scene in various ways. This not only produces a wonderful realistic background, but you can rotate your scene and actually see the panorama view of all of the surrounding scene just as in real life. By using it in your reflections she shows how realistic things can look and just how much this function can enhance your scene. By saving them at 32 bit resolution you will now have an image with much higher and brighter levels for use not only in CINEMA but in Photoshop as well if you have Photoshop CS which can now read HDRI file information. Instructions on baking an object and a texture were invaluable to me since I had never done that before. All in all it was an extremely valuable lesson for me.
Also covered was the use of normal maps for creating depth and detail without using bump maps or displacement. This saves on render times and file sizes immeasurably. In the images below you will see the difference it can make in your objects and renders by just using a normal map without any displacement or bump. On the left we have a displacement used with fusion and sub-polygon displacement. On the right we have a bump map example using fusion in the bump channel. And in the center we have the same file with a normal map applied in the normal channel. As you can see the results are so close in quality that you can virtually not tell the difference but the file size and render times will be vastly different.
The section on Ambient Occlusion in multi-pass rendering was a real eye-opener. Janine showed how to set up a multi-pass render using AO to enhance shadows and overall clarity. By taking the multi-pass render into Photoshop and adjusting the layers using her instructions, you are able to add so much more depth to the scene. See the layer and the differences below. The shadows are much deeper around the pillow area and around the bedposts on the floor which keep the model from looking like it was floating in the air instead of sitting on the floor.
Showing us the difference that simple AO can make in our scenes, Janine gave us a simple city that she used to demonstrate the differences that AO can make in your renders, even in a simple city scene such as below with simple blue lighting, a sunlit scene and a scene with a sky object and rainbow.
Next, Mash leads us through using the sky object to add a great sky with lighting to a simple scene that produces awesome results. He shows us how to use the attributes manager to set up all of the elements that we need to create a beautiful winter sky with ground fog and then how to save it in our object presets for use in other scenes. The sky object is a fantastic tool for adding such great lighting and depth to your scenes. In the images below you will see the simple scene that he started with and the final results after adding the elements needed and their settings to create a wonderful winter sky with fog and the lighting that produces the needed atmosphere.
CONCLUSION:
This particular DVD training session really added to my knowledge and skills. I now understand much more about setting up my interior and exterior scenes with the correct lighting to show the detail and realism that I want. No matter what your expertise in lighting, there will be something in this DVD that will aid you in setting up your scenes. Another excellent training DVD compiled by Mash and Janine of 3DFluff. You can read more about this particular DVD here at their site. I hope that you have enjoyed these reviews as much as I have in doing them. I am really looking forward to seeing just what Mash, Janine and 3DFluff have in store for us next.
System requirements:
Windows PC or Apple Mac with a DVD-Rom drive.
This DVD will NOT play in a standalone DVD player.
Requires Quicktime 5 or higher (Mac) or Windows Media Player (Windows) for playback.
500 MHz CPU or higher and a minimum screen resolution of 1024x768 recommended.
Soundcard (or onboard sound) and speakers / headphones required for audio output.
Review by Kathie Berry
Websites: http://www.berry-designs.com & http://www.planit3d.com
Email: kathie@berry-designs.com
Copyright 2007, PlanIt 3D
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