rendering 3rd party software

[gbon]

Hi Alls,

I'll need to make rendered animations based on proE files
and other 3D files buyed on Turbosquid.

At the same level of prices, I found 3DSmax, Maya,
Cinema4D. There is also Blender that is free.

So any advice on which software I should buy would be
welcome.

Thanks,
GB

 

[zpaolo]

If you are importing from Pro|E then forget Blender: it doesn't support OBJ format normals properly, so you'll end up with non-smoothed parts or smoothing errors. You can also consider Lightwave

 

[josje]

Have a look at keyshot 3 imports proe files and works great

 

[dcroffe]

I have used Blender for my ProE animations and renders with great success. The company I work for uses ProE and Blender exclusively for our renders and animations.


I use Blender's Object import with the SMOOTH feature and the renders and animations look great.

 

[zpaolo]

I use Blender's Object import with the SMOOTH feature and the renders and animations look great.

Can you tell me how you did it? I imported an OBJ model and it looked "faceted", I used the smooth feature and then it ALL look smooth, without distinction. I know from sources in the blender community that Blender applies vertex normals as averages of neighbouring vertexes and not as they are set in the imported OBJ file, this looks quite bad if you have a mix of hard and soft edges...

Paolo

 

[dcroffe]

Hello Zpaolo,


Here is what I do in order to keep the model from ProE look well defined in Blender;

1. 
   <LI>In ProE do a "Save a Copy" and select "Wavefront (.Obj).</LI>
   <LI>Select a coordinate system. This will open the "Export Wavefront" window.</LI>
   <LI>In the Deviation Control set Chord Height to 0.001 (or as low as the model will allow. </LI>
   <LI>I leave the "Angle Control" at 0.5 or if I want more detail I will set it to 1.</LI>
   <LI>Turn on Step Size and set to a low value around 4 to 6.</LI>
   <LI>In Blender the model will look "faceted" so I use the "smooth" control to smooth out the facets.</LI>

The Chord Height and Step Sizeare the parameters that help the model stay "distinct" looking between ProE and Blender. I find that using the "Step Size" also helps if you need to deform the model in a twisting or bulging animation.

 

[zpaolo]

1. In Blender the model will look "faceted" so I use the "smooth" control to smooth out the facets.

The Chord Height and Step Sizeare the parameters that help the model stay "distinct" looking between ProE and Blender. I find that using the "Step Size" also helps if you need to deform the model in a twisting or bulging animation.

Ok I understand, basically you are using a high density polygonal model so that the smoothing errors caused by Blender not importing the normals are barely visible. I'll try with this, although for very complex models the polygon count might grow too large. The main issue with not importing the normals is that it affects the way specular highlights are calculated, in LW if I import a model and apply average smoothing it looks quite different than with "correct" smoothing... i'll try and upload a picture...

Paolo

 

[zpaolo]

So here it is, in Lightwave, a model imported with normals neglected and using a general "smoothing" for the shading:

You can see that it doesn't look good at the middle of the helmet and where the tanks change from spherical to cylindrical.

On the other hand when normals are taken into account everything is smooth:

Of course I should try and remove overlapping vertexes in case 1, but the best results are always obtained when normals are exported and taken into account in rendering.

Paolo

 

[dcroffe]

Hello zpaolo,


Yesterday I exported a ProE model into Object format, imported it into Blender(version 2.6)and the normals arethere and active.I was able to select faces and invert individual normals or I could invert all the normals.
<UL>
<LI>In a Blender 3D viewport type in "N" to open the display panel. </LI>
<LI>Under "Mesh Display" turn on "Normals: Face/Vertex" by checking their boxes.</LI>
<LI>Set the "Normal Size" so the normals show up in the viewport.</LI>
<LI>In the "Mesh Tools" panel (left hand side) there is a "Normals" section that allows you to "Recalculate" or "Flip Direction" of the normals.</LI>[/list]

 

[Parra]

I prefer to use arx an i found materials here
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/CreoARX/249926328400211" target="_blank">
Creo Arx Community</a>

 

[dr_gallup]

So here it is, in Lightwave, a model imported with normals neglected and using a general "smoothing" for the shading:

You can see that it doesn't look good at the middle of the helmet and where the tanks change from spherical to cylindrical.

On the other hand when normals are taken into account everything is smooth:

Of course I should try and remove overlapping vertexes in case 1, but the best results are always obtained when normals are exported and taken into account in rendering.

Paolo

Paolo

I can't see any difference between those two images. Am I missing something?

 

[zpaolo]

I can't see any difference between those two images. Am I missing something?

Maybe I'm super picky when it comes to rendering quality, the problem is when you have complex round surfaces, take a look at the closeups:

The problem is that you can see "hard seams" where the cilindrical or spherical surfaces "close". This is caused by the lack of double normals for those vertexes, double normals are used to allow for a smooth appearance or a mixed "hard/smooth" appearance.

Paolo

 

[gbon]

It depends on your likes. Our company uses
3ds max and is used to.

So you mean that pictures showned on frontop.com are made
with 3DSmax ?
You model everything or your using buyed architectural
models for town buildings ?
Thanks,