Thursday, March 24, 2011

Blender Image-based Lighting Test (with .blend)


I've recently encountered a post on BlenderNation (http://blendernation.com) about HDRI Tools for sIBL in Blender. Though I haven't had the chance to test out the tools provided in that page yet, I refreshed my thoughts on HDRi (High Dynamic Range Imaging/Images) and IBL (Image-based Lighting) inside of Blender, which is a capable tool in this regard. Take note that I didn't use any lamps at all in this scene. All the shadow and lighting information comes from the hdr file which contains most of the illumination instructions.

You can find more some information here:

The HDR images I used on the examples below were from Paul Debevec's light probe image gallery which you can find at http://ict.debevec.org/~debevec/Probes/ and from Open Footage (http://openfootage.net) which offers very large hdr images very suitable for background rendering and scene illumination.

This review also brought up some issues which are as follows:
  • blender 2.5's internal raytraced ambient occlusion's samples couldn't be set more than 32
  • for higher quality reflections, shading, and lighting, use a higher resolution hdr image
  • render time gets very long with high AO samples







BONUS:

I've provided a packed blend file for you to test and play around.
Download the file here > http://www.pasteall.org/blend/5704

Friday, March 18, 2011

Blender 2.5 Build Errors


And yet here's another rant on compiling Blender 2.5.

An hour ago, I decided to build Blender and get the latest updates from SVN. But at the end of the build process, I have been presented with an error message that looks like this:


scons: *** [/home/reyn/blender-svn/build/linux2/intern/audaspace/intern/AUD_C-API.o]
Error 1
scons: *** [/home/reyn/blender-svn/build/linux2/intern/audaspace/Python/AUD_PyAPI.o]
Error 1
scons: building terminated because of errors.


Does anybody have any idea what this error means and/or how to fix it and proceed with the build process?

P.S.
You can check my previous posts regarding building Blender just in case you wanted to know how I built it.

http://reynantem.blogspot.com/2011/03/blender-25-compile-errors.html

http://reynantem.blogspot.com/2011/03/compiling-blender-25-and-python-32.html


Thanks for the help. ;)


UPDATE:

I temporarily fixed the problem by compiling using Cmake instead of Scons. So far so good! I'm happy this workaround 'worked'. ;)

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Gummy Blend File


Hi there, Blenderheads!

In relation to my Blenderartist.org post, which you can find here > http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=210358&p=1802556#post1802556, I have provided a video showing the node composite passes I did. Additionally, I'm sharing with you my scene setup, with a couple of things like the gummy animation effect, lighting, etc.

You can download the .blend file from here > http://www.pasteall.org/blend/5538

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Gummy Node Composite Passes

Hi! Just thought I'd post my node composite pass on my previous video doodle titled "Gummy" (see previous post here > http://reynantem.blogspot.com/2011/02/gummy.html). Have fun!

Made with Blender 2.56.





Gummy Node Composite Passes from Reynante Martinez on Vimeo.




Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Compiling Blender 2.5 and Python 3.2: Sucess!

Yes! I finally got around to building Blender 2.5 and Python 3.2 in my system smoothly (though with some minor bumps here and there). Some of you might have read my previous post about compile errors with Blender 2.5 (check it here http://reynantem.blogspot.com/2011/03/blender-25-compile-errors.html). All these thanks to Blender users Sergof, Dalai Felinto, Floft, Jonathan Williamson, and Kewl Luser for their prompt replies on my previous post. I wouldn't have fixed it if it weren't for their help.

Anyways, to cut the long story short; briefly, here are the things that I did:

  1. I made sure I did not edit any lines on the batch file that I created long ago. It's basically the gist of the instructions on compiling with Scons found here http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:2.5/Doc/Building_Blender/Linux/Ubuntu/Scons
  2. I compiled Python by following the instructions here (found under Compiling) http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:2.5/Doc/Building_Blender/Linux/Troubleshooting#Python
  3. After which, I edited my config file. This was the part I was mostly baffled with, since from the prior page you've seen, it's indicating that you edit the file 'user-config.py', which is, in my case, nowhere to be found in my system. But after digging in deep, I found a similar file named 'linux2-config.py' located under my build folder (which I have created from step 1) which has the path ~/blender-svn/blender/build_files/scons/

    Of which, I edited the lines mentioned in http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:2.5/Doc/Building_Blender/Linux/Troubleshooting#Python

  4. And finally, I re-executed my batch file to update my sources from SVN and it went on smoothly! Sweeeet!

Blender 2.5 Compile Errors

Hi, Blenderheads! I need you help. Just a few hours ago, before firing up Blender 2.5 in Linux, I updated it via SVN by compiling using Scons. Please pardon me for my ignorance on such technical stuff, I just really couldn't get my way out of this.

Yesterday, after running the same build commands (which I compressed into one batch file), everything went smoothly and Blender 2.5 was successfully built (as I would have expected after almost 6 months of doing so). Then this problem came up this morning.

I have Python 3.1 installed and so I wondered why I was prompted that I needed to update my Python.

I am still able to execute Blender 2.5 but then I'm presented with this headerless set of windows (except for the Properties window) plus some other annoying things like non-responsiveness of the 3d viewport shading (wire, shaded, etc.).

By the way, Build instructions are similar to one seen on this page > http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:2.5/Doc/Building_Blender/Linux/Ubuntu/Scons

Anyhow, I'm hoping you guys could help me on this. Thank you so much in advance!

Below you can see screenshots of the error I have been mentioning (click thumbnails to enlarge).


Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Photographer in the Making

It's really very surprising how the youth (especially those really young ones) these days adapt to change and fluidly versatile to the ever-changing state of time and technology.

Just last week, while we were on a small family gathering, I had the day's greatest opportunity to shoot my nephew while on his agitated creative state -- by that, I mean not simply drawing doodles on walls or stuff. What I mean you'll see in the photos below:






Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Photoshop Tutorial: Creating a Dreamy Effect


Phew! My very first photoshop tutorial is now up in youthedesigner (http://youthedesigner.com). I hope you could find it helpful and fun, especially to the photo enthusiasts out there.

You can check the tutorial over at http://www.youthedesigner.com/2011/02/28/a-quick-photo-editing-tutorial-creating-a-dreamy-effect-on-photoshop/

And as always, if you have any tutorial suggestions and comments, please leave them here or on the tutorial page itself.

Thanks! ^_^

-Reyn