Posts Tagged ‘Computer Graphics’

Third Person

Mark Caldwell was born in the early 1970s. Some years later he studied Building Service and Environmental Engineering and then a Postgraduate Certificate of Software Technology at Liverpool University in the early 1990s. Mark’s first full time job saw him divide his time between travelling round Merseyside with the Internet Express, a project taking the Internet into libraries when no one knew what the World Wide Web was, and Virtual Reality projects. He moved onto supporting the delivery of Liverpool University website and then the development of content management systems that underpin a variety of web-based projects alongside other varied duties.

He has written articles for Valkyrie Magazine and Ragnarok, also illustrating some of these articles. He helps to organise the SFSFW’s annual show – Bifrost. He is looking to be published in a magazine without a name drawn from Norse legend. He has no objections to other mythological references.

Mark Caldwell has yet to sell his first story despite being over thirty years old. He admits his art really won’t be being hung in galleries anytime soon. He is still looking for an appealing anecdote for his biography. He is also really uncomfortable writing about himself in the Third Person like this.

First Person

Writing about myself always seems odd. Last time I made a website just for myself I stuck my CV up on it and hoped that would do for an About Me page. Unfortunately it also seemed to attract job offers I wasn’t looking for. These came mainly from strange companies in Texas, who sent long e-mails telling me about their company’s guard dog. This time I decided not to use my CV. I’d write something. I claim to be able to write. So how hard could writing about me be?

So I’m a thirty something computer systems developer / programmer by day. I never really meant to spend my days wrangling code. Somehow it just happened. I set out to be an architect and wound up trained as an engineer instead. Finding myself at a loose end after my degree, during what they politely term a downturn in the building industry, I took a postgraduate computing course and found myself caught up in the Internet boom. That’s when I started getting strange e-mails from Texas.

By night and on weekends I find myself creating things. Sometimes it’s a picture. Sometimes it’s a story. Sometimes it’s a game. I’ve a hard drive, filling cabinets and backups littered with my unfinished works. Sometimes I actually complete something.

I’ve been published in Valkyrie (a magazine once produced by Partizan Press), Ragnarok (the journal of the SFSFW) and in some long forgotten ‘zines. Some of the articles can be found scattered around this site. A few years ago I decided it was time to try my hand at fiction. I’m currently working on finishing a novella, a novel and some short stories. I also have a small skirmish miniatures game that is almost finished.

Most of my pictures are made using 3D computer graphics, although I do still dabble in more traditional methods of drawing, painting and photography. Some of my pictures have appeared in Valkyrie and Ragnarok alongside my articles. I’ve recently been exploring the possibilities of developing scripts that enhance the capabilities of the software I use and some of the more promising results of that work can be downloaded from this site.

Prosaic plot twists, stilted dialogue, unbelievable characters, outmoded attitudes and sinister bad guys who are rotten foreigners to boot! No not the latest sequel from Sylvester Stallone but the 1938 Hitchcock classic The Lady Vanishes which I’ve just been to see at the Liverpool Philharmonic an action, comedy thriller from another time. I enjoyed it, although not as much as the people in the row behind who may have drunk a little too much before coming to the show. The quality of some of the model work was excellent, even by today’s standards and would embaress some computer graphics work I’ve seen in modern films. The plot suffers because many of the original twists and turns have since been reused so often that they have gone beyond cliche. Still I suspect that Miss Froy might give Bond or Bourne a tough time in a fair or an unfair fight.

If I ever get round to doing new work on Under Stairs Over Stairs an adventure in the style of The Lady Vanishes could prove to be fun.

I’ve covered a selection of theatrical lighting rigs already that use three lights. I was sent an e-mail asking if I’d show a definitive version of the classic three point lighting rig used for film, television, photography and computer graphics. I’m not going to claim to have any experience of using this rig, I have seen it used by a TV crew but that’s my entire level of real world knowledge. One thing I do know is that whenever I’ve tried to find a definitive explanation of it I’ve discovered quite a few variations on a theme rather than one three point lighting rig that everyone swears to. From what I’ve read it originally evolved from the three point theatrical rig when film and later TV emerged.

The basics don’t vary that much. Light sources from three directions are used. These are usually called the key light, the fill light and the backlight. The key provides the main light source from the front. The fill comes from the front and softens the shadows cast by the key as well as filling in any other dark spots. The backlight comes from somewhere behind the subject, it adds highlights to the edges and separates the subject from the background. Sometimes, when a studio set up is being simulated, a forth light is added called the background light.

The first major difference is about where the key should be placed. Some explanations I’ve read place it above the subject at around thirty degrees to the horizontal. Others say to place it where a real light source would be shining from. It is usually placed to one side of the subject from the front.
The fill is a light placed to the front at roughly ninety degrees from the key. It is placed lower than the key at around eye level and its angle to the horizontal is closer to than the key. The fill is usually a softer light source. It is also usually not as bright as the key.

The backlight is the third and final light, sometimes called the rim light. Again different explanations place the backlight in different places. Some examples, particularly those for portrait photography of subjects with hair, place it as a horizontal light close to the rear of the subject shining straight forward. Others place it to the rear of the subject pointing straight forward but raise it above the subject and shine it down at a steep angle, almost like a godspot from behind. The final popular location is to place it behind the subject one hundred and eighty degrees to the fill and at ninety degrees to the key.

If a background light is used it is behind the subject and shines onto the background to illuminate it.

The next source of schism between the descriptions is in the relative brightness of the three lights. Some sources quote formulas and ratios for the different lights depending on if a high key or a low key style is preferred.

Adding to the complication of creating a three light rig in computer graphics, such as when using Vue, are the imperfection of rendering in simulating real world lights.
Some problems, like the fill light casting a shadow can be avoided in some packages by simply turning off the source’s shadow casting. This can be done in Vue 6 Infinite, Vue 6 xStream, Vue 6 Pro Studio and Vue 6 Esprit with the light tune module. It can’t be done in Vue 6 Esprit or Vue 6 Easel.

To simulate a soft fill source it may sometimes be necessary to use several faint light sources as the fill light placed at slightly different positions but all shining in the same direction.

In the real world backlights gain a lot of impact from shining on the tiny hairs the surface of a subject’s skin and through a full head of hair with many separate strands. Computer generated hair on skin surface however is usually none existent and head hair is often either simulated with layered transparency mapped polygons or is made up of significantly fewer hairs than a real person. So as to get a rim of highlights to separate the subject from the background a single backlight behind may not be enough. Instead it may either need to be raised up and angled down or a series of sources may need to be placed around the subject to shine onto the subject’s edge.

Three point lighting’s biggest shortcoming is that it is an overused cliché. Its style is that of millions of unoriginal studio portraits and almost as many uninspired 3d renders. I’ve read that with better technical innovations it has fallen into disuse in a lot of television and film production.

I’ve not had time to write this and produce any example renders. Despite my misgivings about this rig I do think it can sometimes be useful and so for next time I’m hoping to produce examples of several of the variations I’ve mentioned today.

Read:
Vue Lighting Rig #16: Three Point Lighting- Part 2 and Vue Lighting Rig #16: Three Point Lighting- Part 3

With improved power supplies, lighting desks that can control more lights in larger theatres it has become possible to use more lights to light an actor. This allows a lighting designer to go from the standard 3 light rig to four light rigs.

This weeks rig has four lights set at 90 degrees to each other. As with the previous three light rig the front two lights are angled so as to stike the actor from the diagonals. Now though these lights are mirrored by two lights behind.

While this rig doesn’t improve on the general illumination provided by the three light rig it does give improved highlights around the edges of the actor. Separation from the background is not quite as strong. There is now quite a lot of light spilling both backwards and forwards onto the stage. Four shadows are being cast in different directions with the danger of them falling on scenery, props or other actors. For computer graphics this rig can give better lighting of a models hair because of the extra side light.

Next week I’ll show you another four light rig that has several advantages over this one.

All of the above images were made using Poser 7 and Vue 6 Infinite. They could have been made using any version of Vue 6 including Vue 6 Pro or Vue 6 Easel and any version of Poser since Poser 4.

1. A reasonably up to date computer with at least the recommended specification for any of the software.
2. For landscapes I use Vue. There are different versions Vue 6 Easel is the cheapest and a good starting point or if you have a bit more cash to spend get Vue 6 Esprite. Once you know what your doing you’ll probably want Vue Infinite, which I use and which was used for Pirates of the Caribbean II and III.
3. For adding figures Poser 7 and a willingness to overcome an interface which many find frustrating. The alternative is Daz Studio which is free and has a nicer interface but doesn’t work as well with Vue.
4. To touch up or play with your finished pictures Photoshop Elements is a good choice. I find Photoshop elements does most things I want to and isn’t going to set me back by a huge chunk of cash. If you want to dive into animation you can get Premier Element bundled in too but I’d get the hang of the basics of still 3D work first as animation is a lot harder to learn.
5. Vue 6 Revealed is a good book to help you learn.
6. For sea pictures Monsoon’s Sea Vue adds some nice extra stuff you can use in your pictures.
7. For space pictures Monsoon’s Postcards from the Rim.
8. For landscapes the TerraPak toolkit for Vue 6 is a great starting point.
9. Vue comes with some plants but you’ll probably want more. Realms Art, Martin Frost and Linda Daireaux’ Incredibly Lush plants at Cornucopia 3D are all well worth considering.
10. I’ve been a member of Daz’s Platinum Club since it launched. It lets you buy lots of Poser and Daz Studio stuff cheap or at a discount. Once you’ve got it you’ll probably want Victoria 4 and Michael 3 and some of their basic clothing packs. I’d suggest restraint though. Don’t get drawn into buying every shinny new outfit with a discount. Buy the ones you need for a specific picture when you’re going to make it.
11. If you got Vue 6 Infinite and you’re working with Poser figures SkinVue and the Daz and/or Poser plug in depending on which figures you use will improve the look of your figures in Vue.
12. Keep and eye on 3D World Magazine and to a lesser extent ImagineFX and some of the other computer graphics magazines like Computer Arts for useful free stuff and tutorials. I’d be careful of Digit as it’s cover disc often sounds more tempting than it really is, in my opinion.
13. Time to work through vue tutorials, time to spend on vue forums asking questions and time to play more.

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

Usual saturday chores and on the shopping list was a Lazy Susan or a similar rotating stable surface for a computer graphics project. Why did I need a rotatable stand all may become clear (or if it doesn’t work it wont). I ended up hiking round Liverpool’s shops trying to find somewhere selling one and that wasn’t enhanced. In time honoured fashion the one place I didn’t try on my way past and that I only decided to look in on the way back to catching the bus because it wasn’t out of my way was the place that had one. Thank you Mr Wilkinson.

I’ve also been looking at the new map sharing features on Google Maps and this seemed an ideal chance to show how easy it is now to share an annotated map. To see how my quest wandered go to Google Map of My Quest. Clearly there are many more useful things you could do with this and you can also share your maps as part of their search.

In case you don’t recognise the name Jorj X. McKie is the lead character in several stories by Frank Herbert. He works for an agency charged to slow down a vast galaxy spanning government by conducting dirty tricks “in lieu of red tape”.

I don’t need the help of a saboteur extraordinary to slow the process of government down rather that of industry and in particular computer graphics companies. Most of the stuff I regularly use has had significant new releases in the last two months. First was Vue 6 Infinite then PePaKuRa 2, Daz’s Victoria 4, Virtual Fashion Professional 1.5 and Poser 7. Getting back into XFrog 3.5 as well. On the horizon is the behamothic figure of the next version of MS Windows. New versions are great but trying to keep on top of and learn all the new, cool stuff can start to feel a bit daunting. I’ve yet to get Virtual Fashion Professional 1.5 and Poser 7 just so I can catch up with the other ones first.

One update is coming in very handy with all this though. My broadband doubled in speed last week. Thats one update I’d prefer Jorj not saboutage.

I’d left Vue rendering this one today while I was at work. While it originally estimated 15 hours for the print size size image it turned out to need less than 5 in the end. I don’t normally use global radiosity but I did with this picture for a change. It made the roadside bushes look a lot more verdant. The road texture is a mixed material I made myself. The bushy foliage is an EcoSystem I made with plants from the Incredibly Lush Underbrush pack from Cornucopia3d. I’m really pleased with the plants and I’m finding more and more scenes I’m using them in. You can’t tell from the picture but I got the scaling of some of the plants in the eco wrong, the nettles ended up being really, really tiny.

I’ve watched the trailer; I’ve read the web pages; and I’m definitely excited about Vue 6. No word on python support in Vue 6 yet but I’m sure E-on will let us know more as the release approaches.

This is my 200th post to this blog in just over seven months. To celebrate I’m giving away the flame I used in my picture In Search of Phlogiston from the Cornucopia 3d Fire lighting Challenge. It was a deceptively simple solution once I’d made it but it took several evenings of fiddling and applying the KISS principle to get to this elegant solution to a flame in Vue. By tweaking the colour map for the texture it can be made into quite a few other flames too.

Download: gas_flame.zip