Updated Portfolio Site – 3D Renders & Graphic Design
September 2nd, 2010
I finally got around to updating actrask.com as a portfolio site. Here is the link.
Real-time theater render!
June 25th, 2010
I recently discovered Wild Pockets and have been having a lot of fun porting it from 3dsmax to their viewer.
I wish that the installer was a little smoother. You’ll be prompted to download an exe and then have to launch that exe and install the program. However, it is worth it!
Use your RIGHT mouse button to navigate the scene. The left mouse button will re-position the lights. If the framerate is too low, press the spacebar four times to put the model into self-illumination mode.
Use the + and – buttons to zoom in and out. The WASD keys will let you strafe and walk.
Here is the page I put together for this: Indie Home Theater Interiors
First Video “Tutorials” ;) are up!
April 16th, 2010
I created my first video tutorials the other day! Well, they’re more time-lapse than an actual step by step tutorials, but still pretty cool to watch.
I plan on doing more of these so stay tuned!
“Shop Girls” CG Society Render Challenge
September 6th, 2009
My first submission to cgsociety.org’s Lighting Challenge forum: “ShopGirls”
Tutorial: How-to Create Seamless Texture Patterns
September 17th, 2008
Creating repeatable patterns is a great skill to have in your toolbox. The technique is a must for creating 3D textures, but can benefit graphic design needs as well.
It’s easy to find a pattern, but not so easy to find one that can be tiled without some work. Usually this is the case:
If you tried to tile this, it wouldn’t work. There isn’t enough of the pattern shown to line up the repeat end to end. Fortunately, there is enough pattern throughout the image to create a full repeat -it just needs some re-arranging.
Annoyances: Version Cue & Storage
August 23rd, 2008
I haven’t given up on Version Cue. I love having all my artwork in one place with a nice version control system, and the benefits have out-weighed the weirdness.
And there is some weirdness to be found- for instance, here’s a common warning box I get: “The file has changed, do you want to discard changes or continue editing”. What? I just opened it. Discard what changes? Am I going to lose something if I click this? I don’t need this kind of stress in the morning.
All that, however, is for another discussion.
This is about how Version Cue can become a damn liability when it comes to storage. Bull in freaking China shop. Version Cue seems to have been birthed with the mindset of ’storage is a non-issue, everyone will be working in the cloud with thin clients in a few years anyway’. I admire the vision, however, we’re not there yet.
I didn’t worry too much about the versioning system taking up space when I started using it. I figured, hell- a small price to pay for being able to jump back and forth between states of my layouts.
Until one fine afternoon while working on a layout, I get a message from the yellow Windows bubble telling me that I’m running out of space on drive C:\.
Strange, the files I’m working on are on an entirely different drive.
Tutorial: Strong Glares using Camera Shaders
June 8th, 2008
This tutorial will show you how to add realistic lens glares to your renders using 3ds max, Mental Ray, and Photoshop. I’m going to assume that you already have a scene to use that has any bright reflections, highlights, or exposed lights.
The best glare I have been able to produce is through using Lume Tools‘ glare camera shader. This shader ships with 3ds max (I am using 3ds max 9), however, it needs to be unlocked before you can see it in the material browser.
-So let’s unlock it:
Browse to your mental ray shaders folder: “C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 9\mentalray\shaders_standard\include”, and open “lume.mi” in notepad.exe (be sure to make a backup before editing anything). Once you have it open do a find for ‘glare’, and put a ‘#’ next to ‘hidden’. Save the file and fire up 3ds max.
Tutorial: Creating Photo-Realistic Renders with HDR using 3ds max & Mental Ray
April 23rd, 2008
The technique I use to create photo real product image renders is called Image Based Lighting (IBL). There are no lights in the scene, all of the illumination is provided through the HDR texture map. The images above are some recent 3d models I have rendered using Image Based Lighting with an HDR map I created. I have this HDR image probe available for a free download as you go through the tutorial.
First thing you want to do is start with a fresh scene and merge in the object that you want to render. I’m going to use a wall sconce that I modeled recently. If you don’t have any 3d models off hand, just create a few spheres or a teapot and apply a shiny or glossy shader to them. Try to keep a realistic scale to them, for instance, give them a 3-6″ diameter. This goes for any model that you merge in -make sure it has a realistic scale. If you don’t already, everything you model should be to scale. It helps textures, lighting, and cameras play nice together -not to mention adding realism.
HDR with 3ds max & Photoshop: The basics
April 19th, 2008
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been learning more, and applying more HDR techniques in my work. I’d like to post some tutorials on how to work HDR techniques into 3D renders, but first I want to go over some basics before we jump into the step by steps. Also, keep in mind; HDR can get pretty deep as a topic. There are lots of ways to take advantage of HDR imagery, but I can only share what I’ve learned and how I take advantage of it. If I’m missing anything about the theory or process, please let me know!
Now, without getting too technical, here is how Wikipedia sums it up,
…High dynamic range imaging (HDRI) is a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range of exposures (the range of values between light and dark areas) than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention of HDRI is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to shadows.
Using HDR images in your 3d work can help your renders look extremely realistic, however, outputting your renders in an HDR format also allow for greater post-production flexibility. The part about, “..allows a greater [...] range of values between light and dark area[s]” is the key here. An HDR image holds information underneath the bright white areas in an image -this here is why I see so much value in using HDR imagery in my work. Take this image for example: 
See the white areas in this image? Since this is an HDR image, there is image data underneath (or inside) that can reveal more of the environment that was caught in the reflection. An image with a standard dynamic range, your basic .jpg for instance, would only be able to turn those white areas grey, revealing no new information.
Turning down the exposure in a capable image program can reveal what’s hiding underneath the white in a true 32-bit HDR image.
This is what happens when you try the same thing using a typical image with a standard dynamic range. No new information is revealed in the white, it just turns grey.
Next is the tutorial where I’ll get into how to create and output HDR images with 3ds max, as well as some HDR post-production techniques in Photoshop. Until I get to that, here are some good links to learn more about HDR:
- HDRI on Wikipedia
- Paul Debevec’s Site – This is the authority right here. Check out his bio.
- Earthbound Light – Great write up on shooting images in HDR and file format details.
Here’s a full res of the above image. This is an old character I created while at the Art Institute of Dallas. It’s called a Triavera.
hdr_global-illumination-and-reflection-copy.jpg
Sconces!
March 21st, 2008
-Just a few sconces I modeled for some recent jobs. These were rendered in an IBL setup. Basically, create a big sphere around the models with an HDR map applied to it, turn on Final Gather, tweak the exposure and BAM!
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