the way to cycles: event one: chair

please reproduce the following image, feel free to use any textures if required, lighting is not the main issue here so any will do, if possible, take either printscreens of progress or record it, upon finishing, please post the final render image at samples that you find fit
And please post problems or just things that could made blender easier to reproduce the image:


First!

i could get that bad boy noise free at 250 samples!

Please remind me… Why are we doing this again? :spin:

so somehow we can figure out the failings of the software, in spite of the possibility the failure is on the other end of the interface to grasp the depth of the tools.

problems with this workflow: I could just
a. map a texture to a plane, call it good
b. model forever and still not have the necessary example to match because of geometry flaws
c. render over and over, never reproducing the reflections because the background is missing in the source picture. You can see the reflections in the tubing of the room it is in, even though it has been removed with some editor.
d. get really close, but still argue whatever I want because you said lighting doesn’t matter, so I might just drop into Internal to cheat a little

There are many examples in the Cycles threads of people getting very realistic examples that are high quality fo chairs and the like.

Looking at the geometry, textures, lighting and shading for this example Blender wouldn’t be any faster or slower than MAX/Softmage/Maya to replicate the photograph.

Modeling wise few curves and extrudes and you are done (I would like a more common functionality for surfaces from curves though). Texturing wise only thing that I myself would hate is the dreaded linked selection toggle for UV unwrap. Textures themselves are one old wood and the HDRI for the light/reflections and the bump/specular could be procedural or just a higher contrast image). Lighting and shading/rendering I don’t see any problems/slowdowns.

As I said numerous times, I did this already (note Blender Bugs/Needed features on a real project) here:
http://www.blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?300645-Finishing-a-big(er)-project-in-Blender-here-are-my-findings-bug-reports

Maybe the problem was I didn’t post any pictures (ppl love pictures right). Btw. sorry about the OT.



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Moved from “General Forums > Blender and CG Discussions” to “Contests > Member Contests”

I think I reproduced that image perfectly.
My workflow was this:
CTRL+C
CTRL+V
LMB on “POST QUICK REPLY”

(I know… I’m an a$$) :stuck_out_tongue:
It was my way of making a point, which eludes my recollection of such. :o

I think we all had that figured out, Ran13, even without a snark tag. Just a slightly quicker version of Craig Jones option ‘a’ without using Blender as an intermediary. Could your point have anything to do with the OP just ordering people around like he had some right to do so? :eyebrowlift:

ran13, it was very obvious that you have copied the exact picture that i posted, because it has the exact grease marks on the chair which i had no intention on putting on it, and i must say that it’s quite impossible to put grease marks on a plastic on blender

did anyone had any problem in getting the curve geometry problem, if yes, does anyone has suggestions as to how the model geometry can improve for curves just like that? because there are somethings like this too:
http://www.palbes.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Unique-and-Modern-Laptop-Chair.jpg
and i think anyone can have a hard time figuring out how to put the thing together, i mean it took me 2 days to figure out how can i make this general shape…
try making that if you think it’s easy, of course, no need to model the laptop

If your point is that modeling complicated geometry is complicated, I’m pretty sure we all knew that already.

Do you know the mathematical formula for the shape you are trying to recreate? Then maybe a mathematical shape node might be of service, but I doubt it would be of much use in general because too few artists are well versed in the mathematics of 3d and many of those shapes can’t even be modeled mathematically in a straightforward manner.

For your original example, it isn’t that difficult to use a curve modifier to bend a torus into the shape of the tube. It is equally straightforward to bend a plane into the chair seat and back. Adding thickness is a simple extrude. There is no ‘make the curve match the photo’ button, though, so experience with manipulating bezier curve handles makes the process go faster. I can’t imagine any improvements to the tools that could overcome the need for experience, except perhaps already having the shape included in a library. But even libraries have their limitations, as you have discovered by finding another chair with a completely different shape.

I really am not sure what your point is. If you are simply frustrated that hard stuff is hard, then suck it up and learn how to use the tools Blender already provides.

Textures friend, textures.

what is the issue here? you are just challenging us to reproduce the chair? i mean its just a curve isn’t it, it would take like 10 minutes at the most and perhaps 15 minutes to get the materials done, unless you were hoping for advice and Fweeb just moved it to the wrong forum.

use a HDRI image to get the reflections and a texture map to get the grungy grease stains, whatever you want to call them.