Diner's time

Comments:

• 

  BMF
  

  Cesium666,

  Underwater scenes are difficult and I think you did a nice job for your first one.

  However, as a former SCUBA diver who has made dives all across the Pacific, you very rarely find clean boulders in the ocean. Because of the reef fish, I assume this is in swallow water and so corals, anemones, mollusks, star fish, and sea worms would be abundant in this kind of environment. If it's a remote area you would also see occasional shells, especially cowries, among the corals. Also "pin cushions" are very common on the floor of a reef.

  Lobsters are plentiful around coral reefs so including it would have been realistic. However, it would normally be barely visible in some coral enclave or among coral rubble.

  If you are creating a reef scene, it would be difficult to add too much to it. Reefs (excepts those frequented by divers who disturb the environment) abound with an amazing variety of life.

  Anyway, I'm familiar with your work and you seem to be getting better with each Blend Swap posting.

  You might be able to reduce your render time if you change your objects under the "maximum draw type" in the object Display panel from textured to "Bounds." I know it reduces render times when you have multiple objects of the same type, but I haven't experimented if it reduces render times for single objects. Maybe others know, but you might give it a try.

  I believe Andrew Price put this out a while ago. 1. Use GPU (not everyone can). If you can use GPU then set tile size to 256x256. If using CPU set the tile size to 16x16. 2. Reduce the Light Path settings: Set bounces to Max 2 and Min 0 Try experimenting with the other settings but leave the Transmission set higher than the others

  Keep up the good work.

  Take care.

  Written May 19, 2014
• 

  BMF
  

  Two other things I forgot to mention in my previous comment.

  The shadows are too sharp for underwater. They would be much softer in reality. Actually, there would only be just a hint of a shadow in shallow water and it would disappear completely starting at about 20 feet, depending on the visibility of the water.

  Secondly, there would normally be very small particles suspended in the water. I have dived locations where the water was remarkably clear, but the vast majority of my dives were not crystal clear. There is a grainy texture to the water as the wave action cause sand to be swept up from the floor, the coral polyps release particles, and in general there is just a lot of small particulates in the water. The more there are the less the visibility.

  Google "SCUBA diving" images and you'll see what I mean about clean boulders, shadows, and visibility.

  Written May 19, 2014
• 

  Cesium666
  

  thank you for your comment and your advices. You are right about the shadow, I tried to create some light ray but it fails with only 200 scans. I think it is possible to have realistic shadow by increasing the volume scattering. I tried but thought it was really dark I think it was more realistic. I have also tried to add some particles but my computer said no. It is really too much asking for a crappy laptop like mine (I am looking froward to buy a proper computer). Thanks again too for your advice about rendering, I will try to test it with your hint to reduce time rendering. I can't use GPU only CPU. Oh well I deal with it. I really appreciate your work specially the last staff pic about the 26 July (awesome).

  Written May 19, 2014
• 

  richardfireone
  

  Excellent scene and comments. As a Capt. and Master scuba diver and divemaster I particularly appreciated the comments. As a project director for a conservation organization shaping the future of our use of the world Blender and the talented individuals using it can help accelerate its integration into our daily lives in a practical way.

  Written May 19, 2014
• 

  Cesium666
  

  Thanks you, I really appreciate it ;) and BMF's comments are constructives and helpfull.

  Written May 19, 2014
• 

  BMF
  

  Cesium666,

  I could be wrong, but I believe you can control the softness of your shadows in Cycles by tweaking the combination of the size and strength of the sun lamp.

  Try something like a sized of 1 or 2 and a strength of 5 or 6.

  Honestly, I'm new to Cycles and trying to understand such things as the reverse intuitive logic of some of the settings in Cycles. My first attempt at Cycles was my "That's Number Ten" scene. But it was fairly simple.

  I've avoided Cycles because of the very long render times and the mind boggling possible combinations of nodes to achieve even simple results that I want. I'm now working on my first real Cycles challenge and I find I've spending far more time on Cycles than I am on modeling. Simple is isn't for beginners.

  So take my comments on Cycles lighting with a grain of salt. But in my current project, I've been experimenting with dozens of different size and strength settings for lighting.

  What I've learned is that one light source is not necessarily ideal. I've found that using multiple "suns" even all at the same angle and direction set at different sizes and strengths can yield better results.

  I can't give you a formula but I think the shadow issue is more of a size vs strength issue with your lighting.

  In Blender Internal, you could increase the samples and another setting to soften shadows. In Cycles I'm fairly certain its a matter of the ratio of size vs strength.

  Hopefully someone who knows what the heck they are talking about will jump in and either validate my comment or correct me.

  Take care. In a week or so you'll be able to critique my next scene--assuming that I can find a way to make is small enough to upload. Once I have the look and feel I want with the textures, I'll have to spend several days in Photoshop down sizing the images or else this leviathan of a blend file is just going to sit here on my personal computer. I don't think anyone will want to download a 200 plus MB blend file.

  BMF

  Written May 19, 2014
• 

  Cesium666
  

  I haven't though about sun lamp instead of a spot. It is a good idea, I will try it on a different scene. I can't compare blender internal vs cycles because I have started blender directly with cycles ;) You are right, It takes me more time to tune the node in cycled than to do modeling !!! But cycle can give wonderfull results. I am looking forard to see your next scene.

  Written May 20, 2014
• 

  allengibtex
  

  looks good to me that fish may turn up anyway with all that science finds every year.

  Written July 10, 2014
• 

  Cesium666
  

  Thank ;)

  Written July 13, 2014
• 

  blenderman95
  

  Very nice :D keep up the good work :)

  Written July 12, 2014
• 

  Cesium666
  

  thanks for the comment.

  Written July 13, 2014