A Day at the Museum (Natural History Museum - London)

dale · 26 Dec 2010, 16:00

Wow. Nice work Fletch on what must be a very challenging render.

simon le bon · 26 Dec 2010, 16:55

Hi Dear Fletch,

Nice to see you also Here in SCF
So nice render! Also i can understand the big challenge for you was to translate the model into a decent Skp model.. Am I wrong?
It's a surprise for me to see the subject of your post because I have watched the astonishing pictures of this Natural History Lighting Challenge just 3 or 4 days ago
The reason why was because I had ordered a book on "non-software-specific" knowledge about rendering

a book written by Jeremy Birn witch is rightly the one who have initiated this Lighting Challenges

With my sympathy and my best wishes for 2011
simon

Edson · 26 Dec 2010, 19:57

beautiful, fletch. stunning work.

floric · 26 Dec 2010, 21:50

Wow. Amazing render. I like watching things like this.

Roger · 27 Dec 2010, 04:18

If you filled the interior with tropical plants it would look a bit like Atocha Station in Madrid. I thought about modeling that but rejected the thought after thinking about it for 10 seconds. Is there any direct lighting on the exhibits?

Fletch · 1 Jan 2011, 00:33

Another view I am looking at. DOF with F-number 4... may be too subtle.

This is not an exercise for ultimate realism, but more for play. And it is to prove that this model could be handled in SU and Twilight Render with only 3Gb of RAM.

I do realize this building exists, and as it is an extraordinary building, it is quite well-known... so if you've been inside the real space, you are blessed, but any rendering of the space could not really do it justice without a lot more modeling and texture work.

slimaczysko · 11 Jan 2011, 19:57

Wow nice work...

I've been there several times, is a great museum

Fletch · 13 Jan 2011, 13:04

An update, and a new view.
Click images for full view.
Visit link to forum above to see higher-resolution.
DOF is done with the render engine camera setting - F-number 2.8

artysmedia · 13 Jan 2011, 15:53

I was waiting to see the las image to make a comment
Will you put some dirty on the walls?
Great museum

Fletch · 14 Jan 2011, 08:04

Updated view, and changed the wall material.

sepo · 14 Jan 2011, 18:58

The last one is very convincing.

Fletch · 15 Jan 2011, 14:00

Thanks, Sepo. I was hoping you would like the stone block better. (I do too)
see full high-res image in original thread here.

Fletch · 17 Jan 2011, 23:50

Couldn't resist just one more.

Fletch · 19 Jan 2011, 01:22

Here's my first experiment with a spherical image of this space.

screenshot:

KarinaGM · 19 Jan 2011, 07:49

Impresive Fletch!!!!
Are the skeletons also modeled in SU? Don't tell me they are! I won't believe you
The texturing and detailing is really nice. I haven't been there, but knowing the quality of your work, no doubt it is also accurate

Fletch · 19 Jan 2011, 13:42

Thanks Karina.

Well, this building is actually not originally modelled in SU, it was modelled in Blender and painstakingly converted into a "component-driven" SketchUp model - mostly because it had many reversed face issues due to the conversion process from Blender file to .obj format.

Also, it's not actually that accurate of a model, in the sense that the real museum is so mind-blowingly complex. It has hundreds of fine terra cotta details including monkeys and birds, etc. Check the link at the beginning of this thread to find out more.

I hope to visit the building one day. I unfortunately missed it on my last trip to London.

The brick walls and diamond detail columns are a rough approximate of the "real thing".

Speaker · 19 Jan 2011, 15:35

why do I see bar panorama when I click on the image?

edit: works OK now

simon le bon · 19 Jan 2011, 18:36

@fletch said:

Couldn't resist just one more.

This one is probably my preferred

It is a pleasure to see "the master in action" (Don't hesitate to give some more )

Re: at a first glance, the panorama won't work for me

++Simon

notareal · 19 Jan 2011, 19:20

@simon le bon said:

Re: at a first glance, the panorama won't work for me

++Simon

Did first end in some pub But now it appears to work... some what wavy lines. Maybe some conversion problem?

Fletch · 20 Jan 2011, 00:19

Please click the little thumbnail images, not the screenshot! That should work. If not, you need to update your flash player in your web browser, or allow some of the scripts on pan0.net in your browser security settings.
Just added a different panoramic view today... (slightly lower resolution)

Visit the first panoramic here:

Oh! the panoramic image of the Bar - that's the site's testpanoramic. If you see it fine, just click the "skip" button you should be able to see the image.