1st render in KT
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Thanks for the kind words, Edson...
Believe me - it's my pleasure taking you through this, and I'm sure that you'll adapt things much faster now that we've initiated the Beginners Starting Guide "class", which I'm sure many will benefit from watching/joining...
Regarding changing textures etc. this is exactly the purpose with this "class", where users will learn how they can change textures, apply new components, set-up lightning etc... etc...
Some will find the "class" being very basic, but I guess we need to acknowledge that what we see as being "simple", to others may seem difficult...
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Yes, nice start, Edson! Certainly the floor needs to be changed and now I don't even bother you with soft shadows - I guess that'll be the material of next weeks' lessons (and as I said over the KT Forums, I'll probably only catch up with you during the week-end).
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@frederik said:
Some will find the "class" being very basic, but I guess we need to acknowledge that what we see as being "simple", to others may seem difficult...
let the experts find it basic, kim. this is exactly what we need. beginnings must be from the very basic.
you are quite right; when one reaches profficiency in anything there is a tendency to forget those initial, tentative, basic steps without which there is no progression.
the mentioned thread has the potential to become an entry door to KT for many novices like me.
keep up the great work.
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just to keep you up to date regarding my progress with KT, a second render. this is from the thread mentioned above.
comments and criticism most welcome.
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Looking good, Edson, very promising!
Do you use any shininess on any of the materials? -
not yet. one step at a time. i have no idea how to do it.
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Edson,
I love the first render. Great first time work. The second needs more in it. Maybe a window or two. Right now it looks more like a display one would see in a store. Overall nice work and keep it going.
Scott
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Just thought because as if the back of the bed (its top) was shining a bit. True that elsewhere it cannot be seen.
Did you use one of the KT textures for the floor? Or downloaded it from somewhere like Arroway?
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yes, i used one of the wood textures i downloaded from their site.
it is good to know there are other places to get textures from. are there others besides arroway?
EDIT: never mind. i have a big list of places where to get textures from (posted here at SCF!).
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Now Edson, apart from the "diffuse" image (which alone is already fine), there are two B&W images there; a "bump map" and a "specular" (or shininess) map image. Download them as well.
Here is how they work;
Bump maps are greyscale images whose lighter values will create virtual bumps on a surface while the darkes values will create depressions. These will cast small but essential shadows on the surface itself making it more realistic (note that nothing is really smooth).Specular maps work the same way - just they are more shiny where they are lighter and less shiny where they are darker thus resulting (together with the bump map) a nice effect where the irregularities of the material will reflect light.
I know the "lesson" is not at this point yet but you can already experiment with these maps. The values you should use are given at the arroway website (in % - you should count 100% as it is 1.000 in Kerky for the weight).
Specular map goes right under the diffuse material while bump maps go to somewhere at the top right of the material editor. You can find them easily (I cannot give a screenshot because I don't have Kerky on my office computer).
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wow, thanks. this is all news to me. i have been wondering what exactly bump maps mean.
does arroway allow me to dwld some textures for free? there is a site called CG Textures where all the textures are free.
since we are at it: how do i import a texture for use in KT?
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As far as I remember, arroway lets you use the lower resolution image samples (together with their bumps and speculars) free for non commercial use (this is some kind of a "bait" anyway since if you can make serious money by purchasing their texture packs, you'd gladly pay anyway). So they are just for kinds of people as you are at the moment anyway.
also, click on the little help icons at the specular and bump maps to get a much more detailed (and correct) explanation about them at their site.
CG Textures are also great but many of them are not tilable (though can still be used but with projected or fixed pin place mode in SU - then preserve UV maps at export to KT).
as for importing material libraries to KT, download them first onto your hard drive from the KT Downloads area. they have a certain name "something**.mat.zip**". Be sure that the path you download them to does not contain any special (Portuguese) characters otherwise KT won't be able to locate them.
Now go to File > Import library and click on the downloaded zip files. They will be unzip to the right folder. From now on, when right clicking on a material name exported to KT from SU, you can also apply a pre-made material from what you downloaded. These are made by experienced KT users (like Patricks for instance) so they are pretty much optimized - you shouldn't change too much of them. There are some decent floor materials there, as well.
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Nice start.
At KT forums there is a nice basic material setup for diffuse and specular maps, made by Patrick. It is easy to use with Arroway or any other texture source that do provide diffuse and specular maps.
http://www.kerkythea.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=25545#25545
Cheers!
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looking very good, keep up the good work! can't wait to see your progression.
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james,
i am glad to see you are also taking your first steps in KT. it is probably a long road to profficiency but well worth it, i am sure.
keep it up.
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i think i'll join mr.frederik's class too!
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