they are glass - back-painted black... owner request.

thanks!
you golf Sleaford or fish the Wash much?

I like to set up my path in SketchUp (I'm lazy). But this takes time and lots of care. ... the tiny adjustments and test renders are the slow part.

Then I use KT's walkthru tool. Select all your cams in KT, then go Tools>Walkthrough and set up your animation. Then KT will smooth the path with splines I think. That's what makes it smooth... and is like no work from me.

then if I still catch the corner of the frig or something, then I just slightly tweak the cams inside of KT, but usually go back and tweak in SU, and merge/replace the cams in.

thanks Honey Dear and all ,

Here's another project we completed recently in our office... an animation.

For a good rendering it's fairly simple - you only have to have 4 things...

Good looking materials, I start usually with materials from KT's website... then switch out the diffuse color with the image from SU... if necessary. Maybe I will tweak the bump map (like for the floor above)

Good lighting - For lights, I only put lights where they would actually be in the space! I don't usually put fake filler lights anywhere. But if I do, it's in a manner that a real arch. photographer would approach it... I didn't do that in this image. I downloaded the IES information for the lights that I used, and loaded that info into the lights, so that they are projecting the light exactly as thy would in real life. This helps me do lights accurately and quickly. I love Visalighting.com they have the IES info AND SketchUp models for all their lights.

A good render engine - For render methods I love KT because you can pick from many methods - this image was done overnight on a quad core with MLT (Metropolis Light Transport) and is very accurate light (physically). I also often use PM+FG (photon-mapped+field gathering) when I'm in more of a hurry.

It's important to have an accurate model. If you start out with a bad model, it will be difficult to make a good rendering. (note door hardware... missing exit signs )

Kerkythea supports net rendering, so for a small office situation it's very good!

We produced this animation (fly-thru) of an apartment marketed to students for University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.

We use SketchUp for the modeling, and Kerkythea 2008 (with the latest update 2.0.19) for the rendering. (client provided some furn. models in .obj format, which we inserted into SU models using Deep Explorer for conversion)

It was rendered on a Boxx quad core. It rendered over the weekend.

Let me know if you want to know more. I wrote here about it in more depth.

here's a shot from "behind the scenes"

I agree with Gaieus that the materials could benefit from a lot of attention, but overall very nice modelling - a true labor of love! Congrats!

If you have not, try downloading all materials in KT available and also read the material guide. But best of all is to apply materials that are 'close' to what you want and learn from them.

needs flags and sails, and a wake, to give the sense of wind/motion... seagulls?

Thanks guys,
Here's my 'final' ... as if they are ever 'final' right?...

(actual render is 2800px wide, I will spare you.)

I added some people, clients like to see people.

thank you for your comments!
I have fixed the poor job I did earlier placing the downlights, and it's in the middle of rendering a 2800px view... here's a sneak preview.

saw it... so... here's the strip mall!

great work!

I highly recommend using Alex's car rendering studio (or cheat and use his HDR to light the scene) with the PM+FG High+AA preset - or better- MLT... you'll love the results.
Jon created a studio that incorporate Alex's HDR, see this thread. (But Alex states he doesn't believe HDR is a great way to light car renderings - an actual light studio you can tweak for each car is better - in his opinion)

to load an HDR in the 'sky'
simply go to sun & sky wizard, skip sun settings>go to sky tab, choose 'spherical sky' and click the black box to load the hdr. then find/load the Alex studio hdr.

or you can also install the HDR probe library from the kerkythea.net downloads section.

then just insert>globals>pick your HDR, and it will set up the scene lighting for you.

be sure to let the HDR do the lighting and turn off any lights you've inserted.

then render.

be sure, also, to try out the metals Patrick posted in the downloads section.

lastly, Alex, whom I would consider one of the Car-rendering-gurus of KT only uses MLT render preset or MLT/BiPT... they do take about 12hrs to render that way, but look fantastic... and it's very simple to do. He's got a great thread about his car rendering studio technique here.

keep up the great work!

also, try some photography studio HDRs by Rayman.

@solo said:

Awesome work, I love the mix media one most.

Thanks guys...
I thought it has a comic book feel that a client might like never showed them that.
actually I showed them a digi-watercolor of a similar looking image, and they preferred the straight SU version out of the three I couldn't believe it.

it's a fundraising image.

re: settings... just hit render with MLT... I have a quad, left it overnight, next morning had that.
actually hi-res is here.

I've made a couple tweaks, and will update with 'final' soon.

Hi Bubba, thanks!
Almost all IES, yes. stage spots are not.

Solo, wish I could see your stuff but it's all blocked from my work's internet security.
Can you please consider posting your images somewhere we ALL can see them? Don't you have your own website? why not just put them in a folder there, like I do with mine?

looks like a cool project! keep it up!

This has been a fun project... designing and rendering. A renovation of a 1920's Auditorium in a High School here in Wisconsin, USA

If you're rendering in Kerkythea in MLT at high resolution, the rendering may take a while... so while you wait, you can save the image out in-progress, and use the partially-rendered image's lighting and reflections to kind of do a 'mixture' of SU and KT... as shown in the combo shot above.

All the best to you!

bye bye song423.
mods please ban them.
(this is the first time I think I've ever suggested this for anyone. sad.)

@rickw said:

If there's anything on the list you don't care about, I could put it off 'til the first update.

ok, put them off... go ahead and lay it on us!

the applyto command sounds interesting, but if you have several similar groups that you have just turned into components and need to replace them with the 'good' component, you don't need another tool... when you have the other "bad" components selected, just right-click the 'good' component thumbnail in the components>in model dialog , and choose 'replace'... no need to place them by hand one at a time... they orient correctly this way too... in my experience.

@unknownuser said:

I almost never make groups and can't see why one would make a group instead of a component.

I use groups to group things like 'hi poly furniture' and drop the entire group on a layer to shut off that stuff quickly. I would never make a component of that group!
I use this technique all the time to group phases of a project, put the phases on layers, and control display of phases for clients using Scenes and layer visibility... I wouldn't make components of those phases either... your model size would skyrocket.

@fletch said:

really looking forward to this one...

Hi Pete,
what I need to know is:
1 - how do you convert a single spherical image into an .mov

2 - how do you embed that into your website so it's as simple to use as this one