Planet Blender

New RayTraing Optermisations in trunk
blender 2.6 dev - 2009-10-06 21:44:00


to test the new ray-traing optimisations i chose a slightly unusual test: a very high poly scene with ambient (ray-traced lighting) (left, the legs each have just over 6 million vertices, the total seen has just under 23 million verities, a lot!!! )
in blender 2.48b it took 46 minutes and 1 second to produce this.
in blender2.5 r23664 it took 6 minutes and 3 second.
My secondray system wich this test was run on is and old linux box with a 1.8Ghz single core Amd and one gb of ram, the file size is just over 780mb.

edit: i used the following render settings:
AO ray traced 5 samples using add, and plain.
osa:8
50%:HD size
all object have no define material
and one sun raysadowed

Modeling for architecture: Script Blender Assisted Design
Blender 3D Architect - 2009-10-06 17:56:43

Work with precision modeling in Blender 3d for architecture, may require a few precautions and the extensive use of snap tools and the 3d cursor. But, from time to time a few users develop python scripts that aid in the design process, adding CAD capabilities to 3d modeling in Blender. Today I’m going to recommend [...] Related posts:

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Kick-of days
Sintel, the Durian Open Movie Project - 2009-10-06 17:50:28

Phew, second day of Durian already! Things are crazy fun and hectic here, we spend ages in meetings it seems.

To start with: check these cool pictures from Andy Goralczyk, he was in the studio here for a week course, and stayed a couple of days to welcome the Durian team and consult us a bit on various issues (4k render, epic shots, realistic human shading, …).

Andy’s flickr Durian Kick-off gallery

Yesterday we went over all the key topics for the startup of this project. Discussing essential boring stuff like working hours, keys, closing-down-office protocols, bicycles, appartment stuff, who gets us lunch, office cleaning, and of course about schedulig this whole project. Some decisions;

- We will make a schedule for a weekly MonkeyButler service, everyone then is for a week the office slave doing some cleaning, get and prepare lunch, manage dishwasher and change towels. I’ll do the first week

- Script is getting some minor revisions for feasibility, but by Blender conference it’s final. We will present there the first scenes, about a minute of film. These scenes and shots we’ll keep updating live on the web for everyone, so you can watch it develop from storyboard to final.

- Everyone has a topic assigned to blog about this week.

- First month will be mostly design oriented, with targets to get final designs for the characters and environments during november.

We also defined first week targets for everyone:

- Soenke will work this week on creating an epic render in Blender, on Avatar level. (Yes, Cameron’s Avatar is the new reference standard for epicness)

- Angela and Nathan work on a quick female character model and rig, firday ready for Lee to pickup to animate.

- Lee will study fight choreography further, and come with proposals and designs for the fight sequences.

- Colin will review all feedback on the script and propose a couple of possible scenario solutions to further explore.

- Colin and David continue storyboarding, David continues with concept art.

- Campbell and Brecht focus on fixing everything in 2.5 that’s reported here!

Today, from 14-19h we spent on the script with Esther, going over all scenes, versions, stylings, characterizations, emotional impacts, deeper meanings, layers, bad-ass leveling, epicness and simple stupid silly fun aspects of this project.

Later more,

-Ton-

graphicall: GSoC: RayTrace Optimization now in trunk! wohoo! thanks Jaguarandi! [r23649] http://tinyurl.com/raytraceoptimization
Twitter / graphicall - 2009-10-06 17:26:02

graphicall: GSoC: RayTrace Optimization now in trunk! wohoo! thanks Jaguarandi! [r23649] http://tinyurl.com/raytraceoptimization

epic durian team photos
artificial3D - 2009-10-06 17:05:39

…and more photos. this time from the durian open movie team at the blender institute, which just started official production last monday. I’m not that happy with some of the pics as they’re blurred quite a bit. I blame the low light conditions… and these people are moving way too fast!

flickr link

.andy

MultiAd Selects Blender/V-ray for Production Pipeline, Seeking Artists
BlenderNation - 2009-10-06 14:00:50

Peoria, IL, U.S.A. – MultiAd, a central Illinois firm specializing in marketing and advertising services production, was seeking a cost-effective approach to 3-D modeling and rendering. It was determined that a hybrid approach of open-source modeling software, Blender and a popular commercial-rendering solution, V-ray is the best approach in a rough economy. As client [...]

Ubuntu Karmic Beta
harkyman.com - 2009-10-06 12:51:06

When I’m writing, I mostly use my laptop. I use the desktop (faster, etc.) for any actual 3D work, and for editing so I can have Blender up in one monitor and the manuscript in another. Lately, the desktop box hasn’t been much use so I decided to install the beta of Ubuntu’s next release: Karmic Koala 9.10. The real release is at the end of October, so I figured it must be pretty close to finished. And really, I’m a developer myself so I’m both fault tolerant and probably able to get things working even if there are glitches.

Egad. Karmic broke my wifi. It’s an Atheros card (AR2413), and there is a long list of gripes on teh Internets about Atheros not playing nicely with Linux. There is a set of open drivers (ath5k) for the cards, but after finally getting Ubuntu to use them, I got really really horrible connection. Oh well. That’s why they say not install the beta on a production machine! The solution I came up with? Order a different card. Edimax makes cards that play very well with Linux, and for $20 I not only get a card I don’t have to fight with every time I do a system upgrade, I get one with an extensible antenna with a cable. Hopefully I’ll be able to position it more freely than a card with the antenna attached directly and nab some extra signal.

So from a Blender perspective, just remember that beta really means beta. Don’t use it for production unless you are either extremely fault tolerant or can fix problems yourself. When 2.5 rolls out (hopefully) at the end of the month, by all means grab it and pound on it. It’ll help the development process. But don’t think you’re going to be doing end-to-end production with it.

Blender 2.49 is still where it’s at, and really, I don’t think I’d roll 2.5 into my production pipeline until after Durian is over and the gold release (or 2.60 or whatever it will be called) happens next summer. That in mind, if you’re foggy on the higher order aspects of using Blender in a real production, it wouldn’t kill you to check out my book in the sidebar (turn your ad blocker off for a second!) It’s been called both “the best software book I’ve ever read” and “a replacement for Inspired Short 3D Film Production“, and not just by my mom!

2.5 tour #9 part 4 particles and simulation
Blender Labrat - 2009-10-06 10:10:00

here is part 4 of my 9th tour : particles and simulations

covers:
-where things are now
-new cache system
-effectors
-point density texture
-and a few other things that have slipped my mind atm (too tired)

I must admit this wasn';t my greatest tour there is quite a few crashes and i tended to wander around a bit but i still hope you all enjoy it :)

http://mfoxdogg.com/2_5_tour9_physics.ogg

Talking Dog Commercial
BlenderNation - 2009-10-06 04:06:32

We recently used Blender in a few commercials we did for a company out of Virginia called "Woodfin". In the commercial we made their mascot 'Watch Dog' talk. We targeted Blender as the ideal software for its ability to composite from within without having to export video or use additional software. This made the process [...]