Here's what I wound up with after doing the tutorial, which IIRC, suggested about 100 or 150 samples, and then I tried it with about 300 samples. I finally did it with 1,000 samples, but the inside of the mug is still a little grainy, so not sure how high I should've gone with the samples to get rid of the grainess.

Cycles Coffee Mug

MDO2010 posted at 1:01PM Sun, 09 October 2016 - #4286170

Their books are on sale on Amazon all the time too and often have an additional Prime discount - I got a bunch of them several months ago for around $15 each. Just be careful because there are several editions of some of them with slight changes in the name but almost no actual text changes - if the description sounds like it might be the same thing as another one, it probably is, but it won't straight up say that.

Also, most of the "cookbook" ones seem to be good resources if you are just looking for a solution for something, but they rarely explain they "why" - they are very much of the "click this,", "enter 5," "click this" school, so they are not good learning tools for the beginner in my experience.

Thanks for the heads-up Mark. I'm familiar with PAKCT books, though I was looking more at their Python books yesterday, as I'd like to try my hand at it. I've been programming for years in several web related languages, but I'm looking for a beginner's book, and then eventually learn to create addons for some of my 3D software that utilizes Python scripting. The one organization where I learned my web related programming languages, however, doesn't offer it, so I'm thinking a good book might be useful. We shall see, but I will keep your comments in mind.

Lobo3433 posted at 12:54PM Sun, 09 October 2016 - #4286171

Miss B posted at 10:22AM Sun, 09 October 2016 - #4286148

Thanks for the info Lobo, as I'm always looking for new tutorials, as you know, and Cycles is still very new to me, as is SuperFly in Poser, so any help I can get is always a plus.

As you may know Superfly is Cycles for Poser and most cycles set ups can be used in Poser so learning one is pretty much the same to learning the other there are 3 free tutorials available here done by Mark Bremmer that are very good explaining Superfly Rendering

Yes, I'm aware the Poser SuperFly is based on Cycles, and of Mark Bremmer's tutorials, so yes, learning one will help me with getting a handle on the other. I've been following one of the threads on the SM Poser Forum by a member who's been playing with different shaders utilizing the CyclesSurface root node, so I'm learning a little at a time.

As for Cycles in Blender, I've only tried one tutorial, to model a coffee cup and then render with Cyles, and it didn't come out bad at all, but I need to play with it more in Blender as well.

Thanks for the info Lobo, as I'm always looking for new tutorials, as you know, and Cycles is still very new to me, as is SuperFly in Poser, so any help I can get is always a plus.

Looks like I missed this too. I'll have to keep an eye out for another offer of it.

Ahhhhh, OK. I was thinking more in the terms of testers who test for the company (in this case Renderosity's Prime store), as opposed to testers who work with the vendors. At least if they have the option to use it, they can, but don't necessarily have to.

A_Sunbeam posted at 7:03PM Thu, 06 October 2016 - #4282946

Admin, Moderator and Co-ordinator are all you really need.

I'll second this suggestion. I don't see the "need" for any of the others, so making them optional for members to turn on (or off) depending on how they view the advertising of their Prime membership, whether they're an Exclusive Vender, and especially Testers, as being a tester should never be advertised.

Thanks for the heads-up Keppel. I downloaded 2.78, but haven't it installed yet, so will wait.

MDO2010 posted at 1:31PM Thu, 06 October 2016 - #4285776

Miss B posted at 7:17PM Wed, 05 October 2016 - #4285668

Hey Mark, I didn't know you used Blender. Fancy seeing you here.

Hi Miss B! Yes - I started playing around with Blender near the beginning of this year and now flip back and forth between Blender and Carrara about 50/50.

Well then, welcome to the Blender community.

MDO2010 posted at 12:07AM Wed, 05 October 2016 - #4285395

No - it just appends the extension for .svg as well, it doesn't remove the .png. I just tried it now.

Hey Mark, I didn't know you used Blender. Fancy seeing you here.

Anyway, thanks for testing the .SVG, since I haven't used Illustrator in years, and I've only just recently downloaded Inkscape, I haven't tried exporting a UV map in .SVG format.

I think you're right Lobo. If enough people complain (or suggest) to the Blender developers that it should be changed, maybe it would get changed. I've never seen another piece of software that's compatible with more than one format, actually behave that way. They all change the extension according to the format you choose, and yes, it's annoying.

Sorry for the late reply. I didn't get another email that someone had posted to the thread.

I understand that EPS isn't a default export mode for the UV maps, but if Blender is offering it, then the .png, should automatically change to .eps if you choose to export in that format. That just seems strange to me.

I have Inkscape, but haven't really played with it, so I don't think I've tried exporting to SVG, and now I wonder if it will add the .svg to .png like it does when you choose to export in EPS format. Hmmmmmm . . . ~scratches head~

As far as the image formats listed on that page you linked to, I would assume that's for materials used to texture models. I don't think Blender needs to support EPS to "export" a UV map in that format. Then again, why does it export in that format if it doesn't support it? Texturing and exporting a UV map are two different processes. Oh well. I guess I'll put up with it until enough folks complain about it, and then the developers fix it . . . if ever. ~shrugs~

Yes, and it's strange that it defaults to only 25% Fill. The first couple of times I exported a UV map, I couldn't believe I could hardly see it. Then I looked at the options and saw it was only 25%, so now I'm very careful to up it to 100% right away.

The other thing that annoys me is, it defaults to PNG, and even though I choose to export in EPS format, the name has 2 extensions. IOW, it'll say UVMap.png.eps, so I have to go and delete out the .png before saving. You would think it would "change" the extension, instead of "adding" to it. ~shakes head~

Hey Lobo, long time no chat.

As far as exporting in EPS format, I have always found the PNG export comes out so light in color, I have to try and darken the lines of the map, which sometimes is frustrating and annoying to have to take the extra steps.

Once I tried exporting in EPS format, which Photoshop reads, I have found the quality of the maps are much nicer. I'm attaching here a part of a UV map I exported, first as PNG, and secondly as EPS. I wrote a helpful hint on the EPS format, as the EPS format imports into PS at a larger size than expected. It's basically just a matter of a nicer visual UV map.

I'm a little late to this thread, but I've been using a Wacom tablet for years, most recently a Bamboo, and I use it for everything, not just graphics. I switched from using a mouse because I suffer from chronic CTS, and yes it took some getting use to, but now I don't know how I could get anything accomplished without it.

That said, some software pkgs are ripe with keyboard controls, and that's always a plus in my book, but I use my tablet for everything that doesn't have a keyboard control.

I really like UV mappng in Blender. I don't think I ever produced a nice UV map years ago when I was using UV Mapper Classic.

Since last year I've learned to UV map in Silo, but I still prefer the output I get with Blender, especially when I export the layout in EPS format. It comes out much nicer than PNG.