hello everybody...

i'm posting some of my test renders from my donut contest entry. there is alot of detail in the scene that isn't visible in the final image. i thought people might like seeing a little bit of my process.

i'm going to try to be brief. if there are any questions when i'm done, please feel free to ask.

please do me a favor by not responding until i have posted all parts, just so i can keep them all together.

thanks,
scott springer

ok, this is a small version of my actual entry, just as a refresher.

i knew from the start that i wanted to use fluorescent light as the main light source because it is so ugly and everyone else was doing nice warm appetizing scenes. i wanted to set my entry apart from the rest.

i like to model, texture, and experiment with lighting all at the same time. the following sequence will show the evolution of the scene.

i used a string of 40 bulb lights set at 2.5 intensity with a fall off of 6ft (the scene is built to scale, with ft as the unit of measurement)

some of the test renders use the 40 light string, others just use one bulb light. you can tell the difference by how soft the shadow is by the toaster plug.

this image was rendered with just one bulb light. notice how the shadow changes on the toasters plug?

some of the objects arent textured yet. and the lighting set-up is really basic.

ah finally we see a donut! this was my second attempt at modeling and texturing the donut. the first one (youll see it later) looked more like a potato bagel. there is no glaze applied to it yet.

i modeled it by converting the torus to the vertex modeler, and using the magnet to deform it (after i cleaned up all of the bad welding that the conversion caused)

my original idea was to see most of the scene reflected off of the toaster from somewhere around this angle. however, the angle of the wall of the toaster did not work well with the fluorescent light at this angle. i tried cheating it by angling the toaster, but never was able to achieve a satisfactory result.

the outlet and toaster plug have a tremendous amount of detail. the outlet cover is one part, and each actual socket is a separate part. all of this was modeled in the vertex modeler. the screw holding to the wall actually has a bevel on the edge of the notch. why i went to this length, i have no idea. i like modeling.

the grooves on the plug are actual geometry. and all the edges are chamfered. although it is barely visible, almost every edge has a bevel or radius in this scene. i believe (i hope, since i spent so much time doing it) that this ads subtle realism to the scene.

another major reason for doing this was to allow myself the freedom to get as close to my models as i wanted, without worrying about fidelity breakdown. i also just like modeling.

did i say i liked modeling?

because i intended for a large amount of the scenes background to be visible in the toasters reflection, i modeled the rest of the kitchen. this gave me the freedom to radically change my mind about the composition. you can tell from this angle that the cabinets below and above the counter are the same object. i designed them to work this way so i would have fewer master objects.

the depth of TOXEs entry caused me to experiment with using the kitchen as a backdrop for the still life. so i placed a table in the middle of the room and angled it a bit to make the composition more interesting.

the neighbors apartment, visible through the window is an actual photo of my neighbors apartment, modified in photoshop and applied to a vertex wall. i made a luminosity map for the glow channel and faked emitted light with a spot coming from behind the neighbors window. logically, the vertex wall was set to not cast shadows.

here we go. ive brought the subjects to the foreground and added a sink with dishes and pots to the background. if you look closely, you can see the toaster is tilted on an angle... left over from trying to make the reflection work correctly. the image on the right has a warm spot over the subjects. had i proceeded, this would have been a hanging light over the kitchen table. i never developed the lighting for this angle, because i played around and found one i liked better.

the dolly tool is amazing for quickly experimenting with composition. normal still life compositions bore the snot out of me. so i was really excited when i came up with this angle. the camera is also tilted a couple of degrees so that the would-be horizontals run at a slight diagonal. diagonals are always better than horizontals or verticals.

i also began to fall in love with the refrigerator, so i wanted to find some way to work it into the composition. it is one spline object plus the spline handles, but i would like to go back into it and model it completely. like all the other objects, it has nice radii on the edges.

getting closer to the final composition now. i think the lighting on this image and the next image is far superior to my final entry. the lights were arranged in a more random manner than the final, which used a grid of bulbs spaced evenly around the room. i think this made it a little stale.

i really like what's going on with the lighting on the winow frame. the moonlight is mixing with the neighbor's window light and with the fluorescent.

at this point, i knew i wanted the camera to be very near the ground. so i had to figure out a way to still show the coffee and donuts. ah, a spill. perfect.

if you look closely, you can see the spilt coffee in the middle of the floor. it is just a big metaball object that a stuck halfway into the floor. hey, time was running out.

ok, so now that youve seen the development of the composition, i want to show you just a few more images.

this was the first thing i modeled for the scene. all the parts are modeled. i tell myself it is good to spend... waste so much time making models because i can always use them in subsequent scenes.

i hope this is the case.

so this is the infamous potato donut image. it was my first attempt at the donut texture... before i looked at a donut. i ended up using the glaze portion of the shader on these donuts on my final donut texture. cut copy and paste.

this is an alternate angle rendered at 800x550 pixels. i kind of cut corners on the lighting because the contest had ended, and this image was just for comparison purposes.

ok, this is the last image. i swear! it is the full-size final image that i submitted for the contest.

well at this point i'm done yapping about my work. if there are any questions, feel free to ask. thanks for your interest / patience.

-scott

Sweet! Mark

Thank you! This was excellent!

I'm really glad you posted this. It shows how tough a work can be and how much time it can take to get things working. I go through very similar processes and usually end up in a place I never expected to start at. -Kix

-Kix

Scott: Great job on the scene. It shows how Carrara can be pushed to its limits and show results that rivals the ones from much more expensive software. Are you use you used Carrara.....? just kidding : ) The lighting in the scene is superb. I remember your previous posts when you were making test renders for the flourescent light. I'll have to dig that one up for reference. In my opinion I like more the other angles for the scence, compared to the final image you subbmited (they show the compexity of the scene much better). Any way, congratulations. And good look with your next project, the Error type 11.

So much detail in that room. Amazing. And your belief that having the details in the models -- the radii and the bevels -- is correct. You get little highlights off the edges of objects that you wouldn't have otherwise. All the little details go a LONG way toward "selling" the image. It's really great. And thank you very much for sharing your creative process; it's always interesting to see how someone works on a project. Now you have a remarkably complete room for any number of stories to tell. By the way -- does your neighbor know you're taking picutres of his apartment and posting them on the internet? :o) - Dex

Hey! These are excellent images and the lightning is too great, why i win the contest? You are a real master of Carrara my friend:) TOXE