New Renderings

[garystan]

      Hi everybody :

                       Here's just a couple pics of my pro jects.

                                                                            garystan

[Allan Chesney]

Hi Garystan,

They have come out very well !!

I like the effect of the stone bathroom - looks almost medieval but with modern fittings.

Keep up the good work!

Allan

[Robert W - "robban"]

Great renderings

[Doug.S]

They look very nice. But, tho you did not ask, here are a few thought to make them even better...

- photo #1: have never seen a stone ceiling on an angle as shown; probably possible but not likely and good wood would be more believable

- photo #2:  carpet near camera looks very stretched; could be camera wide angle or the applied image with too low a resolution....could be fixed by making it tile more....but that is not how this kind of flooring normally looks. A big rug on an wood floor would seem more realistic.

- photo #3: flooring wood seems like wide planks and large wood grain are out of scale; easily fixed by setting wood properties to smaller planks. Fireplace needs a hearth

Keep going, you are doing great so far.  It is always the little things that can make or break a render.

[garystan]

  Doug :

             Thanks for the reply and advice.
             As for the stone,  I wanted a  "rustic" look.  In reality, I'd probably use some kind of
             light-wieight  fake stone.  Being, with the  real thing, if one of them came loose.........
                I deliberately made the flooring with a wide look.   Maybe it wasn't the  "best" choice.
            Again with the rustic look.
                As for the rendering.   I had trouble getting the  "whole" bathroom in the final rendering.
            The reason for the  "bowed" look is probably I set the view control  to a  "tooooooo wide"
            setting. 
                One thing that has REALLY helped me was the advice I received from either you, Robert
           or Allan.   When preparing for a rendering think of the view of the software camera in terms
          of a  real-life camera..
                And....I THINK it was Robert (testing my memory) who said,  design it the way you'd
          build it.  But, in reality, with some of my designs,  I'd have to be close to a millionaire to
          build a house with these designs in mind.
                More-than-likely,  I'm going to still  work with that bathroom
                                                                                                  Thanks guys,
                                                                                                        garystan
 

[Doug.S]

One tip for getting the whole room view "in" OK, but not using too wide angle camera lens which distorts the view (actually it is not distorted, it is technically correct, but only if you were to set your eyes very close to the image; but for normal reading distance -- viewing does look distorted.)...

Anyway...think like a movie producer or a TV set.....temporarily remove a wall so you can put a camera at a farther distance than would be the limit for the wall being in the way....and then use a less wide angle lens and still see as much of the room you desire. The result is the picture you want but without lens distortion.

But be careful it is not an outside wall (which would let full sun shine in) or the adjoining room adds lighting you do not want.  If it is an outside wall, you may just move the wall out of the way by making the room larger (temporarily) than reality...or remove the wall but build a false temp. wall around the room.

Takes some playing around....and maybe do so on a copy of the master file because moving walls can cause problems....but "undo" may be your savior.

[garystan]

  Doug :
 
              That IS  a good idea..........moving the wall........or creating a false wall further away from
              the area to be rendered.     Alright, genius.......you get 5 points for that one !!!!!
                     And as for the file.  If I went to close the file, I'd get the prompt asking me  "do you
              want to save your changes? "   That way, when I open that file again, it'd be like no
              changes were done to it.
                      During my experimentation,  I noticed that if I change the horizontal and height
             dimensions in the rendering options,  I can get a wider rendering.    Some of the later ones,
             I opted for  CUSTOM, then I typed in 1000 or 1100 for horizontal, and either the usual
             768 or 800 for height.  After rendering I just "slide" horizontally to see the rest of the
             pic.    TIP :  When printing renderings,  use glossy photo paper.  Glossy photo paper
             shows more detail,  and  it usually comes out (almost) crystal clear), with good
             defiinition.
                   I have a screen capture software I use to copy the renderings to a  jpeg file.   
                   And, if necessary,  I can sharpen the image, and viola !               gayrstan
                                                           

[Allan Chesney]

Hi Garystan,

I often move a wall to be able to take in the full room without using too wide an angle camera, but as Doug said, best to do this on a copy. If you have AutoSave on (wise!!) and it happens to save after you have moved the wall, then the undo will not work!!

You should not need to use a screen capture to save images to JPG.  TFP will do that automatically if you select JPG when you go to name the image on the Rendering page.  Also, make sure you have Antialias set to 4 to get smooth sharp lines and if you are going to print and want a good reproduction render the image (after testing on a small size) at at least 2000 wide. This should print very sharp although may take a bit longer to generate.

Incidentally, you should not need to scroll sideways to see a 1000 wide image, unless you have your screen resolution set to very small.  Most computers screens these days are at least 1024 wide and most now are usually much more than that.  If your screen display is set small it may explain why your posts on the forum are always in short lines in the middle of the page and don't spread right accross like all the others do. Unless it is a very old screen you should be able to increase the screen resolution and you will find it will make working on TFP itself much easier.

Allan

[garystan]

     Allan :
                 Hi.....
                 About the  "moving the wall".   True, I forgot about the Auto-save. On one hand,
                 that IS  a life saver, but on the other hand, I sometimes have to stop what I'm doing
                 and wait until it completes.
                   I usually try to remember, in the rendering options, to set the Antialias to 4.
                   My normal monitor resolution is 1024x768. Do you mean increase my monitor resolution
                to a higher setting ?
                    But, I've noticed that when I use  1000 horizontal the print comes out looking like a
                 but without the  "fish-eye" effect.
                     I tried printing right from TFP, but always had problems getting the print exactly the
                 way I wanted it.    As for the  jpeg,  I'll take a closer look at that.   That WOULD save
                 a step.
                     Are you sure you're REALLY not a college professor.....or something like that ?  With
                 all that knowledge tucked away..................

                                                                                                          garystan

[garystan]

 
   Allan :
               I took a look at the settings in the Rendering box.   I forgot about that  "switch" to be able to  "Render To File. Lately, I got
              in the habit of turning it off.   That way, when I was doing a  test-run   [to see how the final render comes out]  it wouldn't save
               it.  THEN, when I'm  happy with the  final results,  I'll save it.     Thanks for pointing that out.   My monitor is (about)  2 years old,
                it's a flat-screen  [19").    And it save me a lot of space  on   my desk.
                  I checked in Control Panel,  and the screen settings  go up  to 1440x900.   Right now, I've got it set at 1360x768.   I might reduce
               this a little.   To make the text a llittle larger.   Even though in Control Panel,  I can set the DPI to large.
                  I see what you mean by using a  higher resolution.   After my last reply to you,  I did another rest-run on my City Home,  and
               I got a  wider rendered view without having to scroll.   Thank you, Mr. Chesney.
                   As a side question :    When typing in my questions and responses, using a higher resolution,  can I just keep typing until  the
               cursor goes to the next  line automatically ?     I'm just in the habit of making my posts look neat.
                                                                                                                                                        garystan

[Allan Chesney]

Hi Garystan,

I have mine on 1360 x 768 also. It is a compromise between text size and what you can fit on the screen so depends on eyesight too!!
I thought you may have had it lower thant 1024 when you said you had to scroll a 1000 image and also because your messages on the forum where not running right accross the screen. The best way is to start on the extreme left and just keep typing and it will wrap automatically onto the next line and all the left side lines up vertically too instead of being 'jagged'. Obviously entre twice for a new paragraph. I guess you must have been entereing on each line as you got near the edge of the screen to go to the next line, but if others have their screen set wider it means yours is short and ends up with little short lines every so often too. (see the image below how it looks on my screen).

The second image is how to save as a JPG.  You do not need to worry about rendering several times and then saving. As it is, if the render is no good, just do it again and it will just overwrite the previous one anyway so no computer space is wasted. The only thing you have to remember is to change the name if you want to keep the latest one!  Too late if you have a good one and overwrite it with one that is worse!!

As to me being 'a college professor or something like that' - FAR FROM IT. I HATED school and left the first day I could at the age of 15 and failed in Maths in the final exams. Mind you that did not stop me becoming an Accountant with the state government's power utility (I didn't tell them about the maths problem and they didn't ask - computers were a big help there of course!). Later I was a business analyst, IT cordinater, database programmer and website manager (I made this web applicatrion while I was there using TFP animations: www.synergy.net.au/renovator - shows things you can do to make a home more energy efficient). I am retired now and busier than ever!!

The knowledge of TFP just comes from using it (and its predecessor) daily for the last 10 or more!

Allan

[garystan]

   Allan   
  After I read your response.........I had one heck of a scare. First of all, I  "tried"  to change the wrong location, for what I thought was where  I would save my renderings.  In TFP settings one location is listed for PROJECTS.   (I'm pretty sure I corrected that)
    Later on realizing that within the rendering dialog box   is where I should've selected the  saving location in the first  place (feel free to slap me upside the head).  So.......even later,  I opened TFP, selected OPEN, and found nothing (?).  FINALLY, I found the EXACT location where all my energies and toils were saved.   I went into PROGRAM SETTINGS  and corrected the location where the files were.    So far, when I click OPEN, that exact folder/files is opened, and  tada!!!!!!!  WHEW!!!!!!!!!
          i  gotta get this stuffed burned to either CD-RW or DVD-RW before I permanently
lose  everything.
          I tried opening, closing....and then re-opening TFP and I was able to see where all
my hard work is.     I just want to do if a few more times......just to make sure.
          Would you consider this  "practical application" ?   
          Another lesson learned.
                                                                                     garystan

[Allan Chesney]

Hi Garystan,

Better to learn the lessons BEFORE you lose the files then find out how when it is too late!!

The format of your post came out better this time - the first couple of sentences are wrapping on the right hand side as they should.  The left side is still all uneven though. I am not sure why that is happening unless you are accidentally hitting the space bar at the beginning of new lines.

I know what you mean about getting a scare when a folder appears empty. I find that often seems to happen and it frightens me every time, although it is only that it is expecting to save as BMP for example by default. When I change the selector to JPG all the files in the folder suddenly appear. I catches me every time. Really the default save should probably be to JPG as I guarentee most would save that way.

Allan

[garystan]

   Allan :

             Sorry about that.   That WAS kinda dumb.  I should  know better.  A  "rule of thumb"  is to backup your data in a case of a crash.   On the renderng dialog box,  I hadn't paid attention to the box on the right side of the area where it shows where the files are being saved.  With that box I can change  the location of  the file saves.
 I had to lower the resolution a little bitl.   I now have it set to 1152x864.    Before, with the resolution up to 1300  it was getting a littlae hard to read text.   
            As a side note..........in my last e-mail, I received a message that "I won't be receiving any more notifications until read this topic "    I guess that means that I may have overstepped my bounds a little.    If I said or did anything that was taken offensively, I apologize.
                                                               Thanks for your help and support,
                                                                                    garystan           
           

[Allan Chesney]

Hi Garystan,

"I won't be receiving any more notifications until you read this topic " 

Don't worry, that is a standard message that everyone gets - it is not something you have done. All it means is that a new message has been posted in answer to yours, on that topic and an email has been set to tell you. However if other people post to THAT PARTICULAR THREAD you will not be notified until after you visit that thread again yourself. As soon as you open the thread again, then the forum assumes you have read everything up to that point and will then start sending messages again about new posts in that thread.  You would still get emails about any other new threads and additions to them, but you will only get one email between the times you visit (not one for EVERY time someone replies).  Hope you follow that - it felt hard to explain how it worked!

Allan