@NoviceInDisguise Right.. how did you get to that particular building

I'm just curious how you got it so specific

White pages, name, general location, etc

Salt Lake City is a pretty good fit with my available info

@NoviceInDisguise exactly

@NoviceInDisguise okay

What did radish come up with for you?

IDK, he didn't say

Mail me what you got @Radish

@gandalf3 According to your profile you've reached about 1.3 million people :O

o.O

somehow I slightly doubt the accuracy of that statistic, since I bet there haven't been that many unique visitors on this site ever....

:P

@GiantCowFilms According to this we are getting > 100k "people" monthly

Oh wow!

And 57 million all time uniques :O

@gandalf3 not a chance.

all time

No way

.. ah, I read it wrong

175k, thats more like it XD

that almost seems too low though..

ok...

that seams better.

wait no, thats monthly

D:

/me gives up on reading charts

@gandalf3 lol

That is a lot of people

According to that, we are getting between 6-9k uniques daily

@gandalf3 I doubt it is as heigh as 9k, we only have 11175 views per day.

um

Am I confused?

@David 11175>9k right?

@gandalf3 yep. BUT that 11175 is views not unique views (you and I and many others view many more then 1.24 pages per day.)

ah, right

Well, we only hit 9k twice if that is to be believed.

@gandalf3 What QA?

nvm, I was getting an old version of the page for some reason. or something.

(the moderator election Q&A)

I see big fat cow has cast his dv, it's all cool. lol

o.o

@GiantCowFilms Do you know of any plugin of sorts to use substances in Blender?

Or do I need to just import the textures?

@iKlsR what would you do with this answer? it is just a LOA

rules are rules

dropkick it

@zeffii that is kind of what I said in the comments.

Have any of you ever pressed R R in the UV editor? Very neat "trick" I just discovered.

@David Oh, neat

Doesn't make much sense, though

3D rotation in a 2D editor...

that was unexpected

@someonewithpc there might be a time where it is useful.

@David Oh, I'm sure

I just wouldn't expect that to work

@Chebhou ok good so it is not just me, who said "what... how did I not know about this?"

Blender does tend to be self-consistent

@someonewithpc it would be weird to work in file-browser

Indeed

@someonewithpc you can press R in the node editor, the header changes to let you know you are rotating, but the nodes do not rotate. SO not completely consistent.

@David They kind of rotate

Just being moved depending on the angle, but still

Also, you can use r r

You just get some weird behaviour

they act like vertices they just change position, but it's cool

OK new addon wins out over texture atlas for me. The big difference, texture atlas does not keep the seams marked while the objects are merged, Multi Object-UV does.

@David can you get in edit mode of different objects at once or you have to join them ?

@Chebhou all you do is select as many objects as you want, and press the Multi Object UV Edit button. Then tab out of edit mode and everything is back to normal and separated again.

i have just voted, the election seems to be quite slow ?

@Chebhou how so?

@someonewithpc You mean from substance designer? No, you just export the textures.

@GiantCowFilms Yes, those

@someonewithpc All that substance designer does is give you a very very powerful set of nodes to produce textures. What I'd do is figure what shaders are going into your material (glossy, diffuse, SSS for example) and what textures are needed (Color, glossy-diffuse fac, SSS-fac, glossy roughness). Then figure out how to generate the desired textures in substance desinger

@GiantCowFilms Yeah, but it can also do entire materials

Yes, however substance designer isn't meant for cycles materials, its meant for game shaders, and the outputs will not get you best results in cycles.

@David number of voter per time

@iKlsR I'm starting to get worried that the promised compiling tutorial will never be finished D: Do you have time or need any help.... I will be happy to do anything I can

That is an odd firefly . . .

@NoviceInDisguise You can probably paint it out....

@NoviceInDisguise ikr

where was it....?

Yeah, translucency did it I think

Oddly enough I rarely get fireflies these days....

Very odd

@NoviceInDisguise Ah

I was using 128 samples too, not the 1536 final will be at

@NoviceInDisguise Oh yes

wow that is a lot of samples

Yeah, volumetrics :/

@NoviceInDisguise What are you using the volumetrics for? Smoke?

@NoviceInDisguise Can I see the render?

The shed inside blenderartists.org/forum/…

1024 might work too

Just not as great

The low angle is bugging me

?

The camera angle

Why?

The composition isn't working

I cant quite put my finger one what is getting to me, but somthing is

Also there should be some light cast from those get flames....

And the tractor would be going pretty fast not to have motion blur

Oh and did you paint those flames.... the are really amazing

@GiantCowFilms The motion blur lengthens render times a bit, so I'm holding off on it for now

Is there too much space tot he right?

I don't know

the entire framing is throwing me off

As well as the lighting

Anything specific you can suggest?

Also BTW, that front wheel has polygon lines.... (I think you know, but Andrew has taken a hard line of visible poly edges)

@NoviceInDisguise Trying to figure

Its a really odd setup to get a good frame

I wonder what could be done with what you have

@GiantCowFilms Hmm

I should fix that

As sub surf should nip it in the bud

Yeah . . . and double the 360 vert polycount for that model . . .

personally I would have made a shot of the tractor speeding though the fields

@NoviceInDisguise 640 isn't bad

Well I'm at 1mil total right now . . .

And I will lend you my GPU overnight for the final, you can turn it off until then...

@NoviceInDisguise Wow

usally my modeles end up being in the 10s

of millions

the trick is fast shaders

O.O

ikr

10,000,000 vertices!!

@NoviceInDisguise polys

tris?

so about 2.5 mill verts

@NoviceInDisguise no... quads

Ah

Where does that measure

Faces count

at the top

339k for me

let see... my car models are averaging about 1.8 mil faces...

Oh wait . . . I left out almost allt he layers

What I would have done if I were you is rendered the tractor driving through a corn field (really fast), maybe with a sunset behind. Nice wide lens, lots of debriew flying and the tractor front and center, speeding along, the corn plants conveniently blurred... This particular scene seems to be degrading the tractor a bit. Although it is nice in its own right

Yeah, I bit of way more than I could reasonably chew

Especially in 4 weeks

I didn't sketch out the setting much :?

Hmm no... just model serveral corn plants < 1 day, and add them to a feild

@NoviceInDisguise MMMmm

anyways, cya later

cya

@NoviceInDisguise that image is just awesome. However the first thing I noticed is that the front left wheel is not on the ground.

Yeah . . . I might have it bumping over a rock or something. Doing some tests with motion blur, more vegetation, and some dust

@NoviceInDisguise your steampunk tractor- Wow. Wow was the only word that came to mind for a few minutes. However, tilting the rocket flame up slightly would help, and adding some damage (scratches, or dirt) to the front ramming grid would make it (as far as I can tell) flawless.

Cool ideas! I got enough time to add them I think ;)

1.68 million vertices right now!!

lol

1.6GB of memory

Ouch

This is a 12 GB system (I know, needs updating)

try to make the flame look like it is coming straight out from the back. Also, some blue streaks of light or some bullets and shells ejecting form the Gatling guns would make it seriously cool. (I don't know why you would want to be shooting in your home base, but the rockets are on, so maybe it is an all-system test?)

XD

I might see how that looks

lol

is the further wheel meant to be sunk into the ground?

I fixed that :)

Although there is enough dust, you won't see it anyways

that is all I can think of to make it as awesome as it possibly can-

Hmmm . . . the gears on the front are for the steering, so they wouldn't be blurred I don't think.

but with an entree like that, even how it is, you have a Good chance of winning :-)

Other than that, good ideas

@X-27 Maybe finalist, anyways ;)

oops, never mind, just saw the gear it attached to

no question about it, as it is it will be a finalist.

Thank you for your confidence :)

Shooting for the top, but I have seen some awfully good stuff in the works

Oh cool! 2.75 is supposed to have simplify for viewport and for render separate! I can't imagine how many times I have wanted that!

I'm sure there are some pretty good entrees on the way, but don't forget, you did beat me at the second competition here, (And I still think my Anti-material Pulse Beam was awesome)

putting some scratches on my turret there would have made an enormous difference...

Andrew Price was right, the CG world is too perfect...

I put a blast mark on the wall but that was it....

Yeah

I need to put some roadkill marks on my tractor :D

Yah!

Like a dead cow. A giant cow

LoLoLoLoLoLoLoL

I talked about making a cow skull with horns to put ont he front

I always type "ont he" instead of "on the"

lol

I dot hat too

XD

@X-27 BTW, I could crush that puny tractor with one hoof....

looks more like a mega laser

for anti matter it might have been more believable if you had a gun/turret with a background that would let you show how the matter in the beam's path was being warped

like with 'dark matter lensing' : lsst.org/files/img/lens0.jpg

@NoviceInDisguise After reading your BA thread, I noticed some details you could probably remove to cut polys that are out of view, instead of taking them from the wheel, which is very much a focus of the image. For example the dashboard and many of the components on the far side of the tractor could be removed, without any visible change.

(I don't know if you have already done this since I can't tell)

I actually can get the wheel sub dived sufficiently, but good idea for if I add too many more details. I'm going to sculpt some damage, so pretty high poly counts most likely

Yah, for example removing the mirror modifier from those tubes would not make any visible difference

How much memory does your GPU have?

@NoviceInDisguise Let me check

4 GB total

with 2 GB dedicated to video, whatever that means

2GB for system display and processing maybe? 2GB might be enough anyways

@NoviceInDisguise I'm sure it is

@GiantCowFilms that means it's 2GB and take 2GB from the RAM mostly not useful

@Chebhou Ah okay

Ah

Good to know

2 gigs should be enough, I've render 10 million+ ploys on it....

its image textures that are the real zappers

And if there is two much stuff I can always break it into layers.

OK

I know how to do that stuff :D

@NoviceInDisguise When you render your scene you can see how much memory it needs

I think it is 1.6GB

I can probably kill some of that

I think using normal maps instead of real mesh reduce memory ( for the sculpting part )

@NoviceInDisguise That should be fine :D

OK

I have never had a problem with memory except when I loaded an HDR that was over 3 GB

lol

Now the file is 160Mb, how would I transfer that?

(I don't want to save it all for the last minute)

(it was 50 or so 21 megapixel stills stitched)

o.O

@NoviceInDisguise filedropper

ok

@NoviceInDisguise I will be away from my computer for a while in a little bit and I could test rendering your file to see if it crashes

OK

It might take a while to finish. What version do you have? 2.74?

@NoviceInDisguise yes

Perfect :)

Uploading . . .

Right-o

17% . . .

@NoviceInDisguise It isn't that big of a file?

Yeah . . .

158mb

31% . . .

"Simplest File Hosting Site ... And Now The Fastest" lol

BTW, if you are running down to the wire, I'd render it at half samples, since you can change the seed and render it again at half samples and combine it, to result with mathematically equivalent noise

Do I just hit F12

True

?

Uhh . . . I think so

Should work, change to GPU render of course

45%

okay

@NoviceInDisguise half way (if we use Top Gear math, aka rounding [of course Hammond wouldn't know the real term for anything])

lol

@GiantCowFilms Too bad that show got screwed up

:D

@NoviceInDisguise Ikr

58% :D

@NoviceInDisguise :D

@AWildRolandiXor

ping :P

:)

@AWildRolandiXor For me, right?

No comment ;)

@GiantCowFilms 64%

@AWildRolandiXor You DIDN'T VOTE FOR ME! YOU ARE A BAD BAD PERSON! Everyone should have voted for GiantCowFilms!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is only one person I did not vote for.

@AWildRolandiXor Oh, so you voted for me :)

The one thing I won't say, is who I did not vote for ;D

And there are four options.

Twas me, and I deserved it ;)

@NoviceInDisguise Yes, Everyone should have voted for me!

Ignorant newbs!

@NoviceInDisguise nope.

(I'll stop the joke when someone says lol)

lo

l

XD

@GiantCowFilms 85%

@NoviceInDisguise Is that the percent of votes in my favor?

Noooo

D:

I want to win the election!

@GiantCowFilms yes.

@GiantCowFilms 90%

@AWildRolandiXor Good... must send more of my vote bots, I want a 90!

Over did it :/ 95%

I'm going now :)

ttyl

I wonder at what point the rounding error will make it 100%

@AWildRolandiXor talk (again) two years later? <jk>

:P

cya @AWildRolandiXor

@GiantCowFilms Sent you the file

File dropper is slow

Yep

at least slower then my internet

by miles

Its still finding out how large it is... when it should take it only a few seconds to download, since my speed is around 35mb/s

6 seconds should be plenty then

no, nine

I wonder how long it wold take you to dropbox it...

I'm willing to bet it will be faster then this filedropper thing

@NoviceInDisguise File dropper is going so so so slow... try drop box

2 minutes

@NoviceInDisguise Okay

that should be far less time then this thing is going to take

Yeah

its going at exactly 1/100th of my network speed :/

Eeek!

@GiantCowFilms Sent

okay

@NoviceInDisguise Downloaded

man filedropper is slow

Much faster!

@GiantCowFilms So much for the "now the fastest" tag

Which render layers

@NoviceInDisguise no kidding

You don't leave you trash in your blend files XD

every single experiment/reference mesh I do gets dumped on some layer, but you use all of yours for good stuff

@GiantCowFilms I get lost otherwise :P

how many samples, 512 sound good?

However many you can handle

Should be good enough to test

Okay lets see

Textures are missing

that can significantly effect the memory usage, but it is rendering, slowly

Textures should all be packed!!

One file wasn't it looks like

Alright

that should be okay

I'll go ahead and render

cya later... :D

cya

@NoviceInDisguise Quite a few things weren't set up correctly, the tractor is a grey clay color, and many textures are missing, so I'm not sure this is accurate, but I think it is 50% done (at 64 samples)

Weird

actually more like 65%

Snip of it please?

I think it might be linked materials that did it

@GiantCowFilms

@NoviceInDisguise Sorry

had to go out

Got render?

64 samples, 49 min, 42 seconds

Hmm, about right for half my CPU I think o.O

too large D:

jpg to the rescue!

@NoviceInDisguise Huh, how long does your CPU take?

noting that this was at 64 samples

I'm going to do a test

used only 777 MB

@NoviceInDisguise ah okay

Looks like all the missing materials are linked ones

I also don't know if the messed up materials made a difference

@NoviceInDisguise Okay

I think it will be nessary todo a 512, which should take only four hours, and if you do it two, with a 256 and a difference seed it could take less time

We'll see what my CPU does, kinda hot here so it might overheat

@NoviceInDisguise Ah

Put a fan next to your coputer

@NoviceInDisguise What have been the stats so far?

I can't remember, I thought about the same range

Starting a test, gotta go eat soon

@NoviceInDisguise That must be quite a CPU!

what model!

Considering that my GPU is easily twice as fast as my CPU.....

I have an intel i7 eight core 950 @ 3.07GHZ

Running on four cores, it predicts around an hour

Odd...

64 samples too, full res

Oh . . . wait, let me re start that :P

@NoviceInDisguise what happened

Layers not enabled

@NoviceInDisguise 8 cores, wow! I've only got four D:

I only have 12GB of memory though

@NoviceInDisguise ah

Really annoying when I have Chrome, my VM, and Blender going, it maxes out :/

One think I must say about my computer is although it has no flashy parts, everything it has is well balanced and nothing is deficient

@NoviceInDisguise that is one of the cheapest things to upgrade, luckily

:D

@gThat is very important

cya later, got some work to do

The balance is critical, my dad made this machine :/

cya

Looks like 1:20:00 for the render

okay, bout 30 min slower

@NoviceInDisguise mine dad did two, but he has very good sense for this kind of thing.

Often poorly balanced computers occur when you scavenge parts. Mine was built from scratch.... :D