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Ideal Systems
For 3D Rendering
by Gen Wright
3D graphics has taken over our visual space and it is small wonder
that there are so many 3D graphics creating studios out there that
are vying for attention. From advertising companies to website
owners, every one wants 3D graphics and interactive solutions to wow
their clients and visitors.
This has created the great demand that enables so many studios to
come up in so little time. But the catch in this business is the
cost of equipment. Systems for 3D graphic creation are expensive and
they require a high amount of initial investment. This includes
buying the main computers on which the main creation process will
take place. Then come the usual accessories for crating the drawings
and the wireframes. There is also the cost of infrastructure and
softwares that add to the total sum that needs to be spent.
Till this point, it is still possible for studios to get away with
investing in basic equipment to keep it cost effective. However,
when it comes to building a rendering system, costs start to
skyrocket. As most professionals and even amateurs would
immediately, rendering is a processor intensive process and it takes
a lot of processing power to crunch the data in at least twice that
of real time.
However, the reality is that you need to have a very high amount of
processing power to achieve decent speeds and one single CPU is
never enough for this purpose. So most professional create smaller
clusters of CPUs. This is based on the same principle that
multi-core chips are based on - many hands make light work. This
called parallel processing and it is how all high-demand
computational jobs are carried out.
But these CPU clusters cannot be just chips put together because
such a system would need to be custom made and that is super
computers are built. Instead, the clusters are actually
interconnected machines that are full-fledged systems. They have the
full chip, motherboard, RAM, storage and OS setup. Their combined
processing power is called upon to make the rendering process
faster. After all, no one really wants to wait for days to finish
rendering a movie!
But creating such cluster is expensive. Each system needs to be a
capable system to be able to contribute properly to the process.
This where the costs really start to escalate. Thankfully, solutions
do exists and you do not have to physically go somewhere else
either.
There are good rendering farms that operate through the Internet and
offer you prices based on how much processing power you will need.
The calculation is done on the basis of per Ghz of processing power
required. And you do not have to worry about the types of rendering
they support because integration is provided for all major softwares
and their rendering types. This includes Maxwell render, mental ray,
v ray, final render, and vue, just to name a few. All major
softwares like 3D Max, Maya, Blender, etc are fully supported.
A Quick Glance at Most Popular Renderers
by Benicio Brown
There is a way array of renderers in the market nowadays: Here goes
a list to name but a few: 3Delight, Aqsis, Brazil, FinalRender,
FPrime, Gelato, Indigo Renderer, Kerkythea, LuxRender, Maxwell
Render, Mental Ray, Pixar's PhotoRealistic RenderMan, Pixie, POV-Ray,
Sunflow, Turtle, VRay, YafRay, YafaRay.
In this article we are going to take a quick glance at five of them:
3Delight, Aqsis, Brazil, finalRender and Indigo.
3Delight - This is a RenderMan compliant renderer. It is designed
for the production of photo-realistic images. It was introduced to
the market in 2000 and now it is widely used by the 3D animation
community.
3Delight is RenderMan compliant, it features support for RenderMan
shading language and geometry, and comes with extensible display
drivers and multi-platform support with specific code optimization.
Regarding price, 3Delight first license (two threads) is free, even
for commercial use. This license does not entitle you to support,
and if you need it you must pay $250 USD. If you need more licenses,
price is $2.150 for an unlimited thread license, $450 USD/yr for
support, $1.400 (4 threads) with $285 USD/yr for support, or $900
USD (2 threads) with $190 USD/yr support.
Aqsis - This is a free open source 3D renderer which adheres to the
RenderMan standard.
Aqsis offers several top-notch features, among them: programmable
shading, high level primitive support, sub-pixel displacement,
motion blur, depth of field, shadow mapped ambient occlusion,
arbitrary output variables, subdivision surfaces, high quality
texture mapping, level of detail, high dynamic range, and can be
extended through plugins.
Brazil - This renderer is a product from SplutterFish.
Its main features are: speed, materials (glass material, toon
material, utility material, and advanced material), 3D motion blur
support, texture maps, displacement support, camera and light,
photon and shadow maps, and much more.
Brazil System Requirements:
3ds Max? (6, 7, 8, 9, 2008, 2009 or 2010), or 3ds Max Design? (2009
or 2010) or Autodesk VIZ? (2005, 2006, 2007, or 2008) - both 32 and
64 bit versions.
Windows® 2000, Windows® XP, Windows® Vista or Windows® 7. Windows ME
will not load Brazil / Brazil Rio, Windows NT 4 might, but is not
supported!
Intel®-compatible processor at 300 MHz minimum - Recommend a fast,
modern multi-core machine.
128 MB RAM and 300 MB swap space minimum - Recommend minimum 1GB
RAM, 2.5GB swap.
finalRender - This software package comes in two editions,
finalRender R3, suitable for the vast majority of users, and
finalRender Studio Edition, catering to advanced users and big
studios.
finalRender features include finalShaders, interactive rendering,
new object types, new materials, material enhancements, new texture
maps, new light type, new render effects, render element
enhancements, linear workflow enhancements, general enhancements,
and the list goes on.
Indigo Renderer - This software caters to all product designers, 3d
modelers, architects or artists.
Among its main features it offers accurate light simulation,
material creation, realistic camera, physical materials, realistic
lights, light layers, sun and sky, accurate metals, motion blur,
film control, integrated network rendering, participating media,
full spectral rendering, support for complex geometry, advance tone
mapping, and much more.
Studio 3D Animations Made Easy with Revolutionary Animation
Software
by Julia Spence
3D Animations have always caught my eye. They are graphically rich,
a fantasy world brought to life in 3 dimensions. To create such a
world seems impossible.
But that 3D world is now a possible reality with IllusionMage, the
revolutionary 3D graphics program similar to leading studios such as
Pixar or even Walt Disney. This is no playground program. It is a
solid 3D animation software that can construct the most beautiful
and overwhelming of 3D scenarios. Maya and 3D Max are similar
programs that cost no less than $7500. The best thing about
IllusionMage is the price: $47 marked down from normal value of
$497.
The IllusionMage suite software can be test driven for 60 days,
promising wonderful capabilities of interface, 3D rendering,
modeling, cartoon animation, realtime 3D/game creation, and editing
and composition. Complex 3D shading and interactive 3D rigging, as
well as realistic physics and particles, is all a part of the
package. It is an advanced animation software and a full featured
integrated modelling, rendering, animation and real-time 3D game
creation package. This hi-end software suite allows you to:
- Create high quality 3D graphics
- Produce your own cartoon animated film
- Draw and animate 3D models
- Design your own 3D game easily
- Create real-time interactive 3D content
- Creating and render exceptionally rich & realistic natural
environments.
This software truly allows your imagination to come alive with the
easiest way to create stunning animations!
Not only that, but you also get a ton of guides and video training
along with the program. For the 3D pro or fantasy creator wannabe,
IllusionMage is a wonderful program with unending possibilities of
creations. It is guaranteed to perform beyond expectations. With the
provided suite & blender video tutorials, you can weave your own web
of magic. You DO NOT need to attend expensive courses or have any
experience to use this. You will be able to produce "hollywood" 3D
computer animations and models like movie studios quicker and easier
than you've ever dreamed of. Test drive it now at 3D Animations
Software!
How to Set Up A 3D Design Studio Using Only Free Software
by Shen Gerald
3D Graphics creations are often perceived as requiring costly
software. Well, this is not always the case because the internet is
really a place loaded with free goodies waiting to be utilized. With
the relevant skill, a designer or artist can produce works (using
these free tools) that are comparable to what professional tools can
do.
I will show you how to start a professional 3D graphic design studio
using only free software. To produce credible 3D graphics, the tools
must be able to perform the various functions namely:
1. Modelling
2. Rendering
3. Animation
4. Image editing
5. Texture creation
Well, we need to substitute commercial tools with their free and or
open source equivalents.
The following is a reference to the various free 3D and graphics
related resources that can be downloaded from the net.
For 3D modelling, rendering and animation there are at least 2
excellent free alternatives. They are Blender 3D and Truespace 3.2.
You can get Blender 3D from http://www.blender3d.com. Truespace 3.2
can be downloaded from http://www.caligari.com which is the homepage
of Truespace's maker.
For purely dedicated 3D modeling, Wing3D is an easy to use yet very
powerful tool. You can get this 3D modeling software from
http://www.wings3d.com. What you need to do, is to model your stuffs
on this software and then export then to either Blender3D or
Truespace. File formats such as 3D Studio (3DS), Wavefront (OBJ) and
VRML (WRL) are all supported by Wings3D and can be used for
exporting 3D models (created in Wings3D) to other 3D programs such
as Blender3D and Truespace.
For image editing and texture creation, Gimp is a most excellent
tool. This is a very powerful image editing tool. It supports layers
like most professional image editors. Its many filters are excellent
for creating textures and image maps for 3D models. Gimp can be
downloaded from http://www.gimp.org.
Less well-known than Gimp but very delightful to use is Pixia. This
is a Japanese software. Fortunately there is an English version.
This tool is excellent for painting and is thus useful for creating
image maps for 3D models. Pixia can be downloaded from
http://park18.wakwak.com/~pixia/.
Well, these are the free equivalents that can perform the work of
commercial tools. Commercial software may be more convenient and
easier to use, nevertheless these free tools can get the job done
too. So, if you are on a tight budget, this may be the route to go.
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