PhotoWorks Rendering Contest

For those of you interested. I'm going to start running a PhotoWorks
rendering contest at my website. If interest is high I'll be running a new
contest every month. For rules and details visit my website.
www.robrodriguez.com look in the "PhotoWorks" section.

 

Hello Rob-

Excellent idea! Brilliant, to have everyone use the same model.

Best Regards,
Devon T. Sowell
www.3-ddesignsolutions.com

 

Rob,

Are you gonna offer a handicap for P-works lamers like me? ;o)


matt

 

Sorry Matt, no handicap. Practice makes you better though.

 

Yeah great idea I'm in for sure. 2 rules are all I need to see.
You can only use PhotoWorks and the winner gets to post his materials,
lighting, settings, etc.....

KMaren

 

I have to give credit for the idea to you Ken. It was a good one. I
already have the rule about using PhotoWorks only for the rendering
(maybe I didn't make that clear enough, should I reword?) The winner
can defiantely post his set-up and materials. I didn't want to make
this mandatory for fear or scaring people off. Once a winner had been
selected I was going to ask if they would like to post their files for
sharing. Sound acceptable?

Rob

 

Yeah, I think everybody "wins" if we can learn something from people who
know what they're doing. You might consider allowing anyone who submits
to submit their settings because knowing what settings have what effects
is a good thing. I get tired of doing renders by trial and error,
especially when getting results with the advanced illumination settings
takes so long.

Have you also considered doing the voting anonymously, meaning that the
images are anonymous, so it doesn't become a personality contest?

 

Definately. I'll post the images for voting with names like image #1,
image #2 etc. Once we have a winning image I'll post the images as
well as the name of the author (important they recieve proper credit).
This will keep anonymity until the end.

 

The PW only was clear. Anything is acceptable. I just hope that
people don't start pulling the "trade secret" crap about their
rendering prowess. I am using the contest as a learning tool as much
as a ruler for where I stand.

 

I don't need any credit for the idea. I am thrilled that you are
donating your time and website for alll of us to learn from. The idea
is easy. The person that can take it make it a reality should get the
credit. This will be very fun and look forward to it already.

I am trying not to be picky but it does not say if we can enter more
than one image. My suggestion would be to say yes because this is a
learning process and there is no prize to be gotten unless SolidWorks
can donate something small month to month. At the same time I don't
want to make it difficult for you if you start getting and having to
post 20 images a day. It's up to you.

Thanks again!

KMaren

 

awh come on guys let me play too!

John Layne (Rendering in Maxwell)
www.solidengineering.co.nz

 

LOL. Your free to download the model and render it John, you just
won't be able to enter the contest. I'd be interested in comparing the
results. As you know, I've been playing with Maxwell myself but I
really haven't figured out how to make it work. I'm also having an
issue with the plug-in crashing my SW session (a lot). Have you had
this issue?

 

Other people have reported extra crashes using the Plugin, I haven't
noticed any, probably due to my work flow. I create the MXS file with
the plugin and then render in Studio.

My logic for rendering and applying materials, textures etc in Studio,
is I believe (I hope) that Maxwell will fix their texturing issues long
before SolidWorks does.

PS I'll download the model and have a go at the weekend.

John Layne
www.solidengineering.co.nz

 

How about the ability to enter 2 images into the contest. The images
have to have the same material set-up but must be two different views
(ie one image is a front view and one image is a rear view) . Would
this work?

 

Sounds good to me.

You're the boss

KM

 

Do you have guidelines such as image format, file size?

Also, what about a deadline date for the first contest?

Do you really mean it about "no modifications"? There are some things
that need to be done to the part in order to get a more realistic
render, things recommended by several folks who do a lot of rendering.

 

Good question on the image size, I'll post this info at the site also
but lets do a jpg format at 300dpi and a 6" x 8" (roughly) image size.
This will alow me to create a thumbnail and a larger "downloadable"
image.

Submission for contest 1 will end 3/24 so you have some time. I wanted
to be sure every one had time to finish a rendering. We will judge the
submitted images the week of 3/27 and then on 4/1 I'll post another
model (really no fool'in). If the rendering time period seems long for
submissions we can shorten it up on the next contest. I was tying to
set it up so we had 1 contest per month (3 weeks to render - 1 week to
judge), the March contest (contest 1) just started a little early.

I actually started working on a rendering last night and I also noticed
the model was lacking in a few areas. To be fair I think we should
stick to the "no modifications" rule and next time I should post a
better model. I'm also thinking the models should be more difficult
(ie more difficult renders) as we have more contest.

Also, any feedback you guys want give I'm open for. I'm just kind of
making this up as I go until we have a few contest under our belts.

 

I'll second the idea of the "no modification" rule. Yeah, this model
has a whole lot of sharp edges (no pun intended), but you know, it's
going to be a great model just for that reason too. For anyone working
on submitting a good rendering, it will make them think long and hard
about how to best present the model itself - you'll want to maximize
the "good parts" and minimize the "bad parts" of the model. That in
itself is going to be a good lesson!

 

I'm working on a macro that might help with your contest Rob. It
gathers all the photowoks system settings and saves it as a report
file. That way, it will be especially easy to save the current
settings for a particular rendering. This report can be posted for
others to reference if they wish. It's as easy to use as this:

1. Have your model open.
2. Run the macro.
3. Choose a destination directory to save the report (includes a
Windows "Find Folder" dialog).
4. That's all!

I'm not sure if I can make it work for all the settings (materials,
lights, etc.), but at least this is a start.

A sample of the report document is in the next post:

 

(Sample Report Output)



PhotoWorks Options

======================================================================
[QUICK SUMMARY]
Generated on: 3/6/2006 10:14:06 AM
Report Saved In: C:\TEMP
Animator File: lamppost.SLDPRT
======================================================================


System Options:
Display preview window = False
Clear image before rendering = False
Display progress/abort dialog = True
Overwrite SolidWorks properties = False
Use SolidWorks materials = False
Use SolidWorks physical materials = False
Enable dynamic help = True
Screen image gamma correction = 1

Document Properties:
Display preview window = False
Anti-aliasing quality = Medium
Enable depth settings = False
Number of reflections = 1
Number of refractions = 4
Enable memory settings = False
RayTraceDepth = 41
Minimum = 20
Maximum = 50
Maximum memory allocation = 0
Minimum = 1
Maximum = 2000

Advanced:
Contour rendering = Render model only (not contours)
Line thickness = 2
Minimum = 1
Maximum = 100
Contours fade with depth = False
Depth fade = 5
Minimum = 0
Maximum = 10
Line color = (255, 255, 255)
Background color = (0, 0, 0)

Illumination:
Enable indirect illumination = False
Use default radius = True
Default value = 2.28217856727377
Custom radius = 0
Minimum = 0
Maximum = 5000
Amount of indirect illumination = 25
Minimum = 25
Maximum = 400
Enable caustic = False
Use default caustic radius = True
Default value = 0.912871427580624
Custom caustic radius = 0
Minimum = 0
Maximum = 5000
Caustic accuracy = 100
Minimum = 0
Maximum = 200
All materials cast and receive caustics by default = True
Enable global illumination = False
Use default radius = True
Default value = 1.82574285516125
Custom global illumination radius = 0
Minimum = 0
Maximum = 5000
Accuracy = 500
Minimum = 0
Maximum = 2000
All materials cast and receive global illumnation by default = True

File Locations:
Custom folders:
#active custom folders = 0
Autoload selected folders = True
Suppress standard materials = False
Search paths:
Number of paths = 0
Search sub-folders = False

======================================================================

End of Report