Sunday, March 30, 2008

Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion

Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion in Penang should be another place of interest for visitors in Malaysia.
"Through the lavish doors to the venerable Blue Mansion were first thrown open in as early as the 19th Century, the tradition of architecture and craftsmanship applied to the building's construction dates much further back - a precipitious 3000 years to the Su Chow dynasty, to be exact. Built in the Hakka-Teochew style on sturdy foundations of Southern Chinese building typologies and materials, the Blue Mansion - commissioned by Cheong Fatt Tze in the face of a trend in the construction of modern Anglo-Indian abodes- stands today as a model of the traditional prardigm Chinese courtyard house." to find out more...
Passage from http://www.cheongfatttzemansion.com/
Image by Young

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Sekeping Serendah

I visited Sekeping Serendah last week and found it's architectural and landscape design very inspiring and interesting. In tropical sites, there are more opportunities and flexibility to explore the building form without the constrain of cold weather. Sekeping serendah consist three major form of materials glass, timber and mud forming it's building charactor. I like glass shed the most.
"Sekeping Serendah is a private retreat attempting to tread lightly on the land. The very transparent and open sheds celebrate the beauty of the natural environment surrounding them. The sheds are intentionally kept basic and free from lavishness. They are seen more as ‘glorified tents’ to provide basic shelter for its inhabitants as they commune with the land." to find out more...
Passage from http://www.serendah.com/home.html
Image taken by Young

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Concrete Roof by Serero

Imagination, Observation & Creativity supported with free concrete form created the proposal beside that wins the architecture competition for the new auditorium of Saint Cyprien - France. What do you see when you are looking above? to find out more...

Image from http://www.serero.com/index_en.htm

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Gamma Correction 2.2 setup in 3dsmax

Image beside showing Gamma corrected version at 2.2
Image beside showing default 1.0 Linear Workflow rendered image.

Gamma correction is code or decoding luminance ( strength of light ) in video or still image system. Got this fantastic Gamma correction tutorial and explanation from Aversis that explains the importance of Gamma correction while rendering a image. There are more intensive and important tutorial you can find in Aversis explaining Vray Rendering engine. A must to go through for 3dsmax renderer using Vray Rendering Engine. to find out more...

Friday, March 14, 2008

Scanline rendering vs Vray rendering

How to light up a scene for a rendering is important. The basic knowledge of pencil sketching, the relationship of lights and the material's reflection behaviour matters a lot to render a good image.
For basic rendering knowledge to be shared here:-
1. Global illumination acts as a skylight to lighten the entire scene.
2. Sun light as a key light casting shadow towards a building to emphasize the form while determining the sun direction.
3. Ambient lights as general lights to cast shadow caused by skylight. It's role to be fill light as well.
4. Internal lights to lit up the internal spaces. Where it can be added through touched up in Photoshop brush effect too.
In scanline rendering, lights are articulated through the knowledge of lighting relationships.
In Vray rendering engine, it is much simpler to generate Global illumination through HDRI, where the lightest and the darkest point of light to be simulated through HDRI for external scene. It is much more expansive to render an internal scene as it depends more on light bouncing that requires more calculations and considerations on light settings.
3 point lighting is basic to be implemented throughout lighting an exterior scene. The proportion of Key light, Fill light and back light to stimulate the gesture of the rendered scene is important. Normal key to fill proportion would be 1:4.
To render a scene, you need to observe the actual environment, how the light reacts with different material, creating different highlight parameters and the planning of your scene, the shading, the light sources, the material used, the things to be emphasized is important before starting the rendering.
Some important techniques in Vray rendering engine to share here:-
1. Get Gamma correction right at 2.2/2.5 depending on the monitor you are working on and enable overriding of Gamma on material imported to avoid twice Gamma correction on materials to save time and better effect on light feature.
2 Lowering down the secondary bounces while rendering an internal scene and raise the contrast level in Irradiance Map in the GI column would create the same effect of adjusting the curvature of color level in Photoshop.
3. Test render with Light cache as primary and secondary bounces of light to save time when determining key light position would help saving time.
However, lighting a building or internal spaces is a profession and it would be very helpful to share your knowledge for users and readers. PLASA is one of international association for lighting and sound. to find out more...
Do leave comments for any techniques you intend to share.