Hi Guys! :-) 

We just posted this one to YouTube... Thought I'd share it here with you all too. 

Blessings,

~ Kimmie



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP82tHob7iI


www.TrackingJESUS.net 

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Hi Kimmie,
Looks like you are making good progress.  I realize this is probably just a "test render", but I have a couple of suggestions that you might want to try:
1)  I didn't see any cast shadows -- maybe you have them turned off to conserve CPU/GPU?  Shadows definitely add "depth" to 3D graphics
2)  Use blend maps to add "dirt/grime" to building walls, etc. to add more realism and hide some of the "CG" look
I liked the way the camera followed the bird around. 

Reallusion Certified Director / Reallusion Best Visual Award / Reallusion Certified Content Developer
See all the G-Tools Plug-Ins available for iClone here: G-Tools Plug-Ins

I have to agree that the lack of shadows takes a lot of depth and realism from the scene, and also think that careful use of a Dirk texture in the Blend map would be an improvement.

Other than the above it's a very well done scene.  

Gerry

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System: Win 10 Pro (21H2), Asus X99-E WS, CPU i7-5930K -3,5 GHz, 32 GB DDR4 2666-16 RAM, NVidia GTX 1080 Ti GPU - 11 GB VRAM(Driver Studio-536.99), Samsung 850 Pro 512 GB SSD, 6 TB HD storage.

I definitely see you are getting up very well with your ability of using iClone to make movies.
Looking forward to seeing the main movies you make in the future of Jesus life.

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Good Morning, Guys! :-) 

Here is why there are no strong shadows in the scene or blend maps on the walls: 

Although our real scenes have very strong shadows set in them, this one is more of a tour showing the things in the set. 

So I just used the directional lighting and ambient light to light everything up. 

When showing the things that I made for this, the ambient light made the ceilings and under the shelves and under the curve of the pottery look black. 

So I changed the black color box in the ambient lighting from black to a medium grey, so the full colors can still be seen, while also at least looking somewhat shaded, but not too dark. 

Since the real scenes are not a little sparrow zooming around from place to place, but just mainly the set being still, I will be able to set the lighting for each as perfectly as can be done. 

On the blend maps for the stones and other textures that cover a large amount of space: 

This is something I plan to just set aside some time to make my own blend maps for and test them out. 

I did not like any of the dirt & grime maps that iClone came with.  They are too grimy looking. 

Every scene set I want to draw people into it.  So I am going to create some dirt blend maps that are very light and subtle. 

The look I will be going for in them is something you might see in a country living magazine, if that makes enough sense to you guys? :-) 

It needs to still be a "pretty" look of natural and subtle dirt and wear to blend in on the buildings and the floors - and just a tiny, tiny bit on the walls. 

I am a "deep-diver".   That is how I do my best work.  I never would have solved chronology puzzles of the Gospel books that no one had solved before if I had not had that time in my life to just dive deep and focus on only that for a while (aside from being a mom to my grade-school-aged little boy, as our home-made book at the time was made to teach him with.) 

* The inside story behind that: I went from being "super woman" as a single mom to being in a place of my life of having to just be still.  My life of working hard and doing everything sent me to a place of very significant chronic pain that I was not able to even find someone who knew how to help me to get out of the pain (except to just give me pain meds, which I always refused to take).  So I spent a year creating a home-made book for my son, because I did not know how to spend my days not being continually productive.  Back then I wondered why the LORD allowed my life to come to a complete stop like that.  Now I am ever so grateful for it!!! 

When I create materials for clothing or put together textures for pottery and furniture and miscellaneous accessories, I spend days on it "diving in" and making a whole bunch. 

It is a totally different mind-set that I am in.  And I did not feel like slowing down in my animation and scene creating to switch gears. 

I am not sure if I should have waited or not to put out another video tour until I had that country magazine look on the houses and carpentry shop and stables area. 

People have not seen any updates from me for a long time, so I just wanted to get it out there. 

Our first 2 scene sets will be outdoors, and then at the Temple in Jerusalem.  So the blend maps will not be needed until Ein Karem (in the hill country of Judea) - and then to our early Nazareth scenes. 

If you guys have any thoughts on keeping the strong shadows in while not darkening the ceilings too much, I am all ears. :-) 

Also, if anyone happens to know of any blend map collections that give just a very subtle and yet still "pretty" amount of dirt and wear to things, I would be very grateful to have the link of where they are at.  Otherwise, I gotta take the time to make my own. :-P 

Thank you as always for your very valuable feedback, you guys!! :-) 

~ Kimmie 

www.TrackingJESUS.net 

--> More Information On This Bible Film Production Can Be Found At: 
www.TrackingJESUS.net/Productions 

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What I used to do before Image Based Lighting (IBL) and Global Illumination (GI), which will alleviate some of dark ceiling problems because of the indirect light, is to set self illumination of the ceiling texture to a value that it just lightens it a bit.

The problem with the basic ambient lighting is that it lights things up but also tends to make them look flat. IBL is better for ambient lighting.

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Sorry I type so much sometimes, you guys.  It is my hope that the more details I share, the clearer the solutions will be for what we still have yet to do. 

Also: I want for my life to be a living testimony.  We want GOD to be glorified in this production - and for all that HE has done. :-) 

I appreciate your kindness, Gordon, in assuming it was only a test render.  But this is the best we can do right now for our "tour videos". 

The blend maps will come in time before the real scenes with houses on them are rendered. 

And having our strong shadows without anything being pitch black underneath anything is something we really hope to achieve. 

Blessings,

~ Kimmie

www.TrackingJESUS.net 

--> More Information On This Bible Film Production Can Be Found At: 
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Thank you, Gerry.  I agree too. :-) 

~ Kimmie

www.TrackingJESUS.net 

--> More Information On This Bible Film Production Can Be Found At: 
www.TrackingJESUS.net/Productions 

--> Become An Early Subscriber To The 'Tracking JESUS' YouTube Channel At: 
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Thank you, Graham! 

We do have some animation done.  But we will not be showing them until we make a short trailer. 

I am looking forward to showing you guys our finished work!! :-) 

~ Kimmie

www.TrackingJESUS.net 

--> More Information On This Bible Film Production Can Be Found At: 
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Thank you for your always excellent advice, Job. 

We just upgraded the animation computer, and I could not find my IBL images.  I wanted to use one of the IBL images that I had made. 

(Although I will admit I just did a quick search for them and went back to creating the scene.) 

So that reminds me to find those again! 

(The IBL image that was in it looked terrible on this scene.)

I tried turning on GI, but did not see a difference.  I think I forgot to first turn the ambient lighting off. :-D 

(Boy, do I still have a lot to learn and recall!) 

I didn't even try the self illumination on them.  I did not think I could add any of that without making them look like lights. 

These things are really great to know!  Thanks! :-) 

I will stop and take the time for lighting details in the future on our tour videos. 

(Our real scenes - which are more "quiet" / not zooming around do look really great with the GI in them and my IBL images set up perfectly. :-)  I need to utilize these features for these types of videos as well.)

~ Kimmie

www.TrackingJESUS.net 

--> More Information On This Bible Film Production Can Be Found At: 
www.TrackingJESUS.net/Productions 

--> Become An Early Subscriber To The 'Tracking JESUS' YouTube Channel At: 
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