Cerbera

For those of you who don't know about it, or haven't yet seen the new tutorial released by Cineversity today, it references this bit of free software, which is properly amazing, and deserves its own thread. Just export as .obj. Instant retopology, Modo-style(in fact Modo uses this technology for its own auto-retopo feature), courtesy of 'Instant Meshes'. Go grab it, and retopo any resolution mesh, triangles / ngons / whatever, into any other, including quads only option ! Then it's straight back out to obj and back into Cinema. CBR

You really are ludicrously productive ! :) Are you tempted to get some Magic Snow out for your Wintery exteriors ? (I mean the nice free Nitro4D plugin) CBR

Must be all the weighty subjects we deal with here on the cafe ;) I think he means 'resource-heavy'. Can take a while to load and refresh sometimes.

No, but I'd like to see the attempt ;)

Oh I'm not worried - the force is strong in you, my friend :) If you need me test stuff, just let me know. No that's our fault, Vecs. We need to do something so impressive that @Igor can't resist leaving it there :)

That's a hell of an update; I got tired just reading the list ! :) Good luck with the upgrade ! CBR

awful people :/

Yep, what @VECTOR said :) CBR

You can phone MAXON up, and ask to delay renewing your MSA until you have seen what's in the new version. James from MAXON UK informs me that as long as I renew before the next version is actually released, I will remain in the MSA unbroken chain. Don't know if that's the same everywhere in the world, but don't see why it shouldn't be... I am fairly sure the case is that each MSA you pay will get you one new version. CBR

Thank goodness nobody's desperate enough to try adding things like /r19 to the end of MAXON's url. It doesn't work, btw ;) CBR

It's properly freaky what you're doing there with all the human eyes and lips, but I'm enjoying the series anyway :) CBR

I'm gonna bet that Chris Schmidt's presentation will include more practical information than anybody else's :)

I'm not using it, so can't be helpful there, but have you tried putting the plugin in ...Users/YourName/AppData/Roaming/MAXON/R18XXXXXX/Plugins ? (ie your preferences folder) That works more often than the plugin folder in the main system directory I've noticed... CBR

Like all Vector's models it's a veritable Sub-D lesson in itself - look at those lovely edge flows, turning something basically quite unattractive into something wondrous to behold ;) He's already got a cupboard full of my Gold star modelling awards but another won't hurt. Aah, we're lucky to have him... CBR

Whilst some of the model is OK, rather a lot of it is not. You've used horrible lazy booles for some of it, which can't be considered proper modelling, and you have paid the price for this with the horrendous topology that booles generate. Then we have the proliferation of triangles everywhere which, whilst probably not too detrimental to this particular scene, because most of them are on planar areas, it can't be called good technique. Also some problematic complex poles. There is nothing about this model that couldn't be done with 100% quads, no booles, and no generator objects that produce all the horrible triangles. So that is what you should be aiming for if you're trying to improve your modelling. You can use these time saving generators, but you must take the time to clear up after them if you want Grade A models. CBR

Thanks for making this. I'll add it to my list of videos to refer people to when they ask about such things :) CBR

Pls check cafe rules. CBR

What do you mean by 'in presential mode' ? CBR

Well not me. BP as it is now is easy enough to learn (with the right tutorials and a little time / practice), and why wait to be able to UV stuff ? And I would bet that any solid grounding you had in the current version would help rather than hinder any subsequent efforts to learn the new version. CBR

Oh that is waaaaaaay cool ! Love the reindeer's nose bit :) CBR

In the interests of general levity, I'd like to talk about R100. I'm expecting a neural net that interfaces directly with my brain, and just does whatever I think of. All this would be displayed via some sort of quantum holography, with a new tactile / sensory feedback loop system that allows me to sculpt polygons by wishing them into the right places. I hope at this point Cinema will be self-repairing, self-improving, self-aware and engaged in perpetual cyber-war with Maya. Oh the joy of speculation... CBR

The walls and wall lights are working well. Is that IES you're using for those ? And the chair looks like a decent enough model from what we can see of them. But you are lacking some details that would give it a more realistic feel. It really is very rare that a room has no skirting or coving of some kind... The translucent curtain doesn't look like one because there are no folds / creases / variation apparent in it. What is that thing on the wall on the right ? We don't have enough detail in it to show the viewer what its function is. If it's a desk, it needs stuff on it, if it's air conditioning, it needs a plug and wire etc. Otherwise you risk making it look like an inexplicable 3D block in a scene. No mat or rug is ever perfectly straight on the floor, and / or perfectly flat and uniform throughout. And it's very thick for a vinyl mat, yet lacks any visual detail to tell us it's a carpet if that's what it is... There is no dirt or wear or variation on any object in the scene, which is making it look very sterile, and not adding to realism. The floor particularly looks like it has never seen a footstep and is a good deal shinier than floors in meeting rooms usually get. Where are the electric and data sockets / phones / pens / pads / easels and other things typically found in meeting rooms worldwide ? Adding some of these will subconsciously justify the space as a viable meeting place, and add realism that way. It seems unusual to have no overhead lighting for the main table, yet to have the featureless walls brilliantly lit by multiple spotlights... Lastly, no offence, but it's quite a dull room, which not very much visually engaging in it. That's not to say it's badly done, but if it's a portfolio piece, I would have thought you need to produce visually exciting work that will jump out at potential clients from the hundreds of reels they will invariably review all the time. I just thinking we're lacking a little 'wow factor'. I would add some high detail plants maybe, and / or put interesting / practical objects on the table and other surfaces or maybe some pictures on the walls - something to attract the eye and hold the attention. And maybe adjust the camera angle so we can see more of the glassy desk reflections, which I'd bet are more visually arresting than the walls. Hope that helps. CBR

It's not the camera angle ;) What sort of issues did you have ? I've always found the spiral staircase rig to be pretty solid... CBR

There's lots of good things about this, and lots that is working well - I particularly like the lamps and the coffee machine. One thing I wouldn't like to do though, is try and navigate those stairs every day if I wasn't some sort of acrobat. Someone's gonna die on those when they come down bleary-eyed one morning :) I forget what the standard formula / ratio is for stairs, but I'm sure there is one, and that this isn't it ! Grass looks really good from a distance, but are you not tempted to try it with hair based grass in the foreground ? CBR

We all know about Alt-D to hide the axis, but but perhaps even more useful is F12, which we can hold down to select directly through the axis, without hiding it. Very quick and helpful. Just wanted that on its own in a searchable post somewhere so that next time I forget, or noobs ask I don't have to bother @3DKiwi from whom this top tip originally came. As I asked both MAXON and Cineversity, who didn't know (!!) I thought it was in danger of becoming 'lost knowledge', but not any more ! ;) CBR