studioGPU

What’s cooking in the StudioGPU Labs - Feb 2010

MachStudio Pro has come a long way since it was first announced last fall. There have been several version updates and a lot of work by creative people pushing the software to see what it can do.

A few weeks ago I posted an example of a photorealistic architectural rendering created in MachStudio Pro. The rendering was set up to emulate the style of the same scene as rendered in VRay.

The results surprised many people. The V-Ray-rendered and MachStudio Pro-rendered images were both production ready and very comparable. But of course, the MachStudio Pro image rendered in only 84 sec as opposed to a typical lengthy photo-realistic render (many minutes). And you could change the materials, lighting, AO, DOF, cameras, HDR exposures on the fly.

I've seen some other example renders that are being used in upcoming productions (which unfortunately means I can't share them yet) that are positively astounding.

Passion & Development

With each update, the SGPU development team adds in more refinements, and enhanced ways of rendering. It's one of the big advantage of buying software from a smaller startup - they are passionate about their work, want to constantly improve and are approachable by and responsive to users.

So this week I want to share an image I received from the StudioGPU Labs. It's an example of work in development.

Now if you've followed the recent Renderosity review, you know StudioGPU is actively working on additional rendering styles including ray-tracing. Well this image, using some StudioGPU radiance pass secret sauce is an early example of what you can expect. This is just a prototype, but you can see that the quality of light and color is cranked up even further.

Oh by the way, this new "In the StudioGPU Labs" image took about 60 sec. to render at 980 X 1200 with with x6 AA samples (36 samples per pixel). You can view the full resolution rendering here (will open in a new window).

Examples of MachStudio Pro photo-realistic imaging - good and even better.

Are there capabilities and features that you want to see integrated into MachStudio Pro? Experiments you want to see tried in the lab? Comment here or join the discussion in the StudioGPU forums. The developers read every post and typically respond within a day. It's a great way to have an impact that changes the industry and how it does visualization and rendering.

I'll be posting more images fresh "from the labs" as I receive them. Stay tuned!

Too many of the concept tools for architects miss out on light, time and the relationship of the two

Continuing with the blog topic of exploring interesting work I’ve seen created in MachStudio Pro by small or one-man shops, this week I turning to a basement redesign project.

Chad Wanstreet is a Technical Director at Speedshape Detroit, an automotive and product visualization studio.  However, his previous education (and obviously still a passion) was in architecture. This is where Machstudio comes in.  Chad used MachStudio Pro to help he and a friend visualize and define a basement renovation project.

Below are several images from the project (more in the showcase).  What interests me most about these renderings (besides the visual) is the workflow:

1. Model and texture iin 3ds Max
2. Light in MachStudio Pro
3. Render from MachStudio Pro in passes:  diffuse, reflection, AO, z-depth, and matte (render time for 1920 x 1080 images at x24 anti-aliasing was about 5 mins to produce all 5 passes)
4. Final composite in Nuke for stills and animations

Take a look at these sample images - they are a great example of “previs for architecture”. Quoting from Chad:

“Machstudio provides me with a quick feedback loop for my concepts, and the ability to create animations very quickly, which I love.  Too many of the tools which designers and architects use for quick concept work focus only on volumes and materials, and miss out on light, time and the relationship of the two.” (bold is my editorial)

“Machstudio Pro allows me to create very fast renders and animations, which normally I would need multiple computers or a farm to produce, in hours not days or weeks while experimenting with the effects of light on my design.”

If you have an example of work you have done in MachStudio Pro, or impressions/critiques about the productions I feature in this blog, submit a comment.

Photo realistic rendering in MachStudio Pro?

There has been some discussion in the forums about the ability of MachStudio Pro to do photo-realistic rendering.

I guess some of that confusion has come about because many of the examples shown in our video tutorials and showcase are from real CG animation production projects where the look and feel was intended to be stylized (PlayMobil), mech (Bionicles) or illustrated (Princess Twins), rather than photo-real renderings.

I've read several comments in which, although artists were amazed by the performance and quality of MachStudio Pro, they were specifically searching for a solution to replace their offline photo-realistic rendering engines. A typical comment was something like: "Well V-Ray/Mental Ray/Brazil renders this architectural/automotive/product image like this. How close can MachStudio Pro get to this kind of photo-realistic render?"

Well it was a reasonable question, so Yoni (our chief scientist) got hold of some of the architectural models people were referencing as examples and ran them through MachStudio specifically with the intent of showing photo-realism and emulating the style of V-Ray.

Putting it to the test

The best way to evaluate how it turned out is to take a look at a few of the renderings. (note: unlike many renderings you see, these were not doctored in PhotoShop. They are the actual final renders.)

Click on the links for the two images and one video below. (will open in a new window)

Modern Exterior - rendered at 1200 X 1469 at x36 samples anti-aliasing in 84 sec.
This was accompanied by an 8 sec., 200 frame MP4 video at 850 X 480 rendered in about 2 hrs.

Airport Terminal - rendered at 1000 X 1200 at x36 samples anti-aliasing in 51 sec.

Side-by-side

Do a quick side-by-side comparison below. While you can see differences between the two images, which is V-Ray-rendered and which is MachStudio Pro-rendered is not as obvious as you might think. Beyond academic comparisons, in a production environment you need to evaluate if the difference in the images, justify the orders of magnitude differences in render times and differences in creative control by the individual artist.

Examples of photo-realistic imaging.

Photo-realism you can adjust on the fly

Now what makes these images especially interesting is that I (or anyone with MachStudio Pro) can change the materials, lighting, DOF, cameras, HDR exposures in a few minutes or even seconds, simply by moving some sliders. Try new variations, add additional lights, create new camera angles, change color grading - all with immediate feedback. If the level of reflections does not meet your requirements, change them - and not by waiting hours to see a new render. Creative control and production is completely non-linear.

First impressions of MachStudio Pro from ‘2D Or Not 2D’ AutoCAD Architecture blog

Steve Bennet, author of the AutoCAD Architecture '2D Or Not 2D' blog and technical manager for the Architecture and Design Visualization industries for U.S. CAD, weighs in with his first impressions of MachStudio Pro.

Quick summary: "What if I told you it were possible to have instantaneous feedback on changes made to your rendering? What if individual frames could be rendered in sub-seconds instead of 20-40 minutes a piece? What if you could work with your animated content from any program and render out Beauty, AO, DOF, etc. passes for editing in post - still in sub-seconds? What if poly count was no longer something you needed to worry about and could deal with scenes in the billions of polygon range? What if I could do this all on ONE desktop computer and ditch my hoard of render farms?"

Read the rest of his post...