Rendering with Turtle

I was seeing a lot of talk about Turtle so I got a trial version I have been messing around with it using their tutorials. I was wondering if anyone has seen any information/tutorial/specifics on using it for second life work. I like what I have but I think I might be over looking things.

Lots of talk where exactly? It strikes me that might be the place to ask.

Turtle's pretty much the only renderer I use these days. I don't have any SL-specific advice. Baking is baking. The principles are universal.

As a general rule, I suggest avoiding any obviously directional lighting as much as possible (unless you know your model will be going into an area with static lighting, such as a fully baked and fullbrighted interior room, or an island with a locked sun). Make good use of global illumination with final gather. You'll find that the skylight is invaluable. In many cases, you won't even need to put lights in your scene at all if your GI and skylight settings are good. Image based lighting can be wonderful as well.

If you're baking textures on NURBS surfaces, you'll find that the process is significantly slower than doing it on polygons, especially if you're baking reflections. Be aware of that, and budget your time accordingly.

Also, on the Texure Bake tab, under Output File, the default for File Name will be "baked_$p$s.$e." Change the $s to $t when using NURBS. Otherwise, if you're baking a batch, the files will all end up with the same name, resulting in each one overwriting the last. You'll end up with just one texture at the end instead of the whole batch. There's nothing worse than waiting several hours for a good size batch to finish, only to discover you have to do it all over again because of something as silly as improper naming.

If you haven't looked through them already, the tutorials on Illuminate Labs' website are really good. Go through them, and you'll have a great initial understanding of how Turtle works. From there, just like anything else, practice, practice, practice.

I hope that helps.

"Also, on the Texure Bake tab, under Output File, the default for File Name will be "baked_$p$s.$e." Change the $p to $t when using NURBS. Otherwise, if you're baking a batch, the files will all end up with the same name, resulting in each one overwriting the last. You'll end up with just one texture at the end instead of the whole batch. There's nothing worse than waiting several hours for a good size batch to finish, only to discover you have to do it all over again because of something as silly as improper naming."



Thank you for responding, this helps a WHOLE lot. I have been using the tutorials I found on their website and like I said before I was happy with what I got, I just wanted to know if I was missing anything and sure enough I was. Thankfully all the rendering I was doing was a single item so I had not run into the problem with the batches as yet. Thank you again.

Whoops, typo. It's change $s to $t. The $p doesn't matter. I'll edit the other post.

I'm currently in the process of figuring out baking and I've been testing many different light sources. I'm using Mental Ray, but I was curious about the skylight that you mention, is that the Physical Sun and Sky you mean, or is it something else?

Thanks

The skylight is unique to Turtle. It's an environmental lighting solution that basically turns the entire scene into one large area light, just as the sky in RL works as a giant area light. It creates very soft, very realistic looking lighting. By tweaking just a couple of settings, you can create very believable daylight, moonlight, or anything in-between. It's a fantastic tool, extremely well suited for baking, since the light comes in from all around the model.

Mental Ray does not have any direct equivalent for this. You can certainly create a similar effect with actual lights, but it will take a lot of work.

Can someone give us a link to this wonder-renderer? Is it a stand-alone product, or a plug-in for Maya or some other spendy app? Does it run on all platforms, or Windows only? Is it free, or expensive?

*Sigh* Never mind. Did a search on "Turtle render software" in Google and found it. How do you people manage to afford these $1,500+ applications? And that is just for the plug-in to Maya, which you need to purchase seperately?

Step 1: Get a real-world job at "Pixar" or "Industrial Light and Magic" that pays at least a six-figure salary ...

Step 1: Pirate it.


Sadly, many, many people do this... I have friends who don't understand why I won't, and it's ridiculous how okay with it they are, and have even told me to do it, since it's free and the 'good programs' are always so expensive

Generally, the people who are willing to pay such a price are doing much more than just making products for Second Life, and are professionals in 3d art/animation/etc.

Personally, though I know how awesome programs can be (Maya is amazing, but damn that price tag), I'm fine with going free. There are programs out there for just about everything, for free, and many are absolutely awesome.

I'll give you my practical answer, and then my philosophical answer.

Practical:

One project pays for it. If you're doing this for a living, or even as a part time secondary business, $1500 for a useful tool is not a lot to spend. 3D artists typically bill at anywhere from 30 to 300 dollars per hour. If someone's on the low end, it's paid for in about a week's worth of work. On the high end, it's more like half a day. Either way, it's nothing that will break the bank. It's a business investment that is worth every penny.

Or to put it more in the average SL business person's terms, $1500 comes out to about L$400,000. That's 200 sales at L$2000 each. Say you've got 10 items on the market that cost that amount. All you need to do is sell 20 copies of each, and you're all set. I'm pretty sure just about anyone here could find a way to sell 20 copies of 10 items, especially if they're nice looking items with beautifully baked textures on them.



Philosophical:

"Afford" is a funny word. It doesn't really mean anything. For anyone who has any income whatsoever, literally anything is "affordable", no matter what dollar amount it costs. It's all about priorities, not so much about means.

I usually put it like this. Picture the most average person you know who has a job and supports him/herself. Don't picture anyone rich, just someone average. What if the plumbing broke in this person's house, and all of a sudden none of the toilets worked anymore? The plumber comes over to take a look, and says, "It's going to be $1500 to fix this." Would this average person who has a modest income then turn around and say, "Well, Mr. Plumber, I can't afford $1500. So I've given it a lot of thought, and I'm just not going to crap anymore."? No, of course not. That's not an option. No matter what, those pipes are getting fixed.

The person might not have $1500 cash in his/her pocket right then and there, but if it's important enough, he/she will find a way. Maybe they can work out a financing arrangement or a payment plan or split it between a few different credit cards or something. Whatever the details, the point is if something is important enough to have, there's always a way to pay for it.

Anyone who says otherwise is fooling themselves, because everyone has SOMETHING they've spent a lot of money on. Here's a good example, which I experienced just the other day. I had some friends over who, like me, are into music production. I showed them the new studio monitors and DAW console I recently bought. I mentioned what the monitors had cost, and my friend replied, "I won't be getting those any time soon." We then went out for dinner, and he drove us there in his $30,000 SUV.

As I was getting in his car, I pointed to mine, which I had purchased used for all of $4000, and I said, "This is why I can have those nice speakers." He looked a little embarrassed, which indicated he got the point. A $30,000 vehicle is arguably extravagant for a humble school teacher, after all, which is what he is. But it was something he wanted, so he sacrifices in other areas in order to have it. I really don't care about cars, so I can buy nicer audio equipment than he can.

I also probably don't care about certain other things you might think are more important, so I can buy expensive software.

The real question is not can you AFFORD the $1500, but can you JUSTIFY spending that amount on the particular item in question. If the item is a tool that will earn you money in your business (which Turtle does for me), then the answer is ALWAYS yes. If it's for a hobby, and the hobby is very important to you, then it's PROBABLY yes. If it's for an activity which isn't very important to you, then it's likely no.

Please don't misunderstand. I'm not saying everyone SHOULD buy expensive software. I'm just saying everyone COULD if it's important enough to them to do so.




Yes, Maya must be purchased separately. Turtle is just a renderer, nothing more. It can't do anything on its own. It's designed specifically to be used in conjunction with Maya.

That's not unusual, by the way. All "stand-alone" renderers must be used either in or with other programs. They can't render unless they've first been fed content from SOMEWHERE. It happens that Turtle is designed for Maya, but there are other renderers out there that are designed for other modeling/animation programs.




Step 1 is get a job, yes, but it doesn't have to be for a large studio, and it doesn't have to be six figures. As I said, it's all about priorities. Everyone spends their money on SOMETHING. Some people would rather have the nice car. I'd rather have nice equipment and software. Rich people get to have both. The rest of us make choices.