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True photo-real’ rendering of animations

daveyk_belgium

New member
Has anybody used Pro/E models to create truly photo-relaistic animations outside Pro/E, i.e. not using Pro/PHOTORENDER or ARX. I am using Maxwell, and wonder whether I can use Pro/MECHANISM to make photo-quality renderings EASILY?


Thanks


Dave
 
Hi SPELING. Thank you very much for great information. It would be great If you will post here some other informations about this sfuff. Or could you please upload some rendered models (I mean pictures) or some short animation which was created by importing to Studio Tools with mentioned method? I am interested to photoreal animations of imported files too.
If I understand it well, than you have worked with Alias Studio Tools 13. Could you please explain how exactly it works? So.As you wrote earlier, you are able to create some model in Alias studio and than importing to the Proe? And what about reverse way ? Can I create some model or assembly in PROE and than export it to the Alias Studio Tools? Which kind of file did you use ? IGES, STEP, or what? ..

I have pretty good skills with modeling in Proe. So It would be really great If I will be able to import my models to Studio Tools like an exported file from PROE.

I am using Alias Studio Tools 13 and Alias Maya 6 as well. But my experiences with this programs is very low, I mean only basic. I would like to learn the photoreal animaitons in those softwares. Any informations will be welcome.
 
I forget to ask you something. If I understood right .. The Alias Direct Connect 2.0 is some software which we can use for importing files from CAD systems to Alias Studio Tools?.... Please could you post here some important links or some short animation please. Because the liks which you sent here doesnt work (neither)..
smiley18.gif

Thanks in advance
 
In mean time Alias has been takeover by AutoDesk (AutoCAD products) and because of that link is out of order.

Yes you can interchange data from ProE to Alias Studio, and back
 
hi Speling.
smiley1.gif


Is there any problem with polygonial mesh (I mean the resolution of surface) during importing/exporting of files?
I am intersted to Industiral (Technical) Design. And I would like to know what is the best way to do this. As we know, ARX in Proe have not very realistic render. So I think that I will create some model and import it to Studio Tools as completely done yet model. I will rendering only in ST. I will not use it for modeling. Is this way of technical photorealistic design right?

I really need to know this because I would like to buy some books nad trainings.

Another quastion:
Are we able to create animation with imported assembly in Studio Tools? or just and only the static scene?
 
Where exactly are the differences between Alias Maya and Alias Studio Tools. There are same modules for modeling, rendering, animations, and so on... For what exactly is dedicated the Studio Tools? I have read some basic informations from alias official site but there was not what I am looking for. I would like to hear something from user of ST.

Thanks in advance
 
that link what I sent here is forbidden or inreconstruction. I am sorry. I think that the Alias/Autodesk web page is already in reconstruction. it is so pity.but there was only basic informations about ST. I think, you already know it.
smiley4.gif
 
Woot, just installed thatAliasImagestudio 3 trial version, and i was very impressed. Especially by the direct loading of pro models & assemblies. I played around abit and it got some funky stuff in there. Definitly advisable over ARX, at almost the same cost, as you cant model in it. Dynamic rendering, I dont know, didnt have time to fully check it. Any advice Miko?


The interface is straightforeward if your familiar with rendering.... truly interesting :)





Greets


Nick
Edited by: dojo
 
dojo: I did not try to work with Image Studio but thanks for tip.

Speling wrote:
In today days ST don
 
Why are always some mistakes in my links ?!
smiley7.gif
smiley7.gif

I really dont know. Maybe in my Internet Explorer are some errors or I dont know what is wrong. I can not fix it!Just please copy my link and than delete some free spaces (skips) in adress please. Like on the next figure>

View attachment 2339

About Studio Tools from my earlier post.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id= 6871101

Please delete skip in front of number "6" in link. Than link will be functional. THANKS
Edited by: Miko
 
A small example. Direct proe ;odel inport in alias image studio, assign a material, throw in a scene, medium render quality and after 10 mins you get this image. (the pro model itself is about 40 meg). There is no way you can get this result with arx in such short notice.


Im in luv !





View attachment 2340
 
I can perhaps offer some information on this:

I do a lot of rendering work (but not a lot of animation) in both StudioTools and Maya.
A simple breakdown of the software follows (some is fact, some is my opinion):

StudioTools:
1) Great rendering capability.
2) Rendering tools are moderately difficult to learn.
3) High price (approximately US $6,500 for base version).
4) Many file transfer options with Pro/E.
5) Good animation tools.

Maya
1) Best rendering capability (out of Maya, StudioTools, and ImageStudio) using mental ray renderer.
2) mental ray rendering tools are quite difficult to learn.
3) Low price (approximately US $2,000 for base version).
4) Fewer file transfer options with Pro/E, but it is possible to do. Granite plugin available for US $500 (I think 500, not sure).
5) Best animation tools of these three packages.

ImageStudio
1) Very good rendering capability (uses same mental ray render engine as Maya, but relies exclusively on pre-programmed shaders. You can't make your own shaders from scratch, but you can modify the shader library that comes with it).
2) Very easy to learn.
3) Not sure on price, but perhaps US $1,000-5,000. Sorry, I don't have exact information on price.
4) Can read granite files, so supposedly very good transfer options with Pro/E.
5) Only basic animations as far as I know.

If you wanted to do advanced animations like the gear assembly Miko posted, I would recommend Maya. Its animation tools are the best. It won't read any animation you've created in Pro/E, but you can control motion using Maya's own system. It is also inexpensive. It will take some time to learn it completely, though. If you are willing to commit the time to learning it, I would recommend it.

StudioTools is extremely valuable to product and transportation designers because it allows sketching, advanced modeling, animation, and rendering in one package. If you just use it for rendering capabilities, you won't get the best value for your money.

Image Studio is good for creating "pretty good" renderings very quickly. It is easy to learn but not as customizable as Maya, so the rendering potential is not quite as good as Maya. I don't know much about its animation capabilities, but I think they are only basic.

I hope this helps.

Here are some renderings I have done in StudioTools (the speakers on the right have also had some Photoshop retouching):
View attachment 2343


And some in Maya (the images on each end have had some Photoshop retouching also):
View attachment 2344


Edited by: speckofdustin
 
Hi Speling, speckofustin.
I very appreciate your offer and your useful informaions. I will be thinking about it and I hope that I will choose right package for me. I already have read many posts from designers about ST, Maya and Proe at many forums and from you Speling as well. Thank you all for great informations. But pity for me is, that I didnt see any animation made in Studio Tools
smiley18.gif

--------
At this time I am working at the animation of mentioned Gear-Box in Wildfire 2.0 M120. Really terribe thing in Design Animation is: When I already specified all connections and timing for all servo motors in Mechanism module for whole assembly (there is about 50 connections) and I have done three Analysis, but when I switch to the Animation module I see information about lost all of my defined servo motors.
INFORMATION: Invalid servo motors will be marked with status incomplete. Please redefine those servo motors if you wish to reuse them.

and My questions:
1) Is there any way to get saved analysis from Mechanism module to the Animation module?
smiley24.gif
This is pretty big deficit of time to define it again. And I have so many servo motors that I am not able to get them all to list of Animation Manager.
2) How can I define Sub-Animation and Event?
3) What is *.fra file useful for?

Thanks in Advance

Edited by: Miko
 
Ok I got it ...
smiley1.gif
I think that the Design Animation option is pretty powerful thing and easy to learn.

-For configuring of Sub-Animation is needed to creat as first some sub-assembly, in this sub-assembly we must create animation. Save this animation in different name as main (bigest) animation and than open it in Assembly mode like sub-assebly. Start the Animation module, select Animation/Sub-Animation and than you can see that sub-animation was added to main assembly from sub-assembly. How many sub-asseblies you have, so many sub-animations you have also. Do not forget at FRAME RATE settings in sub-assembly because, after adding sub-animation you will be not able to change it in main animation module (whole during time of sub-animation is fixed in main animation)
- I did not find for what is dedicated, useful the EVENT function but I did not need it as well (I think).
- What is *.fra file I still dont know
smiley5.gif

- Design Animation module have no function to import saved analysis from MDX but we dont need it.
- If we want to add some servo motor there is not problem just click Animation/Servo motors and you will see all servo motors that were configured in sub-animations.
---------------
I already have done whole animation of my Gear-Box but it is too big to upload it here (90MB) so if here is someone who want to see it just give me email. I would like to know your opinion.

PS: Sorry for mistakes in sentences please.
 

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