New Blender NPR

Dedicated to Non-Photorealistic and Expressive Rendering

BEER Talk Podcast Part 2

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NPR Limitations artists faced using render engine designed exclusively for photo-realistic rendering

Shading Nodes

Hard to explain/teach and tasking when revisit & recall after a while

    • BI: limited and buggy
    • Cycles: hard to get even for the simplest feature that BI has

Relatively harder to create and longer to get done

Strict combine algorithm

BI’s combine pass= Diffuse*(AO*Shadow))+Specular+Emit+((Ind.Light*(Color*[Intensity color value])*factor)+((Env.Light*(Color*[Intensity color value]) * factor)+Reflection+Refraction

Photorealistic render engine extracting from material which produces abstraction on how things are.

A material is broken down (render passes)[1st level of abstraction], then combined in another algorithm (Combine pass)[2nd level of abstraction], so what your setup is different from result.

NPR should be WYSIWYG like Digital Painting workflow

Cycles’ combine pass=(DiffuseColor*(DDirect + DIndirect))+(GlossyColor*(GDirect + GIndirect))+(TransmissionColor*(TDirect + TIndirect))+Emission+Environment

Based on these algorithms, the final result (without extensive node hacking) will look generic.

The Compromise: node tricks in compositor [3rd level of abstraction]

What you see is done in the compositor, WYSIDITC — pronounced as “wee-see-dick”

Note: We aren’t bashing Blender Internal Renderer or Cycles. We simply finding limitations from the NPR perspective.

Unique problem in BI

BI Uses nodes but still use the basic UI too, confusing new users. Settings are everywhere
Numerous other limitations documented in BEER proposal
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/User:LightBWK#Cel_Toon
We may take those limitations into later discussions.

Unique problem in Cycles

Path tracing isn’t efficient (power consumption & speed)
Questionable npr primitives
ie: toon shader’s second tone is just value difference

It is very easy to notice, even on still images, the artworks’ origin were from 3D, and the styles expose them to have been done in Blender.

    • What is happening now: “generic styles hence Blender”
    • Which is in conflict with “distinctive style hence unique identity”

The advantages of NPR

  • SPEED (cost of production)
  • STYLE (identity)

In Part 3, we’ll talk specifically about BEER features, it will be fun!!!

Link: BEER Talk Part 1

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