I was watching some of the videos on the Creature Factory DVD I bought from the Blender e-store.
The DVD is essentially a a walkthrough of how creator Andreas Goralczyk made a short video form start to finish all in Blender. I’ll do a more thorough review of it later, but I just wanted to post on one of the little golden nuggets of info I picked up while watching.
Andreas mentions that he does not use the default render filter in Blender, which is set to “Gauss”. I didn’t even realize there were different filters until I heard him say that.
I had just posted my sword project recently, so since I had it ready at hand, I decided to do a couple of tests. To get to the filter, you go to the Scene tab (press F10). The filters pulldown menu is circled in red:
In the video, Andreas mentions using the “Mitch” or “Catrom” filters. First I rendered the sword using the default Gauss (as I have been doing for years now):
Previously this has always been ok, if not excellent, to my eyes. Next I switched the filter to Mitch:
As you can see, it’s much sharper and crisp. I really liked this one, but still I decided to do a Catrom:
And this one is even more crisp than the Mitch filter. I have now changed my default filter to Catrom (by saving my default setting from the File menu). Sure there may be occasions where you will need a softer render, but you can always switch it back at that point.
Anyway, I’d recommend playing around with it and seeing how it affects your renders.
I was watching some of the videos on the Creature Factory DVD(UPDATE: I guess you can’t buy this DVD anymore? It’s unfortunate because it contained a lot of good info) I bought from the Blender e-shop.
The DVD is essentially a a walkthrough of how creator Andreas Goralczyk made a short video from start to finish all in Blender. I’ll do a more thorough review of it later, but I just wanted to post on one of the little golden nuggets of info I picked up while watching.
Andreas mentions that he does not use the default render filter in Blender, which is set to “Gauss“. I didn’t even realize there were different filters until I heard him say that.
I had just posted my sword project recently, so since I had it ready at hand, I decided to do a couple of tests. To get to the filter, you go to the Scene tab (press F10). The filters pulldown menu is circled in red:
The scene tab with render filter circled.
In the video, Andreas mentions using the “Mitch” or “Catrom” filters. First I rendered the sword using the default Gauss (as I have been doing for years now):
Sword rendered with Gauss filter (click to see larger)
Previously this has always been ok, if not excellent, to my eyes. Next I switched the filter to Mitch:
Sword rendered with Mitch filter (click to see larger)
As you can see, it’s much sharper and crisp. I really liked this one, but still I decided to do a Catrom:
Sword rendered with Catrom filter (click to see larger)
And this one is even more crisp than the Mitch filter. I have now changed my default filter to Catrom (by saving my default setting from the File menu). Sure there may be occasions where you will need a softer render, but you can always switch it back at that point.
Anyway, I’d recommend playing around with it and seeing how it affects your renders.
My only problem with those filters are their names. There is no way i am going to remember a bunch of undescriptive names for the filters in a 3d rendering program. I wish the filters could be named intuitively, i would be much more likely to actually use Blender 3D for
Yes I agree. I had no idea what those meant until I saw it in the video, so I never would have tried it out.
The UI and naming conventions had traditionally been a very weak point with Blender.
With 2.5 the UI is vastly overhauled, but I don’t think the names really changed, unfortunately.
My only problem with those filters are their names. There is no way i am going to remember a bunch of undescriptive names for the filters in a 3d rendering program. I wish the filters could be named intuitively, i would be much more likely to actually use Blender 3D for
Yes I agree. I had no idea what those meant until I saw it in the video, so I never would have tried it out.
The UI and naming conventions had traditionally been a very weak point with Blender.
With 2.5 the UI is vastly overhauled, but I don’t think the names really changed, unfortunately.