KVR Audio

tranceemerson · Post by **tranceemerson** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 9:06 am

It would be cool to see more of these, I know that Xferrecords has provided some stunning images on the website of serum, and that there are some renders made by fans of Dune2 for synapse audio, and I have found some great ones provided by Reveal sound for Spire too!

I wish I could find more of these, maybe this thread could be about making new ones, but then here's dreamin'.

e@rs · Post by **e@rs** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 10:11 am

D16 Group has 3D renders for all their plugins on their site.

Julien Unison · Post by **Julien Unison** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 10:34 am

A_SN · Post by **A_SN** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 10:39 am

It's one of those things I never understood, how they can make a pretty basic UI (I'm talking in terms of techniques used, Dune2 doesn't look photorealistic or anything, it's just the usual combination of 2D bitmap interface elements, not a bad thing either) then make gorgeous 3D renders, an effort that doesn't actually contribute to the actual product, just the marketing. If the Dune2 bitmap interface elements were based on a top-view render of the 3D model, the actual interface would look much more photorealistic for instance.

Compare the picture above with this:

Daru925 · Post by **Daru925** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 11:19 am

https://dribbble.com/voger

Jace-BeOS · Post by **Jace-BeOS** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 12:48 pm

Many plugin GUIs with rich shadowing are actually created as 3D models first and foremost. This is the GUI. The "camera" is positioned and the "lens" configured in such a way as to remove perspective (isometric projection?), leaving an apparently flat GUI with very realistic objects, including soft shadows and lighting.

Separate components (knobs, switches, etc) that need to move on-screen will be rendered individually with alpha transparency for masking their shadows and edges into the main GUI, and these are added into the GUI as smaller bitmaps. 3D modeling and rendering also gives an automated way to export multiple images quickly for animated objects. The renderer will move a control, render that region, save the file, move the control again, render, save... etc. Then they just need to be assembled into an bitmap strip, and there might be automated tools to do this as well. All the parts are assembled in the GUI construction stage of the programming environment

These 3D models are then of course available to market the plugin in a glamorous "looks like real hardware" kind of way.

Not all plugins are made this way. Just the ones where you see the developer showing off a 3D version

Vortifex · Post by **Vortifex** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 1:32 pm

chk071 · Post by **chk071** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 1:34 pm

A_SN wrote:It's one of those things I never understood, how they can make a pretty basic UI (I'm talking in terms of techniques used, Dune2 doesn't look photorealistic or anything, it's just the usual combination of 2D bitmap interface elements, not a bad thing either) then make gorgeous 3D renders, an effort that doesn't actually contribute to the actual product, just the marketing.

AFAIK, it's mostly not the same persons who do the GUI design.

fisherKing · Post by **fisherKing** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 2:16 pm

Vortifex wrote:I really don't understand the point of these, to be honest. They don't tell me anything about the product. That Thorn one, for example. Who puts their synths on the floor? And, unless the wood planks are unusually narrow, the synth appears to be four feet wide.

yeah, i don't get it either. it's just a photoshop moment, has nothing to do with the plugin, my experience with it, or... anything. i mean, if they were really hardware, that would be interesting....

Julien Unison · Post by **Julien Unison** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 2:43 pm

Zombie Queen · Post by **Zombie Queen** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 3:24 pm

A_SN wrote:It's one of those things I never understood...

You're not alone there. I guess it's to tickle the remains of the lust for real gear. It's putting me off anyway.

Spencer Maddox · Post by **Spencer Maddox** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 5:18 pm

Tone2 Does the whole 3D rendering thing with their Synths too.

Tone2_Electra2_Synthesizer_Top.jpg

taurus-main.jpg

icarus_synthesizer_g.jpg

elassi · Post by **elassi** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 5:33 pm

Jace-BeOS wrote:The "camera" is positioned and the "lens" configured in such a way as to remove perspective (isometric projection?), leaving an apparently flat GUI with very realistic objects, including soft shadows and lighting.)

It's called "Orthographic" but otherwise you're 100% right.

Those Voger images are absolutely gorgeous.

Need to practise a lot 'til I'm able to achieve only half of the quality...

Ortho

Perspective

A_SN · Post by **A_SN** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 5:36 pm

Jace-BeOS wrote:Not all plugins are made this way. Just the ones where you see the developer showing off a 3D version

That's the puzzling part, it's clearly not the case with Dune2!

But yeah, the whole 3D interface thing is nice, but when you have 200 frames for every single knob because each knob is seen from a different perspective (oh yeah not all are orthographic, some definitely have perspective) then you understand why some plugins are so huge

chk071 wrote:AFAIK, it's mostly not the same persons who do the GUI design.

That would make sense then, but then the person who does the GUI would perhaps do well to use the person who does the 3D renders to make the GUI!

It took me like two weeks in 3ds Max to make this single knob, if I had a 3D graphics guy I would have let him do it for me!

Next time I'll go the vector route, although maybe not for a VST, the real hardware look works well on VSTs.

DrewDale · Post by **DrewDale** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 5:36 pm

Even freeware get's the 3D render treatment

3D renders of your favorite VST plugin interface!