Check this out: http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/dvds/groups/lighting_ren_g.html
Maya Users
- Thread starter twocik23
- Start date
twocik23
Veteran
"The shadow under the table in the first shot looks a bit wierd. Maybe due to multiple light sources?"
Yes I'm using a tut called faking global illumination, it's basically a bunch of point light set to cubic decay. I really haven't gone thru all of the shadow buttons just yet, I still need to fine tune everything. Kind of getting the hang of it now. I need to learn a little more about ray tracing, mental ray, and some more of the settings in the shaders.
You're using lightwave right ?
"But there should be some blending if that's the case."
Not sure if there's a button on blending light ?
"The second shot looks fine."
Thank you, but I want it to look alot better than this.
"The third looks like there are no shadows on the chair and table. Maybe that was intentional."
I think I might have turned off the shadows for this shot somehow.
Yes I'm using a tut called faking global illumination, it's basically a bunch of point light set to cubic decay. I really haven't gone thru all of the shadow buttons just yet, I still need to fine tune everything. Kind of getting the hang of it now. I need to learn a little more about ray tracing, mental ray, and some more of the settings in the shaders.
You're using lightwave right ?
"But there should be some blending if that's the case."
Not sure if there's a button on blending light ?
"The second shot looks fine."
Thank you, but I want it to look alot better than this.
"The third looks like there are no shadows on the chair and table. Maybe that was intentional."
I think I might have turned off the shadows for this shot somehow.
twocik23
Veteran
Appy I've seen these before, but never thought I'd be able to keep up with them. I've watched a few tuts online before and they talk & jump around so fast I had to stop, play, reverse over and over.
From what I've seen these guys have the best into detail dvds, but are a little fast and expensive. I guess where I am now, I might be able to keep up with them. I really like the digital tuts dvds, but they're more of a cartoon training company, Gnomon is more of the stuff you see in movies.
Can anyone here vouch for any of these dvd, or if you have any used and would like to get rid of them, please let me know ?
I'd like to see one of these companies put out a DVD from start to the very finish (model, lighting, texturing & bump, rendering, etc..) I've got one dvd that help out alot, but wasn't really that detail in some areas. I would like to see a detailed video on how to make a forrest or city, with roads, people & cars passing, kind of like every shot we see in the movies these days (over head sky shot).
From what I've seen these guys have the best into detail dvds, but are a little fast and expensive. I guess where I am now, I might be able to keep up with them. I really like the digital tuts dvds, but they're more of a cartoon training company, Gnomon is more of the stuff you see in movies.
Can anyone here vouch for any of these dvd, or if you have any used and would like to get rid of them, please let me know ?
I'd like to see one of these companies put out a DVD from start to the very finish (model, lighting, texturing & bump, rendering, etc..) I've got one dvd that help out alot, but wasn't really that detail in some areas. I would like to see a detailed video on how to make a forrest or city, with roads, people & cars passing, kind of like every shot we see in the movies these days (over head sky shot).
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Tom Marshall
Actor!!!!!!
GI (Global Illumination) is your key. Don't use a fake method. GI is the only ligting setup that will make your scenes look truly realistic.
You could also have a look at Maxwell Render for a great GI renderer. It's pretty sophisticated and gives stunning results, but the rendering takes a while.
You could also have a look at Maxwell Render for a great GI renderer. It's pretty sophisticated and gives stunning results, but the rendering takes a while.
Gord.T
Still "Senior Member"
I see you have some reflection happening.
It's coming along. Is this your model or a download?
I assume those jaggies on the stick are due to the way the photo was resized and not antialising.
I'm really tempted to fire up a maya demo and join in the fun, but I still have alot of C4D & AE stuff to cover yet.
It's coming along. Is this your model or a download?
I assume those jaggies on the stick are due to the way the photo was resized and not antialising.
I'm really tempted to fire up a maya demo and join in the fun, but I still have alot of C4D & AE stuff to cover yet.
Tom Marshall
Actor!!!!!!
True, you generally don't want to use GI for animation. There's an option in C4D that I know of, since that's the 3d app I've been working on learning. There's a setting you can use that doesn't recalculate GI samples for each new animation frame, but I can't remember what it's called at the moment.
By the way, if you haven't heard of the 3d Fluff DVDs, they're pretty cool, but they're for Cinema 4D. There are 6 volumes and they have one specifically for radiosity and interiors - http://dvd.3dfluff.com/
twocik23
Veteran
The joy stick scene is GI with one area light.
I'm still playing around with and hoping to final get a grip on it. This was a tut I followed (joy stick) online (box model).
Actually the jaggies are caused from photo bucket, they have a resize button that I probably shouldn't have touch. However I'm still learning all of the MR settings.
DO IT !!! Yea I thought to myself about a week ago to give up and try another program, but put my foot down this week and decided to try a figure this out. I'M NOT GIVING UP!!! LOL :0
I'm still playing around with and hoping to final get a grip on it. This was a tut I followed (joy stick) online (box model).
Actually the jaggies are caused from photo bucket, they have a resize button that I probably shouldn't have touch. However I'm still learning all of the MR settings.
DO IT !!! Yea I thought to myself about a week ago to give up and try another program, but put my foot down this week and decided to try a figure this out. I'M NOT GIVING UP!!! LOL :0
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oneinfiniteloop
Veteran
Not to hijack this thread or anything, but the best training I've found for any 3D platform, although this is squarely aimed at C4D, is a series by Michael Marcondes which you can find here. Most tutorials you end up making things that aren't that impressive, but the end results of these look great, plus it's hard to find training for C4D.
(back on topic)
I'm about to post my attempts at the joystick without GI for an example
(back on topic)
I'm about to post my attempts at the joystick without GI for an example
oneinfiniteloop
Veteran
Ok, here they are. I did a quick model of the joystick, wire, and a cyc using mostly LoftNURBS in C4D. I then created my materials and used a simple 3 light setup with an area light as my key and fill, and a spot for my rim. All lights were slightly orangish-reddish (no real lights are pure white), and all lights except one ambient light had area shadows on and all used inverse square falloff. My key was in the 160% intensity range, fill around 230%, one ambient at 69% and the other at 120%, with the rim at 83%.
There are some anti-aliasing articfacts and I'm not totally happy with my shadows, but I did this from scratch in less than an hour or so, and I didn't really tweak it too much.
The first one is the aforementioned setup, the second one is the same thing, but with ambient occlusion turned on. First render, W/O AO, took 7 min. The second render with AO took 12 min 40 sec. Both at 640x480.
Both were rendered out as 32bit TIFF's, then had a slight levels adjustment in Photoshop to bring out the range, then saved as JPEG's.
For those of you with C4D, you can download the scene file by clicking here. Made in R10.111.
w/o AO
w/ AO
I have a copy of Maya 6.0 at the office and I used to be decent at getting good results out of Mental Ray. I might give it a whirl and post those results as well. From what I've learned using both packages is that what I learned in Maya and MR transferred over the C4D easily once I figured out where everything was.
There are some anti-aliasing articfacts and I'm not totally happy with my shadows, but I did this from scratch in less than an hour or so, and I didn't really tweak it too much.
The first one is the aforementioned setup, the second one is the same thing, but with ambient occlusion turned on. First render, W/O AO, took 7 min. The second render with AO took 12 min 40 sec. Both at 640x480.
Both were rendered out as 32bit TIFF's, then had a slight levels adjustment in Photoshop to bring out the range, then saved as JPEG's.
For those of you with C4D, you can download the scene file by clicking here. Made in R10.111.
w/o AO
w/ AO
I have a copy of Maya 6.0 at the office and I used to be decent at getting good results out of Mental Ray. I might give it a whirl and post those results as well. From what I've learned using both packages is that what I learned in Maya and MR transferred over the C4D easily once I figured out where everything was.
twocik23
Veteran
Looks very good for just an hour, I spent about two or three following the tut (more on the rendering time). I need to learn my nurbs a little better, I'm a poly modeler (box model most of the time). I've used the sub d's , but don't really have to much experience with them. I usually convert Ploy to sub when I'm finished with a mod.
Ok I've got a few question for you.
How do I install shaders, not the ones that come with the program, but the shaders other users make that are available online ?
What's the best shader for a diamond ?
Ok I've got a few question for you.
How do I install shaders, not the ones that come with the program, but the shaders other users make that are available online ?
What's the best shader for a diamond ?
oneinfiniteloop
Veteran
I never figured out how to "install" shaders for maya...generally they would be in a scenefile and you can import that. There was also a menu in the Hypershade Editor that imported shaders, can't remember where though.
I really like modeling with NURBS in maya. There is a lot of control and you can build pretty complex shapes quickly. It's diff in C4D, but I tend to think maya was a little more fluid in that area.
As for a diamond shader, I'm not sure. One of the volumetric MR shaders will probably give you the best results, but those were always hard for me to figure out how to use effectively. Check out Highend 3D, I'm sure you can find some stuff there. Also, with a diamond, it's all about refraction and caustics. I'm sure you can wiki diamonds and find their refractive index and start building your shader from there.
I really like modeling with NURBS in maya. There is a lot of control and you can build pretty complex shapes quickly. It's diff in C4D, but I tend to think maya was a little more fluid in that area.
As for a diamond shader, I'm not sure. One of the volumetric MR shaders will probably give you the best results, but those were always hard for me to figure out how to use effectively. Check out Highend 3D, I'm sure you can find some stuff there. Also, with a diamond, it's all about refraction and caustics. I'm sure you can wiki diamonds and find their refractive index and start building your shader from there.
twocik23
Veteran
Yea I've tried the import buttons, nothing. It's saying wrong file, but the file are maya .ma file. ??? I can't figure it out.
I've used the sheet that raptor posted for the refraction , helped but didn't get what I was looking for.
As for caustics, haven't really played with this either.
I've used the sheet that raptor posted for the refraction , helped but didn't get what I was looking for.
As for caustics, haven't really played with this either.
oneinfiniteloop
Veteran
Yeah, that happened a lot to me. I think it might have to do with diff versions of maya and the ASCII and binary files and such.
Gord.T
Still "Senior Member"
Caustics are a lighting effect and are only apparent in what you see casted in the shadows.
The bottom of a swimming pool for example, how the light reflects off of the water surface onto the pool bottom and creates those patterns. It has no effect on the visual aspect of the material itself. Unless that's important to the shot, ignore it as it slows down rendering. Just a tip.
The bottom of a swimming pool for example, how the light reflects off of the water surface onto the pool bottom and creates those patterns. It has no effect on the visual aspect of the material itself. Unless that's important to the shot, ignore it as it slows down rendering. Just a tip.
Tom Marshall
Actor!!!!!!
I would image the refraction index for a diamond would be quite high due to the high density. I would start with around 1.75 or so and see how that looks.
twocik23
Veteran
In the pictures I'm using a MR dgs_material, with a ramp plugged into the lor. It's almost like the shader looks like liquid or something, not glass. Any tuts would be great guys .....
"Caustics are a lighting effect and are only apparent in what you see casted in the shadows.
The bottom of a swimming pool for example, how the light reflects off of the water surface onto the pool bottom and creates those patterns. It has no effect on the visual aspect of the material itself. Unless that's important to the shot, ignore it as it slows down rendering. Just a tip."
Yea really long wait.
"Caustics are a lighting effect and are only apparent in what you see casted in the shadows.
The bottom of a swimming pool for example, how the light reflects off of the water surface onto the pool bottom and creates those patterns. It has no effect on the visual aspect of the material itself. Unless that's important to the shot, ignore it as it slows down rendering. Just a tip."
Yea really long wait.
oneinfiniteloop
Veteran
Yeah, I should have mentioned that, but usually when people do diamond (or glass/other jewels/water) they include caustics. Rarely have I seen one without it.
EDIT: just looked up the refractive index as it falls between 2.4175–2.4178 according to one site.