Integrating 3D models with photography
Interested in integrating your 3D work with the real world? This might help
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1
18-02-2004
, 07:48 AM
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question about mikes lighting video
Watched your lighting video and have a question...
In the video you mention the sky plugin and the gi joe mel script.
Where can I find these? I searched highend3d and googled but came up short.
Mental ray has a global illumination section in its render options but I was not able to divine how it really works.
I am getting to a point where I would like to start making some renders that are not all BLACK but the only way I have been able to render without the black gloomy default background is to biuld 3 planer walls and apply a texture to them and then render from within this semi-room. Even then my renders come out muddie and not really crisp like the rendors I have seen others post.
In particular I like the Fredderickson renders of the Jawa sand crawler in the one-on-one competition forum.
Cheers!
Rich M
PS- You asked this in one of the tutorials about how important constant patter is. To me I could watch an 80% silent tutorial and it would not bother me. What I want to hear is the main concept, any special command sequences you are typing, the reason some thing is being done and possible alternatives, etc.
The process of pushing, pulling and points, edges and faces is part of the creative process and I don't mind watching that process. In a way some of the videos I have seen where the instructors try to minimize this they can produce some really bad results like - start with a cube, push 2 verts says "Now do this for 4-50 hours and then you get this..." - the screen refreshes and you are looking at a perfect statue of david! That is not my idea of a useful video.
lol - That just brought the image of the spongebob squarepants episode where squidward asks sponge bob to draw a circle and spongebob draws a PERFECT circle and when squidwards asks him how he did it? Spongebob starts by drawing a perfect figure of "David" then says and then I erase some of these "extra bits" and in a flurry of erasing he is left with nothing but a perfect circle.
That would make a really funny April fools tutorial - How to model a perfect sphere. Start with something really really complex then slowing and PAINFULLY keep erasing bits til nothing is left but a perfect sphere. haha I crack me up!
Cheers!
Last edited by ctbram; 18-02-2004 at 10:13 PM.
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2
18-02-2004
, 01:35 PM
The Maya Mountain
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SKy plugin - https://www.highend3d.com/files/dl.3d...p&file_id=1677
GI_Joe MEL - https://www.highend3d.com/files/dl.3d...p&file_id=1321
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3
18-02-2004
, 02:07 PM
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I'm not meaning to be snobby (if you can be snobby about rendering) but is there a reason someone would use GI-Joe as opposed to MR?
That'll do donkey... that'll do...
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4
18-02-2004
, 02:15 PM
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5
18-02-2004
, 07:51 PM
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I fiddled with FG and GI in Mental Ray but I was not able to figure out how it works. Maybe you could give a quick example of how to set up FG and GI in MR for us newbs?Originally posted by Huxley
...but is there a reason someone would use GI-Joe as opposed to MR? [/B]
[Q2] How do I make the background for my renders NOT black?
Last edited by ctbram; 18-02-2004 at 08:51 PM.
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6
18-02-2004
, 10:09 PM
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I went to both of those links and neither one went to anything that looked like sky plugin or gi-joe mel?
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7
18-02-2004
, 10:14 PM
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18-02-2004
, 11:14 PM
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This msg was posted under my former username: HUXLEY
The link to the tut is:
www.araness.com/mr_fg_quickdemo.zip
The 6.27MB ZIP file contains:
(1) The TSCC codec that you will need to install before you can watch the video.
(2) The TSCC encoded AVI file.
Sorry it's so large but I didn't add sound so I tended to linger a little on each click of the mouse so you could see what is going on.
_____________________________
A quick note: I hope that the mods and everyone at SM dont mind me posting my homemade video tutorial. I purposefully branded it with "Originally posted at SimplyMaya.Com" so that anyone who sees it will know that where it came from but that it is not an official SM product. If there is a Mental Ray/FG vid in the works or you'd just rather that I didn't post this, please let me know ASAP and I will take down the link
That'll do donkey... that'll do...
Last edited by rich; 23-02-2004 at 01:15 AM.
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9
19-02-2004
, 12:50 AM
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That'll do donkey... that'll do...
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10
19-02-2004
, 12:58 AM
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Mike,
Can you tell me the EXACT name they use in highend3d for those files?
I think the problem is I am looking in the rendering and lighting sections and there is NOTHING named GI-JOE or "sky plugin" but there are numberous "Global Illumination scripts" and "sky environment shaders".
I don't know which ones to grab and don't want to install a dozen random shaders and mel scripts.
Last edited by ctbram; 19-02-2004 at 01:00 AM.
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11
19-02-2004
, 04:10 AM
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The Sky plugin has gone through a few changes since that video. It's called: envMapLight (Sky) for Maya5.0 v1.0
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12
19-02-2004
, 06:11 PM
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PS- I jave a general lighting question about area lights.
In my attempt the duplicate the FG vid I replaced the polycube with luminesence with an area light and discovered something strange.
I created a nurb plane and applied a dark blue lambert shader to it. Above the nurb plane I created a sphere and applied a bright red blinn shader to it. Then above the sphere I created a single area light with default settings. I pressed the 7 key and the seen appeared to be lighted but...
when I did a default settings render the result was totally black?!? Then I fiddled with various settings and use maya software, maya hardware and mental ray and no matter what I did the scene with just an area light was always just totally nlack as though there was no light at all? If tried al the other type lights one at a time and they all rendered fine but any scene I tried an area light in by it self was total blackness.
Do I have a bug with Maya and area lights on my machine or is there some magic incantasion I need to learn to make area lights have an effect on a scene?
I am a newb with maya so sorry if my questions seen dumb.
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13
21-02-2004
, 03:02 AM
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// Error: The source attribute 'placeSkyMap.mirror' cannot be found. //
Does anyone know what may be causing this and how I can correct it? Thanks
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14
23-02-2004
, 01:14 AM
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I doubt there's a bug... check that your area light is pointing in the right direction - the direction of light is indicated by the perpendicular line coming from the light object in your scene.Originally posted by ctbram
when I did a default settings render the result was totally black?!? Then I fiddled with various settings and use maya software, maya hardware and mental ray and no matter what I did the scene with just an area light was always just totally nlack as though there was no light at all? If tried al the other type lights one at a time and they all rendered fine but any scene I tried an area light in by it self was total blackness.
Do I have a bug with Maya and area lights on my machine or is there some magic incantasion I need to learn to make area lights have an effect on a scene?
I am a newb with maya so sorry if my questions seen dumb.
I just quickly created a scene file for you to download and compare....