Mental ray nodes - materials turn object green

# 1 13-12-2006 , 10:32 PM

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Mental ray nodes - materials turn object green

I am attempting to apply dgs_material to a sphere. When I do it turns the sphere green (in persp view). And when I render using mental ray there is nothing at all (just black). This happens with every material I've tried. What am I missing? I'm using Maya 7.01.
Thanks for your attention!

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# 2 13-12-2006 , 11:04 PM

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well your object turns gree because mental ray doesn't have a hook into maya's hardware display function. That is normal and it's OK. If you really want to see a color, you can do the folllowing.

In the Hypershader, graph your MR shader node. You should see a shaser group node (SG node). If you look at the attributes of the SG node, you'll see that your MR node is going into the "Material Shader" attribute. No create a blinn shader and map it into the "Surface Material" attribute of your SG node. Now you model will not be green anymore. This will have no effect whatsoever on your renders, it's just for Maya display.

As for why your renders are turning out black, I have no idea. You'll need to tell us more about what it is you're doing. Maybe you have no lights, or maybe you're renderer is set to Maya software and it can't render the MR shader. Maybe you've got primary visibiltiy turned off.

I hope this helps.
-dann

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# 3 14-12-2006 , 01:13 AM

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Hi Dann and everyone else,

Thanks for the reply. I've done what you said and the sphere is no longer green. But it seems it is just taking on the color of the blinn.
I am new to Maya and could be skipping a step or something. Here is a break down of exactly what I am doing.

1. Open Maya
2. Windows>settings/preferences>plugin manager>(check)mayatomr.mll
3. Close plugin manager
4. Create>nurbs primitive>sphere
5. 6 (to shade sphere)
6. Bring up hypershade window
7. Right click on create maya node>select create mental ray nodes
8. Render>render using>mental ray
9. MM drag dgs_material into the work area
10. MM drag dgs_material from work area and drop on sphere (which turns green)
11. Scroll tabs of the window above the work area to shading groups
12. Right click on dgs_material1sg>gragh network
13. Back to create maya nodes and MM drag blinn into the work area
14. Select dgs_material in the work area to bring up it attributes
15. MM drag blinn1 to surface material (sphere now turns grey)

Now if I select the dgs_material in the work area and change the color (diffuse), in its attributes, it stays grey. And if I do the same for the blinn, the color on the sphere changes with the blinn. And also when I click the render icon I am now getting the sphere in a jagged grey and black (see pic). I'm not sure why I'm getting that now, I have not changed any render settings.
Thanks again for the help!

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# 4 14-12-2006 , 02:31 AM

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[QUOTE]Originally posted by John8888
it seems it is just taking on the color of the blinn.
QUOTE]

Yes, that's correct. That's all i said it would do. You cannot get the color of your MR nodes to display in Maya without some MEL scripting. I told you the blinn was just for display purposes and would have ne effect on your renders.

As for your render, it looks to me like you might have 2 spheres overlapping eachother. Other than that I'm not sure what else to say. I would recommend you buy some MR tutorial DVDs if you're having this much trouble. It'll be worth it.

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# 5 14-12-2006 , 02:35 AM

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This aint gonna be much help but maya 8 supports mental ray shaders in the viewports, as far as know, just for your information.

"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

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# 6 14-12-2006 , 03:31 AM

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Its working!!! Dann you were right about both. I did have two spheres opened up, and the problem was the lighting. I don't know how you people get so smart. Heres my first applied material pic. Its not very pretty, but its working!
Thanks again for the help. Working though this has givin me a much better understanding of the layout of the hypershader panel.
Maya 8 sounds nice!

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# 7 14-12-2006 , 03:35 AM

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Originally posted by John8888
I don't know how you people get so smart.

Originally Posted by

By asking questions and doing tutorials on Video and Books. Glad its fixed, and keep with the community. They are a great bunch here.

Chris (formerly R@nSiD)
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3rd Place SM SteamPunk Challenge (May 2007)

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# 8 14-12-2006 , 04:17 AM

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Glad it's working for you. To answer your question, I'm not that smart. Just ask the guy sitting next to me. However, I've gotten pretty good at this job by constantly seeking out people that know more than I do and yes... asking lots of questions. Seeking out online tutorials, both free and those I have to buy. When I bought a DVD of tutorials for Real Flow, I couldn't decide if it was worth the $80 or so. Since then I've made tons of money doing Real Flow sims. Sometimes it's worth it to buy DVDs and books.

Good luck to you.

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# 9 14-12-2006 , 04:40 AM

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Thanks for the welcome to the community. I want to leave off with a better pic. This is the same sphere after a little tweaking. It doesn't look like much compared to the other stuff here but is a huge step for me.
I will break down and get some video tutorial soon. I have pretty much tapped out all the free online videos.

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Mental ray nodes - materials turn object green

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