Here are 3 renders done in Mental Ray. took 3 mins for each to render.
Sorry Stix, I have not have a BF1 scene set up yet, so can't do a render for you
Last edited by samyip, .
Oh, was there a texture for the grille? I didn't know there was one
Yeah, I use Mental Ray, because it came with 3ds max as standard.
visit my other thread to see my other stuff if u like.
http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?p=138209#post138209
Last edited by samyip, .
I am afraid there is no short cut when learning 3ds max. You will be better off go to the reference files/Tutorials in 'Help' to read through the basic tools of 3ds max.
Nice render Lepletier! The only thing you may want to check out is the head lamp, is the opacity not set correctly?, the headlamp details are lost. other than that, good render overall. Keep it up.
Ian,
Yes, they are not-so-obvious tips, a lot of people don't noticed them and that has cost them time when they made a mistake - a mistake which does not come from the software, but the lack of understanding of the software. (that includes me when I first started 3ds)
when you use 3ds max long enough and familarised with its tools then you will be able to pick up things like that automatically.
The slots in the material editor are just like clipboard to me, they can just come and go, I don't have to keep them there all the time, you will get what I mean when you get used to this idea...
As I mentioned before, use the eyedropper tool to pick from object, you can even pick the sub-object materials, very handy tool! no need to use 24 slots ever again, because you are not going to edit 24 materials at the same time if you know what I mean. You don't have to worry about replacing the slot with another material, because you can retrive them so easily with the eyedropper tool.
Edit: Some scene I created before has over hundreds of materials, it doesn't mean that I 'll have over hundreds of slots to display them all, even if the editor can give 100s slots, the monitor will not be able to fit them all.
Last edited by samyip, .
May be that is my preference of working, I never need to use all the slots in the material editor as it is very easy for me to pick what ever material I want from the scene by using the eyedropper to pick, and then work from that slot, and I will be sure that is the actual material I am editing, The only time I will use more slot is when I am experimenting materials and it will be handy to have them side by side for comparison, even so, 24 slots are enough for me as I don't need to display the whole scene's materials at once.
Once again, that is only my way of working, every body has their own prefer way of working (may be a better way than mine)
Once again, that is only my way of working, every body has their own prefer way of working (may be a better way than mine)
Also when editing materials, becareful that you may editing a cloned material which is not active in the scene, and you would wonder why your changes has not make any effects to the render.
I don't find managing materials in 3ds max is hard at all. you can use the 'get material' button to get what you want, or use the very simple eyedropper to pick the material from scene, very easy to manage once you understand its functions. And remember to use 'instance' for materials that sharing the same maps e.g. make reflection map instance across the material you use in the scene, so when you make adjustment to one, all the rest of reflection map on your scene change too, which could save you a lot of time.
Well, I think some of you may know this tips already (especially if you have used 3ds for long enough)
Well, I think some of you may know this tips already (especially if you have used 3ds for long enough)
I normally hit auto rename for merge materials if the merge object has a different material assigned.
Ian,
The F3 render is a lot better, lighting is good, can see all necessary details of the car. A little bit more contrast in lighting could bring that image a little more interesting, but it is good as it is anyway. Some renders I posted in another thread show what I mean by higher contrast in lighting if you want to view them. http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?p=138209#post138209
On the image 959-A15, I placed a small reflector at the front right of the car to bounce some light to the front bumper where you can see the side grills picked up some highlights, also it lit the front tyre to show details of the thread. Those details would have lost if I didn't do that, and it is a very subtle thing to do but could improve the overall look of the image.
The mid grey background of your image was a good choice, in our trade, grey is a good colour for set/exhibition, we call it neutral grey, because you can cast different lightings to it and it holds quite well (white will be too washout, as it bounces too much light out)
I have used Brazil for render before, images are nice but I have no patient to wait for it to render though:snail: So now I just use Mental Ray, I could get something decent resoultion and quality in under 10 mins. And I could save the Final Gather map to re-use (providing that if the scene hasn't change), it will not need to re-calculate again, which save a lot of time in future rendering. I think Brazil/Vray may have simular function too, I am not sure, have not spend a lot of time with Brazil.
Also one more thing, I don't think we should go rendering too high resolutions for the LFS renders, because the models are not high res enough, the angular points of the polys (especially the tyres on BF1) will show up badly which jeopardise the image.
sam
Last edited by samyip, .
No problem, will do when I get back home from work
Ian,
I think the light on that scene is about right, because the details of the front of the car is holding OK, not too washed out. (can go a touch dimmer if you want)
I believe the light source of this scene is skylight and the light box above the car, am I correct? therefore the lighting of this scene is quite even. I think the problem would be the bright white background and the car skin's white. the car reflects the white background causing the washout at the rear. May be apply an environment map (to give some subtle colour change in certain areas) or change the background slightly off white could help.
Another option is keep all the setting as it is, and use the exposure control in Advance lighting (under the Environment tab) just like controlling your camera stops. (I don't know if this work on Brazil and Vray, but it works on Mental Ray)
sam
I think the light on that scene is about right, because the details of the front of the car is holding OK, not too washed out. (can go a touch dimmer if you want)
I believe the light source of this scene is skylight and the light box above the car, am I correct? therefore the lighting of this scene is quite even. I think the problem would be the bright white background and the car skin's white. the car reflects the white background causing the washout at the rear. May be apply an environment map (to give some subtle colour change in certain areas) or change the background slightly off white could help.
Another option is keep all the setting as it is, and use the exposure control in Advance lighting (under the Environment tab) just like controlling your camera stops. (I don't know if this work on Brazil and Vray, but it works on Mental Ray)
sam
Last edited by samyip, .
Ian,
You can adjust the bitmap's brightness, contrast and colours in the material output. Of course, if you want to adjust certain area only, Photoshop will be better to do so.
sam
I tried these out for you, I don't know if you would like them or not. Didn't do the two cars together though.
If you can't afford Brazil and Vray, you can just get the 3ds max, there is Mental Ray come as standard, and that can render nice images as well as Brazil or Vray if you learn how to use it properly. Remember, they are only rendering tools, the real important factor is how to set your scene's materials and lighting correct. If you don't set them right, no matter what you use, Brazil or Vray, the rendered image still come out bad.
Here is an animation I did a while back. Try to do the Blade effects with partical flow.
Strange....these images and the video were only done over this weekend, you can't have seen them before. I don't know who is sergio.
The 959 is dated now, but it is better looking than some of the newer Porsche though (well, that is personal taste) The model of your Z4 should be near completion now, looking forward to see that all done and animated.
I don't use MSN or AIM at all, I can't get work done if I am on them
(can't multi tasks.)
The 959 is dated now, but it is better looking than some of the newer Porsche though (well, that is personal taste) The model of your Z4 should be near completion now, looking forward to see that all done and animated.
I don't use MSN or AIM at all, I can't get work done if I am on them
(can't multi tasks.)Yeah, that craft camera let you rig your steering wheel to control the animation which is great. I will try the demo when I have time too.
I have found some plug in details that can do car simulations, look quite good.
http://www.newplugins.com/
and
http://www.craftanimations.com
Ian, I haven't look into the LFS model that much, but from what you describe, the branding could be a seperate element to the tyre, easy way to find out is go to sub-object modifier, choose element and click on the branding, if only the branding's ploys highlighted, the branding and tyre are two elements with in the same object which means their vertices are not welded together, which you can detach the branding element from the tyre.
You can change the preference to show 2 sided, which the reversed normal polys (back face) will be drawn as well, but it could be even more confusing to view.
By attaching other objects to become a single object shouldn't have trash the mapping coords, when you attaching objects with different mapping coords, it usually prompt with an option panel for you to choose what you want to do with the mapping coords for the object. I can't remember which one I normally picked, but I didn't have any problems with mapping coords. The other altenative you can do is group the objects, this way you don't have to worry about the mapping coords being messed up.
You may know all this already, that is just my thoughts.
regards
Last edited by samyip, .
Thanks Lepletier. When doing renders, important to look at the overall lighting to the object you wanna show, the object is the hero in the shot and it is very important to get it right. most common mistakes are people under lit their scene, by simply place a reflector or soft diffuse light to area where the main light couldn't reach can help bring the up the detail in dark areas.
XCNuse, thanks for the comments. We are learning all the time, by having this thread to see other 3d artist post in their work will help improving our work. I am looking forward to see more people posting their work here, of course including yours. which you could show me how it should be done.
thanks
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