First time renderer here and following the wiki tutorial for easy practice.I have a question though as there is something I dont quite get.

In the add car skin section I do as it says, adding the skin and setting properties in maps etc. but in the end it says:

"Finally, move this new material into the the material’s ID n°14 (it’ll replace the old one) "

Where in the world do I do this?

tutorial is found here http://www.lfswiki.net/index.p ... Manual:3D_Render_Tutorial

EDIT:
ok finally figured it out. Had to add the skin and stuff in the same preview window and now it works

I believe, based on the idea behind 'wiki', that you can actually edit that tutorial text live to make things more clear to others. If you can explain in more detail how to get through that procedure it would help others for sure. Look around for an 'Edit' button on the lfswiki page.

RIM’s mapping correction

• With this tool, select only the rim’s vertices. Note that only visible vertices will be selected. So, you must swivel the view in order to see the back of the rim. Redo the rim’s selection holding down the CTRL key in order to add the selection to the previous one.
  

You can now assign the material’s ID n°4 to the 1st part of the rim (instead of n°9).



I can't go passed beyond this point, it's confusing!! :arge::banghead:

OK lets see if i can remember this and describe it. I may have used a different method, but it only changes where the tutorial starts to get confusing. Select the model that contains the tire rubber, then right click and 'Hide Unselected'. All you should see is the tire and a floating hub (center). If you see anything else, just select it, right click and 'Hide selection'. Now select the verticies selection tool and drag-select the entire hub portion (the part floating in the center) - selected points turn red. Now you'll see theres a lip that looks like its part of the tire, but really we want it to be metal since it is the lip of the actual rim. Use Ctrl-click to select each of the points on the inside of that rim part - they will also turn red. I suggest you use the Perspective view to change your position and get at each one easily. Now you have selected parts, and we no longer want them to be associated with the tire rubber since they are metal. Over on the right panel you'll see the word 'Detach'. You may have to scroll the panel down to see it. Click the button 'Detach', it will ask for a name - I call it 'rim and hub'. Now click the verticies select tool to turn it off and right click anywhere and 'Unhide all'. Select the actual spokes of that same wheel, and over on that same panel to the right find 'Attach list'. Click that then select your object, in my case 'rim and hub'. What you have done is disconnected the rim and hub from the tire object and attached it to your rim spokes. Now you can apply a black rubber material to the tire and a chrome material to your rim, complete with hub, spokes, and lip! Now do that three more times for the rest of the wheels

hey thx, that's a lot more clearer, now, is it supossed to look like this?
I hope so
Edit:
BTW i'll add your text to that tutorial for noobs like myself to understand better if that's ok

Well why me? i hate to be a PITA but now i got another problem
I'm following the tutorial step by step but now in "material correction" it seems that the material editor window is not the same as mine. What am i doing wrong?
Thanks again in advance.

OMG thinking that i could render wasn't such a good idea. :noob::arge:
I tried to keep going and not i'm stuck where he was stuck and i don't understand what he says he did to get it right

Quote from Sp3cTr3 :

First time renderer here and following the wiki tutorial for easy practice.I have a question though as there is something I dont quite get.

In the add car skin section I do as it says, adding the skin and setting properties in maps etc. but in the end it says:

"Finally, move this new material into the the material’s ID n°14 (it’ll replace the old one) "

Where in the world do I do this?

EDIT:
ok finally figured it out. Had to add the skin and stuff in the same preview window and now it works

I was able to do this but when i try to add the skin i can see like the original skin file bleeding on the car windows and everywhere else i see lines and other stuff

PSR_Diablo:

the guide says:
Car’s body is the object 019. To know its material’s ID, select one of its vertices (see chapter n°2) Thus, you’d be able to learn that the ID is n°14.

This means you have to press number 14 in the material editor before you do the stuff it says in the guide.

ignore this it says at the end:
Finally, move this new material into the the material’s ID n°14 (it’ll replace the old one)

It just doesnt make sense and works find if ignored

Been messing around with this for 2 days and this is what I can do so far
LX6 render

Quote from PSR_Diablo :

OMG thinking that i could render wasn't such a good idea. :noob::arge:
I tried to keep going and not i'm stuck where he was stuck and i don't understand what he says he did to get it right



I was able to do this but when i try to add the skin i can see like the original skin file bleeding on the car windows and everywhere else i see lines and other stuff

It's no problem man. The deal is that the models are great but you do need to do a lot of work to get to where it looks right. Remember you're importing from a non-standard format (CMX) so some things are going to be wacky. I worked with 3DSmax for about 4 weeks years ago with version 3 and I'm just now getting back into it. It has taken me probably 10 hours of playing to understand these methods again - and I still don't have it nearly perfect. I decide what I want to change on the car then look up tutorials on the web for ideas how to get it done.

First off, you'll want to make the windows 'correct'. This will be similar to the wheel/tire fixes. First, select the car body. Now over on the right goto the 'Modify' tab where you selected 'Verticies select' mode before - but this time you want to select 'Faces' which is a couple buttons to the right (looks like a solid red triangle). Now in Perspective view use the pan and rotate tools (bottom right of your screen, looks like hand and twisty circles - or click-drag with your mouse wheel for pan, ALT-click-drag with mouse wheel for rotate!!) to get a good view of the windshield. Hold CTRL and click anywhere on the windshield - you'll notice it selects a triangle. Keep doing this until you've selected ALL the glass part of the windshield, and on the right panel use the 'Detach' button and name it correctly. Now your windshield is disconnected from the car body and can be given its own material! Keep doing this for all the glass on the car until they're all independant objects, then select them all at once and apply a glass material. Making a glass material isnt hard and there are tutorials ALL over the web. My best results were using the Raytrace Glass method, and not the instructions given in the LFSWIKI tutorial. But to each his own.

Quote from PSR_Diablo :

hey thx, that's a lot more clearer, now, is it supossed to look like this?
I hope so
Edit:
BTW i'll add your text to that tutorial for noobs like myself to understand better if that's ok

Yes, you have done a very good job with that wheel!

After a week of work I guess this is the first render that satisfies me. Still some things I want to tweak, though.

if ya need help with renders plz go see the guys at master skinners, they have pre made 3ds scenes and will help out where they can
i tried the tutoiral aswell and was told by the guys at Master skinners that i was trying to do the hard stuff 1st so they pointed me to easy ways to help you get used to renders and work from there.
http://skinnerz.proboards26.com/index.cgi
i learn more everyday

Quote from Psymonhilly :

if ya need help with renders plz go see the guys at master skinners, they have pre made 3ds scenes and will help out where they can
i tried the tutoiral aswell and was told by the guys at Master skinners that i was trying to do the hard stuff 1st so they pointed me to easy ways to help you get used to renders and work from there.
http://skinnerz.proboards26.com/index.cgi
i learn more everyday

I registered there last week and have been browsing the forum. Worst part about that site is the website address - can't someone spring for $10 to reg a domain?? Hell, I'd do a redirect from one of my hosts for free. I can never remember the address and I'm just too lazy to bookmark it

Quote from gatorman :

After a week of work I guess this is the first render that satisfies me. Still some things I want to tweak, though.

great floor material, is that standard or ?

If anyone figures out how to display the headlights please make a new thread as I cant make em appear. always blacked out like in your render

Quote from Sp3cTr3 :

great floor material, is that standard or ?

If anyone figures out how to display the headlights please make a new thread as I cant make em appear. always blacked out like in your render

Actually they aren't blacked out, the lenses are clear and you can see a white colored shape behind the glass (and orange side-markers), it just isnt emitting any light. Thats one of the tweaks I wanted to add to this scene, as well as green neon underlighting and a nicer skin.

The floor material is a Basic Brazil Mtl with a Checker diffuse and a frensel falloff reflection - enabled as a Brazil CSG ground plane. I played with the refraction, RGB output, and reflection values until I was happy.

I went ahead and added http://skinnerz.live4speed.net to my DNS so now I can visit the Master Skinnerz forum quicker

Go down to maps, click on the diffuse one. It'll open a new screen. Where it says standard, click it, select bitmap, and select the texture for that material ID (by default it's the name of the slot, so cromowheel_grip.dds).