Checking Rendering Time in MR

[lazzhar]

There is section in the Render Global where you find OutPut Messages, so just switch to Progress Messages and you'd see rendering times.

[thrasherstudios]

yep...gave it a shot and works fine

thanks for the reply


lasshar..I have read some of your posts and it seems you know a good deal about lighting and rendering. I was wondering if you could help me with the ray diffuse tutorial at lightengine3d.com

I have set up the scene like in the tutorial but I seem to loose the nice diffused shadows like in final picture at lightendgine3d. I tried using raytraced shadows and loose all shadows completely and when I used shadow mapps the shadows look pretty bad, any ideas how to set up the scene to look like the final picture.

I would send a scene file..not sure how to include one from my harddrive in my post

Thanks in advance

Benjamin

[lazzhar]

Hi Benjamin, thanks for trusting in me.
I've never tryed that turorial before, but i'll try it tomorrow and tell you what i'd get.
For the scene,i'll use one of mine dont care.
I suppose you're looking to have a look of a cloudy day? if so I prefer using DirtMap for that , it's using raytracing but it's fast and gives very nice look.
Good luck.

[thrasherstudios]

lazzhar- you don't know how much I would appreciate the help..

...sadly I have been trying to learn how to render a GI scene with nice diffused shadows good lighting...like a studio shoot... for so long it is becoming pathetic. I do tutorials and try and try within maya, but never achieve what I am after. Hopefully when http://www.motiondesign.biz/ finally finishes his Mental Ray DVD i will finally have a glimpse and understanding of rendering GI, just hope the guy is still alive :surprised

The problem is now I really need to accomplish this look for a flash web site I am working on. The products section of the site is going to have each product have the ability to rotate in 3d and I want that professional GI look to each product rendering, either real GI or faked doesn't matter, just need to figure it out

Well let me know if you get that scene looking the right way...again I really appreciate any help you can provide

Later

Ben

[lazzhar]

if you like i'll post my scene of the room here so you could learn what i did.
But the problem is that i render many passes and never just use a single version. then compose in photoshop or combustion.
I'll try to post what i find tomorrow.

[thrasherstudios]

lazzhar- right on looking forward to it...btw do you have any scenes with that studio setup GI look....I have actually had a class in photography were we set up studio lights and reflectors..got some really good results, but in the 3d world can't seem to get it right


Thanks again for your help

[lazzhar]

thrasherstudios, I've tryed the raydiffuse tut and it works fine, the only problem is it's very slow comparing with using DirtMap in Mental Ray. If you want the file i'll post it.
For the studio lighting setup, it's the same AFAIK in graphics, but you have to add extra bounce lights to get the dark areas lit. And of course using the 3 points lights for each character is the right choise.
I'll post later the scene file made by Tierackk in its thread so just check it this night:
http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=110364
And again thanks for you trust, i'm still learning like you ;)
-lazhar

[thrasherstudios]

lazzhar- yeh I have definetely seen better GI renders than the ray diffuse technique, but got to start somewhere. If you could post that scene file that would be great...

um..also be looking forward to checking out the scene file for Tierackk thread..

...btw what in the hell is a Dirtmap...I guess I will have to do some searches on the forum...sounds like a powerful technique what ever it is.

[lazzhar]

Hi thrasherstudios
I tryed rayDiffuse but it seems that the demo version i'm using is limided at 16 samples. So you could not get clean results with that. But i've tryed and here is simple test:
http://lazzhar.arabcg.com/oldimages/raydfs.jpg

But I thought it would be a good idea to copare with DirtMap:
http://lazzhar.arabcg.com/oldimages/dirtmap.jpg

Similar results( IMO the dirtmaped is better) But big difference in rendering times. And the advantage is that DirtMap works on Mental Ray not on Maya Renderer.
There is a big thread about how to install and use DirtMap right here. Just search and you'll not be dispointed.
Forgot to put the scene file even though it's not interesting.
http://lazzhar.arabcg.com/oldimages/tutorial02.rar
Hope this helps.

-lazhar

[thrasherstudios]

lazzhar- thanks for the scene file. I am not sure what I am doing wrong when using Ray Diffuse but my render looks nothing like the one in your post.

When I render out your scene it looks like a regular maya render even though I saw that you had the ray diffuse connected to the color channel of Lambert2. Not sure if shadows need to be turned on for your 3 directional lights, but when I did turn on shadows for these lights it looked terrible and when I rendered without shadows it didn't have any shadows at all. Guess I don't understand how to use the ray diffuse utility or maybe I installed it incorrectly...any ideas

BTW excellent model of the horse, and good 3-point light setup too thanks again

Benjamin

[lazzhar]

Thanks,
Maybe you didnt install the plugin well. I'm using the last demo version on Maya 5.0 (not 5.01) and render with maya renderer not with Mental Ray.
Check is Raytracing is enabled in your scene, and models attributes "visible in reflectiob" is checked too.

[tripNfall]

lazzhar,

For your render speed tests you can use the Ray Diffuse Shader Pack, it renders in mental ray and it's pretty fast.

I like these posts that show render times of different shaders :)

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