chess set from SFMOMA (need tips)

[chisheng]

No one wants to help a n00b out? i guess not... but i was trying to figure out stuff by myself and discovered render global options.. yah!

I figured out how to use AA and get bigger resolutions. Then i discovered raytracing shadow options in the light.. yah! Some reason the ambient light doesnt have depth shadow maps.
Still the shadows look janky and there alot of improvements i can make. Help still needed and appreciated.. thanks.

pink lemonade
http://www.geocities.com/byzantinehome/newpics/chessshadows.jpg

[FabioMSilva]

wouldnt be better if u posted this in the maya specific forum, since youre looking for maya specific doubts:) ? cuz i'm a max user, cant help u on this mate:sad:

[chisheng]

o thanks.. someone actually posted.. good idea i think i should probably post in maya forums.

[digdenton]

1. The furrows in the chess board need to be a different color.. how do I put those faces in a different group then change the color to say, gray?

If you select the faces, then in the multilister select the shader you want to assign and click edit -> assign



2. I made some materials... some phongs I dont want.. but I dont know how I can get rid of them

In the multilister or hypershader, if you select the shaders you want to get rid of and click edit-> delete selected

3. About the background.. how do I add a picture as a background or have a white background (instead of the default black)? So far I just made a box to make the background white.

first create a surface, 2. create a shader and a file texture, 3. open up the attribute editor for the file texture and under image name type the location of the picture on your computer or search for it with the button to the right of the text box, 4. assign the texture to the material and the material to the surface.

4. How do I render in a higher resolution than the test resolution 640 x 480?
I see you figured this one out

5. My renders don't have any shadows, is that something I have to tweak in the materials?

Play with the depth map shadows and raytracing in render globals to get better shadows

6. I need more tips on making this close to photorealistic. (I think I should add a picture for the chess set to reflect.)

dont just add a picture, somewhat of a cop-out. Take some time and model out a good environment for your chess set.

And an ambient light only has raytrace shadows. If you really want depth map shadows you have to use a different type of light. But everything you are doing here should be able to be done with ray traced shadows.

7. Thanks alot for any help! C&C appreciated.
Hopefully this helped some.

[chisheng]

Wow thanks! the mutlilister looks promising... I'm going to try it some time soon.. but tonight is AP us history review- before the big test tomorrow.
How can I make the shadows fall off.. or at least the fall off (not sure if thats what its called) a bit more cleaner? So far the contour of the shadows are really bumpy and I would like to make it a smooth fade. Ill try and play around with it.
Thanks again :bounce:

[digdenton]

What are you using to render, the way shadows are shown it looks like mental ray. If so, I would recomend learning on the maya software renderer. There are a lot less options, so it is easier to get an idea of what does what, and all the ideas can then be transfered to mental ray. To get the shadows to look a little cleaner, play with the raytracing in render globals and in the attribute editor of the light. Just experiment and have fun with it. Good luck.

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