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View Full Version : Can I apply multiple mental ray shaders to a single object?

neoxeno
02-17-2006, 02:08 AM
I'm still kind of new to texturing so I would appreciate some help in solving this little mystery.

I ran into an unexpected problem while using the misss_fast_skin shader in maya 7. You see, if I were to apply the shader to a single object, the render of it comes out just fine. However if I were to select a group of faces or even a single face on the object and apply any other shader, the object, and it's modified faces appear to lack any specularity and/or look discolored in the renders.

Is this a bug? If not, is there any way to get the results that I want? Also, why does this only happen when applying mental ray based shaders but not when I do the same thing with a plain blinn, phong, or lambert.

Thanks.
anim8or_7
02-18-2006, 12:23 AM
Hi, Neoxeno.


Just check if your object's normals are all correct. I suspect though, that your problem lies with light linking - that might explain why it only affects the Mental Ray shaders. In the Attribute Editor of the selected shader, go down to the Light-linking section and set Mode (If available) to 2. If my memory serves me correctly, this will cause the shader to be illumated by all the lights except the ones connected to the shader.

Can you provide a little more information about your scene. Are you rendering with Final Gather/Global Illumination? If possible, attach a small image illustrating your problem. Anybody else have any suggestions?
neoxeno
02-18-2006, 12:58 AM
I changed he light-linking value like you said and that did the trick! Thank you so much! I did try that option before but I had only set it to 1 which didn't do anything. Now I can finally begin texturing my character.

Thanks again.
anim8or_7
02-18-2006, 09:45 AM
I think that when you set the Light-linking mode to 1, it only takes all the lights into account that is linked to your shader and exludes all the other lights. With mental Ray shaders one does not link lights in the normal way, i.e. Select Object -> Select Lights -> Make light links. One has to link the lights to the desired Shader. That is what that Light-linking roll-out is for.

Glad that sorted out your problem ;) Good luck with the texturing!
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