how to render illustration-like images in maya

[AAbel]

Theres a cartoon shader plug in on highend3d.com that uses paint effects to render the out lines and edges. Might want to check it out. I forget what it is called bobcat toon shader or something but it is cool. Also If I remember right I had some problems getting the PFX to anti-alias properly, it's worth a try though.

[lowkey]

there's a description of how to create a 'toon material with outline' based on a ramp shader in the manuals.

just look for 'ramp shader' ! :)

as far as i remember it's got to do with setting the incandescence values to create a '+1/-1' boundary on the related ramp.

[ManuelM]

thanks aabel

its tomcats cartoon shader, which i already tested. its good for achieving a painterly/freehand style. i also noticed the aa-problems.

[Chappo]

There's a new built-in ramp shader with maya 4.5 where you can create toon shaders and alot of other stuff

[ManuelM]

the ramp shader works fine for some purposes, but you can`t achieve constant outline thickness with this method (try zooming in and out with your camera and testrender the view. the border thickness depends on the objects distance to the camera.)

[matty429]

What about Inkworks (http://www.animo.com/products/inkworks.htm)

I'd be curious about toon shading in maya+mental ray also...

[dmcgrath]

Manuel there is a work around for the camara distance problem. You can hook the ramp shader up to a utility. I think it's called the measurement utility (or something like that). That will work, but it might take some extra time. If you do it though, you'll never have to worry about that problem again.

[Chappo]

Cool :D

i took a look at the Tomcat cartoon shader, and there is a new version "Tomcat Cartoon Shader for Maya 4.5 v1.1" .
It makes everything SO easy now ;)

[DimitrisLiatsos]

:bounce:
took a look at the Tomcat cartoon shader, and there is a new version "Tomcat Cartoon Shader for Maya 4.5 v1.1"

Hey ..got a link to that?where can i see/dowload it?:bounce:

[Chappo]

http://www.highend3d.com/maya/plugins/?section=paintfx#2069

[DimitrisLiatsos]

:bounce: Wheeeeeeeeee....DANKO!!!:thumbsup:

[Wigaru Wiyamoto]

:surprised

Wow! That Tomcat plugin deserves a cookie for not only working well, but for clever use of existing elements in Maya. Shame on A|W for not implementing something like this before! Now I have something to play with during winter break! :)

[Wigaru Wiyamoto]

Hah, I just used a lightning brush on an object I was testing. Quite weird!

[spyral00]

well thx :)


note that the antialiasing problem can be nearly solved just by setting transparency to +- 80% on your brush

I should add this in the plug's help

I just hope it's working for you all, there seem to be some bugs left...

[Wigaru Wiyamoto]

Doesn't seem to work with batch rendering. :cry:

I hope that can get worked out. It'll be interesting to see how it looks with animated brushes.

[FloydBishop]

I just had the same problem. The ReadMe that comes with Tomcat mentions the Batch Rendering thing under "Known Issues". It says the following:

"You may have problems with batch rendering (did not test it)... if that's the case, use my renderUI script instead"

I have no idea where to find this "renderUI" script. I sent an email to the address at the end of the read me. Let's hope this can be fixed. It would make this a very cool tool indeed!!

[Wigaru Wiyamoto]

Well, here's my result from playing with it. Couldn't quite eliminate the jaggies 100%.

Uncheck "screenspace width" in the brush settings if you want the brush's size to scale with the object.

[spyral00]

"jaggies" comes from paint effects z-buffer clippin, but im trying to make a better clipping algorithm

[Wigaru Wiyamoto]

Well, I rendered the above image at 1280x960, then resized it in photoshop to 640x480. Made the image look much better, and it didn't take much longer either. Add nurbs/subd support and fix batch rendering and I'll be happy. :buttrock:

[Wigaru Wiyamoto]

I was looking at your samples and saw that you connected a lambert shader to a ramp to get the shading on some of the spheres. I thought that was a curious method. The problem with that is that it "loops" if you set the lights to greater than 1. I'm just using a ramp shader, it doesn't seem to have that problem.

[Wigaru Wiyamoto]

Heh, sorry for flooding this thread, but I'm having fun. :applause:

This was a character I originally tried shading with the ramp shader and Maya's incandescence "trick." As everyone knows, you can get it to look decent, but the second you move the camera everything falls apart.

So now he's been Tomcat-ified. I rendered it at 1280x960, resized to 640x480 and cropped in Photoshop.

[matty429]

soo I take it no-one's looking at INKWORKS (http://www.animo.com/showcase/showcase_2.htm)

[beaker]

expressive effects plugin for maya is pretty cool:
http://www.algorithmic.com/efx.html

[Chappo]

Too bad that Inkworks is NOT free :annoyed:


The expressive effects plugin for maya is indeed very cool, anyone knowing when the 4.5 version will be out ??

[matty429]

But illustrate isn't free either

[Chappo]

We have a dillemma :D

[matty429]

well...you can always wait untill maya 5 comes out ...maybe they will have a good toon render built in...not a ramp shader ...but a good TOON shader...it seem like a good move on maya's part...but if you're serious...Inkworks...In my opinion will yeild the best results...

[beaker]

>>well...you can always wait untill maya 5 comes out ...maybe they will have a good toon render built in...not a ramp shader ...but a good TOON shader...it seem like a good move on maya's part

I wouldn't doubt it, but it would be for MR, not maya's renderer. MR has a bunch of really cool toon shaders built into it, we just don't have access to them right now. Just look at the VW toon commercial(I think the Xatrix one too), that was done in XSI with the MR toon shaders.

[Maya4fun]

Hi, for rendering with maya 5 and no plugs but with mental ray used "shading options for mental" But i don't know how adding a texture (paint in photoshop) + my shader (toonMental). Iff anybody have responses to me, thanks by advance.
My exemple scene test :
http://mapage.noos.fr/s.emmanuel/images/Presentation/ToonDragon.jpg

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