help using an awsome shader Floze used in the fruit bowl challenge#1

[floze]

Ugh.. Hi there Frederic, just bumped over your thread and was favorably surprised someone found that stuff inspirational. Thanks for letting me know! :)

If you dont have any lights in your scene, either create some or switch the Mode attribute in the shader to two for default light preview reason.

Also, is it properly registered in the maya.rayrc file? Any errors occuring in the output window?

Yinlong Sun (http://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/sun/) (the creator/inventor of the BRDF) is currently preparing an update of the function/paper, presumably I'll be updating my mental ray implementation either, maybe in a few days. Keep your eyes peeled! ;)

[Phredrek]

Hi Floze!
wow thanks for getting back to me! I really apreciate your input and your work. your efforts have really well paid off and you must be very happy with the work you are producing!

Basically, my knowledge of texturing and lighting and rendering doesn't extend too much beyond default settings and basic mapping. I don't really know much about using external sources, scripts and textures that you have to bring in. I just animate and make stuff move nice :P

What I did so far: I followed the instructions on your thread regarding your mel shader. I did edit that maya.rayrc file and I get no errors. the shader does load properly into maya. but I think I'm having difficulty using it. I applied it to just a sphere but it just goes green. when I render it all I see is black.

I put two spot lights pointing at it from two different directions and I also changed the mode attribute to 2 as you suggested. but still nothing. I definately think I'm missing something but all the documentation I can find on mental ray shaders always assume I know how to do the basic stuff, but I don't. haha

did you use this shader just on the grapes in your scene? or everything?

thank you so much again for getting back to me. I really apreciate your help! :)


Frederic

[floze]

Hmm, the red color on the shader node in your hypergraph indicates that mental ray is not your current renderer. You might have to load the plugin and set it to active in the renderglobals (on the very top, 'Render Using: mental ray').

There's a nice thread about the mental ray basics, also dont hesitate to shoot another question there:

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=226685

And yes, the highlights are all derived by this shader. There's basically no actual raytraced reflection going on, quite fancy isnt it? ;)

[Phredrek]

hahaha, wow I can't believe I didn't set my render settings to metal ray :P :P

well I still didn't get the result as in:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=310460

still looks just more like another shader, is it just because I need to throw in a rim light, key light, etc?


Thanks for that link! I'm going to check it out, I really apreciate your time!

Frederic

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.