Xlash+Maya=Crappy Renders

[faultymoose]

It might be time to consider paying for training material. If you have any intention of making a career for yourself in 3D, then it'd be an extremely valuable investment.

[Viral Studios]

What would the best learning Tool be then. "Gnomon or Digital Tutors"

P.S. Im not rich, i found maya 7 unl. for 110 dollars, and it is my birthday gift to come. {untill Nov Second I will be using PLE} but i got to learn to render soon anyways. :>

[faultymoose]

You got Maya 7 Unlimited for $110....?


At any rate, either Gnomon or Digital Tutors offer some fantastic training material. The good thing is, you don't have to be rich. I'm not rich either - in fact, when I was studying, I was pretty much a bum - but it's not hard to save up $100 for a new training product every month or two, and you'll learn more that way than in most $30,000 degree programs... which I found out the hard way ><


Sadly, the rendering/shading pipeline is a little lacking in advanced training material. If you wanted to learn rigging/skinning I would recommend cgtoolkit's Art of Rigging series (www.cgtoolkit.com (http://www.cgtoolkit.com)), and Fahrenheit Digital's various DVD's (www.fahrenheitdigital.com (http://www.fahrenheitdigital.com)).

For rendering...? Well, maybe someone else can make some recommendations. I've only just moved into the lighting department at work, and most of what I know is self taught over quite a few years.

The best place to start? Browse these forums and read the threads. Most of it will probably go straight over your head at first (much of it still parts my hair) but communities such as www.cgtalk.com (http://www.cgtalk.com) and www.highend3d.com (http://www.highend3d.com) are great places to start out.

Also, don't be afraid to experiment. I'd recommend that anyone who wishes to learn anything to do with 3D should spend at least 50 percent of their time playing around and trying various things. In all likelihood, most of your experiments will fail to hit the mark, but you will learn solutions to other problems you didn't even know existed.

And post your work here and welcome critique. Sometimes a single line of advice can be the spark of revelation that launches you to the next plateau in your art.

Just get into it.


Oh, and regarding the best renderer for Maya? Maya's inbuilt renderer can be extremely capable if you know what you're doing. If you want nice results without much fuss, I believe VRay is coming to Maya soon. If you want power tools that require a quantum physics degree to operate, go with Mental Ray. Hell, just use whatever. In most cases, I stick with Maya's default renderer, but utilise the facilities of other renderers when required for special purposes (Mental Ray's AO for example).

[Viral Studios]

I really apreaciate the advice.

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