countessZanne
08-15-2003, 09:29 AM
Hi, everyone.
I'm have a scene that looks good but has way too many lights so I wanted to use vertex paint to cut the # of lights down. Can someone here can clarify the "vertexpaint modifier" and "assign vertex color" utility (if needed) for me.
Just to test things out, I just placed a geosphere above a plane. I placed a dirt texture onto the plane and used vertexpaint to simulate a shadow coming from the geosphere. I have "vertex color" checked and shaded in the plane's display properties so I can see the shadow. Everything looks fine in the viewport, but I don't get the shadow when I render. Same goes for "assign vertex color" utility - changes in viewport and not in render.
Now I know that if I use vertex color in the diffuse map channel I can see the vertex color, but how do I see BOTH the dirt floor AND the vertex color/shadow I made? Using a blend material kinda worked, but is that a good way of going about things? <-- Specifically: dirt mat 1, vertex color mat 2, gray material for mask.
Is this where the note in Max's tutorials come into play: "Vertex color is used by video game real-time renderers to tint the 3D model. In general, if you’re going to render inside 3ds max, it's not a good idea to use vertex color as a substitute for a material." Am I not seeing anything becuase I'm not using a game renderer? And if true, (arrrgh! after all that) vertex painting will not be a shortcut for me to decrease the amount of lights in my scene...?
Thanks for your help,
Suzanne
I'm have a scene that looks good but has way too many lights so I wanted to use vertex paint to cut the # of lights down. Can someone here can clarify the "vertexpaint modifier" and "assign vertex color" utility (if needed) for me.
Just to test things out, I just placed a geosphere above a plane. I placed a dirt texture onto the plane and used vertexpaint to simulate a shadow coming from the geosphere. I have "vertex color" checked and shaded in the plane's display properties so I can see the shadow. Everything looks fine in the viewport, but I don't get the shadow when I render. Same goes for "assign vertex color" utility - changes in viewport and not in render.
Now I know that if I use vertex color in the diffuse map channel I can see the vertex color, but how do I see BOTH the dirt floor AND the vertex color/shadow I made? Using a blend material kinda worked, but is that a good way of going about things? <-- Specifically: dirt mat 1, vertex color mat 2, gray material for mask.
Is this where the note in Max's tutorials come into play: "Vertex color is used by video game real-time renderers to tint the 3D model. In general, if you’re going to render inside 3ds max, it's not a good idea to use vertex color as a substitute for a material." Am I not seeing anything becuase I'm not using a game renderer? And if true, (arrrgh! after all that) vertex painting will not be a shortcut for me to decrease the amount of lights in my scene...?
Thanks for your help,
Suzanne