rchr
07-14-2010, 05:47 AM
Hey All, I'm trying to figure out this mental ray puzzle on the relationship of reflections and objects in Maya 2011 hotfix 2 Windows 7.
As you all know, Area lights in Maya has a very harsh rectangular shape when it is visible and this also creates a fairly boring looking reflection on to an object, so my aim is to create a different shaped object or texture to reflect on to the object and I want any reflectors in the scene to be Invisible to the eye, but still visible in reflections.
Note: FG is used and Mia_exposure_photographic is used for linear workflow.
So I created a poly "reflector" object with cast/receive shadow and cast/receive FG turned off. Also, Primary Visibility is turned off
Then created Maya Area Light -> Converted to MR Area Light -> mia_portal_light plugged into light_shader and photon emitter slot. Added mib_blackbody in the custom environment. Visible is unticked.
Put reflector object slightly behind the Area Light. Notice that even though the primary visibility is turned off, it is still visible if it's behind the Area Light. According to Maya manual, there is a section on troubleshooting Mental Ray on how "Object still renders when primary visibility is turned off" its solution is to disable the Visible in Transparency flag. With this method, now the reflector object is invisible when rendered. However the reflection has also disappeared. If I untick "visible" under the Area Light shape, Mental Ray will spit out an error "Shader 'mia_portal_light' must be applied to a VISIBLE rectangular area light to work correctly!"
1. Is there a way to get around this? Is there a better method to do what I'm after?
2. MasterZap once mentioned that in Maya it's better to use Spotlight converted to MR Area Light. Does this still apply for the new Mental Ray in Maya 2011? Or just stick with Maya Area Light converted to MR Area Light.
It's best that you look at the scene file to analyze. Scene file attached is a Maya 2011 version but you can open it on any version. Go File-> Open scene "option box"-> tick Ignore Version.
As you all know, Area lights in Maya has a very harsh rectangular shape when it is visible and this also creates a fairly boring looking reflection on to an object, so my aim is to create a different shaped object or texture to reflect on to the object and I want any reflectors in the scene to be Invisible to the eye, but still visible in reflections.
Note: FG is used and Mia_exposure_photographic is used for linear workflow.
So I created a poly "reflector" object with cast/receive shadow and cast/receive FG turned off. Also, Primary Visibility is turned off
Then created Maya Area Light -> Converted to MR Area Light -> mia_portal_light plugged into light_shader and photon emitter slot. Added mib_blackbody in the custom environment. Visible is unticked.
Put reflector object slightly behind the Area Light. Notice that even though the primary visibility is turned off, it is still visible if it's behind the Area Light. According to Maya manual, there is a section on troubleshooting Mental Ray on how "Object still renders when primary visibility is turned off" its solution is to disable the Visible in Transparency flag. With this method, now the reflector object is invisible when rendered. However the reflection has also disappeared. If I untick "visible" under the Area Light shape, Mental Ray will spit out an error "Shader 'mia_portal_light' must be applied to a VISIBLE rectangular area light to work correctly!"
1. Is there a way to get around this? Is there a better method to do what I'm after?
2. MasterZap once mentioned that in Maya it's better to use Spotlight converted to MR Area Light. Does this still apply for the new Mental Ray in Maya 2011? Or just stick with Maya Area Light converted to MR Area Light.
It's best that you look at the scene file to analyze. Scene file attached is a Maya 2011 version but you can open it on any version. Go File-> Open scene "option box"-> tick Ignore Version.