Mercedes SL class- Texturing phase-need help.

[DeathBrain]

Hi,
You could use Blinn as car basic metal reflections, combined with ramp environment color (as basic color) and envsphere reflection (as reflection).
But the best thing for realistic looking is use realworld background plane as an environment arround your car [with matte shaders], so the realworld environment reflected to your cars body/mirror and the shadows of the car reflected to your background image plane.
There's also a good "fake reflection" tips here
http://www.3dcar-gallery.com/tutorial/less01.htm

As for the headlights/lamps you could use my tutorial here (http://www.geocities.com/zigaretos/Maya_car_light.htm)
And of course, turn on "raytracing" mode on render globals"

I hope it helps :)

[ferazzo777]

Hi vertextstudio

May i know where did u get the SLR blueprint ? Im doing a project for my school .. and i really really desperate to find the blueprint, i've been looking all over the web but found nothing ..

thank you :beer:

[joie]

Ferazzo, have you tried www.suurland.com?
You have a thread here with a bunch of places to get blueprints and such things...

[TheShaddix]

How can i make a simple animation in maya, i want to make that mercedes rotate. Please guide me thru.

[joie]

wow, do you want to animate it?, it´s a dificult task, you have to make some CS work, heavy work really..., learn some maths in order to bring rotation to wheels and expresions, and a bit of luck, you´ll need it.

[TheShaddix]

no, i just wanted to make it rotate for my tutorial, somethign like a showcase you know. How do i set up a simple anim??

[hordePrime]

- Setup a render camera, and lock it in place facing the front of the Mercedes.

- Group ALL the Mercedes' geometry under a single group node.

- Key the group at frame 1.

- Move the time slider to frame 251.

- Rotate your group node 359 degrees on the Y axis, and key the node at frame 251.


There ya go...a simple turntable animation.

[TheShaddix]

thanks man, works perfect. But, when i render, how do i set it so it renders only the frames i want??

[stallion151]

in the render globals set your render range there, under the common tab.

[TheShaddix]

tell me guys, how is it possible to make a decent short clip with all reflections and stuff, when all the renders take so much time to render a single image. And why does the render screen turn white when rendering? Is it a low memory problem>? Please, i just need a little understanding.

[hordePrime]

Hey Vertex, just out of curiosity I took a glance at your website and saw that you have 3d turntable animations of some aircraft models...with raytracing as well. Did you get someone else to do that? I guess it just seems rather odd to see this stuff at your site right after you asked how to do it...

[TheShaddix]

man , first of all, i used to use 3dmax, and there, rendering is so much fun, takes less time even with reflections and stuff. Most of my work is done in 3dmax, except the ferrari and mercedes, and the turntable model. Im asking how to do it in maya, and why would i ask such questions if i knew how? All the work u see on my site is done by me, alone.

[TheShaddix]

How can i place texture on Nurbs surfaces??? Its not like polygons, cannot find anything related to it.

[stallion151]

maya takes longer to calculate because it is more accurate than other renderers, it works out everything properly...or so i heard.
just need some patience i guess, i am rendering a scene that i started yesterday and 10 in the morning and it wont be to till tomorrow night around midnight. 5 min a frame, motion blur, tv size, so i guess unless you've got a render farm you gonna have to wait. :hmm:

yeh you've got me wondering sometimes about you too VertexS, you make this really great stuff and you ask some questions that are more for really first timers....but i am not questioning your knowledge or anything like that, just it seems odd.

With the Nurbs surface texture placing you have to go to your rendering menu set and i think under textures there is Nurbs Texture Placement, use that to set the boundaries of the image.
Nurbs have still got me wondering how effecient it is to texture...maybe someone can enlighten us both on better methods.

[TheShaddix]

How do u use that texture placement tool? I just cant figure it out that quick. It displays red lines and i cant even move them. Please explain.

[stallion151]

i think all you have to do is MMB drag the knots on the red lines.

[ThirdEye]

Am i wrong or you still have to model the headlights?

[TheShaddix]

yes i have to model them, as well as the rear ones, but when i asked how to make good reflections, i didnt have those that i have in this thread right now, so please dont think im stupid posting such questions when i know the answers. The image updates automatically.

[DeathBrain]

Originally posted by vertexstudios
How do u use that texture placement tool? I just cant figure it out that quick. It displays red lines and i cant even move them. Please explain.
Press CTRL and MMB and drag the manipulators handles, follow the UV direction left-right and top-bottom or rotate, the two rows of boxes in the Attribute Editor represent U and V values ;)

[ThirdEye]

Originally posted by vertexstudios
yes i have to model them, as well as the rear ones, but when i asked how to make good reflections, i didnt have those that i have in this thread right now, so please dont think im stupid posting such questions when i know the answers. The image updates automatically.


I asked just because i'm modeling the same car and i have a lot of problems with lights, can't understand their internal structure even with a ton of references :hmm:

[TheShaddix]

thanks deathbrain. Ill give it a shoot again.
Third eye, why dont u post ur car so we can see it? I dont have a big trouble modeling the headlights because i made this car with nurbs, and its not converted or anything. MOdeling the lights is easy, but making it look real, thats a challenge. Post ur car and we might be able to help each other out.

[TheShaddix]

And one more thing, very important. IS there a way to use advanced tesselation with mental ray? Some people gave me the answers but its not what i wanted. I want to use adv. tess. so my parts will look beveled and real, but when i use the regular one, it just doesnt look good. Please people, Did anyone have the same kind of problem? MENTAL RAY+ADVANCED TESSELATION - HOW ?????

[ThirdEye]

Here's my car, as you can see it's missing the lights, i have no clue about how to model them... :hmm:

[TheShaddix]

Here is a new rendered image. Obviously its missing the headlights and some other stuff.

http://www.vertexstudios.net/images/imagery.jpg

[roger3d]

Great model! :thumbsup:

Keep up the good work!

[stallion151]

time for some knit-picking...MUAHAAH

ok there shouldn't be reflection behind the two seats near the start of car roof, and on the windscreen rim....thats all i can pick up ....for now. :shame: :applause:

well done very good model vertex

[TheShaddix]

Thanks a lot for ur suggestions, i knew u guys would notice that. Well, actually, there is a lot more to fix than u and i think. Ive already fixed the unneeded reflections , but still, i cant make the seats look real, and about the windscreen, i didnt see it before, i must have forgotten to make a rim. THanks anyway, ill try to keep the car updated as often as possible, and im still trying to get better reflections, because im not good at rendering/texturing.

One question, stallion, u once answered this, but i didnt really understand it. How can i render frames starting from 1 to 20. I know that render globals stuff, what i dont get is why the render window just stoppes after it renders first image??Is it somethign i did wrong?
And its not my car, its my friend's airplane, please help me out.

[stallion151]

yeh this is a bug that is not so uncommon, happens to me now and again.
I think if you save the scene under a new name, it might work for you.

Just had a look at MR with adv tesselation and it should work, the way i did it was to go to Rendering menu set and under Render>Set Nurbs Tesselation

in the option set it to all surfaces, manual (twice) and put the tesselation to Per Span # of Isoparms and 3 for both should do the job pretty well, you might have to go and tweak some individually but that shouldn't be a problem. Hopefully.

Keep posting i want to see how you go with this, and don't forget that tutorial. I am nearly finished mine(car) should be by the end of the week, hopefully.

cya

stallion151

[TheShaddix]

ahh, its not working man. Perhaps u just used the common tesselation with a pretty high value so u didnt notice any difference. But ill keep posting yeah, sure., and the tutorial i promised to make, im working on it, but its so hard to go into every detail, so ill just explain how to make the front, and write a lot of explanation how to do it instead of a ton of pics. And ill render a lot of views, shaded. You can actually check my tut site already, it doesnt have anything on it, but its user friendly, and u can see how itll work.


http://www.vertexstudios.net/tutorialsite/initial.html

[stallion151]

nice site, love those colours :)

for adv tess this is how i tested it, instead of 3 and 3 for U and V put 1/1 and render you should see a pretty low quality render, then put it back to 3/3.

post a pic of what you are getting.

[TheShaddix]

http://www.vertex@vertexstudios.net/images/test.jpg
Stallion, nothing seems to work except, go to render globals, mental ray tab, override/tesselation/approx.tess. and just click on that checker, and itll open a window on the right, u set the tesselation, works great, just the way i need it, that image u see is my attempt to do what u asked me to, not working at all. BUT, the problem is that i cannot set a unique value for each object. IF you can figure it out , please let me know. How to edit it again once u closed the window?
But the question still remains the same
MENTAL RAY+ADV. TESSELATION = HOW?????

[stallion151]

im on it.


okay

to edit it again go to Windows>Rendering Editors>Mental Ray>Approximation Editor...

there you can edit and make more.

i have no idea why it isn't working under Set Nurbs Tessellation, it is meant for both. Switch to Software and you'll see its there, and switch to MR and some things are gone but not that.
But since it isn't working for you, well think of something.

i couldn't work it out. its beyond me. i couldn't work out how you go your display tessellation on with MR tessellations.
PM Jozvex he's the man for Mental Ray.

[DeathBrain]

Originally posted by ThirdEye_01
I asked just because i'm modeling the same car and i have a lot of problems with lights, can't understand their internal structure even with a ton of references
Bi Xenon for Mercedes SL ? :)
I created a simple one http://www.geocities.com/zigaretos/mercedes_sample.htm
Of course we could add more details on the headlights, but i used the same materials & technique from my tuts here (http://www.geocities.com/zigaretos/Maya_car_light.htm) :)

[ThirdEye]

Originally posted by DeathBrain
Bi Xenon for Mercedes SL ? :)
I created a simple one http://www.geocities.com/zigaretos/mercedes_sample.htm
Of course we could add more details on the headlights, but i used the same materials & technique from my tuts here (http://www.geocities.com/zigaretos/Maya_car_light.htm) :)


Thanks a lot, the structure seems quite accurate, nice work! May you post a shaded version without the materials please? It'd help a lot, thanks again :)

[ferazzo777]

I am kinda new to the whole high end modeling software, I am trying to work through an online tutorial of modeling a car. I have the blueprints set to side and top (512 x 1024) and the front and back of the car set to (512 x 512).

The problem is, when I import the files as image planes the side and tops are equal in size. When I import the front and back into the scene they look way out of proportion. I have check the attributes of each and they say 512 x 512.

Anyone have an idea of why this is happening....and can some one point me in the right direction?

[TheShaddix]

But its not nurbs is it? Because my car is made only of nurbs, i cannot use polygons on this one. Death brain, why you need SL-class headlights anyway?? And please post a shaded version w/o materials applied, ill definately use ur tutorial becuase it seems to work fine. And I always get an error when i render with mental ray, the error says: ...c++ error... memory low.... ,stuff like that. Does anyone know how to work it around?? I have 512 Ram and its a new memory. I can only render in regions, but it still gives me that error almost everytime.

[DeathBrain]

Originally posted by ThirdEye_01
Thanks a lot, the structure seems quite accurate, nice work! May you post a shaded version without the materials please? It'd help a lot, thanks again :)
Shaded on attachment...:)

If you see there is a small reflector on the top left, the real SL headlight uses star orange reflector, but it looks very weird to me, so i changed it into an oval reflector (more better reflections with oval things)

Btw i used Nurbs for this sample :)

[DeathBrain]

Originally posted by vertexstudios
But its not nurbs is it? Because my car is made only of nurbs, i cannot use polygons on this one.

I used Nurbs for those sample :)

why you need SL-class headlights anyway??
Just helping people with headlights, besides that...i really likes detailing..:blush:

And please post a shaded version w/o materials applied, ill definately use ur tutorial becuase it seems to work fine.

Shaded posted already :)

And I always get an error when i render with mental ray, the error says: ...c++ error... memory low.... ,stuff like that. Does anyone know how to work it around?? I have 512 Ram and its a new memory. I can only render in regions, but it still gives me that error almost everytime.
I wish i had Mental Ray..:blush:

[ThirdEye]

Thanks a lot DeathBrain, it surely helped me a lot (even if i'm not a Maya user) :thumbsup:

[DeathBrain]

Your welcome ThirdEye_01 :)
Your C4D Lamborghini looks really cool, you're amazing on C4D...:thumbsup:

[ThirdEye]

Originally posted by DeathBrain
Your welcome ThirdEye_01 :)
Your C4D Lamborghini looks really cool, you're amazing on C4D...:thumbsup:


The SL will look much better ;) Thanks a lot bud, really appreciated! :)

[DeathBrain]

Originally posted by vertexstudios
ill definately use ur tutorial becuase it seems to work fine.
You could post your headlight progress, so maybe i can help something, cause there is a bit difficulties with reflection, lighting and diffuse settings :)

[TheShaddix]

Ur lamborgini is really fantastic, damn i was so inspired by your car when i first saw it, cant beleive it was u all along. Can u please post a wire and a shaded non material version of the
lamborgini?

[ThirdEye]

Thanks vertexstudios, here are a screenshot of the editor (no materials) and a wireframe :)

http://www.cgtalk.com/tmp/thirdeye_wire.jpg

[TheShaddix]

The final rendering obviously looks better, now i understand why u decided to go with black color on this project, black always hides any modeling mistakes and such. Good job.

[TheShaddix]

-= QUESTION OF THE DAY =-


When using mental ray with HDRI, i create a sphere to map the hdr image onto, and then i render. Its all good but how about saving it as Targa format with a transparent bg as i always did, so i could later add some stuff in Photoshop, like a bg, logo and such. But now i get black bg or black with hdri mixed color.

IS IT POSSIBLE to somehow hide the
sphere when rendered and still have the
reflections present? Or, any other way to
get rid of the black bg?

[DKnight]

unchecking "primary visibility" in the sphere`s Tab should do the trick :thumbsup:

[TheShaddix]

Well it doesnt do the trick, but thanks anyway.

[TheShaddix]

Hey stallion, where can i find the mental ray guy PM JOzvex??

[TheShaddix]

How can i have my model drop shadows?

And is there a way to render with HDRI and still have a transparent bg and reflectivity of that HDRI???

[stallion151]

http://www.cgtalk.com/member.php?s=&action=getinfo&userid=3127Jozvex (http://www.cgtalk.com/member.php?s=&action=getinfo&userid=3127)

[ThirdEye]

Originally posted by vertexstudios
The final rendering obviously looks better, now i understand why u decided to go with black color on this project, black always hides any modeling mistakes and such. Good job.


You inspired me to make a silver version, too bad it doens't hide the modeling mistakes ;)

http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=60476&perpage=15&pagenumber=8

[strick9]

Hey vertex, how did you make the tire tread? I tried to make a tire tread bump, but Mental Ray wouldn't render it., did you model the tread?

[TheShaddix]

yes i had to model it, i think thats the only way to get it right.
I created a replica of a real thread using curves(not the EP curve).
Then i extruded that curve at distance, and then i just smashed down the sides so i could put another piece to it. And then i moved the pivot at the very center of the wheel, then duplicated with about 80 copies using rotate value of about 4 deg., and there u have it.

THIRD EYE, thats a very good work, nice shader, and i dont really see any modeling mistakes, only one minus, i think the wheels dont look too sharp, the tires i mean, maybe u could turn the front wheel a little?30 deg? add more details to ur headlights, like more reflect., and if u want it to look perfect , model the interior, two seats and a steering wheel. and SIlver color is definately better than black, because i couldnt see the details of the black one. Good work, make a real scene now, using some city image, that would kick a lot of ass.

[TheShaddix]

Here is what i came up with by far.
http://www.vertexstudios.net/images/thecarrendered.jpg

I hope it looks better than it used to. Please post ur comments even if its not pleasant to hear, i need your opinion.

[TheShaddix]

...

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