new shaders shipped with Maya/Max 2008

#1

I don’t know if you guys know about this
but it seems that Master Zap added a little surprise for people trying to composite 2D/3D as seamless as possible.
Zap has developed a set of render shaders

mip_gamma_gain : gamma control for map

mip_card_opacity : utility for compositing workflows

mip_motionblur : motion blur extraction methods for compositing

mip_motion_vector

mip_cameramap : background plate matching utilities

mip_matteshadow

mip_mirrorball : lighting and reflection shaders to match cg to background plates

mip_grayball

to get them type
createNode NodeName;

enjoy

#2

Cool, thanks. Been wondering where they were and how to activate them.

Is there any way to get them to show up amongst the MR Nodes properly?

Puppet wrote :

Just edit your mentalrayCustomNodeClass.mel for unhide all shaders.

How do I do that?

Anybody got a documentation for these?

#3

That’s the MEL way…

The shaders were hidden there by AD, and are unsupported.
If you want them in the UI edit ‘mentalrayCustomNodeClass.mel’ (in …/scripts/others) from this:


        // Internal MentalRay Nodes. Not meant to be used with Maya.

        if ($nodeType == "misss_physical_phen"  ||
            $nodeType == "mip_rayswitch" ||
            $nodeType == "mip_rayswitch_advanced" ||
            $nodeType == "mip_rayswitch_environment" ||
            $nodeType == "mip_card_opacity" ||
            $nodeType == "mip_motionblur" ||
            $nodeType == "mip_matteshadow" ||
            $nodeType == "mip_cameramap" ||
            $nodeType == "mip_mirrorball" ||
            $nodeType == "mip_grayball" ||
            $nodeType == "mip_gamma_gain" ||
            $nodeType == "mip_render_subset" ||
            $nodeType == "mip_matteshadow_mtl" ||
                $nodeType == "surfaceSampler" ||
                $nodeType == "mip_motion_vector")

                return "rendernode/mentalray/internal";

        return "";
}

To this (I just typed it, but should work):


// Internal MentalRay Nodes. Not meant to be used with Maya.
// So? Should poor Maya users use 3dsmax? C'mon... ;)

 if ($nodeType == "misss_physical_phen"  ||         
     $nodeType == "mip_card_opacity" ||             
     $nodeType == "mip_matteshadow" ||         
     $nodeType == "mip_matteshadow_mtl" ||
     $nodeType == "surfaceSampler")
return "rendernode/mentalray/material";
return "";}



 if ($nodeType == "mip_rayswitch" ||             
     $nodeType == "mip_rayswitch_advanced" ||    
     $nodeType == "mip_cameramap" ||    
     $nodeType == "mip_mirrorball" ||   
     $nodeType == "mip_grayball")
return "rendernode/mentalray/texture";
return "";}


 if ($nodeType == "mip_rayswitch_environment")
return "rendernode/mentalray/environment";
return "";}



 if ($nodeType == "mip_motionblur" ||
     $nodeType == "mip_motion_vector")
return "rendernode/mentalray/output";
return "";}

 if ($nodeType == "mip_gamma_gain" ||
     $nodeType == "mip_render_subset")
return "rendernode/mentalray/lens";
return "";}
#4

Hihi - nice one!

Works:thumbsup:

Curious to hear how people are using some of these!
I will play as well…

Thanks Paolo!

#5

shokran ya Ash-Man :wink:

so how do I use them …any ideas ?

#6

To the “how do you use them” question, stay tuned on my blog and the mymr wiki

Stuff to follow.

/Z

#7

Cool i’ll stay tuned!!!

h.

#8

Eager people can download these backgrounds and then this and this maya 2008 file (needs the backgrounds).

/Z

#9

Thanks Zap

Looking into these files now :wink:

#10

thanks Mr Zap
I got this error when I opend hte files
{TEXS}/backyard-mirrorballl.jpg: registry entry {TEXS} not found

any ideas

#11

go through the shading netwrok and make sure the texture files can be located
take note that the metnal ray textures are pointing to these files

#12

Ah - nice one! I would have never figured that out myself!

I think this would be such a great and helpful way, if Autodesk (or in this case the Mentals - thanks) would have a simple example scene for each feature in order to demonstrate how to use it.

That would avoid sooo much wasted time and frustration!

Master Zap: your help is very much appreciated! Keep it coming:buttrock:

#13

I wasn’t able to find the new mia_light_surface shader in the UI either so I’ve been creating it via MEL too.

:shrug:

#14

Looks like everything renders fine here, though I do get a couple warnings:

/ Warning: (Mayatomr.Nodes) : initialShadingGroup: connection of a material shader not returning a single color value: mip_matteshadow2, may be dangerous.

and

// Warning: File not found: render_mip_matteshadow_mtl.xpm

With the latter, I have to close and re-open Maya in order to get the default lambert back to normal, otherwise any geometry I create is flat shaded green with any new scene. Probably a simple fix and something I’m missing on my part.

Anyway, will be interesting to play with this a bit. Thanks, Zap.

#15

That’s odd. So the icon doesn’t appear at all in the Textures section or it’s there and does not work?

#16

Thanks Zap
I tihnk I’m gettign the hang of it :wink:


#17

Looks very interesting. In the wiki it says “stay tuned for online docs”, but does anyone have a link to the PDF doc or anything else (even if it’s Max) that gives a visual description of these new hidden (= beta) features?

#18

Is the ‘mip_motion_vector’ shader any different than rendering out motion vectors through Maya Software? or is it also a shader that was implemented to help other softwares do this (like the gamma or mirror ball, etc…)?

If so, can the normal ‘blur2d’ tool be used?

btw, I use ‘jbblur2d’, a great script that the user Buexe created to simplify the use of motion vectors within Maya.

I’m just wondering if this mr shader will be any better. (not that I have any major complaints about the current Maya Software).

#19

I swear the icon wasn’t there before… :scream:

Hehe ok well it’s there now. Oops.

#20

I’d say the most important features of the motion vector shaders are

  • various floating point output formats (Toxik compatible)
  • can output the motion vector in the same render pass as our beauty render
  • works if you have displacement in your model (which your “maya software” pass probably wouldn’t match exactly)

Also, if mip_card_opacity is used for opacity maps of billboard objects, the motion buffer would contain the proper object behind the cutout, rather than the opaque billboard plane that you would get out of most similar tools.

I am not sure if the old “blur2d” works with these motion vectors, since mip_motionvector was primarily intended to feed vectors to commercially available tools.

Also don’t forget about the actual motion blur shader itself.

Note that to use either in Maya2008 the “easiest” way is to actually stick it into the “obsolete output pass” slot, making sure that “Z” and “motion” is checked.

Also, I think you may need to have motion blur on in mental ray, but shutter length should be 0 and time contrast should be 1 1 1 1… that way no actual extra time is spent doing actual motion blur during the render, but actual motion vectors get written.

/Z