just a noob q bout mental ray
 

hey i have maya (duh)... does it automatically have mental ray or do i have to download/purchase it somewhere?


thanks for asnwering even though its noob :P

You might need to start it via the plug in manager

Windows->Settings->Plug in manager, then click the check boxes for mtrmya (or something along those lines, cant remember off the top of my head)

thanks for the reply ill try that one out

so do you have any suggestions for me on how to learn mental ray rendering? :P

I too would be curious about learning the innards of MR, but for now, it's good old trial and error (and you DO learn from that!)

Before anything, I'd purchase a book/tutorial on LIGHTING. Once I started learning how to properly light objects, even cheesy objects rendered in Maya Software looked 1000 times better!