hmm - i don't know mirek - i seem to be getting different results. the image below shows a render comparing ray trace shadows with shadow maps (the area outlined in red). shadow maps only seem to make the form shadows darker, not the cast shadows.

i agree..,

OK.., next, did you bring the samples down in the lights mental ray tab??

changing the light angle (directional light mental ray tab) should give you soft fall off too.

also turn off 'cast shaows ' on the ground plane render AE stats.., this is an extra calculation and can cause grain.

are you using depth map or ray trace ?

try depth map (mental ray tab.., cast shadows on) for now with some softness for the edges.., just see what happens.., because when 'cast shadows' is on in the metal ray tab you ARE using depth map shadows.., try taking 'settings from maya and your depth map shadows options will open.., but for the mental ray settings for depth map.

try more resolution and experiment with the samples (30?)

just a little softness


man, youd think something like this would be easy??

arron im not just making this up.., i doing mental ray tuts atm.., hours of them.., so believe me i respect your time.., we all have so little of it.

i agree, cast shadows in this situation is the way to go..,

Just to inform you of the difference of shadow maps and raytraced shadows. Shadow maps are much quicker than raytraced shadows because they "fake it".

Shadow map: A simple shadow is rendered as an image. The resolution is the resolution of this image. Then one can for instance blur this image to get a soft shadow. If you want accuracy use raytraced shadows, however these take much more render time. Or one can first use raytraced shadows to see how it "should look like" and then fiddle with the shadow map settings to get it as close, to speed up the render times.

That's it from me, I'll be here all week, good night!

hey dj - been a while - thanks for the info. :)

but how can he make them darker.., i dont want to bug arron with my wonderings and experiments.., im just trying to help but not doing a good job of it.., i was hoping someone had the answer.., im thinking theres too much illumination in the scene?? but thats just a guess!!!

in the tuts they use the word 'occlude' rather than fake.., but yes.., thats what they say too.., :) just a line of site from the illumination.., why draw shows for two objects IF one is already IN the shadow of the other.., no bouncing of photons.., ect..,

one could say everything is fake in maya :) its a fake world in there.., or.., is the fake world out here :) im guessing out here.., and this is all a dream.

too deep for this time of day (or anytime :) )

mirek - step...away...from...the...crack...pipe.... :)

just kidding mate - and you're certainly not bugging me - i appreciate your help. i'm crap when it comes to experimenting so i'm glad when people suggest things to try - even if it doesn't solve the problem.

btw, glad to see you in on the challenge. :beer:

stepped away from it years ago mate .., at least 10-15 years, wasn't my THING at all.., i prefer to 'relax'.., but i think it left an impression :) PARANOIA!!!!?????

no, really mate, hard for me to understand whats going on sometimes.., im still living in the 70s i think when all was love and bliss and LSD.., and caring for each other, mainly caring for each other.., (maybe it was me dreaming and the world has always been like this.., unis' that churn out robots instead of thinking people that challenge, in a healthy way, the status quo.)

but this is not a chat line, sooo..,

cheers mate, thanks for the kind words.., appreciated :) im going away for a few days but im still going to continue with my experiments on the laptop.

best for you and your work.., hope it gets sorted soon.., you know mood wise i wonder if a little fog would look good.., looks like a steamy back lane he's in??? just a thought :)

hey - here are some renders done over the last few days. think i'm at a stopping point with this - at least for now - i need to work on something else.

...

stunning mate, its nice to know wen too stop.., looks incredible :)

thanks :)

after playing loads of super smash bros. brawl lately i see marley on the stand and instantly think of of him as a trophy...


did you ever think about playing with the hue of the lighting to get a different mood?

haven't played super smash brawl - is it any good? :)

yeah - i was thinking about adding a street lamp. at the moment the light is slightly blue on the key and green on the fill.

here are a few more renders that i did today after tweaking the lighting a bit.

very nice work arran

thanks mate! :)

amazing textures Arran.

I have a question though. How did you export displacements without crashing? I can't do hi rez displacements. :(

I also have this problem where I UV mapped everything, but when I added details in Zbrush, I brought it back into maya and my UVs were gone!!! It turned into a hundred blocks of 2x2 matrixs.

And.....some parts of my model in zbrush were non uniformal and causes pinches. You ever had that problem?

:beer:

geat job on the skin. looks really cool.

nice pose.

Are you going to have him like do "stuff"?:x

lol.


still looking great XD

thanks a lot everyone - really appreciate the good words. :)

anslaught - i'm afraid aside from this project and the boxing gloves i did, i haven't had too much experience with zbrush, so not sure how much help i can be. Did you make sure you exported a low poly version of your model back into maya before applying the displacements?

as for your uvs being turned into blocks, that sounds like you've had zbrush re-uv map your model. you should be able to remap it in maya and then export it back into zbrush.

as for pinching in your model, i kind of had similar problem when i first started, so i just went back to my base model in maya and tried to improve the geometry. it may be that you just need to clean up your model as well. sorry i can't be more help. post up a question and i'm sure some proper z masters will be able to help. :)

vladimirjp - thanks mate - really appreciate it. what have you been up to? would love to see your latest kick ass model. :)

GecT - if you mean animating, then no - i always planned this to be a still pose. aside from maybe playing with lighting and rendering (after i've taken a break!) i think i'm done with this. :)

starjsjswars - cheers mate - always good to get your approval. :)

thanks again everyone. :beer:

smash bros brawl is pretty cool, unlocking the characters is the most fun (and is done the easiest by just playing through the single player 'adventure' mode, "subspace emissary") but obviously the more people ya got hangin' around the more fun you can have with just a straight-up brawl.

anyway back to the model. this lighting setup definitely looks better and not as bland, but the fill is a little dim, you want to be able to see finer details but not flood the non-keyed area with light, ya know?

also i guess i imagined his character as appearing at night, so for me, i would try a more yellow key (emulating the illumination from a window of a house) with a deeper blue fill (to emulate the light of the moon). but again, just cause it's dark out doesn't mean you shouldn't be able to make stuff out.

hey neostrider - thanks for the info - i really appreciate it. :beer:

yeah - i wanted it be fairly dark, but still see some of the details. i was having a hard time not losing the darkness of the shadows and not throwing too much light in the form shadows. lighting is still a weak point for me.

i'll definitely give your advice a try. cheers mate!

smash bros. sounds cool. :)

Looks great man

Nice texturing.

It would be nice if those chains are a bit rusty

Keep it up:beer: