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# 4 14-06-2006 , 07:19 PM
esion's Avatar
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 255
First, I just want to say I understand you are new to the program, and Maya is very overwhelming at first. So this is great, but the depth is just so deep, and you have only scratched the surface with this render. Here are my suggestions for ya:

As for the sand texture, you might try to decrease the amount of repeats on the texture (same for the ocean texture), this is what is giving you the major monotenous pixelated look. Or try looking for something online that you can import into PS and make a bump map and texture with.

Another thought is to add some variation to the ground, such as hills and valleys, or some irregularities. Look online for some pictures of temples on hills and see what the area around the temple looks like. There will be build up of earth around the temple base, there will be variations. There will be tall grasses by the walls, and short around it. All these things can help add realism to the scene.

Also you might want to look into how you render the scene. For instance you have here a far wide shot of the temple, which should be the main focus and closer. By putting the temple close to the camera and on the right, leaving ground and ocean on the left can really add to the way the scene is laid out. Maybe add a boat off in the distance, or mountains...Just think of it like you are a camera man for National Geographic, what is the coolest shot?

Try using fur to add grass, maybe use an attractor to make it look like the wind is blowing. Maybe add a few clouds, or fog, toss in a lens flare effect. Render it in Mental Ray, try a vector render.

If you search the net for Maya+tutorial+(lighting, texturing, grass, lens flare, fog, camera angles, etc) you will get a lot of cool tutorials to help you learn the program. Just keep working at it, and you will get a lot of ideas to make the scene a lot better.


Last edited by esion; 14-06-2006 at 07:22 PM.