Rendered images turn out black

# 1 19-04-2013 , 07:55 AM

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Join Date: Apr 2013

Posts: 4

Hi everyone! I'm new here so please let me know if I've accidentally broken any rules.

Hi guys, I'm a university student and novice animator who's trying to pick up Maya for the first time. Until this point I've mostly worked in After Effects creating motion graphics, but for one of my current animations I'm planning to attempt to create an effect similar to this using 2D fluid simulation. I've managed to create something that I'm relatively happy with, but I've run in to some trouble rendering - everything turns out black!

I haven't been able to figure out what the problem is, does anyone here have any suggestions?

Thanks!

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# 2 19-04-2013 , 08:32 AM

SM Tea Boy
Join Date: Apr 2002

Location: Prague

Posts: 3,228

does this happen when you batch render or just on a standard render? have you put lights in the scene?

From a readers' Q and A column in TV GUIDE: "If we get involved in a nuclear war, would the electromagnetic pulses from exploding bombs damage my videotapes?"

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# 3 19-04-2013 , 08:41 AM

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Join Date: Apr 2013

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I'm using an ambient light. I thought that would be enough, but perhaps not. I'm in the process of reinstalling maya, but I'll test it as soon as it's back up and running.

I could upload the ascii file if that would help. It's actually a modified version of the soap bubble used here, so perhaps there's something left over that I'm not aware of.

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# 4 19-04-2013 , 08:58 AM

SM Tea Boy
Join Date: Apr 2002

Location: Prague

Posts: 3,228

well for testing just stick a directional light in there and upload the file someone will be able to help i'm sure

From a readers' Q and A column in TV GUIDE: "If we get involved in a nuclear war, would the electromagnetic pulses from exploding bombs damage my videotapes?"

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# 5 19-04-2013 , 09:06 AM

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Cool, thanks!

Here's the .ma file. I'll keep tinkering and see if I can come up with any solutions.

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# 6 19-04-2013 , 10:09 AM

The thin red line
Join Date: Aug 2009

Location: England

Posts: 4,472

You turned off "illuminate by default" in you light...............dave

Avatar Challenge Winner 2010

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# 7 19-04-2013 , 10:14 AM

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Join Date: Apr 2013

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Okay, I made sure illuminate by default was ticked, no dice.

I've made some progress though! I tried throwing a primitive in to the scene to see whether or not it would render, and lo and behold it did! I still can't see the fluid though, which is a shame.

The primitive (a sphere) that I chucked in shows up in the render as a solid white circle, which seems to suggest that it is indeed a problem with the lighting, although I still haven't figured out what.

EDIT: It might be because in the original file (the one that I modified to make this one) the fluid is remapped around the surface of a sphere. I've since deleted the sphere, but maybe it's still trying to remap the fluid to an object that doesn't exist.

EDIT: Damnit, I gave up trying to fix the problem and decided to recreate everything from scratch, which was working perfectly (including having the fluid container appear in render view) until just before I decided to try and render everything out. Now it's black again. Infuriating!

Last edited by Flay; 19-04-2013 at 12:47 PM.

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