) How can I use indirect illumination in Maya? Is it even possible?
I finally figured out how to get a plug-in called GI Joe to work after a billion years of working with it and the results of it, along with shaders like RealFakeGI, SoftReflect, DiffuseLight and others in the same arena, give me a pretty schweet render. But, there's so much work involved in getting that "just right" look that it's getting daunting and I'd kill to be given the right direction at finding a way to get MR to work worth a crap. Anything special involved to use it? Do I need to find a Mental Ray for Dummies book to even get the jist of it? Thanks in advance for your time and help! 
you should not judge mr when you failed to archive something after few testings. if you combine gi and caustics you already get some pretty cool results. just dont forget that you will need a closed room set up to use caustics and even gi ...Originally posted by Russell
Well, firost of all, I've actually tried MR and either I have no clue how to use it or it's just so darn easy, even a baby could learn it.
Do I need to create new shaders specifically for MR or can I use shaders already created in Maya? Any help is greatly appreciated. ). Next, where you can set quality choose Production. Now another tab appears for the Production settings. Here is where you can turn on GI, caustics, Final Gathering, change the sampling,etc.
Just askin' cuz I tried to render my scenes before in MR and I never got what I wanted. Also, in using MR, how many lights will I need in my scenes? Currently, I'm using a plug-in called GI Joe and it uses a technique wherein you use anywhere from 16 to 64 directional or spotlights in a sphere shape to light the scene globally... it works but I wonder at what cost sometimes.
Should I use the 3 point light method to light my scene... at least to start?
I agree ... quite easily by the way with the Film Grain effect PSOriginally posted by kbrown
The grainy look you mentioned is imho an unwanted side effect of bad quality. I would want to get my renderings as noise free as I can. You can always add grain in post if you like...
It's all a matter of personal taste. There's plenty of room for all sorts of render types 
And Izzy, you're not on crack... I am.
