renders are blank when lights are used
 

I don't understand. I render without any lights in the scene and I get that dull globally lit render. I add a few lights and no matter if I use hardware, software, mental ray, etc... I get a solid black render. Something is rendering because I get an alpha channel. What gives?

have you set fall off etc etc on the lights? You get the dull render because there is a default light in maya that is used if there are no lights.

What are your light settings?

Alan

I understand the default lighting. The lights I dropped in were both area lights with the default settings. I translated them in the lighting view so I know the subject is being lit. Plus there is an alpha channel in the render.

I did not adjust the fall off from their default settings so I can try that.

put a spotlight in and aim it at the model and try rendering that, are you using mental ray? not sure if area lights are supported in MR.

:ninja:
Alan

I'm trying anything that will work. Finally got a render in hardware mode but I dont what I changed. :P I'll mess with the spotlights when I get home.

You probably don't want to be rendering with the hardware renderer. It's pretty crappy and not meant for much more than rendering wireframes and some particles.

Alan

good to know! I've spent so much time learning modeling and animation that I suck terribly at texturing and lighting. I really really want to achieve that eye-gouging super reflective look complete with glows and flares. Alot like the new bot of Feng's you posted.