Hi guys, sorry for not many updates but after getting round the problems i had of getting everything to go proper on the UV map i have now finished the raptor. I know that i could do more on the detail side but i want to have a go at something else when i get the time to do so. Any comments welcome and if all`s well i will put it in the FINISHED WORK part maybe in a week. I`ll also try and get it onto a background aswell. Thanks.

Attached Thumbnails

Sorry about the last image size i forgot to alter it to 640 x 480 for the W.I.P. section.
Not to worry just altered it. thanks

You could always edit you're post, and re upload with the smaller picture.

---

"When you are born, you have a resposiblilty to program you're own mind, if you do not accept this responsiblilty, then the world will do it for you"
Aol Instant messenger: mrcoolbp2

Hi Guys, i`m getting there but i have hit a little snag.
I`m trying to render the raptor on a background but i am unsure of how to go about getting a shadow on the ground. The background is not the final one, just a test to see how it all goes together. And i have used the default lighting to render this image. Any help much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Attached Thumbnails

One way this can be achieved, is to Composit the two in post (after rendering) if you have access to a program like Photoshop. This way you can try to match the two so they look like the were shot at the same time/place.

For that shadows, I beleive you make a plane in maya, and apply the "Use Background" shader, which will render out ONLY the shadow.

So you have you model, you're shadow-plane (with use bg shader) and you should render out to TGA (transparent) so all you have to do in photoshop is pull up you're test bg, and add you're latest render right on top. Then you can start playing with "Levels" on each layer to get them to match.

Sorry if I went a lil overboard.

---

"When you are born, you have a resposiblilty to program you're own mind, if you do not accept this responsiblilty, then the world will do it for you"
Aol Instant messenger: mrcoolbp2

You should set up a plane that matches the contour of the ground in the background plate. Don't worry about applying a material to it because you won't be using it. The default material will do just fine. Light the shot to cast the shadows you want then render the shadow on the plane as a seperate pass and composite in after effects.

If you're not familiar with rendering seperate passes then read up on it. The easiest set up would be to put the dino in a seperate render layer than the plane then batch render the dino as a beauty pass without the background or the plane under his feet then, render the plane BUT you only need to render the shadow pass so turn the other passes (beauty, diffuse, specular) off. Composite and make adjustment in after effects.

ps when you set up your lights, look at the shadows on the houses in the background. The dino shadows should match the direction. You can adjust the darkness and diffusion (blurriness) of the shadow in AE...

I rendered a dino onto a background using the techniques I just wrote about. You can see the clip here

Thanks guys, i`ll try it out either tonight or tomorrow.
If you hear a loud screem, don`t worry, it will only be pulling my hair out.

Hi, here is a quick test using the background shader. Please tell me what you think.

Attached Thumbnails

Hi, I`m movine over to the FINISHED WORK part now as i think i am done with the modeling now just the render side to tweek now. Thanks everyone for the comments, etc.
And thanks to Kurt for the dragon tutorials as they have been a GREAT help in designing this raptor.
There`s a full size (1280 - 1024) image in the finished work part now. Here is the finished render.