Hello, i've just been browsing a few of the rendering threads and just been absolutely gobsmacked by some of the talent round here :eye-poppi

Without sounding up myself, i am pretty confident with photoshop and computers in general, but have never delved into 3D rendering.

So what does a guy like me need to get started? Preferably free, if possible!

Quote from Shinanigans :

Hello, i've just been browsing a few of the rendering threads and just been absolutely gobsmacked by some of the talent round here :eye-poppi

Without sounding up myself, i am pretty confident with photoshop and computers in general, but have never delved into 3D rendering.

So what does a guy like me need to get started? Preferably free, if possible!

Free, nah, not going to happen. I don't know of a singal render.

What you need :
Autodesk 3DS Max - 3,495.00 USD
Splutterfish Brazil Render System - 1,200.00 USD.


EDIT by Gunn: Link removed!!! Don't post links to illegal software on this forum please.

You should consider watching out for student versions, which are around 200€ I think

I'd also recommend vRay instead of Brazil. Brazil is fine but I found it was a bit limited

Thanks lads!

Will post up my work in the appropriate threads once i've got it all up and running.

Thanks again.

Also need immense patience if you intend to make your own scenes.

Immense I tells ya

Don't worry, i'll be back here asking questions, i assure you!

I just want to start off with making the cars shiny!

I'm going to give you a tip now, that I didn't realise was there until about 3 weeks after I started rendering.

If your car is too shiny lower the 'reflection' number in the maps section of the material.

I suffered for weeks with ultra shine

If you can't afford Brazil and Vray, you can just get the 3ds max, there is Mental Ray come as standard, and that can render nice images as well as Brazil or Vray if you learn how to use it properly. Remember, they are only rendering tools, the real important factor is how to set your scene's materials and lighting correct. If you don't set them right, no matter what you use, Brazil or Vray, the rendered image still come out bad.

brazil is an easy way to get good renders though..
vray is alot more complicated, but WAAAAAAAY better

Quote from Ryanry64 :

I suffered for weeks with ultra shine

Until I saved you

Wehey, look out! I am now full equiped with Autodesk 3DSMax 8.0

Ok, so i've been playing with a few tutorials for about half hour now, played with the red apple (and teh hidden green one!1!). A little overwhelming! I'm glad i've played with a tiny bit of Q3 map making and have very basic knowledge of view panes and "XYZ" otherwise i would've screamed!

So, like any excited kid, how do i get into the good stuff? How do i render my awesome XRT?

I guess i should start with the noob question and get it over and done with.... When you guys are posting up your rendered images of XRT's and XFG's and what not, what are you actually doing to the file (*what file are you using!?) i tried opening a .cmx file but it didn't recognise the filetype so i'm assuming you either have a converter, or open a different file? Or go to crazy lengths of actually making a complete 3D model of the car and slapping the texture/skin on? (surely not?!)

Any basic rundowns on how to render an LFS car would be mostly appreciated.

Disclaimer: i have no idea how much i am asking of you, so sorry if it's a huge ask and my ignorance offends you.

Funny that probably most of us here don't even 'own' such products, or want to confess to how they have it

Quote from Shinanigans :

Wehey, look out! I am now full equiped with Autodesk 3DSMax 8.0

Ok, so i've been playing with a few tutorials for about half hour now, played with the red apple (and teh hidden green one!1!). A little overwhelming! I'm glad i've played with a tiny bit of Q3 map making and have very basic knowledge of view panes and "XYZ" otherwise i would've screamed!

So, like any excited kid, how do i get into the good stuff? How do i render my awesome XRT?

I guess i should start with the noob question and get it over and done with.... When you guys are posting up your rendered images of XRT's and XFG's and what not, what are you actually doing to the file (*what file are you using!?) i tried opening a .cmx file but it didn't recognise the filetype so i'm assuming you either have a converter, or open a different file? Or go to crazy lengths of actually making a complete 3D model of the car and slapping the texture/skin on? (surely not?!)

Any basic rundowns on how to render an LFS car would be mostly appreciated.

Disclaimer: i have no idea how much i am asking of you, so sorry if it's a huge ask and my ignorance offends you.

You can either follow a tutorial like this one http://dsrc.digiserv.net/forum/showthread.php?t=666
Or you can simply download scenes from here http://ds-autos.digiserv.net/ and add you skin adjust camera and hit render

Hope this helps

Thanks very much for those links.

I tried the "easy" one first... but didn't quite get that one happening. So i tried the tutorial, was going great guns until i got stuck here:

http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/5702/stuck8ty.jpg

Quote :

-Now, select the object 008 (only this object must be on screen)
-Go to the selection mode (see previous screenshot)
-Check the box « Ignore Backfacing »
-Choose the circular selection tool :
-With this tool, select only the rim’s vertices. Note that only visible vertices will be selected. So, you must swivel the view in order to see the back of the rim. Redo the rim’s selection holding down the CTRL key in order to add the selection to the previous one.
You can now assign the material’s ID n°4 to the 1st part of the rim (instead of n°9)
-Repeat those steps to the 3 others rims.

Q: What's a verticie?
Q: How do i swivel the view? Naturally when i tried rotating the tyre itself, it opened up a black hole!

Thanks again!

ok firstly, i dont know what a verticie, lol i skipped to downloading those scenes, i will make my own eventually

secondly, have a look at the image i posted, i have circled the icon you select to rotate the camera veiw

Added: Saw you are now S2 Licensed, Great Work hope to see you on the track

Vertices (singularly: vertex) are "points". If you have a flat plane with 1 poly, it'll have 4 vertices (one at each corner). They appear at the end of every edge.. whether it's a square or a complete car.

As for rotating the view, in the bottom right of 3DS, you'll see a "gyroscope" looking button (3rd from the right on the bottom row IIRC). Click on that and you should see a circle appear in the viewport. Now you can rotate the view itself rather than the object(s)
EDIT: See JTM's screenshot.. that's the one

Also, if you right-click on the name in the top left of each viewport, you'll get a context menu appear where you'll be able to select certain static views, such as left, right, top, front, rear etc etc. These are particularly useful for the likes if sorting out the wheels as the view is "square on" to them when using left or right view making it easier to select the stuff you want



Regards,

Ian