Render Issues.....

I was hoping to start rendering my finished environment yesterday, but came across that Mental Ray wasn't casting any shadows in my scene. I had done test renders before, but usually in Maya Software, and I also rendered some in Mental Ray and had no problems. Sometimes I would get an out of memory error message, but I knew that's because I don't have a lot of RAM, but planned to render on another machine. Then last night I realised Mental Ray wasn't casting shadows, so I tried to fix the problem but all I got was a "Fatal Error" message.

So I searched online to try and work out the problem, and they were all saying it was a RAM issue, but when I asked Jenn, kyle and Matt to look at it, they didn't think it was as it also wasn't working on the university computers either. Jenn and I tried to export the scene and import into a new scene as well as taking one object out and trying to render, and it still would not work. So we decided we weren't sure what it was...and I could try to look though the textures to see if it was them though this could take a while.

So I changed my textures from targas to .maps with a programme of the Internet. As well as, after talking to Paul about it, and running a render diagnostics and finding over 200 errors that it was the textures which were definitely the problem.

It took me a day to fix all the errors, but I got rid of them and thought it would work...but I still got the same error message. On the cusp of giving up and just rendering in Maya Software so I had something to hand in I gave it one last attempt as I refused to be defeated as I really wanted to render in Mental Ray. I went through some of my old files to see which would render until I got to the most up to date version (which was exactly the same as the one getting the error messages). I made it up to the new version with everything ready to render......I set up the render in mental ray...and waited. To my surprise it worked!!! I don't know why, and I'm certainly not complaining, but it was rendering. So I will hopefully have a Mental Ray rendered film to hand in....if all goes well. To spread the load of the rendering I also planned to render on the university computers....but again I got the error message. So it was me and my laptops against the world!! But I have to thank Jenn and Kyle for all their support over this issue..they helped me get through. Whether face to face or over MSN.

Playing With Renders...

Here I have been messing around with Maya Software and Mental Ray. The first two images have been done using Maya Software, the fairy lights are looking good, but horse looks a little bit hard. The next lot of images have been done using Mental Ray, with Global Illumination, Final Gather and using a directional light. I'm not sure about the settings on Mental Ray yet so these are just to see what Mental Ray will look like. So this will not be the end result as parts of the models are glowing when they shouldn't be.

The rocking horse is looking a lot softer and not as reflective as I turned it down a little bit.The head board is far to reflective, so I will turn down the reflectiveness.I really like this. Its a little bit dark but I like the softness of the red.This is one of the first test renders I did using Mental Ray, and I am quite happy with it. I Like how the room is reflecting in the balloon.I quite like how its starting to turn out. Although its a bit patchy, but its OK for now. I wasn't to sure about the texture on the curtains that surround the bed at first, but I think its fits in well.

I like how most of the kids toys stick out from the colour of the wall and floor.

This image is very patchy, its almost watercolour like. For some reason I like it, but I don't know if this sort of style will work for my environment.

View of Room...

Here's a view of the main part of my environment put together. I will add the rest of the bed areas later on to save on computer speed.

Nurses Desk and Play Area...

Nurses notice board surrounded in fairy lights...Finished nurses desk area...Play area table..

Close up of the dolphin teddy which has not been smoothed...View of play area, I am happy with how it is laid out and the colours I have chosen as they are nice, bright and colourful.

Group work..

To help out Dan who needed some more group work, I asked him to do some textures for me of DVDs and books. I asked him to do 6 DVDs and 14 books and gave him a week to do them and he kept to the deadline, and I am very happy with the results.

DVDs.... Books...

Texturing Images and more fairy lights...

Here are some images of how the room is progressing (all the textures have been made on Photoshop). Most of the models were UV unwrapped but a few of the simpler ones were not, and I used the planar mapping tool to make them fit. Furthermore, not all of the models have been smoothed yet, to stop the computer from slowing down, and on a few objects I used the soften edge tool. Although on the default light, it makes some of the edges go a little dark.

I'm not to sure if I like the texture on the bed cover, so I may go back and change it.

Here is a print screen shot of how the bed area looks with everything textured, and I am quite happy with how it is laid out and the textures.

Here is another attempt at the fairy lights. I have used the glow on the texture again and made the bulbs more like glass.

Here's the rendered result using Maya software of the glow, and I'm really happy with it

...and a smaller render using mental ray.

The Result of the Duck and Horse UV Unwrapping...

Here are the results of the duck and horse unwrapped UV's. The textures are being kept nice and simple as I don't want to over texture and I think it will look much better this way. I am very happy with the result.