Brett

With such a short timeframe I would stick with what you know as MR requires a long learning curve. Render times are shorter with 7.5 (much) if you set it up right and don’t go for 100% best MR quality. The other hitch is crawling during animation - it will get you. I suggest testing on non-paying projects or long deadline projects first and then put it to work on real projects. That’s what we did and it seems to be working after a year:-)

Yep - that works, thanks! I thought of that just after I sent my rant and it seems to be working ok. I just hate to have a messy stack full of my careless mistakes :-) Brett

I am having big problems with unwrap UVW. I have multiple unwraps with several map channels going to channels in a multi subobject material. I have discovered a single face that is a copy of another face and need to get rid of it. When I delete this single face I loose ALL of my UV mapping work - over 6 hours. I have tried saving the uvw information and then reloading and this does nothing to help me. I have tried deleting with a mesh select in the stack and this does not work either. If I have to redo all UV information in a model every time I miss a single extra face or edge THERE IS NO WAY I WILL EVER USE THIS SOFTWARE FOR LOW POLY WORK!!!!! Maya has no problem handling changes to the geometry after you have worked on UV information. There is NEVER any danger of loosing hours and hours of work over and over again just because you find a very minor problem in your geometry or need to move a face from one channel to another. Thanks for any help on this. Brett

Thanks for the reply... Do you mean under Environment and Effects/Exposure Control dialog box? I do not use exposure control at all - it is turned off and "use environment maps" is gray. Thanks Brett

Just keep in mind ya need that handy dandy Architects seal if you want to "design" anything over about $90,000 - which in the states is a 10x10 room with a roof - maybe. I know some fellers who paid a hefty price for design'n then building without one;-) Houses are another thing all together – don’t know much about houses. Good luck on the new venture! brett

Hey Guys, I am having problems billboarding in MR. I'm using a HDRI exterior dome light. I'm also using a dome with my environment on it as this will be an animated scene. The HDRI dome has visable to camera turned off so that you can see the environment dome beyond and not the ugly HDRI image. When the opacity part of a tree is in front of the environment I get a white area where it should be opaque. If I move the environment dome in front of the HDRI dome I loose the lighting from the HDRI dome but it solves the problem with the opacity channel. Any chance I can have the best of both worlds? - If not I'll just suck it up and buy VRay cause I'm tired of dealing with MR shortcomings. I am sure many people have used this same method so hopefully someone can give me a tip. Also I have the same problems if I use the Lume facade shader. Thanks Brett

There are entire books on animation - it would not be a short tutorial. Use free camera animation - spline animation is a shortcut that will in many cases never give you what you want. Graph editor is the only way to go - otherwise be ready for PAIN.

If it is a hip or gable roof just use plines for the edges then turn them into a mesh and then shell or extrude - whichever works best.

Really depends on your application. Many here work in visualization studios that will never be integrated in the ACAD design process. AUTOCAD is lacking in a lot of ways in its rendering. The engine is from the mid 90’s (at best) and looks it. You are severely limited in every way with your materials. It may be ok for a designer to look at during design but any client (that I have done business with) would fire me on the spot if I even showed them an ACAD rendering.

Looks good - the textures on the ceiling need work but the overall scene lighting looks good - which I guess you were going for. It needs some punch someplace. The problem with GI is the images end up being mid key with no contrast if the lighting is too simple . I'll need to look into that engine. Brett

There is - but the splines must be part of the same spline. Use cross insert to insert a vertex at the point where the two lines cross. Otherwise - no, there is not.

Thanks David I have a lot of issues with RPC - what they look like is just the start but when you got to get the job done fast they are a life saver. What do you use in animation for moving people? What about trees and GI – it kills the render time just to have a couple of trees. I know I can always composite but what do I do when I can’t? For example whenever I show a client a still interior with no people the first thing out of their mouth is “get a bunch of people in there.”

I started out in ACAD modeling and then as I got to know Max I just dropped AutoCAD. Max is designed from the ground up to Model - ACAD is not. Use what is the fastest way but I can't think of a thing in AutoCAD that you can't do faster in MAX Booleans in Max are a joke but you learn to work around it and only use it when you have to and can get good results. The accuracy issue is a non issue once you understand the snaps and grid tools. Just my thoughts Brett

Oh - also if Viz 4 allows (I know Viz 3 does not) add a VERY subtle lens effect such as a star. Since the lens can see the light directly this is legal to do. Most of the time people use it at the wrong time and turn it way up. Brett

Add self illumination to the lamp and fixture parts - you will probably need to have an omni in each of the light fixtures but don’t let it cast light on the ceiling - being down lights. The scene looks good but feels flat - you have too much ambient lighting - it looks soft but everything is lit the same. Either turn down ambient lighting or turn it off. You need more contrast in the image. Brett