IllustratorMD

If there are any other beginners like me out there, I will be working on two cool looking tutorials I found for the next week or so. I can't post the link cause the forum wont let me but ill tell you what to google: for a tutorial on using mental ray sun and sky to render a tower thingy, google: using sun and sky in mental ray written by dzordz for a tutorial using more in depth stuff with the sun and sky, and more on mental ray textures google: Making Of Balcón Mediterráneo by David Vercher Spain they should be the first hits that come up. Reply to this message if you are interested in working along with me, or if you know of better tut on the subjects. these look decent to me but i might be wrong

Interesting! good to know that its is an option. thanks for the fast reply. I am looking into what kind of tweaking I need to do with the paint fx stuff to make them look better. I have seen some people say converting them to geometry might help, although it might slow down renders. if you have any ideas I would love to hear them. I am just a poor freelancer just starting out so I probably won't invest in any fancy plugins for some time.

Onyx looks sweet..... mabe I am wrong, but isn't it just for 3D S max? we are talking about plants in maya, no? any good tuts anyone has seen to help get paintfx trees/plants looking good I would love to see! thanks

Some things I would add to this, just trying this out using Maya 2008: Draw the CV curve select the curve, then in the surfaces menu options, go to edit curves>open/close curve with the curve selected still, go to Survaces> Planar you now have a nurb plane with the plane selected, now to go Modify>Convert>Nurbs to polygons> (box thingy) This will open the convert nurbs to polys options. I think it is best to use "quads" as the type, then hit apply now that it is a poly, you can extrude away!

@ TenjiVisual: These look really awesome. I would love to hear how you create realistic outdoor lighting, and from how other users do the same in Maya... And nighttime lighting too...