Hey Everyone,
I am a Maya hobbyist who has been working with it for maybe 5-6 years on and off. I would say that I'm "ok" at modeling, "ok" at animation (camera movements) and "ok" at my general understanding of Maya. I learn something all the time (I just learned how to apply the envsky to an image plane on a camera and was happy with the results). I use Maya 7 Unlimited (yes, I know it's old) and have read several of the reference guides/books that have been published.
I am trying to model/render an outdoor scene of a park near my house (an old bath house). I have the model done and I'm trying to render but I can never get my renders to render "realistically". They always look cartoonish or just not up to snuff.
My question is, how can I make my renders look more realistic? Please start with the basic concepts. Do I need to purchase a $1000 video card? I'm using a Dell 1510 Vostro laptop that does have the NVIDA card (I think that is right). Is it all about the textures? I actually am pretty good at lighting and my models that don't have textures or require anything other than walls looks pretty good.
Anyway, I hope I can get some help. This has been a hurdle for me for a long time.
Thanks everyone for helping out a noob!!!
Chris, Baltimore
