Rendering in Maya - First Ever Post!!!!

[clebo99]

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

[Chucky]

The quality of your renders has nothing to do with your videocard.

I has everything to do with your light setup and the materials you use.

 

Maybe you can post some images to make clear what you mean.

[clebo99]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]38930[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]38929[/ATTACH]

 

Kind of like this. I mean. They just don't look real. Now, since then, I've looked at some tutorials and seem to have gotten a little better, but I want it all to look "more real".

 

Make sense?

[gfx3d]

try finalrender u will get good result at minimal setting