mskin

can anyone help me find tutorials on creating mental ray materials. Not so much glass and special effects, but simple architectural materials? Im not clear on what base material to use (DGS?) and my results have been pretty crappy so far.

Thiago de Andrade

There are various issues you should take into account when experimenting mental ray as your engine. The main and most basal shader is the dgs, and with it you can do almosta everything you need with very few steps (of course we're talking about Mray, which is not the easiest render engine), the Lume shaders are also very useful and surprisingly fast and accurate. Here I list some of the tutorials that helped me most, others have also been useful, but I've lost their links. And watch out, I've found out that some old tutorials, hints and tips we're completely wrong and we're passing along wrong concepts and procedures.

About DGS
http://www.jozvex.com/tutorials/glossy.html

About other shaders and procedures:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=104578

about the rendering passes and method:
http://www.evermotion.org/tutorials/...rior/index.htm

DennisHolland

Joep van der Steen wrote a book that cover all aspects of MentalRay. It's at the vismasters' shop: http://commerce.vismasters.com/catal...x?product=3608

Enjoy,
Dennis

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vertexART

wherever U try finding some MR explanations or tutes U'll end up dead-end, trust me. Dunno why, but unfortunately, it is so. A lot of time and experimenting is needed to get MR working as U want, so I guess that's why people don't like sharing... maybe I have the wrong impression...
It's all into trial and error on your own, so that's one of the reasons why not many people use it effectively. Unlike Vray, which has so much docs, that my granny can start CG-ing.

try this ongoing thread for various mats created by Jeff Patton and other guys at CG talk
MR shader disucssion
U can try Jeff's site too at www.jeffpatton.net for sample scenes and mats.

there are threads at maxforums and vizdepot dedicated to MR experiments too, so have a go on them.
hope it helps and post some efforts if U want,
cheers

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Pixero