RenderMan and Painter

[Gary David Bouton]

Here's another one that uses RenderMan, very similar in feel and look. I was captivated by magicians what I was a kid; they were like gods to me.


My Best,
Gare

[bmh216]

Gary,
So, you did finally buy Maya? Last I heard you were working with the PLE. Did you take the plunge? I know it can get a bit expensive, especially if you want "Unlimited". Ahh, but I'd love to give it a run. I've played with it, but to learn yet another app (besides Lightwave and Max) would mean yet another learning curve and all that frustration (you know, where the heck is the button that does whatever).

Nice magician image there. I have seen some fantastic work come out of RenderMan. It's like the defacto standard in alot of studios, and I can see why.

Brett

[s.winders]

Thats cool Gare


You have a real knack with that kind of style.

[Gary David Bouton]

Thanks, Stu... I think I have a "style" in E3D and MacroModel...

Brett--

Yeah, I took the plunge. Actually, I traded in a Town & Country for a Mercury Sable and had some bucks left over. (We're talking about trading a car for software here! )

Here's the last in a trio of MacroModel RenderMan renders called "Magic Hat". BTW, I used a caning shader for the bottom of the chair, and the mannequin is hand-built...no Poser. I have to use Windows 3.1 to use MacroModel 'cause it won't work in a 32 bit system. That's why Maya is at the top of my list. How hard can it be to learn? I only really know how to use E3D, so my head isn't full of applications yet!

My Best,
Gare

[gidgit]

Hi Gary... terrific render as per usual

Maya is great at many things but for box modeling Wings3D is better... and this is not only my opinion... many a Maya fanatic, as well many using other apps now utilize the powerfull boxmodeling tools in Wings3D eh...


do most modeling in Wings then import to Maya...

Note... C4D v8.2 will bring about many new features that are now found in Wings eh, and who knows, maybe the next version of Maya will bring about the same, but... for now, and for learning the craft I would really and truly look no further than Wings3d... it ain't no little toy to dismiss lightly eh, I found that when I tried C4D I was in over my head at first, then I went the Wings3D route and now I feel pretty confident with most any app which sports the right tools for the job eh... just a friendly suggestion is all...

[Mike Bailey]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> I bought Maya <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Congratulations Gary! Maya, oooh I wish I had one.

looking foward to see more of your wonderful worlds.

Take care.

[gidgit]

Hey Gare... no no, Maya is good, maya is good, but what's wrong with using a framing hammer and a finishing hammer when building a house eh...

[This message was edited by gidgit on August 15, 2003 at 10:56.]

[bmh216]

Gary,
Congratulations on that purchase, I would love to get animating in Maya (Lightwave's CA tools suck, I can't wait for LW8). Did you get "Complete" or "Unlimited"? I know Unlimited runs quite a bit ($7K, I think?), but it's got some fantastic tools. "Paint effects" really turns me on, what a fantastic way to paint realistic detail, and Maya Fluids is unbelievable!

I'm curious, since Maya has basically three ways to model (NURBS, Poly, and Subdivision) what are you finding fits your accustomed modelling workflow best? I'm strictly used to poly and spline with LW (SubD'd as well), and a little NURBS with Rhino, so I'm curious what kind of workflow you're getting used to.

Did it come with Mental Ray? God, MR is cool. I know Renderman has it's own strengths, but the Global Illumination in Mental Ray (with Final Gathering) is just hard to beat for realism.

I do still use Wings for some projects where I need edge support, and it is a strong modeler (especially for free). Alot of LW artists use it to rough out models, later exporting to LW for SubD and tweaking.

Good luck with it Gary, let us see some renders when you get comfortable enough with it!

Brett

[Gary David Bouton]

No, I went for Complete, I believe...whichever one costs 2 grand (ouch, my aching wallet). Yes, it comes with mental ray, and my personal preference is for NURB creation, because I like to work with splines. But I can see a day when I'll be using polys, because you can do stuff with them that NURBs only approximate...and there are situations when you need to poly-create and NURBs will not turn the trick.

I posted my first attempt on a different thread, it's no mean shakes, but I'm also sorta getting into the native renderer instead of PIXAR's. It looks a lot like a photographic-type rendering engine.

My Best,
Gare

[Gary David Bouton]

This is a really simple rendering of Mr. Potato Head I did in Maya with RenderMan as the rendering engine. As you can see, the surface textures and colors are more visually important than the modeling itself.

Perhaps I need to work on lofting and extruding now


My Best,
Gare