*Render Tests* Mazdaspeed RX8

[The IC]

hey people,

been doing some render and mat tests...my old RX8 is the guinea pig at the moment...this is a variation on my SGT SC430 studio, ive been searching for tutorials on real car photography to build it, because i dont like faking stuff, id rather understand how they actually set up these things

ill put more tests in here that i think look alright, and ill change the subject car around too...i have quite a few cars to use...not sure how often ill update the thread, i usually do these tests when worked on my main projects too much, but ill keep it interesting

enjoy

[crazy 989]

looks good man, although in the pics showing most of the front, the highlights go a bit wonky, cant think of another word to describe it

[The IC]

yeah, i know why that is, theres a "corner" of the reflection source reflecting off it...it does that in other places too, its one of the reasons why i do the tests, seeing where stuff has to be moved/angled etc. etc. ...the model itself is smooth

[The IC]

started some experiments on wet materials...the scenes only in early stages, i need to bump up the texture res a fair bit, unwrap a few more faces, and the tiles are very flat etc. etc. etc. ...

got an idea to do a rust bucket wreck weed infested version of the Merc Coupe too

[Catlin]

Using particles or photoshop to do that rain? looks pretty awesome. never seen it before in 3d

[scooter]

I like the raindrop effect! Great work!

[crazy 989]

holy crap, that rain looks sweet, did you bump and mask it, so theyre more reflective, or is it particles-that would be a pain

[sarN]

you got skills man. propsssssssss. isnt there way to particle snap to an object? maybe thats what he did?

[Spline01]

wanna share your studio setup

very nice

[Masakari987]

really nice job! I'd like to know how you did that rain effect, too

[LOST]

Amazing renders. Good job on that one.

[Xoliul]

Iain, a hint on how you went about doing those raindrops would be very welcome. I don't really know how I would start something like that.
Looks amazing, I never get tired of looking at your renders.

[The IC]

the rx8 stuff is only a bump map, and it doesnt look great if you get too close...particles would look much better, but theres some problems:
1)the most obvious point, the computer would have a hissy fit...VrayProxy might work, although id have to find a way to turn a particle system into a static mesh before i could do that
2) rain drops arent perfect spheres, they squash a bit, and they also have a flat base where they touch the car, and youd need to model them like that to get proper reflections and refractions...but there isnt anything in the particle systems that allow you to align the particles to be the same direction as the surface normals, apart from some heavy scripting work...they might add it into a future verion of MAX, but for the moment, its out of reach

anyhow, heres a non-monochrome render of the car (a person i work with wanted to see if it worked with a colour), and also a particle test on a sphere

[crazy 989]

looks awesome, the rains is almost spot on, just that there needs to be some streams flowing from the top to the bottom because the rain looks like someone carefully placed raindrops so the force of gravity has no impact on them , other than that looks great man

[The IC]

lol crazy 989, you just reminded me of the thrid problem i forgot about when i was writing the post ...i havent worked out a way of getting the streaking drip effect with either the bump map or the particles...its probably going to be painfully complicated

[The IC]

a car photographer is helping me build another setup...lights are a bit overflared...thats the hurdle at the moment, trying to get the spotlights to behave like real lights

[Silent][Moebius]

looking awesome. so the particles actually aren't flat at the base, so they actually submerge under the surface of the body?

[crazy 989]

looks nice, the bright white in the background is a bit much, should spread to the edges of the car maybe, and about the rain you could use the bump map in areas and on the sides model some streams that might work

[nzjimmy2001]

looks nice man... doing a great job.

[Xoliul]

Zoink, that new setup is looking even better!
And that particle test looks fantastic!