Classic MGA

[tom120934]

Shapes are pure and very smooth. I love your rims. Very nice progress so far, keep us updated !

Can we have a wire and a clay render ?

[Silent][Moebius]

rims look great, how about some white-wall tires? (yeah i just watched Cars )

[R0cky103]

@Silent][Moebius: Thanks, yes i will do both a white wall tire and black sidewall tire.

@tom120934: Thanks, Ill get a clay and wire posted soon.

[R0cky103]

Ok guys I’m really in need of some help!!

First I'll explain my background.. I’m strictly self-taught, meaning I have had no 3D training, courses, or anything. Everything I know has been from the tutorials available on the internet (in most cases outdated tutorials) and from just playing around with the software. Most of what I know is in the actual creation of the model, what I lack is a good understanding of lighting and rendering techniques (which is where my problem is).

My problem is the annoying black dots (artifacts) that pop up all over my renders. As the more complex my model becomes the more trouble I have with these things. When I first started out I wasn’t having any problems with them at all as seen from the first few renders on page 1 of this thread, but as I modeled the rest of the body and having to zoom out to get the whole car in the render scene the more those dots became a problem.

My scene is pretty basic: It’s just a plane with two edges of the plane extruded to act as simple walls. I have 2 lights, a skylight with a 1.3 multiplier, and a photometric target area light with ray traced shadows turned on. I also have an HDRI environment.

My render settings is MENTAL RAY with final gather on Samples:45 Filter:1 (I have raised these setting several times but still get black dots in my renders). Samples per pixel is set to Minimum:1 Maximum:16 and a BOX filter type.

Software is 3D Studio Max 8

Bellow is a render that shows my problem, its really bad around the wheels.
I would be grateful for any advice, tips, anything.

[R0cky103]

No one has any ideas??? I could really use help with my renders.


Here is a requested Clay render.

[multimediaman]

one thing I could think of that MAY be creating those is that you've got the number of raytracing "bounces" set too low. There's an option in the render controls, (F10), when you go into the Raytracer tab for Maximum Depth.

The maximum depth, and color to use at max. depth is basically this:

When two planes are facing eachother, each one can reflect the surrounding objects just fine... unless one of those objects is reflecting something as well. So with 0 for the maximum depth, reflections will not pick up other object's reflections... and this also includes self-reflecting itself. So if you've got Zero maximum depth, each plane will reflect the other plane as what ever the diffuse color of that object was, mixed with the color to use at max. depth (which is usually always set to black, since that leaves the colors undistorted)

At 1, each plane will reflect the other plane, and instead of showing the base material in the first reflection depth, it will pick up the first level of reflection depth... so it will start looking like a hall of mirrors.. until the reflections in the second plane show the original plane again, at which point you'll see the base color again. This can go on and on for as long as you set it to go, but the more depth, the longer the reflections take to calculate.


but yeah, I threw in a torus knot and some other primitives and got similar artifacts on my render ... so I'd suggest checking that first before anything else I'd recommend using 3 for your max. depth, then just using the material's own supersampling set to max 2.5 star to anti-alias the reflections, making the max. depth hits smoother and less erroneous-looking

[tom120934]

As I'm using only Blender, I can't be of help with settings specific to the software you're using. For such a problem with Blender / YafRay (external renderer usable with Blender, just like MentalRay for example), I think I will first try to increase every quality setting available. Example : you talked about "Min samples" number to 1 while "Max samples number" is 16. Try to put min and max to a same value, to be sure it always do high quality. Like mmm suggested, adding to bounce limit is a good idea.

Thanks for your clays, they just confirm what I've thought at first glance : your shapes are flawless !

[Silent][Moebius]

excellent model and clays look almost flawless, i have to add though that your front wheel arch seems to be a bit wobbly, if it has to be like that nevermind my comment

[R0cky103]

@multimediaman: Thanks alot for your help.. With a combinations of your suggestions and me changing a few other settings around i was able to get a pretty good result (pictured bellow) render times increased just a bit but ill take it if it will produce good renders. Again thanks for your help.

@tom120934: Thanks for your help as well, I tried increasing the samples to 16 but it didnt solve the problem just made render times very long. While it didnt solve my problem Im still grateful for ur efort in trying to help me solve it.
Thank you for the comments on my model as well, I wouldnt say they are flawless but thanks!

@Silent][Moebius: If im understanding you correctly, your talking about how the shadow above the wheel arch seem wobbly that could indicate that the fender isnt right? I think its because right at that spot is where the fender of the car balloons outward a bit (this can be seen better from the overhead clay render is posted) . Im pretty sure thats how it's suppose to be, but I could be completely wrong and you could be right, so ill check into that a little more. Either way good eye on spoting it.

Again Thanks for all the comments and the help!

[tom120934]

Really nice improvement in render. Looks like you've found good settings for final picture. Just manage to complete the car

[Silent][Moebius]

ah a great render, very nice stuff

[willi_44]

Very nice job,
I like It !!!

Just a little thing ; I'm not sure but you've got a flat above the front wheel.

+Will

[LOST]

It's lookin' great. Very good lookin' rims. I can't wait to see it finished.

[R0cky103]

Not much of an update but an update non the less, busy busy . Added the lower front panel under the bumper, tweaked the wheels and tires just a tad, and started work on the windsheild.

[Silent][Moebius]

it's slowly coming together, keep going!

[JensP]

Hi willi_44,
this is great job so far - really nice! Stunning car!

But I am not so sure about one or two things:

- the windscreen is by apr. 10-15% too low and the curvature isn´t quite right.

- the wheels look better now, but they are way too wide. Original tire size was 5.60-15 (rim width-diameter in inch).

There is a side called mgaguru.com where you can get some technical datas.

The wires will need some attention too. I did some Borranis with 72 Spokes for my project and could give you some tips if you like.

A speciallised car/tire dealer could give you the informations too - and they will, if you talk about your project and your ambition. Because they are car enthusiasts too.

But if you don´t want to spend days with mind blowing wire-work, what about some centre locked Dunlop alloys like the ones the Jaguar D-Types had in those days? They would perfectly fit to your car, because they where optional on the TC models and are not so demanding (work and render time).

Go on - it´s a stunning car, as I mentioned before.

[R0cky103]

@Jensp: Thanks much for the comments and the suggestions, I will check up on the scale of the windscreen. It matched perfectly with the blueprints, but they can be off a bit sometimes. As far as the wheels; I’m going for a slightly wider wheel and tire on purpose, I want them to be a tad bit wider.

@Silent][Moebius: Hehe ya its defiantly "slowly" coming along Sorry about that, time to work on it isn’t something i have much of right now but ill try to get some better updates soon.

Working on some updates right now but in the mean time here is two new renders I did.

[JensP]

Hi ROcky103 (sorry for picking up the wrong name last time!)

as I said before you are on the right way. My comments where on a very high level, because the rest of the car looks so good!

[R0cky103]

Update:
I've started working on the interior a bit, there's still a lot to do but it's a start.
Right now I'm working on the trim and door panels (pictured). Note: The right guage is just a dupliacte of the left one until i can get it finished, just ignore it.