rendering issue

todman

Hey PC's,
I have a possible problem with 3d Max 7. When looking at the interface my character's ear looks fine, however when rendered it looks the pic here. I've tried different lights to no avail. Any advice would be appreciated.
thanx...

Wells

thats odd.. can we get a wireframe?

todman

Here's a wireframe. This is how it looks in the viewport.
thanks

Wells

If its one continuous mesh, you've got some definate edge-flow that needs to be fixed where the ear connects, and sort out the smoothing groups. Try givin the outer surface of the ear its own smoothing group, the rest of the ear a second one, and the head a third.

todman

alright, the smoothing groups didn't change anything. It is a continuous mesh. This is weird, really holding up production.
thanks

todman

OK, I'm an idiot as usual. In the Material editor I used an old slot for my 512 texture map and there was a specular map applied that was screwing it up. I didn't see it was there till now. The smoothing group thing actually made it look better too. thanks Sect!
todd