Help on EZ topic. =)
I'm sure this is EZ for many of you, but I'm stuck on something bizarre.
In max 2010, I've created a plane object , put 3 grass shaped scatter objects on it to create a simulated grassy feild.
Problem is, when I put a light in , it seems to caste darkness over the feild, instead of actual light. I'm so confused. Maybe someone here knows what I'm doing wrong. Here's the image of this strange darkness appearing when the light is added to scene.
Thanks for any help on this.
In max 2010, I've created a plane object , put 3 grass shaped scatter objects on it to create a simulated grassy feild.
Problem is, when I put a light in , it seems to caste darkness over the feild, instead of actual light. I'm so confused. Maybe someone here knows what I'm doing wrong. Here's the image of this strange darkness appearing when the light is added to scene.
Thanks for any help on this.
Replies
Here is the light properties:
Thanks for any help.
nothing funky with that object is there? the grass blade? also, can u try a different type of light, and the basic max scanline renderer.
ta
http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=63361
Here are more images of this bizarre rendering anomaly. Here's two scenes, I took a standard AEC plant object scattered over the PLANE object. Just a simple process, add the light and still , notice how it casts blackness over the scatter object.
In the top shot, the meshes look like inverted cones, so they'll be black on the far side. The bottom shot looks similar.
For the original problem, have you tried Reset Xform? Also have you scaled the light or the camera in any way?
Here's another attempt, a single grass shaped poly object applied as a scatter object onto the plane.
It renders fine but when I put in a light (omni, or spot, with default settings) it castes this bizarre blackness over the scatter object.
The omni in the scene is positioned directly in the center of the plane, so I assume it should light up the center but in this case it just shooting light onto half the plane and black on the other half.
It seems nobody who seen this has encountered the problem yet - may I ask, does anyone else here use the scatter technique to simulate a grass terrain?
Is there a better method then this that I should be using?
I really appreciate any input, thank you!
After adding 1 Target Directional light (shadows ON) and 4 Omni's (shadows OFF) on all sides of the field, the lighting remains consistent from all sides with no black anomalies.
Thanks x1000 to all who helped me on this!! :thumbup:
Also learned about the shell modifier and ResetXform / Collapse technique. Thank you!
The grass is just a single triangular shape made from 2d splines (converted to poly> bend modifier to 60 degree> collapse all) with a 2 sided green material applied. The grass object is then applied as a scatter object over the plane.
When you add the light this black patch appears as the pictures above show. But I've managed to get that under control with adding a Target Directional and some well placed Omnis, and it appears to work.
@aniceto:
Darn I was really hoping the lighting was the issue.
My grass blade has only 1 side, a 2 dimensional object... but I tried using one version with the Shell modifier to thicken it up and had same problem. I tried using a full 4 sided box mesh as the grass blade and that two had the problem (I believe).
The only luck I've had eliminating the black spot in the field was by adding that Target Directional and 4 omnis. Seemed to work but if you know the real problem I'd love to know, and finally put this to mystery to rest.
http://rapidshare.com/files/385893441/Grass_project.max.html
I included a grass object called "Sample" in the scene, made exactly like the one scattered on the plane, so you can see how its made.
btw: very grateful for your help.
I'm not sure why you had a problem with the shell not fixing the issue, unless you just rendered from one angle and only saw the dark side of the grass objects?
I did exactly what you did, and IT WORKED!!! Don't know what I missed when trying the shell technique the first time, but YES, following your simple steps solved the problem from all angles.
I wasn't aware of GI so I'm spending time now to investigate and apply it to the scene. (gonna look into fill lights too).
It went away when I started with a 3-sided Cylinder instead of a Plane, or when I used Shell on the Scatter object.
Even with the HF modifier you can instantiate custom poly or mesh nodes - but with greater control.
Here's a render using Hair and Fur on a plane, with one target directional light overhead (no shadows):
However when I Enable shadows on the overhead light, all the Fur/grass turns black like so:
If anyone wants to look at the file and see if they can figure out why the Fur turns black in the light, Here's the link:
http://rapidshare.com/files/386063577/furgrass2.jpg.html
Also set the light to shadow map instead of ray traced. I think you'll have to set the hair/fur to render as geometry before you can ray trace. also ray tracing with that much geometry is going to kill render times, might as well go with a nice quick fuzzy shadow map.
You might want to kill the opacity setting for the tips, that's great for getting a fuzzy look but not so great for grass. Also toss in some kink and frizz. The great thing about doing it this way is that you can have it effected by dynamics now like gravity, wind and collision objects.