Mental ray anyone?

[Tahllulah]

Hello All,

Anybody have any opinions or anything to say about Mental Ray....Good or Bad? when it works, when it doesn't.....When it comes to rendering why is it better or worse than any other software package?

Just doing my research in to rendering tools and there seems to be varying opinions....Please help!

Cheers

[a2visual]

Mental Ray is a very powerful renderer and it is used on features, commercials, and many other types of work. I wouldn't say that it's an industry standard (Renderman usually wins that one) but it's up there. I've used mental ray for all my maya work, and I've been pleased, but I just use it a little bit, maybe a set extension, etc. What is your level of experience and what do you plan on using it for? Also, what software app do you use?

I just installed the eval version of Renderman for Maya and it's pretty good as well. Here's some links to some other popular renderers.

Renderman

nVidia's Gelato

Maxwell Render

I'm really eager to try out this last one, Maxwell, because it is supposed to replicate real light physics exactly instead of "faking" it like other renderers.

Good luck!

[revolutionary_edge]

Mental ray is very good renderer as it gives you a completely satisfying output unless and until you know how to use each and every option. The best thing about mental ray and all these renderers is you don't have to use that much light sources to get a realistic
output rather than normal rendering engines. it some time takes time but the out put what you achieve after so much of pain is worth it.

[Tahllulah]

I just love this site!!!!!

a2visual,

I am currently working on a shipwreck scene, want to bring the water and the boat to life....some people say mental ray is great others say it isn't so....thanks for your input thats great. I am using Maya.....I'm not great yet though so I am a little embarassed to post my work, but when I am good enough it will certainly be up there.

Thank you also revolutionary edge....you guys are great....really helpful.

Are there any big problems with it though? I never used it before and I don't want to run in to major headaches !!!!

xxxxx
Lulah

[a2visual]

Mental Ray works pretty well, I use it for all my renders except for hardware particles. Go check out Highend3d.com and download some shaders and mess around. There are also some tutorials there about IBL and rendering in mental ray that are very useful.

[Mental_Raymond]

All depends what your needs are. Mental ray has great GI, and is reasonably fast for production use too with its FG freezing features. Has great support for network and multithreaded rendering, and is now very stable in the packages its built into ie max-xsi etc. Some of nice built in shaders too such as SSS and ambient occlusion. Its also one of the fastest production proven raytracers going, so again, if your scene has lots of reflections, refractions, and you dont want to fake them, then MR can handle that quite happily.

On the other hand, if your working on a shot where you have lots of displacements on your 3d objects, and need lots of motion blur, then Renderman leads the way. Its great for very large complex scenes. the only issue with this is you need a little extra time in settings things up, but if your using maya for renderman, then its pretty painless.

Sometimes when im working on a shot, i find using both quite useful. For instance, im working on an underwater shot at mo of a shark. Im using MR for the water surface, for its great raytracing, then for the shark im using Renderman, as it has displacements, and alot of motion blur in shot.

Dan.

[skinnie buddah]

Tahllulah, I was just reading some stuff about Mental Ray....I don't have first hand experience, but according to all the big guns, Mental Ray by far the best render package for films. There is an opportunity to ask Mental Ray questions over on the mainpage. You should take a look!

[skinnie buddah]

Sorry, call me an idiot, you already have asked some questions. I only joined yesterday, I'm just a junior artist at the moment, but I could use someone to chat with, who else is cool on this site?

[Tahllulah]

hi skinnie buddah,
Don't sweat it. Thanks for pointing it out though. As for cool people on the site, I am pretty new myself, the guys above, a2visual, revolutionary edge and Mental Raymond really helped me out though and to be honest, most people I have come across so far have been really cool. It's best just to ask away and see what happens.

You can call on me anytime...just can't promise I will be able to help!

xx
Lullah

[haz]

mental ray takes alot of tweaking in order to get it looking right, as with most renderers alot of trial and errors (sample rates etc) is required to get the desired look.


I have never had any problems with mental ray in Maya and XSI especially when it comes down to rendering things like Ambient Occlusion.

Also there is much more support with shaders and stuff on the web than there is for renderman so if you are new and want a professional industry renderer then mental ray is definately the way.

Cheers

HaZ

CHeers