Materials Appear Faded or Washed Out

[jason.combs]

I have a scene which includes a brick material among others. I have set up the material with a Stone template and a Tiled diffused map. When I render the scene the material appears faded or washed out. The colors are lighter than intended.

I have tried different lights to correct, but have not had any luck. Any suggestions????????

Attached is the original material and the rendered result.

[dellis]

Have you adjusted anything in the environment dialogue....specifically the ambient colour?

[jason.combs]

First, thanks for replying. This is getting confusing and frustrating.

Attached are my environment settings.

I have tried the same general settings in an entirely different scene and get similar results so I am gaining some sanity back :).

I am wondering why my material does not look like what it is in the scene.

I think much as to do with the lighting. I am trying to mrSun/mrSky because it looks good. I need to get the sun angle down low to the horizon so as not to cast a long shadow on the porch. See attached.

Any more ideas? Lighting suggestions? Config? Anything????

[Steve_Bennett]

what version of VIZ are you running? It might be due to not using an mr material or the proper preset material. certain versions of VIZ have made it much easier to work with mr settings and taken a lot of the guess work out of things. Typically you need to have all lights, materials and render engines set to the same type - in your case mental ray.

[jason.combs]

Cool.

Now then, how do I make my materials mr compatible? When I view the Material Browser, mental ray materials show as incompatible.

[Steve_Bennett]

Cool.

Now then, how do I make my materials mr compatible? When I view the Material Browser, mental ray materials show as incompatible.I need to know which version of VIZ you are running first to best help you in the steps to take.

[jason.combs]

Autodesk VIZ 2008.

PS - I believe that my issue has to do with lighting as well as materials. I have a "blazing" sun assembly shining on the building. Any pointers with managing the sun component would be great too.

thx

[dellis]

Do you have your logorithmic exposure control turned on? When using mrSun/Sky this always has to be on! In the environment and effects dialogue go to the expposure control rollout and choose Logorithmic from the drop down. You might also have to check the exterior daylight checkbox as well.

let me know if that works....

[Steve_Bennett]

Try what Dwayne suggested first. If that does not help, read on, although the following info will benefit you on your next project and perhaps even now.

Autodesk VIZ 2008.

PS - I believe that my issue has to do with lighting as well as materials. I have a "blazing" sun assembly shining on the building. Any pointers with managing the sun component would be great too.

thxTypically the workflow in VIZ 2008 is to first switch to the mr CUI. To set this current, go to the Customize menu pulldown, then select :Custom UI and Defaults Switcher". When the dialog box appears, select the DesignVIZ.mentalray in the upper left window. (see attached pics for ref.).

Once that is done, you will need to swap out any existing lights for mr based ones. This includes any photometric or omni lights or sun based systems to the mr equivalants. The same goes for materials. Once you have swapped your interface to work with mr, the materials will no longer be "incompatible". Take any existing materials and replace them with mr materials for them to work properly with the mr render engine.

If you start your scene to begin with under mr settings and apply only mr lights/materials, it will obviously go much smoother. Also, there are a number of presets that VIZ 2008 includes to help make rendering with mr somewhat easier.

[jason.combs]

Do you have your logorithmic exposure control turned on? When using mrSun/Sky this always has to be on! In the environment and effects dialogue go to the expposure control rollout and choose Logorithmic from the drop down. You might also have to check the exterior daylight checkbox as well.

let me know if that works....

Both are checked, thanks. :)

[jason.combs]

Thanks for the valuable advice.

Is mr the preferred rendering solution in VIZ now?

I switched my current scene, but mental ray materials are still incompatible.


Try what Dwayne suggested first. If that does not help, read on, although the following info will benefit you on your next project and perhaps even now.
Typically the workflow in VIZ 2008 is to first switch to the mr CUI. To set this current, go to the Customize menu pulldown, then select :Custom UI and Defaults Switcher". When the dialog box appears, select the DesignVIZ.mentalray in the upper left window. (see attached pics for ref.).

Once that is done, you will need to swap out any existing lights for mr based ones. This includes any photometric or omni lights or sun based systems to the mr equivalants. The same goes for materials. Once you have swapped your interface to work with mr, the materials will no longer be "incompatible". Take any existing materials and replace them with mr materials for them to work properly with the mr render engine.

If you start your scene to begin with under mr settings and apply only mr lights/materials, it will obviously go much smoother. Also, there are a number of presets that VIZ 2008 includes to help make rendering with mr somewhat easier.

[Steve_Bennett]

Thanks for the valuable advice.

Is mr the preferred rendering solution in VIZ now?

I switched my current scene, but mental ray materials are still incompatible.The change for materials should become available after restarting VIZ. In your material/map browser click the radio button on the left side under "Compatable with" -> Renderer. This will show all materials compatable with the mental ray render engine. If the materials you setup previously were built before the switch then most likely you will need to rebuild the matierals using mr presets.

Mental Ray is definitely the preferred choice for rendering in VIZ 2008, provided you are trying to use the software out of the box. There are other plugins but you may as well get comfortable using the software first before adding on another level of complexity.