Hoof, Thanks! The texture was an easy create is PSP8 with the offset feature. The random colors were produced using noise and the pixilate feature to produce the greyscale, which was then set to darken a red layer... make sense? didn't to me when I first tried it... but boy does it make good bricks!

Mateo, There is a light, just not pointed at the entry... I figured that it might be a bit overwhelming... maybe I ought to try it the other way...

Dex, The attached image is the detail of the crate, but when you render at 1024x768 you lose something... The ciggies and paper were not something that I thought of, but definitely something to add, maybe an ashtray/can... Oh, yeah and I forgot the bumpers. Everytime I remember, I tell myself, then promptly forget... Mind like a sieve, this one...

Pete, the bump has to be that heavy, or the image looks too flat. Believe me, I tried. Which floor tex? The asphalt is a "noisy" black with a matte black layer above cut up by a grunge opacity mask (no tiling here). The concrete is a map, and is not tileable. I figure since we see so little of it, it might not make a difference... maybe it does...

Thanks for the crits, guys!
Ken

Boy, don't I look like my emoticon... I did permutation after permutation on my system checking the values of lights, backgrounds, etc. I hope that was all that it was... Besides... I just sat and READ the post I put up... I must have been really out of it yesterday.... Ken

Notefinger, You may want to post an image to show what you are getting, but let's see if we can figure it out from here.... The bi-gradient background is not enough to give you the appearance of glass... you're best bet to test the glass is to use a map in the background. Any jpg or so will be enough to give you the effect of transparancy that you are looking for. The problem with glass in any raytrace render is that you need something else to see through the transparancy. Some people put object behind or in the glass, some build a small environment of simple (or REALLY complex) objects to surround the glass (in front of or behind the camera). If you can see the objects through the glass then you are probably getting the black from the environment around it. Try checking the shader transparency level... These are suggestions that I would use to check to see if you are getting what you need. You can always delete the objects later. Keep Plugging at it, you'll get there Ken

Attached Link: http://www.histar.com/mornings/starchive/2004/04/honda/honda.html

The link provides a bit of explanation... Just FYI, the tires were weighted with nuts and bolt at the top so that they rolled in the right direction. The tricky part was to make sure they were balanced before they were touched so that they would domino at the time... I couldn't do it and I would definitley lose sleep and sanity to have to sit through over 600 takes... As for CGI, they said that there is only one piece and that was where the muffler was rolling along the floor. They had to cut in a bit of CGI to meld the sequences. Great animation. Don't ever want to have to set up something like that...! Ken 

Tyger, What you buy will depend on what you really want out of it. 3D Basics lacks a few of the features that Studio has, particularly Vertex Modelling. This is a primary use item for me, so I couldn't do without. Then again if you use Wings and Anim8or, then you may have a way to bring in your models. As for metaballs... well, I just haven't found a good use for them yet and they get a bit difficult to work with sometimes (my 2 pence). If you REALLY want to get into the heavy stuff (like images bigger than 1024x1024, or GI and HDRI) get the full blown package... you won't regret it.... You might be a bit overwhelmed while learning, but having the extras when you need them is so much better than not and then having to buy the full later... Again, my 2 pence... Ken

Cross posted AGAIN... boy am I slow or what! Ken

Pete, The OBJ ports the object into the VM at a higher X,Y, and/or Z axis value. Pull back on the zoom for one of the axes (I'd use Left View) and try to see if you can see it then... Hold the Z key down and the ALT key to switch to ZOOM OUT. then click on the LEFT pane. Ken

OK, here's what I found out. Testing with a known HDR image that casts shadows... HDR images DO NOT produce raytraced light as a spot, distant or bulb light do. This seems to be an integral component in producing the shadow catching effect. I tested with both the standard distant bulb (which produces the shadow) and the by making that light invisible and using an HDR that seems to cast shadows. In the case of the HDR, the shadow-catcher showed up in the render... all of it, not just the shadow. So it seems that this, groucho, is a no-go for using that particular function. I may be able to find a workaround but this may take a bit. Somebody sound off if they've already found one! Thanks Ken

groucho, Can't tell if you're trying to get shadows on the HDR or on a backdrop image... Could use a glimpse of what you are trying to map shadows onto, though. From what I can see in C3, you have the HDR image in the background and that can't really catch shadows. I'm going to try to see if I can't generate a test for shadow catchers. You may have to add a neutral backdrop and key it out in another app... Something I'll have to look into. Glad you got something out of it! Ken

I apologize to the Mac community at large here at Renderosity. At current there is no Mac version for HDRShop, and I make no claims to know any other software that will do what this one does. There has been some discussion of Virutal PC use with HDRShop as there is only the one executable file, but I cannot vouch for that. Grav, the tutorial in the thread only works for PC (right now at any rate), but the 2nd exercise is using a Bryce panorama, so, yes, it can be done... but only by a PC... :( Mateo, HDRShop does more than convert from just a spherized panorama, but that it can do. It can take a 6 face-image and create the sphere or standard panorama from it. The attached images were all created from the bottom panorama. Ken 

HK, Could you send me a copy of the file that you used in C3? The TIF would be fine. I want to check it out and see if this does the same thing in my machine (a PC). If necessary I can report the bug to Eovia if it is cross platform, or even if it isn't. Ken

Nope, sorry nomuse. HDR is strictly a lighting format. Used for creating lightdome lighting from images and imagemaps. The lighting that you can get from them is quite superb, but that is a topic for another day... or at least until I finish the tutorial... Here's a sample of what I've done with some of the tutorial stuff... no lights, just the HDR image in the background setting. The HDR image is of a Christmas tree picture from 2 years ago.... Ken 

nomuse, I believe that the bump algorithm reads the luminence value and uses that as the key, so no, you wouldn't get any more levels of height. This is not true of HDRI though, and you can get an awful lot more levels of light using the HDR format than standard LDR (BMP,JPG, TIF)... [sorry for the OT non-sequiter, still working on the tuto for creating your own HDR's: It's tough making sure that you can duplicate your own work!]. Ken

HK, I believe you were using a JPG image as the bump map? This I'm assuming this from the fact that those lines look like compression artifacts that you get from JPG images. If I'm wrong, OOPS... But Hoof has it right... use a greyscale image in either bmp or tif format... this is lossless and will result in nice clean lines... usually. Ken

Ominous, When you weld vertices you get three options; Use default tolerance Weld all selected vertices Use custom tolerance Now tolerance is the distance between vertices that you select that it welds together. If the tolerance is .1 and your vertices are farther apart than that, nothing would be welded. If they are less than that, they anything with .1 unit of a vertex would be welded together. The easiest way to deal with this is get your two halves as close together as possible, then select the central line of the model (aka the mirror points). Choose weld and then select custom tolerance. Now I usually use .1 in custom tolerance, but in the Carrara preferences area you can set the default to whatever distance you want. If your model is small, then you probably want a smaller value. If the weld doesn't completely work, then undo (Ctrl-Z) and weld again with a larger/smaller value. Keep an eye on the statistics in the sidebar. The selected vertices should drop to half the previous number after the weld. As for the sharpness, after the weld keep the same selected vertices and run the smooth command (Selection->Smooth edges->All). This should rid you of the creasing. Ken