dunno if I'm doing something wrong, but I followed the tutorial word for word, checked it through several times, but I still can't get the light fog/rays to render. The caustics on the seasbed and water surface are fine, but no light rays. Tried all the normal ways of using fog within the spotlight, and even that doesn't render with this setup.....am I missing something glaringly obvious?

Hi Pootang,

If you can upload a copy of your scene somewhere i'll go through it and check. it might be something little or it could be a mistake that ive made in the tutorial.

Firth thing to mention is make sure you are using Mental Ray for rendering as maya software will not work for this effect. in terms of the missing rays it could be a parti_volume issue or even a camera issue. as i sai if you send me the scene i'll have a look and point you in the right direction.

Callum

Hi Callum,

Thanks for the tutorial, just what I'm looking for for a project I'm doing. Did you find the solution to Pootang's problem in the end, as I seem to have the same one?

Regards,
Chris

I havent heard back from them yet but if you are willing to send me your scene then I will have a look at it.

Callum

Think I've found the solution. Nothing wrong with your tutorial, just not quite clear on the diagrams... the Scatter colour on parti_volume1 and parti_volume_photon1 shouldn't be black, but dark grey instead.

Hope this helps anyone.

Thanks again,
Chris

ahh I see. yeah by moving the slider to the position indicted it should be the same however I shall make a note on the tutorial so that in future people who are reading will better understand the setup.

I'm glad the tutorial otherwise has been of use.

Callum

i can't find "parti_volume_photon1" can you please help me, i followed your instructions tep by step but it seems its not there, what do you think is the problem? Thanks

The parti_volume_photon node is a mental ray node that can be found under the “photon volumetric materials” section. its not in the same section as the parti_volume node.

sorry wheres this "photonBoundry Cube "?

its just a normal polygon cube, that if you have followed the tutorial, you have named "photonBoundry" you will see it in the outliner. its the first cube you created.

yeah thanks for that, i wasnt using the 1st page..! just trying to adapt your tut for the scene i was working on .. while i am here, when using photons would putting a cube around any scene create a "boundry" and thus reduce render time?

great

Got a Little problem here, I can see the light on the seabed and waterbed but no volumetric light visible! Checked all the settings and the color of the photonscatter. Any idea's what might be going wrong?

"Now where it says "Phot Volume Shader" click the chequered box and select "parti_volume_photon" from the "Photonic Volumetric Materials" section under the Mental Ray nodes. Again leave the settings alone for the node as we'll set them up later"

Those this mean you create a new parti photon volume in the volumeshader for the camera? Or attach partivolume1 and in then create a photon volume in the partivolume1.

Can't seem to get it right. still no volumetric light visible.

Hi, can you send me your scenes? Thank you very much for this tutorial.
Email: tinhnhien@gmail.com
Regards,
Tamu

the tutor is helpful, thanks a lot!!!!!

I followed the tutorial as u say , but I still can't get the light fog & rays effect in render. The caustics shown on the seabed and water surface are fine, but was no light rays in between. try 2 help me out.

Thanks for the tutorial!
pretty sure it worked for me, but its hard to tell because this render time is ridiculous
i've been rendering for over 10 minutes and its only 10% done. I also have a lil creature in the scene but it was created out of one polygon sphere so its hard to beleive that that is slowing it down much
Im using my schools computer:
Intel Xeon, 2.53ghz (2 processors)
windows i7
12 gb ram
quadro FX 1800 graphics card (768 mb dedicated memory)
is there something wrong?
thanks for the help

many thanks for the tutorial.

I have a problem with the camera , if its outside the cube boundry the rays render fine but when i move the camera inside the cube they dont any idea why ? and on how to fix it ?

This was a great tutorial, thanks for this one.

hi i try to do the same step i am not getting the out put.......... the fog wave effect is not coming what to do and this is my file.

nice!!! thank you

Ok I found the problem. I don't recall seeing in your tutorial any instruction to connect "parti_volume_photon1" as the Phot Volume Shader for transmat1SG and and dielectric1SG.

For the life of me I cannot get the volume rays to appear. I'm not a novice, but I can't discount the possibility that I'm missing a step (I'm doubtful though). I tried to the tutorial over at escapestudios and was able to get the volume ray to come out the other side of the glass sphere, but as soon as I try working with displacement maps I got nothing. Enabling Auto Volume doesn't help either. Can someone diagnose my scene (maya 2011)?

hey can u mail the scence@gada_paras@yahoo.com

thank u very much, its so helpful.. for me, once again thanks..buddy

please send me your scene! thanx maximave@gmail.com

ugh. Ive redone the tutorial 2 times now, and my computer keeps locking up and maya isnt responding.

great tutorial but this took like 30mins to render iirc, not sure if these settings could be optimised or is that generally how slow all gi stuff is?

when you follow the tutorial ,and you set up the camera,the settings is for pesp camera.
you should render it with pesp camera,and get the light fog.

thank you sir, i got this result, great tutorial... thank you. but i cant change this color please tell me..

hey i I followed the tutorial,but at the end i can't get final result in render..can u help me

I have followed this Tutorial word by word inspite of that I'm not getting any result. Can You pleaze help me out.

thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanx. . . . .actually i been lokking for this . . . . now only i got it . . . . .

Just want to say KINDLY PLEASE CHECK THAT "AUTO VOLUME" IS ON IN THE OPTIONS . It may be in 2nd or 3rd Tab. Chk it out it may help...One thing for Sure Volume light take much more time to Render In fact more than FINAL GATHER...So take a separate pass for it.

Hope this help

I'm looking for this tutorial for several months. I didn't know about this tut on creative crash. Now I've got it, and I'm going to dive with this all times favorite tutorial. Thanks the author Callum Ridley for your great effort. Keep moving with some more extra ordinary tuts.

wonderfull but 1 advice 4m me. Just show the working file images instead attribute editor images.. people easily came to know wen u show the working file images...

thank you

hi callum, great tutorial... but i m not getting any output any lights ... render scene is coming pure black .... can u pls send me your maya scene file so that i can come to know where i am doing wrong....pls ilove this effect... pls send me your scene file at animatornj@gmail.com

hey thanks buddy.... i got that ouput....i made one mistake in the starting... forgotn to unchek that interactive creation in the starting... but getting two different output ... on maya 2012 effect is coming much better than maya 2009 ..... anyways great tutorial man.....pls upload some more tutorials for some other effects.... thanks buddy... :)

many thanks for this tutorial, works very well!

Callum,

I need to change the scale of the scene but the results are bad. Also, the caustics on my seabed floor are rows of squares and look very artificial. Can I email you my file?

Thanks!! :)

How do you save it and see the animation?

Anyone know how to save the animation and see it?

Hey Callum

Thanks for the tutorial. However, i am getting problems rendering the scene.. its coming out black. Any ideas what's causing this?

Cheers! :)

thanks for tut callum.

It looks quite good, but in the end after I add the parti_volume, my computer was unable to render out...I guess this effect must be very expensive to render ha.....

hi, like your tutorial, but i dont know how i can get rid of the artifacts on the watersurface (black spots)

Pika :)

Thanks for tutorial. Works well, but did't helped me much. What I am actually trying to do, is volume colored caustics for splashes of water (mesh from nparticles) . I tried even simple cube with dielectric material, but don't seem to have a same effect. I would be grateful for any tip/idea. :)