photorealistic surfacing?

[liypfhe1]

could some one give me some detail on some basic settings for photorealistic surfacing....... any help is appreciated

[thekho]

What for? Car? Head?

I think u needs to learn more about texturing. Check this Leigh's tutorial- www.newtek.com/products/lightwave/tutorials/surface/texturing_for_dummies-001/index.html

This tutorials is not photorealistic suface but it is really helpful for u to learn a basic texturing.

Good luck

[Randog]

Originally posted by liypfhe1
could some one give me some detail on some basic settings for photorealistic surfacing....... any help is appreciated

It would be very hard to spell out "basic settings" for photorealistic renderings because photoreal involves so much more than the basics.

I am not trying to be a smarta**, and I hope this post does not come across as such. It is just a very complicated task. It does not start, nor does it end, with surfacing. Every aspect of a scene is critical if you are to get close to a photoreal render. Modeling, texturing, surfacing, lighting, camera (framing, etc)...the list goes on.

So. I recomend that you start with "baby steps" and work your way up to the ever ellusive "photoreal" render.

[renatolazzaroni]

If you are going for "easy photorealism" (now THAT is an oxymoron !), you should consider photographic maps.
Combined with global illumination, you should get decent results with a reasonable amount of effort.
Personally, I always considered photographic maps a bit of a cheat, but that's just my opinion, and if you are only interested in the result, and do not care about the way it is obtained, then go for that.
Of course, books could be written on what kind of picture makes a goods map, but you were asking about the basics, so here they are:
- do not take the picture from an angle, always dead front;
- no light direction, only on an overcast day.

If you want to paint photorealistic textures yourself, then follow randog's advice, baby step by baby step, and don't expect to render Barad-Dur in all its dark splendor by the end of the week.

Good luck,

Renato

PS: I hope this does not sound discouraging. I am a big fan of photo-realism myself, and I am nowhere near being able to post anything decent here.

[liypfhe1]

i understand alittle bit about surfacing. at my school we dont have the manual that comes with lightwave . ... we have other tutorial books. for the most part i dont know exact basic guild lines to setting up goood surfaces........... plus i still dont know what every shader/ plug ins .etc........ or buttons in the program is for and what they can do


i also would like to know where could i buy the manual that comes with the program...........
thnx

[lone]

i'm no pro, but i think this may help - turn ON all your ray-tracing options (reflection/refraction/etc.).

[JDaniel]

Activate experimental features and use the "make photo-realistic" render mode. :p

[richpr]

Check out radiosity... HDR images... and texturing

[renatolazzaroni]

Originally posted by liypfhe1

i also would like to know where could i buy the manual that comes with the program...........
thnx

I don't know whether newtek sells the LW manual separately. You should contact them. In any case, the PDF version of the manual is available for free download at the following address:
http://www.newtek.com/products/lightwave/downloads/index.html
I don't know how one can use LW without the manual, anyway.

Renato