Buggy Manual Rig Test #1

Here's a test of the manual Buggy animation rig. The wheels rotate according to the forward translation of the global mover controller. This is done by the expression:

objectRotate = controllerTranslate * 2 * Pi * wheelRadius;

I found this expression in the "Maya: Professional Tips and Techniques" book by Lee Lanier. A great book for exactly what the title states. However, upon closer inspection, I noticed that the equation can be simplified to:

objectRotate = controllerTranslate * Pi * wheelDiameter;

Maybe it's a math thing where it's customary to state the radius, but it seems a little convoluted for my purposes. It's hard to see in the little blogger video window, so the download link is below.



Larger Size Video

Buggy Daylight Renders

Here are three different daylight renders for the buggy utilizing Mental Ray's Physical Sun and Sky rendering attribute. Here are a few other fixes that might not be as apparent.

- Consolidated all referenced geometry.
- Optimized a 253mb file down to a lean 187mb.
- Downsized most image maps by 1K (3K down to 2K, 2K down to 1K)
- Took out the color map for the tires in favor of a base color.

Also took out the white 'GoodYear' logo. The logo is still present in the bump map for the tire, but can't really be seen unless the camera pulls up close.

Rendering in Maya still crashes the software even with the optimization, but command line rendering works just fine. The images below are rendered at 1280x720, and takes about 6.5 to 7 minutes to render a frame on a dual Xeon 3.2ghz workstation.

I do realize the dirt on the tires is different than the dirt on the body. It will be fixed for the next update. Also to come, simple manual animation rig.

Dirt Tires on Buggy

Maya repeatedly crashes while trying to render the tires in the Studio Stage setup, so here's an image of the tires on the base buggy (pre-mentalRay paintjob). I chose to disable the bump mapping for the time being, since the baked version didn't seem want to work.

For the crashing part, my guess is that the Studio Stage scene file is extremely convoluted. The base buggy body panels were replaced with other referenced in updates such as the ZBrush-painted muddy panels. Next step is to consolidate all the referenced scenes into one solid scene file for the model of the buggy. After that, outdoor composite render alongside live action cars.

Tire Texture Update

The old UV's were dumped in favor of a single cylindrical map. The dirt is a layer texture consisting of a 3d Rock texture and a 3d fractal, with a map to control their coverage. The ribbed sidewall is applied via bump.

Decal Updates

Decal with bump mapped details applied to it.


Studio render with decal and no bump mapping.


Studio render with bump mapped decal.

Decal Placement

Couldn't find the utility to layer mental ray shaders, so I figured the next best thing. I duplicated the geometry of the door panel, made transparent (except for decal), and turned off any shadow casting properties. Then I moved the geometry up and out from the surface just enough to avoid the flickering from crashing geometry.