Arnold Textures Not Rendering

[Anonymous]

Hello,

Quick background, been designing/teaching/beta-testing 3D over 20 years, but new to Maya. It seems coming into Maya 2017 right as they are changing render engines is extremely bad timing for me.

I am getting very frustrated with trying to follow the esoteric methods of applying Arnold textures and rendering in Maya. I follow exact steps, get completely different/incorrect results. I ignore all tutorials and go with my "basic instinct" and get "partially" correct renders. At this point I am just too frustrated to try and figure this out on my own and really need some help.

The test scene I am trying to emulate is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aog3KDgQN00

So in my scene I have used only aiStandard textures, I used an Arnold SkyDome Light, and an Arnold Area Light. I am using "File" textures to add image based materials, only one has a Normal map. The rest are aiStandard "Presets", like "ai_glass", "ai_ceramic", etc.

When I use the Arnold RenderView I see a black and white scene. It appears that the glass is sort of showing (I can see the fresnal effect) and possibly the ceramic, but the inner liquid, the background wood panels, nothing.

The renders are even more confusing. I would be happy to share the scene file, I am just not sure if there is a "pack and go" or collect all" asset manager in Maya to share everything including textures?

Below are some images of my results in hopes someone will see a simple mistake and point it out for me.

Current Machine Specs: (Which will change today or tomorrow, new machine being built)

Intel Core i7-2600 @3.4GHz

16 GB Ram

Windows 7 64-bit

AMD FirePro V4800

Thanks!

-Leif

[Stephen.Blair]

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@Anonymous wrote:

When I use the Arnold RenderView I see a black and white scene. It appears that the glass is sort of showing (I can see the fresnal effect) and possibly the ceramic, but the inner liquid, the background wood panels, nothing.

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That suggests we're seeing the default color from the Maya File node, and that there's some errors loading the texture files. Try turning Use Default Colors off on one of the file nodes (like the wood panel texture).

Then get an Arnold log (verbosity level Warnings + Info) and check it.

Also check the script editor: is maketx successfully converting the textures to tx? If maketx fails, and there's no tx texture file to use, then you'll get the Maya File default color.

[Anonymous]

Hello Stephen, thanks for the reply.

Could you be a little more specific about everything you mentioned? I am NEW to Maya.

First problem, I can't keep Maya from crashing every **** 5 minutes! This feels like an "alpha" we are testing! I can't get the Hypershade to NOT crash every time I simply click on one of the chopsticks! Instant crash every time repeatable and can verify with steps. BUG 1

I get "Fatal Exception" errors and crash at random, usually throwing up a "save issue" of some sort. I can't repeat this one because it just comes out of no where when I am not even doing anything! BUG 2

Now back to the original problem, I found under the Arnold setting how to turn off "Use Default Colors". The convert TX is checked. The other things you mention, I have no clue as to where they are or how to use them. I did however figure out a way to save out my scene, can you verify that what you are suggestion will work with my scene?

I am working off of an SSD, is there any conflict with this software when doing so?

The stability issue is FAR TOO BUGGY for me to keep going. I am switching over to a BRAND NEW MACHINE with clean installs of everything. I believe they are setting me up with Windows 10, so I am already fretting a new world of hurt and frustration.

I am attaching the scene file in hopes you can better help me with this. This is the worst introduction to a software package I have ever encountered, if it continues to go this way, I will be forced to cancel the subscription and go back to other 3D software packages, I need to work and I can't even go 5 minutes without a **** crash!

-Leif