Trying to render an infinity mirror with Arnold

[CreativeFRV]

I need to render an infinity mirror using Arnold and am not having much luck.

I've seen how this effect is easily done using Vray, but I don't use Vray, if I cant figure this out I may have to. 

So the idea is simple, two mirrors that face one another producing a cascade of reflections based on the number of reflection rays. The front mirror needs to be invisible to the camera but visible to the other mirror so it can reflect. I cant seem to get it.  I've even tried making the front mirror reflective glass, but that does not work either. The attached renders should showcase what I'm experiencing. I've tried using Arnold Properties and unchecking Visible to camera but that does not seem to work, the mirror is invisible (except where it intersects the sides) and its not reflected in the back mirror.  Any advise or help would be greatly appreciated. I have to get this done and really don't want to shift to the Art Render. SMH (Arnold why do you hate me?)

[CreativeFRV]

Any ideas? @Anonymous 

[CreativeFRV]

Thoughts guys?
@darawork
@Stephen.Blair
@Anonymous

[Stephen.Blair]

https://docs.arnoldrenderer.com/display/A5AF3DSUG/Infinity+Mirror+Scene ?

[darawork]

Sorry, I can't be of much help here, I don't use Arnold. Seems to be a good post above this though. 

Regards, 

[CreativeFRV]

Yeah I saw this one, simple tutorial, only it does not apply to what I'm trying to achieve. This is for a point light in a cube where the camera is surrounded by mirrors, if you check my renders you'll see that I'm trying to do an infinity mirror in extruded text, it's a sign for a bar. 

This should be simple, if Arnold would see object proprieties it would be... as I stated I need to make the front mirror invisible to the camera so that I can see into the text and the back mirror, which needs to reflect the inside surface of the front mirror to create the infinity effect. 

I'll look into the "Specular ray depth" setting, but I'm pretty sure it defaults to 10 and that's where it is. 

Thanks though

Frank

[CreativeFRV]

Ok, so Spec Depth was an issue! thanks for that. 

Now though, as you can see, the front mirror is allowing spec through but outside of that it's black. I need that mirror to be invisible from this angle as the inside of the extruded text needs to be seen, that and I don't want the openings to look black. Anything?

Frank

[darawork]

Hi,

Best of luck putting in random numbers into spinners. Place your bets, now
please ladies and gentlemen! Win prizes (*contestants may not actually win
prizes).

This is why I moved through MentalRay, iRay and vRay to A PBR Based
renderer. The properties of actual physically based reality materials
algorithms shouldn't allow for a veritable 'pick' n' mix' by the user. Sir
Issac Newton would be spinning in his grave if he was reading this.

In Corona render, you can't bend light. Light goes where it should. It does
not need to be told. You can't mess it up.

Whereas, unfortunately, in Arnold. Everyone can. An index of IOR set to 99?
Sure, give it a try. Why not?

🙂

[CreativeFRV]

Random numbers into spinners???

Can't say I follow, or that your reply helped any. 

I thought this was a place to share problems in the hope that someone out there has had similar experiences and wanted to offer up some practical help toward an actual solution. 

This problem is a simple one that someone with Arnold experience could I'm sure easily solve. 

Thanks anyway.

[darawork]

Sorry, I hope you get it sorted. I'm no good with Arnold. 😕

[CreativeFRV]

Me either it seems, I was so dialed in with MR back in the day. I've been doing this since the early 90's, I used max before it was max, back in the 3d studio days... feels like my hands have been tied and the rugs been pulled out from under me... I really struggle to get even the simplest things done with Arnold. You use Corona is that right? I may need to have a deeper look. 

Frank

[darawork]

Hi, 

Yeah, the whole team in the company switched, from vRay. We were getting better results, with less effort in a lot less time. The materials just work, like they should. Mostly. Liquid done in max with corona is decent enough, for Stills or smaller animations. Water and skies look natural out of the the box with minimal tweaking in corona. The entire interface is a breeze. Only downside is it's 100% cpu. I'd prefer gpu based, for a lot of reasons. But for now Corona cpu does the job. I just wished it had a different name too, for obvious reasons. You need to type in "-pandemic" (minus) to 'research' anything render related on YouTube or Google. 😣

Regards, 

[CiroCardoso3v]

Do you have a reference for what you are trying to achieve?