Ramp shader not rendering in Arnold

[Anonymous]

If I open a new file and create a sphere, then drag on the ramp shader, it appears correctly in my work area but will not render correctly (rendering washed out).

Additionally, in the material viewer, it will render correctly when "hardware" is selected, but not when "arnold" is selected.

Notice in the screenshot below - correct in the material viewer and scene, but rendering just as a washed out purple in arnold render.

[faline.custodio.da.silva · Accepted solution]

@Anonymous

The Ramp Shader is not supported with Arnold 5.

Check out this link: https://support.solidangle.com/display/AFMUG/Maya+Shaders

[Anonymous]

Thank you. In that case, how would you recreate the aspect of the ramp shader that allows a color ramp to be applied based on total amount of light a specific area is receiving? Some of the other aspects of the shader I can recreate with other shaders by using the samplerInfo node (for facing ratio for instance), but for that option on the ramp shader, I'm at a loss as to how that would be created manually with another shader.

[_sebastian_f]

made a quick test and it seems to work:

create a "surfaceLuminance" node, take the out value and put it as input in a "remapValue" node, use the out Value and plug it in the U/V Coordinates of a ramp.

[Anonymous]

and then the out of the ramp into the color of a basic shader? thank you for your help.

[_sebastian_f]

yes:)

[Anonymous]

i'm not sure i understand how to keep the new, final shader in the node series from adding specular and shadow over the top of the ramp of colors -

i'm also not sure i understand how to set the material properties of the original material that will catch light that the surfaceLuminance node will initial pick up on. the effect i'm trying to achieve is to be able to set a material property and light, then have that total surface light from any source converted into a ramp of specified colors that is remapped to be the final colors of render for that object and that's the final color the viewer sees of the object, without more light/shadow added over the top of those new colors - I think you understand but I'm just repeating to make sure I'm describing it well. 

my understanding now is to plug the ramp out into the diffuse color in of a lambert, for instance, but then that will light and shadow with the lights it's already referencing for the ramp of colors? 

[_sebastian_f]

i´m not sure if i understand your first sentence correctly but if you don´t want any additional shading effects on your model but the ramp output you can i.e. use an aiUtility shader set to: shade mode "flat" and color mode "color" and connect the ramp there.

[Anonymous]

I think that's what i was looking for, thank you

[ryan_r]

Why would Maya support, by default, a renderer that can't handle ramp shaders? This is lunacy. Ramp shaders have a ton of keyable attributes.

-Ryan

[mspeer]

Hi!

That's a good question.

The answer is, Arnold is a complete different renderer than Mental Ray and was also developed completely independent from Maya. While Mental Ray provided options to render physical correct mixed with other options and Maya shaders, Arnold "only" works physical correct and is highly optimized for it's own shaders, this has of course advantages and disadvantages.

The best option until now is to install Mental Ray for Maya plug-in if you want to make us of all Maya features.

[ryan_r]

Attached is a quick workaround I sorta fumbled upon.

Such an epic battle bringing years of Mental Ray work into the Arnold Era.

-Ryan

[ryan_r]

It's good to try new things, so I'm trying to wrap my head around Arnold. Furthermore, now that Mental Ray and Maya have been separated, there's a big lag between Each Maya release and the subsequent Mental Ray release.

Arnold is not a bad renderer, it does some of fancier Mental Ray tricks by default... just a big learning curve. And I'm old, which means I'm grumpy learning new tricks! 😉

-Ryan

[Anonymous]

I know this thread is a few months old. But I stumbled across this when having the same issue of Arnold not rendering a ramp. This screenshot of the hypershade graph literally SAVED my final senior animation. Thank you so much for posting it!

[ryan_r]

Glad it helped!

I still have years' worth of animations and models to rescue as we plunge into the Arnold era now that Mental Ray is DOA.

-Ryan

[Anonymous]

Oh no! I’m a college student about to graduate with my bachelors, and I’ve been using Maya only for about a year now, so Arnold is all I’ve really known! So finding out that Arnold doesn’t recognize some materials has been a bit frustrating to me. But, I’m learning!

[ryan_r]

Arnold doesn't really like any Maya material by default. It really wants you to use Arnold standard materials. No idea why Autodesk decided to go with Arnold.

[luka3rd]

---

@ryan_r wrote:

Attached is a quick workaround I sorta fumbled upon.

Such an epic battle bringing years of Mental Ray work into the Arnold Era.

-Ryan

---

Ramp and RampShader are not the same things!

So, a workaround for what? Would you mind explaining? Thx.

[ryan_r]

From the image above, you should be able to understand what the OP is talking about, semantics aside.

-Ryan

[luka3rd]

Oh, thanks for not answering...

Why bringing in the semantics? It has nothing to do with this, those two are completely different things.

Topic is simple, and I have asked a simple question.

Arnold renders Ramp perfectly, RampShader doesn't. Don't see the point of putting anything about Ramp in this topic, unless I have skipped something.

What you have attached is a simple, default, Hypershade connections, nothing new about them...

So, if you think that I am missing something, AND you have the solution, feel free to help me understand.