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Old 3rd February 2009, 04:05 PM   #1
Mole
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Question The dumbest question

How do you render? It seems obvious, click the button with Render written on it . . . and that's the point I discovered it isn't that simple.

After several attempts I've finally drawn my first 3D object, yes it's a shirt button
Name:  button.png
Views: 384
Size:  40.6 KB
don't laugh, the wife wanted it for some craft thing she's doing with Photoshop.

Anyhow, I click Render and up pops the Pov-Ray spash screen followed by a window full of scrolling numbers. Then, in a frame below there's some messages which end by saying how long it took and finally "POV-Ray finished". There were no error messages, and considering I'm a complete noob at this, that was quite an achievment.

Now then, its created this file ac3dpovfile.pov. So I opens IrfanView to look at it and get the message Unknown file format etc. Then I had another look at it in TextPad and saw it was full of the numbers I had seen scrolling down before.

So now I'm going to try again and follow the example in the manual, Object name button, and in Object data text I put texture (F_Glass10) -a button for Cinderella's shoe? I couldn't find a list of textures so I stuck to the one in the example. Finally I put #include "glass.inc" File->Settings and tick the box Use object data for POV files.

I pressed the render button up pops the Pov-Ray spash screen again followed by exactly the same as before.

So my next question is, where is my glass button?

Apologies for such a dumb question, but I just can't see what I've done wrong in following the example.

Update
I found one, curly brackets for the texture, but I'm still not much further towards seeing my glass button
Name:  ac3dpovfile.png
Views: 352
Size:  1.2 KB

I know, its rubbish isn't it, I guess I'm still doing something dumb.
Please help!

Last edited by Mole; 3rd February 2009 at 04:25 PM. Reason: Update
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Old 3rd February 2009, 04:59 PM   #2
lisa
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Default Re: The dumbest question

Couple things that should help:

- Try adding some lights. I think the button is there looking at the rim highlights, it's just too dark to see.

- Switch to a white background. Adding a skydome with a white material with the ambience set to 100% is the easiest way. Even if it's too dark, you should at least see a black button that way to spot where it is so you can adjust the camera if need be. (You'll need to make this change in the output povray file, or you can change it in the include file that AC3D uses. You'll find more info about the include file in the advanced settings dialog.)

- Use a material other than glass, at least until your have your lights and camera setup. The problem with glass and especially metal is that they reflect the background environment--sometimes too much. If you have a plain background, the reflections can make the object hard to see. Reflective materials work best with a busy background like a sky.

I hope that helps!
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Old 5th February 2009, 03:58 PM   #3
Mole
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Default Re: The dumbest question

Thanks lisa, I've seen the light.

I've also spent some time with the POV-Ray help tutorial in section 2.2.1 Our First Image, which I would strongly recommend to anyone new to this - I might have avoided my dumb bracket error had I read it sooner. Thanks again.
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Old 5th February 2009, 04:18 PM   #4
lisa
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Default Re: The dumbest question

Glad it's working for ya' now.

BTW, your button looks very good!
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