No, seriously? What is the purpose of such complicated, slow and just aweful renderer? Just to render test scenes with spheres in 1 hour? I mean, when you model something, I guess a test render with no textures shouldn't take SOOOOOO much time and give a crapy result… Or am I wrong?

You need to play with it more…

Works pretty nice once you get used to it. I did direct compare with mental ray on a cell phone animation and Mantra was just as fast, but also did rendertime SDS, and the motion blured version wasnt much slower.

el_diablo
You need to play with it more…

Works pretty nice once you get used to it. I did direct compare with mental ray on a cell phone animation and Mantra was just as fast, but also did rendertime SDS, and the motion blured version wasnt much slower.

Hmmm… how can I get used to something, if I don't even know where to start? I played with VRay and it's now almost clear: this responds for this and that responds for that, but here - lots of buttons and what? Tutorials? The only one - how to render a cone and a sphere with some strange PBR. I think Maxwell is a lot even faster and tasty then some PBR.

And there's no comprehensive way to render with something like irradiance and photon maps…

So what is Mantra for?

http://odforce.net/wiki/index.php/ProductionsUsingMantra [odforce.net]

it's true that all renderers have their own style of working and some are not as intuitive or ‘easy’ to use…but mantra isn't something that you just ‘play with’…if you want to just push a button and get the perfect result without any effort at all then you'll have to look elsewhere…

arctor
http://odforce.net/wiki/index.php/ProductionsUsingMantra [odforce.net]

it's true that all renderers have their own style of working and some are not as intuitive or ‘easy’ to use…but mantra isn't something that you just ‘play with’…if you want to just push a button and get the perfect result without any effort at all then you'll have to look elsewhere…

Oh, come on!… Don't even start this crap… I'm here to find out why things considered ‘sacred’ are in fact not that good.

I don't think that if you click ‘render’ in VRay, you're gonna get all that stuff in that link in one ‘impressive’ pic. There is something to work with in VRay to get a good result, but it's comprehensive - I know what I'm doing, and having ‘played’ with it I knew where to start.

I didn't say I want that magic button ‘render-it-cool’ - I wanna know how to render with mantra, where to start if it is so ‘untouchable’ for its fans, as long as those tuts in Houdini - have just nothing to do with rendering but for cubes and cones.

And don't post me links like that one, better show me what you've rendered, 'cause one can judge only after he tried himself… I gave it lots of tries and for now I can say - Mantra s***s…

The attitude that is coming across in your posts is insulting and thus provides little incentive to help.
All you've said is that Mantra sucks, yet you want us to tell you how to use it. Where are the specific questions?
If you want to see some of the capabilities of Mantra output then look in the gallery on this site.
Consider the examples provided from various professional production companies. The squirrel in the current case study for example.
You want our help then by all means ask specific questions, but we can do without the belligerent attitude. We are all quite busy thanks.

atikin

arctor
http://odforce.net/wiki/index.php/ProductionsUsingMantra [odforce.net]

it's true that all renderers have their own style of working and some are not as intuitive or ‘easy’ to use…but mantra isn't something that you just ‘play with’…if you want to just push a button and get the perfect result without any effort at all then you'll have to look elsewhere…

Oh, come on!… Don't even start this crap… I'm here to find out why things considered ‘sacred’ are in fact not that good.

I don't think that if you click ‘render’ in VRay, you're gonna get all that stuff in that link in one ‘impressive’ pic. There is something to work with in VRay to get a good result, but it's comprehensive - I know what I'm doing, and having ‘played’ with it I knew where to start.

I didn't say I want that magic button ‘render-it-cool’ - I wanna know how to render with mantra, where to start if it is so ‘untouchable’ for its fans, as long as those tuts in Houdini - have just nothing to do with rendering but for cubes and cones.

And don't post me links like that one, better show me what you've rendered, 'cause one can judge only after he tried himself… I gave it lots of tries and for now I can say - Mantra s***s…

troll alert …
if you are really serious.. there are some tutorials ..

http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=451&Itemid=132 [sidefx.com]

http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=442&Itemid=132 [sidefx.com]

Sorry, but what part of which post so insulted you? :shock:

'Don't even start this crap'? - well, I can repeat it again and again to everyone who's gonna start like: ‘oh, you just wanna play and as well as a button to render cool’.

'Mantra sucks'? - read it now with attention - it sucks for me only.

And here's a question, if you missed it - And there's no comprehensive way to render with something like irradiance and photon map.

2. What's for PBR if it is so slow and grainy?
3. What is the purpose of so many rendering engines if there is no hint how to use them?

you come off as having a bad attitude. If you want help dont post thing like “ Don't even start with the crap” . If I knew mantra well I wouldnt even bother helping you because of your attitude.

mrchase
you come off as having a bad attitude. If you want help dont post thing like “ Don't even start with the crap” . If I knew mantra well I wouldnt even bother helping you because of your attitude.

What ‘attitude’ are you talking about??? :shock: I don't get it. :? I can say - I don't like yours, and? What attitude and to what?

yeah, exactly.

what attitude?

So just because actor tried to help you and you said “Oh, come on!… Don't even start this crap” , what makes them think you have an attitude. Weird.

oh and just because you said “Mantra sucks” people take some weird insult.
Crazy.

better show me what you've rendered

this was rendered in Houdini.




There you go. Now you should know how mantra works.

Hope this helps.

lolz.

At the risk of feeding the troll…

If someone told you that Renderman ‘roxorz’, and pointed you to a list of movies that were rendered with it (as arctor did), and then after trying it yourself for a few days you found it inscrutable, unintuitive, incomprehensible, hermetic and unfathomable (as I can pretty much guarantee you would), would you then conclude that Renderman ‘s***s’?

Of course you would… Mantra and Renderman have uncannily similar interfaces (at the shading language level) and produce comparable results at comparable speeds.

But as you say, you're “here to find out why things considered ‘sacred’ are in fact not that good”. So I'll make your life a lot easier and save you a lot of frustration: drop Mantra right now and continue using your current renderer – it's better, faster, more intuitive, and most importantly, not ‘sacred’.

Oh, and one last thing: you seem to be asking to see some still images produced with Mantra. Don't worry, I won't waste your time with links. I just wanted to let you know that judging a renderer by looking at some still images is the worst thing you could possibly ever do. Ever.

And PBR is a religious sect.

atikin
What ‘attitude’ are you talking about??? :shock: I don't get it. :? I can say - I don't like yours, and? What attitude and to what?

Communication and reputation are key in this industry. If you seriously can't tell why people are turned off by your comments, here's a few hints. People usually don't like it when you:

- try to use a professional tool for 2 days that they've been using for 2+ years and tell them it sucks.

- say things like “don't give me that crap” when they try to help, despite your initial rudeness.

- DEMAND that they help you, and then only in the ways you deem useful.

I don't know Mantra well, but I've worked along side people while they were using it to create very nice renders (usually volumetrics). Saying Mantra is crap is your opinion, fair enough. But to come to a forum where there are many professionals using Mantra everyday, and tell them all it's crap, isn't going to win you many fans. Good luck…

I've got a better piccie:

Cheers,

J.C.

atikin: don't trust those guys! Mantra is a real sucks! Houdini is sucks too. And renderman is sucks a little. Don't spend your time here and use vray. Vray doesn't strain your brain.

PS: shame on me… I don't ever think that I will tell such horror to smbd

atikin:
Instead of polluting this forum go back to Maya or any software you used to render with!

And you guys are saying atikin is “insulting” with “bad attitude”. Look at your last posts - you're now a lot more agressive. Monkeys…

Hello,



It's a fact that now Houdini gets more popular, the SideFX forum will attract all sorts of people: the good, the bad and the ugly….

Before that, it was only the good and the ugly.


bern

Bernard
Hello,



It's a fact that now Houdini gets more popular, the SideFX forum will attract all sorts of people: the good, the bad and the ugly….

Before that, it was only the good and the ugly.


bern

hehe

So true

I guess we can take this response as something to look forward to and although they might come at an insult they are really bred from interest and excitement.

Robert is certainly getting the word outthere.


-andy

I think forums work best when we focus on the facts and not the delivery of those facts….

atikin
No, seriously? What is the purpose of such complicated, slow and just aweful renderer? Just to render test scenes with spheres in 1 hour? I mean, when you model something, I guess a test render with no textures shouldn't take SOOOOOO much time and give a crapy result… Or am I wrong?

It is certainly a problem if you are having so much trouble with simple shapes. Can you post your scene file so that we can look at it to determine where Mantra is slowing down. Could you also send us a VRAY rendering of the same scene for comparison. Thanks.

Robert

And yes we need more tutorials.