Problem rendering my scene

[Garidu]

Hi,

I'm kinda new to modelling and I have a problem with rendering my latest scene.
At first it rendered correctly:
http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h200/Gharod/rabbid01.jpg

Later on, I added some lights, tried different kinds of renderers, and I ruined my render. Now I removed all the lights in the scene and I keep getting this result:
http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h200/Gharod/rabbid02.jpg

Does anyone have any clue about this, 'coz I can't find a solution...
I'm using 3D Studio Max 9.

[BiG ToE-3DT]

unhide all and make sure you deleted all the lights. If one is still in there, hiden, it will show up in the render.

[Garidu]

I have removed all the lights and there are non hidden.

[BiG ToE-3DT]

try tossing in a skylight, then go into the advanced lighting tab in the render menu and set it to light tracer. It will give you a nice clean render.

[Garidu]

I tossed in the skylight. It only adds to the effect. I suspect it's some kind of rendering configuration problem. But I really don't know which one it is.

Later Edit: If I try to import the bunny into another scene, the rendering will show correctly; however, I loose the mapping coordinates and the maps themselves. Can I at least export the model with all the necessary maps?

LE2: I found it. It's in rendering->environment->exposure control. It was set on logarithmic and I changed it to automatic. Now it works OK. However, the question about exporting an object so that the material slots will also appear still stands.

[BiG ToE-3DT]

what you need to do is collapse the stack for each mesh object. I guessing you unwrapped your character, so collapsing the stack will save the unwrap to the mesh. Then you can either, merge the mesh into another scene, or export. If you export, do so as a obj file format. It will give you options on what you want exported. Then when you import that file, all the saved info should still be there.

If you do the merged version, all you need to do to get the texture slots back, is to open the material window. Select one of the basic materials, then click on the eye dropper. This will allow you to select a object in the scene and use its textures. It will place all the textures the mesh is using in the right slots.

You should be good to go from there.

[Robbert543]

instead of exporting, you could also use Xref objects.

[bobi]

I think that you messed up ambient lightning in your second image (render - enviorontment - ambient light). Change the ambient lightning to pure black.

As for the bunny, and how to light it, I think that you dont need any light for it, just put an ink&paint material, it should feet well with this character.

But, if you stil want to light your character, put skylight in your scene (anywhere), go to render meny, and from advanced render choose light tracer. (that means like you have a many soft diffuse lights all over your scene)

Now, go back to your scene and put some direct light pointing at your character, with shadows turned on. (that shoud simulate sun light, or whatever). Play with colour, intensity and so on.

Also you should put plane (or some ground) bellow your character, so you can be able to see shadow from the character.

Good luck.