Ahh thats the stuff i needed. Thank you both for your replies. The falling water youtube vid is exactly the effect i was looking for. I shall give that one a go, is porbably going to take me an age though. I take it there aren't any instructions or anything for these ruby scripts? Is it all fairly self explanatory?

Evening all, I have a question which googling has not so far been able to answer for me. I'm doing an animation for an architectural presentation, and wanted to spin round my model a couple of times then have the buildings kind of pack themselves up and slide down into the ground and have new ones pop up.

I foolishly assumed this would be relatively easy but have since discovered that each scene doesn't represent an individual model, and i can't do it as standard. A bit of googling has pointed me in the direction of 'Blender' and '3D Rad' as two programs which import sketchup and i think do what i'm asking, extrapalating the scenes required to move from one model to the other! They seem a bit involved and user unfriendly though for someone who has limited experience with animation. So questions......

Is there an easier way?
Whats the technical name for the feature i'm talking about so i can try more googling?
Does anyone have a link to a relevant tutorial?
Am I in for so many days of pulling my hair out that I should just scale back my ideas?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated! Dan

Yeah now you say it that comment doesn't make sense, less hard light!! what i meant was the circles created by the spot lights at the back looked razor sharp and a little un realistic, but after you comment on the walls i think that could solve both problems as a bit of roughness on the wall might break the line up a bit, i shall give noise a go! Its just getting ridiculious now on rendering times everytime i try something new! Am I being stupid here, do most people trial and error things in a seperate file at then import them in? I considered it but thought that if all the reflections and lighting aren't in you can't really judge how its going to look!

Many thanks for you assistance! I shall move on to them, if/when i ever get this floor looking right!

Ha, that as may be, but i'm sure 90% of the people on here are utter genius compared with my knowledge on the subject. Is driving me nuts now, and my tinkering is just making things worse, the last render i did has turned out black on half of it for no disernable reason and then i've just got a blugsplat message and lost everything!! Today is not a good day.

Hello all, am seeking some assistance with vray, as after extensive studying of the manual and googling am still unable to rectify a couple of issues with a render i'm working on. Am doing work experience at an architects firm and am trying to win a job, but in doing so i think i may have over sold my abilities somewhat, so a few questions and any assistance on any of the issues would be greatly appreciated.

Hopefully i have correctly attached the render as is, I've just added a reflection layer to the wooden floor, and can't work out why the reflection has removed (covered?) the underlying texture?

Also is there any way to may the lighting form the spot light a bit more diffuse (is that a word?) the bright circles on the wall and floor just seem a little brutal? I thought i could photoshop them afterwards but would love to know if theres a way to fix it?

Finally the white walls are currently just plain white, but I feel they look a little artificial, I've tried a free bump maps to try and texture them but haven't been pleased with the results, any secret tips or tricks for creating a more realistic wall finish?

I hope theres someone lurking out there who knows there stuff, i'm still very much a novice, so any other comments or tips would be appreciated! Cheers