Well, I've played around a bit, and I think I've improved a bit.
I've added more reflection and some bumpmapping.
I still don't think it looks half as good as Solos though. I think it may be something to do with his choice of textures.
@ Earthmover
The render looks great, especially with the setting.
@solo said:
looking much better.
I would use more metallic textures and/or some dirt maps to give it a more rugged look.
If you want to share the model I would give it a go using another render engine and see how I could rough it up.
Cheers solo. I have attached a zipped copy of the file. or else I have the URL on the SU warehouse, the warehouse one has the shield. (bare in mind that I constructed this model some 9 months ago)
Thanks mateo soletic for the encouragement.
@stefanq said:
Regarding your renders, using hdri, it's a great thing to do. But you will get more effect, if you have shiny materials in the scene. You have some tile's over your robot, and I don't think the best material for that. You can find some basic materials, and you should use them( vray materials\scene materials\import new material). Put some metal, some paint, and you will see the difference!
Thanks stefanq, I have taken your advice... I have added some shiny material. I have also removed the tiled effect. I have worked out how to do that now, and I have used some of the basic materials, mainly the red body is now a paint import and the dark parts like on the blasters are an aluminium with the reflective layer removed (as I wanted a charcoal effect)
@geh4evr said:
...try to improve your use of materials. Like on the Hydraulic pieces on it's arms and on the eyestalks, try adding a shiny silver material. Even small things like that can make a big difference.
geh4evr, I have changed the hydraulic pieces to chrome. I have left the stalks white though, cause that's how I wanted them, but have instead extended the laser-eyes effect. I have extruded the eyes out 1 metre and made the material red with an emissive layer with intesity of 100. I have then made the diffuse layer about 95% transparent. It isn't quite the effect I wanted, I thought the light would not come out so speckled.
And Marian, if my renders looked half as good as yours, I would have put them on ages ago 
Also... can anyone tell me how to save the render without the alpha channel saving too?
@plot-paris said:
...listen to the others; simply add some reflectivity to the materials, render it again - and don't forget to post the results here!
Here's the update.
Thanks all, I appreciate the suggestions.
I have been looking at this site for some time now. Watching what others have managed to accomplish, thinking to myself, wow... I would love to introduce myself and put pics of renders so amazing it would blow your mind.
Unfortunately for all, mostly to me, rendering is more difficult than I have come to expect.
I have though decided to upload my feeble attempt at rendering one of my favorite SU models.
So here, for all to see...
My Droideka
All pics were rendered in V-Ray with a HDRI as enviroment and background.
I tried to use the materials and played around with them in v-ray, but it doesn't look vevry good.
Please, feel free to give any critisisms as I am here to learn.
By they way. You guys on this forum are all awesome and I would love to be as good as you in any field, but I guess I must keep my chin up and keep on trying.
Great script, I am amazed with the possibilities, but I think it might need a re-write so we can alter the wheel well size. A 700mm wheel well just isn't big enough to fit the wheels nicely.Would it be too difficult to alter the script so the wheel well doesn't factor in the wheelbase?
