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Shading

Phenomena

Phenomena are mental ray for Maya components that look and behave like shaders but, unlike custom shaders, they require no programming knowledge of C or C++ code to create.

By exporting an assembled shading network (or portions of it) and designated attributes, you create a Phenomenon, a single node that you can then use just like a regular shader: you can build shading networks with them; save, load, and export them; write your own Attribute Editor templates; and provide icon, swatches, and help files. See the devkit for more information and examples.

Phenomena:

• Provide you with a simpler way of creating complex looks for objects other than creating custom shaders.
• Can be created during the earlier phases of production and then optimized or coded into custom shaders for later stages of the production.
• Let you restrict simplify the number and type of adjustable attributes made available to Maya artists. This provides you with a unified pallet and more control over the looks that can be achieved.

Previously generated phenomena

In order for the Node Factory to find and generate in Maya previously exported Phenomena, you need to:

• Export the file (for example, my_phenomenon.mi) to the directory specified in the environment variable: MI_CUSTOM_SHADER_PATH. The default value of this environment variable is: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya8.5\mentalray\include.
• Specify to the Node Factory to generate the node at every Maya startup. To do this, you must edit the maya.rayrc file, located (by default, for example) in C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya8.5\mentalray

Note Editing the maya.rayrc file is optional. By default, mental ray for Maya looks for shader libraries in the default install directory: ...\Autodesk\Maya8.5\mentalray If your shader libraries are not located in the default directory, you must use the maya.rayrc file so that Maya can see your shaders. See, Edit the maya.rayrc file.

• Add the following line:
  mi "{MAYABASE}/include/my_phenomenon.mi"