Is it reflecting against it's self? That would cause parts to go black.

first sphere: 1 shell modifier added.
second sphere: 2 shell modifiers added.
third sphere: 3 shell modifiers added. [this is what i think is happening to the mesh in the bottom of your cup, maybe only with out using the shell modifier]

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Thanks, but don't worry about the glass, my complaint is with the blotchiness on the walls and floor. It should be nice and clean.

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[Link to www.3dprevis.com]

ha! Sorry. Under final gather, "Turn Rays per FG point" up. my understanding is"Interpolate over num. FG points" shrinks the size of the area of the "FG point."

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Cheers. I shall try that.

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[Link to www.3dprevis.com]

Thought I'd post a little update. The final gather problem is fixed, thanks Issac, overall it's not looking too bad. I think maybe I need to turn up the AA, as some of the liquid looks a bit jagged. Strange that the rest of it looks fairly smooth. I think Mental Ray might be a bit slower than Vray, would anyone agree? I know it's hard to compare but I just feel that this render took significantly longer than I would have expected.

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[Link to www.3dprevis.com]

I don't know. i've never used v ray before.

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I really am quite stupid aren't I? I meant to post an image with that last message.

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[Link to www.3dprevis.com]

looking like your making progress with Maya. I don't like mental ray at all and even less in Maya. grab the vray for maya demo and see if you can get it to fly. Its quite different.

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Yeh, I dunno. Maya's kind of sucking all the fun out of 3D for me at the moment. I'm not sure how much more I can take. I was watching a video tute on particles in Maya and it started out ok, but then he started using scripts and all kinds of complicated stuff for what was a fairly simple animation and my head spontaniously combusted. I'm wondering if you need to be an awesome scripter or a mathamatician to use it to it's full extent.

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[Link to www.3dprevis.com]

Tyson makes 30 dollars each time he refers someone to vray

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How did you know that!!

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I get paid 35

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Man, Tyson, you must be loaded. I must come and stay with you sometime in your harbour front mansion.

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[Link to www.3dprevis.com]

yeah, well its not just me right?. Its like preaching to the converted on this forum.

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Yeh, Vray is quite popular here.

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[Link to www.3dprevis.com]