(Note: all comments refer to the yafray render)
Beautiful! Photo-REalistic! Send it to the yafray people and have them post it in their gallery! Did you do this with YableX or the built-in exporter? My only suggestions are to turn up OSA and to lighten the background relative to the car (hint: you could darken the car and then lighten the whole picter (by brightening lamps) or you could just lighten up the textures for the ground and wall)
thanks for your comments,
BgDM
Yes the aliasing setup was very basic, 3x2 for Yafray. I was going to make with higher settings later.
SamAdam
Yafray always does nice car paint.
Whoa … Oh noo 
shul
Well thanks! 
Marcoscosci
It’s an honour to be appreciated with 16 “Men in yellow” with glasses
thanks dude 
PlantPerson
Can’t beat the classics!
Yesss… I second that thought
mvotre
i am trying to render a car with yaf, but im having some settings problems
Just 4-5 days ago I was having those same probs. 
But I overcame much of it when I read various posts and tuts. It had lots of info which I never knew before. Of course For you to start just get the Manual2 book or PDF.
To the setup
I used YableX (some 12/2003 build) with Blender 2.30 (on Linux).
Basically what I have here is a simple setup.
>I used Hemilight for GI.
>One area light lamp to produce subtler shadows.
>UV mapped textures on the floor and the walls (either Yable or Yafray can’t digest simple mappings of blender, but I think this Issue will be resolved very soon, Don’t you seee! Shh… The Yafray hasn’t been updated since 0.60 and that means many months. So much silence… I think storm is brewing up in BF-Blender :)).
>Materials
basic rubber-
<shader type = “generic” name = “wind_shield_rubber.mat”>
<attributes>
<color r=“0.200000” g=“0.200000” b=“0.200000” />
<transmitted r=“0.100000” g=“0.100000” b=“0.100000” />
<hard value = “25.000000”/>
<min_refle value = “0.200000”/>
<fast_fresnel value = “off”/>
<tir value = “off”/>
</attributes>
</shader>
basic-carpaint
<shader type = “generic” name = “ambassador.mat”>
<attributes>
<color r=“0.200000” g=“0.200000” b=“0.200000” />
<reflected r=“0.700000” g=“0.700000” b=“0.700000” />
<hard value = “25.000000”/>
<min_refle value = “0.578000”/>
<fast_fresnel value = “on”/>
<tir value = “off”/>
</attributes>
</shader>
>Then I have a HDRI background for GI.
Am I forgetting something?? Yes the Coffee machine and a good processor and loads of RAM and yes, the little thing we call patience. Cause I finally calculated all my test renders and they Gulp! are 38 in all.
Hope that gets you started
KRUChY
Man you look Chweeet… (NICE avatar)
model GR8
Umm I’m not sure whether there was any such model of Amby… Wait a minute…
Ohhh… Shi. you mean ‘model great’
I better pick up ‘Internet messaging for Dummies’
Obiwan_C
Yes you are right the edges are jagged, but in addition to that there is one shortcoming in the meshes. It like the Sub-surf value which you use while modeling is the one exported used by YableX not the other as normally you would think.
You see and I learned that just before I did the final render for the first posted Image. You can observe the difference in mesh smoothness in both the renders.
orion119net
Thanks dude.
Jeff_A
Maannnn. Are you from research agency or what ??
OK here goes… note these setting are for the first render with DOF blurring.
<light type=“Hemilight” name=“sky” power= “2.250000” samples =“26” use_QMC = “on”>
<color r=“0.900000” g=“0.886668” b=“0.873336” />
</light><light type =“spotlight” name=“Lamp.001” power=“100” size=“55.000000”
blend=“20.000000” beam_falloff=“2.000000” cast_shadows=“on” >
<color r=“1.000000” g=“1.000000” b=“1.000000” />
<from x=“-0.659054” y=“-22.446716” z=“29.275482” />
<to x=“-3.323975” y=“0.054788” z=“6.952806” />
</light><camera name=“Camera” resx=“1024” resy=“768” focal=“1.093750” aperture=“0.050000” use_qmc=“on”>
<from x=“-22.014042” y=“-7.581123” z=“5.834503” />
<to x=“32.562925” y=“16.655573” z=“0.008944” />
<up x=“-21.943663” y=“-7.500623” z=“6.828769” />
</camera><filter type=“dof” name=“dof” focus = “15.7471241754” near_blur =“8.000000” far_blur =“18.000000” scale =“2.000000”>
</filter><background type = “HDRI” name = “envhdri” exposure_adjust = “0”>
<filename value = “/home/gaurav/blender_extra/YFexport/textures/uffizi_probe.hdr” />
</background><render camera_name = “Camera” AA_passes = “2” AA_minsamples = “2” AA_pixelwidth = “1.500000” AA_threshold = “0.040000”
raydepth = “5” bias = “0.100000” gamma = “1.000000” exposure = “0.000000” background_name=“envhdri” >
<outfile value=“amby-Yafray.tga”/>
Dracarys
Beautiful! Photo-REalistic! Send it to the Yafray people and have them post it in their gallery! Did you do this with YableX or the built-in exporter? My only suggestions are to turn up OSA and to lighten the background relative to the car (hint: you could darken the car and then lighten the whole picter (by brightening lamps) or you could just lighten up the textures for the ground and wall)
I hope it is good enough. I did send them one of my first (Toyota render- check gallery section on my site) Yafray renders. I was lazy not to check the Yafray site from quite a time. But still I never got replied.
Thanks for the suggestion I will give one more try. YableX it is. Yes I will take care of OSA too. ;).
And now your suggestion, It was more of less in same lines that I was thinking earlier, but I have a idea in mind, through which I hope I will be able to evoke some real feeling in the scene. But this is certainly noted that the contrast is bit too much, and is ruining the picture. Thanks for the ‘precise’ (need I put those single quotes every where ;)) suggestion I will certainly look into that.
Thanks man!
Enjoy,
Gaurav Nawani
Hi again,
Well the last long post was written earlier. I did a test render with increased settings of OSA 4x4 (was I mad or something !) It took 11Hrs to render it. 
Any way the thing is you can see a sneak peak before I will put the actually… finally… final pic ;).
Till then enjoy,
ohhh here comes the sun ( sorry lods of yafraying or yabeling). The pic.
Well I almost forgot, This time the mesh is really good cause I increased the subsurf. The shortcommings now include Porbably removing the blur and adjusting the view to get better composition. And yes the thing which will make the difference. Welll… Ummm… I hope if i dont do it right you dont recognize it ;P.
In the mean time if some of you guys can figure out any thing about the headlight then please help me. For a start the reflective cone is same as the steel but more reflective and the glass is same everywhere.
Thanks in advance,
Enjoy,
Gaurav
Ah, yet another beautiful YafRay render. What a beast. I takes me forever and a half to render on my laptop, and so while I’m travelling YafRay becomes quite frustrating. Beaut of a modeling job/render, though. Congrats!
Maannnn. Are you from research agency or what ??
Yes I work for the blender community. 8)
I am amazed with the quality of your lighting and reflections.
Really very nice.Yes and one of the best i’ve seen to date.
I have been working with YafRay for about a month now
and I can’t even come close to what you’ve done here.
That is why I asked.
What I don’t understand is why you used a hemi light
with HDRI.
Why didn’t you just use HemiLight and use one of those sky images
for your background for reflections?
Wouldn’t the HDRI colors override the color you set in the Hemilight?
Is the HDRI making shadows or did you have to use a spot?
If that’s the case then why not use YafRay Sun Light?
Let me see your lastest .xml code if you would please.
Sorry if I sound pushy and rude.
I’m just looking for much need information that’s all.
So far what you have posted is excellent.
Thank you.
Jeff_A
Sorry if I sound pushy and rude.
Oh please friend, Why on the earth I would think of that :-?. No I think you are very genuinely asking about your problem and that’s it I will be glad of any help.
I just saw your posting and thought I let you know first as I was kinda sleepy right now. I will post a reply along with my next post, if that is too late than, if you wish, just mail me at [email protected] and I will See how I can help. 
take care,
gaurav
That will work, then the whole community can benefit from it.
Jeff_A
I am amazed with the quality of your lighting and reflections.
Really very nice.Yes and one of the best i’ve seen to date.
I have been working with Yafray for about a month now
and I can’t even come close to what you’ve done here.
That is why I asked.
Well thanks, I will gladly try to help.
What I don’t understand is why you used a hemi-light
with HDRI.
Well its all in the scene. Lets try to understand it first. If you had seen the very first render of this post you will notice, vast differences in the scene as compared to this one. In first one my aim was to have a sunny lit environment with good amount of ambience in the environment providing sense of ‘warmth’.
Repeating it in Yafray made no sense to me. So I tried something different (Well actually I had never experimented with lights before and I am in process of learning its importance ;P) . So I decided to have a scene with damp & cloudy environment. To be exact the sky is mostly covered with clouds and the direct sun light is not available. Further the place where the car stands, provides colder feel cause the rain gods had just passed by, (very evil plot isin’t it ;), now I don’t need to worry about if some one says hey that car looks ‘Brand New’ ) leaving behind the wet ground where the car must stand (me directs ).
The Hemilight GI was the perfect answer to my problemo. The light attenuation it provides is near perfect, which is softer/subtler shadows, and of course I have not given the photons for GI a try. Fortunately It came good for me in few test renders and it is fixed now.
Wouldn’t’t the HDRI colors override the color you set in the Hemilight?
Exactly, the colour of Hemilight has no importance to me less the fact that it makes the environment lit with very light blue light source (coldness). The HDRI in most case will more or less ruin the ambience if it ‘does not match’ the scenic lightening. And it did ruined lot of test renders I did. Like below.
Apart from that fact the most important motivation to use it was that the HDRI and only HDRI would provide much needed ‘environment’ which produces the “sense of depth” in the scene. Put simply it is the “Reflection” which makes our trained eyes (read brain) feel that yes there is some thing in the environment thus evolving user interest. Otherwise you need to have some scene modeled of fake some-thing .
For eg check the images above see how much the difference between two of them one have a room background (HDRI image) and the other have the sky (normal image). The sky almost single handedly makes vivid reflections which looks more realistic.
I wouldn’t go far and ask you to have a look at ‘riche’s’
http://www.blender.org/modules/documentation/htmlI/x11699.html
car and you will see what I mean. Awesome !!.
Is the HDRI making shadows or did you have to use a spot?
If that’s the case then why not use Yafray Sun Light?
I think I will emphasize this that ‘HDRI does nothing but provides environmental ambience and yes that includes light colours and energy released’ and unless its probe information is of high quality (read commercial) consider it as a image ported to HDRI which BTW you can also do yourself by using HdrShop program http://debevec.org/HDRShop you will also get few free probes from there (non commercial of course). You see using HDRI is okey but still you will need lights to provide the shadow calculation feature some work to do or at least one GI source. Well I could be wrong but at least that’s what I have experienced all from using those ‘free HDR’s’ in Yafray.
Have a look at the www.suurland.com for renders of the beetle car. I believe he also have used some GI feature in addition to the HDRI. But sincerely I haven’t tried using HDRI as the only light source. Other wise HDRI with simple Hemilight will give some shadows under the cars easily if you do not better results try switching your HDR’s suitable to your scene.
The sunlight will provide sharper shadows which has no use in the scene like this. for eg.
I hope that helps,
Gaurav
The rendering related stuff - which i dear say had no new path breaking info. 
<light type=“Hemilight” name=“sky” power= “2.250000” samples =“200” use_QMC = “on”>
<color r=“0.900000” g=“0.886668” b=“0.873336” />
</light><light type =“spotlight” name=“Lamp.001” power=“100” size=“55.000000”
blend=“20.000000” beam_falloff=“2.000000” cast_shadows=“on” >
<color r=“1.000000” g=“1.000000” b=“1.000000” />
<from x=“-0.659054” y=“-27.446716” z=“29.275482” />
<to x=“-3.323975” y=“0.054788” z=“6.952806” />
</light><camera name=“Camera” resx=“1024” resy=“768” focal=“1.093750” >
<from x=“-22.714041” y=“-12.881124” z=“5.834503” />
<to x=“-21.804425” y=“-12.477179” z=“5.737410” />
<up x=“-22.643661” y=“-12.800623” z=“6.828769” />
</camera><background type = “HDRI” name = “envhdri” exposure_adjust = “0”>
<filename value = “/home/gaurav/blender_extra/YFexport/textures/uffizi_probe.hdr” />
</background><render camera_name = “Camera” AA_passes = “3” AA_minsamples = “2” AA_pixelwidth = “1.500000” AA_threshold = “0.040000”
raydepth = “8” bias = “0.100000” gamma = “1.000000” exposure = “0.000000” background_name=“envhdri” >
<outfile value=“amby-Yafray.tga”/>Materials
1 - windshield-glass
<shader type = “generic” name = “glass.mat”>
<attributes>
<color r=“0.200000” g=“0.200000” b=“0.200000” />
<reflected r=“0.900000” g=“0.900000” b=“0.900000” />
<transmitted r=“0.800000” g=“0.800000” b=“0.800000” />
<hard value = “25.000000”/>
<IOR value = “1.050000”/>
<min_refle value = “0.192000”/>
<fast_fresnel value = “on”/>
<tir value = “off”/>
</attributes>
</shader>2 - Tyre
<shader type = “generic” name = “de_tyre.mat”>
<attributes>
<color r=“0.200000” g=“0.200000” b=“0.200000” />
<transmitted r=“0.100000” g=“0.100000” b=“0.100000” />
<hard value = “25.000000”/>
<min_refle value = “0.200000”/>
<fast_fresnel value = “off”/>
<tir value = “off”/>
</attributes>
</shader>3 - Steely weely
<shader type = “generic” name = “de_rim.003.mat”>
<attributes>
<color r=“0.200000” g=“0.200000” b=“0.200000” />
<reflected r=“0.700000” g=“0.700000” b=“0.700000” />
<hard value = “25.000000”/>
<min_refle value = “0.578000”/>
<fast_fresnel value = “on”/>
<tir value = “off”/>
</attributes>
</shader>
Enjoy,
Gaurav
After loads and loads of posts I am not fed up yet, So here goes.
Yet another yafray render of ambassador.
Ok
tell me how the scene loks now… Still the lamp is eating me alive I guess I have to use photon and try caustics!!
Looks awesome, but what’s up with the weird reflection on the ground.
~Blade
Thank you for explaining.
I understand now why you set it up that way.
What are your render times per picture?
blade
Looks awesome, but what’s up with the weird reflection on the ground.
Well I tried to place a pothole and that is water which is reflecting :-? . Ok Will give one more try .
Jeff_A
For that pic it was 2.3 Hrs.
2.3 hours for that last one with the red car and poster?
That’s not bad at all.
I like the image where it’s just the car
with ground and wall and nothing else.
http://www.ironcode.com/gog/amby-yaf2.jpg
That one 
Oh and add some focal blur…that makes it look awesome.
cool car! i like the environment with the grass and paving stones too. something about the headlights looks metallic. %| other than that, it appears to be extremely realistic. too bad we don’t have a ‘front page’ like at cgtalk. this would be on it if we did though!