mental ray Tutorials

Throughout the tutorial, we'll cover all of the hidden details that are needed to use HDR imagery for lighting in Maya. We'll start with physically based lighting, world scene scale, color management, proper render preview and verification of valid floating point linear color images. Once the rules for using HDR images are clearly laid out, we will take a look at how you can create your own HDR images at home using a DSLR camera, tripod, nodal head and software. Lastly, we'll go over examples of using and editing these images for a variety of indoor and outdoor lighting situations as well as covering light extraction and making HDR kooks from an HDR photo of a light.

We will begin with an explanation of the linear workflow process, and help to clarify exactly why a linear workflow is needed is order to get lighting results that are much more realistic. From there, we will learn the various steps for setting up a linear workflow in Maya, including the use of Maya's Color Management features, gamma-correcting images and textures to be rendered and displayed correctly, maintaining a proper linear workflow during the compositing phase, and many additional tips and techniques that will help you get much more realistic lighting results with significantly less effort.

Having a solid understanding of the features of mental ray is a crucial step toward becoming an efficient and productive rendering artist in Softimage. We will begin our tutorial by learning several methods for simulating realistic indirect lighting in Softimage, such as global illumination, final gather, as well as Importons and Irradiance Particles. We will also explore the use of caustics to simulate the light patterns created as light passes through refractive surfaces. In addition, we will also explore Image-based lighting techniques, camera and environment shaders, utilizing render passes and render channels, as well as many other tools and techniques that will allow you start rendering high quality work for a multitude of projects.

Intended for small-scale productions, this tutorial walks through one lighting and rendering workflow that introduces new tools, techniques, and workarounds. We will exploit the environment-sampling power of portal lights, build a fake GI solution with projected light fields, and use MEL scripts to automate tedious tasks. These methods won't work for every scenario, but they can be very useful tools for the guerrilla CG filmmaker.

The ability to realistically light an interior environment is a skill that is highly sought after in the CG industry. It is a skill that is used very heavily in areas such as feature films, games, and architectural visualizations. This course will explore the entire, step-by-step process of lighting your scenes. We will start by learning how to make sure that our lights are behaving in a way that is physically accurate by utilizing real-world light data in our scenes. From there, we will learn how to incorporate realistic secondary illumination into our scenes, learn how to create physically-accurate materials in Maya, and explore many techniques and workflows designed to help you overcome many of the common issues that you are likely to encounter in your own scenes.

In the world around us, much of the light that we perceive comes from indirect illumination, or light that bounces off other surfaces to illuminate our surroundings. One of the ways that mental ray allows us to incorporate realistic light bouncing into our rendered images is to use global illumination. We will begin this course by learning about the underlying principles of global illumination, and how it relies on photons to calculate the lighting result. From there, we will learn how to adjust photon emission values, incorporating final gather into our global illumination results, saving and re-using global illumination data, override rendered photon results using the render tree, and many other lessons dedicated to explaining the various features and parameters used to control the global illumination result. By the time you complete this course, you will have a much stronger understanding of the underlying principles of global illumination, as well as a better understanding of some the common global illumination pitfalls, limitations, and their solutions.

In the world around us, much of the light that we perceive comes from indirect illumination, or light that bounces off other surfaces to illuminate our surroundings. One of the ways that mental ray allows us to incorporate realistic light bouncing into our rendered images is to use Final Gathering. We will begin this course by learning about the underlying principles of Final Gathering, and how it calculates an indirect lighting result. From there, we will learn how to adjust Final Gather quality settings, how to reduce the amount of Final Gather flickering seen in animations, as well as many other lessons dedicated to explaining the various features and parameters used to control the Final Gather result. By the time you complete this course, you will have a much stronger understanding of the underlying principles of Final Gather, as well as a better understanding of some the common Final Gathering pitfalls, and their solutions.

We will dedicate the first portion of this course to using Render Passes in Maya to separate various elements of our scene at render time. We'll use mental ray's render passes, contribution maps, custom framebuffers, and render layers to create the necessary render passes for our scene. In the second portion of this course we will begin with some quick compositing similar to our Compositing 3D Renders in After Effects course, but we will quickly get into more advanced topics such as basic and advanced Depth-of-Field, Proxies, spot paint fixing and chromatic aberration.

We will dedicate the first portion of this course to using Render Passes in Maya to separate various elements of our scene at render time. We'll use mental ray's render passes, contribution maps, custom framebuffers, and render layers to create the necessary render passes for our scene. In the second portion of this course we will begin with some quick compositing similar to our Compositing 3D Renders in Fusion course, but we will quickly get into more advanced topics such as basic and advanced Depth-of-Field techniques, working with HDR data, painting fixes and chromatic aberration.

Topics include rendering instantaneous motion blur using the mip_motionblur node, using the mip_card_opacity node to render accurate depth and normal passes, re-rendering portions of our images using the mip_render_subset node, compositing our 3D objects into live-action environments using the mip_cameramap, mip_matteshadow, and mip_mirrorball nodes, as well as many other mental ray Production Shaders found within Maya.

We will dedicate the first portion of this course to using Render Passes in Maya to separate various elements of our scene at render time. We'll use mental ray's render passes, contribution maps, custom framebuffers, and render layers to create the necessary render passes for our scene. In the second portion of this course we will begin with some quick compositing similar to our Multi-Channel Compositing in NUKE course, but we will quickly get into more advanced topics such as Depth-of-Field, Depth-based compositing, working with HDR data, painting fixes and chromatic aberration.

We'll begin our tutorial by learning how to use global illumination, final gather, and the new Irradiance Particles as well as importons so that you can easily simulate the effects of indirect lighting and quickly render highly realistic scenes. We'll also spend some time going over how you can dramatically increase your rendering speed by saving and re-using indirect illumination data, giving you more time to focus on the creative aspect of the image. We'll also explore how you can use caustics to simulate the light patterns that are created when light passes through refractive surfaces. Then, we'll then take time to explore several specialized mental ray shaders like the architectural materials, subsurface scattering, and ambient occlusion shaders, as well as learn how we can use Render Passes and Render Channels to split our renders into multiple passes for compositing purposes.

In this series of lessons, we will discuss the advanced rendering features found in the 3ds Max mental ray production shaders, and how they can become a valuable part of your production pipeline. We will learn how these production shaders can be used for a variety of purposes, such as adding nearly instantaneous motion blur to our rendered images, we will discuss shaders that allow seamless integration of our 3D art into a live-action plate, as well as production shaders that allow for rapid correction and re-rendering of specific scene elements, as well as discussing several other production shaders. Using these shaders, we now have access to mental ray features that will allow us to render our images faster, with a much higher level of control, and with much higher quality.

In this series of lessons we will discuss a variety of tools and workflows to help improve speed and stability when attempting to render heavy, resource-intensive scenes within mental ray. We will explore several methods for conserving system resources, such as using the command-line to render your scenes outside of Maya, using mental ray render proxies to minimize the amount of memory consumed by your scene files, how to render high resolution images into separate smaller tiles, as well as several other workflows for improving performance and stability within mental ray. Using these workflows, we will be able to dedicate more of our system resources to the rendering of our scene files, and significantly reduce the frequency of any crashing we may experience.

Popular highlights include: Paint Hair Tool; Modify Curve Tools; Constraint Systems; Collision Objects; Converting Curves into Dynamic Curves; Paint FX; Scale Ramp Widgets; Hair Turbulence; MEL; Braiding and Curly Hair; mental ray; Applying Hair to Polygon Surfaces.

Each video is a self-contained tutorial centering on one of mental ray's nodes. This means that these tutorials can be viewed in any order you wish, allowing you to jump straight to the content that is most relevant to you. Over the course of these tutorials, we'll learn how each node works and best practices to utilize for attaining desired results while saving time.

Each video is a self-contained tutorial centering on one of mental ray's nodes. This means that these tutorials can be viewed in any order you wish, allowing you to jump straight to the content that is most relevant to you. Over the course of these tutorials, we'll learn how each node works and best practices to utilize for attaining desired results while saving time.

Each video is a self-contained tutorial centering on one of mental ray's nodes. This means that these tutorials can be viewed in any order you wish, allowing you to jump straight to the content that is most relevant to you. Over the course of these tutorials, we'll learn how each node works and best practices to utilize for attaining desired results while saving time.

Each video is a self-contained tutorial centering on one of mental ray's nodes. This means that these tutorials can be viewed in any order you wish, allowing you to jump straight to the content that is most relevant to you. Over the course of these tutorials, we'll learn how each node works and best practices to utilize for attaining desired results while saving time.

Each video is a self-contained tutorial centering on one of mental ray's nodes. This means that these tutorials can be viewed in any order you wish, allowing you to jump straight to the content that is most relevant to you. Over the course of these tutorials, we'll learn how each node works and best practices to utilize for attaining desired results while saving time.

Each video is a self-contained tutorial centering on one of mental ray's nodes. This means that these tutorials can be viewed in any order you wish, allowing you to jump straight to the content that is most relevant to you. Over the course of these tutorials, we'll learn how each node works and best practices to utilize for attaining desired results while saving time.

Each video is a self-contained tutorial centering on one of mental ray's nodes. This means that these tutorials can be viewed in any order you wish, allowing you to jump straight to the content that is most relevant to you. Over the course of these tutorials, we'll learn how each node works and best practices to utilize for attaining desired results while saving time.

Each video is a self-contained tutorial centering on one of mental ray's nodes. This means that these tutorials can be viewed in any order you wish, allowing you to jump straight to the content that is most relevant to you. Over the course of these tutorials, we'll learn how each node works and best practices to utilize for attaining desired results while saving time.

Popular highlights include: Overview of mental ray; Global Illumination; Emitting GI Photons from Light Sources; Photon Energy and Decay Parameters; Final Gather; Controlling Final Gather Accuracy; Adding Secondary Final Gather Bounces; Mixing Final Gather and Global Illumination; Saving and Reusing Lighting Data; Importons; Irradiance Particles; Portal Lights; Image-based Lighting; HDR Exposure Controls; Caustics; Emitting Caustic Photons from Lights; Subsurface Scattering Shader; Ambient Occlusion Shader; mental ray Architectural Materials; Render Passes for Multi-pass Rendering; Creating Pass Contribution Maps.

Popular highlights include: Hard Surface Modeling; Polygon Modeling Techniques; Understanding Fabrication Process; Motorcycle Parts and Components Overview; NURBS to Build Motorcycle Frame; Adding Realism with Modeled Detail; mental ray Shaders to Blend Complex Geometry; Booleans to Create Complex Shapes; Creating Seam Detail; Adding Welds to Metal Pieces; Adding Bevels to Edges; Modeling Different Types of Materials; Adding Imperfections and Details; Applying Different Surface Materials; HDRI Lighting; Car Paint Shader; Using Naming Conventions; Setting up Hierarchies for Posing; Re-purposing Geometry; Tire Treads with Bump Map.

Popular highlights include: Modeling with Blueprint References; Establishing Automotive Line Flow; Building Volume with Curves; Shaping Geometry to Avoid Dents; Generating Curves from Geometry; Modeling Contoured Panels; Re-directing Edge Flow; Adding Scoops to Curved Surfaces; Re-paramaterizing Curves; Converting Geometry Types; Mirroring Detail; Merging and Extracting Geometry; Welding Points and Edges; Creating Fitted Panels; Creating Complex Body Details; UV Mapping Techniques; mental ray Materials; Building Car Paint Shaders; Creating Brushed Metal Effects; Overcoming Modeling Challenges; mental ray Lighting Setup; Adding Tire Tread with Bump Maps; Final Gather for Indirect Lighting.

Popular highlights include: mental ray Overview; Global Illumination Workflow; Final Gather Workflow; Caustics Workflow; Emitting GI Photons from Light Sources; Photon Energy and Decay Parameters; Controlling Final Gather Accuracy; Adding Secondary Final Gather Bounces; Mixing Final Gather and Global Illumination; Saving and Reusing Lighting Data; Image-based Lighting; HDR Exposure Controls; Emitting Caustic Photons from Lights; Optimizing Caustic Photon Use; Subsurface Scattering Shader; Ambient Occlusion Shader; mental ray Architectural Material; Utilizing the Material Editor; Contour Line Rendering; Using Render Elements; Scene States; Compositing Rendered Passes.

Popular highlights include: Overview of essential subsurface scattering attributes; Connecting lightmaps to subsurface shaders; Understanding forward and backward scattering; Using bump and normal maps with subsurface shaders; Properly controlling light interaction with translucent surfaces; Controlling scatter bias; Adjusting lightmap's Diffuse Gamma Curve; Adding separate specular/reflection attributes to SSS shaders; Using SSS with final gather; Using textures to drive SSS attributes; Using the Physical SSS shader; Controlling photon interactions with Physical SSS; Absorption and scattering coefficients.

Popular highlights include: Understanding Caustic Photons; Emitting Photons from Various Light Sources; Controlling Photon Energy and Decay Rates; Altering Photon Color Attributes; Separating Caustics from Direct Lighting; Tuning Caustic Scale, Radius, and Accuracy; Photon Tracing with Transparent Surfaces; Saving and Re-using Caustic Photons Maps; Dielectric Material Properties; Troubleshooting Rendering Errors; Using the Map Visualizer; Photon Interactions with Maya Materials; Photon Interactions with mental ray Materials.

Popular highlights include: Global Illumination Overview; Understanding Photons in mental ray; Emitting Photons from Various Light Sources; Controlling Photon Energy; Controlling Decay Rates; Altering Photon Color Attributes; Separating the Effects of Direct Lighting; Separating the Effects of Indirect Lighting; Tuning Global Illumination Scale; Tuning Global Illumination Radius; Tuning Global Illumination Accuracy; Photon Tracing with Transparent Surfaces; Global Illumination Photons Maps; Global Illumination with Final Gather; Using the Map Visualizer; Global Illumination Overrides; Photon Interaction with Maya Materials; Photon Interaction with mental ray Materials.

Popular highlights include: Emitting Photons from Light Sources; Fine-tuning Global Illumination Results; Smoothing Global Illumination Results with Final Gather; Using Architectural Materials in XSI; Overriding Photon Properties; Adding Realism with Ambient Occlusion; Utilizing Multi-bounce Final Gather as GI Alternative; Outputting Images to 32-bit .EXR Format; Modifying Geometry for Optimal Global Illumination; Setting up Render Passes in XSI; BSP Memory Optimization Techniques; Using Custom XSI Shaders; Compositing Rendered Passes in External App; Adjusting Exposure Settings.

Popular highlights include: Fast Skin Shader in mental ray; Sub-surface Scattering Techniques; Generating Sub-dermal Maps; Generating Epidermal Maps; Creating Shading Networks; Adding Bump Maps; Adding Specularity; Scene Maintenance; Creating Hair Strands with Paint Effects; Adding Digital Makeup; Creating Lighting Setup ; Effects of Light on Skin. Disclaimer: Some photographic reference contains nudity and is intended for mature audiences.

Popular highlights include: Storing / Reusing Global Illumination Photon Maps; Storing / Reusing Final Gather Maps; BSP Diagnostics; mental ray Render Diagnostics; Render Layers; Layer Overrides; Custom MEL Scripts for Attribute Adjustment; Converting to .MAP format; Controlling Final Gather Light Intensity; Compositing Render Layers in External Applications; Depth Passes for Depth-of-Field Effects; Motion Vector Passes; Optimizing mental ray Memory Usage.

Popular highlights include: Establishing Automotive Line Flow; Creating NURBS Curve Framework; Modeling Contoured Panels; Adding Sub-D Resolution; Avoiding Creases and Dents with Edge Spacing; Adding Scoops to Curves Surfaces; Extracting Useful Geometry; Mirroring Detail; Troubleshooting Common Edge Loop Issues; Creative Uses of Extrusions; Converting Between Geometry; Moving Points Along Normals; Adding Tire Tread with Bump Maps; Modeling using Deformers; HDR Lighting Setup; mental ray Shading Techniques; Automotive Terminology and Concepts.

Popular highlights include: Setting up Environmental Geometry; Light Placement Techniques; Emitting Photons from Light Source; Visualizing Photon Maps in Viewport; Tuning Photon Intensity; Smoothing GI Photons with Final Gather; Incorporating Maya and mental ray Materials; Adjusting Photonic Attributes of Materials; Altering Geometry for Optimum GI; Rendering Images to HDR Format; Adding realism with Ambient Occlusion; Fine-tuning Renders with External Apps; Adjusting Exposure with Camera Lens Shaders; Using Multi-bounce Final Gather as GI Alternative; Creating and Storing Rendering Presets.

Popular highlights include: Overview of Common mental ray Materials; Simulating Glass & Water with Dielectric Materials; Setting up Dielectric-to-Dielectric Material Interactions; Simulating Glossy Reflective Surfaces with DGS Material; Generating Realistic Automotive Renders with Car Paint Phenomena; Mimicking Light through Skin with Subsurface Scattering; Creating Multi-node mental ray Shading Networks; Controlling Texture Placement Using Rotational Matrices; Overview of mental ray's Procedural Textures; Utilizing Maya's Procedural Shaders in a mental ray Network; Constructing Custom Phenomena; Understanding the Various Types of Ambient Occlusion; Applying Real-world Lighting Data to mental ray Lights; Using mental ray Lights that Emit Color Based on Temperature; Creating Caustic Effects with Photonic Materials; Overview of mental ray's Architectural Material; Generating Realistic Outdoor Renders Using Physical Sky Shader;* Maya 8.5 and higher is recommended for several lessons.