Lynda.com 3ds Max 2010: Lighting and Rendering with mental ray

Author: Aaron F. Ross
Duration (hr:min): 05:43
Released on: 12/2/2009
Exercise files: Yes
Software works on: Windows only

3ds Max 2010: Lighting and Rendering with mental ray explores one of the most powerful toolsets for photorealistic 3D image visualization: the mental ray renderer in 3ds Max. Aaron F. Ross shows how to use mental ray's combination of materials, lighting, and rendering to achieve a variety of effects, from glossy surfaces to reflections and transparency. He provides an in-depth review of photometrics and the tools used to adjust lighting in 3ds Max, including brightness, intensity, and color temperature along with a wide variety of lighting scenarios. Aaron also devotes time to getting the most out of mental ray's powerful rendering engine and improving render efficiency. Exercise files are included with this course.

Topics include:

• Applying mental ray materials
• Setting photometric lighting
• Rendering glossy surfaces with raytracing
• Using indirect illumination
• Simulating exterior and interior lighting scenarios
• Selecting appropriate special effects

Content:

Introduction - 05:28

    Welcome - 0:55 - 8.3 MB
    Using the exercise files - 1:02 - 1.0 MB
    Setting a project folder - 3:31 - 3.8 MB

1. Concepts - 13:49

    Understanding mental ray - 2:44 - 3.0 MB
    Understanding local illumination - 4:09 - 5.2 MB
    Understanding global illumination - 2:22 - 2.3 MB
    Assigning the mental ray renderer - 2:11 - 2.7 MB
    Using the rendered frame window controls - 2:23 - 2.9 MB

2. Gamma Correction - 06:12

    Understanding gamma - 2:39 - 2.9 MB
    Recognizing the symptoms of incorrect gamma settings - 1:55 - 2.0 MB
    Applying gamma correction - 1:38 - 1.8 MB

3. Ray Tracing - 19:46

    Understanding raytracing - 1:30 - 1.6 MB
    Limiting the trace depth of reflections and refractions - 3:39 - 4.2 MB
    Applying a raytrace reflection map to a standard material - 3:19 - 4.4 MB
    Applying a raytrace refraction map to a standard material - 4:55 - 6.9 MB
    Setting the index of refraction - 2:28 - 3.8 MB
    Using architectural materials for raytraced reflections - 3:55 - 4.8 MB

4. Transparency - 11:01

    Modeling thin, transparent objects such as window glass - 3:03 - 6.1 MB
    Disabling shadows - 1:53 - 2.3 MB
    Setting simple transparency - 6:05 - 8.0 MB

5. Materials - 42:42

    Understanding the pros and cons of mental ray materials - 3:22 - 4.4 MB
    Getting familiar with the Arch & Design material - 3:54 - 5.1 MB
    Learning from the Arch & Design templates - 4:17 - 5.3 MB
    Working with diffuse color and diffuse level - 3:04 - 4.1 MB
    Setting reflectivity and glossiness - 7:55 - 10.2 MB
    Rendering thin wall reflections - 3:07 - 4.6 MB
    Rendering solid glass - 4:56 - 7.1 MB
    Controlling BRDF - 4:36 - 5.8 MB
    Rendering translucency - 3:17 - 4.0 MB
    Using ProMaterials - 4:14 - 5.5 MB

6. Photometrics and Exposure Control - 39:03

    Understanding photometrics - 3:56 - 4.7 MB
    Understanding the importance of modeling to scale - 5:39 - 6.1 MB
    Using free lights - 4:32 - 5.4 MB
    Selecting photometric templates - 3:18 - 4.1 MB
    Understanding mr photographic exposure control - 2:54 - 3.7 MB
    Adjusting brightness with exposure value - 2:45 - 3.8 MB
    Using photographic exposure settings - 3:15 - 4.2 MB
    Understanding color temperature - 3:10 - 3.3 MB
    Setting the exposure whitepoint - 4:52 - 5.4 MB
    Adjusting contrast with exposure image control - 4:42 - 6.7 MB

7. Advanced Photometrics - 26:20

    Installing and using photometric .IES files - 8:02 - 12.3 MB
    Choosing a light distribution type - 3:10 - 4.3 MB
    Setting light intensity - 4:19 - 5.4 MB
    Using target lights - 2:37 - 3.5 MB
    Adjusting spotlight hotspot and falloff angles - 2:59 - 4.4 MB
    Emitting light from shape - 5:13 - 7.9 MB

8. Shadows - 14:14

    Understanding the pros and cons of shadow types - 3:34 - 3.8 MB
    Controlling shadows via object properties - 1:30 - 1.7 MB
    Controlling shadows via light exclusion - 2:50 - 3.8 MB
    Rendering shadow map shadows - 3:34 - 4.2 MB
    Rendering raytraced shadows - 2:46 - 3.4 MB

9. Final Gather - 24:47

    Understanding final gather - 2:33 - 3.3 MB
    Adjusting exposure control for final gather - 3:24 - 4.6 MB
    Setting initial FG point density and rays per FG point - 4:10 - 4.8 MB
    Setting interpolation and diffuse bounces - 3:15 - 3.6 MB
    Tuning final gather settings to the scene - 2:08 - 2.2 MB
    Controlling object properties for final gather - 3:53 - 5.1 MB
    Optimizing final gather for animations - 5:24 - 7.8 MB

10. Sampling Quality - 10:09

    Controlling render quality with samples per pixel - 4:11 - 5.3 MB
    Understanding spatial contrast settings - 2:27 - 2.6 MB
    Using filter settings to apply blur for anti-aliasing - 3:31 - 4.2 MB

11. Exterior Daylight - 27:12

    Creating a daylight system - 2:01 - 2.3 MB
    Setting the location, date, and time from the Motion panel - 3:02 - 3.8 MB
    Choosing mr sun and mr sky from the Modify panel - 2:03 - 2.2 MB
    Understanding the mr physical sky environment map - 2:18 - 3.6 MB
    Adjusting exposure value and image control - 3:40 - 6.0 MB
    Setting the exposure whitepoint - 1:51 - 2.1 MB
    Choosing a sky model - 3:24 - 4.3 MB
    Controlling haze - 5:28 - 7.2 MB
    Working with mr sky advanced parameters - 3:25 - 4.3 MB

12. Interior Daylight - 09:18

    Understanding mr sky portals - 2:37 - 2.7 MB
    Creating mr sky portals - 2:09 - 2.6 MB
    Controlling mr sky portal shadows - 4:32 - 6.4 MB

13. Rendering Environment Backdrops in 3ds Max - 30:24

    Understanding the pros and cons of environment mapping - 1:40 - 2.0 MB
    Acquiring or creating background images - 2:07 - 2.6 MB
    Modeling a flat image plane backdrop - 4:01 - 4.8 MB
    Increasing map output for use with exposure control - 4:34 - 6.4 MB
    Adjusting the color map to color-correct the backdrop - 6:43 - 8.3 MB
    Applying a LookAt constraint to the image plane - 5:46 - 7.4 MB
    Modeling cylindrical panorama backgrounds - 5:33 - 11.3 MB

14. Compositing Environment Backdrops in Photoshop - 12:27

    Understanding alpha channels - 1:11 - 1.3 MB
    Rendering still images for After Effects or Photoshop - 3:06 - 3.6 MB
    Converting the alpha channel to a Photoshop layer mask - 3:01 - 3.4 MB
    Using Photoshop adjustment layers for color correction - 5:09 - 5.5 MB

15. Ambient Occlusion in Arch & Design Materials - 09:34

    Understanding ambient occlusion - 2:05 - 2.2 MB
    Enabling AO in the arch & design material - 1:53 - 2.6 MB
    Using color from other materials - 1:50 - 2.4 MB
    Setting ambient occlusion parameters - 3:46 - 5.4 MB

16. Scene-Wide Ambient Occlusion - 22:14

    Understanding the need for a "poor man's global illumination" - 2:50 - 3.0 MB
    Creating a standard omni light at the origin - 1:51 - 2.1 MB
    Setting intensity and enabling ambient only - 1:56 - 2.5 MB
    Creating an ambient/reflective occlusion map - 2:51 - 4.4 MB
    Adjusting type and samples - 1:07 - 1.5 MB
    Setting bright and dark - 2:44 - 3.5 MB
    Understanding spread - 1:40 - 2.2 MB
    Setting max distance and falloff - 3:08 - 3.6 MB
    Excluding transparent and self-illuminated objects - 4:07 - 5.8 MB

17. Volume Lights - 08:13

    Understanding atmospheres - 1:00 - 1.2 MB
    Adding a volume light atmosphere - 1:28 - 2.3 MB
    Setting exposure physical scale to "unitless" - 1:23 - 2.0 MB
    Adjusting volume light parameters - 1:56 - 3.0 MB
    Adding noise to the volume light - 2:26 - 3.6 MB

18. Lens Effects - 10:17

    Understanding lens effects - 0:51 - 1.0 MB
    Adding a lens effect to a light - 3:19 - 4.9 MB
    Adjusting lens effect globals - 1:40 - 2.2 MB
    Setting glow element parameters - 2:14 - 2.9 MB
    Adding a star element - 2:13 - 3.0 MB

Conclusion - 00:10

    Goodbye - 0:10 - 0.2 MB