3D World Mental ray 3.5 tutorial

[geldslaw]

this is a kitchen I am currently working on, I didn't create but looking at the geometry in wireframe its not hard to do, just difficult to come up with the design in the first place. lol

Anyways, I am currently following a tutorial that teaches you how to use mental ray 3.5 to render a this scene, this tutorial teaches you more about the daylight system lighting and mental ray 3.5 rendering tabs




its by no means finished, but along the way I have learned so much. I used to follow tutorials without really knowing how or why i was taking certain steps and actions. Now that I have a bit more experience under my belt and confidence under my feet? I now find that with this tutorial that came with lasts september 07 3Dworld magazine, architectural supplementary no 04. (I've already posted a link to the file and other tutorials that are available for max, photoshop. maya etc on the 3d world mag website in the off-site tutorials section)


Anyways, I could kick myself, and no volunteers please, so stop queuing up, hhahaha, because I didn't realise I could use the tile map to create wooden floor boards as well as the usual wall tiles and brickwork? No more will I have to scour the net for images of planks of wood hahahahaah.

well, I'm going back to finish the exercise and learn a bit more, when I started it this morning I thought it would take me 20 mins, that was at 9:30 a.m., its now almost 5:23p.m. and I still have a bit more to do yet.

not only is this about completing the exercise but applying what I have learned to projects that I have already completed and redoing some of them again, it never ends does it hahahahahaha

[OzziGuy]

Wow thats brilliant, ill have to look into that tutorial because that is just awesome. Was it online or in the magazine?

[geldslaw]

oh! that image is awful compared to how it is suppose to turn out, lol, it was justr a test render and but the brilliant thing about it, just as in Jelmer's original tutorial on FG & GI, once you have calculated it, saved your maps, and even if you don't save your maps, rendering time is less than two minutes. thats what's so awsome.

the link in the off-line tutorials section to 3DWorld magazine is to their website where they keep archives of all the CG tutorials published in 3DWorld and their other magazines.

The tutorials are in pdf format and have accompnaying files that can be downloaded. the tutorial is full of helpful bits of information that when all put together make sense,but you need to make sure you have the basic understanding of some of the principles of Fg & GI.

I would say that I feel like I know about 10% of how to use mental ray 3.5, the rest will reveal itself in practice and redoing some basic training in mental ray because I know when I initially studied it, like a lot of people I rushed it and missed out on some vital bits.

but definately worthwhile doing the tutorial then applying it to your own projects

[geldslaw]

don't know if anyone else has thought about trying this tutorial, but interesting enough to get a satisfactory image, and this is an issue I think we'll all ruin into. The photons and brighteness settings were initally too high for my own personal tastes, so I lowered them. right or wrong I don't know but to me on my laptop, the lower settings look better. I'll post he finished image in a minute.

[geldslaw]

still a bit noisy I think and not happy with the definition ofg the wine bottles

[Podge]

Do you create renders of your light source(s) with just singular light source so to see how the light is adding to the scene?

[Podge]

I assume you are using globle illumination, with radiosity, photon mapping or final gathering? Best results are found by combining photon mapping with final gathering.

Use mental ray's map visualizer to see photon tracing light scattering. Rendering menu > Render > Render Scene dialog > Processing panel > Diagnostics rollout

Where you get reflection and refraction use caustics.

Do you bake occlusion into your textures?

[geldslaw]

this exercise was done using a single light source, daylight system and nope I don't bake occlusions into textures, I believe in less is more, the tutorial,its pdf file and the max file are available for download from 3dworld website.

this tutorial has taught me that I still need to go back to the basics and try and understand more about the rollout tab features and settings to understand how they work.

also I have a better understanding of maps in terms of their use with global illumination and final gather. how they can reduce rendering times, it feels great to be able to create nice renders in less than 5 minutes or 10 minutes. One day I may try doinga renderwith mental ray set at high to see how long it takes, but most of my renders are done in draft mode and as you can see the quality is quite good?

if you're not familiar with mental ray I suggest doing jelmers fi & gi tutorial and doing it several times with a few days break in between to give you sufficient time to digest the information.

with all that i have learnt from this tutorial it will be a few weeks if not a few months before i can safely say that I totally understand everything I have learnt, because, thinking I understand it is one thing, and applying it to different projects is another.

So I will have to practice to learn from my mistakes and to build up my confidence even further. lol It's funny how a tutorial that I thought would take me 20 mins to do has taken me 4 days.

[Podge]

I'd love to play around with some of Mr. Birn tutorials but my pc wont permit me I've been to a 3 day seminar in "3d Lighting and Composting" lectured by Jeremy just a few months back. Those few tips i ask came from my notes. i honestly recommend 'Digital Lighting and Rendering' the man is a legend in his field and hopeful some day I'll have his job

I'm starting to like this forum business

[itschriswebb]

ahhhhhh yes i recognise this tutorial... 3D world!

this was an extremely helpful tutorial i found. my most recent render came out close to yours geldslaw... but i have to say i prefer yours with the reduced brightness. but you forgot to apply the light material to the 3 lights. i think the red colour looks great! belows my attempt at it.



The only thing I havent worked on yet is getting an image in the window. any ideas?

I'm currently working on the 3d sound and vision from issue 94 of 3D world. very very difficult stuff! way above my head but its gonna help my future attempts im sure.