mental ray tests - Jeff Patton [Archive]

JeffPatton

03-06-2007, 08:37 PM

Figured I'd follow suit and start a thread to house my mental ray test renders.

Glazed ceramic test (click to enlarge)
http://jeffpatton.net/Blog-images/buddah_grn-thb.jpg (http://jeffpatton.net/Blog-images/buddah_grn.jpg)

Glazed ceramic test (click to enlarge)
http://jeffpatton.net/Blog-images/buddah_orng-thb.jpg (http://jeffpatton.net/Blog-images/buddah_orng.jpg)

Glazed ceramic with T2S_illumination coating (click to enlarge)
http://jeffpatton.net/Blog-images/buddah_irr-thb.jpg (http://jeffpatton.net/Blog-images/buddah_irr.jpg)

T2S_illumination coating used for color shift (click to enlarge)
http://jeffpatton.net/Blog-images/T2S_Paint-thb.jpg (http://jeffpatton.net/Blog-images/T2S_Paint.jpg)

JeffPatton

03-06-2007, 08:38 PM

A&D Translucent setting test (click to enlarge)
http://jeffpatton.net/Tests/Translucent-thb.jpg (http://jeffpatton.net/Tests/Translucent.jpg)

Car paint test image (click to enlarge)
http://jeffpatton.net/Temp/Widget-copperhead-thb.jpg (http://jeffpatton.net/Temp/Widget-copperhead.jpg)

A&D Cloth material test (click to enlarge)
http://jeffpatton.net/Temp/test-cloth-thb.jpg (http://jeffpatton.net/Temp/test-cloth.jpg)

Another car paint test (click to enlarge)
http://jeffpatton.net/Tests/car-tangerine-thb.jpg (http://jeffpatton.net/Tests/car-tangerine.jpg)

Ocean(lume) displacement test (right click, save as):
http://jeffpatton.net/Temp/Water-JP.mov

Snowball shader test (right click, save as):
http://jeffpatton.net/Temp/Mray_snow_JP.mov

Animated clouds in physical sky (right click, save as):
http://jeffpatton.net/Tests/animated-sky.mov

Parti-volume water test (right click, save as):
http://jeffpatton.net/Tests/mie-water-anm.mov

S|CH

03-07-2007, 12:10 AM

Real nice those ceramic tests!

Though that fabric look quite dull. Haven't seen any good fabric MR render for quite a while...

chaka

03-07-2007, 06:28 AM

hi jeff , how did you do ?? i talking about the

1-A & D Translucent setting test
2-A&D Cloth material test

the parameters ??

sorry my english :p

JeffPatton

03-07-2007, 10:15 AM

Looks like I didn't keep that translucent test scene. But if I remember correctly it was a basic glass setup with glossy refractions, using the color at max distance options to turn it slightly red/orange. Then of course, translucency was enabled, also with a reddish color. I do remember that I used multiple omni lights to bring out the translucent effect.

The cloth:
Diffuse = cloth bitmap
roughness = 0.7
reflectivity = 0.35
glossiness = 0.15
* Highlights & FG only mode enabled
Bump = B/W cloth bitmap

siliconbauhaus

03-07-2007, 05:58 PM

be prepared for a lot of question concerning mental ray Jeff :D

matthew999

03-20-2007, 07:57 AM

hi jeff some nice shader work there. If u have time could you do a little explination of the ceramic irredecent shader... looks tastey.

Also i like ya little model for ya car paint test shader kinda reminds me of the test model available for vray textures. maybe we could use ya model for a mental ray user shader section. that would be coool :)

JeffPatton

03-20-2007, 09:40 AM

Hi Matthew,

I've attached that ceramic material to this post. You'll just need to download the T2S shader files. I have links & instructions for that on my blog (Feb.21,2007 post).

I used the coatings option to create the color shifting. Afraid there's not a lot of info out there on specific coating settings with the T2S shader though...As such, the settings I used aren't from anything "physical", just some experiments with the parameters.

matthew999

03-21-2007, 04:46 AM

hi jeff,

thanks for a speedy responce, i had a peek at the t2s shader yestersday looks great. wil play today

cheers

matt

matthew999

03-21-2007, 04:57 AM

sorry jeff, is this for maya this file. as im not familiar with .mat file format

Shimrod

03-21-2007, 06:18 AM

.mat is a 3dsmax format.

Thanks fot the sharing, Jeff ! :cool: ;)

matthew999

03-21-2007, 08:43 AM

ah right cool. ill have a look at shader settings when i can get in front of max. and try em in maya. and again jeff thanks for shairing your files, tis what makes a great community.

JeffPatton

03-21-2007, 09:51 AM

You put the .mat file in your "materiallibraries" folder with the other .mat files for 3dsmax. Then open it with the material editor to access the actual material.

JeffPatton

03-21-2007, 10:44 AM

A few more images:

Electron microscope material (click to enlarge)
http://jeffpatton.net/Blog-images/E_microscope-thb.jpg (http://jeffpatton.net/Blog-images/E_microscope.jpg)

Interior-lighting test scene (click to enlarge)
http://jeffpatton.net/Tests/interior-mr01-thb.jpg (http://jeffpatton.net/Tests/interior-mr01.jpg)

neilindian

03-22-2007, 01:41 AM

WOW, great interior Jeff. Fantastic rendering.

nisus

04-04-2007, 12:48 PM

Nice carpet Jeff. Can you explain how you have created this?
I assume it is displacement only... correct?

I had to do a 'wild' carpet, with very long 'hairs' recently... I didn't succeed very well, so my question is: how would you do it Jeff?

Can you give some insight about the 'hair' options like MR prim etc... I just don't seem to find a good working example of when to use what setting in combination with my lighting setup...

rgds,

nisus

JeffPatton

04-05-2007, 07:53 AM

neilindian: Thank you for the kind words.

nisus: You are correct, the carpet was created with a displacement map. I used a cellular procedural map inside the Height Map Displacement map.

But it does sound like you'd want to use the hair option instead of displacement for your carpet. Here's a quickie example:
http://jeffpatton.net/Temp/Carpet_grass-test.jpg

I just used the sun/sky system, but regardless of what light rig your using the lighting shouldn't pose a problem for the hair. Just make sure you apply a shader to the mr shader rollout of the hair settings, else it'll render black.

nisus

04-05-2007, 07:57 AM

Tnx Jeff,

Will try that soon ,-)

On this link, you can see the results of my 'hairy carpet' so far.
http://www.mymentalray.com/forum/showthread.php?t=459
I'm not satisfied with it to be honest... than again, one might not really see why, because this image is only 25% of the real one...

Anyway, tnx.

rgds,

nisus

siliconbauhaus

04-05-2007, 03:39 PM

Jeff

You cant post a image like that without telling us cretins how its done :(

JeffPatton

04-06-2007, 06:50 AM

Jeff

You cant post a image like that without telling us cretins how its done :(Cretins...lol. I'd fit into that category as well!

Hair setup from render above:

1. Create a plane and setup your lighting (I used the daylight system & FG only).
2. Apply a hair/fur modifier to the plane.
3. I changed the hair count from the default value (15000) to 7000.
4. I also changed the Hair Passes setting to 3.
5. Apply a material to the mr Parameters rollout. You can use any material you like here. I used an A&D material.
6. Finally, switch the hair type to "mr prim" (located in the effects menu) and change the Voxel Resolution to 1
7. Render.

Hope that helps.

siliconbauhaus

04-06-2007, 12:33 PM

ta mate....any news on your dvd release date?

v-reality

04-17-2007, 03:18 AM

JeffPatton

04-17-2007, 01:09 PM

Thanks for the kind words. I'll be sure to share some info on the scene setup soon.

MasterZap

04-19-2007, 04:01 AM

Here's something else from Jeff (http://www.z4p.com/ad/jeffs-flight.mov), although I rendered it (and added the trash on the desk ;) )

/Z

hoppergrass

04-19-2007, 06:00 PM

Very nice. I suppose this is a demo on the shaders. Can you give us some more info

JHV

MasterZap

04-19-2007, 10:42 PM

Nah, it was just an interior scene Jeff did, which made Jeff find a bug, so I got the scene as part of a bug report. (It was just the empty room).

So I just added some random junk on the window ledge, and rendered a fly-through, and that's about it. There's really nothing "special" about any of the materials, run of the mill mia_material (Arch&Design) stuff with very little thought put into it. I.e. the junk on the ledge is not using any of Jeff's esquisitly tuned materials, just some slapped together junk by myself.

/Z

hoppergrass

04-19-2007, 10:52 PM

cool, can you say what the bug was?

JHV

MrElmo

04-20-2007, 05:27 AM

And the rendertimes :) and and and :D

photons

04-23-2007, 08:46 AM

man a really nice job.. impressed with work....keep inspiring us.:D

Carl Frischmuth

04-25-2007, 03:00 AM

MasterZap

04-25-2007, 04:55 AM

Ahh such junk slappery is good to see

...which reminds me what I did to your car (www.z4p.com/ad/muddy-car.mov) ;)

/Z

Carl Frischmuth

04-25-2007, 06:20 AM

...which reminds me what I did to your car (www.z4p.com/ad/muddy-car.mov) ;)

/Z

LOL yep looks like that squadron of eeevil flying cows unleashed something other than perfection out there in the swedish countryside ;)

heheheh

JeffPatton

04-25-2007, 10:56 AM

LOL yep looks like that squadron of eeevil flying cows unleashed something other than perfection out there in the swedish countryside ;LOL, now there's a visual! :D

(and the premise for a hilarious animation...now where did I put that cow model...)

nisus

04-30-2007, 02:53 AM

Can someone repost the link of the animation?
I can't connect to it. Tnx

nisus

Creator

05-29-2007, 05:46 AM

So..... Did you use HDRI for your renderings and is it possible to render something realistic without HDRI?

Schjaack

05-30-2007, 11:44 PM

I believe most things are done with a HDR but you have to think about when needing one.
When making a simple scene with a reflective object, but there's nothing to reflect, you'll need a HDR to make it look like it's in the real world.
When making somthing with the sun/sky, it could look nice without but still, using a HDR makes it more realistic.
When rendering an interior scene, HDR would only slow down the rendertime, since everyting hase something to relfect. The HDR will also just be on the outside so it'll only shine through the windows and therefor will ad very little to the scene.
I can't speak for jeff, but I believe he uses HDR in a lot of the examples you see.

Creator

05-31-2007, 09:00 PM

Then is it possible to render something realistic without HDRI? Like say indoors? any tips on that?

Schjaack

06-01-2007, 12:53 AM

Then is it possible to render something realistic without HDRI? Like say indoors? any tips on that?You can when you have enough to reflect. Also, when using a plane in front of your window (use a daylight to light that, and put the daylight above your model) you will have enough reflection. When using a HDR you can get some nice ambient light, but that will hardly be noticed and take longer, but that's been set before I believe.:o

JeffPatton

06-05-2007, 06:13 AM

So..... Did you use HDRI for your renderings and is it possible to render something realistic without HDRI?

I can't speak for jeff, but I believe he uses HDR in a lot of the examples you see.

Sorry for the slow reply, thought I had subscribed to this thread for notifications but evidently I didn't. Personally, if I use a .hdr image in my scenes, it's mainly used for reflections and at times, secondary lighting.

Is it possible to create something realistic without .hdr's? Yes, as long as everything else in the scene is up to par (realistic models, textures, etc).

JeffPatton

06-07-2007, 07:23 PM

Couple more car examples....I never have enough of these..lol.

Camaro - Yellow & black (click to enlarge)
http://jeffpatton.net/Tests/Camaro_YB_large2-thb.jpg (http://jeffpatton.net/Tests/Camaro_YB_large2.jpg)

Camaro - Silver & black angle 1 (click to enlarge)
http://jeffpatton.net/Tests/Camaro_Silver-01-thb.jpg (http://jeffpatton.net/Tests/Camaro_Silver-01.jpg)

Camaro - Silver & black angle 2 (click to enlarge)
http://jeffpatton.net/Tests/Camaro_Silver-02-thb.jpg (http://jeffpatton.net/Tests/Camaro_Silver-02.jpg)

Creator

06-07-2007, 09:59 PM

Hdri?.......

Schjaack

06-08-2007, 12:54 AM

Hdri?.......http://mymentalray.com/mymr_learningtools/learningtools.htm
They're right under your nose!! :p
Good luck.

MasterZap

06-08-2007, 01:49 AM

Shimrod

06-08-2007, 03:50 AM

Wow impressive renders ! Oo

These shaders are really nicely set.

How did you obtain this kind of "smoothed" reflection ? By lowering flakes weight and using Fast Glossy Interpolation ?

I like too the choice you've made for your hdr, the blue and red tones enhance a lot the volume of these cars. :cool:

JeffPatton

06-08-2007, 05:45 AM

Hdri?.......Actually yes, these are both HDRI reflections and HDRI lighting.

Now can we have it transform into Bumblebee? ;)Sure, just give me a few years to figure all that out..lol.

These shaders are really nicely set.

How did you obtain this kind of "smoothed" reflection ? By lowering flakes weight and using Fast Glossy Interpolation ?Thank you. Actually, I didn't use the car paint on either of these. It's just A&D materials. The yellow example is close to the default A&D settings:
Diffuse = Yellow color
Reflectivity = 0.8
Glossiness = 0.925 (samples = 8)
BRDF curve: 0deg = 0.1, 90deg = 1.0, curve shape = 5.0 (default)
Then put a small noise map in the bump slot and enable the "do not apply bumps to diffuse shading" option to make a subtle orange-peel effect.

The silver paint is two A&D materials wrapped inside the shellac material. The base material uses a very glossy metal setting, while the shellac material provides the crisp clear-coat reflections.

ivaring

08-06-2007, 03:34 AM

Actually yes, these are both HDRI reflections and HDRI lighting.

Sure, just give me a few years to figure all that out..lol.

Thank you. Actually, I didn't use the car paint on either of these. It's just A&D materials. The yellow example is close to the default A&D settings:
Diffuse = Yellow color
Reflectivity = 0.8
Glossiness = 0.925 (samples = 8)
BRDF curve: 0deg = 0.1, 90deg = 1.0, curve shape = 5.0 (default)
Then put a small noise map in the bump slot and enable the "do not apply bumps to diffuse shading" option to make a subtle orange-peel effect.

The silver paint is two A&D materials wrapped inside the shellac material. The base material uses a very glossy metal setting, while the shellac material provides the crisp clear-coat reflections.

Did u had in past problems with mentalray.dlz?.
Thanks.

moulder6

08-06-2007, 12:19 PM

Hi, Mr. Patton :)
I followed you description for creating carpets using 3ds max "Hair & Fur" and everything was great - it worked perfectly... But then I asigned A&D material to it and was very surprisd to find out that whatever settings/colors i make/chose, my carpet always renders white, correctly shaded, for sure, but completely white... I tried to change the material type with mr default or any other but the carpet stil renders white...
Another strange (imho) thing i noticed was that when i click on the material button in hair's proprties in The "Modify" panel, i get displayed all the material types... mental ray + scanline native! Isn't it true that H&Sh can use only mr native materials for shading itself this way?!

3devendra

08-12-2007, 05:08 AM

these are really good ones, can you tell basic settings for rendering good qualiy with less of time?

JeffPatton

08-12-2007, 06:11 AM

Did u had in past problems with mentalray.dlz?.I can't remember having any problems with that file.

But then I asigned A&D material to it and was very surprisd to find out that whatever settings/colors i make/chose, my carpet always renders white, correctly shaded, for sure, but completely white... I tried to change the material type with mr default or any other but the carpet stil renders white...Not sure, about the only thing I can think of is perhaps when you drag the material over to the MEDIT for editing you do so as a copy instead of an instance? If you don't use an instance, that would prevent any changes from happening. Beyond that, is the whole scene white? If so, maybe it's the exposure settings that's washing out the scene?

Another strange (imho) thing i noticed was that when i click on the material button in hair's proprties in The "Modify" panel, i get displayed all the material types... mental ray + scanline native! Isn't it true that H&Sh can use only mr native materials for shading itself this way?!The list appears like that because I'm pretty certain you can use any material on the hair that is available to mental ray.

these are really good ones, can you tell basic settings for rendering good quality with less of time?Thank you. That really depends on each scene, but one thing I do to speed up almost all my scenes is calculate my .fgm file at a smaller resolution than the final render.

JeffPatton

08-12-2007, 06:34 AM

A few more test renders:

Arch-Viz Exterior (click to enlarge)
http://jeffpatton.net/Tests/Exterior_01-thb.jpg (http://jeffpatton.net/Tests/Exterior_01.jpg)

Arch-Viz Interior (click to enlarge)
http://jeffpatton.net/Tests/Interior_01-thb.jpg (http://jeffpatton.net/Tests/Interior_01.jpg)

Arch-Viz Interior (click to enlarge)
http://jeffpatton.net/Tests/Interior_02-thb.jpg (http://jeffpatton.net/Tests/Interior_02.jpg)

Carbon Fiber material test:
http://jeffpatton.net/Temp/Carbon_fiber.mov
(right click, save as will probably work better than playing it directly)

JeffPatton

08-12-2007, 06:35 AM

Continued:

Arch-Viz Interior (click to enlarge)
http://jeffpatton.net/Tests/Interior_03-thb.jpg (http://jeffpatton.net/Tests/Interior_03.jpg)

Arch-Viz Interior (click to enlarge)
http://jeffpatton.net/Tests/Interior_04-thb.jpg (http://jeffpatton.net/Tests/Interior_04.jpg)

Arch-Viz Interior (click to enlarge)
http://jeffpatton.net/Tests/Interior_05-thb.jpg (http://jeffpatton.net/Tests/Interior_05.jpg)

Yes...another car (click to enlarge)
http://jeffpatton.net/Tests/Porsche_canyon_MB-thb.jpg (http://jeffpatton.net/Tests/Porsche_canyon_MB.jpg)

SmokingHot2003

08-12-2007, 12:42 PM

Those images are very impressive.

What is the purpose for the third image of a classroom being totally white? Just curious.

In the fourth image, is the background of the image all HDRI or there's models of the rock behind the car and also a plane with road bitmap added to mtl just below the car? Looks very good by the way.

The second image is most impressive of all. It looks just like a photo. I like the focus point in the image, I can guess you used Depth of Field (Mental Ray) in the camera.

Awesome Job!

JeffPatton

08-12-2007, 05:40 PM

Those images are very impressive. Thank you very much.

What is the purpose for the third image of a classroom being totally white? Just curious.I mainly use it as a shadow comparison between FG + AOCC VS. FG + Area lights.

In the fourth image, is the background of the image all HDRI or there's models of the rock behind the car and also a plane with road bitmap added to mtl just below the car? Looks very good by the way.The background is one of the Car Environment HDRI's from DOSCH. The only CG objects are of course the car, but also a plane to catch shadows.

The second image is most impressive of all. It looks just like a photo. I like the focus point in the image, I can guess you used Depth of Field (Mental Ray) in the camera.I didn't use mental ray DOF. Instead I rendered out a z-depth pass and used Photoshop's lens effect.

max_lover

08-12-2007, 06:21 PM

Hi . Jeff..
first of all let me tell you, I am big fan of yours.. I am trying to learn mental ray only by watching your work.. amazing and so much impressive..
2nd, you are mental ray god, you are using mentalray or mental ray using your mental sharp rays to make awesome artwork.. pretty amazing again (sorry for bad English :D),

I have request , can you share your interior setting and setup of lighting.. interior 3 and white classroom, it will be very helpful
and thanks for making me learn mental ray :)
I am keen to learn mr Interior :)
thanks in advance

SmokingHot2003

08-12-2007, 07:02 PM

What exactly is "AOCC"? I've never seen that name before..

fellazb

08-13-2007, 01:21 AM

Ambient OCClusion...

SmokingHot2003

08-13-2007, 06:15 AM

Oh gotta....

Shogunato

08-13-2007, 10:42 AM

i can't believe it :eek:
You are a very talented artist man. The car and the classroom.. woaa !

JeffPatton

08-14-2007, 06:35 AM

I have request , can you share your interior setting and setup of lighting.. interior 3 and white classroom, it will be very helpfulThank you for the ultra kind words. No problem, I'll prepare/post some screen grabs and info on those scenes today.

The car and the classroom.. woaa !Thank you for the comments. :)

What exactly is "AOCC"? I've never seen that name before..Sorry for using the cryptic abbreviation. Glad it's cleared up now.

JeffPatton

08-14-2007, 08:46 AM

I have request , can you share your interior setting and setup of lighting..Just posted some info and screen captures on my blog:

http://jeffpatton.cgsociety.org/blog/

Hope that helps.

SmokingHot2003

08-14-2007, 12:52 PM

So which one worked better for you when you render the classroom? Area lights or AOCC? Just curious...

JeffPatton

08-14-2007, 01:17 PM

IMHO, it's not really a matter of which worked better, but which method can you "get by with". Will your clients notice the missing directional shadows if you use AOCC? If not then by all means use AOCC and enjoy the faster render times.

However, if the missing directional shadows bother you or your clients then adding area lights at the windows would be the way to go...but the drawback is that adding area lights at your windows will increase your render times.

AOCC shadows = faster renders / less accurate shadows
Area lights at windows = accurate shadows / generally slower

slipknot66

08-14-2007, 03:10 PM

Nice tests Jeff :)

3DMadness

08-15-2007, 11:12 AM

Nice tests Jeff, thanks for sharing the setup with us.

But what about the render times? The settings looks pretty high for me... :D

JeffPatton

08-15-2007, 12:55 PM

Nice tests Jeff :)Thank you.

what about the render times? The settings looks pretty high for me.Whenever I use high GI/FG settings I calculate my .pmap/.fgm files at a small resolution then freeze the .fgm and render out to fullsize. By doing so, the indirect illumination calculation for higher settings can take about 30 minutes on my aging xeon workstation. Faster machines would cut that time in half. So for me (on a still frame image) a 15-30 minute calculation isn't bad.

With that being said, yes I could have used much lower FG settings, especially if I was to use AOCC for the shadows. Also, if I was rendering an animation, I would probably try to use the draft setting + AOCC shadows for speed (or use higher settings and carefully figure out where/when I need to calculate the .fgm file)..but for stills, if time allows I prefer to use higher settings & area lights for accurate shadows. Again, that's just me and my own preferences..nothing more, nothing less. :)

max_lover

08-15-2007, 01:31 PM

thanks million Jeff, for sharing:) without you, mental ray is impossible for me...

Shogunato

08-15-2007, 01:47 PM

thank you for sharing ;)

slipknot66

08-15-2007, 02:56 PM

To bad that theres no Render FG map only in max, thats the way i do in Maya, where we can render only the FG map. That save a lot of time for animation, even for still images when you are rendering big res.Another feature that would be nice to have implemented in Max (maybe in Max 2008?) its the ability to see the photon maps and FG maps in the viewport, that helps a lot in adjusting the Photon and FG scale visually.I hope they implement that in Max 10 (2008). Again you have some nice render tests there Jeff.

Spacelord

08-15-2007, 06:38 PM

Hi Slipnot:
you can see the Fg not in the viewport but with diagnosis FG, it helps a bit. But you have to render the frame to see it.

As far as just rendering your FG map, I just set my AA settings as low as possible. You still have to render the frame but is a lot fast specially for animations where you only want to render every 10th frame.

Great Tests Jeff !!
I'd love to see you do and Exterior/interior combo.
I find them quite tricky to balance the Exterior light v's the interior lighting.

Also I just checked your blog, theres some interesting Fg settings (adjusting the FG mulitplier ).
I was just wondering what your Logarithmic settings are ?

cheers

slipknot66

08-16-2007, 04:17 AM

Hi Bullseye, yes i know about the FG diagnosis in MAx, but in Maya you can see that directly in your viewport as a 3d representation, you can even adjust scale and radius of the photon map or FG and see it immediatly updated in the viewport.As for the fg map only, even knowing that in max you can render using low AA, you still need to render the image, and depending on the complexity of the scene that can take a lot of time, again in Maya you just render the FG map, every 10 or 5 frames.So i wish they implement those features in Max, as now im being forced to use it (lol, i miss a lot of other things from Maya). Sorry Jeff didnt mean to hijack your thread..hehe

SmokingHot2003

08-16-2007, 10:59 AM

Hey Jeff ... why do you have FG Multi. at 5 for the living room render you did. Looks fantastic by the way. Also, I noticed on one of your rendering.. not sure which one but you had the Ray
per FG Point at like 3000. Why so high? Just wondering..

if I do that then my rendering will be slow like crazy, long enough that I could have a long coffee break..

JeffPatton

08-16-2007, 11:36 AM

I was just wondering what your Logarithmic settings are ?60,90, 1.0, 80000

Hey Jeff ... why do you have FG Multi. at 5 for the living room render you did.

Also, I noticed on one of your rendering.. not sure which one but you had the Ray per FG Point at like 3000. Why so high?

As I mentioned in my blog post:
I increased the mrSky multiplier to give more blue light from the sky into the scene. I also increased the FG mulitplier to brighten the indirect lighting effect. Why did I not simply increase the brightness value on the logarithmic exposure control? Because I was able to tweak the amount of skylight & indirect lighting this way. Let's just call it artistic freedom.

if I do that then my rendering will be slow like crazy, long enough that I could have a long coffee break..See this post:
http://mymentalray.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4768&postcount=65

<Disclaimer mode on>

I posted this statement in my blog, but let me also mention it here: These settings are not "physically correct" and I only used them because I personally liked the results & control the settings provided.

I'm just sharing some of my experiments. The particular settings that I use (in any given scene) may not be optimal for everyone, or every scene. But when I come across a particular method that I personally like or provides decent results, I try to pass the info along so others can explore the settings/methods.

I strongly recommend that people new to mental ray go through the tutorials that ship with 3dsmax to gain a good working knowledge of "proper" usage before diving into my (or anyone else's) experimental settings.

<Disclaimer mode off>

;)

SmokingHot2003

08-16-2007, 12:47 PM

K thank you Jeff. I forgot about that part you wrote on the same thread. Anyway, thanks again.

Spacelord

08-16-2007, 05:35 PM

Thanks Jeff,
I think the artistic side of the image is more important than the physical side. But the physical side is the best starting point.

like its been said a million times now, most Architectural photographers will light a scene with artificial lights anyway.

Slipnot: Yep I do understand what your saying it would be good to have not to render the frame at all for FG.
I have seen the viewport FG diagnosis in Maya and it would be handy to have in Max too. We just have to work around these things for now.

SmokingHot2003

08-19-2007, 03:17 PM

Hey Jeff

How many polygon count is in both of your scene, the living room and the classroom? Just curious...

JeffPatton

08-21-2007, 12:34 PM

How many polygon count is in both of your scene, the living room and the classroom? Just curious...No problem.
Living room = 517,164 poly's
Classroom = 118,408 poly's

SmokingHot2003

08-21-2007, 04:16 PM

K thank you for answering my question.
I have other question to ask... Do you ever face problems of your scene crash and a dialog popped up saying that there's not enough memory.. If you do, what all things will you check and see what causes it to crash?

That'd be helpful if you can answer that...

Thanks

nisus

08-29-2007, 05:18 PM

I think the artistic side of the image is more important than the physical side. But the physical side is the best starting point.

like its been said a million times now, most Architectural photographers will light a scene with artificial lights anyway.

Well yeah... but what does one do if ones client is a company that produces light bulbs and fixtures, and they want realistic image showing the correct use... (We have clients like that at AMS)... One does what a photographer does, just use the available light and the shutter speed or whatever camera options he has... that's it... no additional light... MR can do this too ,-)

Basicly, we make the space as in real life, and than act like a photographer and his camera...

rgds,

nisus

Spacelord

08-29-2007, 08:37 PM

Well like I said its a great starting point (physically based renderers) and if you are doing something that has to realistic then you wouldn't alter the physical settings would you ? :)
You use what is required for each job.

cheers

nec977

12-04-2007, 07:23 AM

Hi! first of all I really like your work and appreciate your good will for sharing and helping old and new mental ray users.

Now the question :)

I’m relatively new to mentalray workflow,

I would realy like to learn how to create that snow shader network in maya. So if you have time and will to list the nodes of that shader network you done in 3dsmax, or some general guidelines regarding that particular shader.

Tnx.

giobon

01-19-2008, 03:55 AM

Hi Jeff (also anybody else willing to answer :)

I liked the neat trick you explained in the interwiev on this site, rendering with a high exposure and then lowering it in photoshop to get the nice white surfaces and overall lightness of architecture, is there a way to get the same in maya?

tnx

circa86

02-10-2008, 02:42 AM

the carbon fiber shader looks excellent! even captured the nice little color shifts that occur.

now lets see a Dry Carbon fiber shader!

keep up the good work.

izrut

06-14-2008, 01:57 PM

Continued:
Arch-Viz Interior (click to enlarge)
http://jeffpatton.net/Tests/Interior_04-thb.jpg (http://jeffpatton.net/Tests/Interior_04.jpg)

Jeff, thank U 4 Inspiring...

http://img386.imageshack.us/img386/7484/classcopyci7.jpg

MojaMoja

06-25-2008, 01:05 PM

Thank you very much.

I mainly use it as a shadow comparison between FG + AOCC VS. FG + Area lights.

So which combination did u use for the final image?

I didn't use mental ray DOF. Instead I rendered out a z-depth pass and used Photoshop's lens effect.

May I ask why u didn't use MentalRay'S DOF? time?

I just started learning Mental Ray...and I was wondering if you could give any advice how to start learning MR. For instance..would u just start with spheres trying different materials or would you jump into a complex scene trying to figure out one after another?

Shimrod

06-26-2008, 06:44 AM

I just started learning Mental Ray...and I was wondering if you could give any advice how to start learning MR. For instance..would u just start with spheres trying different materials or would you jump into a complex scene trying to figure out one after another?

If I were you, I would look into help and tutorials files shipped with 3dsmax. There are some great informations about Arch&Design shaders (explaining well refraction/reflection/etc.) and settings of FG and GI for the lighting.

You could practice with free scenes that you can find on internet, for exemple the stuff provided by Jeremy Birn in its great Lighting Challenges on CG Talk, or on some scenes available on Vizdepot threads (Charrette, Dwayne Ellis Bathroom, Sponza Atrium, the Classroom, etc.)
(dont forget to quote the authors if you show your renderings)

Enjoy your learning. ;)

amitmhadesar

09-20-2010, 10:27 AM

Thank you. That really depends on each scene, but one thing I do to speed up almost all my scenes is calculate my .fgm file at a smaller resolution than the final render.

hello jeff
all render is awesome . I am a great fan of your work and rnd stuff.. want to ask one quiz wht is tht .fgm file and how u work on this file.

Thanks
Amit M