Posts tagged V-Ray
openexr
Aug 30th
The awesome openexr format. You can just save all your render passes right into this image format and access them in post, if your software supports it . Experiment a little using photoshop and after effects in combination with the fabulous proexr plug-in, which also offers a nice add-on to automate the creation of the composition layers in after effects. check out the manufacturer’s manual, it’s worth reading it; also to learn more about this image file format in more depth.
Lake Cabin Illustration
Jun 3rd
Here is a lake cabin illustration that I just completed. The model was created in 3DS MAX Design 2011 and rendered using the V-Ray render engine. If you have any technical question feel free to post them here.
Composition is one of the most misunderstood concepts in any form of artwork. It has been said that you can be the greatest painter in the world, but if you don’t know how to compose properly, your painting will fall apart and the same goes for digital art/illustrations/renders.
Like all illustrations of mine, this one started off in my head. First I decide what would make this image special and I decide on a focal point. These cabins are on a lake, very close to the water, and have windows and a deck facing the South. I like to play with contrast so I typically place my camera about 45 degrees from my light source (in plan), with the focal point being in the light. Since the cabins are on the lake facing South I know that you would see the sunrise so I took advantage of the glass on the sliding windows. I chose the sunrise in the reflection as my focal point.
To bring the viewers eye to my focal point (composition is really about moving the viewer’s eye) I placed the boat in the foreground, pointing towards my focal point. The boat was tipped slightly away from the camera so it wouldn’t bring so much attention to itself. I used yellow on the boat to help the viewer up into the image knowing the eye associates colors and the sunrise in the reflection is yellow too. The focal point is also 1/3 to the left of center and about 1/3 below center, which is were the eye is naturally drawn to in an image. I usually have my horizon lower, but I wanted at least as much blue water as blue sky (the water and sky are blue, which are complementary colors to my focal so it brings the illustration into balance).
Below are some screen grabs of my V-Ray settings:
VFB Frame Buffer
Global Switches
Antialising
Image Sampler
Environment
Color Mapping
Camera Type
GI
Brute Force
Light Cache
Caustics
DMC
Displacement
Systems
Elements
V-Ray Camera
HDRI
Gamma
I can comfortably say that I have never used the same settings for any 2 scenes so these settings might not work for you, but it might be a good starting point. I am running a render farm with 90Gb of RAM and 24 processors so unless you have an equivalent farm these settings might be to high for you.
Below find some Photoshop CS5 post screen grabs:
(coming soon…)
V-Ray 1.50.SP5 released today
May 15th
Chaos Group has just announced the release of V-Ray 1.50.SP5. The new build adds compatibility with 3ds Max 2011 and 3ds Max Design 2011 and includes new features, together with many modified and improved ones. There’s also a number of additions and fixes listed in the Chaos PR.
New features:
*Added VRaySamplerInfoTex texture and VRaySamplerInfo render element
*Added VRayObjectSelect render element which allows to extract objects with specific IDs into a separate element
Modified features:
*Added an option to the VRayPhysicalCamera to perform image distortion based on a texture map
*Allow the user to specify texture bounds for 3d displacement
*Added displacement slot to VRayFastSSS2 material
*Added “prepass id” parameter to VRayFastSSS2 material so that multiple materials can share the same illumination map
*Added displacement slot to VRayLightMtl material
*The color parameter of VRayIES lights is now animatable
*The min/max z-depth values for the VRayZDepth render element are now
animatable
*Support for reflection occlusion in VRayDirt
*Support for environment sampling in VRayDirt
*Support for Particle Flow vertex color mapping and particle visibility
*Support for the “Use transparent shadows” option with Arch&Design materials
*The clipping planes for the VRayPhysicalCamera are now displayed in the viewport
*Added an option “show cone” to the VRayPhysicalCamera to control the display of the camera in the viewports
*Ability to save and load color correction curves for the VFB in Adobe(r) PhotoShop(r) .acv format
*Support for pixel aspect ratio display in the V-Ray VFB
*Support for anaglyph stereo preview in the V-Ray VFB
*Support for LUT color correction in the V-Ray VFB from .cube files
*Ability to display the value of the corrected colors in the V-Ray VFB pixel info dialog
*The “Dynamic memory limit” parameter can be set to zero to remove any limit
Bug fixes:
*Motion blur for Hair&Fur in “mr prim” mode does not match the “buffer” mode
*Occasional random crashes in 3ds Max 2010 due to progress bar updates
*Fixed invalid smoothed normals causing issues with displacement
*Fixed AA artifacts with thin bright lines when using Adaptive DMC image sampler
*Stuck buckets with perfectly transparent surfaces and GI
*Incorrect vignetting for VRayPhysicalCamera when using horizontal/vertical offset
*Set VRaySilentMode should disable the dialog for overwriting raw .vrimg files
*Missing reflections in VRayFastSSS2 when it is a coat material inside a VRayBlendMtl
*Incorrect bump mapping for GI when using time-interpolated irradiance maps
*Fixed artifacts with VRayFastSSS2 when one of the scatter color components is zero
*Fixed incorrect normal map with VRayNormalMap on VRayProxy objects
*Fixed crash with animated irradiance maps and objects with zero scale
*The color of VRayIES lights was not animatable
*VRayIES lights did not produce photon-mapped caustics
*Fixed invalid normals with VRayEdgesTex in the bump slot
PointKnown
Jan 18th
PointKnown provides best in class productivity tools for the A/E/C (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) Industry and real estate community. Our flagship product PKNail utilizes point-to-point laser technology (PPLT) for the real time data capture and creation of BIM models in the field.
The product was born out of the need to capture existing building information quickly and accurately, reduce the amount of steps in modeling and drastically reduce rework and translation time by measuring and building directly inside a BIM or CAD enabled workstation.
Our patent pending as built software and work flow process allows users to be immediately productive creating as built and existing condition building surveys.
Google SketchUp Pro: Case Study
Jan 11th
Google SketchUp Pro Case Study with Mortenson Construction. SketchUp Pro is software for creating and presenting professional 3D models. Learn more at http://sketchup.google.com/pro
The Third & The Seventh
Jan 5th
3DS Max Sketch
Dec 15th
The below image is a technique I am trying to master. Using a series of textures and shaders inside 3DS MAX Design 2010, using V-Ray as the engine, I am able to render out my scenes to look as if it were sketched.
3DS MAX Design 2010 Sketch
Winter Scene
Dec 15th
I can find at least one good thing about winter…. being able to do a winter scene. Below is a quick scene I converted into a winter scene for a client.
Roy Lake Lodge
3D Model Hand-drawing studio for Vray render
Nov 17th
Here is a little plug-in that is on my to buy list. The claim is you can achieve a pencil sketch in V-Ray using several mixed materials. it look promising.
ScalpelMAX
Nov 16th
Once again, another successful purchase and implementation of a 3DS MAX Design 2010 plug-in from the Cebas folks. I am getting ready to animate the 4D phasing of an elder care community project we are working on. I did have an issue logging into Cebas’s website, but I got a call minutes after I sent a support e-mail, which is very uncommon these days. My hats off to Cebas!
V-Ray Image Sampling Demystified
Oct 22nd
Here is a wonderfully presented tutorial by http://3dats.com/ on V-Ray’s Image Sampling.
Chaos Software and Asynthetic release Pdplayer
Sep 29th
Chaos Software and Asynthetic release Pdplayer 1.0.3.8
PDplayer
The new version now supports RED (R3D) files.
Version 1.0.3.8 of PDPlayer is now released with the following new features:
- Support for RED R3D files
- Support for a secondary monitor as an external output device (allows users to display just the content of the safe area and mask to a secondary monitor)
- Ability to control the alpha (key) output of Decklink cards
Pdplayer 1.0.3.8 is available for immediate download:
www.chaosgroup.com/en/2/downloads.html?s=pdplayer
For a detailed feature list, please visit:
pdplayer.chaosgroup.com
Look out for a review of PDPlayer on this site very soon!
Cebas PSD Manager
Sep 23rd
I made the purchase. I bought a seat of Cebas’s PSD Manager so I can get all my v-ray render passes out in Photoshop easier. I have found out that you can’t use the V-Ray frame bugger (VFB) because if you do you’ll get a large, empty, PSD file. I’ll follow this post up with my results.
