Automotive Real-time Render with Iray for 3ds Max

[ #iRay #3dsMax #Automotive #Render ] Learn how to do Automotive Real-time Render with Iray for 3ds Max

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Coke can Part 1 modeling

In this Tutorial we will take a look at modeling coke can or soda can in 3ds max. This is part 1 and on next part we will look at rendering this coke can along with water droplets on it.

This is part 2 of coke can modeling and rendering tutorial. In this part we will look at rendering our model using vray. We will also use PFlow to create water droplets.

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Keyshot tire sidewall texturing

[ #Keyshot #Automotive #Texturing ] CG Artist Nils Piirma shares another exciting Keyshot tutorial about how to quick and easy to do UV mapping tire model, 

Download 3ds Max model here. 
Another detailed tutorial here:

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Create a Photorealistic Car Render using 3ds Max and Vray

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Whenever you see highly realistic images of CG cars, you may think that it is an incredibly difficult process to arrive at such a high quality result...this is not actually the case. In this tutorial, Sumeet Gupta will show you how easy it can be to create a photorealistic car render using 3DS Max and Vray, as long as you know the right steps.

For this tutorial, Sumeet used “Dodge Viper”, but these steps will let you can achieve similar result using any high-rez car model.

Step 1

In order to achieve similar results as above, you need to model a detailed and clean car. If you don’t feel like modeling, you can use a pre-made model too. Another important step is to find a good HDRI image and a matching back plate. I got one atwww.hdrilocations.com/freesample.php, but you can also do your own research to find a good HDRI and back plate, as there are plenty of them available on internet. When you are done with collecting your models and HDRI, fire up 3DS Max and import/ merge the car model into a new 3DS Max scene.

Step 2

Create a long plane in the TOP viewport. Position the plane so that it lies under the wheels and acts as a road.

Step 3

Make sure your perspective view is selected, and go to “Views > Viewport Background > Viewport Background” or (Alt+B). Click on "Files" and load the background image. Use selected settings while loading a background image.

Step 4

Go to the TOP viewport again, and create a standard Target camera. Don’t worry about it’s position and settings, I will explain this later.

Step 5

All good back plates contain information about f-stop number, iso, and other important settings. All we have to do to match some of image parameters with the camera we have just created. So right click the image, and under “properties”, go to “details” and scroll down until you see the “Camera” roll out menu. Currently we will match only the "Focal Length" parameter. As you can see, the back plate image has a "Focal Length" value of 45.

Step 6

Back in 3DS Max, go to "Camera Settings" and and change the "Lens" settings to 45. Also, change the perspective view to your camera (C).

Step 7

Now, we need to match our perspective with the background image. There are several ways to do that, such as camera tracking etc. I, personally find those methods too complicated, so i use the method of trial and error. What i do is try to match the perspective of road with the background image using camera tools such as "Orbit Camera" and "Pan"(Mouse Middle Click). If you think the car is too small then you can use"Dolly Camera" as well. When you are satisfied with your composition, right click the camera, and go to "Camera correction modifier". Click on "Guess", and it automatically sets the correct perspective. After couple of minutes of experimentation, my viewport ended up like this.

Step 8

Our scene preparation is now done, so let's get on with the materials and texturing. Assign a "shellac" material to the car body. Under the "Base and Shellac" material option, use "VRayMtl", and put a value of "100" under "Shellac Color Blend". Go back to the Base material and use the settings shown below.

A Shellac allows you to superimpose one material over another, with the base material being underneath and the shellac material over it. The "Shellac Color Blend" box controls the amount of shellac that gets laid over the base material, and the Subdiv value control the smoothness of material. The more subdivs you have, the material will look noise free in the render, but this will of course increase the render time.

Step 9

For the car body color, go to "Car Color", under Shellac material options, and use the following settings. I decided to give the car body a deep red color, so I used a Falloff gradient under "Diffuse" slot from light red to deep red. If you want a Black carpaint, for instance, then you can simply replace the light red with Grey, and the dark red with black. I have also used Fresnal reflections this time. Fresnel describes the way a surface's attributes change depending on the view angle.

Step 10

For the windshield material, apply a VRayMtl to the windshields, and use the settings shown below. Note: The reflect parameter controls the reflection of the material. Black means the material will not reflect anything, and white means it will reflect everything in the scene. The refract value gives transparency to the material where white means 100% transparent, and black means 100% opaque. Also, I used a small picture of a Rainbow gradient under the Diffuse slot, you can find a similar one using Google.

Step 11

For the tire material, apply a VRayMtl and check "BRDF" as "Ward". The BRDF parameters determine the type of the highlights and glossy reflections.

Step 12

For the rims material, apply a VRayMtl using the settings shown. The reflection glossiness controls the parameters of specular reflections in vraymaterial. The lower the value (0.45-0.75), the blurrier the reflections. Also, if you use less values of reflection glossiness, you need to crank up the subdivs, as blurry reflections produce more noise in the render.

Step 13

Now, assign a "Matte/Shadow" material to the road, so that it catches the shadows from the VrayLight and HDRI. Open the "Material Editor", click on "Get Material", select "Matte/Shadow" from the list, and apply it to the road. Use the default settings of the "Matte/Shadow" material.

Step 14

Time to use the HDRI to light up the scene. Press "M" to open the material editor window, and click the "Get material" button. Another window of "Material/Map Browser" will pop up. Select "Bitmap" from the list, and load the HDRI from the browser.

Step 15

Go to the "Lights" menu, select "vray" from the dropdown menu, and create a "VrayLight" above the car using the following settings. You will need to adjust the multiplier value according to your scene. In my scene, a multiplier of "1.5" worked perfectly.

Step 16

Position your "Vraylight" so that it sits on top of the car.

Step 17

Open the "Material editor" again, and drag the HDRI into the "Use texture" slot of the VrayLight .

Step 18

Press "F10" to open the Render Setup window. In the V-Ray Menu, go to "Global switches", and uncheck "Default lights". Under "Image sampler", select"Adaptive subdivison", and select "Mitchell-Netravali" as the Antialiasing filter. Under the Environment tab, check"Reflection/refraction environment override", and drag in the same HDRI that you applied on the VrayLight. Under the color mapping rollout, select "Exponential" as the type, check "Sub-pixel mapping", and also "Clamp output", leaving the "Clamp level" at 1.0.

Below is an explanation of the settings:

Default Lights: Since we are already using HDRI based lighting, we don't want our scene to be lit by Default lights. Keep this parameter unchecked.

Adaptive Subdivison: This is an advanced image sampler capable of undersampling (taking less than one sample per pixel). In the absence of blurry effects (direct GI, DOF, glossy reflection/refraction etc) this is the best preferred image sampler in VRay. On average it takes fewer samples (and thus less time) to achieve the same image quality as the other image samplers. However, with detailed textures and/or blurry effects, it can be slower and produce worse results than the other two methods.

Mitchell-Netravali: As you can read the description in vray rollout, it allows control between edge-enhancement and blurring.

Vray-Environment: We are already using our HDRI as a skylight, so we only need to copy it into the Reflection/refraction slot.

Vray-Color mapping: Exponential automatically adjusts the brightness/contrast of the scene so that you don't get "burnt" areas. In short, the Linear mapping method clamps the bright colors to white, causing any bright parts of the image to appear "burnt out". Both the Exponential and HSV exponential modes avoid this problem. While the Exponential mode tends to wash out the colors and desaturate them, the HSV exponential mode preserves the color hue and saturation.

Sub-pixel mapping: This option controls whether color mapping will be applied to the final image pixels, or to the individual sub-pixel samples.

Dark multiplier: This is the multiplier for dark colors. It acts like a contrast parameter.

Bright multiplier: This is the multiplier for bright colors. It acts like a brightness parameter.

Affect background: If this is off, color mapping will not affect colors belonging to the background.

Clamp output: If this is on, colors will be clamped after color mapping. In some situations, this may be undesirable (for example, if you wish to antialias hdr parts of the image too). In that case, turn clamping off.

Use the following render settings:

Step 19

Now, lets render our first image. Press "F9" for quick render. As you can see, it's not quite as it looks in the Final result, so lets tweak some more settings.

Step 20

Press "M" to open the material editor window, and select the same Bitmap material containing the HDRI file. Now here is the tricky part. We need to adjust the position of HDRI till we get good illumination and reflection on the car body....and there's no other way to do this except Render, Render, and Render!

After hitting several renders, my bitmap parameters came up like this:

Step 21

So, here is the final render from 3DS Max. As you can see, it is still slightly different from the finished image. Don't worry, we will improve the render in Photoshop in next step!

Step 22

Fire up Photoshop, and open the previous render. Add some warm tones using "Color Balance". Press shortcut"Ctrl+B" or go to "Image>Adjustments>Color Balance". Adjust the sliders according to your needs. I used the values of "+16, 0, -13". I also added some headlight glow using a plugin called "Knoll Light factory", and adjusted some levels to get a nice brightness/contrast to the image. You can also add some cool lighting effects and try different post treatments using any other plugin or in photoshop itself.

Conclusion

This concludes the tutorial. I hope you enjoyed it and learned something new. If you are unable to understand any step, please feel free to post a comment, and i will try to explain it as best as I can. Thanks for your time!.

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Setup car rendering studio with V-ray by be_fast

Setup car rendering studio with V-ray by be_fast


Final Result : 

1. Open 3DS Max . Press F10 to show rendering settings dialog or the button with the tea-pot icon on the main panel as shown on the picture 1. At the Common tab expand Assign Render rollout and show the dialog to select V-ray reder by pressing the button with the triple-dot.

2. Set parameters of V-ray and Indirect Illumination rollouts as shown on the following pictures:

3. Then create a line (not necessarily NURBS, but my opinion is that nurbs is the quickest and high-quality mean to create beautiful bends what is actually needed to form the wall of the studio)

4. Apply Extrude modifier to the newly created spline to model the wall. After extruding convert the object to Editable Poly or apply Edit Poly modifier to make bottom of the wall fluently become a floor. For this purpose select the lower edges of the wall, hold Shift and move a lower verge forward, and after Scale Down you will get new edges. After that operation you will have the floor with a direct corner in relation to walls. To create a smooth transition select edges along connection of the wall and the floor and apply Chamfer. To create the same for ceiling apply Symmetry simply. And also use Mesh Smooth for smoothing the surfaces.

5. We will create illumination with V-ray lights. You can see how to locate them correctly on the picture 5. All of the light sources are directed on walls. And exactly this will give the effect of the dissipated light as in the real studio. Intensity (Multiplier of every source is to be picked up by the means of several experimental attempts)

6. We do not have the last wall. Just make it as an ordinary plane. Well and for the tests of the auto paint create a sphere in the middle of the studio.

7. After the required foreshortening of the Perspective View is selected (along the diagonal through the studio having the sphere in the center of the view) press Ctrl+C to create a Camera and fix the chosen foreshortening. In future pressing P will allow you to switch to the Perspective View mode fast twisting the view and turning it and then going back to the fixed one simply pressing C. This will help you designing your environments really fast having the final shot controlled as well as the overall scene structure.

The most important effect of a studio is the illumination that goes beneath the background. I achieved the best results with Target Spot. Target it from a sphere on a wall as shown on the picture 7. To make the background illuminated softly from beneath you would have to decrease Hotspot/Beam and increase Falloff/Field in Spotlight Parameters

8. Create material of the studio - ordinary grey V-ray material (picture 8) and material of the auto paint (picture 9)

9. Making a render test by F9 at the active type of camera/perspective or pressing the Render button as shown on the picture 10

10 Add another thin Vray Light as on the picture 11 for more contrast thin reflections.

12 The same scene and material of paint on the car model.

Good luck! Don't forget that surpassing my result is very simple – just experiment more.

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Model A Cushion with 3ds Max Cloth Modifier

[ #3dsMax #Modeling ]In this video tutorial from Learnarchviz.com, We'll learn how to Model A Cushion by using 3ds Max Cloth Modifier

For more training please go to Learnarchviz.com

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Creating a Low-Poly City

Video Tutorial: Creating a Low-Poly City By Heni Muhammadi

In this 40 min video tutorial you will learn how to create a low poly city using a free plugin Greeble. We will also talk about mapping techniques for this project. Below is the low-res version of the tutorial, if you like to download the hi-resolution file then register in the CGArena forum and download the zip version of the high-resolution file.

If you like to download the higher resolution version of this video then you can download from the video tutorials section of CGArena forum. You need to register (free) before download these tutorials. Download Now - RAR Format

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Modeling A High Poly Stylized Bow In 3D Studio Max

Back in September we published an awesome free model of a stylish modern bow from Stefan Surmabojov, and today we're happy to bring you a tutorial covering it's creation. In this intermediate level tutorial, Stefan will share the tools and techniques he used to construct and detail the model in 3D Studio Max using a variety of edit poly tools and techniques.

Step 1

First we start by creating a Cylinder with 32 sides and 2 Height Segments. After that we need to convert it to editable poly (Right Click> Convert To> Convert To Editable Poly) and select the bottom 20 polygons as shown.

Click To Enlarge

Step 2

After we select the polygons, we need to extrude them and then make them planer by choosing Make Planar on the Y axis. We also need to scale down the polygons in the X axis, and move them a little to the right side and rotate them –20 degrees using the Rotate tool.

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Step 3

Next we need to add seven new loops and move them so the shape looks like in the picture. To do this select one of the vertical edges, press the Ring Button and then the Connect Options button. And set the Segments to 7.

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Step 4

We need to select the height segment and scale it down so it looks like so.

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Step 5

Select the polygons on the side (as shown), and hit the Inset button. After that Extrude the polygons in and then hit Inset again, so the shape look like in the picture.

Click To Enlarge

Step 6

Without deselecting the polygons. We go to the Extrude option once again, but this time Extrude the polygons outwards and with a larger amount, then scale the polygons inwards as shown.

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Step 7

Next select the second edge loop as shown in the screenshot, and with the Move tool. Move the edge loop forwards as shown.

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Step 8

We add another loop on the top and the bottom sides as shown. Add it close to the edges so it will hold the shape once we add a Turbosmooth modifier, in order to get nice geometry and avoid errors in the mesh.

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Step 9

So far we've only added detail on one side, but we need to do this for the back part as well. So select the polygons on the back half of the object and delete them. Add a Symmetry modifier and the Right click on the object and select Convert to> Editable Poly.

Click To Enlarge

Step 10

Next select the front and back polygons and hit the Inset button, after that click the Bridge button to achieve this result.

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Step 11

Select the loop between the elements and Chamfer it with 2 edge segments as shown.

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Step 12

Finally add a Turbosmooth modifier and set the Iterations to 2. We are done with the first element of the bow.

Click To Enlarge

Step 13

Next Create a new Cylinder with 32 sides and 0 Height Segments, make it about the size of the hole in the center of the previous object and convert it to Editable poly. After that select the top and bottom polygons on the sides of the cylinder and hit the Inset button. Then Extrude the polygons inwards and Inset them one more time as shown.

Click To Enlarge

Step 14

Again extrude, but this time with more height and then we need to bevel it two times in order to get a nice rounded surface.

Click To Enlarge

Step 15

Using the shortcut Alt+Q we go into Isolation Mode in order to see only the object we are working on. Select the edges on the two sides as shown below.

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Step 16

Click on the Connect option and choose: Segments 2 and Pinch 70.

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Step 17

We go back to the two central polygons on both sides and Inset them again in order to avoid an unwanted mesh error when we add a Turbosmooth. After that we select the edges on the both sides as show in the picture and connect the loop which should be close to the edge.

Click To Enlarge

Click To Enlarge

Step 18

Finally let’s add a Turbosmooth with the Iterations set to 2 and escape isolation mode by click on the Exit Isolation Model button. This finishes work on this particular element and the result should look like this. Now Let's start creating the rest of the model.

Click To Enlarge

Step 20

Using a line (Create> Shapes> Line) we need to draw a shape like this one. After that go to the Rendering menu in the Line's options, and check the Enable In Viewport option. We need to change it from Radial (which is set by default), to Rectangular and set the Length and Width values to be the same so we get a square shape.

Click To Enlarge

Step 21

Next Right Click and choose Convert To> Convert To Editable Poly and select the polygons on the two ends of the shape. Then click Inset and finally Bevel them like shown.

Click To Enlarge

Step 22

Select the top Ring edges and Connect them with the following settings: Segments 2and Pinch 80. Repeat the same steps for the side ring as well.

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Step 23

After that we select the Ring of edges shown below, and do a connect on both side using the same parameters as before.

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Step 24

On this edge ring we go to connect again: Segments 2 and Pinch 90.

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Step 25

Select the last ring of edges on both ends of the thickest part, and with Connect we add a segment close to the edges to support the ends.

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Step 26

Add a Turbosmooth modifier with 2 Iterations and we are done with this element.

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Step 27

The next step is to setup the elements we made in this way using the Move tool.

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Step 28

We need to rotate the first two elements 15 degrees. It should look like this when viewed from the Top view.

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Step 29

After that we add a Symmetry modifier (the elements should touch each other like in the picture below.)

Click To Enlarge

Step 30

The next step is to copy this element with it's Symmetry modifier and move it below the first one so it looks like in the picture.

Click To Enlarge

Step 31

Next, Create new cylinder with 32 Sides and 3 Height Segments, and convert it to Editable Poly. Select the polygons in the center and using the Extrude by Local Normal option, Extrude the polygons Inwards and you should get this result.

Click To Enlarge

Step 32

Select the polygons on both sides and Inset them four times (with the same value each time), so the final result looks like this.

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Step 33

Now Select the Polygons loops as shown, and extrude them inwards.

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Step 34

Select each one of the Edges Rings and Connect them with: Segments 2 and Pinch75.

Click To Enlarge

Step 35

Once again we go back to the center polygons and first make an inset with a low value (so we can get an edge close to the main edge for support) and then repeat the Inset with a higher value in order to avoid mesh errors in the center once we add Turbosmooth.

Click To Enlarge

Step 36

Finally add a Turbosmooth modifier and set the Iterations to 2. And place the element as shown in the picture.

Click To Enlarge

Step 37

Create a box a bit wider than the bow front shape and rotate it around 25 degrees. It should look like the example in the picture.

Click To Enlarge

Step 38

Convert it to Editable Poly and select the top polygon, Inset it three times to get the result shown.

Click To Enlarge

Step 39

On each side we use the Connect option again with the following settings: Segments2 and Pinch 85.

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Step 40

Select the polygons as shown and Extrude them three times in order to get a nice rounded edges.

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Step 41

The result should look like this.

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Step 42

Make two more Copies (Edit> Clone) of the element so we have a total of three, and place them as shown below. Also add a Turbosmooth modifier to each with 2Iterations.

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Step 43

After that we select all the objects and use the Symmetry option to create the bottom portion of the bow. The result should look like this.

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Step 44

Now Create a new box and convert it to Editable Poly. Move the vertices around using the Move tool, until you get a shape similar to what's shown in the picture. Using the Connect option add 16 segments.

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Step 45

After that Extrude the Top polygon five times and move the vertices until you get similar shape to this one.

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Step 46

Now Extrude the bottom part of the handle two more times.

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Step 47

Select all the polygons on the back side and Scale them on the Y axis.

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Step 48

Select the polygon loops as shown and extrude them with a low Height value to create the grip.

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Step 49

The next step is to select the edges as shown, and Connect with: Segments 2 and Pinch 70.

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Step 50

The same Connect values will apply for these Edge Rings as well.

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Step 51

For this Ring we use connect with: Segments 1 and Slide 85.

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Step 52

Add a Turbosmooth Modifier and once again set the Iterations to 2 and place the handle like so.

Click To Enlarge

Step 53

Create a new Cylinder with 32 sides, convert it to Editable Poly. Select the side edges and use the Connect option as follows: Segments 2, Pinch 93.

Click To Enlarge

Step 54

Select the top and bottom two middle polygons as shown, and click Bridge in order to get a hole through the Cylinder.

Click To Enlarge

Step 55

Select the polygons as shown and Extrude them out, add a Smooth as well.

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Step 56

After that we create a new Tube (with an Inner Radius the same as the radius of the Cylinder we created), with 3 Height segments.

Click To Enlarge

Step 57

Position it as shown and Select the four top and bottom polygons of the tube, do the same on the back side as well.

Click To Enlarge

Step 58

Next use the Inset option to inset the polygons a small amount, then Bridge them and finally add a smooth.

Click To Enlarge

Step 59

Place the elements as shown in the picture.

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Step 60

Using a Line (Create> Shapes> Line), create a shape like this according to the created elements (this is the way the modern bow works.)

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Step 61

Using the Fillet and Bezier Corner options on the Vertices of the line, you should get something like this.

Click To Enlarge

Step 62

Click the Enable In Viewport option of the line under the Rendering roll-out, and set the Thickness value to a low number, so the cord is not too thick and it can freely be placed to pass through the holes of the tube.

Click To Enlarge

Step 63

Now we need to convert our cord to Editable Poly (if there are some unwanted edges you can add a Turbosmooth modifier and set the Iterations to 1.)

Click To Enlarge

Step 64

Create a new Tube and Rotate it around 55degrees using the Rotate tool, add a Turbosmooth modifier with 2 Iterations and place as shown.

Click To Enlarge

Step 65

Create another Cylinder and place it where the arrow needs to be. After that convert it to Editable Poly.

Click To Enlarge

Step 66

Ring the side edges and add 3 new edge loops at the end of the cylinder where the feathers of the arrow should be.

Click To Enlarge

Step 67

Select groups of four polygons and skip four polygons between selections.

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Step 68

Now Extrude the selected polygons out and scale them down in the X axis, then move them back to get this look.

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Step 69

Select the Polygon where the tip of the arrow should be and use the Bevel option four times to create the point. You should get a similar result to what's shown below.

Click To Enlarge

Step 70

Finally add a Smooth to the arrow and we are ready with our bow.

Click To Enlarge

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