Realistic Architectural Visualization with 3ds Max and mental ray

✍ Scribed by Roger Cusson, Jamie Cardoso,

• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 345
• Edition: 1st
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Bring new realism to your visualizations with a command of the 3ds Max toolset. Three step-by-step tutorials demonstrate exterior and interior, day and night lighting scenes. You learn the nuts and bolts of importing models from CAD programs, lighting, applying mr shaders and materials, and optimizing your renders. Mental ray is made simple with an accessible description of its tools. * Color reproductions illustrate a wide array of subtle techniques. mental ray is made easy with accesible demonstations. Companion CD contains all of the project files.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Cover......Page 1
Realistic Architectural Visualization with 3ds Max and mental ray®......Page 4
Copyright Page......Page 5
Contents......Page 6
Acknowledgments......Page 10
Preface......Page 12
Project Files: Exercise Disk......Page 14
The Living Room: Introduction......Page 16
1.1 Introduction......Page 18
1.2 Starting the Scene......Page 19
1.3 The Arch & Design Material......Page 23
1.3.2 Advanced Rendering Options......Page 28
1.4 Working on the First Material......Page 31
1.5 Working on the Sofa Material......Page 40
1.6 Working on the Floor Material......Page 45
1.7 Working on the Glass Material......Page 50
1.8 Working on the Metal Material......Page 54
1.9 Conclusion......Page 56
2.1 Introduction......Page 58
2.2 Interior Lighting Concepts with mental ray......Page 59
2.3 Parameters in Final Gather......Page 61
2.3.1 Basic Group......Page 62
2.3.2 Final Gather Map Group......Page 66
2.4 Parameters in Global Illumination......Page 67
2.5 Starting the Scene......Page 70
2.6 Establishing Basic Lighting Parameters......Page 73
2.7 Adding Lights......Page 76
2.8 Adding an Omni Light to Simulate Scattered Light......Page 82
2.9 Modifying the Spot Light......Page 88
2.10 Making Changes to Materials Due to Light Effects......Page 90
2.11 Exposure Control......Page 91
2.12 Adjusting the Exposure of the Living Room Scene......Page 93
2.13.1 Samples per Pixel Group......Page 95
2.13.2 Filter Group......Page 96
2.14 Finalizing the Living Room Render......Page 98
2.15 Conclusion......Page 100
3.1 Introduction......Page 102
3.2 Starting the Scene......Page 103
3.3 Establishing Basic Lighting Parameters......Page 105
3.4 Adding the Artificial Lights......Page 109
3.5 Adding More Lights to the Scene......Page 115
3.6 Adding a Lume Shader to the Lights......Page 121
3.7 Adding Exposure Controls to Improve the Image and Final Render......Page 129
3.8 Conclusion......Page 134
The Harbor: Introduction......Page 136
4.2 Starting the Scene......Page 138
4.3 Applying Materials to the Background Buildings......Page 143
4.4 Creating a Material for the Wooden Chair......Page 149
4.5 Creating a Material for the Pavement......Page 156
4.6 Using the Ocean (Lume) Shader for Water......Page 160
4.7 Creating the Water Material in the Harbor Scene......Page 164
4.8 Conclusion......Page 174
5.1 Introduction......Page 176
5.2 Exterior Lighting Concepts with mental ray......Page 177
5.2.1 mr Sun Parameters......Page 179
5.2.2 mr Sky Parameters......Page 184
5.3 Starting the Scene......Page 187
5.4 Establishing Basic Lighting Parameters......Page 189
5.5 Refining the Lighting and Creating a Rendered Image......Page 198
5.6 Conclusion......Page 202
6.1 Introduction......Page 204
6.3 Moving the Sun to a Desired Location......Page 205
6.4.1 Sun Disk Appearance Group......Page 207
6.4.2 Inherit from mr Sky Group......Page 209
6.4.3 Horizon and Ground Group......Page 211
6.4.5 Non-Physical Tuning Group......Page 213
6.5 Creating Camera Haze......Page 215
6.6 Using a Bitmap Background in mr Physical Sky......Page 217
6.7 Some Notes About mr Physical Sky......Page 221
6.7 Conclusion......Page 223
Conclusion and Further Study......Page 224
A1.2.1 Importing 3D Geometry......Page 226
A1.2.2 Linking AutoCAD Files......Page 227
A1.3.1 A Generalized Approach to Modeling and Rendering with Linked Files......Page 228
A1.4 Process of Linking Files......Page 229
A1.5.1 Layers......Page 230
A1.5.2 File Link Manager Parameters......Page 231
A1.5.3 AutoCAD Layers, 3ds Max Layers and 3ds Max Objects......Page 233
A1.5.5 More Complex Material Assignments......Page 235
A1.5.7 Reloading Linked Files......Page 236
A1.6.1 Revit Object Database......Page 238
A1.6.2 Exporting 3D Model to AutoCAD......Page 239
A1.6.3 Linking an AutoCAD File Exported by Revit......Page 240
A1.6.5 Materials in Revit......Page 241
A1.6.6 Accessing Revit Materials in 3ds Max......Page 242
A1.7 Conclusion......Page 244
Appendix 2: Caustics......Page 246
A2.3 Creating Caustics in a Wine Glass......Page 247
A2.4 Creating the Lights and the Caustics Effect......Page 256
A2.5 Final Adjustments to the Image......Page 266
A2.6 Conclusion......Page 269
A3.1 Introduction......Page 270
A3.3 Creating the Flash Effect......Page 271
A3.4 Depth of Field......Page 278
A4.1 Introduction......Page 284
A4.2 Assigning a HDRI image to a light source......Page 285
A4.4 Adding the HDRI image to the light......Page 292
A5.1 Introduction......Page 304
A5.2 Render Passes......Page 305
A5.3 Distributed Bucket Rendering......Page 315
A5.3.1 Distributed Bucket Rendering Parameters......Page 316
A5.4 Network Rendering......Page 320
A6.2 The mental ray Message Window......Page 324
A6.3 Photon Errors......Page 325
A6.4 Final Gather Errors......Page 330
Appendix 7: The Cover Image......Page 332
A7.2 Adjusting Final Gather Settings......Page 333
A7.5 Rendering......Page 334
A7.6 Lights and Materials......Page 335
A7.7 Exposure Control......Page 336
B......Page 338
D......Page 339
F......Page 340
I......Page 341
M......Page 342
R......Page 344
W......Page 345