Mp3 Player - Materials, Lights and Rendering Tutorial

Finally, this is the last part for our Mp3 Player Tutorial. Part 4. In the first 3d Modeling tutorial we've created the Mp3 Player, in the second 3d modeling tutorial we've created the Earphone, in the third 3d modeling tutorial we've arranged the scene. It's now time to learn how to create materials, lights and how to change the 3d rendering settings. Let's move on.

 Part 1 - 3D Modeling the Mp3 Player

Part 2 - 3D Modeling the Earphones
Part 3 - Arranging the Scene

Part 4 - Materials, Lights and 3d Rendering settings 

Step 1: Continuing where we left off with our previous 3d modeling tutorial, the Scene Arrangement, in this 3d Rendering tutorial we will create light. From Create, Lights chose the VRayLight(since our 3d Rendering engine is VRay) and create one in left view. Change the Multiplier to 3.5, check the box for Invisible and change the Subdivs to 16.

Step 2: From the main toolbar select Mirror, change the offset to 60cm, the Clone selection to Copy and click OK. Change the Multiplier of the new created light to 7.

Step 3: We will now create the main plastic material. Open Material Editor and load a VrayMtl in the second slot. Name it White_Plastic. Change the Diffuse color to white(RGB:255,255,255), the Reflect color to dark grey(RGB: 18, 18, 18), click the "L" next to Highlight Glossiness and change the amount to 0.9.

Step 4: Apply the white plastic material to all of our Objects except the Scene plan and the Screen Glass. Hold CTRL to select them one by one or press "H" to select from scene. First click Assign Material to selection and after that click Show Standard Map in Viewport.

Step 5: Now we will create the Metal material for the earphone's jack. Again, load a new VRayMtl, this time in the third slot. Name it Metal. Change the Diffuse color to Black(RGB: 0, 0, 0), the Reflection Color to Grey(RGB: 200, 200, 200), the Refl. glossiness amount to 0.9, the Subdivs to 16. In BRDF rollout menu change the Type to Ward, the Anisotropy amount to 0.7 and the Rotation to 0.5.

Step 6: Now select the jack, go in selection mode, select the polygons i've selected and apply the metal material to them.

Step 7: Since this is a beginners 3d rendering tutorial we will not create very "fancy" materials, so we will apply the same metal material to the inner polygons of the Earphones. In selection mode use Element to select the polygons. Apply it to both earphones.

Step 8: In this next 3d Rendering step we will create the screen glass. Load a new VrayMtl in the fourth slot and name it Glass. Change the Diffuse color to Black(RGB: 0, 0, 0), the Reflection color to White(RGB: 255, 255, 255) and the Refract color to White(RGB: 255, 255, 255). Check the Box for Fresnel reflections and change the Refract IOR to 1.3.

Step 9: Select the screen, change the Shell Outer amount to  0.05cm, move it a little bit up to not overlap with the screen and apply the glass material.

Step 10: For the Display load a VrayLightMtl. Change the Multiplier to 3 and where it says None select Bitmap and load this imag: Display(click to open).

Step 11: Select the Mp3 Player, go in Polygons selection mode and select the screen polygon. Apply the Display Material to it. If you press F2 on your keyboard with the screen polygon selected You can see that the result is not what we are aiming for, we will fix that in the next step.
Note: When you have a Polygon selected you can see trough it by pressing F2

Step 12: With the screen polygon still selected apply a UVW Map. You can see now that everything it's OK.

Step 13: To continue with this 3d Rendering lesson we need to create two more material. One for the main button and one for the Hold button. Duplicate the white plastic material two times. Click and drag it to an empty slot. Rename the two new create materials, one Main_Button and one Hold_button.

Step 14: Select the Hold button material, and in Maps rollout menu click None next to Bump, select Bitmap and load this image: Hold Image(click to open).

Step 15: Since we will be using the UVW Map modifier again we must Collapse the one used before. So Select the Mp3 Player right click on UVW Map and chose Collapse to. In the Warning window chose YES. 

Step 16: Select the Hold button polygon now and apply the material. Again, the result it's not that great, to fix it apply a new UVW Map modifier with the button polygon selected. Change the Mapping Type to Box.

Step 17: You Should now have something like this:

Step 18: Collapse to... the UVW modifer again because we will use another UVW Map for the main button. In Map, Bump add this image:Main Button(click to open) to the main button material. Select the Polygons and apply the material to them.

Step 19: With the same polygons selected add a UVW Map modifier. Now the button should be OK. Collapse to once again.

Step 20: In the next image you can see my test 3D Rendering setting for VRay. Press F10 and change the Render Setup like i've did. For Image sampler(Antialiasing) change the Type to Adaptive DMC and the Antialiasing Filter to Catmult-Rom. In Adaptive DMC image sampler change the Max Subdivs to 8. In Color Mapping change the type to Exponential, check the box for Sub pixel mapping and Camp out. Now in Indirect Illumination check the box for "ON" to enable it, set the primary bounces to Irradiance map and secondary to Light Cache . For Iradiance Map change the Current Preset to Medium, check the box for Show calc. phase(check this in Light cache settings also) and Show direct light. In Setting change the Noise threshold for DMC Sampler to 0.05, Min samples to 16 and Global subdivs multiplier to 4. Set the Render region division to 32 for X and Y. If you don't want to see the Vray log every time you do a 3d Rendering test uncheck the box for Show window.

Step 21: If you press F9 to Render, this is how your 3ds Rendering image should look:
You should have more light coming from the right because i forgot to change my right VRay light multiplier to 7. 3D Rendering:

Step 22: For this 3d Rendering example we will add another VRay light to have some reflections on the screen glass. Go to Create, Lights and create a VRay light in Top view. It's important to position it like i've did because the position of the light affects the reflection. Change the Multiplier for this light to 3.

Step 23: For the last step of this 3d rendering process go to Camera view, press F10, in Common tab from Output size change the resolution to 1200x800 or what ever you want. Press F9 to Render. Where is our 3D Rendering Result:

I really hope that you have enjoyed to read and follow this 3d Rendering lesson.

Studio Setup - 3ds Max and Vray Rendering Tutorial

Hi everyone, this is my first 3D rendering lesson. We will learn how to make a studio render using 3d Studio Max 2011 and Vray(3d rendering engine). Don't hesitate to comment if you get stuck somewhere along this tutorial. So let's not waste anymore time and get to it.




Step 1: The first step for this 3d rendering tutorial is to assign Vray as your 3d rendering engine. First Open or Reset Max. After that from the main toolbar select Rendering and Render Setup or simply pres F10 on your keyboard.

Step 2: With Render Setup window open select Common that and click on the 3 dots next to Default Scanline Renderer, chose Vray, in this case SP4 and click OK.

Step 3: In Top view create a Box. Go to command panel click on Create>Geometry select Box, click and drag to create it. Set the Length and Width of the box to 500cm and the Height of 10cm.

Step 4: To create our light simply click on Create>Lights, now select VRay and VRayLight. In Left view click and drag to create our light. Set the Half-length and width to 140, change the Multiplier to 7, leave the color to white(if you want you can try a bright yellow or blue) and check the box for Invisible.

Step 5: Using Select and Move Tool and Select and Rotate Tool position your light like i've did below. Click on Angle Snap Toggle(activating this you will be able to rotate from 5 to 5 degrees only) and rotate it 45 degrees and then move it in the corner.

Step 6: Create another box like we did in step 3 only this time change the Length to 400cm, the Width to 5cm and the Height to 150cm. Use the tools we have used in step 5 and position it like i did in the next image.

Step 7: To create our main objects for this 3D Rendering example go to Create>Geometry and make 3 Teapots with the Radius of 25cm, 12 Segments and move the around like i've did.

Step 8: Our 3d Rendering scene needs a Camera.  so go to Create>Camera and select Target. In Top view click where the camera position will be, move and release where the focus/target point will be.

Step 9: Press "C" on your keyboard to go to Camera view and use the tools in the bottom right corner to change the position of the camera like you see below.

Step 10: Right click on Camera in the top left corner and click on Show Safe Frame to activated it. We will now see the exact 3D Rendering Region of our scense. Again, use those bottom right tools to align it.

Step 11: Click on Material Editor in the main toolbar or pres "M" on your keyboard. Select the first material click on Get Material and from Materials>Vray select VRayMtl. Activate Show Standard map in Viewport.

Step 12: In main toolbar go to Select from Scene, Select Box 001 and 002 and click OK. Now from Material Editor click on Assign Material to Selection. Your two boxes are now Grey and have assigned the VRay material.

Step 13: We must create some reflective materials for our 3d Rendering scene so change the next 3 materials in Material editor with VrayMtl. Change our materials color to Red, Yellow and Blue. Change the Reflection color RGB to 150,150,150. Check the box for Fresnel Reflections and click on the L box next to it that will allow us to change the Fresnel IOR to 2.5 and the Max depth to 10. The Refl. glossiness must be 0.8.

Step 14: Apply each material to a different Teapot using Assign Material to Selection button.

Step 15: In the next image you can see my test 3D Rendering setting for VRay. Press F10 and change the Render Setup like i've did. For Image sampler(Antialiasing) change the Type to Adaptive DMC and the Antialiasing Filter to Catmult-Rom. In Adaptive DMC image sampler change the Max Subdivs to 8. In Color Mapping change the type to Exponential, check the box for Sub pixel mapping and Camp out. Now in Indirect Illumination check the box for "ON" to enable it, set the primary bounces to Irradiance map and secondary to Light Cache . For Iradiance Map change the Current Preset to Medium, check the box for Show calc. phase(check this in Light cache settings also) and Show direct light. In Setting change the Noise threshold for DMC Sampler to 0.05, Min samples to 16 and Global subdivs multiplier to 4. Set the Render region division to 32 for X and Y. If you don't want to see the Vray log every time you do a 3d Rendering test uncheck the box for Show window.

Step 16: In the main toolbar click on Render Production, the Teapot sign to make a test for our 3D rendering scene.

Step 17: This is what we have. Our 3D Render look's good so far.

Step 18: To add more reflection to our 3d Rendering Scene create a new light in the top view and position it like i've did below. Remember, the reflection position, like in real life, depends on the position of the lights cameran. So move it around if you want to achieve a different result. Change the Multiplier for this to 3.5, the Half-length to 50cm and Half-width to 100cm. Check the box for Invisible.

Step 19: You can see some new reflections to our teapots now.

Step 20: From some higher 3D Rendering Settings go in Render Setup and from Common change the resolution to 1600x1200. From Irradiance Map change Current preset to High, Interp. samples to 30. In Light Cache change the subdivs to 1500 and in Setting>DMC Sampler change the Adaptive amount to 1.0 and the Noise threshold to 0.01.

That's it, our 3D Rendering tutorial is finished. Well done. Here's the Final result: