TUTORIAL: Mental Ray Production Shaders in 3DS MAX

[P2sta]

looks really fantastic, only who is driving?

[Domino]

wow, very impressive

[TwoOneOne]

great! if you put a driver in there i´d think that it is a photo

[SvdM]

Yeah, I would like to know more about the HDRi's too... I have an idea of how, but to hear how others do it would help a lot.

I am not sure where to put everything (HDRi backplate, Light Probe, Reflection etc), but I'm sure I'll figure it out... will check your tuts on your site again.

Also, if you have some loose commentary on what your personal experience is to what works and what doesn't, what's worth doing and what's not such a big issue... any commentary really about HDRi will help.

On your site; are you still working on part 3 and 4 of MR and Production Shaders - I assume so by your comment up top that you are???

The Car:
Nicely done... I love the graininess of it too... suspension seems stiff for a rally car - not a lot of drop travel of the wheels - it being in the air and all... that's the only fault I find, but knowing you, it's probably correct that way as I am sure you have references galore. Otherwise, faultless. Perhaps a little dirt on the body for "full effect"?

Good luck with modeling a person. Should be good. I've never done something like that either. Never done a lot of Modeling at all to be honest, but you keep us all inspired. Thanks. I'll be on the bandwagon again soon.

[DaveCox]

wow dave, looking really good!

[steef]

Excellent work but where can we find other pictures for the background and mirror ball ? Or how could we produce them ?

[doodlerboy]

I am just gonna post this here cause it is a Lighting and Rendering topic. How in the EFF! Do you get max to NOT render the HDR in the background of my render window? Everytime I go and render an image, it will render out the HDR with it, that is so inconvenient for me right now. Can anyone please help me out here? I'm seriously getting fed up with this.

[bigapple90]

I assume you are using mental ray; You can use a "mental ray" shader and drop a car paint material into the surface slot. Then in the environment slot choose "Environment/Background Switcher". Then assign the HDR to the environment map button. I am not sure if this is the best way to do this (I'm kinda new to MR.) but to my knowledge it works.

Attachment 60241

[Dave_3d]

You can use the local environment map method as above - I do that occasionally myself. But you would need to do that for every reflective material in the scene, so it may not be the most practical.

For more control use an Env/Background switcher, and in the camera map slot add a checker texture (set to screen) - making both colours the same (your background colour).. That way the background colour will also get correctly reflected and refracted through your scene, and shadows on matte planes have the correct alpha with the background. The E92 below was rendered using this method. Note the lower part of the body relecting the white ground.

Dave

[Domino]

Hi Dave,
nothing new in 3d tips? i am excited (few years now)
will you finish Using the "Production Shaders in Mental Ray" section?
or i should forget about any tips

jeff patton is dead, tips of master zap is dead, you are too ---> mental ray is dead

[Dave_3d]

Mental Ray is alive. exciting things ahead.

I have a half finished tutorial (see screen grabs). Finding the time to finish is always difficult. Still working on a new website too. Would like to combine them.

I'll see how much work it would take to finish the next part of the tutorial. When I get back from my Christmas break.

Dave

Hi Dave,
nothing new in 3d tips? i am excited (few years now)
will you finish Using the "Production Shaders in Mental Ray" section?
or i should forget about any tips

jeff patton is dead, tips of master zap is dead, you are too ---> mental ray is dead

[Domino]

Mental Ray is alive. exciting things ahead.

I have a half finished tutorial (see screen grabs). Finding the time to finish is always difficult. Still working on a new website too. Would like to combine them.

I'll see how much work it would take to finish the next part of the tutorial. When I get back from my Christmas break.

Dave

you are cool
:deal: