3ds Max Architectural Visualization One Project From Start to Finish

Autodesk

) •. }DATS 30 ARCIIITECTURAL TRAINING SOUITIOHS

Authorized Publisher

An comprehensive production guide for all skill levels Create an award winning visualization project

Every step detailed from start to finish

3ds Max 2011One Project from Start to Finish

3ds Max 2011 — One Project from Start to Finish

Copyright © 2010 by 3DATS

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-0-9792811-5-0

ISBN-10: 0-9792811-5-6

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Trademarked names may appear in this book. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, we use the names only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark.

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3DATS is a subsidiary of 3DAS.

Phone 800-240-7675, fax 1-866-258-5534, e-mail 3dinfo@3dats.com, or visit www.3dats.com.

The information in this book is distributed on an “as is” basis, without warranty. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this work, neither the author(s) nor 3DATS shall have any l iabil ity to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or al leged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this work.

The downloadable content for this book is freely available to readers at www.3dats.com\books

Credits

AuthorsSergey VasilevAndrew RubejanskyVladislav YakovenkoSergey Kravchenko Eugene Dontsov

Project ManagerBrian L. Smith

Technical EditorsAlex GorbunovMark GerhardMichele BousquetPadhia Romaniello

TranslatorAlex Gorbunov

CompositorDina Quan

ProofreaderKelly Winquist

ForewordMichele Bousquet

Front Cover Image cat-a-pult

The inspiration for everything I do in the 3D world has always been my wonderful wife Shari and our two kids Laken and Kegan.

I would not be doing what I do without their support.

—Brian Smith

Contents

About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii

About the Project Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

About the Technical Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi

Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xv

Frequently Asked Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii

Technical Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi

Chapter 1 2D to 3D Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-1

Chapter 2 Terrain Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-1

Chapter 3 Tree Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-1

Chapter 4 Scarecrow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-1

Chapter 5 Water Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-1

Chapter 6 Background and Site Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-1

Chapter 7 Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-1

Chapter 8 Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-1

Chapter 9 Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-1

Appendix A Critical V-Ray Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-1

Appendix B A Gallery of Images by cat-a-pult . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-1

Index

v

viivii

About the Authors

The above image was Taken during a dinner meeTing during a visit to cat-a-pult’s hometown of Odessa, Ukraine in December 2009, early in the production of One Project . From left to right: Brian Smith, Andrew Rubejansky, Sergey Kravchenko, Sergey Vasilev, Eugene Dontsov. Not pictured, Vladislav Yakovenko.

Odessa visualization house cat-a-pult was founded in 2004 by a group of four freelancers with a similar vision. We decided to unite our visualization forces and start working on large-scale proj-ects, which would have been impossible if each of us continued to work individually.

Different attempts were made to try our potential in a few visualization directions: i l lustration, industry design, advertisement, and 3D visualization of architectural objects became the main direc-tion of our work. In the last few years the number of employees has grown to 15 people; we have worked with clients from all around the globe, including Europe, Asia, and the U.S.; and we’ve received numerous awards from special ized CG industry resources. We do not stop at our current level of achievement: we are always striving to be up-to-date with the latest technology and software news, and thus, we are always ready to impress our clients with the speed and quality of our work. Currently, our team is working on multiple architectural presentations for a number of cl ients, including our long term friend, 3DAS.

v i i i A b o u t t h e A u t h o r s

Sergey Vasilev (caesar) is 29 years old and married. He graduated from Odessa Polytechnic University with a specialty in “Intel lectual Systems and Networks.” In 2001, he began developing architectural and design projects as a freelancer. In 2004, he founded cat-a-pult and currently works in management, supervising, post production, and quality control .

Andrew Rubejansky (Avium) is 32 years old and married. He gradu-ated from Odessa National University with a specialty in Psychology. In 2005, he began developing architectural and design projects as a freelancer and has worked for cat-a-pult since 2005. His current tasks include management and visualization.

Vladislav Yakovenko (Vlado) is 25 years old and married. He gradu-ated from Odessa National Cryogenics Academy with a specialty in technical programming. He worked in game development from 2002 to 2006 and since 2006 has worked for cat-a-pult . His current tasks include animation and visualization.

Sergey Kravchenko (qwerty) is 33 years old and married. He gradu-ated from National Academy of Architecture and Constructions and began working as a freelancer in architecture and design in 1999. Since 2004, he has worked with cat-a-pult and current tasks include management, visualization, and renderfarm management.

Eugene Dontsov (Jackson) is 26 years old and married. He gradu-ated from Odessa National Academy of Communications with a specialty in “Informational networks.” From 2000 to 2004 he was a freelancer in the architecture and design industry and since 2004 has worked for cat-a-pult . His current tasks include research and development, and visualization.

ixix

About the Project Manager

Brian Smith began his 2D and 3D CAD studies in the early 90s and worked as an animation special ist in architectural, engineering, and landscap ing firms in southwest Florida. He started his own company in 2001, special izing in the production of architectural animations and renderings, and a few years later cofounded the production company 3D Architectural Solutions (3DAS) in Sarasota, Florida. In 2006, he founded the publishing company 3DATS and in 2008, 3DATS teamed up with CGarchitect and Spine3D to form CGschool—the world’s leading visualization training company. He divides his time between production and training, and in his free time looks for big mountains to climb.

Brian graduated from the U.S. Mil itary Academy at West Point with a major in Aerospace Engi-neering. He served on active duty, including two years as a Battery Commander, responsible for a short range air defense battery of over 100 soldiers. Follow ing 9/11 , he served in Washington, D.C. as an Air Defense Arti l lery Fire Control Officer, working closely with the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Air Force, and the FAA to provide air defense coverage of our nation’s capital . He is currently a Major in the Florida Army National Guard.

xi

About the Technical Editors

Mark Gerhard is a 3ds Max guru. He is currently employed by Turbo-Squid, as Director of the Artist Division.

He has worked with 3ds Max since its inception as 3D Studio in 1990 and was one of the first artists hired to test the software while collaborating with the original development team including Gary Yost, Tom Hudson, and Dan Silva. He was one of the first 3D Studio instruc-tors, training most of the original resellers and educators around the world. While working for Autodesk, he served as product manager for the 2D Animation program, Animator Studio, and was one of the first Autodesk Application Engineers devoted to 3ds Max. He spent six

years as a Senior Technical Writer, and was the lead writer for the 3ds Max tutorials for versions 3 through 6.

In addition to his work at Autodesk, he has been a technical editor for numerous books on 3ds Max including the Inside 3ds Max series for New Riders, the Mastering Visually series for Wiley/Sybex and each architectural visualization book by 3DATS. He has authored chapters in books on 3ds Max, including Focal Press’ Foundation series, Learning 3ds Max 2008 . Along with Jeffery M. Harper, he is co-author of the official Autodesk Certif ication guide, Mastering 3ds Max Design 2011 .

He holds a degree in painting and sculpture from UC Berkeley and has worked in the field of design visualization, graphic design, and commercial art for over 30 years. He has taught countless individuals 3d animation at institutions such as Napa Valley College, Santa Rosa Junior College, Academy of Art University, and Sonoma State University. He is also the author of the children’s book, The Elf of the Shelf Sees Himself (Push Press, 1983).

He l ives in California with his wife Rhonda, the joy of his existence for the last 26 years. He has four delightful children and two grandsons.

Michele Bousquet is an Autodesk Certif ied Instructor who has been using 3ds Max since its first beta version in 1990. After several years in the international production environment (including a stint at the Austral ian Broadcasting Corporation), Michele went solo and settled into regional television in New England. Her animation work has led to numerous awards, the most recent a Bronze Remi at the 40th Annual Worldfest Fi lm & Video Festival . Michele, who has authored more than 20 books on 3ds Max, is currently employed at TurboSquid.com.

x i i A b o u t t h e Te c h n i c a l E d i t o r s

Padhia Avocado Romaniello is an artist who had the fantastic for-tune of stumbling upon the 3d world in 1997. Although originally starting off in character modeling & animation using Maya, she has worked for the last several years in architectural visualization using 3ds Max and V-Ray. In 2001 she founded Avocado Digital Design Inc., and has worked on the 3d production, branding, web design, and col-lateral materials of many projects across the U.S. and abroad. Seeking to improve her 3d skil ls, she completed some advanced training with Brian Smith and later formed a partnership with 3DAS and 3DATS. Padhia just recently relocated to Hollywood, CA to work as a 3d artist in the fi lm industry.

Alex Gorbunov began using 3d Studio for the first time in 1996 when he started his degree at the National University of Shipbuilding in Nikolaev, Ukraine. At that time, it was 3D Studio 4 for DOS. He was immediately fascinated with 3D graphics and decided that it would be his l i felong hobby. After finishing his education in 2001, he turned his hobby into a small business and began a freelancing career by pro-ducing small visualizations for companies all over the world. Concentrating mostly on interior scenes, Alex noticed an ever increasing demand for custom 3D furniture and accessories.

As more time passed, he found himself more and more inter-ested in the creation of furniture and invested a great deal of personal time honing his craft. In 2005, he moved to Tampa, FL. Soon after, Alex took his work to the next level and founded Intero Visuals (www.interovisuals.com), a company dedicated to the creation of fine 3D furniture and accessories. After a few years of successful friendship with 3DATS he decided to join the team on a ful l-time basis, currently assuming a V.P. position at 3DATS LLC. While constantly improving his own modeling skil ls, he also recently discovered a new passion for teaching 3D modeling to others, enjoys making training materials in form of Video tutorials, and also teaches a two day modeling class at CGschool.

xiii

Acknowledgments

Thanks To alex ‘The greaT’ gorbunov for his technical editing contributions and more importantly, for translating this entire book from non-Communist Russian, into readable English. Спасибо, очень большое другу!

Thanks to Mark Gerhard and Michele Bousquet for knowing how to write and teach 3ds Max…not an easy combination to find.

Thanks to our other great editor Padhia Romaniello for coming to our rescue and shouldering some of the burden on this massive project.

Thanks to our catch-all English guru, Kelly Winquist, for serving as the last l ine of defense to any errors in our English.

Thanks to Dina Quan for once again saving the day, week, month, year, etc. by single-handedly taking on the role of compositor and being at our beck and call .

Thanks to all the 3D software and hardware producers mentioned in this book for producing great products, without which all of our jobs would be much more diff icult .

—3DATS

xv

Foreword

when brian smiTh aT 3daTs asked me To work as a Technical ediTor on this book, I took it on as an opportunity to see what other users were doing with 3ds Max. I’ve been using 3ds Max and its pre-decessor, 3D Studio, for over 20 years and have even written books on them myself, but I’m always up for learning a new trick or two from other users.

What I didn’t expect was to find such a wealth of information on 3ds Max’s tools, both famil iar and new. The authors of this book use the basic functions where appropriate, but also tap into the vast power of 3ds Max in ways I’d never seen before. For example, I’d never considered using the Morpher modifier to assist in texturing a complex object, but the method described in Chapter 3 immediately made perfect sense to me. Even for new users, the technique is described thoroughly enough to use it on the exercise in the book, and to put a new tool in your toolbox that even experi-enced users might not have.

The concept of doing one project throughout an entire book is ambitious. It’s been attempted before in other books, but rarely has the final project contained so many diverse elements—flowing water, grass, dirt, ivy, stone, and mountains, just to name a few—and covered so many tools. I found the use of plug-ins particularly enlightening. Many of the plug-ins described in this book are free, and wil l save you immense amounts of time in your workflow. The free Ivy Generator plug-in used in Chapter 1, for example, creates a series of clustered branches for ivy. Anytime you need to create a dense group of randomly placed splines for any project, this program can save you from the time-consuming task of drawing them all by hand.

Equally fascinating was the use of Photoshop for post production. Rendering out elements in 3ds Max isn’t new; power users have long been rendering out separate elements of the scene like shadows, highlights, and Z-depth, and using them to do touch-up work in Photoshop and After Effects. But the authors of this book have taken this practice to a new level, even rendering out wireframe colors so you can easily select the area taken up by individual scene objects while in Photoshop. The descriptions of the advanced use of the Levels and Color Correction tools in Photoshop alone wil l give you what you need to take your renderings from commonplace to stunning.

Though many of the exercises in this book are quite dense, with many steps and a lot of new information, I found myself excited to look at each chapter and see what surprises it held. Even if you don’t go through every single step of every exercise, you can gain a wealth of information just by reading through an exercise and seeing the tools used and the result obtained. Much of this informa-tion isn’t available anywhere else, not in tutorials on the Web or in other books or DVDs.

I hope you enjoy this unique book and take advantage of al l it has to offer. Personally, it’s been a great learning experience for me.

—Michele Bousquet

xvii

Frequently Asked Questions

What is this book?We believe this book to be, by far, the most comprehensive guide to completing a 3D project ever produced and we commissioned one of the best, and most respected 3D firms in the world, cat-a-pult, to help write this one of a kind book. Just a quick peek at their gallery of sample work at the back of this book wil l give you an idea of just how talented these artists are.

Why did we write this book?Unlike all of our other tit les, the idea for this book did not originate with 3DATS. Since we started publishing in 2006, we have received an incredible number of requests from 3ds Max users at al l ski l l levels suggesting that we create a book that i l lustrates the process of creating a 3D project step-by-step from start to finish. As a result of these requests, we are pleased to publish our fifth book, 3ds Max 2011 — One Project from Start to Finish .

Why this project?When we first started this book, the intent was to show in great detail , each step of the production process as applied to one very unique award-winning 3D project from cat-a-pult’s portfol io. Soon after the writing process began, we realized that writing a book about the selected project would not be very practical, because like most projects, the selected project required so many of the same steps and techniques to be uti l ized over and over, and the result would be a boring, repetit ive book with l imited coverage of al l the tools and techniques that one might find useful in a variety of different 3D projects. Furthermore, describing the production process through a past project would l imit the instruction to the many project constraints and artistic l imitations imposed by the developer and the project budget.

With this in mind, cat-a-pult set out to develop, from scratch, a new project that would be designed in a way that would give them maximum artistic creativity and maximize their abil ity to teach effective techniques without useless redundancy. We wanted a scene that uti l ized as many techniques and features as possible, even if those techniques and features might not provide the absolute quickest path to completion. So in some cases, the artists elected to describe an alterna-tive technique or feature that might be the optimal choice for another project or situation, but was left out of a particular chapter because it was already discussed in another chapter.

How are the exercises written?Even with this unique project that cat-a-pult developed, and even with the most eff icient production techniques uti l ized, we estimate that there would be l iteral ly several hundreds of thousands of indi-vidual cl icks of the mouse or buttons pressed on the keyboard. An adequate description of these steps could fi l l volumes and take months to read. Therefore, we deemed it absolutely crit ical to describe the production process in a way that didn’t waste the reader’s time by describing each and every single click of the mouse or press of the keyboard.

xv i i i F r e q u e n t l y A s ke d Q u e s t i o n s

Whenever we got to a point where we believed that a focused reader who had completed all previous exercises could understand a general set of instructions, we avoided unnecessary steps and generalized the set of steps in question. To minimize the chance that a reader would be unable to fol low along with the instruction, we saved many versions of each exercise at different points along the way, so that readers could refer to the completed exercises and figure out what went wrong in their own scene.

Who is this book for?This book was very careful ly designed to be useful for readers at al l ski l l levels. From years of instruc-tion, we have learned that the most diff icult part of teaching any 3D software is teaching at the appropriate skil l level. We did not want to write a book that quickly went over the heads of new users, yet we did not want to bore veteran users. Therefore, we wrote the exercises so that, in most cases, they start off very detailed and as the exercises progress, the instruction becomes less detailed for features that were already explained once before or features that are so basic they require no detailed instruction.

The material is presented in a way that is engaging for advanced users and explicatory enough for beginners. For example, during an exercise to loft a wall , the instructions wil l tel l the user the path where the Loft feature can be found and the exact button and settings that wil l need to be clicked, but it wil l not spend valuable time explaining all the remaining settings not used and all of the addi-tional considerations with the Loft that are explained in our other books. However, important considerations wil l be mentioned at times (at least during the first use of a feature), even if the same material is highlighted in a previous book.

What additional software is covered and why?We believe that plugins and third party programs are an incredibly useful part of any major 3D proj-ect. As such, we decided to allow cat-a-pult to uti l ize all of the software that they would normally uti l ize in this project if it were created for a real cl ient. With the exception of just one plugin, al l of the software uti l ized in this book is available for download as ful ly working versions. The location where this software can be downloaded is provided during the first mention of its use.

The fol lowing is a l ist of al l the additional software and plugins covered in this book:

• V-Ray

• Photoshop CS3

• IvyGenerator

• Mudbox 2011

• UV-layout

• Glu3D

• Vue 8

• FumeFX

• After Effects

• ReelSmart Motion Blur

x ixF r e q u e n t l y A s ke d Q u e s t i o n s

Why V-Ray?This book wil l incorporate the use of V-Ray in many exercises. Simply stated, it would not be possi-ble to complete material , l ighting, and rendering techniques without covering the use of an advanced render engine. Despite mental ray being native to 3ds Max, there is no denying that V-Ray enjoys the largest user base between all of the major render engines. We could not ignore this fact, and the fact that we included many other third party plugins. Therefore, we decided to include the use of V-Ray in the exercises.

We do not believe that the use of V-Ray in this book wil l prevent the users of other render engines from being able to complete the exercises. We have minimized the explanation of the V-Ray commands uti l ized to that which is needed to understand the overall techniques described. The vast majority of the principles and techniques covered in this book can be applied to any render engine. Many of the features found in V-Ray appear in other render engines under different names, such as color mapping, which is V-Ray’s version of exposure control . In other features, the names of many settings wil l even be iden tical, such as the many real world settings found on the VRayPhysical-Camera, l ike shutter speed and focal length.

We would l ike to mention that while cat-a-pult is an amazing group of talent, we (3DATS) have slightly differing views on what would be optimal V-Ray settings. Since we are in the business of both production and education, we have always strived to build our scenes in the most eff icient ways pos-sible. Where cat-a-pult might be satisfied in using less adaptive settings (i .e. , more Brute Force) at the risk of longer render times, we always attempt to use the lowest quality settings that we can get away with without inducing a loss of quality. Therefore, we felt it appropriate to include a summary of our (3DATS) crit ical V-Ray settings as a way for you to compare two different views of the most important V-Ray settings discussed in this book. This 13-page summary was taken from our Interme-diate to Advanced book and can be found as an Appendix at the back of this book.

Why aren’t specific units used in the scenes?Although most users, including ourselves, would use a specif ic type of unit setup for their projects, we elected to use generic units throughout the book to minimize confusion for readers not famil iar with each major type.

xxi

Technical Considerations

Downloadable FilesAll of the fi les for this book are available for download at www.3dats.com/books.

3ds Max VersionsProduction for this book began in November of 2009, when many artists, including those at cat-a-pult, were sti l l using 3ds Max 2009. During the course of production, they upgraded to 2010 and most recently 2011 . When they deemed it necessary, the artists updated exercises that they thought were essential to be i l lustrated with 2010 or 2011 . This is why a mixture of 2009, 2010, and 2011 screenshots can be seen throughout the book. All of the scene fi les have been saved for 3ds Max 2010, even those fi les that were modified for 2011 . As you may or may not know, for the first time in its history, 3ds Max 2011 is backwards compatible with an earl ier version — 3ds Max 2010. For this rea-son, some scenes may have been modified in 2011, yet sti l l saved in 2010. Regardless, at least 95% of the exercises in this book can be applied to 3ds Max 2009.

V-Ray VersionsLike any other software, V-Ray is continually updated with newer versions and service packs. If a fi le is opened and a message appears indicating that the current fi le was created with an older version of V-Ray, you wil l be asked if you want to convert the fi le’s settings to the newer version of V-Ray. In most cases, you wil l never notice any change in the final product; however, we recommend selecting “No” when asked, so that the settings saved produce the same rendered result that was intended by the authors.

Scene ComplexityStrictly speaking, the project constructed in this book is quite large, in terms of resources consumed. For many of the exercises, the reader needs nothing more than a low end workstation with 2GB of RAM. However, some scenes wil l be diff icult to work with and render with anything less than 8GB RAM, and at least a mid-range processor and graphics card. Many of the exercises direct the reader to use settings that would put a strain on most workstations; however, we have identif ied the situa-tions when using lesser values might be necessary for less powerful machines to render. In those cases, we have made recommendations on how to achieve suitable results without causing a sys-tem crash.

The maps used during the creation of this project are very high resolution, with some over 8000 pixels in the smallest dimension. As you may know, large maps can consume immense amounts of RAM, usually equivalent to their uncompressed versions. Therefore, for those with less powerful workstations, we have included a smaller version of the high resolution maps so that no map is larger than 2000 pixels in any dimension. If at any time you are unable to render a scene, we suggest remapping a lower resolution version of al l the high resolution maps used.

xx i i Te c h n i c a l C o n s i d e r a t i o n s

From Russian with Love!Each chapter of this book was written by the five authors of cat-a-pult in their native language of Russian. This al lowed them to focus on the quality of the instruction and not worry about the quality of English translation. Thanks to our own in-house Russian speaking 3ds Max guru Alex Gorbunov, who grew up in Ukraine not far from cat-a-pult, we had the means to translate the original text with-out anything being lost in translation. However, since only one of the five cat-a-pult artists speaks solid English, editing the book was a bit of a challenge, to put it mildly. Every edit that went between 3DATS and cat-a-pult had to first be translated to or from Russian by Alex, and a quick peek at the fol lowing editing cycle provides a small indication of how busy he was during this production.

The Editing CycleWe thought that the editing process of our Advanced to Expert book, a book with 20 different authors and 20 different technical reviewers, was diff icult . Compared to this book, that was walk in the park. Because of the extremely sophisticated nature of the material presented, and the fact that the authors were only able to communicate through our translator, the task of editing this book was…well , see for yourself. We thought some would find the process of how this book was edited some-what interesting, if not astounding.

AU = Author (cat-a-pult)

TR = Translator (Alex Gorbunov)

LE = Language Editor (Michele Bousquet)

1T = 1st Tech. Editor (Mark Gerhard)

2T = 2nd Tech. Editor (Brian Smith)

EP = Exercise Proofer (Padhia Romaniello)

CO = Compositor (Dina Quan)

PR = Proofreader (Kelly Winquist)

PM = Project Manager (Brian Smith)

PT = Printer

The flow chart below shows the best case scenario for a chapter that wasn’t complicated by production irregularit ies. In actuality, no chapter made it through this entire process without additional intervention.

AU ➤ TR ➤ LE ➤ 1T ➤ TR ➤ AU ➤ TR ➤ 1T ➤ 2T ➤ TR ➤ AU ➤ TR ➤ 2T ➤ EP ➤ TR ➤ AU ➤ TR ➤ EP ➤ PM ➤ CO ➤ PM ➤ PR ➤ CO ➤ PM ➤ PT

Tutorial and Layout conventionsThe editorial team of this book made every effort to translate and edit each chapter of this book in a way that improved on the communication of the writing while sti l l being true to the authors’ style. To keep this book as clear and easy to fol low as possible, the fol lowing text convention is used throughout:

Bold text is used to draw your attention to commands or actions to be executed during an exer-cise or for the first appearance of important features or concepts.

xx i i iTe c h n i c a l C o n s i d e r a t i o n s

Final thought!Try to remember that your goal during the exercises should not be to mimic exactly what you see in the sample i l lustrations, as that would usually be unnecessary and a waste of time. Even if any of the authors tried to duplicate their own original work exactly, it would not be possible as many steps require a freehand approach that could never be precisely replicated. What’s important is that you understand what is going on and that you achieve at least somewhat similar results.

The ultimate goal of the book is to transfer knowledge of as many features and procedures as possible while showing how to create one amazing 3D project. We are completely confident that readers of al l ski l l levels wil l agree that this book meets its goal.

“Try not! Do or do not! There is no try!”

—Master Yoda

1

2D to 3D Modeling

The purpose of This chapTer is to provide an overview of some effective modeling techniques using primitives, shapes, and compound objects as an alternative to polygonal modeling. 2D to 3D model-ing is generally much faster than polygonal modeling. When your project deadline is too tight for detailed development of models, primitives and compound objects are an excellent choice. These faster modeling techniques are also appropriate for rough scene blocking and animatics, and in cases where objects are far from the camera and don’t require a great level of detail . With polygonal modeling, which we wil l cover in the next chapter, the final result looks more detailed and accurate, but the time needed to create and texture such models is much longer than with objects created from shapes, primitives, or compound objects.

TelescopeIn this part of this chapter, we wil l model the stylized telescope shown in Figure 1-1 .

Figure 1-1. The stylized telescope modeled in this exercise

Chapter 1

1 -2 2D t o 3 D M o d e l i n g

Exercise 1: Telescope modeling

First let’s break this object down into individual pieces, as this wil l help us understand its structure and choose the right modeling method for each piece. Let’s start with the scope. It has a cylindrical shape and can be created as a Lathe object.

1.Reset 3ds Max.

2. In the Front view, draw a spline that looks similar to the fol lowing i l lustration, (overall dimensions 23x8 units). Hold down Shift to constrain the creation of segments along one axis. To round the corners and match the curve shown below, go into the vertex sub-object mode of the Editable Spline and under the Geometry rol lout, use the Fillet tool.

3.Using the View Coordinate system, mirror this spline along the X-axis as a Copy .

4.Use Endpoint snaps to position the ends of both splines together as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

5.Use the Attach command in the Modify panel to attach both splines together and use the Weld command to weld their endpoints. You can then remove this vertex.

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6.Apply the Lathe modifier with the rotation direction along the X-axis .

7.Open the Lathe modifier and move its gizmo along the Y-axis so that the resulting object looks similar to the fol lowing i l lustration. Note : Whenever a step in this book directs a modifier to be opened, cl ick the + symbol next to the name of the modifier in the modifier stack.

8.Set Segments to 16 . I f the object’s normals appear to be fl ipped, check the Flip Normals check-box.

9.Apply the Cap Holes modifier to close the openings at the ends of the object.

10.Create a new line in the Left view that looks similar to the left image in the fol lowing i l lustration, while using the right image as a guide for its size. This wil l be the profi le for the eyepiece.

Note how the spline starts at the top end (the yellow vertex is the first vertex). Make sure your spline starts at the top as well . Otherwise, the Bevel Profile modifier, which we wil l use next, won’t work as expected.

11. I f you accidentally started the spline at the other end, select the top vertex and use the Make First tool (within the Edit Spline modifier) to make the spline start from there.

12.Create a Rectangle with the fol lowing parameters: Length = 7.6 , Width = 16.0 , Corner Radius = 3.5 .

13.Apply a Bevel Profile modifier to the rectangle, and pick the curved spline you just created.

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14.Select the profi le gizmo and rotate it 90 degrees about the Z-axis to create the geometry. Move the new eyepiece to the scope as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

Now, let’s model the telescope’s tube.

15. First, make a straight horizontal l ine approximately centered on the scope, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration. This wil l serve only as an alignment tool.

16.Create a tube profi le similar to the one shown in the fol lowing i l lustration, using the Fillet tool to get the result shown.

17.Apply a Lathe modifier to the tube’s profi le spline, set Direction to X , open the modifier, and move the modifier’s gizmo so that it’s aligned with the straight l ine.

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18.Set Segments to 32 , and enable the Weld Core option, f l ip normals if needed.

19.Bend the object by applying a Bend modifier with the fol lowing parameters: Angle = -15 , Direction = 90 , Bend Axis = X , apply Limit Effect check-box and set Upper Limit = 100 , Lower Limit = 0 .

20.Open the Bend modifier, and move the modifier’s Center to the narrow end of the pipe, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

21.Position the tube so it is attached to the center of the scope unit, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

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Now let’s model the telescope’s feet.

22.Go to the Left view and create a closed spline 70 units tal l , as shown in the fol lowing i l lus- tration.

23.Create a Rectangle with the fol lowing parameters: Length = 1.5 , Width = 3.0 , Corner Radius = 0.75 .

24.Convert it to an Editable Spline and delete some of its segments so the remaining shape looks l ike the fol lowing i l lustration. This spline represents the foot object’s profi le.

25.Select the closed spline that we created a moment ago, and apply the Bevel Profile modifier to it . As a profi le, pick the open rectangle shape from the previous step.

26.Open the Bevel Profile modifier, and rotate its gizmo 90 degrees and move it so the resulting model looks l ike the fol lowing i l lustration.

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27.Go to the Front view and apply the Taper modifier to this object.

28.Open the modifier and in the Front view move its Center to the Top/right corner of the model. Set the parameters to Amount = -2 , Primary = Y , Effect = Z .

29. In the Front view, rotate the model 10 degrees around the Z-axis . Apply a Taper modifier again, and set Amount = 0.02 . Shift the Taper modifier’s center up and to the left in the front view unti l the model resembles the fol lowing i l lustration.

30.Use the Mirror tool from the Main toolbar to mirror this object, and choose Instance as the mirror method. Position the two supporting foot objects as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

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Now, let’s model a step ring where the observers wil l stand. Because the step has a different thickness in different places, we wil l create it as a Loft object.

31.Go to a Top view and create a circle with Radius = 32.2 centered on the other objects that make up the telescope.

32.Create a Rectangle with fol lowing parameters: Length = 15 , Width = 5 , Corner Radius = 0.6 , and then create a second rectangle with fol lowing parameters: Length = 5.5 , Width = 3 , Corner Radius = 0.6 .

The larger rectangle wil l be used as the section of the step at its widest point (where an observer would stand), while the smaller rectangle wil l be the narrowest section attached to the tele-scope base. Because the fi l let radius has to be the same at al l places on the step, we needed the Corner Radius of both rectangles to be the same.

33.Select the circle, collapse to Editable Spline , and from the Command Panel choose Create ➤ Com-pound Object ➤ Loft . This shape wil l be automatically assigned as the Path of the loft object.

34.Click the Get Shape button and pick the larger rectangle. On the Skin Parameters rol lout set Shape Steps to 0 and Path Steps to 6 .

The red circle in the left image in the fol lowing i l lustration shows the place where 3ds Max auto-matically places the start and end of the path that the Loft compound object uses to generate the geometry. To make twisting the step object easier, we’l l move this start/end point.

35.Rotate the loft 90 degrees about the Z-axis so the start/end of the path is at the top, as shown in the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration.

Now let’s edit the loft object to change its size and twist it along the loft . To do this, we need to add an additional shape along the loft .

36.Open the loft object and select Shape in the modifier stack.

37.Locate the shape at the beginning of the path, and click it to select it ( it wil l turn red when selected). Rotate the shape by 90 degrees about Z axis, which wil l cause the loft object to be flatter, l ike a step.

Now, we wil l add the smaller rectangle to the loft at the opposite end of the step.

38.Click on Shape in the modifier stack to close the loft and return to the base level of the loft .

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39. In the Loft object’s Path parameters, set Path to 50 (which is 50% of the entire path). You wil l see the small x-shaped path marker move to 50% along the path, to the opposite side of the step.

40.Click the Get Shape button and click on the smaller rectangle.

The loft object changes in the place where the step is to be connected to the telescope base, and gets back to its original state where an observer wil l stand. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

41.Edit the Path sub-object of the Loft object if needed in order to make the step curvature better suited to the telescope.

42.At the Vertex sub-object level within the Edit Spline modifier (below the Path level), you can move the path’s vertices directly.

43. I f needed, select each Shape at the sub-object level and adjust its rotation. You can also go to the Modify panel, and under the Deformations rol lout, use the Twist option to twist the step further.

44.When the main geometry of the step object has been set up, go to the Loft object’s Skin Parameters rol lout and turn off Adaptive Path Steps to optimize the object.

45.Add a TurboSmooth modifier to the object and set Iterations = 2 .

46.Move and rotate the step so that it is similar to the step shown in Figure 1-1 .

This completes the modeling of the step object.

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47.Using splines with rendering enabled and/or Standard Primitives, model the target at the top of the eyesight unit, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

48.Group all objects related to the telescope with Group menu ➤ Group .

49.Save your work. You can compare your results to Ch01-01.max .

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Exercise 2: Telescope materials

Now let’s create and assign materials to the telescope. There wil l be only two materials: Metal (tele-scope body) and Glass (telescope lens). Let’s start with the metal material .

1.Continue with your saved scene from the previous exercise or open the fi le Ch01-01.max to continue with the scene already prepared up to this point.

2.Choose any empty slot in the Material Editor and change the material type to VRayMtl . Name this material Telescope Metal .

3. In the Maps rol lout, assign a VrayDirt map to the Diffuse slot. In the VrayDirt map’s parameters, set Radius = 20 , Unoccluded Color = R=93 , G=80 , B=70 .

4.Place a Composite map in the Reflect slot of the Maps rol lout. For the first layer of the Composite map, assign a Falloff map with Metal_Telescope.jpg assigned in the top slot of the Front:Side group, and change the color of the bottom parameter to R=255 , G=255 , B=195 .

5.Add a second layer to the Composite map and assign a VRayDirt map with Radius = 20 to the layer’s texture slot. Change the layer’s blending mode to Multiply .

6.Go back to the material’s Maps rol lout at its base level, and place Metal_Telescope.jpg into the Bump slot with Amount = 10 .

7.Apply the material to the entire telescope group.

Now we’l l create a glass material .

8.Select an empty sample slot in the Material Editor and change the material type to VRayMtl . Name this material Glass . Set the Diffuse color to R=52 , G=76 , B=113 .

9.Go to the Maps rol lout and assign a Falloff map in the Reflect channel, and assign a Noise map to the top parameter of Front:Side group. Use the fol lowing parameters for the Noise map: Noise Type = Fractal and Size = 8 . Go back to the Falloff map and change the color of the bottom parameter of the Front:Side group to R=52 , G=76 , B=113 . In the Mix Curve group, lower the right vertex by about 25% .

10.Open the group, apply an Edit Mesh modifier to the telescope tube, and at the Polygon sub-object level select al l polygons that represent the lens and apply the Glass material to them.

11.Exit from the Polygon sub-object level of the Edit Mesh modifier. In the Material Editor , choose an empty slot and click the Pick Material from Object button, then click the telescope. The new Multi/Sub-Object material you have just created appears in the material slot. By assigning two different materials to two different sets of polygons, you have automatically created a Multi/Sub-Object material assigned to polygons with different Material IDs. You wil l use this concept to create a Multi/Sub-Object material later in this chapter.

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12.Save the telescope. You can find a finished version of this model in the fi le Ch01-02.max . With appropriate l ighting and rendering, the telescope would look similar to Figure 1-1 .

CountryFenceIn this set of exercises, we’l l use a variety of modeling techniques to create a rough-looking country fence, as shown in Figure 1-2.

Figure 1-2. Reference image for fence

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To choose the best modeling techniques, let’s analyze the reference image. In the i l lustration we see that the fence is made from slightly bent vertical posts and horizontal bars. The objects wil l need to have a few segments along their lengths and the widths so we can give them curvature and make them look rough and natural . We want the number of segments to be adjustable so we can change it as needed during the modeling process.

Let’s break down the fence modeling process into a few specif ic steps:

• Vertical posts modeling

• Modeling of horizontal bars that connect vertical posts

• Editing UVW coordinates and assigning materials

Exercise 3: Fence modeling

To create the fence posts, we wil l f irst create a single post object using the primitive ChamferBox . Then we wil l create multiple clones of the post and place them over the perimeter of the territory. To make each post look unique, we wil l use the Noise modifier.

1.Reset 3ds Max.

2.Set the system units to Generic Units.

3. In the Top View , create a ChamferBox with parameters shown in the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration. Switch to a Perspective view to visually confirm the look of the object. It should look similar to the one in the right image. Turn on Edged Faces (F4) , i f necessary, so you can see the face edges.

4.Apply the Edit Poly modifier to this object.

5. In Polygon sub-object mode, select and delete the bottom polygons, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration. We won’t see these polygons in the final image so we can optimize the model by deleting them.

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6.Apply the Noise modifier to this object using parameters from the fol lowing i l lustration.

7.Clone the post model 9 times (Edit menu ➤ Clone) using the Copy option and spread the clones out similar to the posts shown in Figure 1-2. There should be 10 posts total .

8. For each copy of the post, change the Seed parameter in the Noise modifier to a unique number. This wil l make the deformation of each post unique.

We have modeled and placed all posts, which allows us to judge the overall size of the fence. Now, let’s model the horizontal bars that connect the vertical posts.

For the horizontal bars, we wil l start modeling with splines and add Spline IK Control to provide control over their shape. Using the deformed splines, we wil l create the geometry for the horizontal bars with a Loft . Then we wil l add a Noise modifier to give the bars some random deformation.

9.Activate the Snaps Toggle button with Midpoint snaps. This wil l help you snap to the middle of the edges at the top of the vertical post models.

10.Create l ines connecting all of the vertical posts with each other. Make a new line to connect each pair of posts; do not create one continuous l ine that goes through all posts.

11.Go to the Perspective view , select al l of the splines that connect vertical posts, and copy them down along the Z-axis so you create a second row of horizontal bars. If you want to fol low the reference image more closely, delete the bottom set of l ines where you see the bars missing in Figure 1-2.

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Let’s create additional controllers for the splines.

12.Assign a Spline IK Control modifier to each l ine individually. For each spline, check No Linking in the Link Types group, then click the Create Helpers button. Two lines wil l appear in the Control Object l ist: Knot# 1 Point01 and Knot# 2 Point02 , as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration. You wil l also see in the scene that two new objects are at each end of the spline (right side of the fol-lowing i l lustration).

13. For each Point Helper object, use the Select and Link tool in the Main toolbar to l ink each one to the vertical post to which it is connected. To use the tool, cl ick and drag from the helper to the post. If you move a post, you wil l see how the splines that are attached to it fol low along with the movement.

Now, we need to add volume to the splines using the Loft compound object.

14.Create a Rectangle with the fol lowing parameters: Length = 10 , Width = 5 , Corner Radius = 0.5 . In the Interpolation rol lout, set Steps = 1 and turn on the Optimize option. We set this specif ic size because we want our horizontal bar object to be slightly narrower than the vertical post.

15.Select one horizontal spline that connects two vertical posts, and create a Loft object with the rectangle as the shape along the path. In the Loft object’s Skin Parameters , turn off Cap Start and Cap End , set Path Steps = 5 , Shape Steps = 1 , and turn on Optimize Shapes .

16.Repeat this procedure for al l the other horizontal splines that connect vertical bars. Keep all parameters the same except the Path Steps parameter, which needs to be higher for longer paths so all the segments on the horizontal bars are about the same length.

17.Select al l the upper horizontal bars, and assign a Noise modifier to all of them at once with the fol lowing parameters: Seed = 0 , Scale = 100 , Strength: X = 10 , Y = 10 , Z = 15 .

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18.Assign another Noise modifier to the lower row of horizontal bars and set a different Seed value so that the deformation of the lower bars looks different from the deformation of the upper bars.

19.Adjust the local position of each Point Helper in relation to the vertical post to which it is l inked, so that each horizontal bar is connected to the vertical post at the proper place.

20.Save the scene. You can find the finished fence model in the fi le Ch01-03.max .

We have finished the modeling of the fence. Now we need to apply materials to it and adjust mapping coordinates as needed.

Exercise 4: Fence material

1.Continue with your saved scene from the previous exercise or open the fi le Ch01-03.max to continue with the scene already prepared up to this point.

2.Create a Standard material with Old_Wood.jpg in the Diffuse Color channel. For the Old_Wood.jpg map on the Coordinates rol lout in the Angle group set W:90.0 . Assign this material to all fence objects. Turn on Show Map in Viewport .

In shaded viewports, we can see that the texture looks distorted on the objects. We need to fix that by correcting the mapping coordinates.

3.Select the entire top row of the horizontal bars and apply the UVW Xform modifier to the entire selection. This modifier al lows you to change just the U and V ti l ing but keep the existing map type as is. Set U Tile = 0.12 and keep the default values for the other parameters.

4.Select the lower row of horizontal bars and repeat the procedure, while also setting U Offset = 0.07 . This wil l shift the texture along the U-axis of the texture space and thus make the textur-ing of the lower row of bars look different from the top.

5. I f you want to further change the mapping of any one object without changing the others, you can select that object and in the Modify tab, select its UVW Xform modifier and click the Make Unique button. Then you can change the U Offset and V Offset parameters just for that object.

Now let’s adjust the size of the texturing of the vertical bars.

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6.Select al l of the vertical bar objects and assign the Unwrap UVW modifier to the selection.

7.Click the Edit button within the modifier and in the Edit UVWs window, select al l the vertices.

8.Use the Scale Horizontal tool to scale the selection down while watching the changes to the texture appearance in the viewport. Keep scaling the selection down unti l the size of the texture on the vertical posts looks proportionally correct in relation to the horizontal bars.

9.Using the Move Horizontal tool in the Edit UVWs window, shift the texture coordinates of each vertical post so that the texture looks different on each post.

We have finished texturing the fence, and the model is now complete.

10.Save the scene. You can find the completed and textured fence in the fi le Ch01-04.max .

OuthouseIn this exercise, we wil l create a low-poly outhouse. We wil l use primitives and shapes to create this object as simply as possible.

Figure 1-3. The outhouse created in this exercise

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The outhouse model consists of 4 parts: walls, roof, door, and stairs. Let’s start with the walls.

1.Reset 3ds Max.

2. In the Perspective view, create a Box with the fol lowing parameters: Length = 70 , Width = 70 , Height = 140, Length Segs: 2, Width Segs: 1, Height Segs: 1 .

3.Rename the object Outhouse Walls.

4.Assign a Taper modifier to the object, and use the fol lowing parameters: Amount = -0.5 , Taper Axis = Primary:Y , Effect:Z , and turn on the Symmetry parameter.

Now, let’s create the door opening.

5. In the Left view, create a Rectangle shape with the fol lowing parameters: Length = 70 , Width = 40 .

6.With the shape sti l l selected, select the Align tool from the Main toolbar and pick Outhouse Walls as the Target object. In the Align Selection dialog box, enable X Position only and set the Pivot Point as the alignment method for both objects. Move the rectangle up along the Y-axis so that it matches the position of the doorway, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

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7.Convert the shape into an Editable spline.

8.Select the two top vertices then apply the Fillet tool. Keep increasing the Fil let amount unti l the entire top part of the Editable Spline turns into an arch. After this operation there wil l be two coincident vertexes at the top of the arch; you wil l need to select those vertices and use the Weld command to weld them together. This arch wil l be the door opening contour.

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9.Select the Outhouse Walls object, go to the Command panel ➤ Create ➤ Compound Objects, and click the ShapeMerge button.

10. In the ShapeMerge object’s parameters click the Pick Shape button and pick the door opening contour as an operand. Select Cookie Cutter in the Operation group. This wil l cut out the arch in the doorway using the arch shape.

Now we need to add thickness to this object:

11.Apply the Shell modifier to this object and use the fol lowing parameters: Inner Amount = 3 , Outer Amount = 0 , Edge Mapping = Interpolate .

12. In the Top view create a Circle with Radius = 3 and convert it into Editable Spline . In Spline sub-object mode scale the whole spline down along the X axis so it looks l ike an ell ipse, then in Segment sub-object mode delete the two left segments, leaving only half of the shape. Set the number of Interpolation steps to 2 .

13.Select the object with the Shell modif ier and in the Shell modifier’s parameters, turn on the Bevel Edges parameter and pick the curved profi le that we created in the previous step. The edges should make a convex shape. If this does not happen, you need to select the Spline sub-object of profi le that we created in the previous step and click Reverse under its Geom-etry settings, so that the edges of the Outhouse Walls object are convex.

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14.Go to the Top view and create a ChamferBox with the fol lowing parameters: Length = 70 , Width = 105 , Height = 5.0 , Fillet = 0.5 . This object wil l be one step of the stairs and the floor of the out-house. Place it just below the door opening.

15.Go to the Front view and create a ChamferBox with the fol lowing parameters: Length = 40 , Width = 16 , Height = 3.0 , Fillet = 0.5 .

16.Apply a Skew modifier to this object, using the fol lowing parameters: Amount = 22 , Skew Axis:Y . This wil l be one side support for the staircase. Position it as required (see the i l lustration that fol lows).

17.Copy and move this object to create a second side support for the staircase, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

18. In the Top view, create another ChamferBox object with the fol lowing parameters: Length = 25 , Width = 13 , Height = 2 , Fillet 0.5 , Length segments = 5 . This wil l be one of the steps.

19.Copy the object to create an additional step for the staircase and place the two steps as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

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Now let’s create the door. For this we wil l need the door opening profi le that we created previously.

20.Select the Outhouse Walls object and from the Command Panel select ShapeMerge.

21. In the Parameters rol lout, under the Operands l ist, select (Shape1) , set the radio button to Copy, and click the Extract Operand button. This wil l create a new shape object.

Let’s modify the top of this shape so it looks more l ike the door from the reference image.

22. In Vertex sub-object mode, use the Refine tool to add two additional vertices on both sides of top-center vertex.

23.Right-click in the active view and change their type to Bezier Corner . Move them down slightly, and adjust the Bezier control handles to create a shape similar to fol lowing i l lustration.

24.Click the Create Line button, and at the top of the shape, create a l ine that resembles half of a heart.

25. In Spline sub-object mode, use the Mirror tool to create the other half of the heart, and weld the vertices to create a closed spline.

26.Apply the Bevel Profile modifier to this object, and use as a profi le the same spline that you used to create the edges of the Outhouse Walls object. If the resulting object looks too thick or thin, scale the Bevel Profi le modifier’s gizmo. If the resulting shape looks odd due to incorrect beveling direction, rotate the modifier’s gizmo about Z and X axes unti l it looks right.

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27.Apply a UVW Map modifier to this object with the Box mapping type.

28.Position the object’s pivot point at its left edge. Rotate the door -90 degrees about Z axis .

Now let’s model the hinges that hold the door in place.

29.Create a spline similar to the one shown in the fol lowing i l lustration, approximately 8 units tal l and 2 units wide..

30.Apply a Lathe modifier to this spline, set Segments = 16 and turn on Weld Core . Ensure that the lathe axis is at the far right edge of the spline.

31.Create a Rectangle shape with the fol lowing parameters: Length=5.0 , Width=7.0 , and Corner Radius = 0.5 and position it behind the hinge center that we modeled in the previous step.

32.Apply a Bevel modifier with fol lowing parameters: Level 1 : 0.2, 0.0 ; Level 2 : 0.2, –0.2 .

33.Group the hinge center and Rectangle, and name the group Outhouse Door Hinge . Move this group to the place where a hinge would be on the upper part of the door. Copy this group to create another hinge and position it at the lower side of the door.

34.Position the door and hinges against the outhouse walls.

Let’s create the roof using the spline modeling technique. Spline modeling is not used very often anymore because it has been almost completely replaced by other modeling techniques. However, spline modeling is sti l l convenient for creating large smooth surfaces with a small number of control vertices.

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35. In the Front view , create a closed spline as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration. It’s okay if the ends of this spline intersect the outhouse walls.

36. In the Left view , al ign this spline with the center of the outhouse, then make a copy of this spline. Scale it down slightly along the vertical axis, and position it at the center of the right slope of the roof. Then make another copy and position it at the end of the right slope of the roof. The fol lowing i l lustration shows how all 3 splines should look.

37.Attach all three splines together with the Attach tool.

38.Add the Cross Section modifier to create additional splines that wil l connect the three original splines. In the Spline Options group choose Bézier .

39.Apply the Edit Spline modifier and using its tools, such as Create Line , Divide , and CrossInsert , further refine this object to look similar to the fol lowing i l lustration.

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40.Weld and fuse all vertices as needed. Weld removes coincident vertices in the same segment and fuse moves coincident vertices in different segments to the same location. Make sure that al l vertex types are set to Bezier , and all spline types are set to Curve .

41.Edit vertex positions and their Bezier control handles to give this object a smooth and curvy appearance.

42.When you finish adjusting the curvature of the splines and are happy with the result, apply an Edit Patch modifier. This wil l automatically generate the 3D surface for the roof. If the surface breaks in some places, then you need to increase the Generate Surface Threshold value or use the Fuse tool on vertices that are causing problems.

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43.Save your scene. If you would l ike to continue from this point with an already prepared scene, open Ch01-05.max .

44.Apply a UVW Unwrap modifier to this object. In Face sub-object mode of the Unwrap UVW modifier, select the faces that make up the top and click Quick Planar Map . Repeat this so that you have applied mapping to the top and the three sides. Don’t worry about the underneath part, because it wil l not show in the rendering. If you have not already done so, cl ick Edit… under the Parameters rol l-out to see the results. The roof UVs should now be separated into logical UV clusters similar to the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration. For convenience, rotate each part as shown in the right image.

45.Now we are going to stitch together al l of the clusters using the Stitch tool . Select the edges of one of the clusters; the corresponding edges wil l be highlighted with blue color. Click Tools ➤ Stitch Selected , and on the pop-up window turn on Align Clusters , Scale Clusters , and set the Bias to 0 .

46.Now select corresponding Bézier handles (to check which Bézier control handle corresponds to which, you can select one Bézier control handle, and its “brother” wil l be highlighted in blue) and press Ctrl+W or Tool ➤ Weld Selected . I f the distance between the vertices is too high, increase the Weld Threshold parameter by clicking Options… in the bottom of the Edit UVWs window.

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47. In order to better see the issues with mapping, create a material with the Roofing.jpg image as the Diffuse map, and apply it to this object.

48.Repeat this procedure unti l al l of the clusters are welded together. Fix obvious errors in the mapping by moving vertices in the Edit UVWs window and manipulating them with Bézier con-trol handles, thus allowing some parts of the model more texture space. To remove distortion you may need to manually move scrambled Bézier control handles so that they do not criss-cross.

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49.When you have fixed the mapping coordinates and the texture layout looks good, apply the Symmetry modifier to create the other slope of the roof.

50.Apply the UVW Map modifier to the Outhouse Walls object, and set the type of mapping to Box .

51.To finish the texturing process, apply a material with the Old_Wood.jpg image as the Diffuse map to the wooden parts of the outhouse. Rotate and scale the mapping on different elements of the model to achieve better texture size and appearance.

The outhouse model is almost finished. The only thing left to do is add a few deep cracks to the wood.

52. In the Left view, create a few closed splines with sharp jagged edges, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

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53.Apply an Extrude modifier with an extrusion amount greater than the thickness of the outhouse wall . In the Top view , position these objects so they penetrate the front walls, but not the back walls.

54.Select the Outhouse Walls object and create a ProBoolean compound object. Make sure that Operation is set to Subtraction , then click the Start Picking button and pick the jagged objects that you created in the previous step. This wil l subtract the cracks from the outhouse walls.

55.Convert Outhouse Walls to an Editable Mesh , then on Modify panel cl ick the Attach button and attach all other objects in the scene that are made from the same material as it (door and stair) .

We want the topology to be made of small faces because we wil l add distortion to this object with the Noise modifier.

56.Add a Subdivide modifier to the Outhouse Walls , set Size = 12.0 . This wil l even out the topology of the object so when we apply deformation to it there won’t be any errors in the geometry.

57.Group all parts of the model. Apply a Noise modifier to the group, set the Strength parameter to X=3 , Y=3 , Z=4 , and turn on the Fractal option.

58.Save the scene. You can find a finished version of the outhouse in the fi le Ch01-06.max .

The outhouse model is finished and looks similar to the fol lowing i l lustration. For additional real-ism, try adding the Hair and Fur feature to the roof of the outhouse. With experimentation, you can achieve a look similar to Figure 1-3.

1 -30 2D t o 3 D M o d e l i n g

IvyIn this section, we wil l create a wall with clusters of ivy, as shown in Figure 1-4. The wall has a rela-tively large area, so it wil l be easier if we break it down into three zones. We wil l generate ivy vines for each zone separately, as shown at the right side of Figure 1-4.

Figure 1-4. Ivy rendering and zones

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Before we start making the ivy, we need to establish some basic rules about how we want it to look.

• Vines should be long, curvy objects that fol low the surface of the wall .

• The leaf objects must have correct texture coordinates, which we should be able to adjust as needed.

• The root of each vine should be thicker than the tip.

Vines need to grow in all directions, and the area of distribution should be l imited by each of three zones that we defined in the previous i l lustration.

To get optimal results, we’l l use Thomas Luft’s Ivy Generator application to generate the vines. This application is free and easy to use. You can find the l ink to download this application on the book’s website or from this l ink: http://graphics.uni-konstanz.de/~luft/ivy_generator/ .

After we create the vines, we wil l use 3ds Max to create the leaves.

Exercise 5: Vines

Before we can create the vines with the Ivy Generator application, we need an object over which to grow the vines. This geometry has been provided for you using the same modeling tools that have been discussed up to this point.

1.Open the fi le named Ch01-07.max . In this scene, you can find the wall geometry that we wil l use as the basic surface for ivy modeling. In order to simplify the work process, the surface of the wall is relatively low-poly.

2.Export the Front Wall object to a fi le in .OBJ format using the settings shown in the fol lowing i l lustration. Make sure you choose the Triangles option for the Faces setting, as the Ivy Gen-erator requires a triangulated mesh. You can also use the fi le Wall.obj .

3.The Ivy Generator needs to be loaded separately from 3ds Max. After downloading the appli-cation, extract the archive contents and click the IvyGenerator application fi le to start it .

1 -32 2D t o 3 D M o d e l i n g

4.Click Import obj+mlt and import the .OBJ fi le into IvyGenerator . I f you can’t see the object, cl ick flip normals to make the geometry appear as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

5.Shift-drag to rotate the object so that its façade is facing you. You can also use Ctrl-drag to pan the object and right-click-drag to zoom in and out. Double-click the object near its base to indicate where you want the vine to start growing from. A green dot appears at that place, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

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6.Set the parameters from the fol lowing i l lustration. The most important parameters are ivy size (essential ly the growing speed), primary weight (how far the vine can offset from the main growing direction), and random weight (how random the offset can be). The major advantage of this uti l ity is that you can control al l the parameters interactively while the vines are being generated.

7.Click the grow button to start the ivy growing. The ivy branches wil l start generating in real-time. When the vines have grown enough and you like the result, cl ick grow again to stop the vine-growing process. The result should be similar to the fol lowing i l lustration. If you want to start over, double-click to set a new starting point, and click grow again.

1 -34 2D t o 3 D M o d e l i n g

8. In the birth group set ivy leaf size = 0 (because we do not need leaves in this case). Adjust the ivy branch size parameter unti l you are happy with the size and click the birth button to create the geometry.

9.Export the vine geometry into an .OBJ object by clicking export obj+mt l button, and import it into 3ds Max scene..

10.You can find a version of this scene in the fi le Ch01-08.max that has the vines already imported.

Exercise 6: Leaf textures

In looking at reference images of ivy leaves, we see that they have a variety of colors and shading.

Figure 1-5. Ivy leaf reference images

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Besides green leaves, we can also see blue, l ime-green, yellow, brown and red tones. To exag-gerate the leaves for our rendering style, the texture needs to have veins and sharp, distinct edges.

Let’s use the leaf texture that comes with Ivy Generator application as a base, and edit it with Adobe Photoshop to suit our purposes. This texture has suitable shape and is also easy to edit.

Figure 1-6. Default Ivy Generator leaf texture

1. In Adobe Photoshop , open Ivy_Leaf_Start.jpg .

2.Right-click the Background layer, choose Layer from Background , and name the layer Green Leaf. Choose Layer menu ➤ Group From Layers and create a new group. Right-click the group in the Layers window, choose Group Properties , and rename the group to Green .

3. In the Green Leaf layer, select and delete the white background.

To make the veins stand out more, we’l l create a separate layer and group for the vein image.

4.Duplicate the Green Leaf layer and name the new layer Veins . In the Layers window, move this new layer outside the Green group . Create a new group for this image, and call the group Veins . Place this group above the Green group, and change the group’s Blend Mode to Pass Through .

5.Right-click the Veins layer and choose Blending Options . Change the Blend Mode to Linear Light . This wil l increase the contrast between the veins and the green areas of the leaf, making it easier to select the veins.

Next, we’l l create a black and white mask from the Veins layer, as shown in the fol lowing i l lu-stration.

6.Use any method to select the major veins and some of the minor ones, such as using the Magic Wand tool to select l ighter areas. Then choose Layer menu ➤ Layer Mask ➤ Reveal Selection to apply the black and white mask to the Veins layer.

1 -36 2D t o 3 D M o d e l i n g

7.To make the veins network look thicker, choose Layer menu ➤ New Adjustment Layer ➤ Levels . Turn on the Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask option, and name the layer Levels Veins . Adjust the sliders to make the network of veins appear thicker.

Now let’s add edges to the leaf. This wil l create a soft fal loff from the main colors of the leaf to the edges.

8.Create a new layer called Border and put it in its own group named Border . Place this group at the top of the l ist, and change the group’s Blend Mode to Pass Through .

9.Select the Green Leaf layer, then use Select menu ➤ Load Selection to load the selection Green Leaf Transparency .

10.Use Selection menu ➤ Modify ➤ Border with Width = 5 pixels to change the selection to encom-pass the leaf border.

11.On the Border layer, f i l l the selected area with a l ime-green color.

12.Deactivate the selection (Ctrl+D), apply Filter menu ➤ Convert for Smart Filters , then apply Filter menu ➤ Blur ➤ Gaussian Blur . The goal is to get a layer that looks similar to the fol lowing i l lus-tration. Applying the Convert for Smart Fi lters command prior to applying any fi lter wil l al low you to adjust the fi lter’s settings later if needed..

1 -372D t o 3 D M o d e l i n g

13.Add a Levels adjustment layer, with “use previous layer to create clipping mask” enabled, to the Border layer to make the layer more visible, and name the layer Levels Border . Adjust the sliders to make the border more recognizable.

14.Add a new layer fi l led with a dark-green color and place it at the bottom of the Layers window. Your layers should look l ike the fol lowing i l lustration. Compare your result with Ivy_Leaf.psd .

This way, you wil l get the desired look for appealing ivy leaves; veins are distinct and noticeable, and edges are outl ined and visible.

15. In order to give the leaf texture color variations, you can use Image menu ➤ Adjustments ➤ Color Balance to change the color balance of the Green Leaf layer. You can also adjust the tex-ture colors directly in 3ds Max by changing the Output parameters for the Diffuse map in the Material Editor .

The leaf’s Opacity map can be made from the Green Leaf layer.

16.Duplicate the Green Leaf layer. With the new layer selected, select the Green Leaf Transparency selection, and fi l l the inside with white and the outside with black. This layer wil l serve as the opacity map for the leaf.

The fi le Ivy_Leaves.psd has all the necessary layers with al l the color corrections for every color variation of the leaf.

Exercise 7: Leaf Modeling

Now let’s create the model of the leaf. We wil l use a couple of the layers we just created to see how the leaf wil l l ie on the vines. After the leaves are scattered across the vines, we wil l use all the layers we created to make a ful ler and more interesting set of materials on the leaves.

1 -38 2D t o 3 D M o d e l i n g

1. In 3ds Max , open the fi le Ch01-08.max .

2.Create a Plane in the Perspective viewport with the fol lowing parameters: Length = 20.0 , Width = 20.0 , Length Segs = 4 , Width Segs = 4 . Rename it Leaf .

3.Deform the object with the FFD 3x3x3 modifier. Use the Control Points sub-object to move the points and alter the FFD modifier’s lattice, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

4.Go to the Material Editor and create a material with the Ivy_Leaf-Green.jpg in the Diffuse slot, and Ivy_Leaf-Opacity.jpg placed in the Opacity slot. Make the opacity map visible in viewports, name this material Green Leaf , and assign it to the object Leaf . I f the leaf texture appears to be mapped to the plane object in the wrong direction, f ix that by setting W:180 in the Angle group of the Coordinates rol lout for each texture you use in this material .

5.Position the pivot point of the Leaf object at a place where the leaf wil l be attached to the vines, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

6.Convert this object into an Editable Poly .

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Exercise 8: Scatter leaves over vines

Now, we wil l distribute multiple copies of the Leaf object over the vines with the Scatter compound object. This is why the placement of the object’s pivot point was so important; the Scatter com- pound object attaches source objects to the distribution object at their pivot points.

Before we can do this, we must prepare the vines by detaching them into separate groupings of large, medium, and small leaves.

1.Continue from the previous exercise, select and detach elements of the vines that wil l have smaller leaf sizes, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration, and name the detached object End Branch . Detach vines for medium leaves and name the object Middle Branch , and rename the remaining parts of the vines Base Branch .

1 -40 2D t o 3 D M o d e l i n g

2.Rotate the Leaf object so it is oriented correctly to the surface of the wall . The stem should be nearly perpendicular to the wall , while the main part of the leaf should be nearly parallel to the wall . Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

3.Apply the Reset XForm uti l ity (Utilities panel) to the leaf, and then convert the object to an Edit-able Poly .

4.Make a copy of the Leaf object, so that when we apply the Scatter command, we have a backup object for later use.

5.Apply the Scatter compound object to the copy of the Leaf object, and choose Base Branch as the Distribution Object .

6.Within the Distribution Object Parameter group, disable the Perpendicular option.

7. In the Display rol lout, enable the Hide Distribution Object option.

8. In the Source Object Parameters rol lout, set Duplicates = 1000 or 1500 , depending on how many leaves you want to be distributed over the vines. Set Base Scale = 60% .

9. In the Distribute Using group, keep the Distribution Object Parameter set to Even . You can also try the Area or Skip N options and decide which of these three options delivers better results for your scene.

10. In the Transforms rol lout, in the Rotation group, set X=10 , Y=10 , Z=40 . This applies some random rotation along the three axes.

11.Rename the resulting object Ivy Leaf Background.

1 -4 12D t o 3 D M o d e l i n g

At this point, you should have something similar to the fol lowing i l lustration.

1 -42 2D t o 3 D M o d e l i n g

Let’s create another group of leaves using the Middle Branch distribution object. In this case, the size of the leaves wil l be smaller than in the previous group of leaves.

12.Make another copy of the Leaf object.

13.Apply the Scatter compound object to the copy of the Leaf object, and choose Middle Branch as the Distribution Object.

14.Repeat al l settings that we did for the previous group of leaves, except set Duplicates = 300 and Base Scale = 45% .

15. In the Transforms rol lout you can set Scaling to 5-7% . Don’t forget to turn on Use Maximum Range and Lock Aspect Ratio .

16.Rename the resulting object Ivy Leaf Middle .

17.Using the same method, create a group of leaves on the End branch object. Use the same base settings as you used for the two previous Scatter objects, but set Duplicates to 500 and Base Scale to 35% . In the Transforms rol lout set the Rotation of the Z axis parameter to 360° , and set Scaling to 5% .

18.Rename this group of leaves Ivy Leaf Mini.

Your scene should look similar to the fol lowing i l lustration.

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Now let’s make some minor adjustments to the ivy and leaves to make it look better.

19. In the Left view , select and copy the Ivy Leaf Background object, and rename the copy to Ivy Leaf Bigger. Convert this object to an Editable Poly . Move it approximately 6-10 units along the X axis as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

20.To increase the size of the leaves, go to Element sub-object mode and select al l the leaves. Use the Uniform Scale tool’s Transform type-in dialog box to set Offset:Screen = 170% .

21.Go to Polygon sub-object mode and then open Graphite Modeling Tools. In the Selection tab click the By Random button, set %=5% , and click the Select button. This wil l randomly select some polygons.

22.While holding Ctrl , cl ick the Element sub-object button. This wil l select al l the elements that the selected polygons belong to.

23.Delete the selected elements.

24.Select al l of the elements and rotate them on the X-axis so all the leaves are more inclined toward the ground.

1 -44 2D t o 3 D M o d e l i n g

Now, let’s assign some materials. We’l l use diffuse maps with the fol lowing basic colors: green, l ime-green, yellow, brown, red, and green with blue tint.

25. In the Material Editor , create a Multi/Sub-Object Material with 6 sub-materials. Rename the mate-rial Ivy Leaf.

26.Put the Green Leaf material that we already used in the scene into the first slot.

27.Copy this material to the second sub-material slot. Rename it Lime Green Leaf and assign Ivy_Leaf-Lime Green.jpg to Diffuse channel.

28.Do the same with the third slot, copying the material but choosing Ivy_Leaf-Yellow.jpg for Diffuse channel.

29. In the fourth, f ifth, and sixth slots, copy the material and for the Diffuse channel use Ivy_Leaf-Brown.jpg , Ivy_Leaf-Red.jpg , and Ivy_Leaf-Blue.jpg , respectively. All these textures for the different color variations of the leaf were saved from the Ivy_Leaves.psd fi le.

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30.Select the Ivy Leaf Background object, convert it to an Editable Poly , and apply the Ivy Leaf Multi/Sub-object material to it .

31.Assign Material ID 6 to all of the leaves.

32.Use the Graphite Modeling Tool to select 3% of the leaves, and set their Material IDs to 1 .

33.Assign the Ivy Leaf material and repeat the two last steps on the Ivy Leaf Bigger object.

34.Assign the same Multi/Sub-Object material to the Ivy Leaf Middle object. Assign Material ID 1 to 50% of the leaves, and Material ID 2 to the rest of leaves, using Select ➤ Invert .

35.Assign the same material to the Ivy Leaf Mini object. Assign Material ID 2 and 3 to most of the leaves and assign 4 and 5 to the other leaves.

This method of assigning Material IDs to different elements allows us manual control of Material ID distribution. As an alternative, you can use the MaterialsByElement modifier to do this job automati-cally.

You should have something similar to the fol lowing i l lustration.

36.Save the scene. You can find a finished version of the ivy in the fi le Ch01-09.max .

1 -46 2D t o 3 D M o d e l i n g

SummaryThis chapter focused on the creation of several objects within the project. Although it is impossible to cover the creation of each and every object type within a reasonable number of pages, the objects discussed covered a wide range of features that could be used to duplicate many other objects that the remaining chapters wil l not cover. The focus at this point in the book is not l ighting, so if the final appearance of your renderings are not the same as the reference images, do not worry. If you had trouble fol lowing any of the exercises because you were not famil iar with a particular feature, we recommend reviewing the appropriate help fi les within 3ds Max.

1

Terrain Creation

In thIs chapter, we wIll create the terrain surrounding the house, which we wil l categorize as foreground terrain. There are many ways that this terrain could be modeled, and although there is no right or wrong way, this exercise i l lustrates a powerful and efficient method that we have come to enjoy. You wil l see how the use of other software packages such as Autodesk Mudbox and Adobe Photoshop can improve the realism of your terrain as well as the speed and efficiency in its creation. Although you can use the intermediary support fi les to continue at several points along the way with already prepared scenes, we encourage you to spend the time needed to produce the same results on your own.

Figure 2-1. Foreground elements created in this chapter

This process consists of three sequential parts:

• Terrain modeling

• Sculpting detail with Mudbox

• Texturing with ti leable and procedural maps

ChapTer 2

2-2 Te r r a i n C r e a t i o n

Exercise 1: Terrain modeling

1.Open the scene Ch02-01.max. In this scene, you can see a bitmap image that we wil l use as a reference to create the 3D model. This was one of the first hand drawn images created dur-ing the design of this scene.

2.Using End snaps , create a Plane on top of the existing plane so that it’s the exact same size (Length=1000 and Width=1350) .

3.Set the Length Segs = 5 and Width Segs = 7 .

4.Position this plane slightly above the reference image as shown in the fol lowing i l lustrations.

5.Rename the object Ground and convert it to an Editable Poly .

6.Press Alt+X to make the object See-through . Use this tool anytime you need to compare geom-etry against the reference image.

7.Use the Drag tool from the Graphite Modeling Tools tab (Graphite Modeling Tools ➤ Freeform ➤ Drag) to move the object’s vertices and mimic the shape of the terrain according to the refer-ence image. The advantage of using Graphite Modeling Tools is that you don’t have to enter sub-object mode and select a vertex to move it and you only need to right-click to exit. In the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see the approximate shape of the terrain after al l the vertices have been moved.

8.When the vertex placement is finished, use the Cut tool (Editable Poly ➤ Edit Geometry ➤ Cut) to add details to the wireframe, and also use the Connect tool to connect two vertices with an edge to create a more correct topology for the wireframe. Use Remove to simultaneously remove edges from the wireframe structure, or hold down Ctrl when using Remove to remove vertices attached to those edges. Move the vertices around the perimeter of the object so that they extend slightly beyond the current perimeter (and the reference object below it) . It is recommended that you add detail to the wireframe in such a way that it stays evenly dense, so that after the surface is subdivided in the next step, there won’t be any noticeable difference between the wireframe densities at different parts of the object. The exact place-ment of the vertices does not need to perfectly match the reference object. If you scan some of the pages that l ie ahead, you wil l get an idea of what the placement of any particular vertex at this point means to the model later on. The fol lowing i l lustration shows the Ground object after details are added using the tools described in this step.

2-3Te r r a i n C r e a t i o n

9.Apply a TurboSmooth modifier to the terrain and set Iterations = 2 . Each iteration breaks each polygon into four smaller polygons, so after 2 iterations you should have 16 times as many polygons as before. Edit the terrain geometry so it matches the reference image even more. If you see strange effects in some places, this is usually a result of errors in geometry caused by vertices or edges that are too close together. To get rid of such errors, you can select the vertices that are causing the problem and use the Edit Poly ➤ Collapse tool to make them into one vertex. In the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see how the terrain geometry should look at this stage.

10.Save your scene. If you would l ike to see the scene completed up to this point, open the fi le Ch02-02.max .

In the next part of the exercise, we wil l add additional terrain details to the object. As you can see in Figure 2-1, the banks of the creek have a hard edge to the left of the bridge and a soft edge to the right side of the bridge and around the water wheel. This can be modeled very easily. If you l ike, you can examine the fi le Ch02-03.max to see what we wil l be doing in the next section of this exercise.

2-4 Te r r a i n C r e a t i o n

11.Continue with your saved scene or open the fi le Ch02-02.max to continue with an already pre-pared scene.

12.Delete the TurboSmooth modifier. We applied it to see if we would have any erratic geometry and so that we could make any necessary adjustments before continuing.

13.Select a single edge at the very center of the creek that runs parallel with the banks of the creek. Do not select an edge that runs perpendicular to the banks.

14.Use the Loop tool to select al l the edges in the middle of the creek that run the length of the creek. If edges not belonging to the creek are also selected, deselect them manually by clicking them while holding Alt on the keyboard.

15.Convert the edge selection into a selection of polygons by right-clicking and choosing Convert to Face from the quad menu, or just hold Ctrl on the keyboard while simultaneously clicking on Polygon sub-object mode from the Selection rol lout (cl icking Polygon within the modifier stack wil l not work).

16.Disable See-Through mode (Alt+X).

17. In the Perspective view, extrude the selected polygons using the setting -200 . Click OK .

18. From the Edit Geometry rol lout, apply the Relax tool to the selected polygons. This wil l make the bottom of the creek less flat.

19.Repeat the operations in the previous steps to create terrain on the left and right sides of the Ground object as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration. To make the selection of polygons easier, you can use the Lasso Selection Region or Paint Selection Region selection modes.

2-5Te r r a i n C r e a t i o n

Next, we need to increase the density of some of the edges to give them a less sharp appearance.

20.Select any one of the vertical edges on the side of the creek and use the Ring tool to select al l similar edges, as shown in the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration.

21.Deselect any edges that aren’t shown in the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration so that the smoothing effect that we are trying to achieve is only applied to part of the creek.

22.Use the Connect tool to connect the selected edges with Segments = 2 and Pinch = 90 . This wil l create additional edges needed near the top and bottom of the creek walls, as shown in the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration.

23.Within the Subdivision Surface rol lout, toggle the Use NURMS Subdivision checkbox to see the changes in the density of the creek wall wireframe. Toggle off this feature when finished.

24.Using the same methods that we just used to increase the density of the creek walls, add additional edges along the sides of the two other extruded terrain elements. Experiment with different Pinch settings to get a result similar to the left image in the fol lowing i l lustration.

25.Using any selection technique, select the polygons on the back side of both extruded terrain elements and delete them. We want to delete these polygons because this scene is built to be used with a specif ic camera angle that does not change, so we are not going to see that geometry in the rendering. In the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see selected polygons that need to be deleted.

26. In the Top view, select the edges along the bottom edge of the Ground object, as shown in the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration. While pressing Shift on the keyboard, move the selected edges down to increase the area of the Ground object in the scene’s foreground. The right image shows the shape of the terrain at this stage.

2-6 Te r r a i n C r e a t i o n

The rough shape of the terrain is now finished, and the only thing left to do is to adjust the heights of the extruded terrain elements to better match the reference image in Figure 2-1.

27.Save your scene. Open the fi le Ch02-03.max i f you want to compare your results.

In order to align the terrain model with the reference image, we need to add a camera and also place the reference image as a viewport background.

28.Continue with your saved scene or open the fi le Ch02-03.max to continue with an already pre-pared scene.

29.With the Perspective view active, press Alt+B on the keyboard to bring up the Viewport Back-ground dialog box.

30. In the Background Source group, cl ick Files , select the image named Fantasy.jpg from the support fi les provided and click Open .

31. In the Aspect Ratio group, select the Match Bitmap option, enable the Display Background option, and click OK .

32.Within the Render Setup dialog box, change the Output Size to match the image used as the background in the viewport.

33.With the Perspective viewport active, press Shift+F to turn on Safe Frames . This causes the aspect ratio of the viewport to match the reference image.

34. In Perspective view, switch to Wireframe mode and use the Viewport Navigation tools to change the view so that the terrain object is similarly positioned and aligned to the background image, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration. You wil l adjust the geometry to match the image more exactly in a later step.

35.Press Ctrl+C to create a camera from the perspective view. It is recommended that the FOV of the camera be changed to 24 degrees to achieve a decent perspective. This wil l require addi-tional manipulation of the camera’s position.

36.With the Ground object selected, toggle Use NURMS Subdivision , set Iterations = 2 , and enable Isoline Display to see the smoothed geometry and to check the edges for issues. Disable this option when you are finished analyzing it .

2-7Te r r a i n C r e a t i o n

As you can see, the terrain geometry looks similar to the reference image overall , but there are some differences in the heights of the terrain elements. To make the geometry match the reference image more closely, use the Shift tool on the Graphite Modeling Tools ➤ Freeform ➤ Paint Deform tab. This tool wil l al low us to quickly eliminate signif icant differences by affecting large areas of the geometry.

37.Select the Shift tool, and on the Shift Options window set Falloff = 150 .

38.Using the cursor as a big brush, sculpt the geometry in the camera view for a better match with the reference image. If necessary, change the brush radius by holding down both Ctrl on the keyboard and the left mouse button while moving the cursor up and down. You can also make additional corrections by switching to a Perspective view, rotating the view, and adding modifications as needed. The result should be similar to the fol lowing i l lustration.

39.Save your scene.

2-8 Te r r a i n C r e a t i o n

Next, we wil l map the terrain using the Unwrap UVW modifier so that we can apply textures properly.

40.Continue with your saved scene or open the fi le Ch02-04.max to continue with an already pre-pared scene.

41.Add a UVW Unwrap modifier to the Ground object.

42.Go the Modify panel and within the Parameters rol lout cl ick the Edit button.

43.Within the Selection Modes section of the Edit UVWs dialog box, click the Face sub-object icon. Press Ctrl+A to select al l the polygons.

44.Within the Map Parameters rol lout of the Modify panel, cl ick the Pelt button.

45. In the Pelt Map dialog box, cl ick the Start Pelt button. Let the pelt expansion continue unti l it stops moving and then click the Stop Pelt button. This should only take a second or two. Click Commit .

46. In the Edit UVWs window, go to the Tools menu and select the Relax tool.

47. In the Relax Tool dialog box, select Relax By Face Angles from the dropdown list.

48. In the Relax Tool dialog box, cl ick the Start Relax button. After a few seconds, when the relaxing process stops changing the model signif icantly, cl ick Stop Relax , Apply , and close the Relax Tool dialog box.

49.Activate the Perspective view and choose Views ➤ xView ➤ Overlapped UVW Faces . By doing so, you can see polygons that have overlapping texture coordinates that wil l require correction. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration .

50.Go to the Vertex sub-object mode of the Unwrap UVW modifier and select the vertices related to highlighted polygons. In the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see an example of polygons and vertices highlighted with the xView tool.

2-9Te r r a i n C r e a t i o n

51. From the Edit UVWs window, open the Relax dialog box again.

52.Set type to Relax By Centers, Iterations = 5 , and click Apply . I f overlapping UVW coordinates are sti l l present in some polygons, repeat this procedure unti l there is no more overlapping.

53.Select al l the polygons of the Ground object in the Edit UVWs window, and choose Tools menu ➤ Pack UVs .

54. In the Pack menu, select Linear Packing , leave the other parameters unchanged, and click OK . This wil l f it al l of the UV coordinates into the texturing area.

55.Disable xView mode by clicking on Overlapped UVW Faces at the bottom of the viewport, and unchecking it . In the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see how the unwrapped UVs look after these steps are complete.

2- 10 Te r r a i n C r e a t i o n

56.To test the UVW mapping, create a material with a Checker map in the Diffuse channel and set Tiling = 80 for both U and V axes in the Coordinates rol lout.

57.Assign this material to the object, and turn on the Show Standard Map in Viewport option. The fol lowing i l lustration shows the checker map applied to the object.

58. I f the texture is stretched in some places, convert the object to an Editable Poly and use the Tweak tool from the Graphite Modeling Tools ➤ Edit panel to correct any UVW map stretching in places visible to the camera. You may also need to unify the normals. This step is not always necessary and is just added here in case of small stretching in some places. Sometimes, an even easier way to clean up the mapping is to perform the Pelt and Relax commands again, as just discussed. At this point, you should have gone from something simliar to the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration, to something similar to the right image.

The unwrapped UVW map now fits within the texture space, which allows us to effectively use raster maps later in the texturing stage. Now we need to smooth out the terrain geometry. Convert the entire object to an Editable Poly . Please note that if we apply the Edit Mesh modifier to this object, we won’t get the abil ity to use the Subdivision Surface option as we did earl ier with the Editable Poly object. If you prefer to use the Edit Poly modifier, you can always apply a TurboSmooth modifier instead, but here we are going to use the Subdivision Surface option.

59.Select the terrain object, right-click and choose Convert to Editable Poly from the quad menu.

60. In the Subdivision Surface rol lout on the Modify panel, enable the Use NURMS Subdivision option and set Iterations = 2 .

61.Save your scene. You can find a finished version of this scene in the fi le Ch02-05.max .

2- 1 1Te r r a i n C r e a t i o n

The modeling work in 3ds Max is now finished. In order to add more details and make this object look more realistic, we wil l use Autodesk Mudbox . Mudbox is a modeling and detail ing package specif ical ly used for adding fine detail to existing models. Before we start working with Mudbox, we need to export the geometry from 3ds Max. If you do not have Mudbox, you can instal l a free 30-day trial from the Autodesk website.

62.Continue with your saved scene or open the fi le Ch02-05.max .

63.Select the terrain object, and export the object using the FBX fi le format.

64.Choose the name Ground for the export fi le and click the Save button.

65. In the Advanced options ➤ UI rol lout of the FBX Export dialog box, deselect the Show Warning Man-ager option and click OK. You can also choose to use Ground.fbx from the book’s support fi les instead of performing the previous few steps.

Exercise 2: Sculpting detail with Mudbox

In this exercise, we wil l describe the process of adding additional details to the terrain model with Mudbox, which was chosen for several reasons:

• It is easy to learn

• It has a wide variety of tools for our task

• It is very fast at working with high poly models

• It has ful l compatibi l ity with 3ds Max

In creating the final model, we used many Mudbox tools, too many to show here. However, consider this exercise as a suggestion of which tools to use, rather than a comprehensive manual. If you want to learn more about Mudbox, we recommend that you watch the educational videos that come with it . Productivity can be further improved by using a digital tablet, but a mouse can be used as well .

1.Start Mudbox 2011 .

2.Open the fi le Ground.fbx that you created or use the fi le provided. Go to the Object List tab and select Perspective , as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration. In the Transform group, cl ick Reset . I f the furthest edge of the terrain is clipped by the camera, then on the Properties: Perspective tab, increase the Far Plane value to 20000 or more and use the viewport navigation tools, as described in step 9.

2- 12 Te r r a i n C r e a t i o n

3.Open the Material Presets tab (as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration) and click one of the beige slots. This assigns a shader to the model that is visually easier to work with. If you want, you can choose any other shader.

4.On the Object List tab, choose the new material , right-click it and rename it Ground . For the Specular slot, set the slider to a pure black color. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

5.On the Lighting Presets tab, cl ick the first preset, named Afternoon .

6.On the Alert window that tel ls you that the current l ights in the scene wil l be replaced, cl ick Yes . Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

7.Press Shift+D twice to increase the density of the wireframe.

8.On the Layers tab create a new Sculpt Layer , double-click it and rename it Base . Refer to the fol-lowing i l lustration.

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Before you start the actual sculpting process, take a few moments to become famil iar with the tools on the Sculpt Tools tab. If you place the cursor over each tool icon, you can read a tooltip for each one. In this exercise, we wil l use only a subset of the tools; however, you can use other tools to add your own revisions to the final result .

9.Press W to activate Wireframe mode. This wil l help you get a better feel for the surface topology. To orbit, pan, and zoom, use Alt+left-click (orbit) , Alt+right-click (zoom) and Alt+mmb (pan). Ori-ent the object in the viewport so that you see the entire terrain, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

10. From the Sculpt Tools at the bottom of the interface, select the Grab tool, change the size to around 100-200 , and start editing the geometry to add natural random distortions and make it look less smooth and uniform. At this stage we only care about the overall shape of this object; later we wil l add fine details to it . The Grab tool is similar to the Shift tool in 3ds Max, but the Grab tool in Mudbox works much faster and is easier to use. The fol lowing i l lustration shows the Mudbox toolbar, where you wil l f ind the Grab tool and other tools referenced in the steps that fol low.

2- 14 Te r r a i n C r e a t i o n

11.Select the Bulge tool to grow parts of geometry. Use it to add large details, or remove them with the same tool by holding down Ctrl on the keyboard. In the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see how the terrain geometry looks after it has been modified with the Bulge tool.

12. I f you see errors in the form of intersecting geometry, f ix them with the Smooth and Flatten tools.

13.Use the Grab and Bulge tools to form the base of the stone steps leading to the pumpkin patch. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration .

Hopefully, you can see that many of the tools in Mudbox are incredibly easy to understand and many of the names and icons make their purpose obvious. Compare your geometry with the reference image and try to make it match as closely as possible. Pay extra attention to the areas that connect to the house, the stairs, the trees and other objects in the scene. You can also shape the ground in the area where there is a garden on the reference image. Be sure to save your work from time to time. In the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see the final terrain geometry created using all the tools and techniques described in this exercise.

14.Save your fi le. You can compare your results to Ground_01.mud .

2- 15Te r r a i n C r e a t i o n

2- 16 Te r r a i n C r e a t i o n

Now that the terrain model is completely finished, we need to assign textures. Since the texture coordinates have already been unwrapped using the Unwrap UVW modifier, you might think that the simplest way to draw textures would be to open the map image in Photoshop and paint al l the elements of the texture using the unwrapped map as a reference. However, this method won’t work for our purposes. If we want the texture to look detailed when the object is close to the camera, it would need to have a resolution of at least 8000x8000 pixels or perhaps even more. A texture of such a large resolution would take up a great deal of memory, causing slow screen refresh times and long renders. Instead, we wil l use an alternative method that takes up far fewer system resources: we wil l draw masks for each texture separately, and in 3ds Max we wil l create a Composite material with them. Such a texture wil l render faster and wil l refresh in viewports faster than a large texture map.

15.Continue with your saved fi le or open Ground_01.mud .

16. In the Layers tab, switch from Sculpt mode to Paint mode.

17.On the Paint Tools tab, select the Paint Brush . This is a simple brush that you can use to draw on an object’s surface.

Let’s consider the separate masks we wil l need. Virtually dividing the terrain into separate parts, we find that we wil l need 6 different masks, one for each of these areas: grass, dirt, trai l , soil , rocks (rocky surface on the sides of the cliffs), and large stones. We wil l start with the grass mask.

18. In the Properties: Paint Brush tab, set the Color to white , i f it isn’t already.

19.Set the Size to 100 and change it during the painting process as needed. You can also leave Strength at 100 because if you use a lower value, the paint wil l become transparent. Because the terrain object is not symmetrical, leave the Mirror parameter set to Off . Refer to the fol-lowing i l lustration .

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20.Click the New Layer button to create a new paint layer.

21. In the Create New Paint Layer dialog box, set Size = 2048 , set Save As to PNG[8bit, RGBA] , and leave Channel = Diffuse . For the Name , type in Grass and click OK . Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration. If you receive a message about multiple ti les, just select OK .

22.Referring to the reference image, use the brush to paint a mask over the places where grass wil l be on the terrain object. Try to make the edges of the mask look natural ly chaotic and uneven. Refer to the i l lustration for an example of an appropriate grass mask.

23.Create a new Paint Layer and call it Ground . Using the same technique, paint a mask for the ground over the places where worn ground is supposed to be on the terrain object.

24.Repeat this technique for al l the other masks unti l you have 6 masks with appropriate names. Use different colors for different masks to better visually separate them from each other. In the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see how masks are painted on the surface of the terrain. Your mask colors might be different from the colors shown.

Now that al l masks are painted on the terrain surface, we need to transfer them to an image so we can edit them in Adobe Photoshop and later use them for texturing the terrain in 3ds Max.

2- 18 Te r r a i n C r e a t i o n

25.Right-click any Paint Layer and choose Export Selected from the menu that appears.

26.Select PNG format for Save as type , and for the fi lename enter Ground_Mask , Grass_Mask , or what-ever mask name is appropriate to the paint layer you selected. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration .

27.Export al l the other masks using the same method, giving each a name that consists of the layer name with the suffix _Mask .

28.Save the scene. If you wish to see an already prepared scene, open the fi le Ground_02.mud .

29.You can now close Mudbox.

Exercise 3: Texturing with tileable and procedural maps

Now that we have painted all the masks, we need to add details to them in Adobe Photoshop, and then we can start creating materials for the terrain. You can fol low the instructions here to create the base fi le for editing, or open the fi le Terrain_01.psd .

1.Open Adobe Photoshop .

2.Create a new fi le with File ➤ New, or just press Ctrl+N on the keyboard.

3. In the New window, set Width and Height to 2048 , and enter Name = Terrain . Leave the other para-meters unchanged. Click OK .

4.Open all the mask fi les that you exported from Mudbox. All masks support alpha channels because we saved them in PNG format.

2- 19Te r r a i n C r e a t i o n

5.After you have opened all the mask fi les in Photoshop, drag them into the Terrain document that you created. To do this, right-click the layer in a mask image and choose Duplicate Layer from the menu. In the Duplicate Layer dialog enter an appropriate layer for the As parameter. For Document choose Terrain , and click OK . Another way to do this is to drag each mask layer from one document to another while holding down Shift on the keyboard, and then renaming each copied layer by double-clicking its name. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

6.When all the mask layers have been transferred into the Terrain fi le, close the mask images, then create a new layer in the Terrain fi le and call it Background . Drag the layer to the bottom of the layers l ist.

7. Fil l the new layer with any bright color such as red. This wil l help you spot any places that are not covered by a mask. To fi l l the layer, use the Paint Bucket Tool or press G on the keyboard, select the color that you want, and click the canvas.

8.Take a detailed look at the image to check if there are any areas that are not covered by a mask. In the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see the layers structure of the Terrain fi le.

2-20 Te r r a i n C r e a t i o n

9.Using different brushes, make the edges of the masks distorted and uneven to add more real-ism. Be sure to select the layer you intend to work with, and paint with the appropriate color so you can keep track of how the layers are painted. Don’t forget to fi l l in places where the Background layer is visible. In the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see an example of how the Ter-rain f i le should look.

10.Save the fi le as a PSD fi le. You can compare your work to Terrain_01.psd .

Now you wil l make the masks for the Composite material and detach each layer into its own image fi le.

11. Fil l the Background layer with black and hide all of the other layers. Unhide one layer at a time, uncheck the Contiguous check box under the paint bucket settings, and fi l l the current color with white. Use a Gaussian Blur fi lter to blur the edges slightly if they are too sharp.

Right-click the layer name and choose Duplicate Layer , and duplicate the layer into a new docu-ment with the corresponding name and the suffix -mask . Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

2-2 1Te r r a i n C r e a t i o n

12.Using this technique, detach each layer into a separate mask image fi le and save them as JPG fi les. Save the entire fi le also as a PSD fi le as a safeguard. You can use this overall mask fi le if you run into diff icult ies with your individual masks. Refer to Terrain_02.psd to see a completed fi le.

The masks are finished, so now we need to find good textures to use with them.

13.Start 3ds Max .

14.Open the fi le with the terrain object that you saved earl ier, or use the already prepared fi le named Ch02-05.max .

15.Open the Material Editor , select any empty slot, and click the Material type button (named Stan-dard by default) .

16. In the Material/Map Browser window, choose VrayMtl and click OK .

17.Rename this material Terrain_Mtl , and assign it to the Terrain object.

18. In the Basic Parameters rol lout, assign a Composite map to the Diffuse channel, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

2-22 Te r r a i n C r e a t i o n

The Composite map wil l al low you to use multiple textures simultaneously and control their blending with masks. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

19.Choose any textures that wil l work for the terrain and make them ti leable in Photoshop using the Offset fi lter (Filter menu ➤ Other ➤ Offset) , or you can use the textures available from the book’s support fi les.

20. I f you are using your own textures, name them according to their corresponding masks for easier use.

21.On the Composite map, cl ick the Texture button for the first layer (large square button on the left side), assign a Bitmap map type, and choose the image Ground.jpg .

22.Return to the base level of the Composite map and click the Mask button (large square button on the right side), choose Bitmap, and load the mask you created, or if you are using the scene provided, load Ground-mask.jpg . This completes the ground layer.

23.Click on the Add a New Layer icon (top-right of the Composite map), and repeat the process to create all the textures for the terrain material . The remaining texture maps you wil l load, if you are following along with the provided fi les, are Grass.jpg , Soil.jpg , Rock.jpg , Stone.jpg , and Dirt.jpg . The mask maps begin with the same names and end with -mask . As a result, you should have 6 layers. The fol lowing i l lustration shows the structure of the finished Composite map.

24. For each texture you wil l need to adjust the ti l ing. Set U and V Tiling for each bitmap to the fol-lowing: Dirt = 5x5 , Stones = 3x4 , Rock = 2x2 , Soil = 7x7 , Grass = 2x2 , Ground = 3x3 . The effect of these ti l ing settings may not be visible in the viewport.

2-23Te r r a i n C r e a t i o n

25.Add a Standard Direct l ight to the scene using the settings shown in the fol lowing i l lustration. Elevate the l ight to approximately 60 degrees above the horizon.

26.Render the scene and, if needed, adjust each texture’s brightness and contrast by clicking the Color Correct This Texture button located next to the Texture slot. The color correction param-eters are very similar to the image adjustment parameters in Photoshop. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration to see an example of the terrain after al l adjustments.

2-24 Te r r a i n C r e a t i o n

27.Now let’s add tracks left by characters walking over paths through the terrain. To do this, cre-ate a new layer in the original Photoshop fi le, and using brushes paint l ines to represent tracks. If you use soft brushes, apply a Sharpen fi lter to make the mask sharper. Make inter-rupted l ines and add lots of details to make the tracks look natural . In the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see how an init ial mask image can be created for positioning purposes, but then refined with numerous brushes and tools to create the effect of wear marks in the road. These could be wear marks from foot travel or from some type of wagon that has been pulled over the road. Use your imagination in this type of situation.

28. In order to make the tops of the piles of soil in the garden area brighter, paint masks for the areas that you want to make brighter and add another layer of soil into the material structure. Position that layer at the top of the l ist, change the Blending Mode to Screen , and change the Opacity to 50% . You can also use Soil-mask2.jpg in the book’s support fi les.

29.Check your viewports and test renderings for places with masking problems. Fix any problems using the techniques described thus far.

30.To add more depth, add a VRayDisplacementMod and load a black-and-white displacement map in the Texmap channel. You can create your own image or use the Displ.jpg fi le provided (shown in the fol lowing i l lustration).

2-25Te r r a i n C r e a t i o n

31. For the Bump channel of the material applied, you can use the Ground.jpg texture converted into a black-and-white image, using the same ti l ing setting you used for this texture in the Com-posite map . In the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see the final appearance of the terrain. Open Terrain_02.psd in Photoshop to see the layer structure of the masks.

32.Now the terrain is finished. Save the scene. You can find a finished version of this scene in the fi le Ch02-06.max .

2-26 Te r r a i n C r e a t i o n

SummaryTerrain is undoubtedly one of the most diff icult elements of a scene to create properly. Unlike other elements such as furniture, vegetation, cars, and even characters, there is very l itt le that you can do with l ibrary content or pre-developed models provided by third party content or software providers. Good terrain creation practices can go a long way to make your scenes more efficient to work in and render. This chapter only scratched the surface of the many ways that terrain can be created, but the techniques outl ined are tried and tested and can stand up to any other method available. With exper-imentation, you can expand these techniques to incorporate techniques you already use.

1

Tree Creation

In thIs chapter, we’ll reproduce the tree model shown in Figure 3-1. After al l the objects are built , we wil l prepare them for painting by assigning texture coordinates to the finished object, and then paint the tree model.

Figure 3-1. Tree created in this chapter

Because the trunk of the tree doesn’t fol low any standard type of mapping offered by the UVW Map modifier, we wil l need to unwrap custom texture coordinates with the Pelt tool. This tool al lows you to unwrap the UVW coordinates right on the surface, cutting them with seams you specify manually.

ChapTer 3

3-2 Tr e e C r e a t i o n

After the texture coordinates are created, you wil l paint out any visible seams on the tree using the Viewport Canvas tool, which allows you to paint specif ic areas right in the 3ds Max viewports.

Based on this workflow, we can separate the tree creation process into the fol lowing stages:

• Modeling the tree trunk with polygonal modeling methods

• Modeling the underlying base for the tree crown with the BlobMesh compound object

• Creating the leaves with the Hair and Fur modifier

• Creating custom texture coordinates for the tree trunk with the Pelt tool

• Painting the model directly in 3ds Max using Viewport Canvas

Exercise 1: Modeling the tree trunk

In this exercise, we wil l build the tree trunk using polygonal modeling. To begin the process, we wil l use a Box primitive, convert it to an Editable Poly , and use the Editable Poly tools. By increasing and editing the geometry step by step, you wil l give your model the desired form.

In the reference image shown at the beginning of this chapter, you can see that the tree’s roots twine around the house and the small outhouse. That’s why it makes sense to create the tree after the buildings are created and placed. You wil l start with a scene that already contains models of the house and the outhouse, and begin immediately with the modeling of the tree itself. You can also see that the tree’s crown is quite dense, so the branches lying inside the crown wil l not be visible. That means you can save time on modeling because you only need to model the branches that show below the crown. Building the rest would be unnecessary work. Let’s get started.

1 .Open the fi le Ch03-01.max . This scene contains models of the house and a small outhouse placed as they are in the reference image.

First, we wil l place the reference image in the scene to guide us while modeling the tree.

2 .Select al l objects in the scene and press the shortcut Alt+X to make the selected objects transparent.

3. In the Front viewport, create a Plane object without concern for its dimensions or placement. Set Length Segs and Width Segs parameters to 1 . Name the plane Background_Plane .

4.Using the Material Editor , create a Standard material with Tree_Reference.jpg in the Diffuse Color channel, and assign this material to the plane you just created (Background_Plane) . Click Show Standard Map in Viewport to make the map appear in the viewport.

5.Now, to use the plane for reference while you are modeling, you must set the size and place-ment of the Background_Plane object so it is oriented to the objects placed in the scene and corresponds to the elements in the reference image. Thus, the dimensions and the place-ment of the Background_Plane object should be approximately the same as those shown in the right image in the fol lowing i l lustration, and from the Front view the scene should look the same as the placement shown on the left-hand side of the fol lowing i l lustration. If you resize the Background_Plane object, you should maintain its correct length/width ratio so that the reference image does not appear overstretched or squashed.

3-3Tr e e C r e a t i o n

6. In the Front view , create a Box with about the same dimensions to fi l l the space between the house and outhouse. This object wil l be the base for the tree trunk. Place the box as shown in the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration. The size and coordinates of the Box01 object are shown on the right. Note that the box is a cube.

7.Now convert Box01 to an Editable Poly and rename it Tree_Trunk .

8.Make the Tree_Trunk object transparent using the shortcut Alt+X so the reference image wil l be visible while you are working . You can use the same shortcut to make the object opaque at any time, switching between see-through and opaque mode as needed to facil itate your modeling process.

9.Access the Edge sub-object level for Tree_Trunk . In the Perspective view , select the upper edge parallel to the Y axis as shown in the right image in the fol lowing i l lustration. Then, in the Selec-tion rol lout, press the Ring button to select al l parallel edges, and then the Connect Settings button to the right of the Connect button in the Edit Edges rol lout.

3-4 Tr e e C r e a t i o n

10. In the Connect Edges dialog box, shown on the left of the next i l lustration, enter 2 for Segments and press OK to complete the command.

1 1 .Select any edge parallel to the X axis and repeat the same steps to create new edges. The object wil l take the form shown on the right of the next i l lustration.

12 . In the Front view , select al l the upper vertices and drop them down, as shown in the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration, to the level of the lower border of the tree hollow in the reference image. You may need to move the entire box down to match the i l lustration.

13. In the Perspective view, select al l corner edges parallel to the Z axis and the bottom-inner 6 edges parallel to the Y axis , as shown in the middle image of the fol lowing i l lustration. Hold Ctrl and click the Remove button in the Edit Edges rol lout to delete these edges together with their vertices. The object should look l ike the right image of the next i l lustration.

3-5Tr e e C r e a t i o n

Now, we’l l begin modeling the roots. For this purpose, we wil l create splines to guide the extrusions.

14.Switch to the Front view , and in the Create panel, cl ick Shapes ➤ Line , and draw a spline to show the root’s path as shown in the left image of the next i l lustration. Make sure your vertices are all set to Corner .

15. In order for the extrusions to work correctly, we need to snap the end vertex of each spline to the center of the polygon we wil l be extruding. For this purpose, we wil l create an extra edge which we wil l then delete. Go to Vertex sub-object mode of Tree_Trunk object. Select two diagonally opposite vertices on the polygon that you wil l be extruding, and click Connect . This should generate an edge which bisects the polygon diagonally, as shown in the right image of the next i l lustration. .

16.Go to the Perspective view and right-click the Snaps Toggle icon to open the Grid and Snap Settings dialog box . On the Snaps tab, turn on the Vertex and Midpoint options. On the Options tab uncheck the Use Axis Constraints option. Close the dialog box and activate the Snaps Toggle icon by clicking it . In the left image of the i l lustration below is a view of the Snaps tab, and on the right a view of the Options tab of the Grid and Snap Settings dialog box.

17.Bring the cursor close to the upper end of spline. As soon as you do that, crosshairs wil l appear representing activation of the Vertex Snap mode. Click and drag your spline to the edge indicated on the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration. At the same time, the edge to

3-6 Tr e e C r e a t i o n

which the cursor is bound wil l also become colored, and the Midpoint Snap mode activation symbol wil l appear.

18.You can now remove the edge we created for snapping purposes. Go to Edge sub-object mode of the Tree_Trunk object, select the edge that we used to snap the spline to and click the Remove button to remove it .

19.Turn off Snap and activate the Top view. Move the spline’s vertices so that the spline twines around the small outhouse. The result can be seen in the right image of the next i l lustration.

20.Using the same method, build two more splines from which you wil l extrude the middle root of the tree and the root lying on the roof. The splines should look similar to those shown in the fol lowing image.

The scene Ch03-02.max shows all the tree splines from which roots wil l be extruded already created. If you l ike, you can open this scene and continue with the rest of the modeling process.

3-7Tr e e C r e a t i o n

2 1.After the splines are built , select the Tree_Trunk object, go into the Polygon sub-object mode and select the polygon that the first spline adjoins. In the Edit Polygon rol lout, press the Set-tings icon to the right of the Extrude Along Spline button. The Extrude Polygons Along Spline dialog box wil l open. In the dialog box, cl ick the Pick Spline button and select the spline that adjoins the selected polygon. Set Segments = 9 , Taper Amount = -0.92 , Taper Curve = -1.2 , and Twist = 105 , and click OK to close the dialog box. The left image of the next i l lustration shows a view of the Extrude Polygons Along Spline dialog box, and on the right you can see the result of the operation completed.

22.Using the same methods, extrude the remaining two polygons that the splines adjoin. Increase the number of Segments so the root is smoothly curved. In the Perspective view, the scene should look similar to the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration.

23.Select the Background_Plane object and look at it from behind. This object does not have vol-ume, and the back part of the polygon is black, as shown in the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration. It might be frustrating for you to try to work with the rest of the scene’s objects when they are not visible from behind. You wil l improve this situation by using Backface Cull .

24.With the Background_Plane object selected, right-click in the viewport to open the quad menu, and choose Object Properties in the Transform quadrant to open the Object Properties dialog box. Turn on the Backface Cull option in the Display Properties group and click OK to apply these changes. Now the back side of the plane is transparent. The Object Properties dialog box with Backface Cull checked is shown on the left of the next i l lustration, and the result of this change in the Perspective view is shown on the right. Note : On some systems with certain video drivers this option may not work, displaying black faces instead of transparent.

3-8 Tr e e C r e a t i o n

25.Now we wil l further fi l l out the tree base. Select Tree_Trunk and access the Polygon sub-object level. Select the polygon as shown on the left of the next i l lustration and press the Settings icon next to the Bevel button. In the Bevel Polygons dialog box, enter the Height = 150 and Outline Amount = -40 , and click OK to complete the operation.

26.Select the polygons as shown on the left of the next i l lustration, and press the Settings icon to the right of the Extrude button. In the Extrude Polygons dialog box, set the Extrusion Height to 400 and click OK to finish the operation.

27.To match the reference image, use the Select and Uniform Scale and Select and Move tools to resize and move the selected group of polygons to match the reference image.

28.Switch to Edge sub-object mode. In the Front view, select the edge as shown on the left of the next i l lustration, and press Ring. Click the Settings button next to the Connect to bring up the Connect Edges dialog box, set Segments = 3 , and click OK to complete the command.

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29.To match the reference image, in the Front viewport, build two more splines along which the polygons wil l be extruded, forming the left and right branches of the tree. Using snaps, place the ends of the splines on the surface of the polygons that wil l be extruded. In the Top view-port, move the splines’ vertices to adjust their shapes as you see fit .

30.Select the tree trunk and go into Polygon sub-object mode. Highlight the polygons and extrude them along the splines using the method described in earl ier steps. See the fol lowing i l lustra-tion for an example of the splines created and the polygons selected and then extruded along the splines.

31. In the reference image, you can see that the right root and the right branch split off into two. Build short splines for these offshoots, and use the method described earl ier to extrude poly-gons and create the offshoots.

32.Select the polygons at the ends of al l the roots and branches, including the end polygons of al l upper branches, and delete them. This wil l prevent these polygons from being affected by subdivision modifiers (l ike TurboSmooth and MeshSmooth) , and wil l also simplify the mapping process later. The left image of the fol l lowing i l lustration shows some of the polygons that should be selected and deleted.

33. In test renderings, the branches wil l not appear to smoothly join the trunk because of the dif-ferent smoothing groups assigned to the extrusions. To solve this problem, go to Polygon sub-object mode of the Tree_Trunk object and select al l tree trunk’s polygons with the short-cut Ctrl+A, and in the Polygon: Smoothing Groups rol lout, cl ick Clear All . Having eliminated the smoothing groups, you have achieved a more uniform shading of the tree’s polygons. At this point, the tree should look l ike the right image in the next i l lustration.

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34.Use the Shift , Push/Pull , and Relax tools on the Freeform tab of the Modeling Ribbon to further sculpt the form and position of the trunk, roots and branches and to make the object’s shape match the reference image more closely. This is an important step in the creative process. If you hover your cursor over each tool, you can see a detailed description of the tool and read about its possibi l it ies.

The scene Ch03-03.max shows the trunk model created up to this point with the tools described so far. If you l ike, you can open this scene and continue with the rest of the modeling process.

35.Next, we’l l make the hollow in the tree trunk. Add a TurboSmooth modifier with Iterations = 1 to give you more edges to work with, and add the Edit Poly modifier. Go into Polygon sub-object mode and select polygons as shown in the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration.

36.Hold down the Ctrl key and in the Selection rol lout, choose Vertex sub-object mode to select the vertices associated with the selected polygons. Hold down Alt and click the center vertex to eliminate it from the selection.

37.With the Vertex selection sti l l active, apply the Spherify modifier. As a result, the selected vert-ices wil l be pushed into a circular shape as shown in the right image in the fol lowing i l lustration.

38.Add another Edit Poly modifier, access the Polygon sub-object mode, and press the Settings button to the right of the Inset button in the Edit Polygons rol lout. In the Inset Polygons dialog box, set the Inset Amount to 8 and click OK to complete the operation. This creates a new set of polygons just inside the selected polygons.

39.Click the Settings icon next to the Extrude button to bring up the Extrude Polygons dialog box. Set Extrusion Height to -8 and click Apply to apply the change. To continue extruding polygons, set the Extrusion Height to -40 and click Apply . Set the Extrusion Height to -8 and click OK to com-plete the operation and close the dialog box. You can see the result in the left image of the next i l lustration.

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40.Next you wil l correct the shape of the hollow. Using the same selection of polygons, cl ick Grow four times to select al l the surrounding polygons that form the hollow. Go to the Front view-port. Choose the Select and Uniform Scale tool and make sure that the Reference Coordinate System is set to View . Scale down the selected group of polygons along the Y axis to flatten the hollow a l itt le. Then stretch the selected group of polygons a l itt le along their X axis . Move the selected group of polygons slightly to the right. As a result, the hollow should look similar to the right image in the fol lowing i l lustration.

Next, you can proceed in one of several ways to add more detail to the model. The first way is to add a TurboSmooth modifier with a high number of Iterations such as 2 or 3 , then to add Edit Poly modi-fier and use its Shift , Push/Pull , and Relax tools to further revise the object’s shape and sculpt additional details.

This method gives you a lot of f lexibi l ity in modeling, however it can also be diff icult due to the large number of modifiers in the stack, which wil l slow down your system’s display time, and thus, slow down your work. The left image in the fol lowing i l lustration shows what the modifier stack looks l ike when another TurboSmooth and Edit Poly modifier is added.

Another way is to collapse the stack, which wil l al low you to use less memory and speed up system response time; however, you then you lose some flexibi l ity in modeling.

41.To retain flexibi l ity but also speed up your system, save a copy of the object in its present state in its own fi le with the Save Selected option (from the File menu). Name this object and fi le Trunk_Low_Poly . We wil l collapse the stack in the current scene to save memory and speed up screen refresh time. By saving a copy of the tree trunk in its present state, we can return to the uncollapsed version in case you are not satisfied with the results of the additional editing. We also wil l use this version of the model to assign UVW coordinates later in this chapter.

42.After saving the object out to its own fi le, add a TurboSmooth modifier with Iterations set to 3 , and Convert to Editable Poly to collapse the stack. Then use the Shift , Push/Pull , and Relax tools to work further with the object’s form and detail ing.

43.After sculpting the details, the tree trunk is complete. Save your work. The modified tree trunk with a gray material is shown in the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration. You can find a completed version of this tree trunk in the fi le Ch03-04.max .

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Exercise 2: Modeling the crown

In this exercise, we wil l model the tree’s crown, the object representing the leaves and smaller branches in the upper part of the tree. First, we wil l use the GeoSphere primitive to form the shape of the crown and to visualize the volume, then we’l l use BlobMesh to make a single blob-like form from all the spheres. You wil l use the GeoSphere rather than the Sphere primitive because a GeoSphere has equidistant vertices, which work much better with BlobMesh than the longitude/latitude vertex struc-ture of a sphere. Then you wil l use the Relax modifier to smooth the form of the created object.

Then you’l l apply the Edit Poly modifier to delete any unnecessary geometry that appears as a result of the BlobMesh , and assign a Push modifier to finalize the object’s size. You can also use the ProOptimizer modifier to greatly reduce the number of polygons in the object while retaining its appearance. This process is a quick and easy way to create visually soft organic surfaces such as a tree crown.

1 .Open the scene you saved in the previous exercise or use the fi le Ch03-04.max to continue working on the model.

2 . In the Front view, create a GeoSphere object, which is one of the Standard Primitives available in the Create panel. Set Radius = 120 and Segments = 4 , as shown in the left image of the next i l lustration.

3.Create more GeoSphere objects with the same settings and place them as shown in the fol low-ing i l lustration (Front and Top views).

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4.To create a BlobMesh object from the geospheres, access the Compound Objects dropdown on the Create panel and click BlobMesh, then click in the viewport to place the BlobMesh01 placeholder object. Go to the Modify panel and set Size = 30 , Tension = 0.01 , Render = 30 , and Viewport = 30 .

BlobMesh works by making a mesh from a set of objects, in this case the geospheres, which you wil l select in the next step. When you select objects for use with BlobMesh , an internal version of these objects is generated for creating the BlobMesh . These internal objects are referred to as meta-balls. The Size value sets the size of the metaballs that are created at the vertex of each selected object. Tension sets the degree of webbing on the resulting mesh in areas where metaballs intersect or touch each other. The Render and Viewport values set the degree of detail in the resulting mesh, which affects the speed of generation and screen refresh. The higher the values of these amounts, the less detailed the resulting mesh wil l be, and the higher the speed of their generation wil l be. When first working with a BlobMesh , it is best to keep the Render and Viewport values relatively high, as with our value of 30, unti l you’ve achieved a form close to your desired result .

5. In the Blob Objects group of the Parameters rol lout, cl ick the Add button and select al l the Geo-Sphere objects you just created, as shown in the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration. Click the Add Blobs button to confirm the addition of the selected objects as metaball generation objects. The results of the addition of the GeoSphere objects are shown in the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration.

6.To the BlobMesh01 object, add the Relax modifier and use the values shown in the left image of the next i l lustration to create the effect shown in the right image.

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7.Press Alt+Q to put the BlobMesh into Isolation Mode . Switch to Wireframe display by pressing F3 . Inside the object, you can see that there are unnecessary internal polygons formed as a result of pasting together the metaballs.

8.Apply an Edit Poly modifier . Go into Element sub-object mode and click on the BlobMesh object. Then on the Edit menu choose Select Invert to invert the selection. Now all the inner elements of the objects are selected as shown in the next i l lustration. Delete them by pressing Delete .

9.Exit from Element sub-object mode and return to the base level of the Edit Poly modifier. Press F3 again to return to the Smooth+Highlights display.

10.You need to compensate for the additional volume that wil l be added by the leaves in a later step. Apply a Push modifier with a Push Value of -17.5 to reduce the object’s volume a l itt le.

1 1 .Next, optimize the object’s level of detail . Add a ProOptimizer modifier. In the Optimization Level rol lout, press the Calculate button. After the vertices and borders are calculated, the object’s statistics before and after optimization appear below the Calculate button. At the moment, the before and after values are equal. Set the value of Vertex % to 50.0 to reduce the vertex count to half its current count. The new number of vertices and borders are reflected in the statis-tics box. You can also set the desired number of vertices explicit ly by typing in a value for Vertex Count .

12 .Add another Relax modifier with Relax Value = 1.0 and Iterations = 1 to smooth the optimized BlobMesh01 object a l itt le more. If you notice any holes in the mesh, add a Cap Holes modifier to correct this.

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13.Select BlobMesh01 and all of the GeoSphere objects and using the Save Selected option on the File menu, save the selection into a new fi le. This wil l al low us to return to these objects if neces-sary. The tree crown with its uncollapsed stack of modifiers can be found in the fi le Ch03-05.max .

14.Select the BlobMesh01 object. Collapse the modifier stack and delete all the GeoSphere objects from the scene as they are no longer necessary.

15.The modeling of the tree crown is now complete. Save your scene. The resulting model can be seen in the fi le Ch03-06.max .

Exercise 3: Mapping the tree

In this exercise, we wil l create texture coordinates for the trunk using the Pelt tool, which is part of the Unwrap UVW modifier. Unwrapping texture coordinates for a high-poly object such as the tree trunk would be quite a diff icult process, so we wil l use the low-poly version that we saved previously instead. After the mapping coordinates are set on the low-poly tree trunk, you wil l apply a Morpher modifier to this version (low-poly) and use the high-poly version of the tree as a Morph Target .

The Morpher modifier works only if the number of vertices are the same in both morph targets. To ensure the number of vertices wil l be the same in both versions of the tree, you wil l apply a Turbo-Smooth modifier with the same number of Iterations as we applied to the high-poly sculpted version.

1 .Continue with the scene saved in the previous exercise, and merge in the Trunk_Low_Poly object that we saved earl ier. Or, you can open Ch03-07.max in the support fi les.

2 .Rename the detailed trunk object Trunk_High_Poly . Select Trunk_Low_Poly , collapse it to an Edit-able Poly and apply a Unwrap UVW modifier. With Trunk_Low_Poly selected, right-click in the active view and select Hide Unselected from the quad menu. All objects wil l be hidden except for Trunk_Low_Poly .

3.With Trunk_Low_Poly selected, in the Face sub-object mode of the Unwrap UVW modifier, turn off the Ignore Backfacing checkbox in the Selection Parameters rol lout, and select al l of the polygons.

4. In the Map Parameters rol lout, cl ick the Quick Planar Map button to get rid of the mapping coordi-nates’ existing seams.

5.Select the polygons at the very end of the root that twist around the outhouse, and then press the Plus (+) button in the Selection Parameters rol lout several times unti l al l the polygons on the root are selected, as shown in the left image of the next i l lustration.

6.Click the Point To Point Seam button in the Map Parameters rol lout and click along the root to indicate the seam for the UVW coordinates. The seam is where the map wil l be cut so it can be unwrapped. If you were going to create a bear skin rug, for example, you would have to skin the bear by cutting seams along the torso and down each l imb. We don’t condone skin-ning bears, but the idea is the same in 3D. You create seams where you want to make cuts. It is better to place seams in areas that are rarely seen or are not visible. Therefore, you should place the seam for this root as shown in the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration. Make as many clicks as necessary to define the seam where you want it to be, then right-click to end the seam creation. Turn off the Point To Point Seam button when you are satisfied with the seam.

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7. In the Map Parameters rol lout, press the Pelt button. Two windows appear on the screen: Edit UVWs , where the texture coordinates are displayed and edited, and Pelt Map , where the tools reside, al lowing you to quickly unwrap the texture coordinates of the surface. The windows are shown in the next i l lustration.

8.Press the Start Pelt button in the Pelt group in the Quick Pelt rol lout. The button label changes to Stop Pelt . In the Edit UVWs window, you wil l see the UVW coordinates begin to smooth out under the influence of the Stretcher tool. You can see this effect as red and white dotted l ines outward from each vertex that l ie on the seam vertices of the UVW coordinates.

9.After the UVW coordinates are smoothed and become as they are in the left image of the fol-lowing i l lustration, cl ick Stop Pelt .

10.Press the Settings button in the Relax group of the Pelt Map dialog box. In the Relax Tool dialog box, select Relax By Face Angles from the dropdown menu and click the Set As Default button. This wil l cause the selected relax method to work by default every time the Start Relax button in the Relax group is clicked.

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1 1 .Close the Relax Tool window and click the Start Relax button. The vertices displayed in the Edit UVWs wil l begin to relax. When the vertices slow down to the point where you can’t see them moving, cl ick Stop Relax . The result is shown in the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration.

12 . In the Pelt Map window, press the Commit button to complete the operation. The Edit UVWs win-dow wil l remain open.

13.Using the same method, cut seams and smooth out the mapping for the rest of the roots and branches, the hollow, and the tree trunk. For some roots and branches, the relax process may take longer than for others. Make sure you allow it enough time. If during the relax pro-cess vertices stop moving but the geometry is not completely relaxed, open the Relax Tool dialog box by clicking the Settings button in Relax group, set Amount to 0.5 and Stretch to 0.05 . Click the Start Relax button on this dialog box and allow the vertices to move more (this may change the orientation of the geometry). Click the Stop Relax when the geometry looks com-pletely relaxed and close the Relax Tool dialog box. Refer to the finished scene Ch03-08.max to see how to correctly place the seams.

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14.After al l the texture coordinates of al l the tree trunk elements are smoothed, you wil l need to scale them in relation to each other and to place them in the square texture space in the Edit UVWs window. For convenience in scaling the texture coordinates’ parts, create a material with a Checker map in the Diffuse Color channel and assign it to the tree trunk. Set the U and V Tiling values to 50 , and turn on Show Standard Map in Viewport so the texture map shows in the viewports. In the Options panel at the bottom of the Edit UVWs window in the Selection Modes group, cl ick the Face sub-object mode button and check the Select Element box.

15.Select each of the elements of the texture coordinates and use the Scale tool in the Edit UVWs window to scale each element. As you do this, monitor the process in Perspective view to see the size of the checkers on each part of the tree trunk. Try to make the checkers on different parts of the Trunk_Low_Poly match in size, as shown in the left image of the next i l lustration.

16.After you have finished scaling each element, select them all at once and scale them so that they fit within the texture space, the area in the Edit UVWs window limited by thick, dark blue l ines. With the Move and Rotate tools, arrange all elements approximately as shown in the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration. At the same time, try to use as much of the texture space as possible.

17.Save your scene. The model of the tree trunk with its correctly unwrapped UVW coordinates can be found in the fi le Ch03-09.max .

18.Unhide the Trunk_High_Poly object by right-clicking in the active view, selecting Unhide By Name from the quad menu and then double-clicking Trunk_High_Poly in the l ist of objects. Move the Trunk_High_Poly object to the right so that it’s next to the Trunk_Low_Poly object, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

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19.Add a TurboSmooth modifier with Iterations set to 3 to Trunk_Low_Poly . This wil l make the number of vertices in the detailed and mapped objects match so they wil l work with the Morpher modifier.

20.Assign the Morpher modifier to the Trunk_Low_Poly object. In the Channel Parameters rol lout, cl ick Pick Object from Scene as shown in the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration , and select the detailed tree trunk, Trunk_High_Poly .

2 1. In the Channel List rol lout, opposite the active channel with the name of the object highlighted, specify the percent value to 100 as shown in the right of the fol lowing i l lustration. The tree trunk with the correct mapping wil l take the form of the earl ier, detailed tree trunk.

22.After the object has been warped by the Morpher modifier, the texture coordinates of the object appear somewhat distorted. It is especial ly noticeable in the border area of the hollow end of the tree trunk. To correct this problem, add another Unwrap UVW modifier to the Trunk_Low_Poly object, and go to the Edge sub-object mode. Select any edge positioned on the seam between the hollow and the tree trunk. Using the Loop and Expand Selection tools, select edges on both sides of the seam where the texture map is strongly distorted, as shown in the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration.

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23.Click Edit to open the Edit UVWs window, and use the Relax command under the Tools menu. In the Relax Tool window, select the Relax By Face Angles method and click the Start Relax button. Wait unti l the relax process in the Edit UVWs window stops making noticeable changes in the selected area of the texture coordinates, and click Stop Relax . Click Apply to see the effect in the viewport.

24. In the Options toolbar of the Edit UVWs window in the Selection Modes section, enable the Select Element option and select any edge in the cluster of the hollow’s texture coordinates. All edges of this cluster should now be selected. Use the Relax command under the Tools menu with Relax By Face Angles as in the previous step.

25. In the same way, correct the texture coordinates at the end of the longest root and its off-shoot, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

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26. I f the texture coordinates self-intersect, as shown in the left image of the next i l lustration, you wil l need to smooth them. Turn off Select element , then select the vertices in the self-inter-secting area. You may want to use the Paint Selection tool to make the selection process easier. Turn on Soft Selection in the Options toolbar. Adjust the value of the Falloff parameter to select the ful l area around the self-intersection, and use the Relax Tool to move the vertices apart and correct the ones that overlap. In the Relax Tool window, choose any one of the smoothing algorithms: Relax By Edge Angles, Relax By Face Angles, or Relax By Centers , which-ever one gives you the best results. You may have to experiment with different Amount & Stretch settings and click Apply instead of Start Relax . You may have to click Apply numerous times unti l you get the desired result, if the texture coordinates move too quickly when using Start Relax .

27.To finish up the process, select the vertices along the edge of the opening and use the Relax tool with the Relax By Centers option and the Keep Boundary Points Fixed option turned on. The result of this process is shown in the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration.

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28.Now that the object is correctly mapped, you no longer need its modifier stack. Collapse the stack for the object Trunk_Low_Poly , rename it Tree_Trunk , and delete the Trunk_High_Poly object from the scene.

29.Unhide all objects. Save your scene. The tree trunk with its uncollapsed stack of modifiers can be found in the fi le Ch03-10.max .

Exercise 4: Texture painting with Viewport Canvas

In this section, we wil l touch up the tree trunk’s texture coordinates and create and apply maps. We wil l use the Viewport Canvas tool to paint the joints of the tree bark texture maps and create separate texture maps for the hollow and the moss. We’l l also use the Render Surface Map tool to create a Cavity Map as a mask for color correction on the texture map in Photoshop. In the same exercise, we wil l create a Displacement map of the tree bark. This map wil l be used in the VRayDisplacementMod modifier and give relief and additional detail to the model.

1 .Open the scene you saved in the previous exercise, or open the fi le Ch03-11.max , and hide all objects except Tree_Trunk .

2 . In order for you to work with the texture maps in 3ds Max, it is very important that they appear in the viewports at the highest quality possible. On the main toolbar, select Customize menu ➤ Preferences . In the Preference Settings dialog, in the Display Driver section of the Viewports tab, cl ick the Configure Driver button. In the Configure Direct3D window, in the Background Texture Size and Download Texture Size groups, turn on the Match Bitmap Size as Closely as Possible options, select the largest resolutions l isted under both sections, and click OK .

3. In the Material Editor , create a Standard material with the bitmap Bark_Tile.jpg as the Diffuse map. This fi le contains an image of tree bark, and is designed to ti le seamlessly. Apply this material to the tree, and click Show Standard Map in Viewport to see the bark on the tree. You wil l paint the tree trunk’s joints with this map.

4.Set the scale of the map in relation to the tree trunk by increasing the values of the U and V Tiling parameters to 5 . This wil l make the scaling just about right for the tree.

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We have set the U and V Til ing in 3ds Max solely to figure out the amount of ti l ing needed to adjust the bitmap in Photoshop. When you want to use viewport painting on an object, any maps on the object actually have to have the U and V Til ing values set to 1x1 in the Material Editor. You wil l use Photoshop to make a version of this bitmap with the bark ti led 5x5 within the bitmap, and then you wil l be able to use the new bitmap in the Material Editor with U and V Til ing values set to 1x1.

5.Open Photoshop , and open the fi le Bark_Tile.jpg .

6.To unlock the Background layer, in the Layers window, right-click the Background layer and select Layer From Background , as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration. In the New Layer window, click OK .

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7.Select the Edit menu ➤ Define Pattern command to make a new pattern from the image. Click OK to confirm.

8.Select the Image menu ➤ Canvas Size command, and set Width and Height to 500 percent . Select the upper left square of the Anchor diagram as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration, and click OK . The canvas wil l increase to five times its original size, and the image wil l remain in the upper left corner. Zoom out to see the entire canvas.

9.Select the Edit menu ➤ Fill command and in the Contents group in the Use field, select Pattern . Click the dropdown arrow by the icon in the Custom Pattern field and select the pattern you created with the tree bark image. Click OK to complete the command. The entire canvas wil l be fi l led with a seamlessly ti led image of the tree bark, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

The size of the texture map is now 8500x8500 pixels. Such a large texture map is not needed, and wil l use an unnecessari ly large amount of system resources.

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10.Select the Image menu ➤ Image Size command, reduce the image’s Width and Height to 2048x2048 pixels, and click OK .

The texture map now contains the same image, but ti led 5x5, corresponding to the ti l ing you set when testing the map in 3ds Max with the U and V Til ing values.

1 1 .Save the texture map with the name Bark_Base.jpg .

12 .Close Photoshop , return to 3ds Max , and in the Material Editor , replace the Bark_Tile.jpg map in the bark material with Bark_Base.jpg , and set the U and V Tilling parameters to 1 . The size of the bark should now be the same as in the previous version of the material .

Visible seams appear at the texture coordinates’ borders, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration. To paint them out, you wil l need to set up the bark texture as a viewport background.

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13.Put the Bark_Tile.jpg texture map into a free Material Editor sample slot as a map on its own. In the Coordinates rol lout, choose Environ and make sure Screen is displayed in the Mapping drop-down.

14.Choose Environment from the Rendering menu, and drag the Bark_Tile.jpg map from the Material Editor slot to the Environment Map slot as an Instance .

15.Use the Alt+B shortcut to bring up the Viewport Background dialog box. Enable the Use Environ-ment Background and Display Background options and click OK .

16.To prevent the texture map from appearing distorted in the viewports, its square aspect ratio must be preserved. Open the Render Setup dialog box (F10) . In the Output Size group, unlock the image aspect ratio, then enter 1 for the Image Aspect value. This wil l ensure the background texture map doesn’t stretch when displayed in viewports. Close the Render Setup window and activate the Show Safe Frames option with the Shift+F shortcut. The dialog boxes used for this process are shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

If everything was done correctly, the viewport should look l ike the left image in the next i l lu-stration.

17. In Windows Explorer , make a copy of the Bark_Base.jpg fi le in the same folder, and name the copy Bark_Paint.jpg . You wil l use this new fi le to hold the results of the painting you do in the view-ports.

18.Return to 3ds Max, select the trunk model, and choose Viewport Canvas from the Tools menu. In the Viewport Canvas dialog, cl ick the Setup button. In the Object Setup window, choose Use exist-ing texture , as shown in the right image of the next i l lustration. Click Pick texture , choose the Bark_Paint.jpg fi le, and then click Setup . This wil l cause all of the viewport painting to be recorded in this fi le and wil l also automatically replace the current material applied to the trunk model with material that has Bark_Paint.jpg in the Diffuse channel. .

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19.The sections of the bark on the background image are too large; they do not match the tree’s mapping. Change the values of the U and V Tiling parameters of the background texture map in the Material Editor so that the bark in the background texture map is approximately the same size as the bark on the tree trunk. The exact size doesn’t matter, because with this technique you’l l be constantly zooming in and out and readjusting the ti l ing value. Note that it is okay to set the background image ti l ing to numbers higher than 1x1; it is only the material on the object that needs to have 1x1 ti l ing to have success with viewport painting.

20.Zoom in on a place on the tree trunk where a seam is visible. Rotate the view so that the area you are about to paint is as parallel as possible to the viewport. When using the Viewport Canvas tool, the texture you are painting is projected directly from the viewport background to the object, so having the painted area parallel to the viewport wil l prevent the pattern from warping as it is painted. Note that the ti l ing of the background texture needs to be changed when the Viewport Canvas Clone or Paint buttons are inactive. The ti l ing settings wil l not update in the viewport unless you deactivate the brush.

2 1.Go to the Material Editor and make sure that the Diffuse channel of the tree trunk’s material has Bark_Paint.jpg and not Bark_Base.jpg in it . Otherwise the results won’t be visible.

22. In the Viewport Canvas dialog, activate the Clone tool. Hold down the Alt key and click in the view-port where you want to start copying the map. Release Alt , and move the cursor over the seam in the model. Right-click when you are done painting.

23.Rotate the view, find the next seam to repair, and fix it in the same way. Do this with al l the seams. If you have any trouble with this, you can overwrite Bark_Paint.jpg with Bark_Paint_Cat-apult.jpg as Bark_Paint_Catapult.jpg is the texture that has already been properly modified by us for your convenience.

Next, we wil l create the texture map for the tree hollow. Over time, the circular opening of a tree hollow grows a thick scar of bark, while the inside of the hollow can become mossy. You wil l create new custom maps for this area to create this effect.

24.Press Setup in the Viewport Canvas window, and this time select the Assign new texture option. Press the Presets: 2048 button to set the Width and Height of the new map to 2048 pixels. Enter Hollow_Layer.tif as its name and specify its location as the same folder where you stored the other maps for the tree. Don’t overwrite any existing fi les; change the fi lename if this fi le already exists.

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25.Place the Hollow_Tile.jpg texture into a free slot in the Material Editor . This bitmap contains the scarred bark you wil l use to paint the hollow opening. In the Coordinates rol lout, choose the Environ option and make sure it displays Screen in the Mapping field.

26.Press the shortcut key 8 to open the Environment dialog, and drag Hollow_Tile.jpg to the Environ-ment slot to replace Bark_Tile.jpg if it is sti l l loaded as the background image. Use same process as described in steps 15 & 16 to set the scene up correctly.

27. In the Options parameters group of the Viewport Canvas window, check the Generate Alpha Mask and Draw Wireframe options. If Generate Alpha Mask is active, 3ds Max wil l create an additional f i le with the same name and extension as the editable texture Hollow_Layer.tif , but with the addition of _mask at the end of the fi lename. The alpha mask is a black-and-white image where white pixels represent pixels that have been changed by painting, and black pixels represent untouched areas of the texture map. If the Draw Wireframe option is active while interactively drawing the texture in the viewport you wil l be able to see the wireframe of the object, which wil l help you to see the area of the hollow.

28. From the Brush Type dropdown, select Layer . This wil l cause strokes to be applied with consis-tent transparency.

29.As you are working, in the Material Editor , you wil l have to keep changing the value of the Angle W parameter in the Coordinates rol lout for the Hollow_Tile.jpg texture map. This wil l rotate the texture map in the background, al lowing you to paint in the direction of the tree fibers around the hollow. Choose one area of the circular opening to start your work, and rotate the map to align it with that area.

30.Using the Clone tool, paint the area inside and around the hollow on which the bark is missing. Then rotate the map again to match another area, and paint again. Repeat this process unti l the entire hollow opening is painted. You may have to cll ick Reload under the Bitmap Param-eters in the Material Editor to refresh the view of the newly painted map areas in the viewport.

31.Perform the same process on the mossy areas, this time saving to the new fi le Moss_Layer.tif and using the fi le Moss_Tile.jpg for painting. Save your work. You can also open the fi le Ch03-12.max if you want to see how this should look at this stage.

32.Next, open Photoshop so you can touch-up these new maps. You could perform some basic adjustments in 3ds Max , such as color correction with the Composite Map, but Photoshop is far more powerful and is a program that you simply shouldn’t do without if you are serious about creating good 3D work. Therefore, we are covering some of the crit ical features that you should be famil iar with.

33.Let’s start with the maps for the hollow. Open Hollow_Layer.tif and Hollow_Layer_Mask.tif .

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34.Hold down the Shift key, and drag the Hollow_Layer_Mask.tif image into the Hollow_Layer.tif image.

35. I f the Background layer is locked, then select it on the Layers panel and from menu choose Layer ➤ New ➤ Layer From Background and click OK to confirm. In the Channels panel, cl ick any chan-nel while pressing the Ctrl key to select the black areas. Return to the Layers panel, and invert the selection with the Ctrl+Shift+I shortcut. Hide the black and white layer and activate the bottom layer and press Delete on the keyboard to delete the area fi l led with gray. Delete the black and white layer.

36.Open Moss_Layer.tif and Moss_Layer_Mask.tif , and repeat the process.

37.Open the Bark_Paint.jpg fi le in Photoshop . Holding down the Shift key, drag the layers which you just deleted the backgrounds from in Hollow_Layer.tif and Moss_Layer.tif into Bark_Paint.jpg . Name the layers Bark , Hollow, and Moss as appropriate.

38.Hide the Hollow and Moss layers and select the Bark layer. Add a new adjustment layer, choosing Curves as the type. Rename the layer Less_Light. You wil l use this layer to decrease the bright-ness of the texture map parts that are too l ight.

39.Select the Less_Light layer and adjust the curve’s form, as shown in the right image in the fol-lowing i l lustration. The left image of the fol lowing i l lustration shows the Bark layer, and the middle image shows the Less_Light layer after the curve is adjusted.

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40.Add another Curves adjustment layer and name the new layer More_Dark . Adjust the curve as shown in the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration. The left image shows the Less_Light adjustment layer applied, and the middle image shows the More_Dark adjustment layer applied.

41.Next, we wil l adjust the overall hue of the texture map. Create a new adjustment layer, this time with the type set to Color Balance , and name it Brown . Adjust the layer’s colors as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

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42.Next, we wil l create a single image from the brown-tinted result so we can adjust it separately. Select al l the layers, except the currently hidden Moss and Hollow , right-click any of the selected layers, and choose Duplicate Layers from the dropdown menu that appears. Click OK to create the duplicate layers in the same fi le. With all the new layers sti l l selected, choose Layer menu ➤ Merge Layers . Name the merged layer Brown_Temp .

43.Now we wil l remove contrast from the image without affecting its hues. Access the Channels panel and look at the channels available. We can see that the channel with the strongest vis-ible contrast is the Blue channel so we wil l adjust that channel. Select the Blue channel, hold down the Ctrl key, and click the channel to select its l ighter pixels.

44.Move to the Layers panel and, without removing your selection, choose Layer ➤ New Adjustment Layer ➤ Curves to add new Curves adjustment layer. Name this layer Darker . It wil l be masked from the selection you made on the Blue channel.

45.Hold down the Alt key and click the layer mask to see its results represented on the source image. Use Filter menu ➤ Blur ➤ Gaussian Blur with Radius = 5 pixels to blur the mask a l itt le. Then choose Image menu ➤ Adjustments ➤ Curves and l ighten it a l itt le. The adjusted mask and the shape of the correcting curve are shown in the next i l lustration.

46.Select the Curves layer named Darker . Adjust the shape of the curve as shown in the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration. The right image shows the result of the curve application.

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47.We wil l again adjust the amount of contrast in the image. Hold down the Ctrl key while clicking on the Layer mask thumbnail of the Darker layer to select the l ight areas of the mask. Without removing your selection, choose Layer ➤ New Adjustment Layer ➤ Curves to add another Curves adjustment layer. Name it Less_Contrast . Hold down the Alt key and click the Layer mask thumb-nail of the new layer to see its results represented on the source image. Then choose Image menu ➤ Adjustments ➤ Curves and adjust the curve shape so that the image has more con-trast. The resulting mask and the shape of the correcting curve are shown in the next i l lustration.

48.Select the Curves layer named Less_Contrast and adjust the shape of the curve as shown in the left image of the next i l lustration. The resulting image is shown on the right.

49.Make the Hollow and Moss layers visible. For the Moss layer, select the Overlay blending mode.

50.Save the fi le as Bark.psd .

Next, we wil l create a custom map to emphasize the bumpiness of the tree trunk and the depth of the hollow. You wil l use the existing surface map as a base, and adjust the map’s contrast in Photoshop.

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51. In 3ds Max , open your last saved scene or open Ch03-12.max fi le, select the trunk model and choose Rendering menu ➤ Render Surface Map . In the dialog box, set the texture size to 2048x2048 . Click the Cavity Map button to render the bitmap. This creates a new map from the existing surface, showing l ight and dark areas to represent bumps and cavities. Click the Save image button and save the new map as Cavity_Mask.tif . Under Setup , in the Save Image dialog box, you may have to select the Store Alpha Channel option.

52.Open Cavity_Mask.tif in Photoshop . Go to the Channels panel and hold down the Ctrl key while clicking the Alpha 1 channel to select the l ight parts of the channel. Return to the Layers panel, invert the selection, and fi l l the selected area with black with the Shift+F5 shortcut.

53.Remove the selection, and use Curves to give the image more contrast, as shown in the next i l lustration. Save the fi le.

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54. In the Bark.psd fi le, drag the Brown_Temp layer above the Less_Contrast layer.

55.Select the Moss , Hollow , and Brown_Temp layers, duplicate them, and flatten them to one layer with Ctrl+E . Name the new layer Relief .

56.Holding down the Shift key, drag the Cavity_Mask.tif fi le into the Bark.psd fi le. Name the new layer Cavity_Mask .

57.Select the Cavity_Mask layer, go to the Channels panel, and click any channel while holding down Ctrl to select the white areas.

58.Return to the Layers panel and select the Relief layer. Choose Layer menu ➤ Layer Mask ➤ Reveal Selection .

59.We only needed the Cavity_Mask layer to get the selection. Delete it now, as we no longer need it.

60.Drag Brown_Temp layer back under Darker layer.

61.To the Relief layer, apply two Curves adjustment layers. To make both layers influence only the Relief layer, select them and choose Layer menu ➤ Create Clipping Mask . Adjust the curves as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration, on the first and second layers respectively.

62.To darken the entire texture map a l itt le more, add another Curve adjustment layer on top of al l the layers. The curve form is shown in the next i l lustration. The right image shows how the texture map looks after al l the correction steps.

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63.Save the fi le as Bark.psd. You can also open the Bark.psd fi le from the book’s website to com-pare your results.

64.Save this fi le again as Bark.jpg . This fi le wil l be used as the texture map for the tree trunk model. A jpg fi le is much smaller than a psd fi le, so using a jpg fi le wil l save memory.

65.Now we wil l make a displacement map from the fi le. In Bark.psd , delete all of the layers except Moss, Hollow and Brown_Temp .

66.Select the Brown_Temp layer. Use Image menu ➤ Adjustments ➤ Desaturate to make the image black and white.

67.Add a new Curve adjustment layer and adjust its curve as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

68.Select the Brown_Temp layer and choose Filter menu ➤ Convert for Smart Filters . With this tool, you can change the fi lter settings applied to the layer, or cancel their influence on the layer altogether.

69.With the Brown_Temp layer sti l l selected, use Filter menu ➤ Blur ➤ Gaussian Blur with Radius set to 1 pixel to make the image a l itt le softer.

70.Hold down the Ctrl key and click the Hollow layer’s image thumbnail to select the fi l led areas of the layer. No relief is necessary in these areas, so we wil l f i l l them with black. Select Hollow layer and choose Edit menu ➤ Fill to fi l l the selected area with black . Press Ctrl+D to remove the selection.

7 1.Select the Moss layer, and change it back to the Normal blending mode. Use Image menu ➤ Adjustments ➤ Desaturate to make the image black and white. Invert the layer’s colors.

72.Choose Layer menu ➤ Layer Style ➤ Blending Options or double-click the layer name in the Layers panel. In the Layer Style window in the Blending Options section, in the Blend If group, set the placement of This Layer and the Underlying Layer sl iders as shown in the next i l lustration. The result is shown on the right. To define a range of partial ly blended pixels, as shown in the i l lustration, hold down Alt , and drag one half of the slider triangle. The two values that appear above the divided slider indicate the partial blending range.

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73.Save the fi le as Bark_Displ.psd . You can compare your results with the fi le Bark_Displ.psd from the book’s support fi les.

74.Save this fi le again as Bark_Displ.jpg .

75.Return to 3ds Max , disable Safe Frames , Viewport Background , and Environment Background . Create a VRayMtl and assign it to the tree trunk model. In the Diffuse channel, place the Bark.jpg tex-ture map.

76.Add a VrayDisplacementMod modifier to the tree trunk. In the Texmap slot, place the Bark_Displ.jpg texture map. This wil l add extra bumpiness to the texture when it is rendered. Adjust the modifier’s parameters as shown in next i l lustration.

77.Render the tree trunk. With GI turned on, the rendering should look similar to the right image in the fol lowing i l lustration.

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78.The tree trunk texturing is now complete. Save your scene. You can also see the final result in the fi le Ch03-13.max .

Exercise 5: Creating leaves with the Hair and Fur modifier

In this exercise, we wil l make tree leaves using the Hair and Fur modifier. This modifier is intended for hair and fur creation, but it can also be used to scatter objects across a surface. The Hair and Fur modifier offers more flexibi l ity and control over the distribution process than other tools l ike Scatter .

Note: The Hair and Fur feature in 3ds Max uses a lot of RAM. It is highly recommended that you work on a 64-bit computer with at least 8GB memory (preferably 16). You wil l also experience less RAM consumption if you are using 3ds Max 2011 versus 2010. If your system crashes during this exercise and you are using 3ds Max 2010, we suggest instal l ing the trial version of 3ds Max 2011, as you wil l have a better chance of not crashing.

1 . In 3ds Max , open Ch03-14.max , which contains all the objects needed for this exercise. Alterna-tively, you can open your own fi le with the finished model of the tree crown. If you use your own fi le, you wil l need to delete the tree trunk from this fi le, and use Merge to place the painted trunk model from the scene saved in the previous exercise. Then merge the Flat_Leaf object from the fi le Ch03-15.max .

2 .Select the BlobMesh01 object and apply the Hair and Fur (WSM) modifier to it . In the viewport, you wil l see hairs on the BlobMesh01 object, as shown in the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration.

3. In the Modify panel, turn on Display Guides in the Display rol lout. The viewport wil l look similar to the right image in the fol lowing i l lustration.

4. In the Styling rol lout, cl ick the Style Hair button. This enables hair editing mode, where you can change the hair length, the direction of growth, and the hair angles.

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5. In the Styling group, cl ick the Scale button and use the slider to increase the brush radius to include the entire object. Turn off the Distance Fade option so the brush influence is the same throughout the entire brush.

6.Move the brush over the guide hairs and decrease the guide length, as shown in the left image of the next i l lustration.

7. In the Utilities panel, cl ick the Recomb button to make the guide hairs droop downward, as shown on the right of the next i l lustration.

8. In the Styling group, cl ick the Stand button, and drag the brush in the Front viewport a l itt le to raise all the guides’ roots, as shown in the next i l lustration.

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9. I f you make a mistake and need to restore the original guides so you can start over, cl ick Finish Styling and then the Regrow Hair button in the Tools rol lout.

10.After the guides are combed as needed, cl ick Finish Styling in the Styling rol lout to exit styl ing mode.

1 1 .Next, you wil l replace the hairs with leaves. In the Instance Node group in the Tools rol lout, cl ick the button labeled None and click the Flat_Leaf object. This changes all the hairs into leaves.

12 . In the Display rol lout, turn off the Display Guides option to hide the guide hairs. Make sure the Display Hairs option is enabled, and enter 100 for the Percentage parameter to show all the leaves in the viewport. Set the Max. Hairs parameter to 30000 .

13. In the General Parameters rol lout, set Hair Count to 30000 . I f this setting crashes your computer, you can use a much lower one, l ike 2500 , just for the purpose of completing the exercise.

14.To make all of the leaves have the same size, set Rand. Scale to 0 in the General Parameters rol lout.

15.Now the leaves look too narrow. To return to the normal proportions of the leaves, set Root Thick to 20 .

16. I f the high number of leaves in the scene slows down your system too much, decrease the Percentage parameter in the Display rol lout. Even with a lower percentage of leaves showing in viewports, you wil l sti l l be able to see enough of the result to finalize the remaining settings.

17. In the General Parameters rol lout, set Cut Length to 80 to shorten the leaves relative to the length of the guide hairs. This lower value wil l also raise the ends of the leaves a l itt le.

18.The other parameters in the Hair and Fur modifier can be left at their default values. If you l ike, you can experiment with additional parameters to make the leaves’ distribution and shape more stylized.

19. In the the BlobMesh01 object’s Object Properties , turn off the Renderable option as shown on the left of the next i l lustration. This wil l hide the BlobMesh object in renderings, leaving just the leaves (hairs).

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20.Save the scene. The result of the work done is shown on the right of the next i l lustration. You can also open Ch03-16.max to compare your result . Note that on 32-bit systems with l imited memory, you can easily crash 3ds Max while rendering this fi le. Reducing the hair count wil l al low for rendering, but the rendering wil l not look as good.

SummaryThis chapter i l lustrated numerous techniques for modeling and texturing organic objects using tools within and outside of 3ds Max. Although there are plenty of shortcuts and numerous ways to speed up your workflow, in the end, you only get out of your scenes what you put into them. As the saying goes, “the devil is in the details,” and good scenes have the kinds of details we demonstrated in this chapter. Modeling and texturing details are equally important and you should strive to build in the same details you see in real l i fe, provided your systems can handle them.

Hopeful ly, you have now been introduced to many new things that you can now incorporate into your workflow.

1

Scarecrow

This is The lasT chapTer on modeling for this project, demonstrating once again how easy and flexible the modeling process can be in 3ds Max. To complete the instruction on modeling and texturing, we chose a relatively complex object — a scarecrow. Working with this object, we wil l demonstrate how to work with a polygonal mesh, texture coordinate unwrapping, and texture painting.

Figure 4-1. The scarecrow created in this chapter

Chapter 4

4-2 S c a r e c r ow

What makes this project interesting is that it is made from multiple objects of different shapes. Before we start modeling these objects, let’s analyze them and choose the most suitable modeling method for each. The scarecrow is made from the fol lowing elements: pumpkin, hat, robe, rope, but-ton, post, and body stuffed with hay. Let’s decide the order in which we wil l create all these elements, and the tools we wil l create them with:

• Head: Sphere primitive

• Hat: Lathe object

• Robe: Cylinder primitive

• Rope: Simple spline with thickness

• Button: Splines

• Post: Splines converted into geometry

• Body: Box modeling

All objects except the rope wil l be converted to an Editable Mesh or Poly for editing. To help speed up model creation, we’re going to add to our l ist of tools. For unwrapping texture

coordinates, we wil l use a program called UV Layout from Headus . This software creates high-quality unwrapped UVWs with minimal distortions, and does so faster and more effectively than traditional unwrapping techniques. A trial version of this software can be downloaded from the company’s web-site at http://www.uvlayout.com.

After unwrapping the UVW coordinates, we wil l create all the necessary textures in Adobe Photoshop, then create additional textures with PixPlant . PixPlant is available as a plug-in for Photo-shop, or as a standalone application. You can download this application from http://www.pixplant.com.

Exercise 1: Modeling the pumpkin head

The pumpkin head has an obviously round shape with a specif ic number of segments, so it makes sense to start with a Sphere . Then we can use ShapeMerge to carve out the eyes and mouth. After that, we wil l edit the wireframe and apply the Shell modifier to give it some thickness. And final ly, we wil l apply the TurboSmooth modifier to smooth out the surface.

1.Open the fi le Ch04-01.max . In the center of the scene you wil l see a Sphere object with Radius = 50 and Segments = 16 .

2.Convert the object to an Editable Poly . Name this object Head .

3. In the Front View go to Vertex sub-object mode and move the vertices at the top of the object along its Z axis as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration, left (before) and right (after).

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4.Select the topmost vertex of this object, as shown in the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration, then hold down Ctrl and click Edge . This wil l select al l edges connected to the selected vertex, as shown in the middle image of the fol lowing i l lustration.

5.With the edges sti l l selected, cl ick Connect to add an additional ring of edges to the object’s wireframe, as shown in the right image.

6. Increase the diameter of the first and second edge loops about 25% . To do this, add any edge on the second edge loop to the current selection, and click the Loop button in the Selection rol lout to select the entire loop. Use Select and Uniform Scale and Edge Constraints to scale the selected edges about 25% along the X and Y axes. Turn off Edge sub-object mode.

7.Apply the Symmetry modifier to this object. Set the Mirror Axis parameter to Z to make the lower half of the pumpkin symmetrical with the upper half.

8.Now you wil l select polygons to indent to form the pumpkin segments. Apply an Edit Poly modifier to the object. In Edge sub-object mode, select any horizontal edge on the object, as shown in the first image of the next i l lustration.

9.Click Ring in the Selection rol lout to select al l edges parallel to the originally selected edge, as shown in the middle image of the fol lowing i l lustration.

10.Hold down Ctrl and click Polygon to convert the selection to polygons, as shown in the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration.

11.Deselect the two polygons at the top and the bottom of the sphere as shown in the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration.

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12.Use the Bevel tool with the parameters shown on the right side of the right image in the fol low-ing i l lustration to bevel the selected polygons.

13.Since we are using Local Normal as our Bevel Type, you can speed up this procedure by select-ing all of the alternating strips of polygons and beveling them all at once. After you’ve finished half of the strips, do the other half ; you should bevel 16 strips in al l . At the end your object should look similar to the left image in the fol lowing i l lustration.

14.Apply the TurboSmooth modifier to this object with Iterations = 1 . This wil l increase the level of detail on the object and make it smoother. The resulting object should look similar to the one shown in the right side of the fol lowing i l lustration.

15.Convert this object to an Editable Poly.

16.Now you wil l add l ight asymmetry and deformation to this object to make it look more organic. From the Tools menu, open the Graphite modeling tools and use the Shift , Push/Pull , and Relax/Soften tools on the Paint Deform menu on the Freeform tab to adjust the object. Have fun sculpting. The fol lowing i l lustration shows an example of l ight deformation on this object.

17.Save your work. If you want you can load the fi le Ch04-02.max to compare your result with a finished model at this stage.

4-5S c a r e c r ow

18.Now let’s create the cutouts to carve out the eyes and mouth. Go to a Front view. On the Create panel go to the Shapes menu and click the Line button.

19.Disable the Start New Shape option, so that when we create additional splines, they wil l al l be part of the same object.

20.Create a spline object that looks l ike half of a jack o’ lantern’s toothy grin. If necessary move the pumpkin geometry back so it is behind the l ine you have created. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

4-6 S c a r e c r ow

21.Go to Spline sub-object mode and select the single Spline that makes up this shape.

22.On the Modify panel go to the Geometry rol lout. Enable the Copy option, turn on the Mirror Hori-zontally button, then click the Mirror button. This wil l create a mirrored copy on top of the original . The result wil l look similar to the left image in the fol lowing i l lustration.

23.On the Main toolbar , right-click the Snaps toggle button to bring up the Grid and Snap Settings dialog. On the Snaps tab, enable the Vertex option, then in the Options tab in the Translation group, turn on the Use Axis Constraints option. Close the dialog box, and press the shortcut S to turn on Snaps .

24.Move the spline along its X axis unti l it snaps to the end of the original spline, as shown in the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration. Now disable snaps by pressing S again.

25.To attach both splines into one, go to the Vertex sub-object mode, select al l of the vertices where the two splines meet, and click Weld on the Geometry rol lout. You may need to increase the Weld Threshold value (to the right of the Weld button), to make sure that vertices that needed to be welded are within the threshold distance..

26.Move vertices around to add light distortion and asymmetry to the object. For example, you can make one bottom tooth longer than the other, and one top tooth sharper than the other.

27.On the Geometry rol lout, cl ick Create Line and create a spline for the eye shape. An angled trian-gular shape is appropriate for a scarecrow. Refer to the left image in the fol lowing i l lustration.

28.Make a mirrored copy of the eye and edit it a l itt le so the eye shapes don’t match exactly. The result should look similar to the right image in the fol lowing i l lustration.

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29. In these instructions, we created all of the splines as part of the same shape. If you accidentally created them as separate objects, use Attach to attach them together into one object. Make sure that you end up with closed splines with al l vertices in the same plane, otherwise the remaining steps won’t work correctly.

Next, we’l l use the ShapeMerge compound object to cut out the mouth and eye holes from the pumpkin object. If you don’t l ike this particular feature, and many artists don’t, you can achieve the same results as this next section by using the ProCutter , Boolean or ProBoolean features; however, you would have to perform the additional steps of extruding the spline object and positioning it properly along the Z axis (as seen from the Front view). As mentioned in the introduction of this book, an important consideration in the production of this book was to show as many features as possible, even if it meant showing a method that is less commonly used. We mention this again here because the ShapeMerge command is not l iked by many veteran artists, although we like it very much and use it often. The ShapeMerge command is not popular, because many artists don’t understand how to use it properly and don’t understand what is happening with it behind the scenes. If you want to learn more about it , please check out the Beginner to Intermediate book from 3DATS, as a thorough description and comparison is provided. The ShapeMerge feature may be problematic if not used properly. We wil l use it in this and the next exercise, but if you do not l ike the results you are getting, we invite you to try the ProBoolean feature.

30.Select the pumpkin object, and select Create ➤ Geometry ➤ Compound Objects ➤ ShapeMerge . Then go to the Modify panel. In the Pick Operand rol lout, cl ick the Pick Shape button and click on the eye/mouth shape. This wil l imprint the spline into the structure of the pumpkin wireframe. You can see the effect if you display edges in the viewport by pressing F4 .

31.Turn on Cookie Cutter in the Operation group to cut holes in the object where the spline is imprinted.

If the operation does not work for you as described, it could be because one of the splines was not closed, the splines overlapped themselves, or the pumpkin itself was not built correctly. If you want, you can perform the exercise with the fi le named Ch04-03.max . In this fi le, the pumpkin object is uncollapsed with the Cookie Cutter option active and with mouth and eyes splines already set. You can also continue on with this fi le if you want.

32.After the cutting process there are extra vertices along the edges of the cutouts, as shown in the top image of the fol lowing i l lustration. Convert the object into an Editable Poly and go to Vertex sub-object mode. On the Selection tab of the Modeling Ribbon , go to the By Numeric group and set Edges = 2 , highlight the Equal (=) button (if not already highlighted), and click the Select icon (the icon that looks l ike a pointer). This wil l select al l of the vertices that have exactly two edges attached to them.

33.Deselect the vertices that you do not want to remove, leaving only those vertices selected that were created by ShapeMerge . Use the Remove tool to remove the extra vertices. In the bottom-left image of the fol lowing i l lustration you can see those vertices selected that need to be removed, and in the bottom-right image you can see the object with extra vertices removed. The Remove tool can be found in the Command panel, the Graphite Tools ribbon, and perhaps most conveniently in the quad menu. As a side note, if you invoke a command via the quad menu, then you can repeat it by just cl icking in the quad header.

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I t is important to note that your geometry wil l not be exactly the same as the geometry shown in the i l lustrations. As such, the exact vertices or edges you select in the upcoming portions of this exercise wil l be different than those selected in the images; however, as long as you understand what is being explained and can translate it to your geometry, you wil l be fine.

34.Now, let’s clean up the geometry. Switching between Vertex and Edge sub-object modes, use the Connect , Target Weld , Edit Vertices , and Cut tools to arrange the topology into four-sided polygons and eliminate tiny triangles. You can also use the PaintConnect tool on the Edit Panel of the Modeling Ribbon . In the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see an example of fixed topology. Save your work when you’ve finished this; you’ve put a lot of effort into this shape so far. If you l ike you can load an interim fi le here for comparison, Ch04-04.max .

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35.To add thickness to this object, apply the Shell modifier to it . Set Inner Amount = .4 , Outer Amount = 0 , and enable the Bevel Edges option.

36. In the Top view, create a spline as shown in the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration. The spline size does not matter in this case because the thickness of the object is defined by the Inner Amount parameter of the Shell modifier. We only need the shape of this spline, because it wil l define the shape of the edge of the pumpkin as shown in the fol lowing few il lustrations.

37.Go to Vertex sub-object mode, select both vertices, and right-click either one to choose Bezier Corner from the quad menu. Adjust the Bezier tangent handles to add curvature to the spline as shown in the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration. In the Interpolation rol lout, set Steps = 4 .

38.Select the Head object. Go to the Modify panel and in the Shell modifier’s parameters, cl ick Bevel Spline. In the active viewport, pick the spline that we created in the previous step. This wil l make the edges of the pumpkin cutouts curve slightly, as if they were cut manually. Notice in the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration that the edges of the cutouts look concave instead of convex, as shown in the left image. If yours appear this way, then go to the spline’s Spline sub-object mode and reverse the spline using the Reverse tool.

The Shell modif ier extruded the outer pumpkin shape with the rib indentations, but the inside of a pumpkin doesn’t have these ribs. Let’s get rid of them by relaxing the polygons on the inside of the pumpkin.

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39.On the Modify panel for the Shell modifier, turn on the Select Inner Faces checkbox. This wil l auto-matically select al l the polygons on the object’s inner surface.

40.Apply an Edit Poly modifier and go to Polygon sub-object mode. On the Selection rol lout cl ick Shrink three times to deselect the polygons around the openings. On the Edit Geometry rol lout cl ick Relax Settings , and in the Relax dialog box, set Amount = 1 and Iterations = 5 . Click OK .

41.Now you wil l add some edges to the teeth to help them keep their overall shape when the TurboSmooth modifier is applied later on. Go to Edge sub-object mode and select any vertical edge on the tooth, as shown in the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration. Click Ring to select parallel edges, then click Connect Settings. In the Connect Edge settings dialog box, adjust the Slide parameter so that the new edges created with the Connect tool wil l be shifted toward the end of the tooth, as shown in the right image. Repeat this procedure for each tooth.

If you apply a TurboSmooth modifier now, you wil l f ind that it smoothes out the eye openings too much, as shown in the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration. To prevent this from happening, you can do one of two things: you can use the MeshSmooth modifier instead of TurboSmooth and you can select the edges that you want to stay sharp and set their Crease parameter to 1 .0 , or you can add extra edges to the eye. Adding extra edges gives you more control over the shape, al lowing the edges to smooth a l itt le without going completely sharp.

42.Go to Edge sub-object mode and select an edge, as shown in the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration.

43.While holding down Ctrl on the keyboard, cl ick the down arrow on the spinner next to the Ring button several times to select all the parallel edges around the outer upper corner of the eye.

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44.Click Connect Settings and in the Connect Edges dialog box set Segments = 2 , Pinch = 70 , Slide = 0 . Click OK .

45.Go to Vertex sub-object mode. Select two vertices as shown in the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration, and click Connect to connect the selected vertices with an edge. Repeat this pro-cedure to connect the two other vertices near the middle of the eye cutout (see the middle image of the fol lowing i l lustration).

46.Go to Edge sub-object mode, select the new edges you just created, and click Connect Settings . Set Segments = 1 , Pinch = 0 , Slide = 0 , and click OK to add the new edge to the wireframe.

47. In the Edit Geometry rol lout, in the Constraints group, enable the Face option to constrain the edge transformations to the existing polygons, then scale this new edge down with Select and Uniform Scale . Refer to the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration.

48.Repeat the same procedure around the outer lower part of the eye, then repeat again on the other eye. The result should be similar to the left image in the fol lowing i l lustration.

49.Collapse the model to an Editable Poly , then to squash the pumpkin a l itt le bit, apply a Stretch modifier to the object with the fol lowing parameters: Stretch = -0.1 , Amplify = -14.7 , Stretch Axis = Z . Your parameters may differ from these depending on the topology of your model.

50.Assign a TurboSmooth modifier to the object, and set Iterations = 1 . The object should look similar to right image in the fol lowing i l lustration. The TurboSmooth modifier is assigned in order to visually evaluate the quality of the model; later you wil l want to remove it before unwrapping the texture coordinates.

51.Save your scene. You can also open Ch04-05.max to compare the results.

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Exercise 2: Modeling the hat

Now let’s create the hat. We wil l model the hat as a Lathe object and then tweak the geometry after collapsing it to an Editable Poly . We’l l cut holes on the hat’s surface with the ShapeMerge and Boolean compound objects. Then we wil l add thickness to the hat with the Shell modifier and clean it up as an Editable Poly.

1.Reset 3ds Max, go to a Front view, and create a spline similar to the one shown in the fol lowing i l lustration, or open Ch04-06.max , which contains this spline. In the Interpolation rol lout set Steps = 12 to give us a good level of detail for when we apply the Lathe modifier to the spline.

2.To prepare for the Lathe operation, we wil l position the spline’s pivot point at the right end of the object. Go to the Hierarchy panel and click Affect Pivot Only . Click the Align icon on the Main toolbar and with the parameters from the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration, al ign the spline’s pivot point to the right end of the spline. Click OK . The right image shows the result . Click Affect Pivot Only again to turn it off.

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3.Apply a Lathe modifier to this spline. Set Degrees = 360 , turn on Flip Normals and Weld core , set Segments = 40 , and in the Direction group click Y to set the revolution axis. The resulting object should look similar to the left image in the fol lowing i l lustration. If the object appears to be inside-out, try turning Flip Normals on and off to see which way the hat looks best.

4.Add the Edit Poly modifier, then on the Modeling Ribbon go to the Freeform tab, and in the Paint Deform menu, use the Shift , Push/Pull , and Relax/Soften tools to add variation to the object’s shape. Refer to the right image in the fol lowing i l lustration for an example.

5.Apply a Relax modifier to slightly soften out the object. Set Relax Value = 0.5 , Iterations = 7 . Collapse the object to an Editable Poly .

6.Now let’s create ragged shapes to cut holes from the hat’s brim. Draw a few splines in the shape of frayed holes, similar to those in the left image in the fol lowing i l lustration. You can continue with the scene Ch04-07.max that has the hat geometry and splines for frayed holes already prepared for your convenience, or if you choose to continue with your model you can simply merge the splines from that fi le.

7.Go to the Top view and position the splines in relation to the hat’s brim, as shown in the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration. Be sure to place the splines in such a way that they extend beyond the edge of the brim, at least by a small amount.

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8.Select the hat and enable the ShapeMerge command. Go to the Modify panel and on the Pick Operand rol lout cl ick Pick Shape and click each spline. Enable the Cookie Cutter option to cut the spline shapes from the geometry. The hat’s brim shown in the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration has these holes cut out.

Now let’s cut a hole in the hat’s crown using a Boolean compound object.

9.Copy one of the splines and reorient it in the Front view as shown in the left image of the fol-lowing i l lustration. Apply an Extrude modifier to it and adjust the Amount parameter so the object is thick enough to go completely through the crown on that side of the hat. Refer to the right image in the fol lowing i l lustration to see how far to extrude the shape and how to position it correctly.

10.Select the hat. From the Compound Objects panel, select Boolean . On the Parameters rol lout, select the Subtraction (A-B) option. On the Pick Boolean rol lout cl ick Pick Operand B , then in the active viewport pick the extruded spline. This subtracts the extruded shape from the hat, cut-ting a hole in the hat’s crown.

11.Apply a Shell modifier to the object to give it thickness. Set Inner Amount = 1 and Outer Amount = 0 .

12.Because the ShapeMerge and Boolean compound objects added additional vertices along the edges of the cutouts, there are errors in the geometry after we apply the Shell modifier. To fix this, apply an Edit Poly modifier to the object and drag/move this modifier below the Shell modifier in the Modifier Stack . Turn on the Show End Result on/off toggle. In this way, we can correct the hat’s geometry before the Shell modifier is applied and see the end result while we work.

13.Go to Vertex sub-object mode of the Edit Poly modifier, and use the Weld , Target Weld , and Remove tools to weld or remove vertices in the areas where errors show up on the final geometry. An example of such an area is shown in the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration. The result of using the Weld tool to weld vertices and get rid of errors is shown in the the right image.

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14.Collapse the object to Editable Poly and save your work. If you’ve had problems, you can con-tinue by loading Ch04-08.max . Now you wil l delete some polygons to make it easier to select the inside of the hat, and for mapping later on. Add the Edit Poly modifier at the top of the Modifier Stack , access Edge sub-object mode, and select the edges on the inner surface of the hat, as shown in the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration. Delete the selected edges.

15.Now, we wil l clean up the edges along the inside of the hole. Select any edge along the inside of the hole, and click Ring to select al l parallel edges, as shown in the right image of the fol-lowing i l lustration. Delete the selected edges.

16.Go to Element sub-object mode and select the inner surface of the hat’s crown, refer to the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration. Delete the selected geometry.

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17.Exit sub-object mode. Apply the Turn to Poly modifier. Enable the Keep Polygons Convex , Limit Polygon Size and Remove Mid-Edge Vertices options, and set Max Size = 4 . Max Size l imits poly-gons to having no more than 4 edges; any polygons with more than 4 sides wil l be split into 3- and 4-sided polygons, which is a good modeling practice for clean topology. Keep Polygons Convex works for some models and not others, and it’s best to just try it and see how it affects your model. Limit Polygon Size causes the Max Size to be enforced. Remove Mid-Edge Vertices cleans up bad topology.

18.Apply a Smooth modifier to the object. Enable the Auto Smooth option, and set Threshold = 30.0 .

19.Collapse the object to an Editable Poly .

20.The hat model is now finished. Save your fi le. Your result should look similar to the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration. You can also open Ch04-09.max and compare your results.

Exercise 3: Modeling the robe and body

The scarecrow’s robe and body are modeled using tools described in earl ier exercises, so while the instructions are given in this exercise, they’re not given in as much detail as before. If you want to see how well you can figure out which tools to use, you can simply fol low along with the pictures and use any tools you l ike.

The scarecrow’s robe is modeled from a cylinder, and the body with a box. After we finish mod-eling the body, we wil l use the Cloth modifier to make the robe hang on the body realistical ly. The rope wil l be created from a simple spline object wrapped around the body. The button and the post wil l start out as splines, then become geometry that we wil l tweak with polygonal modeling tools.

Let’s start with the robe.

1.Reset 3ds Max .

2.Create a Cylinder primitive with the parameters shown in the fol lowing i l lustration, and convert it to an Editable Poly . Name the object Robe_Low_Poly .

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3.To start forming the sleeves, use the Extrude tool to extrude polygons at the top of the object to 90 units , as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

4.Delete all end polygons to create openings for the hands, neck and the bottom of the robe, as shown in the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration.

5.Add additional edges, as shown in the middle image.

6.Select polygons as shown in the right image and delete them to split the front of the robe into left and right sides.

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7.Use Target Weld and other tools to shape and clean up the wireframe, including the collar. In the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see the vertices on both sides of the robe that need to be target-welded to vertices on each side. In the right i l lustration, you can see the result after vertices are welded.

8.Using the tools to modify vertices, edges, and polygons, adjust this object to look similar to the first two images of the fol lowing i l lustration. Apply the TurboSmooth modifier with 1 iteration and collapse the object to an Editable Poly ; at this stage the model should look similar to the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration. Compare your result to the fi le Ch04-10.max .

Normally, it is fine to continue with the geometry creation and unwrap the texture coordinates after the geometry is finished; however, because the final version of the robe model is going to be high-poly, unwrapping the texture coordinates would be much easier at this stage.

The detailed explanation of the process of unwrapping texture coordinates in UVLayout wil l be provided in the second half of this chapter; however, because we want to continue working on the model at this stage after it has been unwrapped, we are providing it for your convenience.

The fi le exchange between 3ds Max and UVLayout is done via the OBJ fi le format, so the low-poly version of the robe model with the unwrapped texture coordinates is provided in OBJ format.

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9.Select the Robe_Low_Poly object and from the application menu choose Export ➤ Export Selected . Export the robe to the fi le Robe_Low_Poly.obj . In the OBJ Export Options window, use the parameters shown in the left image of the next i l lustration, and click Export to save the fi le. We wil l use this exported model later to explain how the unwrapping in UVLayout was done prior to continuing with the next step.

10.Now delete the Robe_Low_Poly object from your scene. From the application menu choose Import ➤ Import , and select the Robe_Unwrapped.obj fi le. In the OBJ Import Options window use the parameters shown in the right image of the next i l lustration, and click Import .

11.Apply a TurboSmooth modifier to the robe with Iterations = 2 , and convert the object into an Edit-able Poly . This wil l give you enough detail to add wrinkles to the robe.

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12. In the Modeling Ribbon , go to the Paint Deform group of the Freeform tab and use multiple defor-mation tools to simulate wrinkles on the robe. The result should be similar to the fol lowing i l lustration. You can also load the fi le Ch04-11.max to compare or continue.

13. In preparation for creating the scarecrow’s body, select the robe and press Alt+X on the key-board to make it see-through in the viewports.

14.Create a Box with Height Segs = 4 and position it inside the robe. Change the box’s dimensions as necessary to fit it inside the right side of the robe. Name the object Body .

15.Convert the box to an Editable Poly . Extrude one polygon to start forming the arm.

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16.Shape the box using any of the tools, adding edges and polygons and moving vertices to form the right side of the body, as shown in the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration. After working with one side of the object, apply a Symmetry modifier to create the other side, as shown in the right image.

17.Collapse the object into an Editable Poly , and continue shaping the object so it’s not perfectly symmetrical . Apply the TurboSmooth modifier with Iterations = 2 and make sure the body object is not intersecting the robe. Save your work. You can also load the fi le Ch04-12.max to con-tinue at this point, if you l ike.

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Now, we wil l use the Cloth modifier to drape the robe over the body. The Cloth modifier uses a simulation of gravity to make the cloth fal l along the Z axis, and detects when the cloth coll ides with another object. Parts of the cloth that coll ide wil l stop moving and settle against the object they’ve coll ided with, while parts that don’t coll ide wil l sway and drape like real fabric. You wil l make the robe fal l unti l its shoulder area hits the body, and lower parts of the robe wil l fal l and drape natural ly.

18.Select the robe and apply a Cloth modifier to it .

19.Click the Object Properties button in the Object rol lout of the Cloth modifier. In the Object Proper-ties window select the Robe object, and choose the Cloth option. In the Cloth Properties group, select the Burlap preset from the dropdown menu. This preset wil l make the cloth behave like very thin burlap, which is a l ight, loose fabric (not stiff) .

20.Click the Add Objects button, select the Body object, then click Add . In the Object Properties dialog choose the Collision Object option. Leave the other parameters at their default values and click OK .

Now let’s define the vertices that we want to stay fixed (unmoving) during the cloth simulation. We want the robe to look as though it’s held in place with a button at the top and the rope tie at the waist. To create this effect, we want to fix in place the two rows of vertices around the waist and the vertices in the button area.

21.Go to the Group sub-object mode of the Cloth modifier, and start selecting vertices. You can select the two rows of vertices in the waist area by selecting two vertices from each row, as shown in the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration, and clicking the Loop button. Then select about twelve vertices in the button area, as shown in the right image of the fol lowing i l lus-tration.

22.After al l the fixed vertices are selected, cl ick the Make Group button. Enter a name for the group and click OK to confirm. Then click the Preserve button to disable any deformation of this group of vertices during the cloth simulation. The vertices are now fixed in place.

23.To prevent the robe from intersecting itself during the simulation, go to the root level of the Cloth modifier, and in the Simulation parameters rol lout enable the Self Collision option.

24.Now we’re ready to do the cloth simulation. In the Simulation group in the Object rol lout, cl ick Simulate Local (Damped) to start the simulation. Wait unti l the cloth completely drapes over the body of the scarecrow. When the cloth has almost stopped moving, cl ick Simulate Local (Damped) again to stop the simulation.

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25. I f the cloth intersected (went through) the body during the simulation process, stop the simula-tion and undo it by pressing Ctrl+Z . In the Simulation Parameters rol lout, increase the Subsample parameter to 5 units and try again. This increase wil l cause the simulation to make more cal-culations and thus be more accurate, but it wil l also take longer. If you sti l l have problems with the cloth going through the body, continue to increase the Subsample parameter 5 units at a time, keeping an eye on the simulation time so it doesn’t become too long. Such intersec-tions can also be caused by too l itt le detail in the cloth and body wireframes, so you can also try increasing the Depth and Offset parameters in the Collision Properties section of the Object Properties window.

26.When you’re satisfied with the cloth simulation, convert the robe to an Editable Poly . Save your scene. You can open the fi le Ch04-13.max to compare results.

Exercise 4: Modeling the rope, post, and button

1.Let’s create the rope. On the robe, select a horizontal loop of edges, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration. In the Edit Edges rol lout, cl ick Create Shape From Selection , set Shape Type to Smooth , cl ick OK . That wil l extract a spline from the selected edges.

2.Select the new spline and apply a Normalize Spl . modif ier to it with Seg Length = 10 . This wil l rebuild the spline with fewer vertices spaced evenly throughout the spline.

3.Collapse this object into an Editable Spline . In the Rendering rol lout enable the Enable In Renderer and Enable In Viewport options, and set Thickness = 4.5 .

4.Move the spline’s vertices around to create a knot, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration. Add vertices as needed. Two shaded and wireframe views are provided for reference.

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5.Apply a Mesh Select modifier to the spline. Go to Polygon sub-object mode and select the poly-gons at the ends of the rope. Apply a Relax modifier and adjust its parameters, in order to round out the ends of the rope.

6.Name the object Rope and collapse it to an Editable Poly .

7.Now you wil l create a T-shaped post to hold the scarecrow. Create a spline that goes horizon-tal ly through the sleeves, and a vertical spline going through the body and robe. Either create these splines as part of the same shape, or use Attach to attach them together after you create them.

8. In the Rendering rol lout turn on Enable In Renderer and Enable In Viewport . Set Thickness = 8 and Sides = 16 . In the Interpolation rol lout set Steps = 30 , and turn off Optimize and Adaptive . Your results should look similar to the fol lowing i l lustration.

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9.Convert the spline to an Editable Poly . Delete all of the polygons on the post that are hidden by the body, as these polygons are not needed.

10.Apply a Noise modifier to the object using the parameters from the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration. Collapse the object to an Editable Poly .

11.Now let’s round off the ends of the post that go through the sleeves. Before you can do this, you’l l need to change the topology of each post cap so it isn’t al l one face. Select the poly-gons at the end of the post, and use the Inset tool to inset the selected polygons by a small amount. Then collapse the selected polygons. This replaces the single cap face with a pie configuration of polygons. Refer to the first three images in the fol lowing i l lustration.

12.To round off the post, select edges at the end of the post as shown in the fourth image in the fol lowing i l lustration. Use Chamfer with Chamfer Amount = 2.35 and Segments = 3 . This wil l round off the ends of the post, as shown in the last image in the fol lowing i l lustration.

13.Let’s create a crack in one side of the post to make it look weathered. Add two edges to the wireframe, as shown in the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration. Add the same two edges to the back side of the object so that four edges total are created. Then select the same poly-gons on both the front and back, as shown in the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration. Delete these polygons.

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14.Use the Bridge tool to build polygons inside the crack along its lower half as shown in the fol-lowing i l lustration. Repeat this for the upper half of the crack.

15.Adjust the vertices at the end of the post to flatten them out, as shown in the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration. Select vertices as shown in this image, and use Collapse to collapse the selected vertices into one vertex.

16.Use Connect to add edges to the middle of the crack, as shown in the right image of the fol low-ing i l lustration.

17.Select the four edges as shown in the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration and use the Bridge tool to connect them. Repeat this operation on the other set of four edges on the opposite side of the crack.

18.Bend the end of the crack to give it a more realistic look, as shown in the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration. Move and rotate vertices as needed to create this effect.

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19.Apply a Smooth modifier to this object, and turn on the Auto Smooth checkbox. Convert the object into an Editable Poly .

Let’s finish up by creating the button. This object wil l be quite low-poly, since we are not planning to render any close-ups of this small object, a high level of detail is not necessary.

20.Continue with the current scene or open Ch04-14.max . Create five Circle shapes. Set the Radius of the first shape to 4.7 and the Radius of the four other shapes to 1 . For each shape, in the Interpolation rol lout set Steps = 3 and turn on the Optimize checkbox. Position all of the circles as shown in the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration, and make sure they’re all on the same plane.

21.Add an Edit Spline modifier to the larger circle and use the Attach tool to attach all the other circles to it . Convert the object to an Editable Poly , and name it Button .

22.Go to the Border sub-object mode and select the outer border of the object. Hold down Shift while scaling the selected edges out. This wil l copy the edges and create a rim of polygons around the object. Refer to the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration for the result .

23.Select the new rim of polygons and use Bevel on them, then modify the object with the Connect and Remove tools to make it look l ike the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration.

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24.Select the outer border and the borders of the four holes of the button. In the side view, drag the selected edges toward the back of the button while holding down Shift , to create another rim of polygons, as shown in the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration.

25.With the same edges sti l l selected, apply the Symmetry modifier to the object. Leaving the edges selected should automatically make the Symmetry modifier mirror the button along the plane of the selected edges. Your button should look l ike the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration.

26.Convert the object into an Editable Poly . Now you can remove all the selected edges, as shown in the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration.

27.Select the polygons inside the button holes. Use Bevel to slightly bevel the selected polygons, as shown in the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration.

28.Apply a Smooth modifier to the object and then click AutoSmooth and adjust the Threshold as needed. This ensures all of the parts of the geometry are assigned to the same smoothing group. The result should look l ike the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration.

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29.Collapse the button into an Editable Poly , and save the scene.

30.Assemble all of the scarecrow’s elements into one scene using Merge . Then using the Soft Selection feature, select and manipulate the appropriate vertices on the right fold of the robe so that both folds appear to be buttoned up by the button in the middle. Make sure all the ele-ments are properly named and position them so they look similar to the fol lowing i l lustration. You can open Ch04-15.max to compare your result .

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Exercise 5: Creating unwrapped maps

Before we create maps for the scarecrow, let’s take a look at the concept of unwrapping a model so it can be mapped.

A bitmap is flat, but a model is not. The unwrapping process breaks your model into several pieces and flattens them out so they can be associated with different parts of a bitmap. The model itself is unaffected by this process; it’s al l done internally just for the purpose of mapping. For exam-ple, the right image in Figure 4-2 shows how you might break apart the scarecrow’s hat for mapping. The left image shows how these pieces relate to the original hat.

Figure 4-2. The scarecrow’s hat broken apart for mapping

You do have some control over how the model is broken up. To make the mapping process work efficiently, you should break the model into as few pieces (clusters) as possible. You should also endeavor to break the model along natural seams. If this isn’t possible, you should break the model in areas where the resulting texture seam won’t be too noticeable, such as the back of a model where the camera is unlikely to view it up close.

When discussing unwrapping, we refer to unwrapped polygons as “patches”. Each patch corre-sponds to a polygon on the model. A set of connected patches is called a “cluster”.

With mapping, you’l l want to use a square bitmap to maximize efficiency and save time. (3ds Max renders with square bitmaps faster than with non-square maps.) This means you need to fit the clusters into a square texture space, as shown in the right image of Figure 4-2. You should move around odd-shaped clusters to fit in a square area in the most eff icient manner. This process is called “packing”. For example, in Figure 4-2 the three round clusters at the bottom of the texture space have been packed to make the most of the available space.

When scaling clusters, be aware of the scale of clusters relative to one another—if one cluster is scaled and another isn’t, then the bitmap wil l show at a different scale for those clusters. In such a case, you’d need to keep track of which cluster is at which scale. In general, you’l l want to scale all clusters for an object at once so they all retain the same scale relative to one another.

In order to correctly gauge any stretching of the texture over curved surfaces (such as the pumpkin head), you can use a control texture for testing. A control texture is usually a checkered pattern that, when mapped over an object, clearly shows you areas where the map is stretching, as the checkers wil l stretch noticeably over those areas. Then you can adjust the mapping unti l you’re

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satisfied that it’s evenly distributed. Examples of commonly used control textures are shown in Figure 4-3.

Figure 4-3. Commonly used control textures

3ds Max has the Unwrap UVW modifier, which can do all the tasks related to unwrapping, mapping, and working with clusters. However, we are going to use a program called UVLayout instead. This pro-gram automates many unwrapping operations, making the entire process much easier and faster. You can download a free trial version of UVLayout from http://www.uvlayout.com. On the web site, cl ick on “try” and download the appropriate demo version. When you launch the program, make sure you click “Try Professional Version” or many of the tools discussed below wil l not be available.

To work with this program, we wil l export the finished models to OBJ format so we can import them into UVLayout. When we’re done, we’l l import the OBJ back into 3ds Max. Let’s get started.

1.Open Ch04-16.max , which has all of the scarecrow models that wil l be exported in OBJ format so that they can be opened in UVLayout for unwrapping. Note that this fi le has the low-poly versions of the head and the robe models.

2.Select the Head object and from the Application menu choose Export ➤ Export Selected . Export the head to the fi le Head.obj . In the OBJ Export Options window, uncheck all options except Flip YZ-axis (Poser-like) . On the Faces dropdown list choose Polygons , and set Scale = 1 .

3.Start the UV Layout program. Take a moment and read the user guide, by clicking About UVLayout ➤ View User Guide or watch the quick intro videos on the website to gain an understanding of the interface, tools, and procedures within this program.

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4.Click Load and choose Head.obj . In the Load Options window, select Type = SUBD . This wil l soften its UVW coordinates in relation to the object’s wireframe, which wil l help us with smoothing later on. Set UVs = New because we wil l create new texturing coordinates instead of editing existing ones. Click Load to load the fi le. In the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see the program’s interface.

5.Click-and-drag with the left mouse button to orbit around an object and click-and-drag with the right mouse button to zoom in and out. Click-and-drag the middle mouse button to pan. If you are having trouble rotating around the object, cl ick on Free in the axis constraint section.

First we wil l separate the outer surface of the pumpkin head from the rest of the geometry. In order to do that we need to specify the seams along which the outer surface needs to be sepa-rated.

In order to designate a seam, position the mouse cursor over the edge and push C key on the keyboard; this edge wil l be highlighted in red and the program wil l also automatically select a l ine of contiguous edges and wil l highlight them in yellow. If the selection did not extend to the desired length, simply continue adding more edges to it . If the selection extends beyond the desired length of the seam and needs to be trimmed, position your mouse cursor over the edge that represents the desired end of the seam, press C to highlight it in red, then position the mouse cursor over the side of the edge that you want to be trimmed off and press W . In the i l lustrations that fol low, when we refer to certain seams we have highlighted them in red so that you can easily see what we are referring to. While you are working in the program you may notice that they are actually highlighted in yellow.

6.Using the technique described above, select the edges as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

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7.To cut and detach the geometry along the selected edges position the mouse pointer over the pumpkin head and press Enter on the keyboard. The program wil l detach the outer surface from the rest of the geometry and wil l also slightly shift it to show the separation effect.

Then move the separated outer surface to the side by dragging it with the Middle Mouse Button while holding Space .

In the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration you can see the outer surface of the pumpkin head separated from the rest of the geometry and in the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration you can see it moved to the side.

8.Now we need to cut the seam on the back of the outer surface so that it can be unwrapped. Using the above described technique, select the seam, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration, and press Shift+S to cut along it .

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9.Create seams to separate the object as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration. Detach and cut the inner surface of the pumpkin head, the inside edges of the eyes and mouth openings, and the top and bottom caps on the inside and the outside. You can rearrange the separated parts of the object in the workspace as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

10.To transfer each element into the UV editing window, move the cursor over the element and press D on the keyboard. You can open the UV window by pressing 1 on the keyboard. When all the elements are in the UV window, the window wil l look similar to the fol lowing i l lustration. As a side note, there is a Split Pane button that you can use to split the single workspace window into two. Then you can use the shortcut key 1 to make first window a UV window, and 2 to toggle the second one to the Edit window. If you want to come back to a single window workspace, you can click the Kill All Panes button.

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Next you wil l f latten out the objects in the UV window. There are two processes you can use for this: one for simple objects and one for more complex objects.

11. In the UV window, position the cursor over one of the round elements, cl ick on it to select it , and press Shift+F on the keyboard. This wil l start the process of unwrapping the element to a flat surface. Watch the process unti l you see no more visible changes to the element, then press Space to stop the flattening and start the process of relaxing and evening out the patches. Press Space to stop the relaxing process. This two-step process is appropriate for more complex elements l ike round surfaces.

12. For simpler elements that are already somewhat flat, l ike the top and bottom caps, you can use a faster unwrapping process. Move the cursor over the element, press and hold F on the keyboard to start the unwrapping process. When you see no more visible changes to the element, release the F button to stop the process.

13.Using either of these two processes, f latten and unwrap all elements. To better arrange unwrapped clusters in the workspace, use Space + Left Mouse Button to rotate, and Space + Middle Mouse Button to move them if needed.

14.After you unwrap all the elements, open the Pack rol lout, set Quality = Best and click Pack All . This wil l rearrange all the clusters in the texture space to use it more efficiently.

15. I f you need to correct the placement of some clusters, you can rotate or move them by holding down the Space bar and using your Middle or Left Mouse Button . The unwrapped, packed clus-ters are shown in the next i l lustration.

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16.Patches shaded in red and blue indicate stretched or squashed texturing coordinates. Press 3 on the keyboard to switch to the 3D window and see how the texture coordinates affect the texture on the object. In the 3D window, press T on the keyboard to make the control texture visible, and use the Plus (+) and Minus (–) keys to change its size.

17.Click Save and export the fi le as Head.obj fi le. If you are using the trial version, you may not be able to save or export. We have provided a finished copy of the fi le Head_Unwrapped.obj , which you can use instead.

18. In 3ds Max , delete the existing head model and import Head.obj (or Head_Unwrapped.obj) back into your scene. On the OBJ Import Options dialog box, disable all the options except Import as Editable Poly , Flip ZY-axis , Center Pivots , and Texture coordinates . In the Normals group, choose the Import from file option. Click Import .

19.Apply an Unwrap UVW modifier to the object and click Edit to check that the unwrapping has imported correctly. The clusters in the Edit UVWs window should look similar to the way they did in the UVLayout program.

20.Next, you wil l unwrap the hat. Export the hat from 3ds Max as an OBJ fi le and open it in UVLayout , but this time in the Load Options window choose Type = Poly .

21. For the hat, use the same process that you used on the pumpkin head to create seams, unwrap the clusters, export the fi le, and import into 3ds Max. The left image of the fol lowing i l lustration shows where to place seams and break down the hat into elements, and the right image shows the result of f lattening the elements and packing the clusters.

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22.Load the Robe_Low_Poly.obj object that we exported earl ier and cut two seams as shown in the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration. Unwrap the object into one cluster.

23.Click the Find button next to the Symmetry parameter. Select an edge at the center of the robe to indicate that it wil l be a symmetry axis, and press Space on the keyboard. This wil l t int half of the patch darker, indicating that the tinted half of the object wil l assume the shape of the non-tinted half of the object. If you want to switch sides, press Shift+S on the keyboard.

24.Press S on the keyboard to apply symmetry. In the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration you can see the unwrapped robe patches. Export the fi le and import it into the 3ds Max scene you were just working on.

We just imported the unwrapped low-poly robe model back into 3ds Max just for demonstration purposes; this is how you would unwrap the robe model and import it back to 3ds Max before you add details to it as we did in the beginning of this chapter.

25.Delete the low-poly robe model and merge the detailed Robe model from the fi le Ch04-15.max .

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26.To unwrap all the other parts of the scarecrow, you can use the UVW Map modifier, which was demonstrated in previous chapters.

27.Save your scene in 3ds Max. You can open Ch04-17.max to compare results.

Exercise 6: Painting textures

In this exercise, we wil l explain in detail the process of creating textures for the scarecrow’s head, robe and hat. We’l l paint the textures in Photoshop , and then we’l l create Normal maps using a program called PixPlant . PixPlant can be used as either a Photoshop plug-in, or as a standalone application. You can download a free demo version of the software from http://www.pixplant.com.

Let’s start with the texture for the pumpkin head. However, before we work in Photoshop, we need to export the unwrapped UVW map to an image fi le so we can use it for reference. Let’s start the exercise.

1.Open Ch04-17.max , or open your own version of this fi le.

2.We wil l start by exporting a template to use as a guide while painting the texture. Select the Head object. In the Modify panel, cl ick the Edit button in the Unwrap UVW modifier. In the Edit UVWs window, choose Tools ➤ Render UVW Template . In the Render UVs dialog box, set the image size to 2048x2048 and click the Render UV Template button. Save the image as Head_UV.jpg .

3.Open Photoshop , and open Head_UV.jpg .

4.To make the current layer editable, select Layers menu ➤ New ➤ Layer From Background , and click OK in the New Layer window. Name this layer UV_Layer .

5.Press Ctrl+I on the keyboard to invert the layer’s colors, then click Shift+Ctrl+U to desaturate it .

6.Double-click the layer in the Layers panel to open the Layer Style window. You can also right-click the layer and choose Blending Options to open this window. Change the layer’s Blend Mode to Multiply with Opacity = 40% .

7.Set Foreground Color = R:185, G:95, B:35 (l ight orange) and Background Color = R:140, G:41, B:11 (dark orange).

8.Press Ctrl+Shift+N on the keyboard to create a new layer, then press Shift+Backspace to fi l l the new layer with the foreground color. Name this layer Light_Orange .

9.Rearrange the layers so that UV_Layer is the top layer. Throughout the texture creation pro-cess, this layer should always stay on top so we can use it as a reference when texture painting.

10.Create a new layer named Dark_Orange and place it above the Light_Orange layer.

11. Fil l the Dark_Orange layer with the Background Color , then use the Gradient tool to draw and add a Mask to this layer. Refer to the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration to see what the gradient mask should look l ike. The resulting image should look similar to right image in the fol lowing i l lustration.

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12.Press Ctrl+J to make a copy of the Dark_Orange layer, and name the new layer Dark_Fibers . Delete the layer’s mask. Apply Filter ➤ Render ➤ Fibers and set Variance = 20 , Strength = 5 .

13.Set the Dark_Fibers layer’s Blend Mode to Lighten and set Opacity = 40% . Add a Mask to the layer as shown in the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration in order to hide this layer for areas rep-resenting the top and bottom caps of the hat.

14.Copy the Dark_Fibers layer, set the Blend Mode of the new layer to Darken , and rename the new layer Light Fibers . Remove the layer’s mask.

The layer structure at this point should look l ike the right side of the fol lowing i l lustration.

The resulting image should look similar to the fol lowing i l lustration.

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15.Create a new layer and call it Fat_Stroke . Set its blending mode to Darken . Press X on the key-board to switch the Background Color and Foreground Color swatches. Paint dark stripes in the areas between pumpkin segments as shown in the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration.

16.Create a new layer and call it Thin_Dirt . Change its Blend Mode to Color Burn and paint another set of stripes in the same areas.

17.Use the Eraser tool with different brushes to add variety to the Thin_Dirt layer as shown in the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration.

18.Create a new layer and place Head_Pattern_1.jpg into it . Name the layer Roughness . You may have to ti le the pattern to fi l l the parts of the canvas that it should cover.

19.Change the layer’s Blend Mode to Linear Dodge (Add) . In the Blend if group, set the sliders as shown in the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration. Set the layer’s Opacity to 10% . As a result, you should be able to see a network of small cracks in the texture, as shown in the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration.

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20.Now let’s add larger and deeper cracks on the protruding parts of the pumpkin exterior. Create a new layer and place Head_Pattern_2.jpg into it . Name the layer Cracks . You may have to scale the image up to cover the canvas.

21.Change the layer’s Blend Mode to Linear Light . Set the Blend If sl iders as shown in the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration. Change Opacity to 60% and mask the areas between pumpkin seg-ments because large cracks would not be present in these areas. In the right image, you can see the texture with large cracks added to its protruding sections.

22.Now let’s create a texture for the pumpkin flesh on the mouth and eye openings. Create a new layer, name it Flesh , and create a rectangular selection around the areas that represent the eye and mouth openings. Fi l l it with the l ightest color from your Foreground/Background swatches. See the fol lowing i l lustration for reference.

23.Apply Filter ➤ Sketch ➤ Reticulation , and set Density = 12 , Foreground Level = 40 , Background Level = 5 .

24.Add a Hue/Saturation Adjustment layer to the current layer and set Saturation = +16 . The fol lowing i l lustration shows how the layer should look.

25.Add a new layer with the Blend Mode set to Overlay . Name the Layer Green . Using a brush with different Opacity values, paint in dark green areas simulating unripe areas.

26.Using the same technique, add another layer, name it Green Dirt and paint the areas with a dif-ferent green hue to vary the texture. You can open Scare_Head_Catapult.psd in the support fi les for reference.

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27.The texture painting process is complete. Hide UV_Layer and save the fi le as Scare_Head.psd . You should also save the fi le as a JPG with the same name. You wil l use the JPG fi le as a tex-ture in 3ds Max.

Exercise 7: Creating additional maps

In this exercise, you wil l use the PixPlant standalone application or plug-in for Photoshop to create additional maps that wil l contribute to a rich, complex material in 3ds Max. PixPlant analyzes dark and l ight areas of the image and creates Normals maps and Specular maps from this information. To pre-vent the creation of extra textures, we wil l need to delete some dark layers from the Photoshop fi le. We wil l also make the cracks darker so PixPlant wil l interpret them as dents.

First, you wil l need to prepare the textures for PixPlant.

1.Continue from the previous exercise or open Scare_Head_Catapult.psd in the support fi les. . Delete the Fat_Stroke , Thin_Dirt , Green, and UV_Layers.

2.Select the Cracks layer, and change its Blend Mode to Linear Burn .

3.Adjust the Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer of the Flesh layer, set Lightness = -50 . This wil l darken this layer and lower the highlights on the pumpkin flesh.

4.Select the entire image by pressing Ctrl+A , and use Image ➤ Crop to crop the image to just the parts within the canvas area.

5.Save the fi le as Scare_Head_Mod_For_PixPlant.psd . You can open Scare_Head_Mod_For_PixPlant_Catapult.psd for reference.

6.Use Layer ➤ Flatten Image to merge all layers into one.

7.Save the fi le as a JPG with the fol lowing name: Scare_Head_Mod_For_PixPlant.jpg.

8.Open the PixPlant application and open the fi le Scare_Head_Mod_For_PixPlant.jpg .

9. In the PixPlant window, leave all the parameters at their default values, cl ick the 3D Material tab and click Save on the Normals panel. Save the new Normals map to Scare_Head_NBump.jpg .

10.On the Specular panel, cl ick Save to save the new Specular map to Scare_Head_Spec.jpg fi le.

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11. In the book’s support fi les, you’l l f ind the fi le named Scare_Head_SSS.psd . This fi le contains a de-saturated and color-corrected version of the pumpkin head texture. We wil l not describe the adjustment process in detail , as you have already been introduced to the tools used. Open this fi le and analyze the layer structure to understand how the image was adjusted. A pump-kin’s skin has a slightly translucent surface, so this texture wil l be used to create a subsurface l ight scattering effect with the pumpkin material .

12.Now, let’s create a texture for the robe object. First, Export the robe UVs from 3ds Max into an image in the same way you exported the pumpkin head UVs. Save the image as Robe_UV.jpg , and open it in Photoshop .

13.Open Robe_Pattern_1.jpg , a fi le from the support fi les. Apply Image ➤ Image Size and set the image size to 72 dpi at 256x256 pixels.

14.Choose Edit ➤ Define Pattern to create a new fi l l pattern from the image with any name.

15.Select the Robe_UV.jpg image and add a new layer to it . Keep the Robe_UV layer at the top, use Desaturate , Invert , and set the Blend Mode to Multiply .

16.Press Shift+F5 on the keyboard to open the Fill dialog. In the Contents group set Use to Pattern and choose the pattern you just created. Click OK to fi l l the entire layer with the pattern. Name the layer Fill_Pattern .

17.At this stage, you can hide the Robe_UV layer and save the texture, then modify it with the View-port Canvas tool in 3ds Max to correct the direction of fibers on the sleeves and eliminate any texture squishing on the waist area. This process is similar to the process described for repairing visible seams on the tree trunk texturing.

18.After correcting the robe texture with the Viewport Canvas tool, bring the image back into Pho-toshop as a new layer named Fixed_With_Viewport_Canvas . Place this layer above the Fill_Pattern layer.

19.Apply a Curves adjustment layer to the Fixed_with_Viewport_Canvas layer and adjust the curves as shown on the left side of the fol lowing i l lustration. This wil l reduce the brightness of the l ighter pixels and make the texture more even. Select the Fixed_with_Viewport_Canvas layer, go to the Channels palette and use the Blue channel to create a mask for the Curves adjust-ment layer, then press Ctrl+M on the keyboard and adjust curves of the mask and add more contrast to it . The resulting mask should be similar to the right side of the fol lowing i l lus- tration.

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20.Create a new layer named Sharp_Dark_Border and paste the Robe_Pattern_2.jpg image into it . Copying this pattern along the edges of the robe and also using different brushes, paint holes, worn edges, and random fabric fibers that stick out along the edges and holes for the cloth as shown in the left side of the fol lowing i l lustration. This image wil l be used as an Opac-ity map for the robe material .

21.Change the layer’s Blend Mode to Multiply and change its Opacity to 30% .

22.Create a copy of the Fixed_with_Viewport_Canvas layer, and name it Soft_Dark_Border . Position this layer above the Curves layer for the Fixed_with_Viewport_Canvas layer.

23.Change the layer’s Blend Mode to Multiply and add a mask to it (see the right side of the fol low-ing i l lustration for the mask, it can be created from Sharp_Dark_Border layer by inverting it, and blurring it out). In this mask you can also paint out random fabric fibers that stick out along the edges and holes of the fabric with the black brush so that they are not darkened by this layer.

24.Apply a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to this layer and set Saturation = +40 .

25.Apply a Curves adjustment layer to this layer. Add a control point to the curve and set its values as fol lows: Output = 145 and Input = 85 .

26.Now let’s paint a patch on the robe. Create a new layer called Patch below Sharp_Dark_Border layer and place Robe_Pattern_3.jpg into it . Make the pattern smaller and place it where ever you l ike. You can deform it by applying the Edit ➤ Transform ➤ Warp tool and adjusting the Warp grid.

27.Double-click the Patch layer to bring up the Layer Style window. In the Layer Style window check the Outer Glow , Inner Glow , Bevel and Emboss , and Texture options. For each of the checked options, cl ick the option on the left side of the window to access its parameters, and set the parameters as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

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28.Now, let’s create a l ine of thread around the patch. Create a copy of the Fixed_With_Viewport_Canvas layer, place it above the Patch layer, and name it Thread . Turn the layer’s opacity down for the next step so you can see where to draw.

29.Press Q on the keyboard to go to Quick Mask mode. Draw a black dashed line along the perim-eter of the patch. As you draw in Quick Mask mode, the l ine wil l appear as a semi-transparent red color. Press Q on the keyboard again to exit Quick Mask mode. This wil l also auto-select the entire layer except for areas where you drew the dotted l ine. Press Delete on the key-board to delete the selection.

30.Bring layer’s opacity back to 100% . Now, we wil l add a bit of volume to the thread. Open the Layer Style dialog box, activate the Drop Shadow and Inner Glow options, and set the parame-ters for these options as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

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31.Make the texture slightly darker by adding a Curves adjustment layer below the Robe_UV layer and adjusting curves as shown on the left side of the fol lowing i l lustration.

32.Create a new layer called Dirt , and place Robe_Pattern_4.jpg into the lower/right corner of the layer. Duplicate this layer and reposition the image into the layer’s lower/left corner. Merge the two layers together. Refer to the right side of the fol lowing i l lustration to see the result .

33.Change the layer’s Blend Mode to Color Burn and reduce its Opacity to 30% .

34. In 3ds Max , use the Render Surface Map tool to create a Cavity Map of the high resolution robe with a size of 2048x2048 , and save it as Scare_Robe_Cavity.png .

35.Open Scare_Robe_Cavity.png in Photoshop . Hold down Shift on the keyboard and drag the image into a new layer in the robe texture. Name the layer Light and Shadows .

36.Change the layer’s Blend Mode to Overlay and reduce its Opacity to 80% .

37.The robe texture is now finished, and is shown in the fol lowing i l lustration. Save the fi le as Scare_Robe.psd . You can compare your result to the Scare_Robe_Catapult.psd fi le from the book’s support fi les. Also, save this fi le as a JPG with the same name so you can use it for material creation in 3ds Max.

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38.To prepare the texture for Normal map creation, delete or hide the Light and Shadows and Dirt layers.

39. Fil l the robe patch with a gray color and the threads with white. To do this quickly, select the layer, then hold down Ctrl while clicking the layer in the Layers window. This wil l automatically select al l non-empty areas of the layer so you can fi l l the selection with color.

40.Save the fi le as Scare_Robe_Mod_For_PixPlant.psd . You can also open the Scare_Robe_Mod_For_PixPlant_Catapult.psd fi le from the book’s support fi les to analyze it .

41.Merge all layers with the Layer ➤ Flatten Image command, and save it as a JPG with the same name.

42.Using the same process as before with PixPlant , save out the Normals map to Scare_Robe_NBump.jpg .

43. In Photoshop , undo the last step where you flattened the image or open Scare_Robe.psd , delete all of the layers except Sharp_Dark_Border , change the layers opacity to 100% , and save the fi le to Scare_Robe_Opacity.jpg . This wil l be the Opacity map for the material .

44.Now, let’s make a texture for the hat. In 3ds Max , render the image of the hat’s UVW map. But this time, in the Render UVs window, in the Fill group set the color to white, choose Mode = Solid , and uncheck all the parameters in the Edges group. This configuration renders the image with texture coordinate clusters and an alpha channel. Save the image as Hat_UV.png with an alpha channel.

45.Open Hat_UV.png in Photoshop . In this fi le, create a new layer, name it Background , and place it at the bottom of the layer stack. Fi l l this layer with white. Name the upper layer UV and change its Opacity to 20% . When working with this image, make the UV layer completely visible only when you need to select an area of a cluster.

46.Duplicate the Background layer and name the new layer Hat_Left .

47.Apply Filter ➤ Noise ➤ Add Noise fi lter. In the Add Noise window set Amount = 400% , select the Gaussian option and turn on the Monochromatic checkbox. Click OK .

48.To the same layer, apply Filter ➤ Blur ➤ Radial Blur with Amount = 10 , and select the Spin and Best options. At this stage the image should look similar to the one on the left of the fol lowing i l lustration.

49.Duplicate this layer twice, and name the layers Hat_Right and Hat_Top , respectively.

50.Hide both of these new layers for now. Select the Hat_Left layer and reposition it so that its center approximately matches the center of the hat left brim’s UVW coordinates.

51.Go to the UV layer and use the Magic Wand tool to select the left cluster of hat brim UVW coor-dinates.

52. In the Hat_Left layer, invert the selection and delete the selected area. In the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration you can see what the resulting image should look l ike.

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53.Repeat the same procedure with the Hat_Right and Hat_Top layers. Align their centers with the centers of corresponding UVW texturing coordinates clusters, and then select and delete the areas of the layers that are not covered by those clusters.

54.Create a new layer and fi l l it with white and then add Noise by using the Noise fi lter. Name this layer Hat_Cylinder .

55.Apply a Motion Blur fi lter to this layer, and set Angle = 0˚ , Distance = 50 pixels.

56.On this layer, delete everything except the area covered by the cluster at the top of the image.

57.Select the three layers: Hat_Left , Hat_Right and Hat_Top . Choose Filter ➤ Convert for Smart Filters to convert the layers into a Smart Object. This wil l al low you to apply the same fi lter or adjust-ment layer to all three layers at once.

58.Apply a Curves adjustment layer to the resulting layer, and adjust the curves to make it darker and to match the Hat_Cylinder layer’s colors better. The result should look similar to the left side of the fol lowing i l lustration. You may want to add a Curves adjustment layer to the hat cylinder to darken it as well .

59.Add a new layer and paint dirty areas along the edges of the UVW texturing coordinates clus-ters, as shown on the right side of the fol lowing i l lustration. Name this layer Dirt .

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60.Add another layer and place Hat_Pattern_1.jpg image into this layer.

61.Adjust the size of this image to the size of the top cluster of the UVW texturing coordinates.

62.Add a mask to this layer to mask everything not covered by the top cluster of the UVW textur-ing coordinates. Name this layer Wear_Crown . Change the layer’s Blend Mode to Multiply and change Opacity to 60% .

63.Use the same techniques to paint the edge of the hat’s brim, in the bottom left corner, and name the layer Hat_Edge .

64.The hat texture is finished; you can see it in the fol lowing i l lustration. Hide the UV layer and save fi le as Scare_Hat.psd . You can compare your results to the Scare_Hat_Catapult.psd fi le in the book project fi les folder. Also save this texture as a JPG fi le.

Exercise 8: Creating materials for the scarecrow model and organizing the textures

In this exercise, we wil l create and set up materials for the scarecrow using V-Ray . Material parame-ters and texture organization charts are demonstrated in the fol lowing i l lustrations.

In order to avoid mentioning this multiple times along this exercise, some important concepts regarding V-Ray materials wil l be mentioned upfront.

• Color swatches are used for many V-Ray material channels to specify the strength of a par-ticular material characteristic. For example, a bright white color swatch for the Reflect channel wil l make the material 100% reflective, as you would have with a perfect mirror. Likewise, brighter areas of black-and-white textures placed into the same channel correspond to areas of higher reflection.

• Lowering the Refl. Glossiness and Glossiness values cause a material’s reflections to become more blurred.

• Increasing the Subdivs values within the Reflection and Refraction sections causes the blurred reflections and refractions to become less noisy. However, this wil l also result in increased render time.

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• Fog color dictates the fi l l color of the inner volume of a transparent object. Fog multiplier defines the density of that color.

• Within the Translucency section, anything other than None for Type turns on subsurface l ight scattering effect for a refractive material . Scatter coeff defines how much light is scattered inside the object, and smaller values correspond to more l ight rays being scattered. Fwd/bck coeff defines the direction of scattered l ight rays, with lower values causing l ight rays to go deeper into the object and higher values causing them to go toward the surface. Increasing the value of Light Multiplier wil l increase the intensity of l ight scattered inside an object. Thick-ness l imits the depth of the l ight scattering effect.

Let’s start working on the exercise. Open Ch04-18.max .

1.Create a new VRayMtl material and name it Scarecrow Head . Change the fol lowing colors: Fog color = RGB (89; 75; 56) , Translucency Type ➤ Hybrid Model , and Back-side color = RGB (218; 126; 52) .

2.Other parameters for the Scarecrow Head material are shown on the left side of the fol lowing i l lustration. On the right side of the fol lowing i l lustration you can see the channels into which you need to insert the prepared textures, and the values for each channel. Notice that a VRayNormalMap has been assigned within the Bump channel.

In the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see the structure of the material in the Slate Material Editor . For correct functionality of the Normals map, we need to assign it using a VRayNormapMap , as men-tioned in the previous step.

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3.Assign this material to the Head object.

4.Create a new VRayMtl material and name it Scarecrow Hat . Change the fol lowing colors: Diffuse = RGB (10; 10; 20) , Reflect = RGB (10; 10; 10) .

5.Other parameters of the Scarecrow Hat material are shown on the left side of the fol lowing i l lus-tration. On the right side of the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see the channels you need to put the textures into. You can see that we used the same texture for the Reflect and RGlossiness channels; however, the Opacity level for the Reflect channel in this material is only 20% .

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6.The fol lowing i l lustration shows the structure of the Scarecrow Hat material .

7.Apply this material to the Hat object.

8.Create a new VRayMtl material and name i t Scarecrow Robe . Leave all color swatches at their default colors. Set the channel parameters and textures as shown in the fol lowing i l lu-stration.

9. In the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see the structure of the Scarecrow Robe material . Create it and assign it .

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10.Apply a VRayDisplacementMod to the Rope model.

11.Create a new VRayMtl material and name it Scarecrow Rope . Leave all the parameters at their default values. This material uses only procedural maps. The value for the Bump channel is only 20% . In the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see the structure of the material .

12.On the left side of the fol lowing i l lustration you can see how the texture is blended with a Com-posite map, which is in the Diffuse channel of this material . At the right side of the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see the settings for the Noise map, which defines the color of the rope in the first layer of Composite map.

13.The next two layers of the Composite map simulate rope threads. In the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see the settings for the maps in these layers. The left side shows the settings for the Gradient Ramp map for the second layer of the Composite map. This represents the thick threads of the rope. This texture also needs to be placed into the Texmap channel of the VRay-DisplacementMod modifier applied to the Rope object. At the right side of the i l lustration, you can see the settings for the Gradient Ramp map, which is placed into the third layer of the Composite map. This wil l help simulate small threads in the rope.

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14. For the materials for the posts and the scarecrow’s body, create 2 more V-Ray materials, and put the Old_Wood.jpg and Scare_Hay.jpg textures into the Diffuse channels correspondingly. Both textures are provided in the support fi les.

15.The materials are complete. Save your scene. You can open the Ch04-19.max fi le to analyze the structure of these materials. In this fi le, you wil l notice that we used a Color Correction Map for the posts and body, which provides an assortment of tools for modifying the colors of a map. Experiment with this if you want.

SummaryThis chapter explained some fairly advanced concepts in modeling and material creation. Like many areas of 3D, they involve perishable skil ls, and without practice and practical implementation into some current or future projects, the steps can be easily forgotten. We highly recommend that if you l ike the techniques discussed here, put them into practice as soon as possible on your own projects.

Once again, this chapter also demonstrated the importance of not relying completely on 3ds Max for producing your 3D imagery. We encourage you to stay on top of the latest advancements in 3D software and implement the best tools available. Otherwise, you won’t be working at your ful l potential .

1

Water Elements

This chapTer focuses on The Two main waTer elemenTs in the scene, the creek and the water splashing on the water wheel. Like so many other elements of this scene, creating realistic water is both an art and a science. The science aspect is fairly simple to grasp and requires nothing more than knowing the technical settings that control things l ike reflection, refraction, color, and so on. The artistic side of water, however, is much more diff icult to teach and learn.

The artistic aspect requires you to add extra details to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. It involves placing extra elements in and around the water that make the water not just realistic, but also true to its surroundings. For example, we could expect to see small ripples form around the pil ings of the dock as the flow of the water is interrupted. Water, more than any other element in a scene, wil l look only as good as its reflections and refractions—too often, water is handicapped and even ruined by the lack of suff icient objects to reflect or refract.

In this chapter, we wil l add some extra elements in and around the water to make it both believ-able and extraordinary. In the second part of this chapter, where we wil l make the splashing water on the water wheel, we wil l uti l ize the glu3d plug-in for 3ds Max. You can download a free trial version of this plug-in at http://www.3daliens.com, under the Download tab.

The Creek In the first part of this chapter, we wil l create the creek’s water surface for the scene. Everything we create in this part of the chapter wil l be sti l l (not animated). We wil l animate the water in the next chapter; however, al l modif iers that wil l be animated in the next chapter wil l be applied during this chapter.

ChaptEr 5

5-2 Wa t e r E l em e n t s

Figure 5-1. The creek to be created

First, let’s analyze the major characteristics of the creek shown in Figure 5-1. Essential ly, this is a reservoir of water with a variety of elements in it and around it . We can see duckweed, the free-floating vegetation resembling algae, f loating along the banks of the creek. This tel ls us that the current is quite slow. In the deepest areas of the creek, the water is darker and less transparent than in the shallow areas. On the surface, we notice small rippling and a l ight wave effect. We also see objects that impact the flow of the water, such as the pier and the boat.

In order to make this creek, we wil l need to go through three major steps:

1. Geometry modification

2. Texturing

3. Water material creation

Exercise 1: Geometry modification

As you already know, the creek has a slow water current, and we wil l need to make it noticeable. We wil l achieve that effect with the Wave and Ripple modifiers. The rotation of the water wheel and the fal l ing water creates additional surface distortion on the water, as does the impact of the water with multiple man-made objects. For example, the boat’s side-to-side rocking causes small ripples on the water and the pier posts break the flow of the water below causing some distortion. It is time for us to simulate all of that.

1. Open the fi le Ch05-01.max . This scene already has all of the objects that we wil l be working with and also has all of the rendering parameters set for your convenience.

2. From the Customize menu, select Units Setup and ensure that units are set to Generic Units .

3. Select the object named Water Level .

Waves on the water wil l have different lengths and amplitudes. For smaller waves, the number of polygons needs to be greater than for large waves.

4. Apply the TurboSmooth modifier.

5. Set Iterations to 1 , enable Render Iters , and set this parameter to 7 . I f you have a sufficiently powerful computer and graphics card, you could try increasing the Iterations value to better see in the viewports all of the modifiers that we’l l be using.

Now, we wil l create the small rippling water effect.

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6. Apply the Wave modifier using the parameters shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

The changes created by these parameters wil l not be very visible at this point. However, when we animate these parameters, we wil l see their effect.

In the next step, we need to create more noticeable waves caused by the rotating water wheel and the water that fal ls from it. We are going to create them with the Ripple modifier and with the Ripple space warp.

7. Apply the Ripple modifier to the Water Level object. Set its parameters as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

8. Change the modifier name to Ripple Waterfall .

9. Switch to Top view and center the Ripple Waterfall modifier’s gizmo underneath the water wheel.

10. Open the Material Editor and assign a V-Ray material named Water to the Water Level object.

11. Within the Reflection group of this material , cl ick the color swatch to the right of the word Reflect and change the color as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration. This gives the material approxi-mately 20% reflection.

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12. Return to the Camera01 view and render this view to preview the results. You should have something similar to the fol lowing i l lustration.

Now, we need to simulate the pier’s impact on the water flow.

13. Select the Water Level object and apply another Ripple modifier to it . Rename the modifier Ripple Dock1 .

14. Set both Amplitudes to 1 , Wave Length to 10 , and Decay to 0.045 .

15. Position (center) the modifier’s Gizmo under one of the pier’s posts, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration. Change views as necessary to do this and to position the gizmos of any future modifiers.

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16. Assign another Ripple modifier with the same parameters and position its Gizmo under another one of the pier’s post. Name it Ripple Dock2 . A simple right-click, copy and paste of the first Ripple modifier is a quick way to do this.

Now, imagine the boat is sl ightly rocking from one side to another. This would create small waves in the water. This time, let’s use a different way to create the waves.

17. Create a Ripple space warp object anywhere in the scene by selecting Create panel ➤ Space Warps ➤ Geometric/Deformable ➤ Ripple .

18. Rename this object Ripple Boat , and position it under the front of the boat (as seen in Top view). Refer to the next i l lustration as a guide. This i l lustration also shows two others that we wil l add in a moment and shows all the space warps at a much larger size, due to one of the upcoming steps.

19. For parameters, set Amplitude1 to 1 .0 , Amplitude2 to 1 .0 , Wave Length to 9.5 , and Decay to 0.03 .

The parameters on the Display rol lout change the way the object appears in viewports, but don’t affect the geometry.

20. For the Display rol lout parameters, set Circles to 50 , Segments to 8 , and Division to 5 .

Next, we’l l add variety to the distortion of the water caused by the boat.

21. Make a copy of the Ripple Boat space warp object and position it under the middle of the hull of the boat on the side farthest from the dock. This is shown in the previous i l lustration.

22. Change the name of the new object to Ripple Boat01 , and change the Phase parameter to 1 .0 .

23. Copy the Ripple Boat object one more time, and position the new object under the back of the boat.

24. Change the name of the new object to Ripple Boat02 , and set the Phase parameter to 2.0 .

5-6 Wa t e r E l em e n t s

25. Bind the Water Level object to the Ripple Boat space warp. To do this, select the Water Level object, cl ick the Bind to Space Warp icon from the Main toolbar, and then click, hold and drag from the Water Level object to the Ripple Boat space warp. You should see the space warp added to the object’s modifier stack. It is probably easiest to do this in wireframe mode so that you click and release at the proper place each time. Make sure the Ripple objects are positioned slightly above the Water Level object or you may not be able to select them.

26. Repeat the process twice to bind the object to the Ripple Boat01 and Ripple Boat02 space warps.

In the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see what the Modifier Stack for the Water Level object should look l ike with al l its modifiers and space warp bindings. We have changed the names of each ripple binding to indicate which Ripple object it corresponds to.

27. Save your fi le. You can open the scene Ch05-02.max to compare your results.

Exercise 2: Texturing

In this exercise, we wil l create maps for the duckweed and water ripples, including refraction and reflection maps. We wil l try to use procedural maps mostly, and we wil l create small bitmaps when necessary. We wil l also create masks with Photoshop so that we can mix different materials, maps, and textures to create new materials. For this scene, the masks don’t necessari ly have to be high-resolution; low resolution masks wil l work just fine.

For the duckweed, we wil l use a Noise map for the colors and a Cellular map for the mask. To control the distribution of duckweed on the surface of the water we wil l create a grayscale image in Photoshop to use as a mask.

1. Continue from the previous exercise or open the fi le Ch05-02.max .

2. Open the Material Editor and select the material Water .

3. Assign a Mask map to the Diffuse channel, and rename the map Diffuse Water .

4. In the Diffuse Water map’s Mask Parameters rol lout, cl ick the Map channel, and assign another Mask map. Rename the map Duckweed .

5. For the Duckweed map’s parameters, place a Noise map into the Map channel. Rename the map Duckweed Colors .

6. In the Noise map, set Color #1 to dark green (R=40,G=53,B=35) , Color #2 to green-brown (R=133,G=133,B=42) , and Size to 10.0 .

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7. Click the Go to Parent icon to return one level up in the material .

8. For the Mask slot of the Duckweed map, assign a Cellular map, rename it Duckweed Mask , and set parameters as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration. If you l ike, at any time you can make an instance of any map and place it into another sample slot to see the result of changing a map’s settings easier. You can also just toggle off the Show End Result icon, which is to the right of the Show Standard Map in Viewport icon.

Duckweed Mask , because of its structure, wil l give the duckweed an appropriate size and density. In the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see the structure of the Water material .

Now, it’s time to use a mask to tel l the material where the duckweed should and should not be. We wil l use Photoshop to create a mask that wil l define the distribution of the duckweed on the sur-face of the water.

Because duckweed is mainly concentrated along the banks of the creek, we need to define the banks of the creek, which, in our case, are the intersections of the water and ground.

Let’s create an image that shows the edges of the creek.

9. Open the Material Editor and in an empty sample slot create a new VRayLightMtl material .

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10. Within the Color channel, place a VRayDirt map. Set its Radius to 50 , and enable the invert normal option.

11. Disable all modif iers currently assigned to the object Water Level , and assign the newly created VRayLightMtl material to the object.

Now, we wil l render a bitmap image so that the edges where the water intersects with the ground can be seen. For that we wil l use the texture baking method.

12. Select the Water Level object, and from the Render menu choose the Render to Texture com-mand (shortcut = 0) .

13. In the General Settings rol lout, cl ick the icon with three dots to the right of the Path field and set the Output path to your project fi le folder.

14. In the Objects to Bake rol lout, in the Mapping coordinates section, make sure Use Existing Channel is selected.

15. In the Output rol lout, cl ick the Add button and add a VRayCompleteMap .

16. Click the icon with three dots to the right of the File Name and Type field and select a fi le name and an appropriate path. You can leave the default name, path, and type if you l ike.

17. Set the resolution to 1024x1024 . This is a sufficient size for our needs.

18. Click the Render button. When you get the message Missing Map Targets , cl ick Continue . Nor-mally, the maps created with Render to Texture would be made to be loaded into a particular target map slot. However, we do not need to do that here. We only need an image that we can bring into Photoshop.

The result should look similar to that shown in the fol lowing i l lustration. We wil l use the rendered image in Photoshop to paint the locations where the duckweed wil l exist.

19. Save the resulting render as the fi le Dirt_Water.jpg .

20. Save your fi le. You can open the scene Ch05-03.max to compare your results.

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For the creation of maps using the texture baking method, it is better to use a VRayLightMtl material instead of VRayMtl when you want a white Diffuse color (as you wil l see soon it’s what we need here). The reason is that VRayLightMtl does not receive shadows. It may look l ike the material is receiving shadows in the previous i l lustration, but these dark areas are only a result of the vrayDirt Map. Using a VRayLightMtl also means that when we use linear color mapping (i .e. , V-Ray’s version of exposure control) in the Render Setup dialog box, the white color always stays white, which eliminates the need for a lot of parameter tweaking before rendering.

21. Open the fi le Dirt_Water.jpg in Photoshop.

22. Rename the single layer DirtWater .

23. Add a new layer called Mask_Duckweed , and fi l l it with black. Set the Blend Mode to Difference . This wil l al low us to paint on the layer and see how it differs from the layer below it, thereby allowing us to see the areas where duckweed is present.

24. Using a paintbrush with a size of 7-10 pixels , paint the approximate locations of the duckweed in white.

Try to be creative and paint the edges of the creek unevenly; paint some places densely and leave some places empty. Imagine where, according to the water current, duckweed would be con-centrated more, less, or not at al l .

Next, we wil l make the edges of the duckweed patches more distorted and variable.

25. Click on the Paintbrush tool, and in the top-left corner of Photoshop, set the paintbrush to a Size of 1px and a Hardness of 100% . This step is crit ical to making the brush look correct in the next few steps.

26. From the Window menu, select Brushes (or press the shortcut F5) . You wil l have to have the Brushes command active to make use of this menu.

27. In the Brush Tip Shape l ist, select Dual Brush , make sure a rough brush, such as a spatter brush is selected, and set Spacing to 25% . I f you have never changed this option, it wil l probably already be set to 25%.

28. In the Scattering l ist, set Scatter to 600% , Count to 2 , and Count Jitter to 60% .

Your brush settings should look similar to the fol lowing i l lustration.

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29. Paint the edges of the white area with this brush so that the transition from the black-to-white areas is neither sharp nor smooth but rather noisy.

You can use this brush to add white color and paint along the edges of the white areas, or you can switch to black and paint the areas that have no duckweed. Use your imagination and add or remove as much of the white area as you l ike. When finished, if you hide the background layer, your image should look similar to the one in the fol lowing i l lustration.

30. Change the Blend Mode of the Mask_Duckweed layer to Normal . Save this image as Duckweed_Mask.jpg .

Now that we have finished this duckweed distribution mask, we can use it in our scene.

31. Return to your previously saved 3ds Max fi le or open the fi le Ch05-03.max to continue work-ing.

32. Open the Material Editor .

33. In the Water material , for the Diffuse Water map’s Mask parameter, load the bitmap that you just created called Duckweed_Mask.jpg . Change the name of the mask to Duckweed Location , as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

For the next step, we wil l create reflection and transparency maps for the water material . At this stage, they wil l be the same maps and wil l be created using the Diffuse Water maps as a base.

34. At the Water material’s base level, place an Output map into the Reflect channel. Rename this map Invert Reflect-Refract .

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The Output map wil l al low us to invert the colors of the reflection and refraction maps created using the Diffuse map.

35. In the Output map’s Output rol lout, enable the Invert option.

36. In the Map channel of the Output Parameters rol lout, add a Mask map and rename it Reflect-Refract .

37. Go into the Map channel and load a copy (as an instance) of the previously created map called Mask Duckweed . To do this easily, once you click the Map channel, f ind the map in the Material/Map Browser and just double-click the map.

38. Into the Mask channel of the Reflect-Refract map, copy (as an instance) the previously created Duckweed Location from the Diffuse map. So far, the maps we’re creating should look l ike the fol lowing i l lustration.

Now, we have a mask that wil l be used for reflection and refraction. In the future, when we are working on the transparency mask, we wil l add more settings to this map.

39. Go up to the base level of the material and copy the Invert Reflect-Refract map within the mate-rial’s Reflect channel and then paste it as an instance into the Refract channel of the material’s parameters.

Now, let’s simulate a rippling effect on the water’s surface. This is a small distortion on the sur-face of the water caused by wind, and is mostly noticeable when looking into its reflection. We wil l simulate this effect with the Bump channel.

40. In the current material’s Maps rol lout, temporari ly turn off al l maps that you have prepared by unchecking the checkbox next to the Diffuse map, the Reflect map, and the Refract map. Since the maps are temporari ly disabled, make sure that the Reflect color swatch is set to white, so that you can see the effect of the bump map settings we are about to apply.

This wil l help us do test renders faster, and overall makes it easier to control the Bump effect.

41. Assign a Noise map to the Bump channel, set Noise Type to Fractal and set Size = 30 .

42. Return to the material’s base level and set the Bump Amount to 12 .

43. In the Reflection section of the material , enable Fresnel reflections and click the L icon to the right of this setting. This enables Fresnel reflections and unlocks the Fresnel IOR setting so that it’s not locked to the Refraction IOR setting.

44. Set Fresnel IOR to 1 .8 , as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration. By enabling this option, we are tell-ing V-Ray to make reflection strength dependent on viewing angle. The more parallel you view a surface, the greater the reflections.

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45. Assign the Water material to the Water Level object.

46. I f you create a camera with a view that is a close-up of the water under the pier posts, and render the image, you should get something similar to the fol lowing i l lustration. Note that some objects were made invisible to the camera to speed up the renders, but were sti l l al lowed to be visible to reflections.

Let’s get back to testing the render results. We can see that the rippling effect on the surface of the water is too large, so let’s make it smaller. We can do it a couple of different ways ways. We can just change the size of the Noise map, but, in our case, it wil l be better if we add an additional Noise map with the help of the Mix map.

47. In the Bump channel, change the Noise map to a Mix map and choose to keep the old map as a sub-map. Rename the Mix map Map Mix Ripple .

48. Within the Color #1 channel of the Mix map is the previously created Noise map with Type = Frac-tal and Size = 30 . Go into this map and rename it map Max Ripple .

49. Return to the Mix level and for Color #2 of the Mix map, place a Noise map with Type = Turbulence and Size = 10 , and rename this map Mini Ripple .

50. Return to the Mix level of the material and set the Mix Amount parameter to 50.0 . Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration to see the structure of the Mix map.

This mixes together the large and small rippling on the surface of the water. We can control the amplitude of the ripples with Amount setting for the Bump map.

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51. Render the camera view. The result should be similar to the fol lowing i l lustration.

52. We can make the bump effect more noticeable by making the High and Low settings of the Noise maps closer to each other. By default, High is set to 1 .0 and Low is set to 0.0 . I f we change High to 0.7 and Low to 0.3 , for example, then the Noise map wil l have more contrast. Make this change for both Noise maps of the Map Mix Ripple map.

53. I f you think there are too many small ripples and not enough large ripples, then you can enable the Use Curve option for the Mix map and adjust the curve’s Upper and Lower transition zones. This gives us an easy way to control which of the two types of ripples wil l be most noticeable when they are mixed together. Make this change, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

54. Save your fi le. You can open the scene Ch05-04.max to compare your results.

Exercise 3: Water material creation

The creation of a realistic water material can be diff icult and laborious, but if your water material is to be impressive and unique to your needs, you wil l need to spend some time on it .

Let’s continue by examining the water’s properties. The creek’s water changes color depending on the water depth. In shallow areas, a great deal of l ight can bounce back from the bottom, giving the water a l ighter color. In deeper areas, less l ight makes it al l the way to the bottom and back, and as a result the water color is darker. The number of small particles in the water also affects its trans-parency and color. Water also has its own index of reflection and refraction. Let’s experiment with the water material , keeping in mind all the properties mentioned above.

Let’s start with the color of the water. As we already know, in the deeper areas of the creek, water gets darker; warmer and saltier water is bluer, while cold and less salty water tends to be greener. In our case, this creek has cold and fresh (salt less) water.

In order to make the process of working with the water material easier, we’l l simplify it a l itt le.

1. Continue from the previous exercise or open the fi le Ch05-04.max .

2. In the Maps rol lout at the base level of the Water material , disable the Bump map.

3. Set the Reflect color to pure black (R=0,G=0,B=0) and set the Refract color to pure white (R=255,G=255,B=255) .

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4. Set Refract IOR = 1.0 . This is the IOR setting of a pure vacuum. This wil l prevent the l ight from being refracted at al l and makes the material look invisible, unless there are other material qualit ies l ike reflection and bump that al low it to be seen.

5. Enable the Affect shadows option. This al lows the material’s transparency to affect the strength of the shadows.

6. Render the camera view. The result should look similar to the fol lowing i l lustration. Notice the water is invisible.

7. In the Refraction section of the material , set the Fog color to green (R=100,G=115,B=60) .

8. Set the Fog multiplier = 0.001 .

9. Render the camera view. The result should look similar to the fol lowing i l lustration.

We can see that the water in the deep areas is painted green while the color in shallow areas is unchanged. Now, let’s make the deeper water darker.

10. Set the Fog bias to -0.25 . This enhances the effect of the Fog multiplier .

11. Render the camera view. The result should now look similar to the fol lowing i l lustration.

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The Fog multiplier al lows us to change just how far l ight can reach into the water depth, basically we are increasing the contrast between the deep and shallow areas when we increase this value. Positive Fog bias values decrease the effect of the Fog multiplier and negative values increase it .

On a different note, water has microscopic organisms living in it , plus sand and dirt, as well as other particles. The density of these objects can affect the transparency and clarity of the water. Let’s simulate that.

To change the clarity of the water, let’s blur out what we see through the water in the deep areas, as these areas are far from the banks and don’t have any objects on the surface.

Let’s use the VRayDirt map for the Glossiness parameter in the Refraction section of the current material . To enable us to fine-tune the VRayDirt map more quickly, it is better to use it on test mate-rial and then transfer it to our Water material .

12. Create a new VRayLightMtl material and call it TestGlossy .

13. In the Color parameter’s map slot, place a Mix map and rename it Glossy Mask .

14. Place a VRayDirt map into the Mix Amount parameter’s slot and rename it Mix Glossy Mask . Set Radius = 140 .

15. Enable the invert normal parameter and set Subdivs to 20 .

16. Assign the TestGlossy material to the Water Level object.

Now, in order to conduct test renders with adequate l ighting, let’s change a few things in the Render Setup dialog box.

17. Open the Render Setup dialog box. Go to the Indirect Illumination tab and in the V-Ray:: Indirect Illumination (GI) rol lout disable the On option.

18. Go to the V-Ray tab and in the V-Ray:: Global switches rol lout disable Lights , Hidden Lights , Shadows , Reflection/refraction , Maps , and Glossy effects . To the right of the Default l ights parameter, select Off from the drop-down list so that default l ighting isn’t engaged. See the fol lowing i l lustration for reference.

19. Render the camera view. The result should look similar to the fol lowing i l lustration; however, there wil l be noise in our rendering. If you have a fast computer, you can make the adjustment in the next step to remove the noise, or simply skip the next step.

20. In the Settings tab of the Render Setup dialog box, set the Noise threshold to 0.003 . This wil l remove the noise sufficiently.

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In the test rendering, we see that dark areas need to be blurred more, and white areas blurred less. However, V-Ray understands the map differently; it blurs out black colors more than the whites. In order to make V-Ray properly use this mask, we need to do the fol lowing:

21. In the Mix Parameters rol lout of the Glossy Mask map, swap Color #1 and Color #2 .

22. Render the camera view. Your image should look similar to the fol lowing i l lustration.

23. Adjust the positioning of the white and black areas by adjusting the Mixing Curve in the Mix Parameters rol lout for the Glossy Mask . Enable the Use Curve option and set Upper to 1 .0 and Lower to 0.98 , as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration. With these types of values, the curve does not even appear and the black is only visible on the edges of the creek.

24. In the VRayDirt map parameters, set Falloff = 0.3 .

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The Upper and Lower parameters allow quick and easy changes to the degree of influence the black and white colors have on the material . Upper and Lower values close to 1 increase the influence of Color #1 , while values closer to 0 increase the influence of Color #2 . In our case the values were picked by performing many tests.

For the creation of contrast masks, it is very convenient to use a VRayDirt map with a Mixing Curve . An important part of this technique is being able to control the contrast with the Mixing Curve . However, it is recommended that you use this technique only when high quality is not a requirement. If the project requires high quality contrast masks, then VRayDirt map is not necessari ly needed with the Mix map; just the VRayDirt map on its own is enough to change the contrast by modifying its Distribution and Falloff parameters.

As an alternative, we can assign the TestGlossy material to the object and use Render to Texture as described earl ier in this chapter. We can get the bitmap image and adjust its contrast in Photo-shop, then place the bitmap into the Glossiness slot of the Water material . The only disadvantage is that if we change the object’s geometry, then we’l l need to recreate the bitmap and do the whole process over again.

So, let’s continue.

25. Copy the Glossy Mask map from the TestGlossy material and paste it (as an instance) into the Glossiness slot of the Water material .

26. Assign the Water material to the Water Level object.

27. Open the Render Setup dialog and go to the Indirect Illumination tab. In the V-Ray:: Indirect Il lumi-nation rol lout, turn on GI . Then go to the V-Ray tab and in the V-Ray: Global Switches rol lout, turn on Lights, Shadows , Reflection/Refraction , Maps , and Glossy effects .

28. Render the camera view. If your render looks similar to the fol lowing i l lustration, then you did everything correctly.

29. Save the scene. You can compare your scene to our version saved in Ch05-05.max .

Refraction is the optical effect that occurs when light travels through water. A geometric distor-tion on the water’s surface wil l increase this effect. Therefore, we need to use the bump map and modifiers that we disabled earl ier.

The intensity of refraction is controlled by a real-world material quality called IOR (index of refrac-tion) . In 3ds Max, IOR is a parameter that affects an object’s appearance based on this quality. Let’s change it and see what happens.

30. In the Water material’s Maps rol lout, disable the map in the Glossiness channel and enable the map in the Bump channel.

31. In the Water Level object’s modifier stack, turn on all of the modifiers.

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32. In the Water material , set the IOR parameter in the Refraction group to 1 .33 . This is a typical IOR value for water. IOR charts for many different materials can be found on the Internet, as well as in the V-Ray manual.

33. Render the camera view. Your image should be similar to the fol lowing i l lustration.

Let’s analyze this rendering. We can see that distortion is present. This distortion, caused by large waves, is not too obvious in a sti l l image, but once animated, the effect wil l become more noticeable. A small distortion is present as well ; we think that it is enough.

What we do not l ike in this image is that the effect of the water getting darker at deep areas of the creek becomes less pronounced because the IOR made the water visually appear less deep and, as a result, the V-Ray renderer’s interpretation is incorrect.

In order to add more darkness to the deep places in the river, we need to adjust the settings of the Fog parameter in the Refraction group of the V-Ray material .

34. Set Fog multiplier to 0.003 and Fog bias to -0.15 .

The result should be similar to the fol lowing i l lustration.

Now, we can begin working on the water reflections.

35. In the Maps rol lout of Water material , enable the Reflect map that is already loaded.

36. Render the camera view.

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We think that a fal loff effect needs to be added to the reflection to make the water less reflective closer to the camera.

37. Go into the Invert Reflect-Refract map and click the Material Type button (currently labeled Out-put) . The Material/Map Navigator (or Browser) dialog box wil l open.

38. Select Falloff . On the Replace map window choose to keep the old map as a sub-map.

39. Rename the fal loff map to Reflect Falloff .

40. Swap the Invert Reflect-Refract (Output) map from the black slot into the white slot and set the parameters as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

You may have to change the Near & Far Distance amounts based on your scene. To help deter-mine the correct value for the Near & Far distances, create a rectangle from the camera to the area where you want the blend to occur and use its measurement. You can see an example of this in Ch05-06.max . The Distance Blend fal loff type allows us to control the fal loff effect depending on the distance of the object to the camera. We can use this type of fal loff in sti l l renderings, or in animation with l imited camera motion.

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41. We have finished the material for the water. All that is left to do is to enable all maps in the Maps rol lout, and render. The result should look similar to the fol lowing i l lustration.

42. Save your fi le. You can open the scene Ch05-06.max to compare your results.

Water WheelFrom the reference image shown in the fol lowing i l lustration, we can see that water travels from under the tree, over the rock gutter with slow speed, and then onto the water wheel. The speed and mass of the water turns the water wheel. We decided to increase the speed of the water so that the spinning of the water wheel looks natural and creates the feeling that it is actually spinning because water is hitt ing it . Upon impact with the water wheel, the water needs to break down into splashes and then flow down into the creek over the water wheel’s surface. The water wheel, as it rotates, cre-ates small waves on the surface of the creek.

Figure 5-2. Water wheel in the reference image

Let’s simulate the water fal l ing and splashing on the water wheel. To achieve this, we’l l use the glu3d plug-in, which is a particle system plugin that is perfect for simulating a small amount of splash-ing water. You can download a free trial version of this plug-in at http://www.3daliens.com. Just click the Downloads button to find the free trial . You wil l need to instal l this plug-in before you can do the fol lowing exercise.

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Exercise 4: Creating water on the water wheel

1. Open the scene Ch05-07.max .

This scene has all the geometry needed to create the fal l ing, splashing water effect. Let’s go over these objects and explain their purposes.

• Fountain is the rock gutter under the tree. Water wil l f low over it before it fal ls down to the water wheel. This object wil l participate only in the rendering, not in the physical creation of the water geometry.

• Gutter is a low-poly version of the gutter for use in the water simulation.

• Water Level is the surface of the creek.

• Wheel is the animated water wheel for the rendering, not for the water simulation.

• Wheel Low Poly is a low-poly version of the Wheel object to be used for calculating the water simulation. It wil l not appear in the rendering.

All of the other objects are marked as invisible to the camera, as they only serve to provide reflections and refractions on the water. As a reminder, objects can be marked as invisible to the camera in their Object Properties dialog box.

Let’s make some splashing water.

2. In the Command panel, select Create ➤ Geometry ➤ glu3D pouring system and click the glu3D button.

When you click the button, three new objects are created in the scene:

• glu3DParticle01 is a particle emitter. The particles it creates wil l become the water surface.

• f loorGlu3D is the coll ision object for water particles, similar to a deflector in 3ds Max.

• glu3D_01 al lows us to create and control the water surface.

In addition, the glu3D Toolbar appears.

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3. Select the three new objects and then choose Hide Unselected. Zoom Extents to focus on the three new objects. Press the calculate glu3D button to perform a test simulation with the default objects and settings. The object Glu3DParticle01 starts generating particles, which react to gravity then coll ide with f loorGlu3D and bounce around inside it . This wil l help you understand how glu3D works.

4. Delete f loorGlu3D. You won’t need this object for your scene; you wil l use scene objects as col-l ision objects.

5. Unhide the objects you hid in Step 3. Place Glu3DParticle01 into the place where the waterfal l begins, at the back end of the rock gutter under the tree.

From the emitter, water needs to flow over the gutter and fal l onto the water wheel. We wil l use the simpler Gutter object to direct the flow of particles rather than the bumpy gutter from our scene, since a bumpy surface can lead to unpredictable particle behavior.

6. Rename Glu3DParticle01 to Particle_Top and set Radius = 30 .

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7. In the Source parameters rol lout, set Rate = 4 , LOD = 5.0 , and Thickness = 2.0 .

The Rate parameter controls the force that particles have when they are generated by the par-ticle source. The LOD parameter refers to the Level of Density of the particles. Higher values lead to higher realism of the water but wil l slow down its calculation, so we wil l need to find a happy medium to balance quality and calculation speed. The Thickness parameter controls the stickiness or viscosity of the particles. Right now its value is set to 2, which is perhaps a l itt le higher than it should be. If you want to see more splashes and less “chunks” of water, then this parameter should be set to 1. After fol lowing the exercise and performing some tests, you can tweak the water simulation however you l ike.

8. Set the stop@frame parameter to 200 . This parameter defines when particles should stop emit-ting, but does not set the end time for the simulation.

9. In the Presets rol lout, place a checkmark next to Override common params . Set Friction = 2.0 , Adherence = 0.001 , Bounce = 0 , Col. GAP = 0 , and Gravity = 40.0 .

Now, it’s time to fine-tune the interaction of the water with the coll ision objects. In our case, we have two coll ision objects: Gutter and Wheel Low Poly .

10. Select the Gutter and Wheel Low Poly objects.

11. In the glu3D Toolbar , cl ick the glu3D Object Manager button to open the glu3D Object Manager win-dow. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

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12. With the Gutter and Wheel Low Poly objects sti l l selected, cl ick Add selection to list in the glu3D Object Manager window. Both the selected objects appear on the l ist in the glu3D Object Man-ager window.

13. In the l ist of objects, highlight Gutter and set CollisionGAP = 0.001 , Bounce = 0 , Friction = 0 , Adher-ence = 0 .

14. Highlight Wheel Low Poly and set CollisionGAP = 2.0 , Bounce = 0.2 , Friction = 0.03 , Adherence = 0.33 .

The parameter CollisionGAP defines the distance between the coll ision objects and where the particles begin to react to the coll ision objects. We want the Gutter object to simply deliver flowing water to the water wheel, not create any splashing effects, so we set the Bounce , Friction and Adher-ence for the Gutter object to 0 . Conversely, the particles that coll ide with Wheel Low Poly need to simulate splashing, so these particles have parameter values that wil l make the particles react upon coll ision.

After the water bounces off the wheel and fal ls into the creek, we won’t need to see the particles once they penetrate the creek surface. To reduce the simulation time, we can place a Plane just below the creek’s surface and make the particles disappear once they make contact with the Plane .

15. Create a Plane (standard primitive object) with Length and Width set to 1800 .

16. Align the center of the plane object with the center of the water wheel along the X and Y axes, and position it sl ightly below the water wheel along the Z axis. Rename the Plane to Particle_Kill_Plane. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

17. Select Particle_Kill_Plane and open the glu3D Object Manager window. Click Add selection to list to add this object to the water simulation.

18. Highlight Particle_Kill_Plane and click Kill parts on collide . Also set CollisionGAP = 2.0 , and the other Dynamic parameters to 0 . See the fol lowing i l lustration.

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19. Make sure that for al l the objects in the glu3D Object manager button, the Add wetmap sequence option is turned off . We do not need to use wetmaps in this simulation.

The simulation process generates a large amount of information about the location of the parti-cles and geometry at each frame. glu3d stores this information in cache fi les so each frame can be regenerated quickly when you scrub the timeline to inspect the animation. By default, the fi le destina-tion is set to c:\temp. We recommend using a different folder for this project.

20. Create a folder on your local drive called Cache_Top to store the cache fi les .

21. Select the glu3D_01 object.

22. In the Modify panel, f ind the Cache rol lout. Click SET and change the directory path to Cache_Top . Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

The ful l path to the cache fi les wil l be . . .\Cache_Top\surface\glu3d\waterfall_start_aux001 .At this point, you could press calculate glu3D to start the water simulation. However, depending

on the speed of your computer system, the simulation can take up to a few hours to calculate. Instead of waiting that long to make sure it’s working correctly, you can create a simplif ied version of the simulation to test the parameters.

23. Select Particle_Top , go to the Modify panel, and in the Source parameters rol lout set LOD = 1 . By doing this, you wil l decrease the number of particles generated and thus speed up the calcu-lation process. During the simulation calculation process you can change all properties of the l iquid and factors that affect it . Note that in the i l lustrations that fol low we have left the LOD setting at its original value of 5. If you turned it down to 1, your water may look less dense.

24. Press calculate glu3D on the glu3D Toolbar .

I f you have set al l the parameters correctly, the particle emitter wil l start generating particles, and they wil l f low over the gutter from one end to another and then fal l down to the water wheel. Some particles wil l bounce off and thus create splashes and some particles wil l rol l down the surface of the water wheel. After particles fal l down below the level of the Particle_Kill_Plane, they wil l dis-appear.

25. Watch the calculation for a l itt le while and click Stop to stop the simulation.

If you stop the simulation and start it again, the new simulation always begins from the last frame recorded in the cache fi les. As a result, if you change the settings and want to restart the simulation calculation, you need to clear your cache fi les first. To do this, cl ick Flush dynamics cache files on the glu3D Toolbar to clear information for the particles, and Flush surface mesh cache to clear information for the geometry.

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For a sti l l rendering, it wil l be enough to run the simulation for 160 frames (assuming a 30 fps frame rate). Then you can choose the best-looking frame for rendering. We liked frames 109–114, so we wil l base our work on those frames in the next exercise.

26. Save your work. You can compare your fi le to Ch05-08.max .

27. Now you wil l create the mesh surface for the waterfal l . Position the time slider at frame 111 and click the Hide/Show mesh surface button on the glu3D Toolbar .

On the left side of the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see how the mesh surface of the water wil l look with the default settings.

28. Select the glu3D_01 object. Go to the Modify panel and in the Surface Params rol lout, change the fol lowing parameters: Surface LOD = 9.0 , Drop Size = 6.6 , Melting Threshold = 4.2 , Shrink Wrap = 0.66 .

The right image of the fol lowing i l lustration shows the result of these settings. By adjusting these parameters, we can adjust the look of the water mesh surface, size, and the amount of splashes.

In the future, the rendering of the water wil l be done separately from the main scene. From the main scene, we wil l be using only the environment so there are objects to reflect and refract.

In order to add more realism to the waterfal l , we wil l add a Motion Blur effect. A single frame would not be enough to do that, so we wil l use several frames. In our case, we have already chosen frames 109–114.

29. Select the glu3D_01 object and in the Mesh controller panel of the Surface Params rol lout turn off the Entire animation range checkbox. Set start@ = 109 and stop@frame = 114 .

30. Press the Build surface button in Surface Params rol lout, or you can press Build surface from the start of the playback range on glu3D Toolbar .

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As a result, the water mesh surface wil l be created from frame 109 to frame 114. This mesh sur-face wil l be stored in the cache fi le in the folder you specif ied earl ier, with \mesh appended to it . This cached data wil l remain in this folder unti l you clear the cache fi les. This way, you can place the par-ticle source glu3DParticle in a scene at any time and load the particle and/or mesh surface information directly from the cache fi le, saving you the trouble of running the simulation again.

glu3D gives you the abil ity to load mesh surface information from a cache fi le without the cre-ation of a particle source. You can load such cache information to a gluBaker object.

31. Save your fi le. You can open the scene Ch05-09.max to compare your results.

32. Reset 3ds Max.

33. Go to the Create panel ➤ Geometry ➤ glu3D pouring system and click the gluBaker button. This wil l create the object gluBaker_01 in the scene.

34. Rename gluBaker_01 to gluBaker_Top .

35. In the Modify panel, for the parameter Cache path, set the path to match the path of your previ-ously cached fi les.

36. Move the time slider to frame 109 .

I f you did everything correctly, then you should be able to see the waterfal l model in the view-port. The waterfal l wil l show movement only at frames 109–114.

37. Save your work. You can open Ch05-10.max to compare your results.

Exercise 5: Creek water reactions to the water wheel

Let’s move on to the next stage: creating splashes in the creek in response to the fal l ing water, and creating ripples on the surface of the creek in response to the water wheel’s motion. For this, we wil l use a new set of glu3D particles.

1. Merge the Water Level object from the Ch05-07.max scene.

2. Go to Create panel ➤ Geometry ➤ glu3D pouring system and click the glu3D button.

A new set of glu3D objects appears in the scene.

3. Delete the f loorGlu3D object.

4. Rename glu3DParticle01 to Particle_Bottom .

5. Go to frame 0 . Place Particle_Bottom sl ightly below the place where the fal l ing water meets the surface of the creek. Use Select and Rotate to rotate Particle_Bottom so its gizmo points upward along the Z axis .

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6. In the Source params rol lout for the Particle_Bottom object, set Radius = 40.0 , Rate = 18.0 , LOD = 3.0 , Thickness = 1.5 .

You also need a coll ision obstacle to make the particles generated by Particle_Bottom form a crown-shaped splash. For this obstacle, an ordinary sphere wil l do. Using a simple object wil l keep the calculation time low and sti l l give you sufficient control over the splash shape.

7. Create a sphere with Radius = 40 and Segments = 11 . Name the object Sphere-Collision. Position the sphere at the place where the waterfal l meets the creek, just above Particle_Bottom . Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

As particles flow up and then fal l due to the gravity effect included in the simulation, they wil l fal l below the creek surface and wil l no longer be visible. To delete unneeded particles, let’s use the same process we used in the previous exercise, creating a Plane just below the creek surface and kil l ing the particles when they coll ide with the plane.

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8. Create a Plane with a Length and Width of 700 and place it sl ightly below the Particle_Bottom object. Rename this plane Particle_Kill_Plane .

9. Open the glu3D Object Manager . Select Sphere-Collision and Particle_Kill_Plane , and click Add selection to list .

10. Highlight Particle_Kill_Plane and click Kill parts on collide . Deactivate Add wetmap sequence .

11. Highlight Sphere Collision and set CollisionGAP = 1.0 , Bounce = 90.0 , Friction = 0.03 , and Adherence = 0.0 . Deactivate Add wetmap sequence and click Close .

12. In the scene, select the Particle_Bottom object. On the Modify panel, set stop@frame to 100 .

13. Select the glu3D_01 object, cl ick the SET button, and change the path for the cache fi les to . . .\Cache_Bottom .

14. Read through the next two steps and then click the calculate glu3D button in the glu3D Toolbar .

15. While the simulation is calculating, move the Sphere-Collision object back and forth slightly every 3–5 frames. This wil l make the splashes uneven and thus more realistic. Also, at approximately frames 18–24, turn off the Particle_Bottom generator. In order to do so without stopping the simulation calculation, select it and go to the Modify panel and turn on Disable source in the Source params rol lout. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

16. Click Stop to stop the calculation around frame 40 .

Now, we wil l create the mesh surface for the splashes.

17. Select the glu3D_01 object. In the Surface params rol lout set the fol lowing parameters: Surface LOD = 8.0 , Drop Size = 2.5 , Melting Threshold = 4.1 , and Shrink wrap = 0.3 .

18. Under Surface Params, turn on Enable surface , and click Build Surface .

This wil l al low us to build geometry for splashes based on calculated particles. If you think there are too many splashes, you can reduce the Radius of the sphere and reduce the Rate parameter for the particles’ source.

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19. Save the current scene. You can compare your results to Ch05-11.max .

Now, we wil l place the waterfal l object and splashes object into the original waterfal l scene.

20. Open the scene Ch05-08.max .

21. Save the scene as Ch05-12.max in case you need the original f i le later.

22. Open the Select by Name dialog box (keyboard shortcut H) , to select the objects Particle_Top , Particle_Kill_Plane and glu3D_01 . Press Alt+Q to Isolate Selection .

23. Go to Create panel ➤ Geometry ➤ glu3D pouring system and click the gluBaker button twice.

You wil l see that two new objects (gluBaker_01 and gluBaker_02) have been created at the scene’s origin.

24. Select the gluBaker_01 object and rename it gluBaker_Waterfall . This wil l be our waterfal l object.

25. Go to the Modify panel and set the Cache path to the fi le with the waterfal l ’s mesh surface data. For example, . . .\Cache_Top\glu3D\waterfall_start_aux001 .

Because we calculated the mesh surface for frames 109–114 only, we wil l be able to see the mesh surface only at these frames.

26. Go to frame 111 . You should be able to see the waterfal l mesh surface in viewports.

27. Select gluBaker_02 and rename it gluBaker_Splash .

This wil l be the object that represents the splashes.

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28. For this object, set the path to your Cache path to . . .\Cache_ Bottom\glu3D\waterfall_start_aux001 .

Previously, we calculated the mesh surface for the splashes over frames 0-40. This frame range is different from our waterfal l mesh surface’s frames, so we need to change the starting frame for the splash animation.

29. With gluBaker_Splash selected, in the Modify panel, in the Time transformation group, set the Offset parameter to 95 , as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration. Now the animation wil l go from frame 95 to frame 135. You can move the time slider to frame 111 to make sure it works correctly.

Now, we have synchronized the animation of the splashes with the animation of the waterfal l .

30. Assign the Water material to the objects GluBaker_Waterfall and GluBaker_Splash .

31. Conduct a test render. The result should be similar to the fol lowing i l lustration.

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For better realism, you can add a Motion Blur effect. You can see an example of this in the next i l lustration.

32. Save your work. You can compare your results to Ch05-13.max from the support fi les.

The water doesn’t look realistic yet because it is reflecting and refracting only the very l imited number of objects in the scene. But you can see in the test render that the volume of water flowing from the gutter has a nice refractive thickness to it, and that the splashes look l ike water droplets.

Next, the water wheel needs to create waves and ripples where it contacts the water’s surface. The water wheel doesn’t spin very fast, so the deformation of the water under the wheel doesn’t need to be too intense. We wil l see only small waves and a rippling effect.

For the surface of the water, we wil l use the Water Level object that we created in the first chap-ter. Let’s temporari ly disable objects GluBaker_Splash and GluBaker_Waterfall .

33. Select the GluBaker_Splash object and turn on the Disable option on the Modify panel. Do the same for the GluBaker_Waterfall object.

34. Select the Water Level object.

35. For the Water Level object, turn all of the modifiers off except TurboSmooth .

In order to set up waves, we need to increase the number of polygons for the Water Level object. However, this can slow down the viewport navigation, so we need to hide the polygons that we don’t need for the simulation.

36. At the Polygon sub-object level for the Water Level object, select the polygons under the water wheel. Click Hide Unselected to hide the unselected polygons.

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37. For the TurboSmooth modifier assigned to the Water Level object, set Iterations = 6 .

Now, let’s create the waves under the water wheel with the Wave and Ripple modifiers, using the Vol. Select modifier to l imit the effects to a specif ic area. Vol. Select works by selecting faces or verti-ces contained within the Vol. Select modifier’s Gizmo and passing the selection up the Modifier Stack to the next modifier, in this case a Wave or Ripple modifier. The Vol. Select modifier’s Gizmo can be trans-formed and animated, creating an animatable selection for another modifier to affect.

38. Apply a Vol. Select modifier to the Water Level object and rename it Vol. Sel for Wave . Move and rotate the modifier’s Gizmo so it’s positioned under the water wheel and is parallel to the wheel. Scale the Gizmo so it encompasses the area just under the water wheel.

39. For the Vol. Sel for Wave modifier, set Stack Selection Level to Vertex , turn on Use Soft Selection, and set Falloff = 125.0. Change the Selection Method to Add , and set Pinch = .2 . Adjust the posi-tion and scale of the Gizmo as necessary so the selection looks l ike the fol lowing i l lustration.

40. Apply a Wave modifier to the Water Level object and rename it Wave Under Wheel . In the modifier’s parameters, set Amplitude 1 = 12.0 , Amplitude 2 = 0.0 , and Wave length = 80.0 .

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41. Move and rotate the Wave Under Wheel modifier’s Gizmo so that waves appear to crest in between the spokes of the water wheel. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

In the next chapter, we wil l animate the Wave modifier so that the waves wil l move along with the water wheel. Now, let’s add ripples to the water.

42. In the Modifier Stack for the Water Level object, copy the Vol. Sel for Wave modifier and paste it above the Wave Under Wheel modifier. Rename the modifier Vol. Sel Ripple1 . For the Vol. Sel Rip-ple1 modifier’s parameters, make sure the Stack Selection Level is set to Vertex , turn on Use Soft Selection , and set Falloff = 290.0 .

43. Scale the Vol. Sel Ripple1 modifier’s Gizmo to 120% along the X axis and 400% along the Y axis .

You have just increased the area of influence for the Ripple modifier that you are about to apply to the object.

44. Apply a Ripple modifier to the Water Level object and rename it Ripple1 . On the Modify panel, set Amplitude 1 = 11.0 , Amplitude 2 = 0.0 , Wave Length = 70.0 , and Decay = 0.003 .

45. Use the Move and Rotate tools to reposition the modifier’s Gizmo in front of the water wheel approximately at the place where the major mass of fal l ing water hits the surface of the creek. Then the waves created by the Ripple1 modifier wil l be aligned with the waves created by the Wave Under Wheel modifier. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

In the next chapter, you wil l animate the Ripple1 modifier so that waves created by this modifier wil l move. You wil l also synchronize the Ripple1 and Wave Under Wheel modifier’s animations.

5-35Wa t e r E l em e n t s

To prepare for animation in the next chapter, al l that is left to do is to add a few more Ripple modifiers in places where fal l ing and splashing water hits the surface of the creek. To better deter-mine these places, we need to see the waterfal l geometry.

46. Enable the GluBaker_Splash and GluBaker_Waterfall objects by turning off the Modify panel ➤ Parameters ➤ Disable option.

47. Assign a Mesh Select modifier to the Water Level object. This modifier wil l reset the current sub-object selection in the Modifier Stack, meaning the next modifier you apply wil l affect the entire object.

48. Copy the Ripple1 modifier and paste it above the Mesh Select . Rename the modifier to Ripple Front . Scale the modifier’s Gizmo to 150% .

49. In the Ripple Front modifier’s parameters, set Amplitude 1 = 4.0 , Amplitude 2 = 4.0 , Wave Length = 30.0 , and Decay = 0.015 . Position the gizmo in the spot where the fal l ing water hits the surface of the creek in front of the water wheel.

50. Copy the Ripple Front modifier and paste it above itself in the Modifier Stack . Rename it Ripple Left . Set Amplitude 1 = 5.0 , Amplitude 2 = 5.0 , Wave Length = 30.0 , and Decay = 0.018 .

51. Reposition the modifier’s Gizmo to the left of the water wheel at the place where the splashed water hits the creek.

52. Select the Water Level object and go to Polygon sub-object mode. In the Edit Geometry rol lout, cl ick the Unhide All button to unhide all hidden polygons.

If you enable all the modifiers again, you wil l see that the Ripple Waterfall modifier from the first part of this chapter is creating ripples over the entire surface of the creek. We need to tel l this modi-fier not to create ripples in the area under the water wheel.

53. In the Modifier Stack , copy the Vol. Sel Ripple1 modifier and paste it below the Ripple Waterfall modifier. Rename it Vol. Sel Waterfall .

54. In the Vol. Sel Waterfall modifier’s parameters, in the Selection Method rol lout, enable the Invert option to invert the area selected by the modifier. In the Soft Selection rol lout, set Falloff = 400 .

55. Add a Mesh Select modifier above the Ripple Waterfall modifier in the Modifier Stack .

As a result, the Modifier Stack for the Water Level object should look as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration. The modifiers added in the first part of this chapter are shown in green, while the remain-ing modifiers were added in the second half of this chapter.

5-36 Wa t e r E l em e n t s

You have now completed the creation of al l of the water objects, and have set up modifiers for animation.

56. Save the scene. Open Ch05-14.max if you would l ike to compare your results.

SummaryHopefully this chapter made you realize how important it is as a 3d artist to analyze environments and figure out how to break apart and recreate the various components. If we had simply built the creek surface and added some ripples to it, our scene would be lacking so much of the dimension that we created by adding different types of ripples to show various speeds of water movement and the influence of the various objects that impact the water’s surface. Every small detail adds to the realism and impact in your final rendering. By showing not only the changing water depths and the varying ripple effects, but also the duckweed build-up at the banks, we have very convincingly cre-ated a slow moving creek. By showing the faster, more turbulent water by the water wheel we have added movement which creates a nice contrast. Study everything around you and look at the subtle details. Take the time to add as much detail as possible to your projects; it is this type of detail that draws the viewer in and invites them to get lost in your work.

1

Background and Site Elements

In thIs chapter, we wIll create the backdrop for the scene, as shown in Figure 6-1. We wil l use some of the modeling methods discussed previously in this book, but we wil l use some new tools to populate the background with dense foliage and natural elements.

We wil l use the Hair and Fur modifier for grass, and Particle Flow and Scatter to place trees around the scene. We wil l also use the program Vue 8 xStream for the mountains and sky. You can download a trial version of this product at http://www.e-onsoftware.com/products/?page=try.

Figure 6-1. The background and site elements created in this chapter

ChaptEr 6

6-2 B a c kg r o u n d a n d S i t e E l em e n t s

Exercise 1: Preparing mountain textures

First, we wil l divide the scene into two parts: the near range (elements closer to the camera) and the far range (distant elements). In the near range we see fields and in the far range we see a forest and mountains. But before we start the modeling of the terrain, we need to define the area that is seen by camera.

1.Reset 3ds Max .

2.Make sure that the scene’s Display Unit Scale is set to Generic Units and Lighting Units are set to International.

3.With the Perspective view active, open the Viewport Background dialog box (Alt+B) and load the reference image Fantasy.jpg as the background. In the Aspect Ratio section, select the Match Bitmap option. Click OK . This wil l assist us in determining near and far range objects.

4.Enable Show Safe Frames (Shift+F).

5.Open the Render Setup dialog box (F10) and set the Output Size to equal the reference image size, 1000 x 554 .

The background image was created in Photoshop and served as the inspiration and main refer-ence image from which the 3D scene was designed. The goal in this first exercise is to create a mountain that approximately matches one of the mountains seen in the reference image. In order to do this, we need to create a rough model and manipulate the view so that the model appears to match the silhouette of the chosen mountain in our reference image. Once we create one moun-tain object, we can make copies of it and modify the copies slightly to create the entire mountain range.

6.Create a Sphere object with parameters shown in the fol lowing i l lustration. Since this object wil l be turned into a mountain, let’s rename it Mountain .

7.Turn on Wireframe mode (F3).

8.Use the viewport navigation tools to change the Perspective view so that the object appears to match the mountain in the reference image, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration. When you are satisfied with the alignment of the view, then we can create a camera from this view and temporari ly turn off the background image.

If this project were not a tutorial but rather just a regular project for hire, you would probably want to leave this image on, create numerous low-poly models and then position them, in order to get a proper environment set up. However, since this is a tutorial , we wil l not spend an enormous amount of time experimenting with the sizing and placing of objects. We wil l simply direct you to cre-ate objects in a certain fashion and you can position them on your own.

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9.Press Ctrl+C to create a camera from the current view.

10.Open the Viewport Background dialog box (Alt+B) and deselect the Display Background option.

11.Disable Show Safe Frames (Shift+F).

12.Convert the Mountain object into an Editable Poly and delete the polygons on the bottom half of the object.

13.Use the Connect command to add the horizontal edges shown in the middle image of the fol-lowing i l lustration and then add the edges shown in the right image.

14.Manually move vertices to modify the object and make it similar to the fol lowing i l lustration. The exact placement is not as important as the fact that the object needs to have noticeable deformation that roughly mimics a mountain similar to the one we see in the reference image.

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15.Using the fol lowing i l lustration as a guide, add additional edges and deformation to the object so that when we add the TurboSmooth modifier later, the result wil l look more l ike a natural mountain rather than a hemisphere. Try to make your object look similar to the fol lowing i l lus-tration. It does not need to be identical, it only needs to be similar and have some distortion. You can compare your work with the fi le Ch06-01.max .

16.Continue from the previous step with your own fi le or open the fi le Ch06-01.max to continue with the object already prepared up to this point.

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17.Apply the Unwrap UVW modifier to the object, and in the Modifier Stack , go to Face sub-object mode and select al l of the polygons. The shortcut Ctrl+A is the best option to select al l the polygons because, by default, the Ignore Backfacing option is enabled, which would prevent some polygons from being select during a Window selection.

18. In the Map Parameters rol lout, cl ick the Pelt button. The Edit UVWs dialog box appears and the object should look l ike the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration. For display purposes, and because of the l imits of CMYK printing, the checker background was turned off and the color appears different than what you would actually see in 3ds Max.

19. In the Pelt Map dialog box, cl ick the Start Pelt button. Within a second, the motion should stop and the object should look similar to the right image. Click Stop Pelt.

The goal of the pelt procedure is to flatten out the mapping of the object and achieve a nice even spread of the vertices that make up the object. The next three steps may or may not be beneficial , depending on the topology of your object. If the results of the next three steps produce a more skewed appearance to your pelt than what you already have right now, then you can click the Reset button, start the pelt process again, and leave these steps out.

20. In the Relax section of the Pelt Map dialog box, cl ick the Settings button and in the Relax Tool dialog box, select Relax By Face Angles .

21.Click Start Relax and allow the procedure to run for few seconds. When you see that motion in the Edit UVWs windows has slowed, cl ick Stop Relax.

22. In the Relax Tool dialog box, cl ick the Apply button and close this window. I f the results of these last three steps did not produce a better pelt, then simply click the Reset button in the Pelt Map dialog box, cl ick Start Pelt again, and stop the pelt when it’s finished moving.

23. In the Pelt Map dialog box, cl ick the Commit button. Now close the Edit UVWs dialog box.

24.Close sub-object mode and apply a TurboSmooth modifier to the object with Iterations = 2 .

25.Open the Material Editor. Choose any empty material slot with the Standard material type, and assign a Checker map to the Diffuse channel.

26. In the Checker map’s settings, set the Tiling parameter to 40 for both U and V .

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27.Click the Show Standard Map in Viewport button and then assign this material to your mountain object. Your object should look similar to the fol lowing i l lustration. Because of the Checker map, you can clearly see how this texture wraps around the 3D object.

28. In the Modifier Stack, choose the Unwrap UVW modifier, and in its parameters, cl ick the Edit button.

29. From the Tools menu, select Pack UVs.

30. From the drop-down list, select Linear Packing and click OK . This wil l move the object so that it takes up the entire texture space. You can also compare your results with the fi le Ch06-02.max and continue with this fi le if you have had any problems.

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Now, we need to create a texture for the mountain model.

31. In the Edit UVWs dialog box, go to Tools menu ➤ Render UVW Template .

32.Type 1024x1024 for the Width and Height and click Render UV Template . Save the resulting image as Rock-UVW.jpg .

33.Go to Photoshop and open the fol lowing images: Rock-UVW.jpg , Mossy Stone-small.jpg , and Rock Grass.jpg .

34.Copy and paste Mossy Stone-small.jpg into Rock-UVW.jpg as a new layer. Make sure the pasted image is centered on the background.

35.Also add Rock Grass.jpg to Rock-UVW.jpg as a new layer.

This image is signif icantly smaller than the Rock-UVW.jpg image, so we wil l need to clone it over the entire surface of the canvas by holding down Alt + Shift while dragging this layer over the canvas multiple times to create copies. This wil l also create several additional layers of the grass image.

36.Copy the new layer over and over unti l it f i l ls the image with a seamless appearance.

37.Select al l the grass layers and execute the Merge Layers command (Ctrl+E).

38.Click the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. Make sure the Layer mask thumbnail is selected.

39.Select the Brush tool (B), right-click and set the brush Master Diameter to 100 and the Hardness to 0% .

40.Change the Foreground color to 100% black .

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41.Using the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration as a reference, paint away the center of the grass layer to reveal the image below it, which wil l represent the rocky mountain top. Because we are painting with a black brush, we are painting a mask and revealing the layer below.

42.Change the Foreground color to 100% white . Pure white wil l al low us to delete parts of the mask that we just painted with the pure black.

43.Using the middle image of the fol lowing i l lustration as a reference, paint around the edges of the rectangular mask to hide the edges so that the two images blend without a noticeable seam. Continue painting so that you get something similar to the right image, whereby the two images used to texture the mountain blend more natural ly. You can switch brush types and sizes to get even better results. We suggest using a Splatter brush from the standard brushes l ibrary with a transparency of 30-70% .

In the previous i l lustration, we can see that the grass and rock colors do not match, requiring a small color correction.

44.Select the grass layer and execute the Color Balance command (Ctrl+B).

45.Disable the Preserve Luminosity option and enable the Shadows option. Set the fol lowing values for Color Levels: +20 , +3 , -4 .

46.Switch the selector to Midtones and set the Color Levels to +34 , -27 , +6 .

47.Switch to Highlights and set the Color Levels to -2 , +18 , +15 . Click OK to complete the command.

48.Execute the Levels command (Ctrl+L) for the grass layer. Set the Channel parameter to RGB .

49.Set the Input Levels parameters to 0 , 0.57 , 255 .

50.Set the Output Levels parameters to 0 , 191 . Click OK to complete the command. The results of the previous few steps should look similar to the fol lowing i l lustration.

51. From the Layer menu, select Flatten Image .

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I f we look closely at the image details, we see that the green and brown grass elements are standing out too much. We need to tone them down a l itt le.

52.Use the Hue/Saturation (Ctrl+U) command.

53. For the Red channel (Alt+3), set Hue = +50 and Saturation = -20 .

54. For the Green channel (Alt+5), set Saturation = -75 . Click OK to complete the command.

55.Save the resulting image as Rock.jpg .

To make the mountain surface rougher we wil l eventually use the VrayDisplacementMod modifier. In order to do that, we need to prepare a texture for the displacement.

56.Press the shortcut Shift+Ctrl+U to completely desaturate the image.

57.Duplicate this layer and apply the Gaussian Blur fi lter with Radius = 2 pixels.

58. For the new layer, set Blend Mode to Lighten .

59.Duplicate this layer and set its Blend Mode to Multiply .

As a result you should have three layers, each with a different blending mode: the lower layer with Normal, middle layer with Lighten, and upper layer with Multiply.

60.Select al l three layers and merge them.

61.To the resulting image, apply a Craquelure fi lter (Filter menu ➤ Texture) with the fol lowing parameters: Crack Spacing = 42 , Crack Depth = 1 , Crack Brightness = 10 .

62.Access the Levels command and set the Input Levels to 0 , 1 .49 , 255 .

63.Your resulting image should look similar to the fol lowing i l lustration.

6- 10 B a c kg r o u n d a n d S i t e E l em e n t s

64.Save the image as Rock Disp.jpg or continue with the already prepared image of the same name provided in the book’s support fi les.

65.Return to 3ds Max , select the mountain object and apply a VrayDisplacementMod modifier to it .

66.Within the Modify panel, load the bitmap Rock Disp.jpg in the Texmap channel and set Amount = 1.5 . This represents the maximum displacement amount.

67.Open the Material Editor , select the material assigned to the mountain object, and within the Diffuse channel, replace the Checker map with the bitmap Rock.jpg .

68.Enable the Show Standard Map in Viewport option.

69.Render any view that shows the mountain properly. You should get something similar to the fol lowing i l lustration. At this point, you can manipulate the images applied to the mountain using Photoshop, and render again to tweak your results if you want.

70.Save your fi le. You can open the scene Ch06-03.max to compare your results.

Exercise 2: Site modeling

In this section, we wil l model background objects in a way that works specif ical ly with the current camera view. We wil l also describe how to uti l ize powerful tools such as Compound Objects , Particle Flow and V-Ray for our scene.

1.Continue from the previous exercise or open the fi le Ch06-03.max .

2.Select the Mountain object and disable the TurboSmooth modifier. We do not need it on right now.

3.Delete the VRayDisplacementMod modifier. We wil l reapply it later to the entire mountain range as one object.

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4.Clone the Mountain object several times as an Instance . For each clone, change the rotation and size of the object, and move it along the horizon. Overlap the objects to make them look l ike a continuous mountain range. An example is shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

Now, we wil l create the guides for the fields closer to the camera, as shown in the fol lowing i l lus-tration. Notice that these objects represent where we want the different land areas to exist.

5.Continue from the previous step or open the fi le Ch06-04.max . This scene already has the mountains in place.

6.Switch to the Top view and create a Sphere object with the fol lowing parameters: Radius = 100 , Segments = 32 , Hemisphere = 0.9 .

7.Use the Scale tool to scale the object 260% along its Y axis, and rotate the object so it points away from the camera.

8.Use the Clone tool to create two more copies of this object.

9.Name these three spheres as fol lows: Field01 , Field02 , and Field03 . These spheres wil l serve as the ground objects for the fields on which other objects wil l be placed.

10.Switch to the camera view and position these objects as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration. The two spheres farthest from the camera can be made see-through to aid in correct place-ment in relation to the reference image.

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You can also look at the next i l lustration to see how the spheres are placed in relation to the camera. Next, we’l l create a planar object to serve as the terrain for the forest. Rather than use a flat Plane , you’l l create a Patch object so you can more easily create small hi l ls on the surface.

11.Continue from the previous step or open the fi le Ch06-05.max .

12.Switch to the Top view and create a closed Spline with four vertices that fol lows the camera’s view cone and overlaps it sl ightly. Two of the edges define the near and far ranges of the for-est. See the fol lowing i l lustration as a guide.

13.Name this object Terrain . This object wil l be where most of the trees that are not on the moun-tains wil l reside.

14.Apply the Face Extrude modifier to this object.

15.Apply the Edit Patch modifier. If the face normals are backwards, reverse the direction of the spline.

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16.Switch to the Right view, go to Vertex sub-object mode within the Editable Spline object, and select the vertices closest to the mountains’ edge.

17.Convert these vertices to the Bezier Corner type, and move them along the World Z axis to align them with the base of the mountains.

The Terrain object intersects one of the fields. We need to correct this by making the object go around the field, not through it .

18.While sti l l at the Vertex sub-object level of the ground object, add a few more vertices to the spline near the field (intersecting sphere). Move the vertices so the ground goes around the field, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

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You can also see that some mountains hover above the ground. You need to adjust the moun-tains so they are sitt ing on the ground.

19.Select one of the mountains. Go to the Edit Geometry rol lout of the Editable Poly object and turn on the Preserve UVs option. To get there, you wil l probably have to acknowledge a warning message that appears. Select Yes to dismiss it .

20.Click the Cap button under Border sub-object mode to cap the bottom of the mountain.

21.Select the cap polygon that represents the bottom of the mountain and use the Bevel tool with the fol lowing parameters: Bevel Type = Group , Height = 50 , Outline Amount = 120 .

22.Turn the TurboSmooth modifier back on.

The result should be similar to the fol lowing i l lustration. Because you cloned each mountain as an Instance , they wil l al l receive these edits automatically. If you cloned them as unique copies, you wil l need to repeat this edit on each mountain.

Now, we need to delete extra geometry.

23.Continue from the previous step or open the fi le Ch06-06.max .

24.Convert each mountain into an Editable Poly .

25.Use any tools that you want to delete the areas of the mountains that overlap each other. We suggest the ProBoolean feature with the Merge option, but in reality there are many ways to do this. Regardless, we need a clean model without extraneous hidden faces, so that when we scatter trees on the object, they wil l scatter properly, and not be placed buried into the mountains in some places. In addition to the overlapping mountain geometry, cut the areas of the terrain out that l ie beneath the mountains.

26.Attach al l of the mountains together into a single Editable Poly object.

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In the end, the model should look similar to the fol lowing i l lustration.

27.Continue from the previous step or open the fi le Ch06-07.max .

28.With the Mountain object selected, add an Unwrap UVW modifier. Do not change any of its parameters. This modifier is just required for proper displacement display. Apply a VrayDis-placementMod to this object.

29. In the VrayDisplacementMod parameters, set Type = 3D mapping and Amount = 1.5 , and assign Rock Disp.jpg to the Texmap slot.

30.Open the Material Editor and select the Rock material . Copy it into an empty sample slot and rename it Terrain .

31.Click the map in the Diffuse channel. In the Bitmap Parameters rol lout, f ind the Cropping/Placement group and change the parameters as fol lows: U=0.0 , V=0.0 , W=0.4 , H=0.4 . Enable the Apply option.

With these parameters, we have defined the area of the texture that wil l be applied to the Terrain object, in this case the area of the texture that has grass only. If you click the View Image button, you wil l see the selected area marked with a bounding box. In our case, it is important to match the mountain’s base material and ground material .

32.Apply this material to the Terrain object.

33.Apply a UVW Map modifier to the Terrain object. Set the Type to Planar and set the fol lowing parameters: Length = 100 , Width = 100 .

We can also cut away extra geometry from the three fields, especial ly polygons that are not vis-ible from the camera. However, we need to be careful and not cut away too much. You should reserve a l itt le bit of extra geometry on these hidden fields to hold tal l vegetation that wil l come up behind the foreground field.

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34.As you see fit , cut away parts of the fields as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration. Furthermore, if you want to perfect your Terrain object, as we mentioned earl ier, we suggest cutting away the areas under each mountain so that these areas of the Terrain object receive no trees.

35.Save your fi le. You should have something similar to the scene shown in the fol lowing i l lustra-tion. You can open the fi le Ch06-08.max to compare your results.

Next, we need to model two types of pine trees with an approximate size of 6x6x9 . The first one wil l be in the near range, so it wil l have to be more detailed. The second wil l be in the far range, so it can have fewer details.

For the near range pine tree, we wil l model the tree and then use the Hair and Fur modifier to cre-ate the needles.

Exercise 3: Creating high-poly trees

1.Reset 3ds Max .

2.Make sure that the scene’s Display Unit Scale is set to Generic Units and Lighting Units are set to International.

3. In the Perspective viewport, create a Cylinder object with the fol lowing parameters: Radius = 1000 , Height = 600 , Height Segments = 3 , Cap Segments = 1 , and Sides = 16 .

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4. Zoom Extents All and enable Edged Faces .

5.Convert this cylinder into an Editable Poly and go to Edge sub-object mode.

6.Select the edges highlighted in the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration and position approxi-mately as shown.

7.Go to Polygon sub-object mode and select the bottom cap of the cylinder. Use the Inset tool with an Inset Amount = 80 to create another polygon with a smaller radius, as shown on the right side of the fol lowing i l lustration.

8.Delete this new polygon and also delete the top cap polygon.

9.Go to Border sub-object mode and select the top border of the object.

10.Turn on the Use Soft Selection option in the Soft Selection rol lout and set the Falloff parameter to 550 .

11.Scale the selected edges 30-40% smaller along the X and Y axes. Refer to the left side of the fol lowing i l lustration.

12.Turn off Soft Selection and in Edge sub-object mode, select the ring of edges second from the top, and then position and scale them as shown on the right side of the fol lowing i l lu-stration.

13.Leave the sub-object level, go to a Front view and perform a Zoom Extents .

14. From the Tools menu, select Array.

15.Click the Preview button and set the parameters to match the fol lowing i l lustration. Click OK .

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16.Select the bottom object and in the Edit Geometry rol lout, cl ick the Attach List icon. In the dialog box, choose all objects and click the Attach button.

17.Apply the Taper modifier with the fol lowing parameters: Amount = -0.95 and Curve = 0.24 . The result should look similar to the image on the left side of the fol lowing i l lustration.

18.Use the Squeeze modifier with the fol lowing parameters: Amount = -0.12 and Curve = 0.2 . The result should look similar to the right image of fol lowing i l lustration.

19.Apply the TurboSmooth modifier with Iterations = 2 .

NOTE: With 2 iterations, the object wil l have 4 times as many polygons. Unless your computer is a dual quad-core with at least 12GB of RAM, you should leave this value set to 1. Otherwise, your com-puter wil l probably struggle later to create the necessary instances of the tree.

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20.Apply the Noise modifier with the parameters shown in the fol lowing i l lustration. This wil l add random deformation to the tree and make it look more realistic.

21.The tip of the pine tree should not be as deformed as the rest of it . Apply a Vol.Select modifier below the Noise modifier in the Modifier Stack . In the Stack Selection Level group of parameters, select the Vertex option, turn on Soft Selection and set the fol lowing parameters: Falloff = 340 , Pinch = 1 , and Bubble = 0 .

22.Open the modifier and move its Gizmo downward towards the bottom of the tree so that it doesn’t encompass the tip of the pine tree. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

23.Apply an Edit Mesh modifier to the top of the Modifier Stack . This wil l hide the vertices selected by the Vol. Select modifier.

24.Apply the Edit Poly modifier and position it between the TurboSmooth and Squeeze modifiers.

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25.Go to the Border sub-object level and one by one select and scale down the top (inner) borders of the top six levels of the pine tree. Refer to the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration. You do this to make the openings between the levels of the pine tree more pronounced. In the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see the tree before (middle) and after (right) we changed it (after we closed the Edit Poly modifier). Do not close the modifier yet.

26.Select the top border of the top level of the pine tree and click the Collapse button to cap the hole in the geometry.

27.Click on Border to close the sub-object level on the Edit Poly modifier. If you do not click Border , the Noise and Vol. Select wil l have no effect.

28.Apply a Push modifier to the top of the Modifier Stack . Set Push Value = 25 . This wil l sl ightly puff out and soften the tree.

29.Save your scene.

30.Continue with your saved scene or open the fi le named Ch06-09.max .

31.Make this object invisible for rendering by disabling the Renderable option in the Object Proper-ties dialog box.

Now let’s add needles to the fur tree using the Hair and Fur modifier.

32.Apply the Hair and Fur modifier to this object.

33. In the Styling rol lout, cl ick the Style Hair button. When you do this, manual hair editing mode wil l be turned on and you wil l get a brush that you can use to style the hair. In the viewport, hair wil l be displayed as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

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The length of the hair for this object is too long. Let’s reduce it .

34. In the Styling section of the Styling rol lout, disable the Distance Fade option.

35. Increase the size of the brush with the slider that can be found between the Ignore Back Hairs option and the Translate icon. The size of the brush needs to be much greater than the size of the object so that brush wil l affect al l of the hairs at once.

36. In the Styling section, cl ick the Scale icon, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration. This editing mode wil l al low scaling of the hairs.

37.Place the brush over the object so that it covers it entirely.

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38.Click, hold, and drag with the Left Mouse Button unti l the hair is scaled down to proper size, as shown in the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration. Release the Left Mouse Button when finished.

The direction of hair also needs to be changed.

39. In the Utilities section of the modifier, cl ick the Recomb icon. This is the icon that looks l ike a comb. The hair wil l lay down against the object.

40.Click the Stand icon (near the Scale icon).

41.Ensure that the brush size covers the entire tree and then click and drag to the right so that the hair is sl ightly raised, but just sl ightly.

I f at any time you do not l ike a change you’ve made, while in hair editing mode you can click the Pop Selected icon (above Comb) to reset the hair to its init ial state.

42. In the Styling rol lout, cl ick the Finish Styling button to exit from hair editing mode.

43.Go to the Display rol lout within the modifier.

44.Make sure that Display Hairs option is enabled. Set Max Hairs to 100000 . This wil l al low you to see up to 100000 hairs (or geometry instances) in the viewport. This number can be reduced as necessary, depending on the power of your computer.

Note that the parameters in the Display rol lout do not affect the model or render. They only affect the way hairs are displayed in the viewport. Display Guides al lows us to see or hide hairs that were visible in hair editing mode with the Style Hairs button enabled. The Percentage setting allows us to set a percentage of how many hairs to display in the viewport.

45.Set Percentage to 100 .

Now, let’s change the hairs to branches using an object already prepared with diffuse and opac-ity maps in its material .

46.Merge the object Pine_Needles from the fi le named Ch06-10.max into the current scene.

47.Select the pine tree object and open the Tools rol lout within the Hair and Fur modifier.

48.Click the Instance Node (None) button and select the Pine_Needles object. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

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Now, all of the hairs in the modifier wil l be replaced with the Pine_Needles object.

49. In the General Parameters rol lout, set the Root Thick value to 20 . This wil l al low the instanced branches to maintain their proper aspect ratio.

50.Set Hair Count to 15000 . This defines the number of hairs, or in this case, the number of Pine_Needles geometry instances.

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I f you think that the direction of growth of the branches is too chaotic, you can fix it by lowering the Frizz Tip setting in the Frizz Parameters rol lout.

51.Save your scene. You can compare your results with the fi le named Ch06-11.max. More informa-tion regarding the Hair and Fur modifier can be found in chapters 3 and 7.

52.After you create and set up the hair, go to the Hair and Fur modifier’s Tools rol lout and press the Hair ➤ Mesh button. This converts all hairs into a single Editable Mesh object.

Now, we need to create the material for the pine tree.

53.Assign a UVW Map modifier to the tree with the parameters shown in the fol lowing i l lustration. Make sure the mapping is set to Planar . Note that Map Channel = 2 . Using this value for the Map Channel ensures that the texture coordinates you apply now are only applied to textures set to the same Map Channel value in the Material Editor.

54.To more clearly accentuate the pine tree’s levels, create a VRay material and place a Mix map in the Diffuse channel. Place the Pine_Dark.jpg and Pine_Light.jpg bitmaps from the support fi les into the Mix map’s Color #1 and Color #2 slots, respectively.

55. In the Mix Amount channel, place a Gradient Ramp map. Set Map Channel = 2 and set up the gradi-ent colors and other parameters as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration. The idea is to fi l l the upper side of each pine tree’s layer with white and the lower side with black as shown in the i l lustration. You can compare your results with the fi le Ch06-12.max .

56.With the material sti l l at the Gradient Ramp map level, right-click the material’s sample slot and choose Render Map from the menu. In the menu dialog box, set the texture render size to 512 x 512 and click Render .

57.Save your result as Mix_Pine.jpg .

58.Open this fi le in Photoshop and paint the top black l ine with white. Change the contrast of this image to make the l ight areas 100% white (RGB 255,255,255) . Save the fi le with the same fi le-name. You may want to blur or paint some softness into the transition between the black and white values.

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59. In 3ds Max , go back to the Mix map level. In the Mix Amount slot, replace the Gradient Ramp map with a Bitmap and choose the image you just saved (Mix_Pine.jpg) . This wil l help to free the computer resources during render. Be sure to set Map Channel = 2 for this new map.

60.At the material’s base level, place the Pine_Refr.jpg image into the material’s Refract slot.

61.Under the Basic Parameters rol lout, set IOR = 1.0 , and enable the Affect shadows and Affect channels (Color+alpha) options. These options cause the strength of the shadows and the alpha channel to be dictated by the refraction color swatch (i .e. , the amount of transparency).

I f you enable the Show Standard Map in Viewport option within the Mix Amount channel, you can see the effect of the Mix map on the object. The left image of the fol lowing i l lustration highlights the effect.

62.Render the tree. You should see something similar to the right image of the fol lowing i l lustra-tion. Notice the variations in l ight and dark leaves.

63.Save your fi le. You can open the scene Ch06-13.max to compare your results.

Exercise 4: Creating low-poly trees

We have finished the material for the high-poly version of the pine tree for the near range. Now, we wil l create a low-poly version for the far range.

1.Continue from the previous exercise with your own fi le or open the fi le Ch06-13.max to continue with the scene already prepared up to this point.

2.Go to the Front view and activate the Show Safe Frames option.

3.Set the render output size to Width = 600 and Height = 1000 . You may have to unlock the Image Aspect to accomplish this.

4. In the Environment and Effects window, set the scene’s Background: Color: to RGB (61,94,43) .

5.Perform a Zoom Extents so that the object takes up as much of the viewport as possible.

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6.Render the view and save the rendering as Pine_Image.tif with the Alpha Channel option turned on.

7.Turn off Safe Frame mode.

8.To the side of the 3D tree, create a Plane object with Length = 3700 and Width = 2300 .

9.Make the object See-Through .

10.Create a VRay material and place Pine_Image.tif in the Diffuse channel.

11.Copy this map into the Refract slot (not as an instance).

12.Set IOR = 1 and enable the Affect Shadow and Affect Channels (Color + alpha) options.

13. In the Refract map’s settings, in the Bitmap Parameters rol lout, turn on the Alpha as Gray option in the RGB Channel Output group. Also, turn on the Invert option in the Output rol lout. Assign this material to the plane.

14.Return to the top level of the material and enable the Show Standard Map in Viewport option.

15.Make two copies of the plane and rotate each by 60 degrees around the Z axis from the previ-ous plane (as seen from Top view).

16.Convert one of the planes into an Editable Poly and use Attach to attach the other two copies to it .

17.Create a Cylinder with Radius = 1150 and Height = 1200 . Set Sides = 6 and Height Segments = 3 . Posi-tion the object as shown in the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration.

18.Convert this object into an Editable Poly and edit the object to make it similar to the one shown in the right image. One way you can do this is by selecting each edge loop and scaling it down.

19.Copy the object two times along the Z axis. Adjust the shapes of the new copies to look similar to the left image in the next i l lustration.

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20.Select the bottom object and use the Attach tool to attach your copies to the original object.

21.Turn off the See-Through option for the object.

22.To these objects, assign the same material you assigned to the planes.

23.Apply a UVW Map modifier with the Mapping set to Box .

24.Select the plane object and attach the cylinder object to it .

You have just finished the low polygon version of the pine tree. The result should look similar to the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration.

25.Save your scene. You can open the fi le CH06-14.max to compare your results. This fi le shows the result of the next step as well .

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26.Because all of the pine trees in the near range need to be different, create two additional cop-ies of the high-poly pine tree model, leave the original model unchanged, and apply a Bend modifier with Angle = 15 to the first copy. Then apply the Bend modifier with Angle = 40 to the second copy. The result should be three slightly different high-poly pine trees, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

27.Often in modeling, we use generic units and then adjust the scale of the final object to fit the scene. In the scene we wil l be using these pine trees in, we need them to be approximately 9 units tal l . Scale them now.

28.Select al l three high-poly tree objects, and the low poly pine tree. Right-click inside the active view and select VRay mesh export from the quad menu. Enable the Export each selected object in a separate file and Automatically create proxies options. Click OK to complete the command. This exports the objects into V-Ray meshes.

29.Name the trees as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

30. I f you want to render areas of the scene where you need to show more variation in the shape of the low-poly pines, you can repeat the previous few steps to create three unique versions of the low-poly trees and export them as V-Ray meshes. Name the proxies with the prefix Pine-LP- and unique numbers at the end. In our case, this object wil l be far off in the distance, so we wil l continue working with only one variation of the low-poly pine.

31.Save your fi le. You can open the scene Ch06-15.max to compare your results.

Exercise 5: Populating the scene with trees

Now, let’s use Particle Flow to populate the terrain with pine trees. The idea for this method is that it can scatter pine trees over the terrain, and we can control the distribution of the trees with a color map. Because we have three different high-poly models of a pine tree, we wil l be using three RGB ranges.

First, let’s create the terrain material .

1.Continue with the fi le you saved at the end of Exercise 2, or open the fi le Ch06-08.max .

2. In the Material Editor , select the Terrain material , which is currently applied to the Terrain object, and click the Standard button. Change the material type to Multi/Sub-Object , and choose Keep old material as sub-material .

3.Click the Set Number button and set the number of sub-materials to 3 .

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Material 1 wil l hold the terrain material , Material 2 wil l control the distribution area of the high-poly pine trees, and also the placement of the three different types of trees within that area. Material 3 wil l control the distribution area of the low-poly trees. Now, let’s create the three-colored texture that wil l be used to define the distribution area and placement of the high-poly pine trees.

4.Access Material #2 , name it High-Poly , and place a Mix map into its Diffuse channel. In the Mix map’s Color #1 slot, place a Noise map. Change the fol lowing parameters: Size=1.0 , High=0.501 , Low=0.5 , Color #1 = RGB (255,0,0) , Color #2 = RGB (0,255,0) . As a result, you should see a con-trasting red-green Noise map with distinct borders. Note that the High and Low values must not be the exact same value or the border between the two colors wil l be highly blurred.

5.Return to the base level of the Mix map and copy the Noise map for Color #1 to the Color #2 slot. For this map, set Color #1 to RGB (0,255,0) and Color #2 to RGB (0,0,255) . The resulting map is a contrasting green-blue Noise map.

6.Return to the base level of the Mix map and copy the new Noise map into the Mix amount chan-nel of the Mix map. For this newest Noise map, change the fol lowing parameters: Color #1 = RGB (0,0,0) , Color #2 = RGB (255,255,255) , Size = 0.3 .

This is a black and white mask that wil l dictate how to blend the red-green and green-blue Noise maps.

7.Return to the base level of the Mix map. Right-click the sample slot and choose Render Map . Set the Dimensions to 2000 x 2000 and save the rendered map as Placement.jpg . Click Render .

Because the resulting green color dominates the texture, we wil l use this color to dictate the distribution of the straight pine trees. We wil l use two other colors to distribute the bent pine trees. We did this color separation to prevent the pine trees from intersecting each other when they popu-late the terrain.

Now that we have created a map to control the placement of the three different high-poly pine trees, we need to use it in conjunction with a map that wil l control the area on the terrain where they wil l be placed. We wil l define this area with the help of the Gradient Ramp map.

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8.Within the High-Poly material , set the Diffuse color to RGB (0,0,0) and change the map in the Dif-fuse channel from Mix to Mask . Choose Discard old map .

9.Assign the Placement.jpg bitmap that we just created to the Map channel. Change the fol lowing parameters: Tiling U=4 , V=4 , Map Channel = 2 .

10.Go one level up to the Mask map’s parameters and assign the Gradient Ramp map to the Mask channel. Set Map Channel = 2 , and in the Angle section, set W = 90 .

11. In the Gradient Ramp’s parameters rollout, set three flags with the fol lowing parameters: RGB (0,0,0) at Pos=0 , RGB (0,0,0) at Pos=50 , and RGB (240,240,240) at Pos=100 .

This l imits the distribution of the high-poly pine trees to the foreground of the terrain, as seen in the fol lowing i l lustration.

Now, with help from the Gradient Ramp map, let’s define the area of the terrain where the low-poly pine trees wil l be distributed.

12.Go to the base level of the Multi/Sub-Object material and go to Material 3 , and name it Low-Poly .

13.Assign a Gradient Ramp map to the Diffuse slot. Set Map Channel = 2 , and for the Angle parameter, set W = 90 .

14. In the Gradient Ramp map’s parameters, set two flags with the fol lowing parameters: RGB (96,96,96) at Pos=0 , and RGB (15,15,15) at Pos=100 .

15.Select the Terrain object and apply another UVW Map modifier to it . Set the Map Channel to 2 .

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This map wil l distribute the low-poly pine trees towards the back of the terrain object, at a fur-ther distance than the high-poly pine trees. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

Now let’s set up Particle Flow to populate the terrain with the pine trees, using the maps we just created.

16.Open the Particle View (or press 6 on the keyboard). From the l ist of operators at the bottom of the window, select Empty Flow and drag it into the Particle View workspace.

17.Drag the Birth Texture operator to the Particle View workspace.

18.Now create a l ink between the established events, PF Source 001 and Event 001 , by clicking and dragging the small blue dot at the bottom of the PF Source 001 event to the circle at the top of Event 001 . Note that the events and operators that you add might be named with a 01 or 001 suff ix.

19. In the PF Source 001 event, cl ick on the word Render , and choose the Mesh Per Particle option in the right side of the dialog box. This wil l al low instanced geometry to be created for every particle you create.

20.Go to Event 001 , select the Birth Texture operator, and set Emit Start to -10 and Emit Stop to -1 .

21.Click Initialization Parameters , and in the Modify panel, select Separate and set this parameter to 3 .

22.Set the fol lowing parameters as well : Timing : Start = -10 , Stop = -1 , turn on Latency and set it to 1 .

23.Change Emission By to Sub-Mtl Global and set Sub-Mtl ID = 2 .

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24. In the RGB settings, turn off the R and B buttons and leave only button G turned on. This wil l generate particles only in the green range of the texture.

25.Click the Add button directly below the Emitter Objects field and add the Terrain object to the Emitter Objects.

26.Click Initialize Particle Emission at the top of the rollout.

Now you can see how the emitters have positioned themselves over the terrain surface.

27. From the fi le Ch06-15.max , merge the Vray Proxy objects Pine-01 , Pine-02 , and Pine-03 and the object Pine-Low-Poly.

Next, we need to replace the emitters with these pine trees. Before we attempt something l ike this that puts a strain on system resources, let’s save the fi le.

28.Save your fi le and continue with your own fi le, or open the fi le Ch06-16.max .

29. In order to replace the emitters with pine trees, go to the Particle View window and drag the Shape Instance operator from the l ist of operators to Event 001 , between Birth Texture 001 and Display 001 .

30.Select the Display operator and, in its properties, change its color to green (RGB 0,255,0) .

31.Select the Shape Instance operator that you just added and click the None button in the Particle Geometry Object section of the dialog box.

32.Click on the high-poly pine tree (Pine-01) in the active view. Nothing should look different yet.

NOTE: Do not perform the next step if you do not believe your computer is powerful enough to display hundreds of instances of the high-poly tree. If in doubt, save your fi le prior to attempting the next step. If you try the next step and your system stalls or crashes, you can try several approaches. You can try to modify the tree using 1 iteration of the TurboSmooth modifier instead of 2, as dis-cussed earl ier in the chapter. You can also use the low-poly version of the tree and if al l else fai ls, you can create a simple box the same size as the tree and let it serve as your instanced geometry for the purpose of finishing the exercise.

33. In order to make the pine trees visible, select the Display 001 operator within Event 001 , and in the parameters section of the dialog box, change the Type from Ticks to Geometry . This opera-tion could take a few moments. You can set this back to Ticks after you view the pine trees in the viewport, if the performance is adversely impacted.

34.Because the source object of the pine tree was a V-Ray Proxy , there is a chance that the pine tree textures won’t display correctly, or might not display at al l . I f this happens, then you need to select the V-Ray Proxy object for the pine tree and re-apply the UVW Map modifier with the parameters we set previously. You may have to do this for each type of pine tree in the scene.

Let’s make all of the copies of the pine tree slightly different from each other.

35.Add Scale and Rotation operators to Event 001.

36. In the Scale operator’s parameters, set Type to Absolute and Scale Variation = 10% for al l axes.

37. In the Rotation operator’s parameters, change Orientation Matrix to Random Horizontal and set Divergence = 10 .

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In the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see what the chain of events should look l ike in the Particle View window.

38.Click the Event 01 header so that the event window turns white at the top, indicating that the entire event has been selected.

39.Within the Particle View dialog box, go to the Edit menu and select Copy .

40.Return to the Edit menu and select Paste . This creates another copy of the event.

41.Repeat the copy and paste step twice more to create a total of four events.

42.Link all three new copies to PF Source 01. Do this the same way you created the first l ink. The flow should look l ike the i l lustration below.

43. In Event 02 , select the Birth Texture operator and click the Initialization Parameters button.

44. In the Emission By group of parameters, turn off G and turn on R . In this event, the pine trees wil l be generated using only the red channel of the texture.

45.Click Initialize Particle Emission .

46.Go to the Particle View window and select the Shape Instance operator in Event 02. In the Shape Instance properties, change the Particle Geometry Object to Pine-02 .

47.Select the Display operator of the current event and change its color to red (RGB 255,0,0) . This wil l make all of the pine trees generated by this event red and thus easy to distinguish from other sets of trees.

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48.Select Event 03 and repeat the same steps, but this time turn on B instead of R to use the blue channel of the texture. In the Particle Geometry Object parameter of the Shape Instance opera-tor, change the object to Pine-03, and in the Display operator’s parameters change the color to blue (RGB 0,0,255) . I f the Initialize Particle Emission button in the Birth Texture operator’s parameters is red, then you need to click this button so that the program can recalculate the particles’ placement. If you see multiple objects generated at the same point, then change the Uniqueness value in the Birth Texture operator and refresh particles by pressing the Initial-ize Particle Emission button.

49.Go to Event 04 , select the Birth Texture operator, and click Initialization Parameters .

50. In the Timing group of parameters, set Latency = 2 . In the Emission By group of parameters, set Sub-Mtl ID = 3 and click the Initialize Particle Emission button.

51.Go to the Particle View window and select the Shape Instance operator in Event 04 .

52.Go to the Shape Instance ’s parameters and change Particle Geometry Object to Pine-Low-Poly .

53.Select the Display operator and, in its properties, change its color to yellow (RGB 255,255,0) .

As a result, you should see something similar to the fol lowing i l lustration.

54.Save your fi le. You can open the scene Ch06-17.max to compare your results.

We wil l now clone a few V-Ray Proxy pine trees and manually position them along the edges of the distant field. Then, we need to generate pine trees over the surface of the mountains but only in the lower grass-covered parts. Because we wil l be using only one type of pine tree for the moun-tains, we’l l use Scatter to distribute these trees. But first we need to create a mask to l imit the tree placement.

55.Continue from the previous step or open the fi le Ch06-17.max .

56.Make a copy of the mountain object, delete the VRayDisplacementMod and collapse its Modifier Stack .

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57.Apply the Vol. Select modifier to this object.

58.Set the Stack Selection Level to Face and Select By to Texture Map. Choose Rock Disp.jpg as the texture.

59.Drag this bitmap into an empty Material Editor slot as an Instance . In the bitmap’s Output rol lout, turn on Invert and set RGB Offset = -0.3 .

When you turned on the Invert option, this caused the selection to include only polygons that are not part of the mountains’ rock surfaces, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

Now, let’s populate the selected mountain polygons with trees.

60.Make a copy of the Pine-Low-Poly object.

61.Apply the Scatter Compound Object to the copy. Click Pick Distribution Object and click on the second Mountain object. In the Scatter Object rol lout, set Duplicates = 20000 and Base Scale = 40% .

62.Turn off Perpendicular , turn on Use Selected Faces Only , and set Distribute Using to Area .

63. In the Display rollout, enable Hide Distribution Object .

Let’s add a l itt le bit of variety to the trees.

64. In the Transforms rol lout, change Rotation to X = 10 , Y = 10 , Z = 360 .

65. In the Transforms rol lout’s Scaling group, turn on Use Maximum Range, and set the value to 10% .

66. I f the trees appear to be sunken into the ground, raise them to the desired height.

67.Once you are satisfied with the result, delete the distribution object (the copy of the mountains with selected polygons).

68.Add a l ight and render the camera view. If you notice the difference in the colors of the high-poly and low-poly trees, then you wil l need to assign a Color Correction map over the current Diffuse map of the low-poly trees’ material . Choose Keep old map as sub-map and adjust the color correction parameters to match the colors between the two types of trees. The result-ing render should look similar to the fol lowing i l lustration.

69.Save your fi le. You can open the scene Ch06-18.max to compare your results.

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Exercise 6: Creating fields

Now, we need to adjust the look of the fields. We wil l create the grass in the fields using the V-Ray Fur tool. First, we need to prepare the materials. Let’s begin with the green and yellow fields. Each has a road going across it . In order to make the roads on the model match the roads on the reference image, we wil l use Viewport Canvas .

While Viewport Canvas was originally introduced in the previous version of 3ds Max Design (2010), it has been signif icantly enhanced and improved to the point that it is, in effect, an entirely new feature in Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2011 . Most of the instructions should translate fairly easily to 2011; however, please refer to the 3ds Max help fi les if you have any diff icult ies.

1.Continue from the previous exercise or open the fi le Ch06-18.max . Hide everything except for the 3 field objects.

2.Select the model of the green field and apply the UVW Map modifier to it . All default settings remain unchanged. Convert this field into an Editable Poly object.

3.Choose Tools menu ➤ Viewport Canvas to access the Viewport Canvas module.

4. In the Viewport Canvas window, click the Setup button. In the Object Setup window, change the color to green (RGB = 72,241,72).

5. In the Assign Texture group of parameters, set the size of the texture to 1024 x 1024 .

6. In the Save new texture to: parameter, set the path to the texture fi le, and set the texture name to Green Field.tif.

7.Click the Setup button again. The field wil l turn green.

8.Press Alt+X on the keyboard to make the object see-through, al lowing you to see the road in the reference image.

9. In the Viewport Canvas window, choose the fi l led brush type for painting the road. Adjust the size of the brush appropriately. Click the Brush button and paint over the area where the road appears on the reference image. Toggle Alt+X on and off to see what you’ve painted.

10.Click the Brush button to deactivate the brush tool and close the Viewport Canvas window.

11.Repeat the same procedure for the yellow field (making the color yellow instead of green this time), and save the texture as Yellow Field.tif .

12.Open both fi les in Photoshop and use them as a reference to create sharper black and white masks for the roads. Keep in mind that the vegetation on the fields wil l partial ly cover the road, which means you can make the masks for the roads slightly wider than the roads in the reference image.

13.Save these masks as Green Field.jpg and Yellow Field.jpg .

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14. In order to make V-Ray Fur on these fields, they must have no intersecting polygons. Remove intersecting polygons in the same way you did for the mountains, by using ProBoolean to join them together and then deleting unnecessary polygons inside the objects. You can also manually adjust the geometry using the Cut tool under Editable Poly .

We have three fields in the scene, each having a different level of texturing complexity. The red field, the one farthest from the camera, is the easiest, so we wil l start with that one.

15.Select an empty material slot in Material Editor and change the material type to VrayMtl . Name the material Field_01 . Assign this material to the object Field01 .

16. In the material’s Diffuse channel, place the bitmap Green_Grass.jpg .

17.Apply the UVW Map modifier to the red field, using the fol lowing parameters: Mapping = Planar , Length = 10 , Width = 10 .

18.Assign the VRayDisplacementMod modifier to the Field01 object.

19. In the VRayDisplacementMod modifier’s parameters, set the fol lowing parameters: Type = 3D map-ping , Amount = 2.0 , Edge Length = 0.5 pixels .

20.Assign a Noise map to the Texmap slot. Drag this map into any free Material Editor slot to make a copy of it , and choose Instance as the copy method.

21. In the Noise map’s parameters set Noise Type = Fractal and Size = 0.1 .

22.Save your work. You can open the fi le Ch06-19.max to compare.

In the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see how the farthest field wil l look once rendered.

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The next field we wil l work on is the Field02 .

23. In Material Editor , make a copy of the material you assigned to the red field. Rename the mate-rial Field_02 and apply it to the green field, Field02 . I f you used Proboolean to delete the intersecting polygons, you may have to detach Field02 and Field03 back into separate objects. Make sure you name them correctly.

24.Place a Composite map into the Diffuse channel, and choose the Keep old map as sub-map option.

25.Click the Add a New Layer button to add another layer to this map and place Yellow_Grass.jpg into the Layer 2 texture slot.

26.Place Green Field.jpg into the Layer 2 mask slot and enable Show Standard Map in Viewport . .

27. In the Green Field.jpg parameters, turn on the Invert option in the Output rol lout.

28.Add a UWV Map with the mapping type set to Planar .

You can see how the road goes across the green field in the viewport. Now let’s generate veg-etation with V-Ray Fur .

29.Select the object Field02 , select VRay from the drop-down list within the Create ➤ Geometry panel, and apply V-Ray Fur .

30.Assign the same material to the V-Ray Fur as you assigned to Field02 .

31. In the V-Ray Fur object, change the fol lowing parameters: Length = 1.0 , Thickness = 0.03 , Bend = 0.28 , Direction var. = 0.5 , Distribution : Per area = 40.0 .

32.Place Green Field.jpg into the Density map (mono) slot.

33.Save your work. You can open Ch06-20.max to compare your results.

In the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see how Field_02 wil l look in the camera view once rendered.

Now let’s create the material for Field03 . The method for this material is the same as the one used for Field02 . The only difference is that there are parallel paths cutting across this field.

34.Select an empty slot in the material editor and change the material type to a VrayMtl . Name the material Field_03 . Assign this material to the yellow field object, Field03 . Add a UVW map with Planar mapping.

35.Place Yellow_Grass.jpg into the Diffuse channel. Assign a Composite Map to the Diffuse channel, choosing Keep old map as sub-map.

36.Click Add a New Layer and change the new layer’s blending mode to Soft Light . Set Opacity = 30 . Place the Gradient Ramp map into the texture slot and set the fol lowing parameters: Tiling U = 8 and Angle W = -5 .

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37. In the Gradient Ramp map’s parameters, set 5 f lags: RGB (255,255,255) at Pos=0 , RGB (252,252,252) at Pos=40 , RGB (100,100,100) at Pos=50 , RGB (254,254,254) at Pos=60 , RGB (255,255,255) at Pos=100 .

38.Go back to the Composite map level and click Add a New Layer . Change the new layer’s blending mode to Color Dodge. Place a Gradient Ramp map into the texture slot of the new layer.

39. For the Gradient Ramp map’s parameters, set 5 f lags: RGB (100,100,100) at Pos=0 , RGB (100,100,100) at Pos=5 , RGB (0,0,0) at Pos=50 , RGB (100,100,100) at Pos=96 , RGB (100,100,100) at Pos=100 .

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40.Go back to the Composite map’s parameters level, cl ick the Add a New Layer button to add another layer to the composite map, and copy Yellow_Grass.jpg from the first layer’s texture slot into the new layer’s texture slot.

41.Place Yellow Field.jpg into the new layer’s mask slot. In the Yellow Field.jpg map’s parameters, turn on Invert in the Output rol lout.

42.Select the yellow field object and apply V-Ray Fur to it .

I f you did not close 3ds Max since you set up the V-Ray Fur parameters for the green field, then the new V-Ray Fur object wil l remember the last set of parameters. However, if you closed 3ds Max, then the new V-Ray Fur object wil l have default parameters that you wil l need to change.

43.Set Length = 1.5 and Bend = 0.15 .

44.Place the Yellow Field.jpg into the Density map (mono) channel.

45.Place a Gradient Ramp map into the Length map (mono) slot.

46.Drag the Gradient Ramp map from the V-Ray Fur parameters slot into any free Material Editor slot, using Instance as the copy method.

47.Set Tiling U = 8 and Angle W = -5 .

48. In the Gradient Ramp map’s parameters, set 5 f lags as fol lows: RGB (255,255,255) at Pos=0 , RGB (252,252,252) at Pos=29 , RGB (100,100,100) at Pos=50 , RGB (254,254,254) at Pos=71 , RGB (255,255,255) at Pos=100 .

49.Select Field03 ’s material in the Material Editor and copy it into any unused slot. Rename it and apply it to the yellow field’s V-Ray Fur object.

50.Go to the Diffuse slot of this material and then go to the Texture slot of Layer 2 .

51.Change the flags to RGB (255,255,255) at Pos=0 , RGB (252,252,252) at Pos=47 , RGB (100,100,100) at Pos=50 , RGB (254,254,254) at Pos=53 , RGB (255,255,255) at Pos=100 . Change Tiling U to 8 .

52.Change the Opacity of Layer 3 of the Composite map to 75% .

53.Go to the Texture slot of Layer 3 and change the flags to the fol lowing: RGB (100,100,100) at Pos=0 , RGB (100,100,100) at Pos=33 , RGB (0,0,0) at Pos=50 , RGB (100,100,100) at Pos=65 , RGB (100,100,100) at Pos=100 . Change Tiling U to 8 .

54.Save your work. You can compare your results to Ch06-21.max .

In the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see how the yellow field wil l look once rendered.

55.Render the entire background scene and save it as Background_Geometry.png with an alpha channel. Your result should look similar to the fol lowing i l lustration.

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56.Save your fi le. You can open the scene Ch06-22.max to compare your results.

Exercise 7: Creating the mountains and sky

The next step in the creation of the background is the creation of mountains and sky with Vue 8 xStream . You can download a trial version of this product at http://www.e-onsoftware.com/products/?page=try. We need to start with the proper placement of al l of the scene elements and setup of al l the scene parameters.

1.Continue with the previous exercise or open the fi le ch06-22.max .

2.Load Vue 8.5 xstream PLE . Select the Sun light , and position it in relation to the camera to match the reference image in the camera view. When you select the Sun light and move it in the camera view, it wil l automatically orient itself to the camera.

3. In the l ist of scene objects, select Main camera , right-click, and on the pop-up menu choose Edit Object .

4.Set the Horizontal Fov to 23.9˚ , which is the same parameter used for the camera in the final 3ds Max scene. This wil l match the camera perspectives precisely. Click OK .

5.Go to Render Options (Ctrl+F9) , and in the Render destination rol lout, choose Render to screen .

6. In the Picture size group, select Aspect ratio = Free (user defined) and set the image size next to the Other parameter.

7. In the bottom/right corner of the Render Options window, click OK.

Now let’s model some more mountains.

8.On the Object Menu choose Create ➤ Heightfield Terrain ➤ Standard Heightfield Terrain (Shift+T).

A new Terrain object wil l appear in the scene. This default object needs to be edited for our scene.

9.Double click the Terrain object to bring up the Terrain Editor window.

10. In the Terrain Editor window, keep clicking the Mountain button unti l you see geometry that looks good enough for your project.

We need to add a few mountaintops at approximately the same height so the mountains cre-ated with Vue 8 xStream wil l be visible between the mountains created in 3ds Max.

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11. In the Terrain Editor window, turn off Invert in the Paint rol lout, if it is on. Then paint a few moun-tain tops over the terrain surface. For more accurate editing, you can adjust the Size , Strength and Falloff parameters in the Brush tip group.

12.When the result looks good enough, cl ick OK at the right side of the Terrain Editor window.

13.Adjust the position of the mountains in the camera view to get your desired look.

Now, we need to texture the mountains. You can continue with Mountains-01.vue , i f you l ike.

14.Select the mountains. To the right of the workspace, select the Aspect tab (the first tab on the left) and double-click the Terrain material sample sphere.

15. In the Advanced Material Editor window, select the Mixed material in the Type group.

16.Double-click Material 1 in the Materials to mix tab.

17. In the new Advanced Material Editor window, change the Name to Grass .

18. In the tree view below the Type group, cl ick Grass . In the Color production group under the Color & Alpha tab at the lower left, change the Coloring mode to Mapped picture and then back to Pro-cedural colors , then double-click the color swatch (not the sphere). In the Please select a color map window, choose Solid Colors from the Collections menu.

19. In the color slots, choose black (C:\. . .\Solid Colors\01_Black.clr) and on the right side of the screen click OK. Click OK again to close the Advanced Material Editor: Grass window.

20. In the main Advanced Material Editor window, double-click Material 2 in the Materials to mix tab.

21.Using the same technique, assign white (C:\. . .\Solid Colors\03_White.clr) to it and change the name to Stone.

22. In the main Advanced Material Editor window, select the Influence of environment tab and turn on Distribution of materials dependent on local slope, altitude and orientation .

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After executing this command, you wil l see a sharp transition between black and white areas in the material . This wil l help you distinguish between the rocky and grassy parts of the mountains.

23.Adjust the smoothness of the transition from black to white using the Influence of altitude and the Influence of slope parameters. You can also slightly adjust the Influence of orientation para-meter.

24.Adjust the Mixing properties (below the material) so that only the mountain tops are white.

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Now, to create the differing areas of grass and rock, you need to replace the black material with grass and white material with rock.

25. In the Materials to mix tab, double-click the Material 1 sphere.

26. In the new Advanced Material Editor: Grass window’s Color production group, double-click to access the material’s settings. In the Please select function window, go to the Collections menu and choose Color Productions .

27. In the updated slots, select Grass Fractal (C:\. . .\Color Productions\14_Grass.fnc) and click OK on the right side of the screen.

28.Go to the Bumps tab and in the Bump production group, double-click to access the material set-tings. In the Please select a function window, choose Bumps from Collections menu.

29. In the updated slots, select Desert Bump (C:\. . .\Functions\Bumps\ Desert Bump.fnc) and click OK on the right side of the window.

30. In the Bump production group, right-click the sphere and choose Edit Function . In the Function Editor window, double-click Basic Repeater and adjust your settings as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

31.Select Combiner and change Amplitude to 0.55 . Close the Function Editor windows by clicking OK .

32. In the Advanced Material Editor: Default window, go to the Effects group and change Mapping to World-Standard .

33. In the Advanced Material Editor: Grass window , set Scale = 0.05 .

34.Go to the Stone material’s settings. Select the Color & Alpha tab and then in the Color Production group, double-click to access the material’s settings. In the Please select a function window, select Color Production from the Collections menu.

35. In the updated slots, select Brown-White Fractal (C:\. . .\13_ Brown-White Fractal.fnc) and click OK on the right side of the screen.

36.While sti l l in the Advanced Material Editor: Stone window, go to the Bumps tab. In the Bumps Produc-tion group, double-click to access the material’s settings.

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37. In the Please select a function window , select Fractals from the Collections menu.

38. In the updated slots, select Stones in Dirt (C:\. . .\Fractals\Stones in Dirt.fnc) and click OK on the right side of the screen.

39. In the Advanced Material Editor: Stone window’s Effects group, make sure Mapping is set to World-Standard and click OK to close the window.

40. In the Advanced Material Editor: Default window for the stone material , set Scale = 0.2.

41.Close the Advanced Material Editor: Default window by clicking OK.

42.Switch to the camera view, switch the Preset Render Quality to Final , and render your scene to see the result .

As you can see in the rendering, there are some problems with the geometry. We can fix this by increasing the density of the geometry and smoothing it out.

43.Open the Terrain Editor and click the Double Terrain Resolution button twice.

44.On the right side, go to the Effects tab and execute the Diffusive command a few times.

45.Render the camera view. If your work looks very different from the fol lowing i l lustration you can load the fi le Mountains-02.vue to continue.

As a result of these changes, our mountain terrain wil l look smoother and more detailed in the rendering.

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The mountain terrain is finished. Now it is time to set up the atmosphere.

46.Open the Atmosphere Editor (F4) and go to the Light tab. Turn on Global illumination in the Lighting Model group.

47.Go to the Clouds tab and click the Add button in the Cloud Layers group. Under Collections , choose Clouds and then choose Spectral from the Collection menu.

48. In the updated slots, select Large Cumulus (C:\. . .\Clouds\Spectral\Large Cumulus.mat) and click OK on the right side of the screen. Use the settings from the fol lowing i l lustration.

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49.Go to the Sky, Fog and Haze tab and change the Sky Color to RGB (60,131,229) .

50.Change the other parameters according to the fol lowing i l lustration.

51.Render at 2000 x 1108 px (or whatever size you decide to make your final image rendered out of 3ds Max), and save the result as Mountain_Sky.jpg . You can load Mountains-03.vue to com-pare your fi le.

Now, let’s assemble the entire background.

52.Open Background_Geometry.png and Mountain_Sky.jpg in Photoshop.

53.Copy Mountain_Sky.jpg into Background_Geometry.png. I t wil l automatically turn into a new layer, make sure it is placed at the bottom of the layer’s l ist.

54.Reposition the new layer so that the mountaintops are slightly visible behind the other layer’s mountains.

55.Save the resulting image as Background.jpg . The result should look similar to the fol lowing i l lus-tration.

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56.Save your fi le. You can open the scene Ch06-final.psd to compare your results.

SummaryThe abil ity to create realistic and believable background and site elements is one of the most crit ical skil ls you can acquire as a 3D artist. It requires a keen artistic eye and a delicate balance between detail and efficiency. When you consider that these elements often comprise a majority of the pixels that make up an image, it’s easy to see why their appearance is so vital . This chapter involved some meticulous and challenging exercises, but hopeful ly you were able to fol low along and learn the tech-niques that they i l lustrated.

1

Animation

In thIs chapter, we wIll go over several types of anImatIon using different parts of the scene. With each new exercise, we wil l discuss some great ways to animate creek water, grass and leaves, birds, smoke, and cameras. This chapter doesn’t take you through the steps of rendering out the anima-tions, but rather just their setup and how to animate the various object types.

Water Surface AnimationIn the first part of the chapter, we wil l examine how to animate the creek’s surface. Modif iers wil l be animated and the material’s Bump map wil l be animated as well . Some parameters of the Ripple and Wave modifiers wil l be changed to make them work with animation as opposed to sti l l images. These parameters wil l be adapted for each camera individually in order to make the animated water look correct from any camera.

Animation of the waterfal l was covered in chapter 5, so we won’t be explaining it in this chapter.

Exercise 1: Creek animation

1. Open the fi le Ch07-01.max. This scene already has all the objects needed to animate the water: Wheel , Water Level , VRayProxy_Waterfall_Top , Ripple Boat , Ripple Boat01 , and Ripple Boat02 . For this exercise we set the camera so that it views the entire water surface.

The length of animation for any camera wil l not be more than 600 frames; however, for conve-nience and simplicity, we wil l set our Active Time Sequence to 1000 frames and make all the animation work for this range.

2. Open the Time Configuration dialog box and, if necessary, set the End Time to 1000 . Click OK .

ChApter 7

7-2 A n im a t i o n

3. Select the Water Level object, temporari ly disable the TurboSmooth modifier if you want to make the updates faster, and select the Wave modifier. Set its parameters as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

Remember that besides simulating the waves rippling because of the fal l ing water, we also added dynamics to the overall water surface with the Wave modifier. To animate this modifier, we need to use the Phase parameter.

4. Move the Time Slider to frame 1000 . Click Auto Key to turn on animation recording.

5. In the Wave modifier’s parameters, set Phase to -10 . Turn off Auto Key .

Two keys wil l be created automatically and show up on the Trackbar , one at frame 0 and one at frame 1000. In this case, the speed of the Phase parameter’s change determines the waves’ speed.

6. To check the animation click the Play Animation icon at the bottom-right of the screen. To stop the animation click Stop Animation .

Now, if you move the Time Slider along the Trackbar , you can see the waves move along the Water Level object. This motion wil l be slow at the beginning of the animation and wil l increase in speed as you move the time slider farther away from frame 0. As you move the Time Slider closer to the second key at frame 1000 the waves’ speed wil l decrease. This effect is based on the default animation set-tings built into any key that gets created, in this case the key created for the Phase parameter. We want to even out the speed so that it’s constant al l the way through the animation, so we need to edit the object’s animation curve.

7. With the Water Level object selected, right-click in the active viewport and select Track View-Curve Editor from the quad menu.

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8. In the hierarchy panel on the left of the window, locate the Water Level object. For this object, cl ick the plus sign (+) next to the Modified Object l isting to expand the l ist and show all modif i-ers applied to the object.

9. Expand the Wave modifier l isting and select the Phase parameter from that l ist. The animation curve for this parameter appears, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

Here, you can see the Phase value displayed on the left hand side of the animation curve and the time frame along the bottom. As with any key created, the speed of the animation starts from the resting point and accelerates as it “eases out” of the first frame and decelerates as it “eases into” the last frame. To make the speed of the animation constant, we need to make this l ine perfectly straight.

10. Select both keys on the curve and click the Set Tangents to Linear icon on the Curve Editor Toolbar .

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The curve wil l turn into a straight l ine. If you play the animation, you wil l see that the waves’ speed is now constant throughout the animation. Next, we wil l animate the Ripple Waterfall modifier .

11. Select the Water Level object and in the object’s Modifier Stack , select the Ripple Waterfall modi-fier and set its parameters as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

This modifier simulates waves spread over most of the creek surface. The area affected by the Ripple Waterfall modifier is controlled by the Vol. Select modifier just below it on the Modifier Stack .

12. To animate the waves, move the Time Slider to frame 1000 , and turn on Auto Key .

13. Set Phase to -50 and turn off Auto Key .

I f you play the animation, you wil l see that the waves are now animated.

14. Using the same process you used earl ier in the Curve Editor, make the waves’ speed constant by turning the Phase setting’s curve within the Ripple Waterfall modifier into a straight l ine.

The remaining steps fol low a similar pattern.

15. For the modifiers Ripple Dock1 and Ripple Dock2, make sure their parameters are the same as the fol lowing i l lustration. These modifiers simulate the small waves caused by water coll iding with the pier’s posts.

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Earl ier, we used the TurboSmooth modifier to increase the number of polygons for the Water Level object. However, we only signif icantly increased the Render Iters parameter, which only affects the rendering, not the viewports. If you want to see the effect in the viewports, you wil l need to increase the Iterations parameter to a higher value.

16. Turn on Auto Key . At frame 1000 set the Phase parameter for the Ripple Dock1 modifier to -24 , and for the Ripple Dock2 modifier set it to -25 . Turn off Auto Key .

Small differences in the parameters wil l add variety to the waves’ speed. Now, for both modifiers we need to change the animation curve.

17. In the Curve Editor , open the Modified Object l ist for the Water Level object and select the Ripple Dock1 modifier.

A single curve wil l appear, which is responsible for the animation of the Phase parameter of the Ripple Dock1 modifier.

18. Open the l ist for the Ripple Dock2 modifier.

Another curve wil l show up. This is the curve controll ing the animation of the Phase parameter of the Ripple Dock2 modifier.

7-6 A n im a t i o n

Now, we see animation keys for both modifiers.

19. Select al l 4 keys and click Set the Tangents to Linear button on the Toolbar .

In this way, you have changed the curve for both modifiers at once, rather than for each sepa-rately.

20. Select the Water Level object. In the Modifier Stack , select the Wave Under Wheel modifier and set its parameters as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

This modifier is responsible for simulation of the water under the water wheel. The area of influ-ence of this modifier is l imited by Vol. Sel for the Wave modifier. The wheel wil l be rotating and the motion of the waves should be synchronized with the wheel hitt ing the water. For this animation, instead of animating the Phase parameter it wil l be easier to animate the position of the Wave Under Wheel modi-fier’s Gizmo .

21. In the Modifier Stack , open the Wave Under Wheel modifier and select its Gizmo .

22. To animate the Gizmo , position the Time Slider at frame 1000 and turn on Auto Key .

Now as we move the Gizmo , the waves wil l move as well .

23. Right-click the Select and Move button on the Main Toolbar to open the Move Transform Type-In dialog. Reposition the Gizmo using the coordinates shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

24. Turn off Auto Key .

As you can see by playing the animation, animating the gizmo like this animates the waves made by the Wave Under Wheel modifier.

25. Using the Curve Editor , make the curve l inear for the animation keys of the Wave Under Wheel modifier’s Gizmo .

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26. Select the Ripple1 modifier and set its parameters as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

27. Move the Time Slider to frame 1000 and turn on Auto Key .

28. Change the Phase parameter for the Ripple1 modifier to -30 and turn off Auto Key .

29. Using the Curve Editor, make the Phase curve l inear for this modifier.

30. Select the Ripple Front modifier and set its parameters as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

31. Move the Time Slider to frame 1000 and turn on Auto Key .

32. Change the Phase parameter of the Ripple Front modifier to -50 and turn off Auto Key .

33. Using the Curve Editor, make the Phase curve l inear for this modifier.

34. Select the Ripple Left modifier and set its parameters as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

7-8 A n im a t i o n

35. Move Time Slider to frame 1000 and turn on Auto Key .

36. Change the Phase parameter of the Ripple Left modifier to -37 and turn off Auto Key .

37. Using the Curve Editor , make the Phase curve l inear for this modifier.

The animation of the modifiers is complete. Now, we need to animate the Ripple Space Warp object. This tool is used to animate a few objects at once and simulate waves moving away from the boat.

38. Use parameters from the fol lowing i l lustration for the fol lowing objects: Ripple Boat , Ripple Boat01 , Ripple Boat02 .

39. Move the Time Slider to frame 1000 and turn on Auto Key .

40. Change the Phase parameter of al l three objects to -25 , and turn off Auto Key .

In order to add variety to the waves, we can use slightly different values for the Phase parame-ters of each Ripple Space Warp object. However, we need to make sure that the waves’ speed is the same for each of these objects. We can do this by making sure the difference in Phase values is the same between frames 0 and 1000 for each object. For example, if the Phase is 0 at frame 0 and 27 at frame 1000 for one object, and on another object you set the Phase to 2 at frame 0, then the Phase value for that object on frame 1000 should be 29 to maintain a difference of 27 between the start and end values.

41. Using the Curve Editor , make the Phase curve l inear for each of the three space warps, Ripple Boat , Ripple Boat01 and Ripple Boat02 .

Next, let’s animate the Noise and Bump maps.

42. Open the Material Editor and click the map in the Bump channel for the Water material .

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The map called Map Mix Ripple is used for the Bump slot now. This Mix map consists of two types of Noise maps: Max Ripple and Mini Ripple . We created these maps in Chapter 5, and now we only need to animate them.

43. Move the Time Slider to frame 1000 and turn on Auto Key .

44. In the Material Editor , go to the Max Ripple map and set the Phase parameter to 85 .

45. Go to Mini Ripple map and set its Phase parameter value to 85 as well .

46. Turn off Auto Key .

Changing the Phase parameter is what animates the Noise map. We figured out an appropriate value for the Phase parameter with a few tests. If your scene is slightly different, you might need to experiment to find the right values to use.

47. Using the Curve Editor , make the Phase curve l inear for the Max Ripple and Mini Ripple maps.

48. With the Water Level object selected, open the Curve Editor . In the animation controllers l ist, select and expand the Water Level l ist, and then expand the Water material l ist.

7- 10 A n im a t i o n

49. In the Water material’s controllers l ist, expand the Bump map l ist.

50. In the Bump map l ist, expand the Color 1: Max Ripple and Color 2: Mini Ripple controllers, highlight the Phase l isting, and change the curve to a straight l ine.

51. I f you disabled the TurboSmooth modifier earl ier, re-enable it and save your work. You can refer to Ch07-02.max to compare your results.

The Water Level object is now animated and ready for rendering. For other cameras in the scene, you might need to use different Amplitude and Bump values to make the water look right, but the waves’ speed should remain the same for every camera.

Grass AnimationThis section describes the process of creating and animating the grass and the tree leaves created in a previous chapter. All of the grass wil l be made with the Hair and Fur modifier. This modifier was covered in an earl ier chapter, so in this exercise we wil l focus on scene management with regard to hair, such as how to optimize a scene with large quantit ies of hair (grass).

Using the Hair and Fur tool to create and animate a large number of objects consumes a lot of resources and greatly increases the chances of running out of memory and crashing 3ds Max. To prevent this, we wil l divide the grass scene elements into layers based on distance from the camera (close, medium, and far range) and then put the renderings together later with a video compositing program.

7- 1 1A n im a t i o n

For the animation itself, it wil l be more efficient to further divide the grass into zones based on type and density of the grass, then animate each zone independently in separate scenes.

You can animate grass (hair) in 3ds Max in a few different ways. Here, we wil l calculate real dynamics using Wind and other Space Warp tools, and also animate the bending grass with Frizz Parameters from the Hair and Fur modifier.

The grass animation in this chapter has been done 3ds Max 2011 . If you can do it with 3ds Max 2011, you should do so. But if necessary, it can be done using 3ds Max 2010.

Exercise 2: Grass creation

1. Open the fi le Ch07-03.max . In this scene you can see the landscape, camera, and l ights.

2. In the reference image, determine how many types of grass are present and how these types are distributed over the landscape. In the fol lowing i l lustration, different types of grass are highlighted with various bright colors.

3. Using the previous image as a reference, use the Paint Selection Region tool to select individual groups of polygons on the Ground object that pertain to each kind of grass, and use Detach As Clone to separate each set of polygons to a separate object. As you detach each polygon grouping, assign a descriptive name to the detached object. For example, the grass closest to the camera could be called Grass_front . By labeling them all with the prefix Grass_ , they wil l be easy to find in your scene objects l ist.

4. For vegetation growing in the water, such as the cane and grass around the tree on the far right side of the reference image, create a few base objects for the grass using any modeling method you want. Make sure that the pivot point of each base object is set at the bottom of the object.

5. Delete the Ground object.

6. Select al l of the grass base objects, open the Object Properties window and turn off the Render-able option. In the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see the camera view of the scene at this stage.

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7. Save your scene. At this point, you can use the support fi le Ch07-04.max if you want . This scene contains not only the grass base objects but also several types of individual grass objects that you can use as instances with the Hair and Fur modifier. If you don’t use this scene, create a few grass blade objects with any polygon modeling method. Be sure to keep the polygon count low on the grass blades.

8. Apply the Hair and Fur modifier to each grass base object. Each object wil l need its own unique modifier, so you should either apply the modifier individually to each object, or apply it as an instanced modifier and click the Make Unique button on the Modifier Stack before you work with each object in later steps.

9. For each Hair and Fur modifier, set al l the values in the Frizz Parameters , Kink Parameters and Multi Strand Parameters rol louts to 0 . This wil l prevent these parameters from affecting the grass’s shape.

10. In the Styling group, cl ick Style Hair and use the various styling tools, especial ly the Scale tool to adjust the length and curvature of the hair guides to roughly match the reference image. If at any stage you want to reset the guides and start again, you can click Regrow Hair in the Tools rol lout. If you want to style the hair further once the instances have been added, go into the Guides sub-object mode of the Hair and Fur Modif ier and use the Styling tools. You wil l see the instanced geometry modified accordingly.

11. When the guides look satisfactory, cl ick the None button in the Instance Node group in the Tools rol lout, and click on any grass blade object to instance it across that grass base surface. The objects won’t appear over the surfaces unti l a later step.

The fol lowing i l lustration shows which types of grass blades are to be instanced over which grass base objects if you are using the support fi le provided. On the Reed Center and Rose Leaf Cen-ter01 objects, we created two types of grass by adding two Hair and Fur modifiers to each with different parameters.

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12. For each Hair and Fur modifier, many of the values in the General Parameters rol lout can be the same for al l base objects: Hair Segments = 5 , Hair Passes = 1 , Density = 100 , Scale = 100 , Cut Length = 100 , Tip Thick = 0 , Displacement = 0 . In the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see the values in the General Parameters rol lout that need to be set differently for each base object.

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13. For each Hair and Fur modifier, turn off Display Guides in the Display rol lout to hide the guides, and turn on Display Hairs to display the grass geometry in the viewports.

14. Turn on the Override option. This wil l assign a unique color to each grass area for easier iden-tif ication later on.

15. The Percentage and Max. Hairs parameters control the number of hairs displayed in the view-port. Lowering these values wil l help free up system resources and speed up the program’s response. Set Max. Hairs to the same value you used for the Hair Count parameter, and set Percentage to 20 . Repeat this for each Hair and Fur modifier in the scene.

16. Turn off the As Geometry checkbox next to the Override parameter. This wil l disable the display of hairs as objects and free up system resources, and wil l also show the hair color that you assigned.

At this point, the camera view should look similar to the fol lowing i l lustration.

17. Save the scene. You can compare your result with the support fi le Ch07-05.max .

Exercise 3: Grass animation

Now let’s animate the grass. The animation wil l be done with real hair dynamics calculations using the Wind Space Warp .

1. Continue from your own scene or load the fi le Ch07-05.max .

2. Open the Time Configuration dialog box, set Start Time = -100 , End Time = 500 , and click OK.

The animation is now 600 frames long, but the first 100 frames (-100 to 0) wil l be used exclu-sively to stabil ize the grass dynamics. Frames 0 to 500 wil l hold the actual animation to be rendered.

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3. Add a Wind Space Warp to the scene using Create panel ➤ Space Warps ➤ Forces ➤ Wind .

4. On the Modify panel, set the Wind object’s Icon Size to 200 .

5. Use Select and Rotate to rotate the Wind object so it points to the right and slightly up when viewed in a Front viewport. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

6. In the Wind group, set the fol lowing parameters: Turbulence = 0.5 , Frequency = 0.0 , Scale = 1000 .

7. In the Force group set Decay to 0 .

We’d l ike the wind strength to change over time for a more realistic effect. To do this, we can create a varying motion curve for the Strength parameter.

8. Right-click the numeric entry field next to the Strength parameter and choose Show in Track View . This opens the Selected window, which is essential ly the same as the Track View - Curve Editor window that you used earl ier in this chapter.

9. Using the Add Keys and Move Keys tools, add and position points on the curve approximately as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration. Leave the first and last keys at 0 , and put al l the other points in the range between -1 and 1 . When the curve goes to values below 0, the wind wil l blow in the opposite direction.

If later you decide to increase or decrease the overall wind strength, you can simply select al l points on the Strength curve and use the Scale Values tool.

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I f you decide to change the frequency of the strength change (meaning the curve wil l take up less than the ful l 500 frames), cl ick the Parameter Curve Out-of-Range Types button on toolbar and turn on the Loop option with both the left and right arrows selected (see the fol lowing i l lustration). This wil l repeat the curve infinitely in both directions. In the Curve Editor window, a repeated curve is displayed as dashed line.

Now that the wind is set up, let’s set the parameters on the Dynamics rol lout for each Hair and Fur modifier. We’l l make the values for these parameters the same for al l grass base objects.

10. In the Modify panel for the Hair and Fur modifier, in the Dynamics rol lout under the External Forces group, cl ick Add and select the Wind object.

11. In the Collisions group select the Polygon option and turn on Use Growth Object . This wil l prevent individual grass leaves from intersecting the base object.

12. In the Dynamics Parameters group, set Gravity to 0.0 to disable gravitation. Otherwise, the grass wil l wilt during the simulation.

13. Set Stiffness to 0.4 to l imit the bending of the grass when it is affected by the wind, and set Root Hold to 1 .0 to keep the base of each grass blade stiff despite the wind. Set Dampen to 0.0 so the grass can freely wave under the wind.

14. Before recording the grass animation you can view it in real time. In the Mode group of the Dynamics rol lout, choose the Live option to activate the dynamics calculation in the viewports, and click Play Animation .

15. The playback wil l very l ikely be too slow to be useful due to the large amount of memory needed for l ive simulation. To make it possible to see each grass simulation in real time, save a separate scene for each area of grass and include the Wind Space Warp with each scene.

16. Open one of the scenes and watch the simulation in real time. Make any necessary adjust-ments, such as increasing the wind strength with the motion curve as described earl ier.

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17. When the animation looks right, you can record the dynamics animation. This wil l al low you to load the precomputed animation later on for faster playback and rendering. In the Hair and Fur modifier, in the Dynamics rol lout under the Mode group, choose the Precomputed option. Then in the Stat Files group, cl ick the button to the right of the path directory to choose a location for the fi les generated during the calculation.

18. In the Simulation group, set the values for the start and end frames: Start = -100 and End = 500 . Click Run to perform the simulation.

19. Save your scene after the dynamics calculation.

20. Open each of your grass scenes and perform the same operation on them.

21. When you have finished making simulations for al l the grass base objects and have saved the simulations, open the original scene that contains all the grass areas. Use Merge to merge in the grass base objects from the separate fi les. Make sure you delete the older version of each grass base object as you merge in each animated one.

22. Save the scene.

As mentioned earl ier, working with such a large amount of animated grass in a scene can be a strain on your system resources. We put al l these animated objects together so we can break them apart again, this time into layers set by distance from the camera (rather than breaking them into separate scenes by grass type, as we did earl ier). All those layers wil l be animated separately later.

23. Put each grass base object on one of three layers: Grass_Anim_Far , Grass_Anim_Middle or Grass_Anim_Near . In the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see the layer structure in the Layer window, and in the right image you can see the objects in those layers as viewed from the camera view. There are also two other layers in the scene: 0 (default) and Grass_Instances . The first holds all the l ights and cameras, and the second holds the instanced objects for the Hair and Fur modifier.

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24. Save the scene. You can also open Ch07-06.max from the support fi les and compare the grass animation if you l ike.

Now, you wil l animate the leaves on the tree with the existing wind setup.

25. Open Ch07-07.max , which has the Hair and Fur modifier already set up for the leaves.

For the Hair and Fur modifiers assigned to trees, the parameters in the Frizz Parameters rol lout have values other than zero. These parameters were used to style the guides for the leaves, rather than using the manual styl ing tools as we did for the grass.

26. For the Hair and Fur modifiers on the trees, in the Dynamics Parameters group in the Dynamics rol lout, set Gravity to 0.01 to make leaves respond to gravity and droop a bit when the wind dies down. All other parameters from this group should be set to 0 .

27. Perform the simulation again.

28. Save the scene. You can also open Ch07-08.max from the support fi les to see the finished ani-mation.

Now, let’s animate the grass directly in front of the camera.

29. Open Ch07-09.max .

This fi le contains the grass to be animated, and the instanced object Grass01 is already assigned within the Hair and Fur modifier to replace the hair guides. In the General Parameters rol lout, al l the parameters relating to the size and thickness of the grass are also set up already. In the Display rol l-out, the Percentage parameter is set to display in viewports 20% of the total amount of grass. The style and animation of this grass wil l be created with parameters in the Frizz Parameters rol lout.

30. Adjust the bending force of the grass by changing these parameters: Frizz Root = 30 and Frizz Tip = 300 .

31. Set Frizz X Freq. , Frizz Y Freq. , and Frizz Z Freq . to 2 . This wil l determine the bending for the grass along each of the coordinate axes. The range for these parameters is from -0.0 to 100.0, with higher values allowing more variation in bending directions. To better understand how these parameters work, look at the fol lowing i l lustration. The top, middle, and bottom images show how the grass looks with these values set to 0.1 , 0.8, and 2 respectively.

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32. Set the bending amplitude by setting Frizz Anim to 10 .

33. Set the grass bending speed by setting Anim. Speed to 100 .

I t is easier to see and fine-tune the effects of the Frizz Anim and Anim. Speed parameters with Play Animation turned on. In this way, you can see how settings affect the grass behavior in real time.

Now, the second type of animated grass is complete.

34. Save your scene. You can also open the support fi le Ch07-10.max and compare your results.

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Birds AnimationIn this section, we wil l cover the animation process for birds in a nest. To animate the birds, we wil l use the Biped system that comes with 3ds Max as well as the Skin modifier to associate the bird mod-els with their skeletons. If you’ve never used Biped or Skin before, it wil l be helpful for you to explore the final f i les first to see how they work, then do these exercises afterward.

Exercise 4: Skinning the birds

In this exercise, we wil l use Biped and the Skin modifier to create a system for animating the birds. You can use the bird models provided in the support fi les, shown in the fol lowing i l lustration, or any bird model that you have in your l ibrary or that you have modeled yourself.

1. Open the fi le Ch07-11.max , or open your own bird fi le. Select al l the objects that make up the bird mesh, then right-click and choose Object Properties . Turn off Show Frozen in Gray , turn on See-Through and then choose Freeze to freeze the mesh.

2. Select Create ➤ Systems ➤ Biped from the menu or Command panel, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

7-2 1A n im a t i o n

3. Click the Biped button, and in any viewport drag the cursor to create a Biped of the desired size.

4. Select the bone Bip01 . This is the virtual center of mass of the skeleton.

5. In the Motion panel, make sure that the Parameters button is pressed (rather than the Trajecto-ries button).

6. Turn on the Figure Mode button so that you wil l be able to edit the skeleton configuration.

7. With Bip01 selected, rotate the skeleton 90 degrees, so it is facing the same direction as the bird model. Then drag the skeleton in a side view to align the skeleton’s center of mass with the bird’s center of mass. In the fol lowing i l lustration, the bird’s center of mass is marked with a red dot.

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8. In the Structure rol lout, set Spine Links to 2 , to give the skeleton only two bones in its spine. Set the other parameters as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

9. Select the bones of one leg and rotate them to fol low the shape of the bird’s leg. You can scale the foot so that it’s long and thin and use the foot bone for the bird’s lower leg. Select one of the toes and reposition it to the back side of the bird’s foot using the Select and Move tool. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration as a guide.

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To avoid having to do the same manual adjustments for the second leg, we wil l mirror the leg pose that we already set up.

10. To make selection of bones easier, on the Main Toolbar set the Selection Filter and choose Bone instead of All . This wil l only al low bone objects to be selected in viewports.

11. Double-click over the hip joint of the leg that you already set up to select al l the bones in that leg. This wil l select al l the bones in the hierarchy from the hip down to the toes.

12. With the leg bones selected, cl ick the Copy Posture button in the Copy/Paste rol lout. If this button is inactive, then click the Create Collection button first. In the window on the panel, you wil l see the leg shown in red. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

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13. To transfer the posture from one leg to another, cl ick Paste Posture Opposite . There is also a Paste Posture button that pastes the posture to the same leg. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration to see the location of the copy/paste buttons.

14. I f you use the bird model from the support fi les of this book, then you can hide the leg bones as well as the bird’s feathers. Just select the leg bones and feathers and right-click the viewport to choose Hide Selection from quad menu. You may have to unfreeze the bird’s feathers first by going to the Display Panel and in the Freeze group, choosing Freeze ➤ Unfreeze by Name .

15. Adjust the spine, neck and head bones by rotating, scaling and moving them to the proper places. Use the same copy/paste technique to set the position of one wing bone and then copy it to the other side, as shown in fol lowing i l lustration.

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16. Turn off Figure Mode . Save your work. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration to see what the final skeleton structure should look l ike and how it al igns with the bird model. You can open CH07-12.max to compare your results.

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Now in order to animate the bird, we need to bind the bird model to the Biped system with the Skin modifier.

17. Continue with your scene or open the fi le Ch07-13.max .

18. Select the Bird object and apply the Skin modifier to it .

19. In the Modify panel, in the Bones group, cl ick the Add button and choose all the bones in the scene from the l ist, except the objects that represent the eyes and the feathers. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

20. On the Modify panel, cl ick the Edit Envelopes button. This wil l al low you to adjust how the bones affect the geometry.

21. In the Select group, enable the Vertices option. This wil l al low you to control each individual ver-tex or entire group of vertices by changing their weight. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

When the Edit Envelopes button is pressed, you can see all bones as l inks in the viewports, each shown as a gray l ine.

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22. Click the gray l ink l ine for Bip01 L Calf in the viewport or select this object from the Bones l ist on the Skin modifier. This wil l turn the l ink yellow and show a Gizmo around it, and wil l also cause the mesh to change colors to indicate the vertices that are affected by this bone. See the fol lowing i l lustration.

The mesh colors display how much geometry is affected by the selected l ink(s). Red areas receive the maximum effect from the bone, while yellow and orange indicate a medium effect, and parts of the mesh that are not affected at al l are blue. In the Skin modifier, in the Weight Properties group, you can click the Weight Table button to display the Skin Weight Table . This table shows you which vertices are affected by which bones. In the fol lowing i l lustration you can see the Skin Weight Table .

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Each vertex has its own identifying number. The minimum weight value is 0 and the maximum is 1 . The total weights for any one vertex add up to 1. For example in this table you can see that the vertex with ID #0 is affected by l ink Bip01 Neck with a weight of 0.500, and is also affected by Bip01 Head with weight of 0.500. This means that this vertex is equally affected by both bones, so if we rotate Bip01 Head the vertex wil l move also, but wil l sti l l be held in place 50% by Bip01 Neck.

You can set vertex weights in the Weight Table , and also with the Abs. Effect parameter in the Weight Properties group.

Let’s start associating vertices with the bones.

23. Select the toe bone Bip01 L Toe11 .

24. Select the vertices that need to fol low the motion of this bone, and set Abs. Effect to 1 .

25. Select the vertices that fol low the bone between the foot and the toe, and set the Abs. Effect for Bip01 L Toe11 to 1 .

26. For bone Bip01 L Toe1 set Abs. Effect to 0.5 . Now the vertices at the joint wil l be affected by two bones with same weight of 0.5. When we changed weight for Bip01 L Toe1 to 0.5, it changed the weight for Bip01 L Toe11 from 1 to 0.5 automatically to make the total weight add up to 1.0. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

In the previous i l lustration, you can see red, orange, yellow, and l ight yellow vertices. Red verti-ces have a weight of 1 for the currently selected bone, orange has 0.75, yellow has 0.5, and l ight

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yellow has 0.25. Those are the weights by which bone Bip01 Toe11 is affecting the geometry. Bip01 L Toe1 affects the same vertices with the reverse order of values: where the weight is 0.75 for Bip01 Toe11 , it is 0.25 for Bip01 L Toe1 , and so on.

27. Set the weights for the vertices for Bip01 L Toe1 and Bip01 L Toe11 so the weights match the pre-vious i l lustration.

If you find the Weight Table cumbersome, you can try out the Weight Tool (the icon to the left of the Weight Table). When this tool is open, select vertices in the viewport, and you can make quick weight changes using the Weight tool for the selected vertices.

28. Use the same technique to associate the vertices with the other bones of the skeleton.

If you’re new to Biped , associating vertices can take quite a long time. If you l ike, you can open Ch07-14.max to skip ahead and see the final results. The next steps continue the exercise as if you were continuing with your own fi le, so if you open Ch07-14.max , you should not do the fol lowing two steps in this exercise. Instead, just fol low along by looking at the result in the Ch07-14.max fi le.

29. Apply the Skin modifier to the Feathers object as well , and associate its vertices with bones too.

30. Link the bird’s eyes to Bip01 Head using the Select and Link command. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

31. Save your work. You can refer to Ch07-14.max to compare your results.

32. Now, open Ch07-15.max . In this scene, you can see the bird’s chick model.

33. Use the same technique to create a Biped and associate vertices with the bones.

34. Using a side view, create two bones for the beak. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration for the placement of the bones. Click Create ➤ Systems ➤ Bones again, and then click the bone where you want to begin branching. The new chain of bones branches from the first bone you click.

35. Add these two bones to the other bones in the Skin modifier, and associate the vertices that form the chick’s beak so the beak can be opened or closed by moving those bones.

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36. Select the Chick Feathers object and apply the Skin Wrap modifier to it .

37. On the Modify panel, cl ick Add button and select the Chick object. Use the parameters from the fol lowing i l lustration.

The Skin Wrap modifier al lows geometry to deform by mimicking the shape of another object. It al lows you to fine-tune how the geometry reacts to the bones.

38. In a side view, create three bones to fol low the shape of the tongue. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration. Make sure the bones are aligned in the Top view as well .

39. Select the bone at the base of the tongue.

40. Select HI Solver (Animation menu > IK Solvers > HI Solver) . A dashed line appears which currently connects the selected bone with the cursor.

41. Click the very last bone at the tip of the tongue. This wil l create the HI Solver and blue IK Solver crosshairs, as shown at the left side of the fol lowing i l lustration.

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42. Associate the tongue vertices with the tongue bones using the Skin modifier as described in earl ier steps.

43. The bone at the base of the tongue is responsible for positioning the entire tongue’s bone structure, so we need to l ink it to head bone. Link the base tongue bone to Bip01 Head with Select and Link . In the same way, l ink the IK Solver object to Bip01 Head .

44. Save the scene. You can also open Ch07-16.max to see the final result .

Exercise 5: Bird animation

Now, we wil l animate the birds using their Biped skeletons.

1. Open Ch07-17.max . This scene contains a model of a bird’s nest and birds.

Note that Figure Mode has been turned off for each Biped in the birds. This wil l al low you to trans-form and animate the birds.

2. Select the chick’s center of mass and place it into the nest. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

7-32 A n im a t i o n

3. Select the foot bone L Foot01 of the chick and go to the Motion panel .

4. Within the Motion panel , cl ick Set Planted Key on the Key Info rol lout. That wil l make the foot stay fixed at its current position regardless of other animation you set on the body.

5. Select the other foot, and click Set Planted Key for that foot also.

6. Place the second chick into the nest by moving its center of mass, and repeat the same pro-cedure to plant the second chick’s feet as well .

7. Turn on Auto Key .

8. At frame 0 , move the chicks’ bones so they are in a neutral pose. You need to have Auto Key turned on for this step so animation keys wil l be set for the Biped on frame 0. Key creation works differently for Biped than most other object types. It doesn’t automatically set keys at frame 0 when you make an intit ial transform at a later frame. You have to deliberately set keys at frame 0 yourself.

9. Move the Time Slider to frame 10 and put the chicks in other poses by moving or rotating their Biped parts. This wil l animate the chicks from frame 0 to frame 10. Refer to the fol lowing i l lus-tration to see the keys on the Time Slider .

10. Continue to move the Time Slider by 10 frames and change the chicks’ poses on each keyframe. The end result you are going for is to simulate chicks impatiently waiting for their mother to come back and feed them. Turn off Auto Key .

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11. Go back to frame 0 . Select the large bird and lower both its wings. To do this, you can position one wing and use Copy Posture and Paste Posture Opposite to copy its posture to the other wing. Turn on Auto Key .

12. Move the Time Slider to frame 5 and raise the wings. Turn off Auto Key .

13. Now let’s copy the keys for the wings to other frames. Select the bones of both wings. On the Trackbar , select the key markers at frames 0 and 5 . Hold down Shift on the keyboard and move the two key markers 10 frames to the right. This wil l create a new set of keys at frames 10 and 15.

14. Repeat this step to copy the keys along the entire timeline. If you play the animation, you wil l see the bird’s wings flap.

15. At frame 40 , move the bird so it is just outside the camera view. At frame 100 , move the bird’s center of mass to the edge of the nest. Then create keys at frames 70 and 90 to make the bird fly up and down as it approaches the nest. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration to see the bird’s trajectory. If you want to see the trajectory for the bird biped, use the Biped’s own trajectory tool found on Motion Panel’s Key Info rol lout, the icon on the far right with the tooltip Trajectories .

16. On frame 70 , swing the bird’s legs toward its back.

17. On frame 90 , move the bird’s legs closer to its body and spread its toes in preparation for landing.

18. On frame 100 , extend the bird’s legs and head in a landing pose. Move the large bird’s center of mass so its feet touch the nest edge. Use Set Planted Key to plant its feet at this frame.

Now you wil l animate the bird feeding the chicks. Because the bird wil l f ly away after feeding the chicks, you can leave the wings animated during this section of the animation.

19. At frame 140 , rotate the large bird’s head bone so its beak touches the beak of one chick. Have the large bird hold that position for 20 frames, then move its head to the next chick, and so on.

20. Use the same techniques to create interim keys for the large bird, adding more details and dynamics to the animation. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration for the main postures for the large bird.

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21. Save the scene. You can also load Ch07-18.max to compare your results with a finished fi le.

Smoke AnimationIn this section, we wil l animate smoke coming from the building’s chimney. In 3ds Max , smoke can be done in many different ways. 3ds Max includes a few tools for fire and smoke, but you can also use plug-ins such Afterburn , Chaos Aura , or FumeFx . In this exercise, we wil l use FumeFx , as we feel it pro-vides superior results to the standard 3ds Max functionality.

Exercise 6: Smoke animation

1. Open the fi le Ch07-19.max . This scene contains a chimney that needs some smoke.

2. In the Command panel, select Create panel ➤ Geometry , and from the drop-down list, select FumeFX .

3. Click the FumeFX button and create a FumeFX container in the active viewport.

4. Create the container in such a way that it includes the chimney, and extends to the place where the smoke wil l end. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

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5. Create a circular mesh object and scale and place it to fit in the chimney, as shown by the red object in the fol lowing i l lustration. This object wil l serve as the smoke emitter. Even though we are not applying a material , we recommend applying a UVW map to the emitter. According to our tests, sometimes if the object did not have this applied, smoke was not emitting correctly and a missing map channel error was generated.

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6. Anywhere in the viewport, create an Object Src helper. To do this, go to the Create Panel ➤ Helpers . On the drop down menu choose FumeFX , and then choose Object Src . In the Object Src Parameters rol lout, cl ick the Pick Object icon and choose the circular object that you just created.

7. Select the FumeFx container, open its parameters and click Open FumeFx UI . This wil l open the FumeFx UI dialog box. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration, and use these settings.

8. In the Output rol lout, you can see the Output Path bar. Input the path where you want the FumeFx cache fi les to be saved upon the smoke dynamics calculation.

9. Set Start to -200 and End Frame to 250 . This wil l cause the smoke dynamics to be calculated starting at frame -200 so smoke wil l already be coming out of the chimney at frame 0. Refer to the previous i l lustration .

10. In the FumeFX UI window, click the Obj/Src button. In the window that opens, cl ick Add Object and choose the FFX Object Src object that you created earl ier. This adds this object to the dynam-ics calculation.

11. In the same way, add the chimney and tree crown objects to the dynamics calculation. Because both of these objects do not belong to any FumeFX helper, they wil l play the role of deflectors, as obstacles for the smoke. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

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12. Because we need only smoke and not fire, we need to turn the fire off. In the FumeFx UI dialog box, cl ick the Rend button and turn off the Fire option.

13. Click the Obj/Src button. In the Object Source Parameters rol lout, in the Temperature group, set Amount = 3000 .

14. In the Smoke group, set Amount to 100 , and in the Map channel, change Disabled to Source from Intensity .

15. Open the Material Editor. Create a Noise map in an unused slot and set the parameters Size to 200 , Noise Type to Fractal , and change Color 1 to gray (RGB: 120,120,120) .

16. The Phase parameter needs to be animated. Set the Time Slider to the last frame of the anima-tion, cl ick Auto Key , and set the value of the Phase parameter to 10 . Turn off AutoKey .

17. In the FumeFX UI window, in the Object Source Parameters rol lout, the None button is now available, because we changed Disabled to Source from Intensity . Drag an instance of the Noise map from Material Editor to this button. This tel ls FumeFx how to create the density of the smoke. Refer to the following il lustration to see examples of the Noise map and the Smoke parameters group.

18. In the FumeFX UI window, click the Sim button and set Buoyancy to 2 and Vorticity to 0.1 . Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

19. Click the Gen button, then in the General Parameters rol lout, set Spacing = 2 . This parameter is responsible for the quality of the smoke effect. Lower values correspond to better quality, however, consider your computer’s power when setting this parameter because lower values of this parameter wil l consume more computer memory.

7-38 A n im a t i o n

20. Click Start Default Simulation to start the smoke dynamics calculation.

21. Click Open Preview Window to see the simulation calculation process in action. In the fol lowing i l lustration you can see the location of these buttons.

Now we need to recalculate the smoke simulation with the wind. Everything looks good now except that there are no natural forces affecting the smoke. Let’s add wind to the scene. Instead of creating a new Wind object, you also have the option of merging the Wind object from Ch07-20.max , where the Wind object is already animated.

22. Select Create panel ➤ Space Warps ➤ Wind to create a Wind object. Add it to the smoke simu-lation.

23. On frame 0 set the Strength parameter to 0 . Then set a few keys over 250 frames of animation, animating the Strength parameter with values between 0 and 1 .

In the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see every 50th frame of the animation.

24. The smoke is finished. Calculate the smoke simulation then save your scene. You can compare your results with Ch07-20.max from the support fi les.

7-39A n im a t i o n

CamerasThis section is mostly self-explanatory. We wil l explain how shooting angles were chosen for this scene, and how the cameras were created and animated.

The idea of this project was to show a silent, styl ized vil lage surrounded by nature conveying a calm and peaceful environment. There is no specif ic script or storyboard, so we did not use these tools to determine the camera angles, as we would normally have done for a longer or more complex project. All we need is a few animated cameras that show the scene from different angles.

We decided to use three cameras:

• The first camera shows the entire scene and pans slightly.

• The second camera features the spinning water wheel.

• The third camera focuses on a bird’s nest with chicks and another bird approaching it .

All of the cameras move very slowly to align with the peaceful mood of the scene. The only l imi-tation is the fact that this scene was originally designed for sti l l renderings, and the idea to animate it was proposed afterward. This l imits the choice of shooting angles, unless we want to invest a great deal of time to add additional details to the scene.

If you are thoroughly famil iar with 3ds Max cameras and their settings, you can skip to the start of the next exercise.

Cameras in 3ds MaxIn 3ds Max, you can have two types of cameras: Target cameras and Free cameras. Each type has its advantages and disadvantages. Both are found in the Create panel ➤ Cameras .

Target CameraA Target camera consists of two objects: the camera itself and a target. The camera represents your point of view while the target represents the point at which the camera looks. You can select and move both the camera and target as individual objects, but the camera always looks in the direction of the target. To create a Target camera, cl ick Target in the Create ➤ Cameras panel, then drag in the scene. The init ial point where you click places the camera, and the point where you release the cur-sor is where the target is placed.

By default, Target cameras try to keep their local Y axis aligned to the Z axis of the World Coordi-nate System . Creating cameras in the Top view allows you to create cameras with correct init ial al ignment to world coordinates, thus giving more predictable results. Creating Target cameras in other types of views can lead to unexpected camera ti lt ing.

With a Target camera, the abil ity to transform the camera and target separately gives you great flexibi l ity when setting up camera angles and animating the camera.

Free CameraA Free camera is a single object. This camera does not have target, so you change the camera angle by transforming (rotating) the camera itself. To create a Free camera, cl ick Free in the Create ➤ Cameras panel, then click in the scene.

When you create a Free camera, it points into the viewport you use for creation. For example, if you create a Free camera in a Top view, it wil l be looking down.

Free cameras can be rotated to view in any direction. Unlike Target cameras, they do not attempt to retain any particular al ignment with the World Coordinate System .

7-40 A n im a t i o n

I f you’ve created a camera and want to switch to another type, you can do that. A Free Camera can become a Target Camera, and vice versa. Just go to the Modify panel and change the Type field to whichever you want.

Camera ParametersThe scene area visible through the camera is defined by two independent parameters: FOV and Lens . FOV stands for field of view, while Lens is the length of the virtual lens, which affects the focal dis-tance. These two parameters are l inked so if you change one of them, the other changes accordingly. Changing these values not only changes how much of the scene is visible, but also alters the relative sizes of near and far objects in viewports, making them seem closer or farther away depending on the settings.

Lens length is always measured in mil l imeters. The smaller the value of the Lens parameter, the wider the FOV. Small Lens values simulate a wide-angle lens, where faraway objects appear farther away. Larger Lens values simulate a zoom lens, where distant objects appear closer to camera.

Camera ToolsTo move cameras and targets into the right position for your shots, you can use standard transforms, but it is often easier to see what the camera is seeing in a Camera view, and adjust that view directly. To switch to a camera view, press C on the keyboard and choose the camera from the Select Camera window. You can also select a camera object in the scene and press C to automatically show the camera view in the active viewport.

It is always a good idea to give your cameras names to associate them with the camera angles they represent. This makes it much easier to select cameras as you work with the scene.

To adjust a camera view directly, you can use the navigation buttons at the bottom/right corner of the 3ds Max interface. The navigation controls are:

• Dolly—Moves the camera towards or away from the target along the viewing axis.

• Perspective—Moves the camera similarly to Dolly, but also adjusts the FOV parameter during the movement to keep the same amount of the scene in view. Because the FOV is changing, faraway objects wil l appear to move closer or farther away from the camera as you move the camera. Animation with this tool is a special effect.

• Roll—Rotates the camera around the viewing direction (local Z-axis), thus ti lt ing the view. Animation with this tool is a special effect.

• FOV—Changes the camera’s FOV parameter.

• Truck—Moves both the camera and camera target along the view plane. Compare with Pan, which moves only the camera or target individually.

• Pan and Orbit—Rotates the camera around the scene. Pan rotates the target around the cam-era, similar to a camera being rotated on a tripod. Orbit rotates the camera around the target. With a Free camera, its Target Distance parameter defines the point used as a target for these tools. By holding down Shift , you can constrain the Pan or Orbit tool to a single axis.

Sometimes it’s hard to select the camera target in the viewport because it’s blocked by too many other objects in the scene. In this case, select the camera itself, then right-click and choose Select Camera Target from the quad menu. If you have an active Camera Viewport, you can also select the Camera or Camera Target from the menu accessed through the plus (+) sign in the top-left corner of a viewport.

The Safe Frame is also very important when you work on the final rendering. The Safe Frame dis-plays the rendering aspect ratio in the viewport, showing you exactly what wil l appear in the rendered

7-4 1A n im a t i o n

image. If you don’t use this tool, you might accidentally crop the image with your camera placement. You can enable the Safe Frame for a viewport with the keyboard shortcut Shift+F .

To animate the cameras for this project, it’s enough to just create a camera, go to the desired frame, click Auto Key and move the camera and/or target. With this method, animation keys wil l be created automatically. After you set the shooting angles for the animation, turn off Auto Key .

I f you need to change the camera position, go to the appropriate frame, turn on Auto Key again, and move the camera. Use as few interim keys as possible to keep the animation smooth. Whenever possible, control the orientation, position and speed of the camera between keyframes using the transform curves in the Curve Editor .

This recommendation is applicable not only to cameras but to other objects as well . For exam-ple, if you want to slow the animation down, you could add a large number of interim keys, but then the animation wil l become more diff icult to adjust and control . Use the Curve Editor to control trans-form curves whenever possible.

Exercise 7: Camera animation

Now with all that in mind, let’s create the animated cameras for your scene.

1. Open Ch07-21.max and analyze the speed and type of motion. Look at the Lens and FOV values at the beginning and end of the animation, and look at the transform curves in the Curve Editor .

2. Notice in the Time Configuration dialog box that the length of animation for each camera is set to 10 seconds, which is 250 frames at 25 frames per second . 25fps is PAL standard, and was our chosen frame rate; however, your needs may call for something else, such as 30 (NTSC) or 24 (fi lm).

3. Examine the camera movement by looking at the cameras from the top viewport. You can turn on the Trajectory (through the Object Properties dialog box) to see this. You can also use the Trackview Graph Editor to see the curves for the camera movement as well .

4. For one of the cameras, delete all objects that aren’t visible in the camera view and save the scene into a separate fi le, then reload the original f i le and do this process again for the other cameras. This wil l free up system resources and speed up render times.

After al l the cameras are created, animated, and saved into separate fi les, this exercise is complete.

SummaryToo often, great 3D work is made less spectacular by the lack of animated objects in a scene, such as the kind discussed in this chapter. While many animations contain photorealistic l ighting and materials and have plenty of large animated objects, such as cars, it’s the lack of animation on the smaller objects l ike blades of grass or a column of smoke that can really make an ordinary animation stand out as spectacular. If you are trying to push the boundary in terms of quality, we suggest trying to find small details in your next animation project that you have never tried to animate, and then attempt to put those objects in motion. It may require a lot of additional work and creativity in order to get your system to handle the task, but the rewards are worthwhile.

1

Lighting

This chapTer is dedicaTed To exTerior lighTing , which is usually the last step in developing a scene in 3ds Max before rendering the final product. All further work on the image or animation is usually done with compositing and editing programs. We try to plan l ighting strategies at the start of the project so we can keep them in mind when developing textures and materials for the scene.

When placing l ights in the scene, it is important to consider several factors, including the size of the scene, the number of objects, the possibi l ity of breaking down the rendering into layers for com-positing, and the visibi l ity of objects and their color in areas of shadow. Knowing all the factors is vital for determining which global i l lumination (GI) solution is most suitable and how bright the GI should be. Additional l ights can be used if required, for example if we need to focus attention on a particular object, but then you need to optimize the l ight settings in order to use less system resources and render faster.

In this chapter we wil l cover the creation of a daylight scenario with the V-Ray renderer, and a nighttime lighting scenario with standard 3ds Max lights. Despite this chapter being based on V-Ray, the overall principles and techniques can be applied to any render engine. Many of the features found in V-Ray appear in other render engines under different names, such as color mapping, which is V-Ray’s version of exposure control . In other features, the names of many settings wil l even be iden-tical, such as the many real world settings found on the VRayPhysicalCamera , l ike shutter speed and focal length.

DaylightFor daylight on a sunny, cloudless day, two light sources are usually enough: the sun and skylight. Sunlight provides diffuse and specular l ighting, as well as shadows, while skylight delivers ambient l ight throughout the scene. Fortunately, the process of placing these light sources is rather quick and easy once a few principles are understood.

We need to consider the placement of the sun since it wil l dictate the direction and look of the shadows. It is generally not a good idea to place the sun directly in front of or behind the camera, as

Chapter 8

8-2 L i g h t i n g

this tends to flatten out a rendering. A rendering looks best when it has a good mixture of direct l ight (or diffuse l ight), indirect (or ambient l ight), and hotspots (or specular l ight).

The skylight map, which you can place in conjunction with the sun, provides Global I l lumination for al l the scene objects and also sets the color of the sky to match the time of the day. The bright-ness of the skylight should be enough to l ight al l of the objects that are not l it by direct l ight.

Exercise 1: Daytime lighting

To set up a daytime scene, we wil l use the VRayPhysicalCamera in conjunction with the VRaySun/ VRaySky . The settings for these tools are very well designed and easy to use, and when they are used together, you wil l get what is referred to as real-world l ighting. During this exercise we wil l provide only basic information about the V-Ray tools used. If you want to get more information about V-Ray, please see the V-Ray user manual or other learning resources. The actual rendering of the scene wil l be covered in chapter 9.

The scene that we’l l use for this exercise consumes a lot of system resources, so we recom-mend that you use a computer with a lot of RAM. However, by adjusting a few key settings that control detail and precision, you can easily complete these exercises on a system with less RAM. If you need to, you can merge some elements from this scene into a new fi le and avoid importing the elements l ike the grass and leaves if they are too much for your machine to handle. That way you can sti l l fol low along.

In this exercise, you wil l be instructed to place the camera and lights at specif ic coordinates. You can use the coordinates given, or use similar coordinates as you l ike to create your own scene.

1.Open the fi le Ch08-01.max .

For the purpose of this exercise, we removed several elements of lesser importance in order to make the scene render faster. Generally, this is a good approach for any scene where you are exper-imenting with l ighting and materials and don’t want to induce unnecessari ly long test renders. On the other hand, we increased the level of detail for some elements so that they would look good from a specif ic camera position. This too is a crit ical aspect of eff icient scene creation, and usually requires multiple versions of the same scene, where some objects appear more detailed in one scene than they do in others, depending on which camera is being rendered.

In this scene, the greatest impact to the system resources is made by the Hair and Fur modifier. To speed up test renders, we disabled this modifier; however, you can turn it back on during your final renders if you want.

2.Add a VRayPhysicalCamera to the scene (Create ➤ Cameras ➤ VRay ➤ VRayPhysicalCamera) and place it at X: -560, Y: -800, Z: 130 . Place the target at X: -340, Y: -510, Z: 170 . We will start with the camera in this position, but you may want to move it around to match the il lustrations and to see the effects of the different lights we will be placing in the scene in the following exercises.

3.Add a VRaySun (Create ➤ Lights ➤ VRay ➤ VRaySun) to the scene and position this l ight so that it points almost vertical ly down into the scene to simulate a noontime sun position. When asked if you want to automatically create a VRaySky map and place it into the Environment Map channel, choose Yes .

4.Place the l ight at X: 5050, Y: 3220, Z: 11350 and its target at X: 0, Y:0, Z:0 .

5.Within the Modify panel, disable the VRaySun and keep all other settings at their default values. In a moment, we wil l render the scene without the effect of the VRaySun, but rather with just the VRaySky map.

8-3L i g h t i n g

By default, the VRaySun settings are set to values that work with the VRayPhysicalCamera . I f you used a Standard camera instead, the intensity multipl ier value would have to be about 1–2% of its cur-rent default value of 1 .0. Therefore, if you ever use a Standard camera, you wil l need to use a VRaySun intensity value of about 0.01 or 0.02 for a scene where you would normally use a multipl ier of 1 .0. If you do use the VRayPhysicalCamera, or a real-world camera in another render engine, try getting into the habit or adjusting the camera settings to control exposure rather than adjusting the sun’s intensity value.

By adding a VRaySky map to the Environment Map channel, you are adding an indirect l ight source to the scene that wil l play a big role in the Global I l lumination solution. An indirect l ight source l ike this is analogous to an HDRI (High Dynamic Range Image) , where all the objects in the scene are i l luminated by an image, according to the l ight source location within the image. Both of these tools add to the realism of a rendering, since they closely simulate how light operates in the real world.

The intensity and color of the VRaySky map depends on the angle of elevation of the VRaySun above the horizon. The closer to the horizon that the VRaySun is, the less intense the VRaySky wil l be. In addition, as the VRaySun approaches the horizon, the l ight produced wil l be more orange/red, simulating sunlight at dawn or dusk. The closer the VRaySun is to a noontime position, the brighter and bluer the VRaySky wil l be. This map affects both the overall scene lighting and the treatment of shadow areas. With the VRaySun high in the sky, you would see a very noticeable blue tint to white surfaces. In short, by adjusting the VRaySun’s position you can adjust the overall scene lighting and simulate different times of day.

Let’s take a look at the l ighting created by the VRaySky alone. The two images that fol low show how the same VRaySky map with the same parameters can affect scene lighting differently depend-ing on the VRaySun’s position. In both i l lustrations, we used VRaySky in the Environment Map channel, but the VRaySun light is turned off. This means all l ighting in the scene is provided by the VRaySky map, the color and brightness of which is controlled by the position of the VRaySun.

If you rendered the camera view with the sun directly overhead, you would see something simi-lar to the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration. If you moved the sun to a point low on the horizon and rendered again, you would see something similar to the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration. The impact of the VRaySun’s position in the sky is clearly evident.

8-4 L i g h t i n g

Experiment with different VRay Sun positions and render each position to see its effect on the l ighting of the scene. When finished, return the VRaySun to its original position of being overhead.

6. In the Modify panel, enable the VRaySun .

The brightness and color of the VRaySun not only depends on its position in relation to the hori-zon, but also to the VRaySun parameters. For example, the Turbidity parameter sets the amount of dust particles in the air and thus affects the color of the l ight; lower values allow more blue color to come through and create an impression of very clean air. Higher Turbidity values wil l add an orange tint to the scene’s l ighting. The Ozone parameter dictates the color of the sun. The minimum value of 0.0 adds a yellow tint, and the maximum value of 1 .0 adds a blue tint.

Let’s get back to the exercise. To make test renders faster, let’s make a few changes to the rendering parameters.

7.Open the Render Setup dialog box, and within the V-Ray tab ➤ V-Ray:: Global Switches rol lout, disable Displacement , enable Override mtl and put any Standard material into the Override mtl slot.

This wil l render all the objects in the scene as if they had the same material applied to them. This technique makes it easy to see how the l ight is affecting objects, so you can test the l ighting and make changes without having to wait for al l your complex materials to render.

8.Go to the V-Ray tab of the Render Settings dialog box and in the V-Ray:: Image sampler rol lout, disable the On option in the Antialiasing filter section. Despite how this may appear, doing this does not disable antial iasing. Antial iasing occurs as a result of the image sampling. We have simply disabled a feature that al lows the rendering to be slightly blurred or sharpened, which is something that might be done to make an image crisper or to remove the l ikelihood of antial iasing artifacts such as pixel swimming or fl ickering. Any fi lter used, especial ly blurring fi lters, wil l induce longer renders, and in some cases dramatically longer renders. For test renders, you could also set your Image sampler to Adaptive Subdivision with the default Min/Max setting (-1,2) to get even faster renders at the expense of quality.

The next 6 steps i l lustrate the most important settings that were changed from their default values to setup the scene the way it is now.

9.Go to the Indirect illumination tab and in the V-Ray:: Indirect illumination (GI) rol lout, activate Indi-rect i l lumination by enabling the On option.

10.Set Primary bounce’s GI engine to Irradiance map , and Secondary bounce’s GI engine to Light cache . A different engine can be assigned to calculate primary bounces and secondary bounces separately, which can allow for quicker and more efficient approximation of global i l lumination in a scene. Simply stated, primary bounces are bounces directly visible by a camera’s view or visible in the reflection and refractions from other objects and secondary bounces are bounces that occur outside of the rendered view. By assigning an accurate engine to primary and more approximate solution to secondary, we can save a tremendous amount of time in the calculation (or rather the approximation) of GI. The irradiance map and light cache combi-nation is by far the most widely used in V-Ray.

11. In the V-Ray:: Irradiance map rol lout, in the Built-in presets section, set the Current preset to Very low , HSph. Subdivs to 20 , and Interp. Samples to 100 . These are optimal test render settings that control the number, quality, and blurring of GI samples, respectively.

8-5L i g h t i n g

12. In the V-Ray:: Light cache rol lout, set Subdivs to 100 .

13.Within the V-Ray tab, go to the Color mapping rol lout and enable Sub-pixel mapping and Clamp output . This wil l prevent bright white dots from appearing as incorrectly exposed pixels.

14.Within the Settings tab, go to the DMC Sampler rol lout and set the Adaptive Amount to 1 .0 . Ensure that the Noise threshold is set to its default value of 0.01 .

Noise threshold is by far the most important quality setting in V-Ray as it controls al l blurry effects. Blurry effects include everything from depth-of-field, to motion blur, to GI, to image sampling, and just about every quality setting within V-Ray. It specif ies the minimum level of quality, in terms of noise produced, that a given solution (or setting) has to achieve. A value of 0.01 means 1% and a value of 1 .0 means 100%. When this value is at its default value of 0.01, it means that two adjacent samples have to be within 1% of each other to be acceptable. So in the case of image sampling, if two adjacent samples are more than 1% apart from each other in terms of color, more samples wil l be taken unti l the threshold is reached. This number should remain at a value of 0.01 because changing it can induce much longer render times.

Likewise, the Adaptive amount setting is crit ical because it dictates how much importance to assign to the Noise threshold value. If the Adaptive amount were set to 0.0, then the Noise threshold value would be rendered useless and all solutions that could be adaptive wil l be prevented from being adaptive. This value should always be set to 1.0 (100%) unless there is a specif ic problem occurring that can’t be fixed elsewhere. For example, HDRIs tend to produce unacceptable levels of noise when an Adaptive amount of 1 .0 is used. Therefore, when using HDRIs, it’s a good idea to set this value back to its default value of 0.85. Except for HDRIs, this value shouldn’t have to be changed from 1.0. Values less than 1.0 wil l simply cause long render times unnecessari ly.

Keep all the other settings at their default values. We wil l cover these in detail later. Let’s take a look at a few of the camera settings, which are designed to simulate real-world camera features.

There are three main ingredients to fi lm exposure, both in the real world and with the VRayPhysi-calCamera . These are shutter speed , fi lm speed , and f-stop (called f-number in VRay). These three settings can be changed in endless combinations to produce the same exposure. You can offset a change in one of the settings by changing one of the other two settings and get the exact same fi lm expo-sure.

The first ingredient to a fi lm’s exposure, film speed , controls the sensitivity of the fi lm to l ight. Lower values mean the fi lm develops slower, which causes the image (or rendering) to appear darker. The default value is 100, which is a good starting point in any 3D renderer. The fol lowing i l lustration depicts standard fi lm speeds. If we double the fi lm’s speed, the fi lm wil l expose twice as fast.

15.Render the camera view. The image is darker than it should be so let’s make it brighter (or more exposed), as shown in the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration.

16.Set the fi lm speed to 200 and render the camera view again. The image is now twice as bright, as shown in the right image.

8-6 L i g h t i n g

The second ingredient, shutter speed , is simply the length of time that the shutter is opened and light is al lowed to expose the fi lm. The slower the shutter speed, the more exposed the fi lm (or ren-dering) wil l be. Additionally, slower shutter speeds also allow for greater motion blur. The default value in V-Ray is 200, which simply means that the shutter wil l be open for 1/200th of a second. This is the most common shutter speed on a generic consumer camera where the value is not displayed and it is a good starting point in any 3D renderer that uses this setting.

The fol lowing i l lustration displays the standard shutter speeds on a typical professional camera. By decreasing the shutter speed from 200 to 100, we double the amount of time that the shutter stays open from 1/200th of a second to 1/100th of a second. Since this doubles the amount of time the l ight is al lowed to expose the fi lm, the fi lm (or rendering) wil l appear twice as bright.

17.Change the shutter speed to 100 and render the camera view. The image is again twice as bright as before. It is too bright now, but we’l l f ix this shortly.

Before the third ingredient to exposure is explained, a brief discussion of focal length is neces-sary. Focal length specif ies the distance from the surface of a lens to its focal point, or the point at which l ight is focused on the fi lm. It plays a major role if you are using a depth-of-field effect, as it controls the range (within a scene) in which objects would have to be positioned in order to be in focus. Lower values increase the spread, from the focus distance , in which objects can be in focus, and higher values, decrease that range. Lower values also correspond to wide-angle lenses, and are generally those values less than 35mm. Higher values correspond to telescopic lenses, and are gen-erally those values of 100mm or greater. As a side note, it can also be stated that with one eye open, humans see approximately the same field-of-view as is seen through a 50mm lens.

F-stop (or f-number) is a term to describe the relationship between focal length and aperture size, but it’s purpose is to provide an easy way to display the area where l ight is al lowed to pass through the lens and expose the fi lm. Rather than displaying this relationship in some complicated and hard to understand fractional value, the f-stop allows us to display the relationship in one easy to understand number.

8-7L i g h t i n g

In the next i l lustration, you can see the standard f-stops found on a typical professional camera. By “stepping down” the f-stop from one value to a lower value, you double the area where l ight is al lowed to pass through, and therefore, double the amount of exposure on the fi lm. The default value in V-Ray is 8, which is also the typical default f-stop found on a generic consumer camera where the value is not displayed. This is a good starting point, but we wil l change it here to offset the change we just made to the shutter speed value.

18.Change the f-number to 11 and render again. This change cuts the exposure in half and returns the total amount of exposure to what it was before we changed the shutter speed.

In the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see how various combinations of shutter speed and f-stop can produce the exact same amount of exposure.

Let’s look at one more setting in the VRayPhysicalCamera at this point. Custom balance al lows a special type of modification to the image, whereby the selected color wil l appear as white in the ren-dering. This parameter effectively sets the color or l ighting hue that we want to eliminate in the rendering and replace it with no color (or white). White balance does effectively the same thing, except in a preset fashion.

19.Set the White balance to Daylight and render again. Notice the subtle changes in exposure. Experiment with different custom colors if you want to see the effects you can achieve.

At this point, we need to choose the type of Color mapping we want to use. Color mapping is V-Ray’s version of exposure control, and is crit ical to any rendering. Although there are seven differ-ent options for color mapping, we recommend using one of 3 different options; Exponential , HSV exponential , or Reinhard . Let’s look at each briefly.

The Exponential option wil l saturate pixels, i .e. add color, based on their intensity. What this means is that pixels that are really intense, or bright white, wil l be given more color, thereby replacing the white with color, and pixels that are less intense wil l be given less color. The end result of this is that brighter areas in the scene wil l not appear so bright and darker areas wil l not appear so dark.

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The HSV exponential option is a minor variation of exponential . HSV stands for hue, saturation and value, and this type of color mapping preserves the hue and saturation of a pixel and only al lows the value to be altered. The result of this color mapping is similar to exponential except HSV expo-nential wil l provide a more vibrant display of colors and keep materials from being washed out so easily.

The final color mapping mentioned is Reinhard . This is a great option to use because it provides a mixture of l inear and exponential color mapping. Linear color mapping usually al lows too many sur-faces to be overexposed while exponential often provides too much change in hue and saturation. The mixture of these two color mapping types is controlled by the Burn value. When Burn is set to 1.0, the result is purely l inear color mapping and when Burn is set to 0.0, the result is an exponential-l ike color mapping. A good place to start color mapping in any scene is with Reinhard and a Burn value of 0.5. This provides a 50/50 blend of Linear and Exponential and the result is usually a great place to start testing the l ighting in a scene. Just l ike so many other areas of V-Ray, you really need to test different color mapping types and different settings within the various types. So in the case of Rein-hard, if you render a scene and determine that there’s just too many areas of overly bright highlights, al l you need to do is reduce your Burn value and bring it closer to Exponential color mapping.

With the first four color mapping types available in the drop-down menu, you are give the capa-bil ity of increasing or decreasing the i l lumination of dark areas of your image separately from bright areas. Raising the Bright multiplier increases i l lumination in already bright areas of your scene and decreasing the bright multipl ier decreases i l lumination. The Dark multiplier works the same way. Therefore, raising the dark multipl ier increases i l lumination in already dark areas of your scene and decreasing the dark multipl ier decreases i l lumination.

In the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see the result of using the default Linear color mapping along with the three other viable options available.

20. In the Color mapping rol lout, set Type to Reinhard .

21.Render the camera view.

From this rendering we can see that some textures are burned out and overexposed. This is because Reinhard with a Burn value of 1 .0 is exactly the same thing as Linear , which tends to be over-exposed in exterior renderings with a bright l ight source such as the sun. By reducing the Burn value, we make the exposure less l inear and more exponential , thereby removing the tendency for parts of the image to be burned out.

22.Set the Burn value to 0.5 and render again. The result should look similar to the 2nd image from the right in the fol lowing i l lustration.

8-9L i g h t i n g

This adjustment helps us fix overexposed areas of the ground’s surface; however, it also reduces the brightness of objects that we would prefer to keep bright. For example, the stone staircase looked much better when it was slightly overexposed. However, it is better to keep the rendering neutral and then add brightness to selective areas later during post-production. It is also easier to add brightness to the image instead of reducing it .

In the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see the final rendering with Displacement re-enabled, Hair and Fur re-enabled, render quality settings increased, and with post-production processes applied. We did the post-production with Adobe Photoshop after using the Render Elements to create multiple layers from the same rendering. Render Elements can be found in the Render Setup dialog box under the Render Elements tab. We used the VRayLighting render element to add more sunlight to some objects, the VRaySpecular render element to add specular highlights to some objects, and the VRayZDepth render element to simulate depth of field. These processes wil l be discussed later in this and the next chapter.

23.Save your scene. If you would l ike to see the final test render version of this fi le, open Ch08-02-test.max . I f you would l ike to see the final production version with Displacement enabled, Hair and Fur enabled, and with final production render settings applied, open Ch08-02-production.max .

8- 10 L i g h t i n g

NighttimeLightingNighttime lighting is more diff icult to recreate than daytime lighting, both technically and creatively. From a technical standpoint, it is more diff icult to reduce noise in a nighttime rendering because noise always appears most noticeably in areas of lower i l lumination. Therefore, you wil l almost always need to use higher quality settings to achieve the same noise free image that you would produce with daytime lighting. From a creative standpoint, there are usually so many more real world l ighting characteristics to deal with, such as attenuation, ambient shadows, l ight colors, and the expectation to see more sophisticated elements such as volume lights and fog.

To simulate daytime light, it was enough to simply place a VRaySun and VRaySky as our l ight sources, but for nighttime lighting we need to be more creative. So it is very important to imagine what the final picture should look l ike first and then think about ways to get there. We had a specif ic picture in mind. It’s a cool, crisp night with plenty of moonlight, rich with high contrasting areas of brightly l it surfaces adjacent to dark surfaces. The owner of the house is sti l l up so all the interior l ights are turned on. There are no completely dark areas of the image and we have good visibi l ity for al l the textures. The house is l it from behind by white moonlight and from inside by bright orange tinted l ights. In this exercise, we wil l explain how to set up l ights, how to do the rendering, and how to post-process the rendering.

As an example of how low quality render settings can adversely affect a nighttime rendering well beyond the affect of similar settings applied to a daytime scene, look at the fol lowing i l lustration. Both images were rendered with the ubiquitous Irradiance map/Light Cache combination. In the left image, Light Cache Subdivs is set to 100, and in the right image it is set to 1500. The left image shows incor-rect secondary bounce light distribution, as the walls and ivy leaves appear self-i l luminated and have visible splotches. Due to a low number of Light Cache subdivs, the l ight from the window is distrib-uted incorrectly. These artifacts wil l become even more noticeable during post processing.

Rendering with high quality GI settings would take a long time to calculate in a scene like ours with a high Hair Count value for the Hair and Fur modifier, so in this scene we decided to reduce ren-der time by breaking down the rendering process into a few separate steps:

• Step 1: Render with only skylight

• Step 2: Render with only moonlight

8- 1 1L i g h t i n g

• Step 3: Render with only attenuated l ights to create l imited l ight effects in specif ic areas such as windows

• Step 4: Add volumetric effects to a few of the attenuated l ights

This separation of steps wil l al low us to render a scene with a large number of polygons on a computer with l imited resources without sacrif icing render quality. This approach wil l also give us more flexibi l ity at the post-production stage.

We wil l demonstrate this approach in the exercise that fol lows.

Exercise 2: Nighttime lighting

1.Open the fi le Ch08-03.max .

In this scene, only the necessary objects are present and we have disabled the Hair and Fur modifier as well as Displacement. If you have fast computer or don’t mind longer render times, you can turn these features back on if you l ike.

To create a skylight, we wil l use an HDRI within the Environment Map channel in conjunction with a special type of V-Ray l ight called, quite ordinari ly, the VRayLight .

2.Open the Material Editor and place a VRayHDRI map into any free sample slot. You can do this easily through the Material/Map Browser , which is accessed through the Get Material icon under the sample slots.

3.Put sky0038.hdr in the HDR map slot, and rename this map HDRI Sky . This nighttime image, from the Evermotion HDRI map collection, contains a very dark sky and a bright l ight at the horizon. Drag the HDRI Sky map onto the map slot in the GI Environment (skylight) override rol lout of the VRay:: Environment rol lout. Make it an Instance .

4. In the Parameters rol lout of the HDRI Sky map , set Map type to Spherical environment . This image is spherical and needs to uti l ize this option so that it wraps around the scene properly.

5.Render the image. This image is much too dark, so we’l l need to increase the brightness of the map we just loaded.

6. In the Parameters rol lout of HDRI Sky map, set Render mult to 3.0 . This wil l increase the brightness of this map threefold.

8- 12 L i g h t i n g

In order to make the l ight emitted by the HDRI sky map a richer blue, we’l l apply a Color Correction map to it .

7. For the HDRI Sky map, click the Material Type button and select Color Correction from the Material/Map Browser dialog box. On the Replace Map dialog box, select the Keep old map as sub-map option, and click OK .

8. For the Color Correction map, set Hue Shift to 7.0 and Saturation to 50.0 . Rename this map to GI Environment. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

This adds saturation to the sky, which is important for maintaining the stylized, somewhat car-toonish, look of this composition.

8- 13L i g h t i n g

Now let’s create the environment reflection map.

9.Copy the HDRI sky map into any empty sample slot, and rename the map Reflect Environment .

10.Drag and drop the Reflect Environment map from the Material Editor as an instance into the Reflection/refraction environment override channel, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

As mentioned earl ier, we should avoid placing sunlight directly in front of or directly behind the camera. Likewise, for a nighttime scene with an HDRI, it is best to orient the HDRI so that the l ight source is in neither of these positions. For the best HDRI image appearance, we need to rotate the HDRI so that the brightest areas wil l be at the right side of the camera view.

11.Select and isolate the Ground object with the shortcut Alt+Q .

12.Create a Sphere of any size on the ground in front of the camera. We wil l use this to orient our HDRI maps appropriately.

13.Create a new VRayMtl with 100% reflection and apply it to the sphere.

14.Within the Reflect Environment map, adjust the Horiz. rotation value so that the l ight source within the HDRI image appears on the right side of the sphere when rendered. By gradually chang-ing this parameter and doing test renders each time, we can orient the map properly. In this case, a value of 100 works well , as shown in the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration.

15.Set Horiz. rotation value to 100 .

You can use a useful uti l ity called VRayHDRItool that al lows you to manipulate the HDRI map and see changes. This uti l ity is free from http://www.tepavicharov.com/scripts.html.

16.Within the GI Environment map, set Horiz. rotation to 100.0 as well .

17.Delete the Sphere object, as it is no longer needed, and Exit Isolation Mode .

8- 14 L i g h t i n g

18.Render the camera view. The results should look similar to the left image of the fol lowing i l lus-tration. With HDRIs applied to the Environment channel, you wil l need to use higher quality GI settings to prevent the onset of erratic shading. Notice the bright spots in the left image (cur-rent rendering). When you are ready to render the final image, you should use a High preset for the Irradiance map and 1000 or more Subdivs for the Light cache , as shown in the right image.

Now, we wil l add more depth and interest to this scene by adding additional l ight sources.

19.Add two large VRayLight l ight objects (Create ➤ Lights ➤ VRay) , using the Plane option, so that they l ight al l the objects from behind, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration. While this particu-lar type of l ight is most widely used as a fi l l l ight for interior scenes, it can also perform the role of fi l l l ight for exterior nighttime scenes such as this.

8- 15L i g h t i n g

These two lights need to highlight objects so that l ight just touches the objects’ edges. This effect wil l add volume to the rendering and improve its overall look. You might want to spend some time and try different brightness, color, size and position parameters to see which combination deliv-ers the best results. If you prefer, you can simply merge the l ights from the Ch08-04.max scene.

20. I f it’s not already done, go to the Modify panel and for each of these lights set Color to blue , approximately RGB(80,125,255) , and Multiplier to 20 or 30 .

21.Rename one light Backlight01 and the other Backlight02 .

22.Select Backlight01 and in the Modify panel click Exclude to open the Exclude/Include dialog. Choose the Include option. Include only the objects you want to be i l luminated — see our sug-gested l ist in the fol lowing i l lustration. Repeat the same procedure for Backlight02 .

23. In the Parameters rol lout turn on the Invisible and No Decay options, and turn off Affect Specular and Affect Reflections . Set Subdivs to 20 .

24.Open the Render Setup dialog box. In the Common panel, set the output fi le name to GI_Environ-ment and the fi le format to PNG . For this fi le type, choose 48 Bit with Alpha Channel . In the Render Elements panel, add the VRay_Lighting element with the output fi lename set to Backlight.png .

This wil l cause our rendering to be saved into a PNG fi le with the name GI_Environment.png . We wil l also have another fi le saved with the VRay_Lighting render element in the fi le named Backlight.png . This wil l give us the abil ity to apply additional corrections later in the post-production stage. Note that you must save the image with an Alpha Channel in order to preserve the transparency of unlit areas and layer the renderings in Photoshop later on.

For maximum flexibi l ity, you can save results into Open EXR (*.exr) or HDR (*.hdr) formats. These two formats have a wide dynamic range, or variation in l ighting information stored within the images. In our case, however, a 16 bit per channel PNG format wil l be enough, as this wil l al low us to freely adjust color and brightness without having banding problems (obvious gradations between adjacent colors in the rendering). If you want even more flexibi l ity at the post-production stage, we also rec-ommend that you try other Render elements such as VRay_Reflect , VRay_Specular , and VRay_Refract .

25.Save your scene. You can also open the fi le Ch08-04.max to compare your results.

26.Render the camera view.

27.Open both fi les in Photoshop and copy the Backlight.png image into GI_Environment.png as the second layer. Rename the layers GI_Environment and Backlight , as shown in the fol lowing i l lus-tration. You can add a solid dark layer as a background for now. Name it Back Sky .

8- 16 L i g h t i n g

28. For the Backlight layer set Blend Mode to Screen and adjust Curves and Levels unti l you are satis-fied with the result .

In the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see the GI_Environment and Backlight layers and the result of both layers combined together with the Curves and Levels corrections applied.

29.Save the fi le as Night_Scene.psd .

Step 1 of the l ight creation is now complete. This is the most important step because all other l ighting wil l be based on this primary skylight.

8- 17L i g h t i n g

For Step 2, we wil l create moonlight.

30.Return to 3ds Max using your previously saved scene or using the fi le Ch08-04.max .

31.Create a Target Direct l ight to serve as the moon in your scene and position it in front of the camera and slightly to one side. Rename this l ight Moon .

32. For the l ight, set the Multiplier to 0.5 and its color to blue or white . In the Directional Parameters rol lout set Hotspot/Beam to 2100 . Set the shadow type to VRayShadows . Al l standard l ights that incorporate shadows must use either VRayShadows or the VRayShadowMap .

33. In the VRayShadows params rol lout, turn on Area shadow . Set U size, V size and W size to 10.0 , and set Subdivs to 15 .

34.Open the Render Setup dialog box. In the Indirect illumination tab, turn off the On option to turn off GI .

35. In the V-Ray tab, go to the V-Ray:: Environment rollout and turn off GI Environment (skylight) override and Reflection/refraction environment override .

36.Make sure that the color swatch in the Environment Map channel of the Environment and Effects dialog box is set to pure black , so that no skylight is created through this channel.

This wil l al low you to perform a quick render with only l ight from the moon.

37. In the Common tab of the Render Setup dialog box, set Render Output to Moon.jpg (maximum quality).

38. In the Render Elements tab, add VRay_Specular with the output name Moon_Specular.jpg . Remove all other Render elements from the l ist. We are saving the output to JPG format since the ele-ment/layer does not require complicated modifications in post production and so that we could also save hard drive space.

39.Save your scene. You can open the fi le Ch08-05.max to compare your results.

40.Turn off BackLight01 & BackLight02 and render the camera view.

41. In Photoshop , open Moon.jpg and Moon_Specular.jpg . Copy these images into Night_Scene.psd as new layers.

8- 18 L i g h t i n g

42.Rename layers to Moon and Moon specular accordingly, place them at the top of the layers l ist and change their blending mode to Screen . Correct layers using Curves , Levels and Color Balance .

43.Save the fi le as Night_Scene.psd .

For Step 3, we’l l create a few attentuated l ights in the scene to enhance a few of the scene details. We usually use this technique for interior scenes, but here we can use it to simulate l ight from firefl ies and l ight coming out through the house windows.

First, we’l l need to turn off al l other l ights in the scene and re-enable the GI calculation.

44.Return to 3ds Max using your previously saved scene or using the fi le Ch08-05.max .

45.Turn off the Moon , Backlight01 and Backlight02 l ights.

46. In the Indirect illumination tab of the Render Setup dialog box, enable GI again. Note that you wil l leave the GI Environment (skylight) override and Reflection/refraction environment override in the V-Ray:: Environment rol lout turned off.

Next, we wil l create the attenuated l ights with l imited range created specif ical ly for certain effects. Some of these lights wil l simulate man-made light sources from inside the house and on the pier, while others wil l simulate firefl ies buzzing around near the ivy. The effects of these lights wil l be subtle, as they are not intended to i l luminate the entire scene. Make sure BackLight01 , BackLight02 , and Moon are turned off.

47.Create five Omni l ights and position them inside the house just behind the window and door openings. We wil l change their settings in a moment.

48.Name the l ights as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration. The l ight coming from the door is named Spot From Door because it wil l eventually be turned into a Spot l ight. If you prefer, you can sim-ply merge all the Omni and Spot l ights from Ch08-06.max .

8- 19L i g h t i n g

Naming objects intel l igently, including l ights, is an important part of keeping the scene organized. In this case, it is crit ical to name the l ights as shown so you can fol low the steps in this exercise.

49.Go to the Modify panel, and for each Omni l ight, set the shadow type to VRayShadow (General Parameters rol lout).

50. For each Omni l ight, in the Intensity/Color/Attenuation rol lout, set the Multiplier to a value between 2 and 5 , different for each l ight. For each one, set the color swatch to pink , RGB (255,175,175) , and make sure they are turned on.

Next, you wil l set up attenuation for the Omni l ights. Attenuation wil l be used here to simulate the effect of l ight shining out of a window or doorway on a dark night. In real l i fe, such l ights shine only so far before the l ight dims down to zero. Attenuation creates this effect in renderings.

51. In the Far Attenuation section, turn on the Use option and set End to 450 . To see the attenuation area in viewports, turn on the Show option.

Most of the l ights shine out of windows, where the l ight would never reach the ground. But the l ight near the door, Spot From Door , needs to shine some light directly on the ground. For this reason, we wil l change it to a Spot l ight.

52.Select Spot From Door and change its Light Type to Spot. In the Intensity/Color/Attenuation rol lout, set its Multiplier to 2.0 , and angle the l ight so it points onto the ground outside the door. In the Far Attenuation section, set End to 1200 . Set the Area Shadows size to 10 and Subdivs to 16 . Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

The interior of the room through the closest window needs to be visible, so we wil l l ight it .

8-20 L i g h t i n g

53.Create a VRayLight with the Spherical option and position this l ight inside the house to i l luminate the part of the house seen through the closest window (or merge VrayLight Room from Ch08-06.max) .

54.Set its Radius to 60 and its Multiplier to 41.0 , and rename the l ight to VRayLight Room .

55.Place an Omni l ight near the pier. Use the same values for Color and Multiplier as you used for other Omni l ights from this exercise. In the Far Attenuation section, set End to 850 .

This wil l create a feeling that there is a lantern on the pier that is creating additional i l lumination. In order to add more l ights to the scene, let’s simulate small l ights from firefl ies.

56.Create an Omni l ight and position it near the ivy plant. Set the color swatch to l ime green (RGB: 220,250,125) , set the Multiplier to 8.0 , and in the Far Attenuation group set Start to 1 .68 and End to 37.0 . Rename this l ight Omni Firefly . Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

57.Create a few more copies of Omni Firefly with the Instance option, and position them near the ivy and in the grass to simulate more firefl ies. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

8-2 1L i g h t i n g

58.Set the output fi le to Il lumination.png (48 bit) . Remove all elements from the Render Elements tab.

59.Save your fi le. You can open Ch08-06.max to compare your results.

60.Render the camera view.

The resulting rendering should look similar to the fol lowing i l lustration, showing only the attenu-ated l ights.

All that is left to do now is to add this rendering as an additional layer in Photoshop.

61.Open Night_Scene.psd in Photoshop and add Il lumination.png as the top layer. Rename this layer Il lumination .

62. For this new layer change Blend Mode to Screen , and use the Curves , Level and Color Balance tools to adjust the layer unti l you are satisfied with the result .

There are many more adjustments you can make to these layers to make different effects. To increase the brightness of the attentuated l ights, you can duplicate the Il lumination layer. You can also apply a Blur effect to the duplicated layer to add a soft glow to each l ight. You can also make the l ight from some windows brighter or change the l ight colors.

8-22 L i g h t i n g

In the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see the before and after results of our adjustments to the rendering.

63.Save fi le as Night_Scene.psd .

I t is important to remember that every time you conduct a render, the rendering wil l fal l into one of two categories: a test render or a production render. If you are not producing the final rendered image, then you are undoubtedly performing a test render to test something. Whenever you conduct test renders, you should always strive to configure your 3ds Max and your rendering program to render as quickly as possible while sti l l providing the minimum level of quality needed to see what it is you’re testing. Throughout this chapter, we have rendered with good test render settings. If at any point you were satisfied with a test rendering and wanted to produce the final rendered image (or a layer of the final image), then we recommend switching to production settings. The fol lowing is a small but effective l ist of the most crit ical quality settings that we recommend you use for production renders:

• Image sampling = Adaptive subdivision, Min/Max = 2/5, Clr thresh = 0.005

• Irradiance map = High preset

• Light cache = Subdivs = 1500, Use Light cache for glossy rays

• Adaptive Amount = 1 .0

• Noise thresh = 0.01

8-23L i g h t i n g

For Step 4 we wil l create a volumetric effect on the most prominent artif icial l ights, the l ight behind the closest window and the l ight shining out the door. Setting up volumetric l ights is a rela-tively quick process. For this we don’t need all objects in the scene, just the ones that wil l be affected by the volumetric l ight.

64.Open Ch08-07.max .

This scene has all the objects required for the volumetric l ight effect: l ights, house, ivy plant, door, ground, camera, and a few other objects. To create the volumetric l ight effect, we do not need Global Illumination or Reflections , so you can disable these functions.

65.Open the Render Setup window, and under the V-Ray tab in the V-Ray:: Environment rol lout, turn off the GI Environment (skylight) override and Reflection/refraction environment override options.

66. In the Indirect illumination panel of the Render Setup window, turn off the On checkbox to deacti-vate the GI calculation.

With these settings, when we render we wil l see only the volumetric l ight effect. Now, we wil l set up the two volumetric l ights.

67.Select the Spot From Door l ight and change its shadow type from VRayShadow to Shadow Map . VRayShadows is not currently compatible with Volume Lights.

68.Open the Environment and Effects dialog box (shortcut=8) and in the Atmosphere rol lout, cl ick Add and select Volume Light from the Add Atmospheric Effect dialog to add it to the Effects l ist.

69. In the Volume Light Parameters rol lout, cl ick the Pick Light button and pick Spot From Door l ight from the scene. Set the parameters as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

70.Select the Omni Room l ight in the scene, and change its shadow type to Shadow Map.

71. In the Environment and Effects window add another Volume Light to the Effects l ist, cl ick Pick Light and pick Omni Room in the scene. Use the same settings you used for the Spot From Door vol-ume light, but set Start = 100 and End = 150 in the Attenuation section. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

8-24 L i g h t i n g

72.Do a test rendering. In this rendering we see one area that needs to be corrected. See the fol lowing i l lustration.

The problem with this area is that that the house interior seen through the window is l ight when it should be black. We wil l f ix this by placing a Plane in the room to l imit the volumetric l ight effect.

73.Create a Plane object and position it inside the house as close to window as possible, but behind the Omni Room l ight.

74.Open the Object Properties dialog for the Plane , and disable the Apply Atmospherics option.

As a result, the Plane object is visible to the camera, but the volumetric l ight effect is not affect-ing it .

75.Render the image again. The area around the same window should look similar to the fol lowing i l lustration.

8-25L i g h t i n g

76.Save the rendered image as Volume_Light.jpg .

77.Save your fi le. You can open the fi le Ch08-08.max to compare your results.

78. In Photoshop , open Volume_Light.jpg and copy it into Night_Scene.psd as a new layer. Change the new layer’s name to Volume Light and move it to the top of the layers l ist. Set its Blend Mode to Screen with Opacity = 73%

The final structure of the layers in Night_Scene.psd should be similar to the fol lowing i l lustration.

8-26 L i g h t i n g

The final image should look l ike the fol lowing i l lustration.

The advantage of rendering several layers is that each layer can be adjusted separately, al lowing very precise control of the final image’s look. The image looks clean and error-free even with low render settings. A very important point that can be taken from this is that when you build more detail into your scene, whether structural ly or through materials, you do not need to use such high quality render settings — especial ly GI. If you look close enough at the final rendering, you can probably notice erratic or incorrect l ighting; however, there is so much going on and so many colors bouncing around that you could never notice them if you weren’t famil iar with the production process.

This method might also be the only solution for rendering large and complex scenes such as this one. The only drawbacks are that you need to spend extra time setting up the l ighting over sev-eral stages, and also that you end up with multiple rendered layers that you need to keep organized for compositing.

8-27L i g h t i n g

SummaryLighting in any 3D application is as much of an art as it is a science, and most would argue that the importance of good artistic skil ls outweighs the importance of good technical skil ls. Learning the technical side of a l ighting program like V-Ray requires nothing more than good instruction and focus on the part of the student. Unfortunately, learning the artistic side of good 3D lighting is much more diff icult and takes far longer, regardless of the quality of instruction or focus of the student. We could only scratch the surface on what’s possible with 3D lighting, but hopeful ly, this chapter provided you with a l itt le bit of inspiration to try to improve on the different aspects of l ighting. In the final chapter of this book, we wil l build on some of the techniques discussed in this chapter and really get into some advanced concepts for producing the final product.

1

Rendering

For the Final chapter oF this book , we wil l cover rendering and post production in more detail . These two processes depend a great deal on one another, and it is important to understand how they work together.

Rather than spending enormous amounts of time doing multiple test renders and trying to achieve the look you want in 3ds Max with countless adjustments and tweaks, it is far easier to make fine adjustments in post production, and you’re more l ikely to get exactly the results you want. You saw some examples of this in chapter 8, where we made fine adjustments to the rendering in Photo-shop to enhance the l ighting. It is much faster and more effective to use Curves, Color Balance, Levels and other tools in Photoshop, After Effects, or whatever post-production software you use, than to try and make it work exactly right within 3ds Max. You can also facil itate the post-production process by rendering masks in 3ds Max when needed.

Figure 9-1. The finished rendering

ChapteR 9

9-2 R e n d e r i n g

Certain material properties lend themselves to post production adjustment. Two examples are reflection and refraction. You can use Render Elements to render out separate layers for reflection and refraction, and then adjust these layers independently to get the look you want.

Motion blur , depth-of-field , and lens effects can be added in 3ds Max, however you can also add these same effects with a video editing program like After Effects in a fraction of the time. The result wil l be the same, but the time required to produce these effects wil l be much less.

For effective realism, it is important to add atmospheric and lens effects, color tonality, satura-tion, and contrast, al l of which occur natural ly in a real-l i fe photo or video. Achieving such effects is very hard and sometimes even impossible without post production.

Another example is a glow effect . Glows are both an atmospheric effect and a lens effect at the same time. A glow might be emitted by a self-i l luminated object (lamp, sun) or a bright surface that bounces light, for example a large white wall or smooth stone steps l it by bright sunlight. Such an effect is very hard to achieve properly in a rendering without a lot of careful work or additional plug-ins, but in post production this is a very easy task.

Glows can also be caused by reflections. The sun or another bright l ight source can reflect off the surface of leaves, water, glass, or other objects. In a rendering, distribution of the highlight over a reflective surface can be controlled by material properties, and the specular element can be ren-dered out separately. Then any atmospheric glows caused by the highlight can be closely controlled in post production by tweaking the strength of the specular layer only.

To create the effect of caustics , it’s better to generate the effect in a separate scene using only objects that participate in the caustics effect. Then the caustics can be added to the image as a separate layer during the post-production stage.

In some part of the scene, you’l l have textures that are too sharp or not sharp enough, or the color of the l ight won’t match the time of day, or some geometry won’t look perfect. You can com-pensate for al l these things with photographic and fi lm effects in post production. For example, an object in the foreground can have relatively low detail when the object is blurred by depth of field or motion blur effects.

If you try to produce the final product completely in 3ds Max, achieving realism can be diff icult . There are times when you’l l absolutely need to add or perfect your motion blur, depth of field, and volume light effects directly in 3ds Max, but these cases are the exception rather than the rule.

An intel l igent post production process is especial ly important in animation projects. In order for V-Ray to make the highest quality animations with moving objects, the Brute Force method needs to be used, but this method is very time-consuming. Since any animated scene contains a number of sti l l objects too, you can save time by rendering these static objects separately with the Irradiance map and Light cache engines and then render just the animated objects with Brute force. Then you can combine everything in a final rendering pass.

With all these options, an image rendered in 3ds Max is just a starting point for the final image. It’s very rare that a rendering straight from 3ds Max won’t benefit from post production.

The Post Production section of this chapter uses the ReelSmart Motion Blur plug-in for Adobe After Effects from RE:Vision Effects . A trial version of the ReelSmart plug-in can be downloaded at http://www.revisionfx.com.

9-3R e n d e r i n g

RenderingIn this section, we wil l go over rendering settings and render elements.

Exercise 1: Render settings

1.Open the fi le Ch09-01.max from the supporting fi les.

NOTE: Due to the size and complexity of this scene, we have globally disabled the Hair and Fur feature found in the Environment and Effects dialog box, as well as the Displacement feature found in the Global Switches rol lout of the Render Setup dialog box. These two features wil l dramatically impact ren-der times and RAM consumed. If at any time you want to enable these features, we suggest doing so careful ly. After globally turning these features on, you may find it helpful to turn them off on individual objects as necessary.

This scene was adapted for rendering on a computer with 8GB of RAM. Besides disabling these two important features, we have also reduced the Hair Count parameter signif icantly so that when the Hair and Fur feature is used, it can be handled by less powerful machines. On some objects, we have also disabled the VRayDisplacementMod modifier in the Modifier Stack and added a Displace modifier to replace it, using the same bitmap in the Bitmap slot. You can switch back to the original modifier at any time if you l ike.

In order to handle this scene efficiently, we wil l divide the objects into five areas.

• Main objects (house, creek, trees, grass, garden, etc.)

• Foreground objects

• Waterfall

• Background

• Masks

The scene contains three layers: Middle , Waterfall , and Grass Front . The Grass Front layer is cur-rently hidden. The Waterfall layer contains the VRayProxy_waterfall and VRayProxy_spray objects, which are invisible to the camera. The Middle layer contains all the main objects to be rendered.

Let’s start with the render setup. Note: if you do not want to cover the setup and explanation of the V-Ray render settings used in this chapter, you can skip Exercise 1 and continue with Exercise 2, which deals with the setup of Render Elements .

2.Open the Render Setup dialog box, and on the Common tab, set the Width to 2000 . You can use an even lower resolution if you feel that your workstation is not powerful enough to handle this resolution.

The value for the Image Aspect needs to be set in such a way that al l important objects appear within the frame. Through experimentation we found that an Image Aspect of 1 .805 works best.

3.Set the Image Aspect to 1 .805 and lock it .

9-4 R e n d e r i n g

4.Go to the V-Ray tab. In the V-Ray:: Image sampler (Antialiasing) rol lout, set Type to Adaptive DMC , as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

This type of image sampler is the most commonly used for production renders (not test ren-ders), and is recommended for scenes with high levels of detail (structural ly and textural ly), and for renderings with depth-of-field, motion blur, and glossy reflections. Image sampling is controlled with settings in the Adaptive DMC image sampler rol lout under the V-Ray tab, and in the DMC sampler rol lout under the Settings tab.

5.Disable the Antialiasing filter by turning off the On checkbox in the Antialiasing filter group.

The antial iasing fi lter smoothes, or blurs, the edges between pixels and gets rid of jagged edges, but it can also cause noise and other artifacts in a rendered animation. Using this fi lter greatly increases rendering time, and most of the time you won’t need it . An example of when you might need it is for a product shot for a magazine advertisement, or for renderings with a resolution under 2000 pixels. Antial iasing can add photorealism, but in this case we don’t need it, and we want to save render time.

To compensate for the absence of the antial iasing fi lter, you can use any number of tools during post production. For example, in Photoshop you can use various Sharpen fi lters to achieve a result identical to using the antial iasing fi lter for rendering. You wil l see how this works in the Post Produc-tion section of this chapter.

6. In the V-Ray:: Adaptive DMC image sampler rol lout, set the parameters as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

The Adaptive DMC image sampler calculates the difference in color between adjacent pixels using a variable number of samples. Based on this information, it creates the image.

The Min subdivs and Max subdivs values determine the minimum and maximum number of sam-ples per pixel. Values greater than 1 are rarely used for Min subdivs unless the image has thin l ines or very small objects. The Max subdivs value, in effect, controls the level of detail seen in objects and textures. Good levels of detail can be achieved by increasing the Max subdivs value, as we did here.

Lower values for Max subdivs wil l decrease the render time, but can add noise and artifacts to thin l ines and object edges. Remember that in a rendering of an animation, sharpness of object edges is often not required.

7.Go to the V-Ray:: Color mapping rol lout. Set Type to Reinhard , and set the Burn value to 0.55 .

9-5R e n d e r i n g

In chapter 8, we explained why we chose this type of color mapping and how we chose the Burn value.

8.Turn on the Sub-pixel mapping and Clamp output options.

The Clamp output option cuts off the higher end of the color spectrum in the image, al lowing you to get correct antial iasing along the highlighted edges of bright objects. If you keep Clamp output turned off, you might get very sharp edges that create an i l lusion of bad antial iasing even when antial iasing settings are high. Using Sub-pixel mapping and Clamp output together wil l help avoid these problems.

9.Go to the Settings tab of the Render Setup window. Go to the V-Ray:: DMC Sampler rol lout and set the parameters as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

The settings in the V-Ray:: DMC Sampler rol lout control al l blurry effects, such as glossy/blurry reflections and refractions, GI, motion blur, area shadows, effects, etc.

The Adaptive amount parameter, ranging from 0 to 1, controls the quality of the blurring effects. The closer the value is to 0, the higher the quality of the blurring effects, but the longer the scene wil l take to render. Conversely, a value of 1 takes less time to render, but wil l l ikely introduce noise to the rendering and the overall quality of the image wil l be lower.

The Noise threshold parameter, ranging from 0 to 1, sets automatic detection of when the blurring effects are “good enough.” Lower values tolerate less noise and make a better rendering, but take longer to render. This assumes that enough samples are taken for any given setting in question.

You wil l always want to balance the Adaptive amount and the Noise threshold values to keep render times within reason while sti l l getting a good result . From our experience, we know specif ic combina-tions of Adaptive amount and Noise threshold settings that work well for our projects. In the fol lowing i l lustration you can see the most common combinations that we use for production.

The Min samples value sets the minimal number of pixel samples to use with the blurring algo-rithm. Higher values correspond to a better result with slower render times. The Global subdivs multiplier value can be used to quickly increase or decrease the effects of al l other values in this roll-out. We rarely change these two values in practice.

9-6 R e n d e r i n g

10.Go to the V-Ray tab, and in the V-Ray:: Environment rol lout, enable the On checkbox for GI Environment (skylight) override .

11.Change the color of the GI Environment (skylight) override swatch to (RGB 127,137,214) . Set Multiplier to 2.0 . Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

These parameters provide one of the many ways of implementing skylight in V-Ray and define the color and intensity of the skylight.

12.Enable the On option for Reflection/refraction environment override , set color to (RGB 104,166,235) , and set Multiplier to 3.0 . Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

The Reflection/refraction environment override parameters define the color and intensity of envi-ronment l ight reflected or refracted by the objects in the scene. You can use a bitmap to set the color, but if you do so, you wil l need to use an Output map with it to set the intensity as the Multiplier parameter doesn’t work with bitmaps. This technique was covered in Chapter 8.

Next, we wil l set up Indirect illumination . Indirect i l lumination adds to the realism of the overall scene by simulating real-l i fe l ight behavior. Global i l lumination in any rendering software is nothing more than an approximation of what happens in the real world when light bounces from one surface to another. However, with good settings, the approximation can be highly accurate.

13.Go to the Indirect illumination tab of the Render Setup dialog box and enable the On option.

14.Select Irradiance map as the Primary bounces GI engine.

15.Select Light cache as the Secondary bounces GI engine and set the Multiplier to 0.95 . See the fol lowing i l lustration.

Primary bounces approximates GI bouncing off a point visible by the camera, or off visible reflec-tive or refractive surfaces. Secondary bounces approximates GI bouncing off surfaces not directly visible by the camera.

The GI engines selected here are the ones usually used for architectural visualization. The Irradi-ance map engine calculates the l ighting for various points in the scene and then interpolates the result for the rest. The process is eff icient and reasonably accurate, but some detail can be lost or blurred due to interpolation. In addition, the Irradiance map engine is prone to giving incorrect results for animation.

9-7R e n d e r i n g

The Light cache algorithm traces rays from the camera and calculates the approximate GI in the scene. It is easy to set up and fast to render.

The Multiplier parameter determines how much each type of bounce contributes to the final image’s i l lumination.

Let’s set up the Irradiance map .

16. In the V-Ray:: Irradiance map rol lout, set Current preset to Custom .

17. In the Basic parameters group, set parameters as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

The Irradiance map engine takes samples over several passes, starting with a lower resolution pass and ending with a higher resolution pass. The starting and ending resolutions are determined by the Min rate and Max rate respectively. With each pass, the resolution is doubled unti l it reaches the Max rate. For example, if Min rate = -3 and Max rate = -1, the Irradiance map wil l be calculated in three passes corresponding to -3, -2, and -1.

For each pass, the Irradiance Map engine uses a scaled-down resolution of the final image to represent one irradiance map pixel. For example, if the Irradiance map rate is -3 for the current pass, V-Ray scales the final image down so that 64 pixels of it wil l be represented by 1 irradiance map pixel, and then calculates the i l lumination for that pixel. For a rate of -2, V-Ray scales the image down so 16 image pixels are represented by 1 pixel of the irradiance map. For -1, V-ray scales the image down so that 4 pixels of the image are represented by 1 irradiance map pixel. At a value of 0, V-ray does not scale the original image down; it calculates the irradiance map with a 1: 1 scale ratio. In addi-tion, V-Ray compares the calculated l ight values for each pass, and might calculate additional pixels from each group if there seems to be too much difference between the values.

You should lower the Min rate when you render a higher resolution image. For example, if Min rate = -3 and Max rate = -1 work fine for a rendering at a 800x600 resolution, then for the same ren-dering at 1200x1024, you can use Min rate = -4, Max rate = -1. This is because increasing the resolution of the output image wil l cause the same area of the 3D scene to be represented by more pixels.

The HSph. subdivs (Hemispheric subdivisions) parameter controls the number of rays cast by each virtual hemisphere that sits on top of every irradiance map sample taken. Lower values speed up render time but can produce splotchiness. Higher values produce a much smoother result . In gen-eral, 35 is enough even for interiors, and it is more than enough for exteriors.

The Interp. samples parameter controls the number of GI samples that wil l be used to interpolate indirect i l lumination at any given point. Higher values wil l blur details, but the result wil l look smooth; lower values yield higher detail but can cause splotchiness if the HSph. subdivs parameter is set low.

There is no need to change the Color threshold , Normal threshold and Distance threshold parame-ters. The parameters in the Advanced options group are optional and do not need to be changed.

The Light cache is another engine used to approximate global i l lumination in a scene. It is very similar to photon mapping, but without many of its l imitations. The l ight cache is built by tracing many rays from the camera and bouncing them around. Each bounce stores the i l lumination from the rest of the path into a 3D structure. We wil l discuss this more later.

9-8 R e n d e r i n g

Usually, for production renders the Light cache settings can be left at the default of 1000, espe-cial ly when it’s used for secondary bounces. For our exterior rendering, the Subdivs parameter can even be lowered to 500 . Subdivs represents the square of the number of rays sampled. Therefore, doubling this value wil l cause the Light cache to take four times as long to render.

18. In the Light cache rol lout, change Subdivs to 500.

19.Enable the Show Calc phase option so that we can see the Light Cache as it’s being calcu-lated.

20.Enable the Use light cache for glossy rays option. If this option is on, the l ight cache wil l be used to speed up the calculation of glossy reflections and refractions.

Irradiance map and Light cache solutions can be saved and reused later. Sometimes you wil l need to rerender all or part of the image due to small changes in texture or geometry, for example when you change a texture’s brightness or color. However, when the changes or small enough, you can save time by reusing the previous calculations for primary and secondary bounce.

Large surfaces with displacement can drastical ly slow down GI calculation. To speed up the ren-dering of a scene with large amounts of displacement, a good technique to use is to disable displacement during the GI calculation, and then re-enable it during the rendering of the final image. To do this, within the Global Switches rol lout, disable the Displacement option and enable the Don’t ren-der final image option, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration. Once the GI is calculated and saved, you can turn these options back on. Note, however, that with large displacements, the l ighting of the dis-placed surfaces can look poor, so this technique should be used with caution and only on surfaces with small displacements. We have not incorporated this technique to the exercise, but you can do so to save further time if you l ike.

Regardless of whether you turn off displacement during GI calculation, we recommend that you develop the habit of saving all GI calculation results so you can reuse them anytime you want to.

21.Go to the Indirect Illumination tab and then go to the V-Ray:: Irradiance map rol lout. In the On render end section, turn on Auto save and use the Browse button to choose a path where you want to save the Irradiance map fi le. Use the fi lename Middle.vrmap .

This wil l save the GI solution for the primary bounce calculations at the end of each rendering.

9-9R e n d e r i n g

22.Go to the V-Ray:: Light cache rol lout, and in the On render end group, turn on the Auto save check-box. For the fi lename, use Middle.vrlmap .

Note that for the Irradiance map, the fi le extension is .vrmap , and for the Light cache fi le it is .vrl-map . These extensions wil l be important later.

Be sure to keep the Don’t delete checkbox turned on so that V-Ray wil l keep the GI solution fi le in memory unti l the next render. If you turn off this option, then V-Ray wil l delete the GI solution from memory every time the render ends, and you won’t be able to save it to a fi le. Instead of having V-Ray save the GI solution automatically, you can also save it manually after the calculations are complete.

During the rendering process, the secondary bounces are calculated first, fol lowed by the pri-mary bounces. Then, the primary and secondary bounces are combined as a ful l GI solution, and then the final image is rendered. After the primary and secondary bounce calculations are finished, you can save the GI solution even if V-Ray is sti l l rendering the image. If you cancel the rendering pro-cess, V-Ray holds the GI solution calculation in memory unti l you restart the rendering, load a new 3ds Max fi le, or click the Reset button in the V-Ray:: Irradiance map rol lout. To save the GI solution cal-culation, cl ick Save in the Mode group of the V-Ray:: Irradiance map rol lout.

The availabil ity and size of the GI in memory is indicated by the number of samples and the size of the GI solution shown at the lower right of the Mode group. With experience, you wil l learn to evalu-ate whether the solution is going to be enough for your rendering.

You can save the GI solution in two ways. You can either save each of the Light cache (second-ary bounce) and Irradiance map (primary bounce) fi les, or you can save only the Irradiance map fi le and use that alone. Let’s look at how this could work.

V-Ray calculates the secondary bounces first, and then it calculates the primary bounces. When V-Ray calculates the primary bounces, it incorporates the Light cache solution into the primary bounce solution with the extension .vrmap. For this reason, after the calculations are complete, you can turn off the secondary bounce fi le and just use the primary bounce fi le. However, by leaving the Light cache fi le on, you can take advantage of a great feature found in the Light cache called Use Light cache for glossy rays . This feature allows V-Ray to take information directly from the Light cache f i le, thereby speeding up the rendering of blurry reflections and refractions, sometimes dramatically.

We wil l discuss how to load GI solution fi les later when we render an animation. Now let’s look at some system resource management features.

Because the scene contains a large number of objects and polygons, rendering this scene can take a signif icantly long time. For this reason, some settings may need to be adjusted in the System rol lout of the Settings tab, depending on your hardware.

9- 10 R e n d e r i n g

23.Go to the Settings tab and open the V-Ray:: System rol lout.

Without going into a deep analysis of raytracing theory, let’s take a look at the most important and commonly used parameters in the Raycaster params group.

Default geometry : V-Ray supports four raycasting algorithms, al l of them based on the BSP tree method, but with different applications. There are different algorithms for sti l l geometry, geometry blurred by motion, static geometry, and dynamic geometry. The Default geometry setting defines the algorithm used for standard 3ds Max objects. The three options are Static , Dynamic and Auto . The only difference between them is the way V-Ray uti l izes computer memory.

With the Static option, at the beginning of the rendering process, V-Ray preloads all geometry into an internal structure to speed up calculation, and keeps the geometry in memory unti l the frame has been rendered. This is not always good if the scene has a large number of objects and polygons. In this case, the render might take a very long time or might not start at al l , so in very large scenes or with too l itt le available RAM, it may be better to use the Dynamic option.

With the Dynamic option, V-Ray loads and unloads geometry from memory during the rendering process as needed. Objects are loaded into memory as they come into view or are needed for other calculations, then they are unloaded when they are no longer needed or visible. This approach conserves memory when rendering a scene with a large number of high-poly objects. There are three types of objects that are always treated as dynamic geometry regardless of the settings used in this rollout. They are objects that use the VRayDisplacementmod modifier, VRayFur and VRayProxy .

The Auto option causes some objects to be treated as Static and some as Dynamic geometry. As the objects are loaded into memory as Static geometry, if V-Ray runs out of RAM it wil l automati-cally convert objects into Dynamic geometry, starting with the highest polygon objects first.

24.Set Default geometry to Dynamic .

Let’s continue looking at the parameters.Dynamic memory limit : This is the l imit for memory allocated for dynamic geometry. During the

render process, when dynamic geometry is continually loaded and unloaded from memory, the default value of this parameter might be too low, in which case the rendering process might go very slow or freeze altogether. If you have a multi-processor computer, this memory is divided among all processor cores in the system. For example, if you have a four-core processor and the Dynamic memory l imit is set to 400, then each core can only use 100MB of computer memory to load and unload dynamic geometry.

We recommend that you set this value to 60% of the total memory available in the system. For example, if you have 8GB of RAM, set he Dynamic memory l imit to 4800 MB. That is the value we wil l use here.

9- 1 1R e n d e r i n g

25. Increase the value of the Dynamic memory limit parameter to 4800 . Refer to the fol lowing i l lus-tration.

26.Save your scene.

The basic render settings are now set up. Now let’s look at some settings that wil l help us pre-pare for post production.

To make post production as easy as possible, we wil l render out a number of masks. The easiest way to do this is to use the Render Elements tab and select from a series of preset render elements. The l ist of V-Ray render elements has everything you need to assemble the final image without hav-ing to use the actual rendering from the scene. We wil l render masks for three groups of objects: background, middle (mid ground), and foreground.

When rendering elements, the rendering process can take a l itt le longer than rendering the final image without render elements, depending on the number and type of elements that you select. The number of render elements required is usually not large. Some of the most widely used are VRay-Lighting , VRayReflection , VRayRefraction , and VRayZDepth ; however, we extended the l ist of elements used in this chapter to demonstrate more options in post production.

Exercise 2: Setting up Render Elements

1.Continue from the previous exercise with your saved fi le or open the fi le Ch09-02.max .

2.Go to the Common tab of the Render Setup dialog box, and in the Render Output section, cl ick the Files button.

3. In the Render Output File window that appears, set the path where you want your fi le to be stored. Name the fi le Middle , and set the fi le type to PNG . The Setup button is now available.

9- 12 R e n d e r i n g

4.Click Setup , and set the parameters for the PNG fi le as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

In the Colors section, you can choose the color depth of the image. RGB 48 bit means the image wil l have 16 bits for each channel (Red, Green, Blue). We wil l use this setting to give us the maximum amount of color information, so that adjustments to these images can be performed with greater precision.

5.Click OK to confirm the parameters, and then click Save .

Now let’s add Render Elements .

6.Go to the Render Elements tab and click the Add button.

The Render Elements window wil l appear.

7.On the l ist of available Render Elements , highlight elements that you want to add to the rendering. Hold down Ctrl to select multiple elements. The elements you need to highlight for this exer for this exer-cise are as fol lows:

• VRayGlobalIl lumination – Diffuse surface global i l lumination. Simply speaking, this is the result of the global i l lumination calculation. With this element, you wil l be able to adjust the GI l ighting on all or part of the image.

9- 13R e n d e r i n g

• VRayLighting – Diffuse direct surface l ighting. This element wil l only show geometry that is l it by direct l ight, excluding reflection/refraction. GI wil l not be present in this render element.

• VRayReflection – Surface reflection. In this element, you wil l only see the reflections.

• VRayRefraction – Surface refraction. With this element, you wil l be able to control the transparency of refractive objects.

• VRaySpecular – Renders the surface specular highlights. With this element, you wil l be able to increase or decrease highlights from light sources.

• VRayWireColor – Displays the wire color of the object in the 3ds Max scene as a flat color. Since each object in the scene wil l have a different color, you wil l be able to use this ele-ment to create a mask for any object when needed.

• VRayZDepth – The z-depth of the surface, displaying information about how far objects are from the camera in the form of a grayscale image. For example, this element can be configured so that the closer an object is to a camera, the brighter it is in the image. This render element can be used to make a mask for effects that vary depending on distance from the camera, such as depth of field and fog.

Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration for the l ist of the Render Elements you need to select.V-Ray wil l automatically assign the paths, f i lenames, and formats for the render elements, based

on the fi lename and path you specify under the Common Parameters. To save hard drive space, you can change the fi le formats for some elements. For example, you can change the fi le format for VRay-Lighting , VRayWireColor and other elements that don’t require alpha channels to JPG format. For most elements, the 24 bit JPG format is enough to support the color correction process that we’l l do later in post production. Changing the fi le format to JPG is especial ly important when you render anima-tions, and want to avoid fi l l ing up your hard drive with numerous large fi les unnecessari ly. As long as you set the quality of the JPG high enough (at least 95), the reduction of quality wil l almost always be undetectable.

8. In the Render Elements l ist, select VrayZDepth . In the VRayZDeph rol lout, set zdepth min = 0.0 and zdepth max = 8000.0 .

The zdepth min and zdepth max parameters set the distance pointing into the scene that V-Ray wil l use to generate the Z-depth map, and wil l set the gradient from black (back of scene) to white (front of scene) using this range. Zdepth min = 0.0 indicates that the range starts at 0 distance from the camera and zdepth max = 8000.0 indicates that the range ends at a distance 8000 units from the camera. It is important to set the zdepth max value correctly so the map wil l use the widest possible depth range, and wil l give you a decent range of grayscale values to work with. The fol lowing i l lustration shows an example of such an image.

9- 14 R e n d e r i n g

9. In the Selected Element Parameters section of the VrayZDepth element, cl ick the icon with three dots to open the Render Element Output File dialog box. Click the Setup button to open the PNG Configuration dialog box, and turn off the Alpha channel option. Click OK and then Save .

10.Make sure the Elements Active in the Render Elements rol lout is turned on. Otherwise, the Render Elements won't render. Note that the Display Elements checkbox does not affect the rendering of the render elements.

The Render Setup settings are finished now. Next, we wil l perform a test render.

11.Within the Effects tab of the Environment and Effects dialog box, enable the Hair and Fur feature (enable the Active option). If you do not have a powerful workstation, we highly suggest turning off the Hair and Fur modifier for most (if not al l) of the objects that use this feature. After you render the first time, you can then turn this feature back on for select objects and re-render unti l you determine the l imits of your workstation.

12. I f you rendered the Light cache and Irradiance map fi les separately as mentioned earl ier, make sure you uncheck the Don’t render final image checkbox under V-Ray:: Global switches .

13.Save your scene and render the camera view.

With all Hair and Fur modifiers enabled and with al l the Hair Count settings set to their original amounts (as discussed in al l previous chapters) your rendering should look l ike the large image in the fol lowing i l lustration. If you render with the Hair Count settings established for this scene, you wil l see just a fraction of the ‘hair’ .

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I f your scene crashes or takes an excessively long time to render, we suggest using some scene optimization techniques discussed throughout this book. To reduce render time, you can change your image sampler and DMC sampler settings. The settings specif ied earl ier in this chapter are production settings. Instead of using these, you could use lower quality settings that would nor-mally only be used for early test renders. These settings are l isted in Appendix A at the back of the book, and are the 3DATS suggested test render settings. To further reduce render time, you can reduce the output size of your rendering or render your scene in regions.

To greatly reduce RAM consumption, use lower resolution maps as discussed in the introduction section at the front of this book.

In the next step, we wil l render the area directly in front of the camera. All of the objects in the foreground are in a layer named Foreground , which is currently hidden. Objects in the Grass front layer are low-resolution objects; however, this is fine because they wil l be blurred with a depth-of-field effect. Because the grass in the front wil l be treated separately from the grass in the middle, the ren-der elements for these two areas wil l be rendered separately. Also, the large hair count would make it diff icult to render these two areas at the same time.

14.Continue with your fi le or open the fi le Ch09-03.max .

15.Open the Layer Manager dialog box. Hide the Middle and Waterfall layers, and unhide the Grass front layer.

9- 16 R e n d e r i n g

16.Disable all l ights except Direct Sun . The easiest way to do this is to use Light Lister for V-Ray, a MAXScript available for free at www.scriptspot.com. This tool al lows you to control not only Standard l ights but VRayLights l ights as well . Another way, when your l ights are hidden (when you turn the layers off) , you can disable the Hidden lights option in the Lighting section of the V-Ray:: Global switches rol lout.

17.Open the Render Setup dialog box and in the Common tab go to the Render Output section. Change the name of the Output File to Foreground.png , and set the fi le type to PNG using the RGB 48 bit and Alpha channel options. The names of al l the Render Elements assigned to this rendering wil l change accordingly.

18.Save the scene and render the camera view. The result should look similar to the fol lowing i l lustration.

Next, let’s render the waterfal l . We wil l do this separately from other objects. The waterfal l is in fast motion and needs to have a motion blur effect. The scene is very complex and it wil l take too long to render motion blur with V-Ray on this scene, so we wil l add motion blur during the post pro-duction stage using Adobe After Effects. Adding and adjusting motion blur in post production is generally much faster than rendering it in 3ds Max.

In order to get one frame of the waterfal l with motion blur, we wil l need to render a few frames of the animation. The post production software needs these frames so it can compare the motion between them and create the blur accordingly.

19.Open the fi le Ch09-04.max .

This scene has all the necessary objects and rendering settings for the waterfal l and environ-ment. The VRay_Proxy_waterfall and VRayProxy_spray objects are the waterfal l objects that were prepared in Chapter 5. For this sti l l rendering, we converted them into VRayProxy objects.

Because we need to render only the waterfal l , al l the other objects in the scene should not be visible to the camera. They wil l be visible only for reflection and refraction purposes, and for casting shadows.

20.Select al l objects in the scene except the l ights, VRayProxy_waterfall and VRayProxy_spray .

21.Right-click in the active viewport and from the quad menu choose Object Properties . In the Rendering Control group, disable the Visible to Camera option and click OK .

NOTE: You may first have to enable the Renderable option before being allowed to globally change all the selected objects.

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This wil l cause all selected objects to contribute to the environment by being reflected or refracted by the water, but they wil l not render in the image.

In the scene that you set up earl ier, the waterfal l is present but not visible to the camera, and all its other render properties were not disabled. As a result it wil l be reflected on the surface of the water, and it wil l also affect GI and cast shadows. In the current scene we need to make the waterfal l visible to the camera, but parts of the waterfal l that are not seen in the rendering need to be excluded, for example the parts of the waterfal l below the surface of the water. The same goes for objects that intersect with the waterfal l geometry, particularly the water wheel and the gutter over which water flows to the water wheel. These objects must be visible to the camera, however the Alpha contribution parameter needs to be -1. As a result, the waterfal l wil l have a negative Alpha in places where it intersects with other objects so we can composite the images afterward.

22.Select the objects that intersect with the waterfal l : Tree01 , Fountain01 , Wheel , Water Level .

23.Open the Object Properties dialog box again, enable the Visible to Camera option and click OK .

24.With the objects sti l l selected, right-click in the active viewport and choose V-Ray properties from the quad menu. In the Matte properties section, set Alpha contribution to -1.0 . Click Close .

The selected objects now have a negative alpha value. These objects must be visible to the camera so their alpha settings wil l interact with the waterfal l . We recommend that you remove Bump maps, Reflection maps, and other material properties that wil l slow down the rendering, because in this case we want only the geometry and textures for these objects. This approach wil l save render time.

25.Using the Material Editor , load the materials for the selected objects into empty sample slots and disable their Bump , Glossiness , Reflection , and Refraction maps. Do not disable any Diffuse maps.

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Now let’s prepare to render.

26.Open the Render Setup dialog box. Set the Render Output to Waterfall .png and set the fi le type to PNG with the RGB 48 bit and Alpha channel options.

27.Go to the Render Elements tab of the Render Setup dialog box. To the Render Elements l ist, add the VRayReflection and VRayRefraction elements, and make sure their output paths correspond to the main render output path.

These elements wil l be needed for additional post production. We also need to render 5 addi-tional frames to use for calculating motion blur later on.

28.Go to the Common tab of the Render Setup dialog box and in the Time Output section, set the parameters as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

This wil l cause six frames to be rendered for the main image and render elements. To make the render faster, instead of rendering the entire image, you can render just the region that has the waterfal l by using the Region option under Area to Render in the Rendered Frame Window .

29.Save the scene and render the six frames.

The fol lowing i l lustration shows what one frame wil l look l ike. ( It may not look l ike this in the view-port, but when you open the PNG fi les, this is how it wil l appear.)

Now, let’s render the background image.

30.Open Ch09-05.max .

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This scene is also optimized and has VRayProxy objects. The Hair Count value for the Hair and Fur modifier on some objects was lowered signif icantly, although you can increase it if you want.

You can set the render settings for this scene by yourself using the settings we used previously. Remember that the background wil l be slightly blurred so there is no need for high quality GI. There-fore, the GI parameters can be lowered if you want to save time. If you want to save additional time, you can even calculate GI only for primary bounces using Light cache. For the same reason, there is no need to increase the Adaptive DMC image sampler or the DMC sampler settings.

31.Open the Render Setup dialog box and change the render settings as discussed earl ier.

32. For Render Output , set the fi lename to Background , and set the fi le type to PNG using the 48 bit and Alpha channel options.

33.On the Render Elements tab, add VRayLighting and VRayZDepth .

For VRayZDepth , we need to find the maximum and minimum distance from the camera for the zdepth min and zdepth max parameters. You can determine these distances using a Rectangle object created in the Top view. We need to set the zdepth max as the distance from the camera to the most distant object in the scene, and zdepth min as the distance from the camera to the closest object in the scene. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration for zdepth min and zdepth max distances.

34.On the Render elements l ist, select the VRayZDepth render element. In the VRayZDepth parameters rol lout, set the zdepth min and zdepth max values as just discussed.

35.Make sure the output path for VRayZDepth corresponds to the output path of the main image.

36.Save the scene and render the camera view. The result should be similar to the fol lowing i l lustration. When you render, you should see a black background; however, since we are saving the rendering as a .png fi le with an alpha channel, it wil l have no background at al l . The background you see in the fol lowing image is actually the background created by flattening the image fi le for print.

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In the next step, we need to render masks . A mask is a black-and-white image used to hide or show parts of an image or to isolate a process so that it only affects part of an image during the post production stage. In post production programs, the white areas of a mask define areas where cor-rections wil l be applied, and the black areas define areas that wil l not be affected.

A mask can be effectively used in both sti l l images and animations. You can correct color, brightness, add reflections and much more, by using the masks generated by different Render Ele-ments . Masks are great helpers in post production. They can be created from the VRayWireColor render element or you can render the masks separately using other tools.

To render a mask, you need to assign a black color to all objects in the scene and disable all of the l ights. You then select the object that requires the mask and apply a VRayLight material to that object. In this way, the object wil l render as white and all other objects in the scene wil l render as black.

37.Open the fi le Ch09-03.max and immediately save it with the name Ch09-Mask.max .

We need masks for the ivy leaves and grass. Let’s start with the ivy leaves.

38.Select al l the objects and assign a pure black material to them. The material can be a VRayMtl or Standard , either one is fine.

39.Select the ivy leaves ( ivy leaf00 and ivy leaf01) and assign the VRayLight material to them. Make sure the color is set to white and the intensity is 1 .0 (the value next to the Color swatch). Enable the Emit light on back side option. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration. When Emit light on back side is checked, objects can generate l ight on back faces as well as front surfaces.

40.Open the Render Setup dialog box and on the V-Ray tab, go to the V-Ray:: Global switches rol lout. Turn off almost al l of the parameters, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration. This disables direct l ight, shadows, textures, transparency, and glossy effects in the material .

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41.On the V-Ray:: Environment rol lout, turn off the GI Environment (skylight) override and Reflection/refraction override , as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

42.On the V-Ray:: Color mapping rol lout, set the exposure Type to Linear multiply . Make sure that both Dark multiplier and Bright multiplier are set to 1 .0 . Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

43.Go to the Indirect illumination tab and disable indirect i l lumination by turning off the On checkbox.

44.Go to the Render Elements tab and turn off Elements Active .

45.Open the Environment and Effects dialog box and change the Background color to pure black .

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46.Change the render output fi lename to Mask_ivy.jpg .

47.Save the scene and render. After you have rendered this mask, assign the pure black material that is assigned to all the other objects to ivy leaf00 and ivy leaf01 .

As a result, you wil l get an image where all the ivy leaves are white and all other parts of the image are black. Now let’s render masks for the grass using the same scene.

As you remember, the grass in this scene is made with the Hair and Fur modifier. Although the shape and size of the grass blades vary, al l the grass currently has the same texture and color. To add variety to the color, we wil l use a mask. We can add variety to the grass color by masking some grass instances as white, some gray, and some black. When we use such a mask to apply color cor-rection to the grass, the grass instances masked with white wil l receive the most color correction, those masked with gray wil l receive partial color correction, and those masked with black won’t receive any color correction at al l .

To create this type of mask we wil l use the MaterialByElement modifier. Because the MaterialBy-Element modifier cannot be applied to hair, we first need to convert the hair into geometry. We’l l look at how a mask can be created for one grass object, and then, using the same technique, you can create masks for al l other grass objects in the scene.

First, let’s create the material .

48.Open the Material Editor and create a Multi/Sub-Object material named Multi-mask . Set the number of materials to 3 using the Set Number button, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

49. For Material 1 , use a VRayLightMtl material with Color set to pure white and the intensity multipl ier set to 1 .

50. For Material 2 , use a VRayLightMtl material with Color set to pure white and the intensity multipl ier set to 0.5 . Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

51. For Material 3 , use a VRayLightMtl material with the intensity multipl ier set to 0 . The material should look l ike the fol lowing i l lustration.

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Now, we wil l prepare the object that we wil l mask. As an example, we wil l use the object Grass_Center . This object has the Hair and Fur modifier applied to it . Next we wil l apply this to just this one patch of grass, and upon successful completion, you can apply it to all the remaining grass objects.

52.Select the Grass_Center object, go to the Modifier Stack and select the Hair and Fur modifier. In its Tools rol lout, cl ick the Hair ➤ Mesh button.

All the hair on the object wil l be converted into a single mesh object, turning the grass into geometry.

53.Delete the original Grass_Center object, as we only needed it to apply the Hair and Fur modifier to. Rename the new grass geometry that we just created Grass_Center .

54.Select the new mesh object and from the Object Properties dialog box, make it Renderable , and make sure it is set as Visible to Camera .

55.Apply the new material to the new mesh object and apply the MaterialByElement modifier to it .

This modifier wil l al low you to automatically and randomly assign material IDs to elements of the selected object. As a result, the object wil l have several Material IDs that can be used by the Multi/Sub-Object material .

56. In the MaterialByElement modifier's settings, set the parameters as shown in the fol lowing i l lus- tration.

The percentages you set under List Frequency define the percentage of elements that wil l be assigned each Material ID. In our case we want to assign 3 Material IDs, one each for white, gray, and black. Material ID 1 wil l be distributed over 40% of the elements, Material ID 2 wil l be distributed over 20%, and Material ID 3 wil l be distributed over 40% of the elements. You can also use the Random Distribution option to distribute the material IDs evenly and randomly throughout the object. If you choose this option, the randomization can be controlled by the Seed parameter.

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57.Using Render Output , change the output fi lename to Mask_grass.jpg . We don’t want to save this as a .png fi le because we don’t need to save an alpha channel.

58.Save the scene and render. If the patch of grass rendered properly (with gray variation throughout), repeat the process with al l the remaining grass. If you render all of the grass with original Hair Count settings, it should look l ike the fol lowing i l lustration.

In this way, we can create a mask for a single object with multiple elements, or a mask for mul-tiple objects such as the trees in the forest. Using this technique, you can add variety to the rendering by changing the color of trees, leaves, grass, and flowers in the scene during post production.

RenderingAnimationWhen an animated scene needs to be rendered, you need a strong plan based on preliminary test renders. Proper planning wil l al low you to render animations faster and with better quality.

In general, render settings for animations are not very different from the render settings for sti l l images. The quality settings are usually going to be the same, except maybe a few antial iasing set-tings and other settings that depend on output image size. But usually, antial iasing settings for animation need not be very high.

Exercise 3: Rendering the animation

For this exercise, we wil l create a 5-second sequence with an animated camera. Because this exer-cise is directed toward understanding concepts, there is no need to take the time to render the entire animation.

1.Open the fi le Ch09-06.max .

This scene only includes objects that are visible to the camera or that signif icantly affect the environment. The camera moves slowly for 5 seconds, and the grass is animated with the Hair and Fur modifier.

Rendering an animation means rendering a series of frames. The Frame Rate (frames per sec-ond) that you use depends on the final format. For example, if you set the Frame Rate to NTSC , then you wil l have 30 frames per 1 second of animation. If you set it to PAL , then 1 second of animation wil l have 25 frames. NTSC is the standard used in North America, while PAL is used in Europe.

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2.Open the Render Setup dialog box and in the Common tab, set Output Size to PAL (video) . This parameter wil l automatically set the render output size.

Now let’s set the Frame Rate . To reduce the rendering time, we’l l use the PAL frame rate of 25 frames per second rather than the NTSC preset of 30 frames per second.

3.Open the Time Configuration dialog box and in the Frame Rate section, choose PAL . Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

Now we wil l set the animation length and starting frame. Remember that the scene has an ani-mated Hair and Fur modifier. In order for the grass to react correctly to dynamics l ike wind, it needs to be slightly bent at the start of the animation (as opposed to sticking straight up). The grass wil l need about 100 frames to get into a bent position, so the Start Time for your animation segment wil l be at frame 100.

The animation is 5 seconds long, and it runs at 25 frames per second, so we wil l need 125 frames (5x25) for the actual animation sequence. Since the animation starts at frame 100, the End Time wil l be 225.

4. In the Animation section of the Time Configuration dialog box, set the Start Time to 100 and the End Time to 225 . Click OK .

As a result, the Track Bar wil l have 126 frames (frames 100 to 225). In the scene, animation keys for the camera have already been placed on the Track Bar at frames 100 and 225. We animated the camera so that it starts to move on frame 100 and stops at frame 225, thus allowing the grass 100 frames to assume its starting shape.

Previously, we went over the render settings for a sti l l image. You could use the same antial ias-ing settings for the animation rendering as well , but to avoid errors you should use the settings from the fol lowing i l lustrations.

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5.Open the Render Setup dialog box and in the V-Ray and Settings tabs, change only the parameters shown in the fol lowing i l lustrations.

This restores the render settings to what we used previously for the sti l l image. Now let’s adjust some settings specif ical ly for an animation rendering.

Remember that rendering GI for animated objects is usually different from rendering sti l l objects. For sti l l objects you can use the faster and easier Irradiance map GI engine, but for animated objects you need to use the signif icantly slower Brute Force engine. Brute Force, which calculates GI by direct computation, is the most correct GI algorithm available, while the Irradiance map engine calculates GI by caching and approximating l ighting. Calculation of GI for animated objects with the Irradiance map engine can cause objects to fl icker due to sampling at different points on different frames.

However, GI for some animated objects can be calculated accurately enough with the Irradiance map engine instead of Brute Force. In our scene, the waterfal l has a transparent surface that changes dynamically, and we also plan to add a motion blur effect to this object, so any imperfections in the GI wil l not be noticeable. The same applies to the water surface. Because it is transparent and reflective, nobody wil l see small imperfections in the GI.

This approach would not apply if there were distinct reflections of animated objects on the water surface. If the reflection is very distinct then the GI for the water needs to be calculated with Brute Force; if the reflection is subtle, then it can be calculated with the Irradiance map engine.

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In our case, the creek’s water surface is not visible to the camera. Even if it were, the reflections are not strong. We performed a few tests and decided that the GI for this object can be calculated with the Irradiance map method.

Based on this information, we can plan the rendering process. GI for objects using the Irradiance map engine wil l be rendered separately from the GI for objects using Brute Force. In our scene, the animated objects are the grass and the flowers. GI for these objects wil l be calculated with Brute Force, and for al l other objects GI wil l be calculated with the Irradiance map and Light cache engines. We’l l start with the Irradiance map and Light cache.

Let’s analyze how the grass interacts with other objects in the scene. Grass should not partici-pate in the GI calculation with the Irradiance map, but the grass needs to be reflected on the water’s surface and cast shadows on it . This means the grass needs to be invisible to camera, and needs to be left out of the Irradiance map solution, but needs to be used for reflection and shadows.

6.Select the fol lowing grass and flower objects: Grass Left , Flower Center , and Flower Leaves .

7. In the Object Properties dialog box, turn off Visible to Camera and click OK .

The selected objects wil l not be visible to the camera. Now let’s exclude them from the GI calcu-lation.

8.With the same objects sti l l selected, right-click in the active viewport and from the quad menu, select V-Ray Properties .

9. In the Object properties section, disable the Visible to GI option. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

Now we wil l start working on the render settings.

10.Open the Render Setup dialog box and in the Indirect Illumination tab, enable the On option.

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Remember that for Indirect I l lumination, V-Ray first calculates secondary bounces, in our case using the Light cache engine. Then, based on the Light cache results, it calculates primary bounces with the Irradiance map. You can use the same approach manually to calculate the GI for animation in three stages:

• Stage 1 – Calculation of indirect i l lumination with Light cache only.

• Stage 2 – Calculation of direct i l lumination with Irradiance map only.

• Stage 3 – Final image sequence rendering using the saved GI information.

First, we need to assign the Light Cache GI engine for both primary and secondary bounces, calculate the GI solution, and save the Light cache map. Then assign the Irradiance map engine to primary bounces, use the saved Light cache fi le for secondary bounces, render a few frames, and save the Irradiance map fi le. Then use the saved Irradiance map fi le for primary bounces, and use the saved Light cache fi le for secondary bounces, make sure Use Light cache for glossy rays is enabled, and render the final image. Let’s do this.

11. In the V-Ray:: Indirect illumination rol lout, set Light cache as the GI Engine for both Primary and Secondary bounces.

12.Go to the V-Ray:: Light cache rol lout and set Subdivs to 500 .

The Scale parameter, currently set to Screen , determines the units V-Ray wil l use for the Sample size . Normally, for an animated camera, if your camera moves around your scene and your view con-stantly changes, it is recommended that you set Scale to World so that the sample size wil l be independent of the view and the quality wil l be the same throughout the image, no matter where the camera looks. However, the camera in this scene doesn’t move in this fashion. Furthermore, the World option uses more memory, more disk space for Light cache fi les, and more time to render than the Screen option.

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In cases where an animated camera does not make many turns and the view shows mostly the same objects throughout the animation, we recommend that you use the Screen option for the Scale parameter. This is the option we wil l use in this exercise. If the camera makes a lot of turns and many different objects come into view as the camera moves, then it is better to use World units. One example is a home interior animation, where the camera travels along a long, twisting path from room to room. But if the camera makes only one or two turns as it fol lows the path, we would sti l l choose Screen units for the Scale parameter to save render time. In this case, we recommend that you double or triple the Subdivs value, especial ly if you use Light cache for secondary bounces.

Not many of our storyboards call for long camera paths with many turns and maneuvers. Short camera sequences tend to work better for conveying ideas, so we usually design short animations where the camera motion and direction change very l itt le.

Now, we wil l set the parameters for the Light cache calculation.

13. In the Mode section, change Single frame to Fly-through .

Single frame mode indicates that the Light cache wil l be calculated for each individual frame of animation. The Fly-through option calculates the Light cache for the only one frame of the animation, and uses the single calculation for the entire animation sequence. This is the preferred method. It does not matter which frame is currently active as the result wil l be the same regardless.

14. In the On render end section, enable the Auto save option, Switch to saved cache , and set the path where you want the Light cache fi le to be saved. Set the fi lename to Anim.vrlmap . Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

15.Make sure that the Don't delete checkbox is checked.

The Switch to saved cache option automatically sets it to use the saved Light cache fi le.

16.Go to the V-Ray tab of the Render Setup dialog box, and in the V-Ray:: Global switches rol lout, enable the Don't render final image option. This wil l cause the renderer to skip the actual rendering calculation pass, and calculate just the indirect i l lumination.

17.Go to the Common tab of the Render Setup dialog, and in the Time Output section, select the Single option.

18.Make sure Show calc. phase is enabled under the V-Ray:: Light cache rollout and rerender the camera view. Only the Light cache should be rendered.

After the calculation is finished, V-Ray wil l save the Light cache information into the fi le that you set in the Auto save parameter’s path field.

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Now, we need to calculate the indirect i l lumination with the Irradiance map engine.

19. For Secondary bounces , leave it set to Light cache , make sure the mode is set to From file and that the saved fi le is loaded. Under Reconstruction parameters on the Light Cache roll-out , make sure Use Light cache for glossy rays is enabled. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

20.Set Primary bounces to Irradiance map .

21. In the V-Ray:: Irradiance map rol lout, use the parameters you used previously for the sti l l image rendering, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

22.Set the Mode to Multiframe incremental . This option causes a ful l irradiance map to be calculated at the first frame, and then additional samples to be added as needed during subsequent frames. This is the best option for scenes with static objects or objects where movement is insignif icant.

23. In the On render end section of the V-Ray:: Irradiance map rol lout, for the Auto save parameter, set the path where you want the Irradiance map fi le to be saved. Assign the name Anim.vrmap and make sure the Switch to saved map option is turned on. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

24.Go to the Common tab of the Render Setup dialog box and in the Time Output section, select Active Time Segment and set Every Nth Frame to 125 .

With these settings, the Irradiance map wil l be calculated every 125th frame, in this case, one of the first and the last frame. For other cases, when the camera moves faster and it shows many differ-

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ent objects and surfaces, then you might need to add samples more often by setting this value to something lower, such as 10, 40, 60, etc. In any case, you need to make sure that for every object that is visible to the camera at some point during the animation gets sampled by the irradiance map.

25.Click Render . I f you get an error message, cl ick Yes to continue. The Irradiance map wil l be calculated.

Once the irradiance map is complete, al l the Indirect i l lumination is ready, and all we need to do is the final image calculation.

26. I f it is not already done so, set the Irradiance map Mode to From file and load the saved irradi-ance map.

27.Go to the V-Ray tab of Render Setup dialog, and in the V-Ray:: Global switches rol lout, disable the Don't render final image option.

28.Go to the Common tab and in the Time Output group, make sure Active Time Segment is selected and set Every Nth Frame to 1 . Now, every frame of the animation sequence wil l be rendered.

29. In the Render Output group, set the fi le path and fi lename for the render output. Choose PNG 48 bit with Alpha channel as the fi le type.

30.Save the scene and click Render .

Previously, for the sti l l image rendering, we added Render Elements . The same elements can be added for animation and used during the video post production process.

When the rendering of the animation sequence is finished, rendering of the animated objects can be started. In this case, the render settings are much easier. But before we start rendering, we need to make the animated objects visible to the camera.

31.Select the animated objects Grass Left , Flower Center , and Flower Leaves .

32. From the Object Properties dialog box, enable the Visible to Camera option.

33. From the V-Ray properties dialog box, enable the Visible to GI option.

The animated objects are visible to the camera again and wil l participate in GI generation. Now, we need to make the other objects in the scene invisible.

34. Invert the selection, and make all selected objects invisible to the camera.

There is no need to disable GI for these objects. Now we need to use the Brute force GI engine instead of the Irradiance map and Light cache.

35. From the Indirect illumination tab of the Render Setup dialog box, select Brute force for Primary bounces and select None for Secondary bounces .

V-Ray wil l calculate indirect i l lumination for the primary bounces only. Secondary bounces are not needed as they would not be very noticeable.

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36. In the V-Ray:: Brute force GI rol lout, set Subdivs to 30 . This parameter, in conjunction with the Noise thresh . value in the DMC Sampler rol lout, directly controls the quality of the GI.

37.Go to the Common tab of the Render Setup dialog box. Choose a new name for the render sequence and click Render .

I f the camera is sti l l but the objects in the scene are animated, it makes sense to use a single sti l l rendering as the first layer in post production and overlay animated images over it . However, you can’t simply layer the images without some masking. For example, the grass growing on the ground needs to visually cover up the ground itself and other objects on it, but on the other hand the grass needs to be partial ly hidden by the bridge, other grass, the ground, and other objects. If we simply place the grass layer over al l other layers then the grass wil l cover everything, which would not be correct. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration to see what it would look l ike if you simply placed the grass on top of al l other layers.

To make the layers work correctly, a mask needs to be applied to the grass. If you apply the VRayLightMtl to the grass, and apply a simple black material to all other objects in the scene, the ren-dered mask can be applied to the grass. The grass wil l be seen only where the mask is white, and the grass appearance in the final image wil l be correct. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration to see the image correctly composited with the mask applied to the grass layer.

Previously we explained how to prepare a mask for a sti l l image. Using the same technique, we need to prepare masks for the animated objects.

38.Render each mask as a sequence, taking care to name the fi les correctly for each sequence.

Later, we wil l discuss mask usage in more detail during in the Post Production section of this chapter.

To overlay sequences and create the video composition for our project, we used Adobe After Effects. It is outside the scope of this book to provide every step we used in After Effects, but the concepts are amply described here, and the processes for sti l l images are similar to those for video production. If you understand the most important image editing techniques, then your only obstacle to video post production is your understanding of the video editing software itself. The final animation produced for this book can be found in the book’s support fi les.

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PostProductionPost production is the last stage of working with the image. Its purpose is to make the image look as close to the init ial concept as possible. This process includes working with the color range of the image, correcting the separated parts of the image, adding effects, accentuating important details, and fixing errors.

We did the post production with Adobe Photoshop CS4 using the V-Ray render elements that we described previously in this chapter.

We want to remind you that the scene that you used for the final rendering of the sti l l images was optimized and simplif ied because the init ial scene that we used in our production process was very “heavy” and used a lot of computer resources. To avoid any crashed or unexpected computer problems we simplif ied the scene. Specif ical ly, we replaced the VRayDisplacement modifier with the Displacement modifier, we lowered the number of hairs for al l Hair and Fur modifiers, and we lowered the resolution of some textures.

Exercise 4: Post production

For better visual demonstration in this exercise, we have supplied you with i l lustrations created from a highly detailed scene with a large number of hairs set with the Hair and Fur modifier and with the VRayDisplacement modifier in use. This means that the renderings shown here might be more detailed than the ones you create when fol lowing the exercise. For an understanding of post- production approaches, the level of detail of the scene you use to fol low along does not matter, but feel free to use our support fi les provided.

Let’s begin. First, let’s correct the middle and foreground images.

1. In Adobe Photoshop, open the previously rendered image Middle.png .

2.Rename the single layer of this fi le Middle . Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

This image has many dark areas. We could correct this with various color correction tools such as Curves and Levels. But in this case, it wil l be better to use the VRayGlobalIl lumination render ele-ment, which is an image of the GI only without direct l ight, reflections, or refractions. Using this render element, you can more effectively correct the l ightness of the Middle layer.

3.Use File menu ➤ Place to place Middle_VRayGlobalIl lumination.png in the image.

Before you place the image, you need to make sure that Photoshop is maximized and the entire image is visible. Otherwise, the image can be put in the wrong place and wil l require placement cor-rection.

4.Press Ctrl+0 to bring the placed image to ful l size, then press Enter on the keyboard to set the image.

5.Right-click the new layer and choose Rasterize Layer . Rename this layer to GI middle and change its Blend Mode from Normal to Screen .

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Changing the Blend Mode to Screen wil l increase the overall l ighting. The GI Middle layer makes dark areas of the image brighter and the textures more noticeable.

Some zones and surfaces are not very well l it by sunlight, so we wil l add the image from the VRayLighting render element. This render element shows the effect of direct sunlight on surfaces. All other surfaces remain black.

6.Place Middle_VRayLighting.png in the image and rasterize the layer. Change its Blend Mode from Normal to Screen and the Opacity to 50% . Rename the layer to Light middle .

As a result, al l objects l it by the sun wil l be brighter.The creek is too dark. To l ighten it up, we wil l use the VRayRefraction render element.

9-35R e n d e r i n g

This render element has information about the refractive objects, al l other parts of the image are black.

7.Place Middle_VRayRefraction.png into the image, and rasterize the layer. Change Blend Mode from Normal to Screen , rename the layer to Refraction middle .

As a result, al l of the objects with some refraction become lighter. The color of the creek needs to be adjusted too. For this you wil l create a group of layers and use Curves and Color Balance .

8.Place the Refraction middle layer into a group by selecting the layer and pressing Ctrl+G (or use Layer ➤ Group Layers) . Rename the group to Refraction . Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

This group was created for convenience. Later, when the number of layers increase, this organi-zation wil l be important.

9.Select the Refraction middle layer and create a new Curves layer (Layer ➤ New Adjustment Layer ➤ Curves) . Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration. As an alternative, the tools available at the bottom of the Layers window can be used.

The Curves layer wil l be created above the Refraction middle layer. We need to tel l this layer to control only the curves for the Refraction middle layer. For this purpose, we wil l create a clipping mask.

10.Rename Curves to Curves Refraction , then use Layers ➤ Create Clipping Mask to create a new clip-ping mask.

9-36 R e n d e r i n g

The layer Curves Refraction wil l change in appearance. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

All corrections to the Curves Refraction layer wil l now be applied only to the Refraction middle layer below it . To quickly enable or disable a clipping mask, you can also Alt+Click on the l ine between two layers in the Layers window. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration to see the location of the l ine to Alt+Click .

We wil l use this function frequently in the steps that fol low. Now, we wil l correct the Refraction middle layer.

11.Select the Curves Refraction layer. In the Adjustments window, correct the curve as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

This wil l al low you to increase the brightness of l ight zones and make the refractive objects look more realistic. To change the color, we wil l use a Color Balance layer.

12.Use the tools at the bottom of the Layers window to add a Color Balance layer to the Refraction group. Create a clipping mask for this layer and name it Color Balance Refraction . Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

9-37R e n d e r i n g

13.Select the Color Balance Refraction layer. In the Adjustments window, correct it as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

The transparency of the water wil l take on a brown tint. In the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see how the water surface looks different after corrections were added to it using the VRayRefraction ren-der element.

Reflections need to be increased in some places. For this, we wil l use the VRayReflection render element.

14.Place Middle_VrayReflection.png into the image, and rasterize the layer. Change the Blend Mode to Screen and rename the layer Reflection middle.

15.Place the layer into a new group and name the group Reflection .

These changes wil l increase the reflectivity level on all reflective surfaces. The increase wil l be too much for some areas, so let’s use a mask to l imit the effect.

16.Select the Reflection middle layer and add a mask to it using Add vector mask , located on the lower tab of the Layers window . Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

17.Using a brush with the color set to pure black , paint the mask in areas where the reflection should be reduced such as on the objects on the roof, the rocks, and a few places on the grass.

Remember that the image combined with the mask is only visible in areas where the mask has a white color. In places where the mask has a black color, the image is completely transparent and invisible. The transparency level also depends on the brightness of the white color. For example, if the mask color is gray, then the image is 50% transparent.

9-38 R e n d e r i n g

Using a mask to hide parts of the layer gives you the abil ity to undo any corrections easily. If you had erased part of the image with the Eraser tool, for example, it is much more diff icult to get the erased parts of the image back.

Keep in mind that you need to paint over the mask, not over the image. To select the mask, cl ick the mask icon next to the image icon in the Layers window. Control wil l go to the mask and everything you paint with the brush or other tools wil l be applied to the mask only. If you need to switch back to the image, cl ick the image icon on the Layers window.

To disable/enable a layer’s mask, Shift+Click on the mask. To make it so that only the mask is visible, use Alt+Click .

We have already removed excessive reflections from objects on the roof, from the rocks, and from a few places on the grass. If there are other reflections on the grass that are too strong, you can reduce them by painting over them with a gray mask. You can use the same technique to increase the reflections on the creek surface, on the tree leaves, and on the grass. Let’s increase the level of reflectivity further with Curves .

18.Select the Reflection middle layer and add a Curves layer. Name the layer Curves Reflection , and create a clipping mask for it .

19.Select the Curves Reflection layer, and in the Adjustments window change the curve as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

In the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see the image before and after correction with the VRay-Reflection Render Element.

9-39R e n d e r i n g

As a result, objects in the middle plane have correct saturation and color balance; however, some individual details and objects sti l l need to be adjusted. For example, the roof could have more contrast, the grass needs more variety, and the color of the ivy and tree leaves need to be cor-rected.

Let’s start with the roof. Because we did not create a mask specif ical ly for the roof, let’s use the VRayWireColor render element.

20.Place Middle_VRayWireColor.png into the image, and rasterize the layer. Rename the layer Wire-Color . Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

21.Because this layer is for reference only and is not intended to affect the image, place it at the bottom of the layers l ist.

In this render element, the roof of the house has a brown color, the same as the color of the roof’s wireframe in the 3ds Max scene. We can use any of these colored areas if we need a mask for a specif ic object. In this case, we want to use the brown area to create a mask for the roof.

In order to be able to work with WireColor layer, it needs to be visible and active. This means we need to hide all the other layers. To do this, Alt+Click the layer visibi l ity (eye) icon next to the layer that you want to isolate. Pressing Alt+Click again wil l bring the layers back to their original states. You could place this layer at the top of the order and toggle it on and off using the eye icon, but this is a handy trick to know.

9-40 R e n d e r i n g

22.Alt+Click the eye icon for the WireColor layer. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

23.Select the WireColor layer. Using Select ➤ Color Range , use the eye dropper tool to select the roof color. Also select the roof color of the small shed all the way to the right of the image. Set Fuzziness to 48 in the Color Range dialog and click OK .

This wil l select al l parts of the image containing the brown roof color.

24.Unhide all layers, and hide the WireColor layer. Deselect any parts of the image that are not part of the roof.

25.With the selection sti l l active, create a Curves layer, name it Roof Curves, and place it at the top of the Layers l ist .

Now the Roof Curves layer has a mask that wil l affect only the roof in the image.

26. In the Adjustments window , change the curve as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

9-4 1R e n d e r i n g

The roof now has more contrast.

Now, we’l l correct the tree crown. The leaves are too bright, so their color needs to be toned down a l itt le.

27.Using the Magic Wand Tool , select the areas of the image that contain the tree leaves. With the selection sti l l active, create a new Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. Rename the layer Satura-tion Tree Foliage . Move this layer up to the top of the layers l ist as well .

28. In the Adjustments window, set parameters as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

This reduced the saturation of the leaves a l itt le. Now, let’s correct the ivy leaves with a mask rendered from 3ds Max.

29.Place Mask_ivy.jpg into the image, and rasterize the layer. Place this layer at the top of the layers l ist.

Now, we wil l create the selection using the black and white image.

30.Open the Channels window. Ctrl+Click on any channel.

Now we have a selection for the ivy leaves, showing in white.

31.While the selection is active, create a Color Balance adjustment layer and name it Color Balance Ivy .

9-42 R e n d e r i n g

Now we can correct the color of the ivy leaves.

32.Delete the black and white layer with the ivy leaves mask that we used to create the selection, as we wil l not need it anymore.

33.Select the Color Balance Ivy layer. In the Adjustment window, set parameters as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

Note that you wil l need to make sure that Tone is set to Shadows . Now you can use the mask from the Color Balance Ivy layer to create a Curves layer and make it brighter.

34.Ctrl+Click the mask icon of the Color Balance Ivy layer.

The selection of ivy leaves appears.

35.Create the Curves layer and name it Curves Ivy. In the Adjustments window, add corrections as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

In the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see how the ivy looks before and after the corrections with the Color Balance Ivy and Curves Ivy layers have been applied. The leaves now have more color and brightness variations.

9-43R e n d e r i n g

With the next correction we wil l add variety to the colors in the grass, and wil l also tone down some of its highlights to make the grass look rougher. For this, we wil l also use a mask rendered from 3ds Max.

36.Place Mask_grass.jpg into the image, and rasterize the layer.

37. In the same way you did for Ivy leaves , create a selection based on the black and white mask.

38.With the selection sti l l active, create a Hue/Saturation layer and name it Saturation grass .

39. In the Adjustments window for the Saturation grass layer, set the parameters as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

In the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see the grass before and after the Saturation grass layer is applied. The grass affected by the mask is bluer and is also less shiny, which makes the grass look more l ike rough, wild grass.

We’d also l ike to improve the image by punching up the specular highlights on the pumpkins. For this we wil l use the VRaySpecular render element.

9-44 R e n d e r i n g

40.Place Middle_VRaySpecular.png into the image, and rasterize the layer. Change the layer's Blend Mode to Screen , and place this layer at the top of the layers l ist. Rename the layer Specular middle .

41.Because this correction needs to be applied to pumpkins only, apply a mask to this layer and paint the areas without pumpkins with a black brush.

You wil l use a Curves adjustment layer to make the specular highlights more noticeable.

42.Select the Specular middle layer. Create a new Curves layer and name it Curves Specular .

43.Apply a Clipping Mask to this layer. In the Adjustments window for this layer, set the parameters as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

44.Place the layers Specular middle and Curves Specular into a new group called Specular . Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

In the fol lowing i l lustration, you can see the pumpkins before and after the specular highlights were adjusted.

45.Save the PSD fi le.

The only part of the middle ground left to adjust is the waterfal l . We want to show some motion blur in the sti l l image. Recall that the waterfal l was rendered over 6 frames. Using these frames, a motion blur effect wil l be added with Adobe After Effects and the ReelSmart Motion Blur plug-in

9-45R e n d e r i n g

from RE:Vision Effects . A trial version of the ReelSmart plug-in can be downloaded at http://www.revisionfx.com. We wil l not cover all the After Effects and ReelSmart tools in detail here, but wil l give you basic steps to get the motion blur effect.

46.Open Adobe After Effects , and import the 6 frames of the rendered waterfal l sequence.

47.Create a composition, and add an RSMB effect. Leave the effect's settings at their default values.

48.Open the Project Settings window. In the Color Settings group, set Depth to 16 bits per channel . This wil l al low the image to stay at 16 bits.

49.Drag the composition to the Render Queue . For Output Modules, change Video For Windows to PNG Sequence .

50. For Channels, choose RGB+Alpha . For Depth, set Trillions of Colors+.

51. For Output To, set the path and name the output fi le waterfall+motion blur _[#####] .

52.Click Render .

As a result, you wil l get 6 new frames of the waterfal l with a motion blur effect applied, with 16-bit depth and an alpha channel.

Creating the motion blur in this way takes very l itt le time, usually not more than 10 minutes. Now let’s add one frame of the blurred waterfal l image in Photoshop.

53.Go back to Adobe Photoshop and place one of the waterfall+motion blur.png fi les in the image. Choose the one you like the best. Rename the layer Waterfall . Place the layer at the top of the layers l ist.

54.Using Curves, make the waterfal l sl ightly brighter.

9-46 R e n d e r i n g

The adjustments to the middle ground are finished. To keep the layers organized and make it easy for you to work with the images more if you need to, we recommend that you place all of the layers into appropriate groups.

55.Place all of the layers of the middle ground into a group (al l layers except WireColor) , and name the group Middle .

As a result, the layers l ist should look as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration. This wil l al low you to quickly hide and display the middle plane when necessary.

Now, we wil l place the background image so we can adjust it as necessary.

9-47R e n d e r i n g

56.Place Background.png into the image, and rasterize the layer. Rename the layer Background , and place it at the bottom of the layers l ist just above the WireColor layer.

In this way, the Background layer wil l be covered by all the other layers.

57.Place this layer into a group and rename it Back . Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

We wil l place all of the layers for the background in this group. To make it easier to determine which adjustments to make, you wil l need to fi l l the bottom layer with a sky-blue gradient.

58.Create a new layer in the Back group and place it below the Background layer. Fi l l this layer with a sky-blue gradient color, with the gradient going from a stronger blue at the top to a whiter blue at the bottom. Rename the layer Sky . We used RGB 174,198,255 for our darker color and RGB 210,220,255 for the l ighter blue.

Now you can tell that the Background layer is too sharp, saturated, and too green. You can adjust this with Levels , Color Balance , and add a Blur effect.

59.Select the Background layer and create a Levels adjustment layer. Rename the layer Levels Background, and create a clipping mask for it . In the Adjustments window, set the parameters as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

The image wil l become brighter. Now, let’s adjust the color.

60.Select the Levels Background layer and create a Color Balance adjustment layer for it . Rename the layer Color Balance Background and create a clipping mask for it . In the Adjustments window, set the parameters from the fol lowing i l lustration.

9-48 R e n d e r i n g

Now, the color of the vegetation in the Background layer is more realistic. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration to see the Background layer before and after the color correction was applied.

The background could also use more sun. We’l l use a fi lter to add a slight atmospheric glow.

61.Place Background_VRayLight.png into the image, and rasterize the layer. Rename the new layer Light Background, and change the Blend Mode to Screen .

62.To prevent bright areas in the middle of the fields from being brightened even more by the fi lter we are about to apply, use a black brush to paint over these areas on the Light Background layer.

63.To add a l itt le bit of atmospheric glow, duplicate the Light Background layer. To the new layer, apply a Gaussian Blur fi lter with Radius set to 2.1 pixels . Make sure that Blend Mode of this layer is set to Screen . Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration to see the background before and after the Blur fi lter is applied.

9-49R e n d e r i n g

A Radius of 2.1 pixels was chosen because our image is 2000 pixels wide, and this is just about the right ratio of blur for this image. For larger images, the Radius should be larger, and for smaller images it would be smaller.

Now let’s use Z-Depth to create a l ight fog effect at the farthest areas of the background. For this, we wil l use the Background_VRayZDepth.png image.

64.Place Background_VRayZDepth.png into the image, and rasterize the layer. Rename the new layer ZDepth Mask . Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration to see the ZDepth Mask layer.

65.Hide all of the layers except ZDepth Mask (Alt+Click over the eye icon next to the layer). Open the Channels window.

66.Select any channel in the Channels window, and duplicate it by right-clicking it and choosing Duplicate Channel . Because the image does not have any color information, al l the channels are the same, and you can duplicate any channel from the Channels l ist. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

9-50 R e n d e r i n g

67.Rename the new channel ZDepth Background . Make the RGB channel visible.

68. In the Layers window make all the layers visible again, and delete the ZDepth Mask layer as we won't need it any more.

69. In the Back group, create a new layer above all the other layers in the group. Using the Paint Bucket tool, f i l l it with the solid color RGB 90,140,220 . Rename the layer Color Fill Background.

70.Create a Clipping Mask for this layer, and set its Opacity to 40% .

71.Go to the Channels window, and Ctrl+Click the ZDepth Background channel. This wil l make a selection from the contents of the channel.

72. In the Layers window, select the Color Fill Background layer and click Add mask at the bottom of Layers window.

As a result, a mask wil l be created for the Color Fill Background layer. Refer to the fol lowing i l lus-tration.

73.Click the mask for the Color Fill Background layer, invert it , and assign a Levels adjustment layer. Adjust the levels settings to create a l ight foggy effect that is more intense at the back of the scene than the foreground. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration to see the before and after images.

9-5 1R e n d e r i n g

You can also add a layer of mountains at the very back of the scene. If you l ike, you can use Back Mountains.png and add it just above the Sky layer in the Back group. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration to see the structure of the layers in Photoshop fi le, including the Back Mountains layer if you have added it .

Now, we need to add some blur to the background to create a depth of field effect. You can do this by applying a blur directly to the Back group.

74. In the Layers l ist, select the Back group and apply the Convert to Smart Object command to it .

A Smart Object is an object containing all collapsed layers, but you can sti l l open the object and access all the layers as you could before. If you double-click the Smart Object, it wil l open as a sepa-rate PSD fi le with al l layers available. When you save the Smart Object, any changes are applied to the Smart Object.

75.Select the Back group and apply a Gaussian Blur fi lter to it with Radius set to 0.3 pixels .

As a result, the Back group should look similar to the fol lowing i l lustration.

The background is finished, and we are almost ready to work on the foreground. But before we do this, we need to check how well the background fits with the middle ground. If you look closely at the transition area in the image, you can see a halo of bright pixels around the Middle layer. This is most noticeable around the roof, as seen in the fol lowing i l lustration.

9-52 R e n d e r i n g

We wil l f ix this problem with the Defringe tool.

76. In the Middle group select the Middle layer, and apply the Defringe tool (Layer ➤ Matting ➤ Defringe) with Width = 1 pixel .

The outl ine of grey pixels wil l disappear. Now we are ready to add grass to the foreground.

77.Place Foreground.png into the image, and rasterize the layer. Rename the layer Front Grass , and place it above all the other layers.

78.Use Defringe to remove the halo from this layer.

79.To keep everything easy to navigate and manipulate, place the Front Grass layer into a new group called Foreground , and place this group at the top of the l ist. Refer to the fol lowing i l lus-tration to see the structure of the layers.

The grass is too saturated. We wil l f ix this using the tools we’ve used in other steps.

80. In the Layers l ist, select the Front Grass layer and add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to it . Rename the layer Saturation Grass , and create a clipping mask for it . In the Adjustments win-dow, adjust the settings as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

9-53R e n d e r i n g

81.Add a new Color Balance adjustment layer, and name it Color Balance Grass . Create a Clipping Mask for it . In the Adjustments window, change settings as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

82.To make the grass brighter, add a Curves adjustment layer and name it Curves Grass . Create a clipping mask for it . In the Adjustments window, adjust the curve as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

The color correction of the Front Grass layer is finished. Now let’s add more sun.

9-54 R e n d e r i n g

83.Place Foreground_VRayLighting.png into the image, and rasterize the layer. Rename the layer Light front grass .

84.With the Color Balance tool, make the layer Light Front Grass more red, and with the Curves tool make it brighter. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration for recommended adjustments.

85.Change the Blend Mode of the Light front grass layer to Linear Dodge (Add) . Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration to see the front grass before and after corrections were applied.

To properly blur the image with a depth of field effect, we need to use the Lens Blur fi lter. This fi lter can be applied only to images with 8 bits per channel. Because our image has 16 bits per chan-nel, this layer needs to be converted to 8 bits per channel in a separate image first.

9-55R e n d e r i n g

86. In the Layers l ist, select Foreground group and duplicate it into a new image (Layer ➤ Duplicate Group ➤ Document: New) .

87. In the new image, use the Merge Down tool (Ctrl+E) to merge the group into a single layer. Con-vert the image with Image ➤ Mode ➤ 8 Bits/Channel .

88.Apply the Lens Blur fi lter with parameters from the fol lowing i l lustration.

89.Holding Shift, copy the layer back to the original image. Rename the layer Foreground blur and hide the Foreground group .

Now you have a layer with an active Lens Blur effect and also hidden source layers. If for some reason you do not l ike the foreground grass, you can always correct it by editing the original Fore-ground group. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration to see the grass blurred in the foreground.

90.Save the image to a PSD fi le.

Now, we’l l add some effects. First, let’s look at how we can create an effect similar to volume light in 3ds Max. The effect must show sun rays penetrating through tree leaves and hitting the surface of the roof and ground.

91.Create a new layer and place it at the top of the layers l ist. Rename it Volume Light and fi l l it with black color.

92.To this layer add a Fibers effect (Filter ➤ Render ➤ Fibers) . Use the parameters shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.

9-56 R e n d e r i n g

93.Rotate the layer by approximately 45 degrees.

Using a mask, you’l l paint areas to place the effect.

94.Add a Mask to the Volume Light layer and fi l l it with black color.

95.Using a white brush, paint areas below the tree leaves where the effect should be present. You may have to scale the image up to cover the canvas now that it has been rotated. Refer to the left side of the fol lowing i l lustration.

To change the color of the sun rays, you wil l use Color Balance .

96.Correct the color of the Volume Light layer using the Color Balance tool, adding approximately 50% red and 50% yellow .

97.Change the Opacity of the layer to 15% , and the Blending Mode to Screen .

The resulting volume light effect wil l be very subtle, as shown in the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration.

With images of relatively low resolution, you wil l sometimes need to sharpen parts of the image, but you should use this tool only in places that really lack sharpness. For example if the foreground and background are blurred, then obviously the sharpen effect should be applied only to the middle

9-57R e n d e r i n g

ground, and even on the middle ground the effect can be limited by a ZDepth mask. In our case, we want to add sharpness to the Middle layer.

98.Select the Middle layer and apply the Unsharp Mask fi lter to it (Filter ➤ Sharpen ➤ Unsharp Mask) . Set Amount to 100 , Radius to 0.5 , and Threshold to 0 .

99.Apply the same effect to the GI middle and Light middle layers.

100.Save the PSD fi le.

The image is almost finished. We want to add one last detail , a small lens effect. The effect itself can be created in 3ds Max and then saved as a PSD fi le for compositing.

101.Reset 3ds Max .

102.Open the Render Setup dialog. In the Assign Renderer rol lout, switch the renderer to Default Scanline instead of V-Ray .

103.Place an Omni l ight in the scene. Set the Perspective view so the l ight is somewhere in the upper right area of the viewport.

104.Open the Environment and Effects dialog box. In the Effects tab, cl ick Add , choose Lens Effects , and enable the Interactive option. In the Lens Effects Globals rol lout, cl ick the Pick Light button and pick the Omni l ight in the scene. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.

105. In the Lens Effects Parameters rol lout, add the Glow and Ring effects.

106.Render a test.

The Glow effect looks good, but the Ring effect needs to be reduced.

107. In the Lens Effects Parameters rol lout, select Ring from the l ist of effects. Go to the Ring Elements rol lout, and set Size to 8.0 and Intensity to 10.0 .

9-58 R e n d e r i n g

108.Render the image, and save the result as Lens_effect.jpg .

109. In Photoshop, place Lens_effect.jpg into the PSD document. Rename the layer Lens effect . Scale it down to 18% of its original size, and change its Blend Mode to Screen .

110.Change the position of the Lens effect layer so the glow appears over the surface of the water-fal l . Increase this effect by duplicating the layer or changing its transparency.

111.Save the image as Final_Project.psd . You can also open Final_Project_Catapult.psd and compare your results.

112.The project is now finished.

SummaryThe goal of this chapter was to introduce some practical rendering and post production methods that can be used in just about any type of scene. Here, we demonstrated the techniques used to produce the book’s cover image. In reality, there are virtually l imitless techniques that could be used to achieve the same results. What’s important is understanding what you want the final product to look l ike, and knowing a sufficient number of tools and techniques to achieve it . In the end, it al l comes down to dedication and a love for the work.

1

Critical V-Ray Settings

V-Ray is a thiRd-paRty plugin that runs within 3ds Max, replacing its default scanline render engine and providing users the abil ity to achieve greater realism with more speed and less diff iculty. Devel-oped by the Chaos Group in Sofia, Bulgaria, V-Ray has become the most widely used render engine for architectural studios around the world and is a top choice of many movies studios as well . Backed by an innovative group of developers and a dedicated user base, V-Ray stands poised to be a leader in render engine software for many years to come.

So what makes V-Ray so special? There are four characteristics that accurately define the suit-abil ity of any 3D program; speed, ease of use, quality, and cost. Along with a great marketing strategy, the success of V-Ray in its first few years was due to a great mixture of each of these qualit ies. Essential ly, al l advanced render engines are capable of the same level of quality, but what continues to make V-Ray a favorite among many users is its speed and ease of use. And although not free l ike mental ray, its price of $999 (as of the printing of this book) is worth every penny for many produc-tion companies who cherish every hour saved in render time and every hour saved in employee training.

The goal of this document is to provide a quick overview of the most crit ical V-Ray features of the final 1 .5 release and a quick reference for great test and production render settings for both sti l ls and animations. It is important to note that settings that should not usually be changed from their default values wil l usually not be discussed here. The features in V-Ray that we consider most crit i-cal, and therefore, the features highlighted here include the fol lowing:

• Image Sampling

• GI Engines

• Irradiance Maps

• Light Cache

• DMC

Append ix A

A-2 C r i t i c a l V - R a y S e t t i n g s

• Color Mapping

• Environment Lighting

Image samplingImage sampling is arguably the most important and least understood feature in V-Ray. If you don’t conduct good image sampling, having extremely high quality settings in other areas of the program, such as GI and materials, wil l do you absolutely no good.

Image sampling controls how V-Ray implements antial iasing in your scenes, which is a process used to reduce imperfections in the rendering process caused by color changes that are too drastic, and that occur over too small an area of screen space to be adequately depicted by the pixels that define that space. After GI is calculated, V-Ray determines the final color to assign to a pixel by sam-pling each pixel. This simply means that a test is conducted to determine what object is detected at an infinitely small point lying at the center of each pixel, along with the material and l ighting applied to that point. If V-Ray only takes one sample per pixel, then whatever color it detects at the center of a pixel is what the entire pixel wil l be colored. But because objects, materials and l ighting can change over the span of a pixel, the center of a pixel shouldn’t dictate how the entire pixel is colored. When it does, the result is a chiseled, al iased look throughout an image.

By conducting subpixel sampling, you can force V-Ray to divide each pixel into smaller subpix-els and conduct sampling at the center of each subpixel, with the end goal of determining the best possible color to assign to each pixel. The more subpixel samples that are taken, the better an image sampler can determine what l ies within each pixel and what final color to assign.

An important note to remember about image sampling is that when fine granular-l ike noise appears in an image, the cause is usually image sampling. The exception to this would be the noise caused by the Brute Force render engine, which also produces fine granular-l ike noise. When large splotchy noise appears in an image, the cause wil l almost always be the irradiance map or l ight cache. The one exception to this is usually HDRIs.

Image SamplersThere are three ways in which you can implement image sampling through V-Ray in your scenes. Deciding which method to use usually requires experimenting with small portions of your scene or with high face-count objects hidden.

Fixed rateThis method takes a fixed number of samples per pixel. When Subdivs is set to the default value of 1, one sample is taken at the center of each. The benefit of this sampler type is that you know without a doubt that a certain number of samples wil l be taken for each pixel. The downside, however, is that the sampler is not adaptive and can’t speed up a rendering even when higher image sampling isn’t needed.

This sampler should only be used for production renders for scenes where a majority of the rendered image is made up of lots of blurry effects or very detailed textures. However, this method is usually a poor choice for animations because of the excessive render times it creates. For produc-tion renders, a value of 5 or 6 should be used. In scenes with tremendous detail or blurry effects, values of 4 or less wil l result in detail being lost and values greater than 6 wil l usually result in an indiscernible improvement in detail .

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Adaptive DMCAs its name implies, this sampler is adaptive, which means that it can implement greater sampling when greater sampling is needed and lesser sampling when lesser sampling is acceptable. This image sampler subdivides pixels according to the Min subdivs specif ied, and if it’s determined that the color variation in adjacent pixels is not too excessive, then no additional subdivisions wil l be made. However, if the sampler determines that the variation in color between adjacent pixels is too great, then it wil l continue to subdivide pixels during subsequent passes unti l such time that it determines the pixels are close enough or unti l the maximum number of subdivisions allowed by the Max subdivs value has been reached. And by default, the setting that determines how close pixel colors have to be is the Noise thresh value within the DMC Sampler rol lout.

Unfortunately, the Noise thresh value controls the acceptable noise level in al l blurry affects in V-Ray, such as GI, depth-of-field, motion blur, glossy reflection and refraction, and so on. This is not a good thing because if you improve the quality of image sampling using this value, you wil l be requiring a higher level of quality in al l blurry effects, even when that higher quality is unnecessary. Therefore, you should always disable the Use DMC sampler thresh. option and specify the acceptable level of color variation using the Color thresh value within the Adaptive DMC image sampler rol lout. When you do, you can control image sampling quality independently of al l other blurry effects.

The importance of the Color thresh value can not be overstated. This value controls how adap-tive the image sampler is. If you set this value to 0.0, you are tel l ing V-Ray that you want perfectly noiseless image sampling. This of course isn’t possible, so the best that V-Ray can do would be to apply the Max subdivs value to every pixel in your image. If this is done, however, the image sampler is no longer adaptive and there is no point in using it . In fact, if you set the Color thresh to 0.0 and use a Min and Max value of 1 and 4, you wil l get the exact same result as you would with the Fixed image sampler and a Subdivs value of 4.

This is the best sampler to use for most production renders, but it should not be used for test renders over the much faster Adaptive Subdivsion sampler. We suggest that values of 2 and 5 be used for production renders, or 3 and 6 if necessary. Do not use Min values less than 2 because V-Ray wil l almost always apply inadequate sampling somewhere in your image (because of the Color thresh value specif ied) and do not use Max values greater than 6 because you wil l usually see indis-cernible improvement at the price of much longer render times.

Adaptive subdivision samplerThis sampler provides another adaptive solution for image sampling, but what makes this tool so great is that you can allow V-Ray to take less than 1 sample per pixel. This simply means that pixels can be grouped together and 1 sample taken for the entire group. That being said, it is important to note that the adaptive subdivision sampler is quite different from the adaptive DMC sampler when values of 0 or less are used. When a Min rate of zero is specif ied, each pixel corner is sampled rather than the center of each pixel. When values less than 0 are used, the adaptive subdivision sampler sti l l takes the samples at the corners of pixels, although it is somewhat vague to define what exactly is the number of samples per pixel. Nevertheless, it can roughly be stated that a value of -1 skips every other corner in the horizontal and vertical directions, and the result is that you get blocks of 2x2=4 pixels. A value of -2 gets you blocks of 4x4=16 pixels, and so on. The actual block size is always a power of 2.

When not using blurry effects or detailed textures and objects, this sampler is a possible alter-native. For scenes with large areas of smooth surfaces, such as a large wall with a smooth appearance, the Adaptive subdivision sampler is unbeatable. But if you can not get away with using a negative Min rate, then it is somewhat pointless to even be using this sampler for production.

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Another disadvantage of this image sampler is that it uses more RAM than the other samplers, and since RAM is most crit ical during production renders, this is yet another reason why the adaptive subdivision sampler is usually only acceptable for test renders. For test renders, we recommend always using this sampler.

Antialiasing FiltersThe very last process applied to a rendering, with the exception of post-render effects, is antial ias-ing. After image sampling is conducted to determine the best possible color to assign a pixel based on subpixel sampling, antial iasing is applied to blur each pixel with neighboring pixels so that an aliased look can be further avoided. Like any blurry effect in V-Ray, antial iasing fi lters can increase render times, and generally, render times increase as blurriness increases.

The fol lowing are good choices for antial iasing fi lters:

• None – You can disable antial iasing altogether and sti l l achieve great results for test and pro-duction renders for both sti l ls and animations. The benefit of not using a fi lter is typically faster render times. Using no fi lter provides a look similar to Mitchell-Netravali .

• Catmull Rom – this fi lter provides sharpness that makes it great for sti l l renderings with a large amount of detail . This fi lter is not appropriate for animations because it generates side effects often referred to as fl ickering and swimming.

• Video – this fi lter is good for animations because it softens or blurs each image to mitigate the effect of f l ickering. However, this fi lter can take about 10% to 20% longer than any of these others l isted here.

• Mitchell-Netravali – this fi lter provides a good mixture of sharpness vs. softness and is often used in production sti l ls.

Suggested Render Settings

Test RendersAdaptive Subdivision with Min/Max = -1/2 and Clr thresh = 0.1 ( i .e. , default values)

Production RendersAdpative DMC with Min/Max = 2/5 up to 3/6, Use Noise Thresh = disabled, Clr thresh = 0.005 down to 0.003

GI EnginesAll GI calculated by V-Ray is classif ied as a Primary Bounce or a Secondary Bounce . When a GI engine is assigned to calculate all primary bounces, its mission is to calculate the affect of l ight bouncing of al l surfaces directly in view or indirectly in view by way of reflections or refractions. This simply means that if you can see a surface, the primary bounce engine is responsible for calculating the GI for that surface. When a GI engine is assigned to calculate all secondary bounces, its mission is to calculate the affect of l ight bouncing of al l surfaces that can not be seen, directly or indirectly. Any surface whose GI is not calculated by the primary bounce engine assigned, is calculated by the assigned secondary bounce engine.

The reason for the two classif ications is so that different GI engines can be used to calculate the affects of different types of l ight bouncing off surfaces in a scene. Since a primary bounces surface is

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directly visible, it should make sense that the GI for a primary bounce surface needs to be more accurate than the GI calculated for a secondary bounce surface. Just because you can’t see a sur-face that is outside your field-of-view, doesn’t mean that the surface doesn’t play an important role in the total GI solution for your scene. But it does mean that you can use faster, less accurate calcula-tions for the GI on that surface. By calculating an accurate primary bounce and an approximated secondary bounce, you can achieve accurate GI in an efficient manner.

Irradiance MapsThe Irradiance map is the most widely used engine for the primary bounce because it is capable of very accurate GI in a relatively short amount of time. Because it’s so accurate, it’s not even an option for the secondary bounce.

ResolutionAs its name implies, the irradiance map is a map, and just l ike a bitmap, an irradiance map has a resolution. The resolution of the irradiance map is completely determined by the Min and Max values found at the top of the Irradiance map rollout. The reason the irradiance map can achieve such accu-rate results in such a relatively short amount of time, is because it is adaptive. As an adaptive solution, V-Ray can apply a higher resolution to parts of an image that need more detail and more accurate GI, and a lower resolution to parts that don’t require such accuracy.

When the irradiance map algorithm begins its work, samples are taken on all the primary bounce surfaces at a density defined by the Min Rate value. When the min rate is set to 0, the irradiance map resolution matches the rendered image resolution and a sample is calculated for each pixel. If the min rate is set to -1, the irradiance map resolution is cut in half and 1/4th the number of samples are calculated. When set to -2, the resolution is cut in half again, and the number of samples is reduced again.

After the irradiance map creates samples during its first pass, as defined by the Min Rate, it then looks to the threshold values, which are ghosted out when presets are used, to determine if the samples taken during the 1st pass wil l be accurate enough to define the GI on all the primary bounce surfaces. If the colors calculated by adjacent samples are too different, or the normals of the sur-faces at the samples are too different, or if the distance between samples is too great, then V-Ray wil l force another pass of samples to be taken at a higher resolution. If the samples are determined to be accurate enough in a particular area, then no additional samples wil l be calculated in that area in future passes. This process repeats unti l the maximum resolution, as defined by the Max Rate is reached. So if a min rate of -1 and a max rate of 0 is used, then 2 passes wil l be made. The first pass wil l create a map with a resolution one-half that of the rendered image, and then a second pass wil l be made to take extra samples as needed at a resolution that matches the rendered image. If a max rate of 1 is used, then the final pass wil l create samples at a resolution twice that of the rendered image.

The irradiance map comes with a nice l ist of presets that can be relied on for test and produc-tion renderings. For test renderings, we recommend using a Very Low preset and for production renderings we recommend using a Medium preset. If the Medium preset does not al low for enough detail to be shown in the final rendered image, then you can use a High preset. However, you should understand that when you switch from a Medium to High preset, the Max Rate changes from -1 to 0, which means that the final pass wil l be created at twice the resolution and take four times as long as the final pass calculated for the Medium preset. Another very important thing to remember about irradiance map resolution is that as you increase the resolution of the map, you wil l usually make it easier to see noise in the map. If you use a very low irradiance map resolution, such as that which would come with a Very Low preset, then the map wil l be blurred. Since the map is blurred, so to is the noise. If you use a very high resolution, such as that which would come with a Very High preset,

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then the map wil l be very detailed and the noise wil l be much easier to see. The noise wil l become smaller, but by becoming smaller it wil l also become more stark and easier to see. When many users encounter noise in their irradiance map, their f irst instinct is to use a higher resolution; however, this wil l only make the noise easier to see. Instead of increasing resolution beyond the -1 rate defined by the Medium preset, we recommend improving the two other crit ical settings in the irradiance map rollout; Hsph. sudivs and/or Interp. samples.

As a final note about irradiance map resolution, you could avoid using presets altogether. How-ever, you should only do this when you understand explicit ly what each value controlled by the presets represents. The presets offer great configurations and it should be understood that improv-ing these settings wil l only make the irradiance map less adaptive, and therefore, less efficient. By reducing the threshold values involved, you are tel l ing V-Ray you want a more accurate irradiance map, and therefore, it wil l have no choice but to create samples closer to the specif ied max rate. If you set each threshold to 0, you would be tell ing V-Ray that you want a perfectly accurate irradiance map. Although that is not possible, it wil l do the only thing it can do, which is to sample all surfaces at the max rate. Your irradiance map would then be a brute force solution.

Hsph subdivsThis value stands for hemispheric subdivisions. When a sample is calculated, a virtual hemisphere is placed above the sample and rays are shot out in al l directions to determine what colors are shown in the various directions. One ray might detect the blue sky, another the green grass, another the gray asphalt. All of those rays are averaged together to create a final sample color. A single ray is shot through each segment of the subdivided hemisphere and the more rays that are shot, the more accurate the final color wil l be. So increasing this value increases the number of rays and the accu-racy of the final color.

This setting has an enormous effect on the time it takes to calculate an irradiance map. You can easily double your irradiance map calculation time by doubling this value, even when the improve-ment in the final image is indiscernible. Because of this, we highly recommend using the lowest acceptable value that doesn’t negatively impact the final image quality. We have found that the default value of 50 is only rarely needed and that the same level of quality can be achieved with a value of 20. When noise develops, rather than automatically increasing this setting, we recommend increasing the third crit ical setting; Interp. samples.

Interp. SamplesThis value stands for interpolation samples. Since a finite amount of samples are taken throughout an image, V-Ray uses interpolation to estimate the GI in the spaces between the samples. If interpola-tion were not conducted, the irradiance map would take on a very cellular or faceted appearance. To determine the primary bounce GI at a point in between samples, V-Ray uses the Interp. samples value to specify how many surrounding samples to blend together, which in turn determines the final GI color to assign to the point. Increasing this value wil l cause more blurring in the irradiance map, wil l reduce the visible noise, and wil l reduce the visible detail . The default value of 20 works well in many cases, but you wil l often have to raise this value to something much higher to remove noise in the irradiance map. If you are trying to remove noise, we recommend increasing this value up to 100 before you start testing Hsph. subdivs. values above 20. The impact on rendering time of increasing interpolation samples is very small compared to the impact of increasing hemispheric subdivisions. If you increase this value too much, you may lose detail and you wil l have no choice but to increase the number of samples, i .e. the irradiance map resolution, or increase the quality of the samples, i .e. hemispheric subdivisions.

As you can see, the three settings discussed for irradiance maps are interconnected and are used to basically do two things; control noise and detail . For each scene, there is an optimal

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configuration of these three settings that wil l yield great image quality in the shortest amount of time possible.

Suggested Render Settings

Test RendersPreset = Low, Hsph. subdivs. = 20, Interp. samp. = 20

Production RendersPreset = Low, Hsph. subdivs. = 20 up to 50, Interp. samp. = 20 up to 100

Light CacheThe Light cache is another complex algorithm used to approximate indirect i l lumination. Unlike some of the other GI solution types, the l ight cache has only been around a few years and it was first devel-oped by the makers of V-Ray. It’s a fantastic l ighting solution and the most widely preferred secondary bounce engine among V-Ray users. There are two main reasons for its continued success. One is that it provides a great mixture of speed and quality and another is that it’s very simple to use, rela-tive to other solution types. One of the things that makes it so easy to use is that it does not have a multitude of variables that control adaptive behavior l ike the irradiance map, and this alone makes it a much simpler solution to use. Nevertheless, it is sti l l a complex creation that sti l l contains enough variables to confuse and overwhelm many users.

The practicality of the l ight cache can be best attributed to its speed, which in turn, can be attributed to its abil ity to compute a very large number of l ight bounces very quickly. As a side effect to this benefit , it is not as accurate a solution as the irradiance map or, as we’l l see in a moment, the DMC solution. And because it’s not as accurate as these 2 methods, it’s not a good choice for use as the primary bounce unless you perform progressive path tracing. Progressive path tracing is a great technique in which the l ight cache is uti l ized for both the primary and secondary bounces to produce a complete rendering from the moment the rendering process begins. The rendering is simply refined slowly over time and stopped when an acceptable level of noise is reached.

Because the l ight cache is so good at calculating a large number of l ight bounces, it’s very effec-tive for interiors, where l ight tends to be trapped more and bounce around more surfaces than it does in exterior scenes. Additionally, the l ight cache effectively spreads out the l ight very well , mak-ing it even more effective for interiors; smooth l ighting is extremely important for nice interior images. This is not meant to take anything away from the use of l ight cache for exteriors, because we sti l l use it more than any other type for both interiors and exteriors.

There are just a few settings within the l ight cache rollout that would be considered crit ical to most scenes. By far, the most crit ical setting is Subdivs , which dictates the number of rays that are shot from the camera onto the primary bounce surfaces. Those rays shot onto the primary bounce surfaces approximate the affect of GI from secondary bounces, and the number of rays used is the square of the Subdivs value. For example, when the default value of 1000 is used, the number of rays sampled is actually 1 mil l ion. When a value of 2000 is used, 4 mil l ion rays are sampled. So every time you double the Subdivs value, you use four times as many rays and the l ight cache takes four times as long to calculate.

For test renders of sti l l images, try using a Subdivs value of 100 for large scenes and 250 for small scenes. For production renders, simply multiply this range by ten. Try a value of 1000 for large scenes and 2500 for small scenes. Although these values work well for sti l l images created in Single Frame mode, animations must be created in Fly-through mode, and in this mode, al l of the rays used are spread throughout al l of the frames of the animation. If your camera doesn’t move very far or very

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fast, and if your animation path isn’t too long, then you can use similar values to those just men-tioned. However, if every few seconds you see a completely new set of surfaces and your animation path runs continuously for a long period of time, then these values wil l be far from sufficient. As a general rule, it’s not a good idea to have long camera sequences, such as 20 seconds or more. If you keep your sequences to under 20 seconds in length and if your camera does not move so far or so fast that you see completely new surfaces every few seconds, then a good rule to apply to Fly-through mode would be to double the Subdivs value used for a sti l l rendering.

When light cache samples are taken for a single frame, they are spread throughout the entire image. The areas in between samples are shaded based on the information calculated by the closest sample. If interpolation were disabled, you would see the entire image broken into array of sample cells, where all points within a cell would be shaded the same color as the sample taken at the center of the cell . By increasing the number of rays used, you can break the scene into smaller cells and the smaller the cells, the more accurate your GI wil l be.

You can specify the size of the sample cells through the Sample size setting. When the Scale set-ting is to Screen , the sample size is specif ied as a fraction of the screen size. For example, when set to the default value of 0.02, the Sample size value wants to make each sample 2% of the screen’s size. This does not mean that the sample size wil l necessari ly be 2%, because if there aren’t enough samples to divide up the image into, then the actual sample size could be much larger. This is a crit i-cal thing to understand because the Sample size setting dictates the size of a sample if, and only if, there are enough samples to allow for the size specif ied with this setting. In other words, if the Sub-divs value is too low and there just aren’t enough samples being taken, it doesn’t matter how small you make the sample size because the image can only be broken down into so many sample cells. Too few sample cells means that you won’t be able to achieve the desired sample size, and there-fore, detail may be lost.

Once enough samples are taken to allow the for the sample size that you dictate with the Sam-ple size setting, then any additional samples wil l simply be used to improve the color of the samples. More samples wil l yield better sample color accuracy.

When the Scale is set to screen, the sample sizes in the foreground of an image wil l always be more accurate than the samples in the background. For example, when a sample is set to 2% of the screen size, then 2% of the screen size in the foreground might mean 1 foot while 2% of the screen size in the background might mean 10 feet. This simply means that objects in the foreground wil l have a more accurate l ight cache applied, which is a good thing. However, when you render an animation and your camera moves into and around a scene in a way that causes the view to constantly change and new surfaces to constantly be seen, then you wil l need to use the World option. If you use the Screen option in these situations, then objects which are init ial ly in the background wil l eventually be in the foreground and need just as much accuracy as all other objects.

When you set the Scale to World, the Sample size is no longer set as a percentage of the screen size, but rather as a real-world distance. Unlike the Screen default size value of 0.02, which is an excellent choice for almost al l situations, the default World value wil l almost always need to be adjusted. A good place to start in determining what size to use is to pick some area in the center of your screen and determine what the real-world distance would be on a surface that would be mea-sured as 2% of the screen size. If 2% of your screen size would equate to a distance of 10 feet, then use a sample size of 10 feet. If 2% equates to 100 feet, then use 100 feet. You simply need to find a commonly viewed area that provides a good representation of a surface that is not always seen in the foreground and not always seen in the background.

For animations, the Subdivs value needs to be increased beyond that which you would use for a sti l l image, because all of the samples wil l have to be spread out through the entire animation. The optimal value is determined by several variables, such as animation length, the speed at which the camera’s perspective changes, the detail in your objects and materials, and much more. As a start,

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you can try to simply double the value you would use for a sti l l image and this wil l usually provide good results.

When the irradiance map / l ight cache combination is used, the secondary bounces are calcu-lated before the primary bounces. The reason for this is that the l ight cache is not as accurate as the irradiance map, so instead of calculating GI in a very detailed manner with the irradiance map and then calculating GI in a very rough manner with the l ight cache, V-Ray instead starts with a l ight cache to roughly approximate the GI and then uses that information to more accurately and more quickly calculate the much more detailed irradiance map. It just wouldn’t make sense to do it any other way. When creating an animation of a static scene, i .e. a scene where only the camera moves, the fol lowing is the proper procedure. This procedure wil l not work on scenes with changing l ights, changing materials, or changing objects.

1. Set Primary and Secondary bounces to Light Cache

2. In the Global Switches rol lout, enable the Don’t Render Final Image option

3. Enable the Show Calc phase

4. Change the mode to Fly-through

5. Set the Subdivs value

6. Auto-save the l ight cache

7. Render the l ight cache

8. Change the mode to From File

9. Click Browse and load the saved light cache

10. In the Indirect i l lumination rol lout, switch the Primary bounce type to Irradiance map

11. Enable the Show Calc phase

12. Change the mode to Increm. Add to Current Map

13. Auto-save the irradiance map

14. In the Common tab, switch to the Active Time Segment option

15. Set Nth frame value

16. Render the irradiance map

17. Change the mode to From File

18. Click Browse and load the saved irradiance map

19. Check whether or not to use the Use Light Cache for Glossy Rays option and None for secondary bounces

20. Turn off the Don’t Render Final Image option

21. In the Common tab, change the Nth frame option back to 1

22. Save the final rendered output to fi le

23. Render the final output

One final option worth mentioning in the Light cache rollout is the option to Use Light Cache for Glossy Rays . This option allows you to drastical ly reduce the time needed to calculate blurry reflec-tions and refractions by borrowing information stored in the l ight cache. When this option is used, you must leave the l ight cache enabled as the secondary bounce.

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Suggested Render Settings

Test RendersSubdivs = 100 for large scenes and 250 for small scenes

Production RendersSubdivs = 1000 for sti l ls of large scenes, 2500 for sti l ls of small scenes, and approximately twice these values for animations, Scale = Screen for sti l ls and animations with minimal change in view-point, Scale = World for animations where camera moves in and around scene and view constantly changes.

Brute ForceThe final GI engine discussed in this appendix is the Brute Force engine. The brute force engine is neither our favorite primary nor secondary bounce solution, but we do use it on occasion and it is a great choice in certain situations. The term brute force is used in mathematics to describe a method of solving an equation by trying all possible solutions. As an example, applied to the field of cryptog-raphy, or code breaking, it simply means to break a code by testing every possible permutation. In V-Ray, the name is used because this render engine is potential ly capable of computing the GI every-where in a scene. This method is not adaptive, l ike the irradiance map and light cache, because samples are taken independently of al l other samples and all other frames (for animations). There-fore, no sampling information is borrowed and no samples are blended together. Although the brute force method is theoretical ly capable of calculating a perfect solution, this is never really feasible or practical . Like other render solutions, this method is simply another way of approximating GI to an ‘acceptable’ degree of accuracy. Brute force is a great option for calculating GI in a scene for certain situations, but to better understand what those situations might be, you need to know what the advantages and disadvantages are of using the brute force method.

There are four primary advantages for using the brute force method over other GI solutions. The greatest advantage of the brute force method is the abil ity to produce very accurate GI. The only competit ion brute force has in this regards is the irradiance map, which because of its adaptive nature leads many to choose the irradiance map as their f irst choice for the primary bounce. Remem-ber that the primary bounce requires a high level of accuracy. Because the brute force method is referred to as an exact method, it should be no surprise that there are very few controls used to dictate the quality of the image, and this is the second advantage. A third advantage is that because brute force doesn’t store sample information for later use, it requires far less memory to use than the adaptive methods. The fourth and final big advantage of using brute force is that when rendering scenes with moving objects (besides the camera), it is the solution that provides the most accurate GI and it is a legitimate alternative to rendering a scene in multiple passes and compositing the sepa-rate passes later.

There is really only one main disadvantage of the brute force method for calculating GI and that would be the time it takes to create quality images. This one disadvantage, however, makes this solu-tion method unacceptable for many users in many situations. In order to achieve high quality GI, either for primary or secondary bounces, a value much greater than the default 8 Subdivs must be used. In most scenes, you wil l probably find that values above 30 are needed to achieve a noiseless image. Since noise is easiest to see on large, smoothly shaded surfaces, you must usually use a very high Subdivs setting on these types of scenes. However, these are just the type of scenes where the irradiance map and light cache combination shine. Therefore, the brute force method is best suited for scenes with high levels of detail either in materials or in object structure. Incidentally, because this

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method is so much slower than the irradiance map and light cache combination, it should never be used for test renders.

There is an additional setting within the Brute force GI rol lout; Secondary bounces. This setting controls the number of times light, processed by the secondary bounce solution, is al lowed to bounce from one surface to another. When the brute force method is not used as the secondary bounce solution, this setting can not control the number of secondary bounces. Since the l ight cache is so much faster than the brute force method, and since a high level of accuracy is not needed for sec-ondary bounces, using the brute force method for secondary bounces should only be used in very specif ic situations. For those specif ic situations, increasing this value beyond the default value of 3 can help provide accurate GI in areas where l ight has a hard time reaching, and in this way can add depth and contrast to dark areas.

Suggested Render Settings

Test RendersThe brute force solution should not be used for test renders

Production RendersSubdivs = 30 to 80

DMC SamplerThe DMC Sampler plays a crit ical role in specifying the quality of al l blurry effects in V-Ray. A blurry effect in V-Ray is any effect that provides a blurry look, such as motion blur, depth of field, area l ights, blurry reflections, and GI, just to name a few. DMC stands for deterministic Monte Carlo. Monte Carlo is used in mathematics to describe a method of solving complex mathematical problems through the use of algorithms. The designation was first made in the 1930s and is actually a reference to the casinos in the city of Monte Carlo, Monaco and was chosen by a group of mathematicians who were relating the ‘random’ and ‘repetit ive’ nature of the casinos to the similar nature of the algorithms they created. DMC is a variation of this approach. Unlike Monte Carlo sampling, which would result in ran-dom sampling and slightly different renderings every time, DMC uses pre-defined sampling sequences so that re-rendering wil l always produce the exact same image. V-Ray uses DMC sampling for al l blurry effects, and because of this, two of the settings within the DMC Sampler rollout are crit ical to every scene.

In V-Ray, there is a term called importance sampling that describes the technique of controll ing the number of samples taken for a blurry value based on the importance of the value. Importance sampling is controlled by the Adaptive amount setting found in the DMC Sampler rol lout. By setting this parameter to its lowest possible value of 0.0, you are tel l ing V-Ray that you don’t want to conduct importance sampling and therefore, don’t want V-Ray to base the number of samples taken for a blurry value on how important that value is. By setting this parameter to its highest possible value of 1 .0, you are tel l ing V-Ray that you do want to abbreviate the DMC algorithm for each blurry effect based on their importance. Why would you want to do this? Well just l ike any other area of V-Ray, we want to save time.

The Noise threshold value only plays a role when importance sampling is conducted and impor-tance sampling only plays a role when a blurry value has enough subdivisions, thereby generating enough samples. But remember that the values in the DMC Sampler rollout affect al l blurry values. For this reason, we highly recommend making sure first that each blurry value is set properly. Then

A- 12 C r i t i c a l V - R a y S e t t i n g s

and only then should you experiment with lowering the noise threshold. The smaller your adaptive amount, the less effect your noise value wil l have. For most situations, we recommend increasing the adaptive amount to its highest value for the best speed vs. quality. The one exception to this would be scenes using HDRIs, in which case reducing the noise threshold to 0.8 or 0.9 wil l often go a long way to reducing noise.

There are 2 other settings worth mentioning in the DMC Sampler rollout, the Global Subdivs mul-tipl ier and the Min Subdivs value. By doubling the Global Subdivs value, you are tel l ing V-Ray to double every Subdivs value in the program, with the exception of the Subdivs values for l ight cache, caus-tics, photon map, and image sampling. Some use this to quickly increase the quality in their scene, but we don’t recommend doing so. It would be l ike putting a cast on both arms and both legs when only one leg is broken. It wil l definitely improve the quality of a problematic setting but it is l ikely to improve settings that don’t need improvement, and thus, it can lead to dramatic increases in render-ing time. The same applies to the Min samples value. It can be hard to specify a min samples value when you don’t even know the true number of samples you are working with and even if you did, you might be applying a much higher quality setting to an area of your scene that doesn’t need it .

Suggested Render Settings

Test RendersAdaptive amount = 1 .0, Noise threshold = 0.01

Production RendersAdaptive amount = 1 .0, Noise threshold = 0.005

Color Mapping Color mapping is a term used to describe the way V-Ray changes the final color of your screen’s pixels to adapt to the l imitations of the typical computer display. It works much like the exposure controls on a real camera or even within 3ds Max. It can also be compared to the way the human eye changes to allow more or less l ight to enter the retina. Color mapping is a requirement for any ren-dered image, and fortunately, it’s also one of the easiest to understand.

As mentioned, color mapping is a lot l ike exposure control, and while you could use exposure control in the Environment and Effects dialog box, it’s not a good idea to do so because color map-ping in V-Ray provides much more power and versati l ity than the exposure controls native to 3ds Max (mental ray not withstanding) and using both color mapping and exposure control would be l ike using exposure control twice. The results are diff icult to predict and usually just not very good.

All color mapping controls are found in the color mapping rollout and in the drop down list are 7 different options to choose. By default, l inear color mapping is employed and all this option does is multiply the final intensity of al l pixels within the 0-255 range an equal amount. For any color, an intensity of 0 results in a pure black pixel and an intensity of 255 results in pure white. So all of the pixels from 0 to 128 wil l be brightened the same degree and all pixels from 129 to 255 wil l be dark-ened the same degree. But some pixels actually want to be displayed above the 255 level. If, for example, you look at the sun with the naked eye, you natural ly want to squint or shut your eyes to keep them from being damaged. Yet, if you take a picture of a mid-day sun and look at it with the naked eye, al l you see is the color white. When you look at the sun with the naked eye, you see pure white, which corresponds to a color of 255, but the sun shines with luminosity or radiation, which is what actually burns your eyes. The color of the sun is captured in a photograph as pure white and

A- 13C r i t i c a l V - R a y S e t t i n g s

nothing more because the i l lumination is clipped at this 255 value. The same thing happens automatically with color mapping. I l lumination in an image that wants to be a higher value than 255, such as a direct view of a VRay sun, is cl ipped at this value.

Although there are seven different options for color mapping, I recommend using one of 3 differ-ent options; Exponential , HSV exponential , or Reinhard . Let’s look at each briefly.

The exponential option wil l saturate pixels, i .e. add color, based on their intensity. What this means is that pixels that are really intense, or bright white, wil l be given more color, thereby replacing the white with color, and pixels that are less intense wil l be given less color. The end result of this is that brighter areas in the scene wil l not appear so bright and darker areas wil l not appear so dark.

The HSV exponential option is a minor variation of exponential . HSV stands for hue, saturation and value, and this type of color mapping preserves the hue and saturation of a pixel and only al lows the value to be altered. The result of this color mapping is similar to exponential except HSV expo-nential wil l provide a more vibrant display of colors and keep materials from being washed out so easily.

The final color mapping mentioned is Reinhard. This is a great option to use because it provides a mixture of l inear and exponential color mapping. Linear color mapping usually al lows too many sur-faces to be overexposed while exponential often provides too much change in hue and saturation. The mixture of these two color mapping types is controlled by the Burn value. When Burn is set to 1.0, the result is purely l inear color mapping and when Burn is set to 0.0, the result is an exponential-l ike color mapping. A good place to start color mapping in any scene is with Reinhard and a Burn value of 0.5. This provides a 50/50 blend of Linear and Exponential and the result is usually a great place to start testing the l ighting in a scene. Just l ike so many other areas of V-Ray, you really need to test different color mapping types and different settings within the various types. So in the case of Rein-hard, if you render a scene and determine that there’s just too many areas of overly bright highlights, al l you need to do is reduce your Burn value and bring it closer to Exponential color mapping.

With the first four color mapping types available in the drop-down menu, you are give the capa-bil ity of increasing or decreasing the i l lumination of dark areas of your image separately from bright areas. Raising the Bright multipl ier increases i l lumination in already bright areas of your scene and decreasing the bright multipl ier decreases i l lumination. The dark multipl ier works the same way. Therefore, raising the dark multipl ier increases i l lumination in already dark areas of your scene and decreasing the dark multipl ier decreases i l lumination.

Within the Color mapping rollout are two options that can drastical ly affect the quality of images; Clamp output and Sub-pixel mapping . When Clamp output is enabled, the color mapping is applied after the pixel colors have been clamped (or capped) at the maximum value of 255. This simply means that even though some pixels want to be displayed above the maximum color value of 255, such as reflections of high intensity l ight sources, color mapping is applied to them after their color value has been reduced. If this option is not used, then the averaging of dark pixels next to bright pixels can result in an aliased look or in small white dots. Sub-pixel mapping allows color mapping to be applied to sub-pixel samples taken rather than to an entire pixel. Enabling this option is often necessary to remove the same aliased edges and white dots just mentioned with Clamp output. We highly recom-mend enabling these options by default . Doing so can drastical ly improve image quality with negligible increase in render times.

The final option that should be addressed in this section of V-Ray is the Affect Background option. Leaving this option enabled wil l cause the background color or map to be affected by any changes made to color mapping. Although we recommend using a background rig in your scenes, if you decide to take advantage of the VRaySky map as your background, then you should disable this option so that your sky map doesn’t change just because you need to change the exposure of objects in your scene.

A- 14 C r i t i c a l V - R a y S e t t i n g s

Suggested Render Settings

Test RendersReinhard with a Burn value of 0.5, Sub-pixel mapping = enabled, Clamp output = enabled, Affect back-ground = disabled

Production RendersExponential , Sub-pixel mapping = enabled, Clamp output = enabled, Affect background = disabled

Environment LightingA discussion on environment l ighting in V-Ray can lead to lengthy coverage over a wide range of similar topics, such as HDRI l ighting. This particular topic and several other topics could fi l l volumes, but the intent here is to simply introduce the concept so it can be built upon more easily with future study.

Environment l ighting is simply i l lumination of a scene with skylight. However, skylight can be cre-ated in a number of different ways. It can be created with images, with a VRay dome light, a VRaySky map, an IES Sky, or it can be controlled right through the environment rollout. This section wil l focus on i l lumination through the Environment rollout.

When GI is enabled within V-Ray, the background color assigned within the Environment and Effects dialog box wil l automatically be used to i l luminate a scene. The only way for skylight not to affect a scene with GI would be to make the background color black. With a pure black color, there wil l be no skylight, and with a pure white color there wil l be ful l skylight, or at least as much as the multipl ier value wil l al low. The color not only controls the strength of the skylight it also controls the color. So if you want to simulate the kind of skylight you would see during a sunset, al l you need to do is select the appropriate color.

The Environment rollout within V-Ray contains an environment color override, which when enabled, wil l override any color assigned within the Environment and Effects dialog box. If no other l ights exist in a scene, then the color swatch in either area can act as the sole source of i l lumination. The strength of environment l ight is controlled not only by a color swatch, but also by the multipl ier value. However, if a map is used in the environment channel, then the respective color swatch and multipl ier is disregarded.

One important thing to note about the Environment rollout is that if you use image-based envi-ronment l ighting, you should always apply the image to the VRay dome light rather the Environment channel. Applying an HDRI to the VRay dome wil l always result in superior image-based lighting.

Suggested Render SettingsNot applicable as environment l ighting contains no quality-based settings.

Append ix B

A Gallery of images by

Index

The following is an alphabeTical lisT of the most important 3ds Max features and third-party software used throughout this book. The page numbers represent either the first use of a feature in a given chapter or the first use within a series of pages. This l ist does not include many of the smaller fea-tures found within other features as the l ist would be many times longer and inefficient to use. Not every instance of a feature’s use is documented, rather just those instances where its use is integral to the completion of an exercise or the understanding of the writing.

A

Adobe After Effects, 9-45

Adobe Photoshop, 1-35, 2-18, 3-23, 4-38, 4-43, 4-47, 9-33

Align tool, 1-18

Array, 6-17

Auto Key, 7-2, 7-32

Autodesk Mudbox, 2-11

B

Backface Cull , 3-7

Bend, 1-5, 6-28

Bevel, 1-23

Bevel Profi le, 1-3, 1-6, 1-22

Biped, 7-20

BlobMesh, 3-13

Bones, 7-29

Boolean, 4-14

C

Cameras, 7-39

Cap Holes, 3-14

Cellular Map, 5-7

Cloth, 4-22

Color Correction Map, 6-35

Color Mapping, 8-5, 8-7

Composite Map, 2- 21, 4-53, 6-38

Cross Section, 1-24

I n d e x

D

Direct l ight, 2-23

E

Edit Patch, 1-25, 6-12

Edit Poly, 1-13, 3-10, 4-13, 6-19

Edit Spline, 4-27

Environment and Effects, 3-26, 9-57

Export, 1-31, 2-11 , 4-18, 4-31

Extrude, 1-29, 4-14

Extrude Along Spline, 2-7

F

Face Extrude, 6-12

Falloff Map, 5-19

Fog (Refraction) Color, Multipl ier, Bias, 5-14

FFD, 1-38

FumeFX, 7-34

G

glu3D, 5-21, 5-27

Gradient Ramp Map, 5-53, 6-24, 6- 30, 6-38

Graphite Modeling Tools/ Modeling Ribbon, 1-43, 1-45, 2-2, 2-7, 2-10, 3-10, 4-4, 4-7, 4-13, 4-20

Grid and Snap Settings, 1-14, 3-5

H

Hair and Fur, 3-37, 6-20, 7-12, 7-18, 9-23

I

Import, 4-18, 4-36

IvyGenerator, 1-31

L

Lathe, 1-3, 1-23, 4-13

Lens Effects, 9-57

Loft, 1-8, 1-15

M

Maps, Animated, 7-8

Mask Map, 5-6, 5-11

MaterialByElement, 1-45, 9-23

I n d e x

Mesh Select, 4-24, 5-35

Mix Map, 5-12, 5-15, 6-24, 6-29

Morpher, 3-19

N

Noise, 1-14, 1-29, 6-19

Noise Map, 5-11

Normalize Spl. , 4-23

NURMS Subdivision, 2-5, 2-10

O

Omni l ight, 8-18, 8-20, 9-57

Output Map, 5-11

P

Pack UVs, 6-6

Particle Flow, 6-31

Pelt, 2-8, 3-16, 6-5

PixPlant, 4-42

Preserve UVs, 6-14

ProBoolean, 1-29

ProOptimizer, 3-14

Push, 3-14, 6-20

R

Relax, 2-4, 3-13, 4-13

Render Elements, 8-9, 8-15, 8-17, 9-12

Render Map, 6-29

Render Surface Map, 3-33

Render to Texture, 5-8

Render UVW Template, 4-38, 6-7

Reset XForm, 1-40

Ripple, 5-3, 5-34

Ripple (space warp), 5-5

S

Scatter, 1-39, 6-35

Select and Link, 7-29

ShapeMerge, 1-20, 1-22, 4-14, 4-7

Shell , 1-20, 4-9, 4-14

Skew, 1-21

I n d e x

Skin, 7-26

Skin Wrap, 7-30

Smooth, 4-16, 4-27

Spherify, 3-10

Spline IK Control, 1-15

Squeeze, 6-18

Stretch, 4-11

Subdivide, 1-29

Sub-surface Scattering, 4-50

Symmetry, 1-28, 4-3, 4-21, 4-28

T

Taper, 1-7, 1-18, 6-18

Target Direct Light, 8-17

Time Configuration, 7-1, 7-14, 7-41, 9-25

Track View-Curve Editor, 7-2, 7-15

TurboSmooth, 1-9, 2-3, 3-10, 3-19, 4-4, 4-11 , 4-18, 4-21, 5-2, 6-5, 6-18

Turn to Poly, 4-16

U

Unwrap UVW, 1-17, 1-26, 2-8, 3-15, 3-20, 4-36, 4-38, 6-5, 6-15

Use Axis Constraints, 3-5

UV Layout, 4-31, 6-30

UVW Map, 1-23, 1-28, 6-15, 6-24, 6-27, 6-30, 6-36, 6-37

UVW Xform, 1-16

V

Viewport Background, 2-6, 3-26, 6-3

Viewport Canvas, 3-26, 6-36

Vol. Select, 5-33, 6-19, 6-35

Volume Light, 8-23

VRay Dirt, 1-11 , 5-8, 5-15

VRay Fur, 6-38

VRay HDRI, 8-11

VRay Light, 8-14, 8-20

VRay Mesh Export, 6-28

VRay Proxy, 5-8

VRayCompleteMap, 5-8

VRayDisplacementMod, 2-24, 3-36, 4-53, 6-10, 6-15, 6-37

VrayLightMtl, 5-8, 5-15

VRayNormalMap, 4-50

I n d e x

VRayPhysicalCamera, 8-2, 8-5

VRaySky, 8-2

VRaySun, 8-2

Vue, 6-41

W

Wave, 5-3, 5-33, 7-2

Wind (space warp), 7-15, 7-38

X

xView, 2-8

ModifiersThe fol lowing is a l ist of the most important modifiers used.

B

Bend, 1-5, 6-28

Bevel, 1-23

Bevel Profi le, 1-3, 1-6, 1-22

C

Cap Holes, 3-14

Cloth, 4-22

Cross Section, 1-24

E

Edit Patch, 1-25, 6-12

Edit Poly, 1-13, 3-10, 4-13, 6-19

Edit Spline, 4-27

Extrude, 1-29, 4-14

F

Face Extrude, 6-12

FFD, 1-38

H

Hair and Fur, 3-37, 6-20, 7-12, 7-18, 9-23

L

Lathe, 1-3, 1-23, 4-13

I n d e x

M

MaterialByElement, 1-45, 9-23

Mesh Select, 4-24, 5-35

Morpher, 3-19

N

Noise, 1-14, 1-29, 6-19

Normalize Spl. , 4-23

P

ProOptimizer, 3-14

Push, 3-14, 6-20

R

Relax, 2-4, 3-13, 4-13

Ripple, 5-3, 5-34

S

Shell , 1-20, 4-9, 4-14

Skew, 1-21

Skin, 7-26

Skin Wrap, 7-30

Smooth, 4-16, 4-27

Spherify, 3-10

Squeeze, 6-18

Stretch, 4-11

Subdivide, 1-29

Symmetry, 1-28, 4-3, 4-21, 4-28

T

Taper, 1-7, 1-18, 6-18

TurboSmooth, 1-9, 2-3, 3-10, 3-19, 4-4, 4-11 , 4-18, 4-21, 5-2, 6-5, 6-18

Turn to Poly, 4-16

U

Unwrap UVW, 1-17, 1-26, 2-8, 3-15, 3-20, 4-36, 4-38, 6-5, 6-15

UVW Map, 1-23, 1-28, 6-15, 6-24, 6-27, 6-30, 6-36, 6-37

UVW Xform, 1-16

I n d e x

V

Vol. Select, 5-33, 6-19, 6-35

VRayDisplacementMod, 2-24, 3-36, 4-53, 6-10, 6-15, 6-37

W

Wave, 5-3, 5-33, 7-2

MapsThe fol lowing is a l ist of the most important maps used in this book. It does not l ist the use of maps that were used far too many times to l ist, such as Bitmap and Noise.

A

Animated, 7-8

C

Color Correction Map, 6-35

Composite Map, 2- 21, 4-53, 6-38

F

Falloff Map, 5-19

G

Gradient Ramp Map, 5-53, 6-24, 6- 30, 6-38

M

Mask Map, 5-6, 5-11

Mix Map, 5-12, 5-15, 6-24, 6-29

O

Output Map, 5-11

V

VRay Dirt, 1-11 , 5 -8, 5-15

VRay HDRI, 8-11

VRayCompleteMap, 5-8

VrayLightMtl, 5-8, 5-15

VRayNormalMap, 4-50

Special Displays

The following pages are free displays that we have made available to some of our special friends in and out of the 3D industry. 3DATS would like to thank these organizations for the great work they do and the help they have been to us in recent years.