Product Visualisation – The Studio Environment Vol.4

Welcome back. This is the last in a set of tutorials where you’ll learn how to produce industry standard 3D Renders/ Visualisations of your product concepts. Product Visualisation – The Studio Environment Vol.1 Product Visualisation – The Studio Environment Vol.2 Product Visualisation – The Studio Environment Vol.3 Product Visualisation – The Studio Environment Vol.4 (Currently Reading)

If you are new to this set of tutorials and would like to follow along, I suggest you start with Tutorial 1 – The Built Environment. Also refer to Tutorial 2 – Materials & Textures and Tutorial 3 – Lighting for previous steps. For those who are unfamiliar, this is a tutorial written for beginners and students. Its aim is to provide you with the theory behind the concepts as well as the execution. Over the course of the four tutorials, we’ll cover the necessary skills to create a scene from start to finish, and some useful extras in-between. This is what we are aiming for in this final installment. So let’s bebop.

The Requirements

Difficulty: Beginner/ Intermediate

1. To open the example file, you will need 3DS Max 2009 and V-Ray 1.5SP2 or above. Download the example file at the end of each tutorial.

2. If you use the example file, please understand that the contents should not be redistributed in any way. Similarly, the content is not allowed to be used for commercial purposes.

Tutorial 4 – Cameras & Rendering

Overview In the previous tutorial we discussed the fundamentals of various lighting techniques and mechanics. In particular we looked at the effect of direct lighting, using both Standard and VRay lights, and also indirect lighting, Environment GI lighting. With all this in place, our scene is more or less already complete. However, this tutorial aims to provide you with some additional tools and information to increase your workflow. We will be setting up cameras and refining our Render Setup to prepare for the final rendered image. While we continue with the test render settings we applied in Tutorial 1 and the GI Environment settings from Tutorial 3, this time round I’ll explain some of the inner workings. Understanding these mechanics will give you infinitely more control over the final image so let’s see how it all works. This is the longest of the tutorials by word count but arguably the most important. Get ready for some reading. Note: I assume the reader is a beginner and write accordingly. If you know some of these concepts, certain steps might seem redundant, so bear with me. Here’s a listed overview of the contents and topics in this final tutorial. Cameras

VRay Camera Settings

Basic Parameters Sampling

Creating Scene Cameras

Render Setup

VRay Rollouts

Frame Buffer Global Switches Image Sampler (Antialiasing) Indirect Illumination Irradiance Map Light Cache Environment Colour Mapping Camera DMC Sampler

Applying Final Render Settings

1.0 – Cameras

Cameras simply give you control over how your scene is viewed. It’s a useful tool, whether you want to view your scene from a certain angle or produce various effects to mimic real-world cameras like depth of field, motion blur, shutter speed and vignetting. There are different camera types, some that are standard with Max and others that are featured with plugins such as VRay. In this tutorial we will be looking at the VRay Physical Camera. This gives you greater control than the standard camera, with added effects like mentioned previously. But before we create our camera for the scene, we are going to learn a little bit more about what they can do and their various options. So let’s see what kind of funk we can muster. 1.1 – VRay Camera Settings To gain access to cameras and their settings click on the ‘Create’ tab and select ‘Cameras’ from the box options. Notice that there are different types of cameras. Use the drop down menu and change it from ‘Standard’ to ‘VRay’, and click on ‘VRay Physical Camera’. Just like lights, you can always modify these settings by selecting the camera and then going to the ‘Modify’ tab. While we might not use a lot of the additional effects featured in the VRay Physical Camera in the final render of these tutorials, the aim is to set you up with some useful skills in future. So I’ve picked out and grouped the more important options. This will be enough for you to get just about anything done. Note: Make sure to look at the image examples in the additional reading section to see these parameters at work. 1.1.1 – Basic Parameters Let’s take a look at what’s under ‘Basic Parameters’. Exposure – F-Number, Shutter Speed & ISO

Exposure – This is a very important option. For the F-Number, Shutter Speed and ISO settings to affect the image, this option needs to be ticked.

F-Number – Determines the width of the camera aperture and, indirectly, exposure. Smaller values make the image brighter, while larger values make it darker. Because this parameter determines the width of the aperture it also determines the level of the DOF (Depth of Field) effect. Lower values increase the aperture and therefore increase the amount of blurring caused by DOF.

Shutter Speed – Refers to the speed of the camera shutter in inverse seconds. For example, a camera’s shutter speed of 1/30 of a second corresponds to a value of 30 for this parameter. Smaller values make the image brighter because the shutter is open for a longer time. Higher values mean the shutter is open for a shorter time, reducing the amount of light taken in by the camera, making the image darker.

Film Speed (ISO) – Determines the film power/ sensitivity. Smaller values make the image darker, while larger values make it brighter.

Targeting & Focus

Targeted – Specifies whether the camera has a target in the Max scene or not.

Target Distance – This is the distance from the camera to the camera target. This value is also used in simulating the depth of field effect, where the target distance is the focal distance.

Specify Focus – This allows you to specify a focus distance for depth of field that’s different from the camera target distance. If this is checked, depth of field uses this value instead of Target Distance.

Lens

Film Gate – Specifies the horizontal size of the film gate in millimeters. This setting takes into account the system units configuration to produce the correct result.

Focal Length – Specifies the equivalent focal length of the camera lens. This setting takes into account the system units configuration to produce the correct result.

Zoom Factor - Specifies a zoom factor. Values greater than 1.0 zoom into the image whereas values smaller than 1.0 zoom out. This helps to control zooming without actually moving the camera.

Vertical Shift – Shifts the lens of the camera to simulate a 2-point perspective. Use the Guess Vertical Shift button to automatically calculate the amount of shift to achieve this effect.

Effects

Vignetting – When this option is on, the optical vignetting effect of real-world cameras is simulated. A value of 1.0 is considered normal vignetting and 0.0 would be no vignetting. Effectively, vignetting makes the image darker around the edges.

White Balance – Allows additional control over colour correction of the image output. Objects in the scene that have the specified color will appear white in the image. Note that only the color hue is taken into consideration; the brightness of the color is ignored. There are several presets that can be used, most notably the Daylight preset for exterior scenes.

1.1.2 – Sampling Let’s take a look at what’s under ‘Sampling’. There are only three parameters here. Note: Know that these parameters work independently of the options in the ‘Camera’ rollout of the Render Setup. Those options only apply to rendering from a viewport or a standard Max camera.

Depth of Field – Turns on the Depth of Field effect. This simulates the blurring of objects in relation to their distance from the camera. Objects will get blurred in the fore or background depending on where you specify the focal distance. The Target Distance is used as default to calculate this.

Motion Blur – Turns on the Motion Blur effect. This simulates the blurring of moving objects over the exposure time of the camera shot. This will be dependent on parameters like Shutter Speed.

Subdivs – Once again, determines the number of samples (rays) for calculating depth of field and/or motion blur. This effectively controls the quality of each of these effects.

We’ve now completed looking at the settings and parameters of the VRay Physical Camera. Additional Reading For more information on the parameters of a VRay Physical Camera go to: www.spot3d.com/vray/help/150SP1/vrayphysicalcamera_params.htm For image examples of these parameters in action go to: www.spot3d.com/vray/help/150SP1/examples_vrayphysicalcamera.htm 1.2 – Creating Scene Camera Well that’s enough about the theory. Let’s now create the actual camera for our scene. We need to set up one camera directly in front of our product.

• Click on the ‘Create’ tab and select ‘Cameras’ from the box options.

• Use the drop down menu and change it from ‘Standard’ to ‘VRay’, and click on ‘VRay Physical Camera’.

• Then just like creating a light, click in a viewport and drag.

The click will let you place the camera and the drag will let you place the camera target. Now we want to align the camera target with the camera so that we’ll be looking straight at our object/ product. To do this properly we can use the Align tool.

• In the Top View, click the camera target and press Alt+A – this is the shortcut for the Align tool. Now click on the actual camera.

A box will appear with some options. Basically we want to centre our camera target with the camera on the X and Z axis.

• Select ‘Centre’ for both ‘Current Object’ and ‘Target Object’. Also select just the ‘X’ and ‘Z’ axis for the alignment.

Remember that the axes you choose will depend on what viewport/ view you are aligning your object from.

• Now select both the camera and camera target and position it so that it sits in front of your product – if you haven’t already done so.

Make sure the camera target is placed near the object/ product in the foreground. This is because the camera target will be used as the focal point in the camera. We want this object to appear sharp and in focus and the background object to appear blurred. Look at the reference image below if you need some help. Almost there. Now we need to check what our camera view actually looks like.

• Click in your perspective viewport. Right click the viewport name and go to ‘View’ and then ‘VRay Physical Camera 01’ from the menu. Alternatively, you can click in any viewport and press ‘C’.

The viewport will change to what the camera is seeing. Make sure you have the ‘Show Safe Frame’ option selected from that view port menu if you don’t already. This shows the frame and proportion of what the render output will be.

• Make any adjustments to your camera position so that your product sits roughly within the viewport frame. We will be adjusting this later so it’s not really important.

We’ve now completed creating and positioning our scene camera. All we have to do is discuss and apply a few settings and it’s ready to render. 1.3 – Applying Camera Settings In the previous tutorial, our scene rendered too dark and needed more light. Take a look at the stock render from the end of the previous tutorial. We rectified this problem using the Colour Curves Correction tool in the VRay Frame Buffer after the image was rendered. The final result looked like this. The use of this tool was deliberate and to demonstrate that it’s sometimes more effective to make modifications like that as opposed to having to adjust you’re entire lighting setup. It was also used as a temporary solution because we had not set up the scene camera. In this tutorial however, we will be using the VRay Physical Camera to correct/ adjust the amount of light in the scene. Once again, this is just one more method, not necessarily the right one. So let’s apply the necessary settings for our camera.

• Click on the camera and bring up its settings in the Modify tab.

• Apply these settings to the Basic Parameters and Sampling sections.

Important:

The parameters for the film gate are purely aesthetic in this case. However, what do matter are the F-Number, Shutter Speed and ISO settings. These all affect the brightness of the image when the Exposure option is checked.

Also very important, as mentioned before in the VRay Camera Settings section, the F-Number determines the width of the aperture and therefore the effect of DOF. I’ve reduced the F-Number to 2 – a small value – so the effect of DOF is more pronounced – more blurred. I’ve then used the ISO and Shutter Speed settings to balance out the amount of light in the scene.

If you want, play around these three settings and see how they affect the brightness of the image. Make sure to turn off Depth of Field in the Sampling section before doing test renders so it’s much quicker. Return to the above settings once you’re done.

Now let’s see what we’ve got.

• Hit the Render button.

Excellent. The DOF effect is working well and the brightness of the scene is just right in my opinion. We don’t need to make any adjustments to our lighting setup nor do we need to resort to the Colour Curves Correction. The final thing we will add to the camera settings is vignetting. Already discussed previously in the VRay Camera Settings section, this replicates the vignetting effect of real-world cameras. I’ve not included it up till now so that you can compare it to the render we just produced. Effectively, it darkens up the corners around the image. I think this gives the image slightly more contrast and shade. Let’s apply some vignetting.

• In the Basic Parameters section, check the option for vignetting and set the value to 1.0 if not already.

• Hit Render.

The effect is subtle, but I tend to opt for it in this case. That concludes this section for Applying Camera Settings, and with it, concludes our look at Cameras.

2.0 – Render Setup

Having learnt about various camera options and parameters, and with the camera settings and placement sorted out, it’s time to have a look the Render Setup, how it works and which bits are more important. 2.1 – Rollouts In particular I’m referring to the rollouts in the various tabs of the Render Setup. I have put together some information which will help you understand the mechanics and concepts, as opposed to having them slapped in front of you. I’ve selected and discussed what I think are the more relevant options and parameters, covering what it is and what it does. This should be enough to help you control and set up just about any product visualisation scene. If you’re hungry for knowledge, I’ve included sources for more information. Note: Keep in mind that some rollouts and parameters might vary slightly or not exist depending on your version of VRay. So in no particular order, except how I have them laid out in my Max, let’s have a gaff at these rollouts. 2.1.1 – Frame Buffer When enabled, the VRay Frame Buffer replaces the standard Max Frame Buffer. The VRay Frame Buffer has options for post processing images and changing various general settings. In the rollout itself, the only important thing is to be able to turn the VRay Frame Buffer on. You can also change the output size of the render independently to the general Max settings. In the actual Frame Buffer – when you render an image – you gain access to more tools. Post Processing & Colour Corrections

These tools include Colours Curve Correction, which we have already used in the previous tutorial, to adjust the lighting of our scene after it is rendered. Similarly, you can use Levels Correction and Exposure Correction to adjust Shadows, Midtones and Highlights of the rendered image.

Track Mouse

Another useful tool is the ‘Track Mouse While Rendering’ button. This will render the bucket/ square that your mouse is currently positioned over. This is very useful for test renders if you only want to see one or several specific areas of the image.

2.1.2 – Global Switches Here you can control and override many aspects of a scene, which help mainly to decrease render times and isolate scene issues. Lighting

In regards to lighting, you can turn off all displacement, lights, default max lights, hidden lights and shadows in the scene. Simply use the appropriate tick box to do so.

Materials

Similarly with materials, you can turn off all reflections or refractions in the scene. The Max Depth parameter controls how many times a ray will reflect or refract before it stops being calculated. You can also turn off all maps, including all filtering of maps. The Glossy Effects parameter refers to blurry reflections or refractions, and turning it off will make them sharp.

We have used the Override Material parameter before – it can be used to give every object in the scene the same material. Summary: - Global switches are very handy if you want to make significant changes to your scene for solving scene issues. For example, if you wanted to render your scene without any maps, either for aesthetic reasons or to cut down and calculate RAM usage, you can turn off all the texture maps in your scene using the Maps parameter. This saves you from having to disable the maps in every one of your materials. - Can be used to improve render times, useful for test renders. If you wanted to quickly see the affect of the lighting in the scene but the render times are too long, you could remove unnecessary elements. For example, you could remove Glossy Effects, Displacement and Maps. Each of these will significantly affect render times, especially if you have a complex scene. 2.1.3 – Image Sampler (Antialiasing) In VRay, you can choose between three types of image samplers to compute the antialiasing of the image. This controls how sharp or smooth your image will look. This has a big impact on render times. Each sampler’s quality is controlled by its own rollout which you can also access under the VRay tab. Note that some versions of VRay might contain all the options within one rollout. Fixed Rate

The first sampler is Fixed Rate. It’s very predictable, but slow in many cases. Use this one if there are a lot of glossy materials, area shadows, motion blur etc. Higher Subdivs will mean better quality, but increased render times.

Adaptive DMC

Adaptive DMC – or QMC for older versions of VRay – is the second sampler, and perhaps the most widely used. As its name already indicates, it will adapt its calculation to the situation. It will compare the quality of the computed pixel by some thresholds, and then decide if the quality is good enough or if more calculations need to be made. Use Adaptive DMC if you have many glossies, area shadows, motion blur etc in your scene.

Adaptive Subdivision

Adaptive Subdivision is also an adaptive method. Although very fast in many cases, it can get very slow with lots of glossy effects in the scene. It also uses more RAM/ memory while rendering. If you have large flat surfaces in your scene – like a white wall – use this sampler. The min/max rates control the quality, 0/2 are good values, -2/-1 are good for very fast test renders.

Summary - Samplers control the quality of the image – how smooth or sharp the edges of objects will appear. - For most cases, use Adaptive DMC if you want maximum control over the speed versus quality of the image. Default settings are usually respectable. Additional Reading For more information on samplers go to: www.spot3d.com/vray/help/150SP1/render_params_imagesampler.htm For image examples of antialiasing and filters in action go to: www.spot3d.com/vray/help/150SP1/examples_image_sampler.htm 2.1.4 – Indirect Illumination (GI) This rollout activates GI in your scene. Furthermore, you can specify what method/ engine you will use to calculate GI in your scene. If you can remember, in Tutorial 3 – Lighting we discussed the concept of indirect light. In particular, the ‘bouncing’ of light was mentioned. In this rollout you get to select what method to use to calculate these GI bounces – the primary and secondary bounce. Primary & Secondary Bounces To do so, you will notice that there is two drop down options labeled ‘Primary Bounces’ and ‘Secondary Bounces’. For each you have to select a ‘GI Engine’. Each GI engine is a method of approximating GI lighting. GI calculations take a long time so these methods have been created which take intelligent shortcuts using approximate values to speed up the process. Each has their specific advantages/ disadvantages. In our scene, we will only be using Irradiance Map as the primary bounce and Light Cache as the secondary bounce. Irradiance Map & Light Cache When selected, you get access to two new rollouts each containing separate options. Settings for Light Cache, as it is our secondary bounce, aren’t too important, and most options at this level will never be utilised. Irradiance Map on the other hand, features many more options and parameters. Additionally, because it is the primary bounce, these options can have a significant impact on quality and render times. Understanding how to control all of the options is another tutorial in itself. As a result, we will only be discussing the very basic and most important parameters. For product visualisation, most of your needs are covered by these main parameters. Sources have been added if you want to learn how to tweak out your scene. 2.1.5 – Irradiance Map This rollout controls all the options for the Irradiance Map. The main thing we have to be concerned with here at this level is to use the Irradiance Map as the primary bounce. Presets Regarding the options, we will only be using the ‘Built-in Presets’ which automatically adjust the settings. The ‘Low’ settings are appropriate for test renders, and only go through two passes at the time of the render. To learn how to customise these settings refer to the additional reading. Additional Reading For more information on Irradiance Map settings go to: www.spot3d.com/vray/help/150SP1/render_params_imagesampler.htm For image examples of various rendering engines in action go to: www.spot3d.com/vray/help/150SP1/examples_image_sampler.htm 2.1.6 – Light Cache This rollout controls all the options for the Light Cache. The main thing we have to be concerned with here at this level is to use the Light Cache as the secondary bounce. It’s very fast but not as accurate as Irradiance Map or Brute Force. This makes it perfect for secondary bounces because we don’t require a great amount of detail to calculate the second bounce of light. Subdivs As far as parameters are concerned, about the only thing you might want to change here is the Subdivs. Slightly above default settings are generally respectable, but you’ll see variations from source to source. Test Renders – Show Calc. Phase One very important thing to note is that Light Cache allows you to get a fairly good preview of what you’re image is going to look like as it’s rendering. And as the Light Cache phase calculates quickly, this saves a tremendous amount of time when doing test renders. To see the Light Cache being calculated while the image renders just check the ‘Show Calc. Phase’ option. Additional Reading For more information on Light Cache settings go to: www.spot3d.com/vray/help/150SP1/examples_image_sampler.htm For image examples of various rendering engines in action go to: www.spot3d.com/vray/help/150SP1/examples_image_sampler.htm 2.1.7 – Environment Using Indirect Illumination, this rollout allows you to have control over the GI lighting of your environment including the affect of reflections and refractions. This rollout was discussed in some detail in Tutorial 3 – Lighting, including various examples and scenarios. The tutorial also covers the concept of Indirect Illumination (GI) and how it affects the final rendered image. Please click here to read the article. 2.1.8 – Colour Mapping Color mapping can apply various color corrections to the rendered image. This has a dramatic impact on how colour and light is displayed in the final image. Type Colour ‘Correction’ is misleading, because your default settings aren’t really wrong and none of the options are objectively correct. Instead, each is just a modification of how the final image will look. For example, choosing a certain Type like ‘HSV Exponential’ might help prevent burnt out areas in your image created by bright lights. Another Type might help to reduce colour bleeding. Only practice will help you understand what type to use and when to use it. Also depending on the type you choose, color mapping can be used to brighten or darken the entire image. This can be useful, especially if you don’t want to adjust every light source in the scene. Clamp Output & Sub-Pixel Mapping These options can be used to clamp or limit colors to the 0-255 range, which is the standard range for RGB colours. This can help to antialias very bright lights or reflections. Gamma With certain types you can also change the gamma of your scene. Gamma basically brightens up your image, particularly with shadows. It is often used by people to achieve more realistic results, but there is lots of debate as to how to set it up and whether to adjust it at all. For the purposes of this render I suggest not to adjust the gamma settings. Additional Reading For more information on Colour Mapping go to: www.spot3d.com/vray/help/150SP1/render_params_colormapping.htm For image examples of Colour Mapping in action go to: www.spot3d.com/vray/help/150SP1/examples_colormapping.htm 2.1.9 – Camera This is used to create various camera effects in your render when using the max viewport or a standard Max camera. Note that this is not the case with the VRay Physical Camera. When rendering an image from a VRay Physical Camera these options have no affect. On a VRay camera, these types of options are instead controlled through the camera’s own parameters in the ‘Modify’ tab. We will not go into this rollout because we are using VRay cameras and have already talked about these parameters. 2.1.10 – DMC Sampler The DMC Sampler is a very important rollout. It can be seen as a global control of quality throughout your entire scene. Its parameters affect anything from DMC calculations like adaptive DMC AA to Irradiance Map GI, Glossy Effects, Area Shadows, Motion Blur and Depth of Field. This is the only rollout not found under the VRay tab. Instead, you will find it under the Settings tab. Noise The most important parameter however, is the noise threshold. This controls the accuracy of all calculations. The highest quality setting is 0.001, but will come at the cost of render time. 0.005 is a recommended value for a quality solution, as we have already set in our test settings. Global Subdivs The Global Subdivs multiplier can be used to lower or increase all subdivision parameters in the scene. This includes Irradiance Map, DMC GI, Material Effects, Area Shadows, Motion Blur and Depth of Field. Summary - DMC Sampler controls the global quality of the image and can be used to affect all other quality related parameters. For example, you can set all of your Subdiv settings in your materials to a high quality rendering standard and for test renders simply lower the Global Subdivs level to below 1. This changes all your Subdivs through one setting, very useful indeed. Additional Reading These examples will help show you the affect of Noise: http://www.spot3d.com/vray/help/150SP1/examples_qmc.htm We’ve now completed our look at the VRay Rollouts.

2.2 – Applying Final Render Settings

Taking what we’ve just learnt about the various rollouts and options available in the Render Setup, we’ll now apply the final render setup. As mentioned before, we will be continuing with the test settings from Tutorial 1 and our GI lighting settings from Tutorial 3. However, the full setup and all the required settings are contained here, including the settings from Tutorial 1 and 3. So let’s plug them in. Common Tab The only setting we will be changing in this tab from previous tutorials is the output size. This will frame our product more attractively for the final render.

• Apply these settings to the Common Parameters rollout in the Common tab.

Settings for Common Parameters rollout.

VRay Tab No changes from previous tutorials are required under this tab. Regardless, here are all the necessary settings anyway in case you’re new here or if you need to double check.

• Apply these settings to the rollouts in the VRay tab.

Settings for Frame Buffer rollout.

Settings for Global Switches rollout.

Settings for Antialiasing and Image Sampler rollout.

Settings for Environment rollout.

The GI Environment Override is set to RGB: 90, 90, 90. The Reflection/ Refraction Override is set to RGB: 50, 50, 50.

Also, the Max Background Colour doesn’t need to be set because both these overrides are on.

Settings for Colour Mapping rollout.

Indirect Illumination Tab The only setting we will be changing in this tab from previous tutorials is the ‘Built-in Preset’ from Low to Medium. This will make the Irradiance Map more detailed and less blotchy.

• Apply these settings to the rollouts in the Indirect Illumination tab.

Settings for Indirect Illumination rollout.

Settings for Irradiance Map rollout.

Settings for Light Cache rollout.

Settings Tab No changes from previous tutorials are required under this tab either. Regardless, here are all the necessary settings anyway.

• Apply these settings to the rollouts in the Settings tab.

Settings for DMC Sampler rollout.

That concludes the Final Render Settings.

2.3 – Render Update

The final click is upon us. Let’s see what we’ve created.

• Reposition your camera so that the product sits nicely within the frame.

The camera needs to be adjusted because we changed the Output Size in the render settings.

• Hit Render.

With a titanic sense of relief, we come to the end! The scene is appropriately lit, and the camera’s depth of field and vignetting is working its magic. Additionally, the new output size format frames the product much more effectively.

2.4 – More Fun With Renders

Using what we have we can create limitless perspective, material and lighting variations. Take a look at these modifications. These images were created by adjusting only a few material settings, and in the case of the latter, just rotating and repositioning the camera. Congratulations on conquering Tutorial 4 – Cameras & Rendering. This is the final volume in the Product Visualisation – The Studio Environment series.

3.0 – Summary

Over the course of the four tutorials we have followed a project from a basic 3D model to a complete product visualisation. We have covered the necessary skills from building a studio environment to experimenting with materials, examining various lighting setups and configuring a range of render settings. For those students or beginners new to 3DS Max, I hope this has taught you a few tricks and even a little more. Thanks for reading.

4.0 – Source Files

Here are the source files for this and previous tutorials. Ink.zip – Contains MAX file with 3D model (No Settings/ Lighting).