Mental ray test renders (Update 5)

Hello po CGpeeps and calling all MR masters and MR users...

I have done another set of MR render exercise in terms of Lighting and textures/materials. I am hoping our MR masters could give some pointers on how to improve this... I'll be posting finished output soon.

Please note that models are not mine but did a few adjustments on them. My aim is to concentrate on the Light settings and materials to come up with a decent render output with Mental Ray.

More Test Renders:
Office Scene 02


with PS blurring for DOF effects... napaglaruan lang po

Office Scene 01 - Another render exercise only. Just found the design online. This one's more on Indirect Illumination tests.. FG Point=4, Rays=500



with bits of PS (adjusted brightness & color)

BOKEH DOF
2nd Bokeh DOF with PS kalandian effects

Same view without DOF and a bit PS


Finally, my first Bokeh Effect DOF! After so many attemps. hehe I should be getting the hang of it by now, I'll be doing one more! anyway, the rendering time isn't good, took me the whole night to finish the render. The next one should be faster, I'll take the masters' advice, I'll lower down the sampling and sudivisions of some materials and we'll see how it goes. Sensyahan niyo na po ang mga flaws, sana makagamit na din ako ng magandang carpet later on, probably hair and fur... sana!


and here's the bokeh set btw, notice i have the focus plane at value 5000mm, which means, I focused far to the dining area to get the effect. Didn't really knew before how the focus plane works. The value you set is meant for the distance of the Focus Plane from the camera. Hope that helps you guys. Thanks to our Sir Logikpixel.


New Scene!
ok... test renders pa rin, but I'm a bit contented with the lighting, minor issues on materials...



(more views to come) tried to lower some samples but it isn't looking good... and I think I now know why I have that big shadow going on by the sides of the windows... I'll discuss with my new/next render solution...







I'll be posting a more descent image for my next update...

Image 1 (NO Post process)
Render setup: sampling min 1 max 16, no FG, default GI/photons
Render size & time: 800max px for 2 1/2 hrs (my PC couldnt handle a bigger size render for this set... or maybe due to my material samplings kaya po mabagal... Any suggestions or recommendations Masters?)
MR Lighting: 2 portal lights with 2-different mib blackbody assigned. 1 portal from window (exterior) and 1 portal from the inside.
Environment Setting: MR Photographic Exposure, Shutter Speed adjusted from 500-350 for brighter output.
Materials: Max10 Special effects: AO and sampling max 20 & 32 for Refraction and Reflection respectively.


Image 2 (NO Post process, some errors and unfinished material settings)
Render setup: sampling min 1 max 64, FG points=1, ray=500, Interpolation=300, Ave. GI photons per light (Light Property)=200000
Render size & time: 1500max px for 2 hrs (used my Office PC here, quite better than mine)
MR Lighting: 2 portal lights of with 2-different mib blackbody assigned. 1 portal from window (exterior) and 1 portal from the inside. MR sun + MR sky
Environment Setting: MR Photographic Exposure, Shutter Speed adjusted from 500-350 for brighter output.
Materials: Max10 Special effects: AO and sampling max 20 & 32 for Refraction and Reflection respectively.


Image 3 (NO Post process)
quick render with 1 portal light of with mib blackbody assigned, MR sun + MR sky



Comments will be appreciated. I'll be posting finished output soon.



God Bless po sa CGP!!!

-Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam

MENTAL RAY LINKS & INFORMATIONS (for Sir Nomeradona and all)
Disclaimer: This MR links & infos collection is a journal and personal collection used for the authors exercise and test renders. All links were taken from different websites including here at CGP.

MR TUTS & INFOS
http://www.3dallusions.com/forums/mrmaterials-blog/3218-3ds-max-2009-design-importons-irradiance-particles.html importons-irradiance

recap:

If you have GI enabled, Importons and IP. Only Importons(together with photons) will be used (if a merge is specified for the importons param, while set to 0 for the gi photons param) and IP will be disabled.
If you have GI and FG enabled. Same as above.
If you have FG only enabled. Both Importons and IP will be disabled.

that ends to these workflows:

- photons only
- finalgather only
- photons + finalgather
- importons + photons
- importons + photons + finalgather (cool here is to use the 'Precompute Photon Lookup'.. so you'll have a kind of fg importance-drived)
- importons + irradianceparticles

by thorsten harttman
importons:
emitted: 50.000
density: 0.5
merge: 0.05m
trackksize: 32
depth: 4
traverse: off

irradiance particle:
Ray: 1000
Pass:3
interpolate mode: always
interplate ray: 180
EnvRay: 1000
EnvScale: 2.5
Scale: 2.5

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=87&t=621727
http://www.mrmaterials.com/jeffs-blog/56-importons-irradiance-particles.html imp/part discussions

http://3dsmaxrendering.blogspot.com/search/label/mental%20ray
http://3dsmaxrendering.blogspot.com/search/label/rendering
http://3dsmaxrendering.blogspot.com/ ramy hanna
nice tips / grass disp / fast render...

http://www.textureking.com/

http://www.gnomonschool.com/master/ mr secrets unlocked

http://www.cgdigest.com/category/rendering-tutorials/
http://www.tutorialized.com/tutorials/3DS-MAX/Lighting/1
http://www.3dtotal.com//ffa/tutorials/tutorialsmax.php more

http://www.infinity-vision.de/PhotoStudio/de/index.html photostudio pro/translate here: http://www.infinity-vision.de/PhotoStudio/de/index.html

http://translate.google.com.ph/translate?hl=tl&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.infinity-vision.de%2FPhotoStudio%2Fde%2Findex.html
MR PROXY PROCEDURE

http://www.germanmentalray.de/ german MR

http://www.maxplugins.de/
http://animus.brinkster.net/index.html plugins!!!

MODELLING, LIGHTING ETC EG EDUC
http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_education/cg_education.htm


FOR MR RENDER SETUP
http://www.tokeru.com/t/bin/view/Maya/MayaMentalRay ALL

http://www.secondpicture.com/tutorials/3d/mental_ray_in_3ds_max.html
http://www.theqball.com/tutorials/memory-optimization - PERFECT RAM OPT AND PC PERFORMANCE
http://www.theqball.com/tutorials/mr-links REF
http://translate.google.com.ph/translate?prev=hp&hl=tl&js=y&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.treddi.com%2Fforum%2Findex.php%3Fshowforum%3D54%26topicfilter%3Dicon_id_3&sl=auto&tl=en&history_state0= ref

FINAL GATHER, PHOTON & GLOBAL ILLUMINATION FOR FAST RENDER
•Turn on Photon Map, use Read/Write File, then render
•Turn on Final Gather, use Read/Write File
•Lower samples to 1/64 - 1/64
•Render active time segment at every 10 frames
•Turn on final gather Read Only (FG Freeze)
•Increase samples to 1 - 16
•Turn on Save File for Render Output
•Render active time segment at every 1 frame
http://3dsmaxrendering.blogspot.com/search/label/final%20gather

GI:
I set the Maximum Num. Photons per Sample to 100. This is so low because I also use a low number of photons per light. There is no need to shoot so many photons per sample when I am using such low photons per light. The important thing to consider when calculating GI is being able to light the scene evenly, and get a consistently lit space.

I also turn on Maximum Sampling Radius. I start with something small like 1’ and increase the amount by 5’ until I get a generally smooth result without seeing any discs in the rendering. Often I will go up to a value like 30’ before I get a smooth result. This is not a typical use for GI, and in a way it’s cheating your photons to get bright values with such low numbers so the render times are fast.

FG:
I slide the FG Precision Presets all the way to the left to Draft setting. I’ve found that I can get away with low FG settings if I add an occlusion pass later in post.

For Diffuse Bounces I set it to 2 typically, just to I can get enough bounce and increase my light values. Changing the bounce number significantly reduces rendering speed so be careful with this one.

I didn’t change this setting, but I’ll mention it. I sometimes change the Noise Filtering from Standard to None, if I can get away with it. When set to None, the render is much brighter because you are taking into consideration all of the FG points, but at times will have noise. When you set it to Standard the scene is much darker, but smoother generally. So if you can set it to None and still get smooth results, then you just got more light into your scene for free.
http://3dsmaxrendering.blogspot.com/search/label/global%20illumination


Mental Ray Sampling (adaptive sampling settings)
http://www.impresszio.hu/szabolcs/MentalRay/MentalRaySampling.htm

CAMERA:
•Shutter Speed (exposure)
•Aperture (f-stop)
•Film speed (ISO)
•Whitepoint (color temperature)
1. http://3dsmaxrendering.blogspot.com/2009/04/understanding-cameras-for-renderings.html
2. http://3dsmaxrendering.blogspot.com/2009/03/parti-volume-shader.html (render tab-camera shader: parti volume)


IMPORTONS & IRRADIANCE PARTICLES
If you have GI enabled, Importons and IP. Only Importons(together with photons) will be used (if a merge is specified for the importons param, while set to 0 for the gi photons param) and IP will be disabled.
If you have GI and FG enabled. Same as above.
If you have FG only enabled. Both Importons and IP will be disabled.

- photons only
- finalgather only
- photons + finalgather
- importons + photons
- importons + photons + finalgather (cool here is to use the 'Precompute Photon Lookup'.. so you'll have a kind of fg importance-drived)
- importons + irradianceparticles

by thorsten harttman
importons:
emitted: 50.000
density: 0.5
merge: 0.05m
trackksize: 32
depth: 4
traverse: off

irradiance particle:
Ray: 1000
Pass:3
interpolate mode: always
interplate ray: 180
EnvRay: 1000
EnvScale: 2.5
Scale: 2.5
http://www.3dallusions.com/forums/mrmaterials-blog/3218-3ds-max-2009-design-importons-irradiance-particles.html importons-irradiance

BLACKBODY
http://xgeek.org/2009/08/mental-ray-cie-d-illuminant-and-blackbody-radiator-shaders/
BOKEH EFFECT
http://3dsmaxrendering.blogspot.com/2008/03/bokeh-effect.html

Various CG forums:
http://www.cgtalk.com/
http://www.vizdepot.com
http://www.cgarchitect.com
http://www.evermotion.org/
http://www.3dallusions.com/
http://maxforums.org/
http://www.cg-cars.com
http://area.autodesk.com/
mental ray specific links:
http://www.mymentalray.com
http://mentalraytips.blogspot.com/
http://jeffpatton.cgsociety.org/blog/
http://3dlight.blogspot.com/
http://www.djx.com.au/blog/ (maya)
http://www.pfbreton.com/cgtechniques/
http://www.dmmultimedia.com/3dtips_01.htm
http://lamrug.org/
3d artists websites:
http://www.todddaniele.com/
http://www.jaddyportfolio.com/
http://danielbuck.net/
http://neilblevins.com http://neilblevins.com/cg_education/cg_education.htm
http://www.nikclark.com/
http://www.martincoven.com/
http://www.xenomorphic.co.uk
http://www.garryclarke.com/
http://www.ak3d.de/
http://www.ag-systems.net/
Other links:
http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/
http://www.theqball.com/l
http://www.dmmultimedia.com/
mental image links:
ftp://ftp.mentalimages.com/data/pub/shaders/
http://www.munkmotion.com/tutorials/nsx/2c.htm car mod

nice bro!!!! Mr. MR ka rin talaga!!!hehe...ganda ng output!!!! ang linis!!!!

f-fortyone wrote:nice bro!!!! Mr. MR ka rin talaga!!!hehe...ganda ng output!!!! ang linis!!!!

hehe thanks dre... ang bilis mo ah... update ko pa to, wait mo, meron pa ko iba views. Pilit ko pa din inaaral ang MR e, trying to extend the limits cheers pre!

Pre, any tips sa pag-upgrade ulit ng pc pre? bibilis ba render pag upgrade ko Videocard/3d accelerator??

Ganda master marcelinoiii .. i think taasan mo lng ang mga subdivision lalo na sa mga shadows. proportion ng background image parang d sya pantay sa camera angle mo .. videocard hindi nag papabilis ng render unless GPU renderer gamit mo more on Memory at Processor ka .. good luck sa practice d mo na kailangan mag pa turo

edosayla wrote:Ganda master marcelinoiii .. i think taasan mo lng ang mga subdivision lalo na sa mga shadows. proportion ng background image parang d sya pantay sa camera angle mo .. videocard hindi nag papabilis ng render unless GPU renderer gamit mo more on Memory at Processor ka .. good luck sa practice d mo na kailangan mag pa turo

Sir Edosayla, salamat po sa pagdaan... Thanks for the tips Sir. Adjust ko pa yun BG... hehe palabiro kayo sir, gaya ng sabi ko kayo po pinagmulan ng knowledge ko sa mental ray, salamat muli sa mg tutorials nyo, maraming buhay kagaya ko ang natutulungan nyo sir!!! cheers tayo!

Yun sa PC ko sir, 64bit Quad core na gamit ko e, nag-upgrade din ako from 2 to 6g RAM, kaylangan ko pa kaya ng 2G more Ram PARA 8Gig na? kung processor naman, sir... baka kaylanganin ko na lng magpalit ng PC?

Very nice renders bro.
Ganda na ng mga gawa mo.
Add lang ako ng comments; first you don't need to jack your settings all the way up unless you encounter splotches sa render. The higher the setting the longer the render time of course. Second, I normally use FG and GI in combination kung interiors. Sampling quality of 1/16 is good enough. I stick to Box sa Filter type. Tama si Sir Eric na taasan mo yung lighting samples mo both for Sun (128) and portal lights (128) for high-res outputs. Lastly, if you have displacement talagang babagal ang render mo. Check the Global displacement settings. Max Subdiv. of 16k is VERY high.
Pareho lang computer rig natin. 32 bit nga lang akin. 4gb memory.

logikpixel wrote:Very nice renders bro.
Ganda na ng mga gawa mo.
Add lang ako ng comments; first you don't need to jack your settings all the way up unless you encounter splotches sa render. The higher the setting the longer the render time of course. Second, I normally use FG and GI in combination kung interiors. Sampling quality of 1/16 is good enough. I stick to Box sa Filter type. Tama si Sir Eric na taasan mo yung lighting samples mo both for Sun (128) and portal lights (128) for high-res outputs. Lastly, if you have displacement talagang babagal ang render mo. Check the Global displacement settings. Max Subdiv. of 16k is VERY high.
Pareho lang computer rig natin. 32 bit nga lang akin. 4gb memory.

Hi master Logik, thanks for dropping by with your tips, all were taken well and good. Sobrang tulong po talaga mga advices nyo ni Sir Edo... At least SIr nabuhayan ulit ako ng loob sa pc specs ko, ok na pala yun... cheers sir!!!

galing! nice render

lightfoot wrote:galing! nice render

Thanks sir sa pagdaan at appreciation!

More Test Renders:





I'll be posting a more descent image for my next update...

panalo na naman!!galing galing!!!!

wow...quadcore

f-fortyone wrote:panalo na naman!!galing galing!!!!

hahaha thanks pre... nakabantay ka pa din dito hehe

LadiesMan217 wrote:wow...quadcore

hehe.. salamat sa pagdaan sir!

Wow ang ganling mo talaga sa mental ray Nice sets of renders bro...

effreymm wrote:Wow ang ganling mo talaga sa mental ray Nice sets of renders bro...

salamat sa pagtangkilik bro! practice mode pa din hehe

with the continuous sucess of MR and now yung Iray.. gusto kong mag switch. lalo na nakit ako yung output mo na ganito. mahirap bang pagaralan yung MR?

nomeradona wrote:with the continuous sucess of MR and now yung Iray.. gusto kong mag switch. lalo na nakit ako yung output mo na ganito. mahirap bang pagaralan yung MR?

Hi brother Nomer, pansin ko nga din na ok na ok output ng mental ray kaya naingganyo din ako. Ano pala yun Iray bro? Pwedeng pwede ka magswitch lalo dati na kayong bihasa sa vray or any rendering process for that matter. Napakadali pagaralan ng MR. Tumambay lang ako sa MR tuts ni Sir Edosayla at Sir Ligikpixel kaya ako natuto bro. Ang pinaka useful na inumpisahan ko yun video tutorials ni Sir Edo na talaga namang very kind ang presentation, he's able to share everything.

Pwede ko ipost dito bro lahat ng links na nagamit ko over the time of my practices and exercises..

Ayos na ayos mga render exercises ninyo sa mental ray Sir! Magaganda rin yung output ng MR! ang pagkaka-alam ko yung autocad 2007 & 2008 have MR render engine built in. Masubukan ko ngang mag render using MR.

Canadium wrote:Ayos na ayos mga render exercises ninyo sa mental ray Sir! Magaganda rin yung output ng MR! ang pagkaka-alam ko yung autocad 2007 & 2008 have MR render engine built in. Masubukan ko ngang mag render using MR.

Thanks sir sa kind words! My best recommendation to use MR with is 3dsmax 2010 Sir. Napakadali gamitin dito because of the improved viewport setting na kita mo talaga ang scene lighting mo at texture maps sa viewport pa lng.. Subukan niyo sir, sa MR tutorial section pa lang natin dito makukuha mo na agad lahat! Thanks to our MR masters here at CGP!!!

You've come a long way bro. Galing na ng mga 'to. These should have been posted in the 3d gallery section. Keep it up.

marcelinoiii wrote:

nomeradona wrote:with the continuous sucess of MR and now yung Iray.. gusto kong mag switch. lalo na nakit ako yung output mo na ganito. mahirap bang pagaralan yung MR?

Hi brother Nomer, pansin ko nga din na ok na ok output ng mental ray kaya naingganyo din ako. Ano pala yun Iray bro? Pwedeng pwede ka magswitch lalo dati na kayong bihasa sa vray or any rendering process for that matter. Napakadali pagaralan ng MR. Tumambay lang ako sa MR tuts ni Sir Edosayla at Sir Ligikpixel kaya ako natuto bro. Ang pinaka useful na inumpisahan ko yun video tutorials ni Sir Edo na talaga namang very kind ang presentation, he's able to share everything.

Pwede ko ipost dito bro lahat ng links na nagamit ko over the time of my practices and exercises..

naguimpisa kong idownload yung mga video nina longi at siempre ang matulungin na si ed... sa susunod kukulitin din kita pagmaytanung ako...

bro lipat ko sa gallery ha.... with your permission...

logikpixel wrote:You've come a long way bro. Galing na ng mga 'to. These should have been posted in the 3d gallery section. Keep it up.

salamat ng marami Sir Logik, it's a big thing for me to be having those words from you...

[/quote]naguimpisa kong idownload yung mga video nina longi at siempre ang matulungin na si ed... sa susunod kukulitin din kita pagmaytanung ako...[/quote]

hehe sige sir, bilib ako sa inyo, pag may nadiskubre din kayong bagong tricks paturo din ako. I'm always here para sumagot sa anu mang katanungan niyo. post ko na din yun ibang links ko with MR infos.

Sige lang sir, lipat niyo lang, I'll be updating from there. Thank for the favor.