Mental ray test renders (Update 5)

First topic message reminder :

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

[/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.

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

panalo lahat sir.. husay at malinis...

jolicoeur030488 wrote:panalo lahat sir.. husay at malinis...

salamat sir!!! cheers

wow galing naman sana makagawa din ako ng ganyan kagandang output.pano kaya yan gawin ? anyway salamat po sa pagshare ng work more power po and Godbless

meljaqs wrote:wow galing naman sana makagawa din ako ng ganyan kagandang output.pano kaya yan gawin ? anyway salamat po sa pagshare ng work more power po and Godbless

hello sir. thanks for the words... medyo mahabang study sir pero kaya niyo din to... visiting our mental ray tuts here at cgp would be a great start... tapos sundan niyo na din yun ibang links na nashare ko dito sa thread na ito. more power sa inyo sir!

Thanks sa input bro!!!hehe...halatang walang ginagawa sa office nyo a!!!hehe....hintay ko pa yung gawa mo ha!!!!

reposted your thought at MR. tutorial section.. sayang baka matabunan ito...

Galing mo talaga sa Mental Ray! Nice set of renderings! Napakahusay!

f-fortyone wrote:Thanks sa input bro!!!hehe...halatang walang ginagawa sa office nyo a!!!hehe....hintay ko pa yung gawa mo ha!!!!

hahaha oo pre, medyo maluwag ngayon e, la iba magawa dito kundi magpractice sige post pa ko ulit... been trying dof with bokeh, kaya lang 2nd attemp ko di pa din matapos rendering sa sobrang bagal... may mali ata ko sa sets ko ng mats, inaayos ko pa... calling sir logik... hehe

nomeradona wrote:reposted your thought at MR. tutorial section.. sayang baka matabunan ito...

ok brother nomer, salamat. I'll keep updating this, meron pa ko iba scenes para mahasa mabuti sa MR at makapagshare na din. nakuha niyo po ba yun mga links? magagamit niyo yun bro..

lemeuix wrote:Galing mo talaga sa Mental Ray! Nice set of renderings! Napakahusay!

maraming salamat po sir lemeuix, sana masubukan niyo din itong MR..

namis ko yang mental ray galeng naman sir grabe

galing ng mental mo,kelan ko makukuha ang ganito ng linis at crisp na render.

wow naman master,, lupit mo talaga sa MR.. kakabilib skills mo pag dating dto.. mahusay ka talaga sir sa MR lighting...

akoy wrote:namis ko yang mental ray galeng naman sir grabe

hehe thanks pare koy!!!

hanep ang lupit ng MR mo master, ibang klase linis ng presentation, although there is still flaws, but still close to perfect

zdesign wrote:galing ng mental mo,kelan ko makukuha ang ganito ng linis at crisp na render.

salamat sir z... tingin ko pag masubukan mo MR mas malayo mararating nyo kaysa sa kin... master na din kayo sir e

pixelburn wrote:wow naman master,, lupit mo talaga sa MR.. kakabilib skills mo pag dating dto.. mahusay ka talaga sir sa MR lighting...

hehe salamat sir pixelburn, katuwa naman ng papuri niyo... kaya lalo ko pinagbubuti dahil sa mga tulad niyong mga mababait na masters hehe

anthony_als wrote:hanep ang lupit ng MR mo master, ibang klase linis ng presentation, although there is still flaws, but still close to perfect

salamat bro... pilit pinagbubuti para maperfect na nga hehe thanks for dropping by

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

wow! ang haba na pala nito...i once tried using mental ray...maybe i should do one just for fun...and hope to learn something along the way.

Thanks for sharing sir, i'll be reading this again.

arkiedmund wrote:wow! ang haba na pala nito...i once tried using mental ray...maybe i should do one just for fun...and hope to learn something along the way.

Thanks for sharing sir, i'll be reading this again.

Great Sir Edmund, tamang tama study mode na kayo, sana makatulong yun links natin... I know you'll be a master in MR soon.

Thanks too for dropping by!

GRABE SA GALING BRO HEHEHE

nice sets of renders....IMHO lng sir, wag mo masyado kalikutin ang mga default settings..from there adjust ka lng...MRay user din ako...importante materials to be used....and lighting....try mo rin ung filter mo e Lanczos...

mherfc wrote:nice sets of renders....IMHO lng sir, wag mo masyado kalikutin ang mga default settings..from there adjust ka lng...MRay user din ako...importante materials to be used....and lighting....try mo rin ung filter mo e Lanczos...

hi sir hehe kakareply ko lang din sa work mo... ok sir, salamat sa payo, well taken po!!! try ko din yun Lanczos filter

yun about sa default setting sir, ibig niyo ba sabihin sa material default or render settings??