Cgtuts+ » Mental Ray

Model, Texture, and Render a Bathroom Interior Design with Maya – Day 2

Alan Monroig — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 05:00:47 +0000

The modeling and rendering of interiors is used in a great variety of industries, and creating result that is suitable for these big markets is a very big challenge. In this tutorial you will learn how to model, texture, and render an interior design of a bathroom using Maya. The modeling of the bathroom will be achieved using polygons, NURBS, and paint effects. The rendering process will be done with Mental Ray, using techniques that will quickly give you a photorealistic result.

This tutorial is Day 2 in a series – Go to Day 1.

Final Effect Preview

Click on Image to Open a High Rez Version

Tutorial Details

Software: Maya 2009

Difficulty: Beginner/ Intermediate

Estimated Completion Time: Approximately 30 min

Hardware/ Software Requirements : Windows 2000-XP or Mac OSX 10.5 (or newer); PIII and higher or Intel Macintosh; 1G RAM

Step 1

Go to “Create > Cameras > Camera”.

Step 2

In the active view menu, go to “Panels > Look Through Selected”.

Step 3

Now you will be looking through the camera. Position it to the desired location.

Step 4

Go to “Window > Settings/Preferences > Plug-in Manager”

Step 5

A new window should open. Scroll down until you find “Mayatomr.mll” and check “loaded” and “Auto load”.

Step 6

Go to “Window > Rendering Editors > Render Settings”.

Step 7

Inside the “Render Settings” window, change “Render Using” to “Mental Ray”.

Step 8

Go to the “Common” tab and change the “Image Size” to “HD 720”.

Step 9

Click on the button in the active view to see the size of the render.

Step 10

Adjust the camera so that the scene fits into the green square.

Step 11

Select the back wall of the scene.

Step 12

Move and scale it to fit in the rendering area.

Step 13

Go to “Create > Polygons Primitives > Plane”.

Step 14

Move, scale, and rotate the plane to make another wall.

Step 15

Go to the camera view to see if the plane is big enough.

Step 16

Select the back wall and go to “Edit > Duplicate”.

Step 17

Move the plane behind the camera so it is not visible in the render (this plane will be used later to create a reflection for the mirror).

Step 18

Go to “Create > Lights > Area Light”.

Step 19

Position, scale, and rotate the area light to match the geometry of the scene.

Step 20

Go to the “Attributes Editor” of the light, change its name, and decrease the “Intensity” to 0.083.

Step 21

Scroll down to the “Shadows” section, activate “Use Ray Trace Shadows”, and change the “Shadow Rays” to 15.

Step 22

Make sure you are looking through the correct camera.

Step 23

At the view menu, go to “View > Bookmarks > Edit Bookmarks…”.

Step 24

Inside the “Bookmark Editor” window, create a new bookmark so the position of the camera is saved in case you accidentally move it.

Step 25

Go to “Create > Lights > Area Light”.

Step 26

Move, scale, and rotate the light to be in the same position as in the image below.

Step 27

Select the light and go to its “Attributes Editor”. Name it, and change the “Intensity” value to 0.265.

Step 28

Scroll down to the “Shadows” section, activate “Use Ray Trace Shadows” and change the “Shadow Rays” to 15.

Step 29

Select the light and go to “Edit > Duplicate”.

Step 30

Using the move, rotation, and scale tools, position the light as shown.

Step 31

Go to your “camera1” view.

Step 32

Go to “Window > Rendering Editors > Hypershade”.

Step 33

Inside the Hypershade window, create a new “mia_material_x”.

Step 34

Go to its “Attributes Editor”, name it, and change the diffuse “Color” to white, the reflection “Glossiness” to 0.586, and the “Glossy Samples” to 25

Step 35

Scroll down until you find “Ambient Occlusion” and activate it.

Step 36

Find the “Bump” section and click on the texture button for “Overall Bump”.

Step 37

A new window should open. Select the “Grid” texture and close that window.

Step 38

Click on the button that is next to the “Bump Value” slider.

Step 39

New options should appear. Change the “Line Color” to a nearly white grey, the “Filer Color” to white, and the “U Width” and “V Width” to 0.004.

Step 40

Add this material to all of the walls in your scene.

Step 41

Open the “Hypershade” window again, and create a new “mia_material_x”

Step 42

Go to its “Attributes Editor”, name it, change the reflection “Reflectivity” to 0.260, the “Glossiness” to 0.620, the “Glossy Samples” to 15, and click on the button next to the Color slider to add a texture.

Step 43

Inside the new window select the ”File” texture.

Step 44

Click on the folder next to the “Image Name” option, and search for your wood texture.

Step 45

Scroll down until you find “UV Coordinates” and click on the button that is next to the “Uv Coord” values.

Step 46

New options should appear. Change the “Repeat UV” value to one that works for your texture. My values are 25 and 10.

Step 47

Apply this material to the floor of your scene.

Step 48

Open the “Hypershade” window and create a new “mia_material_x”.

Step 49

Go to its “Attributes Editor”, name it, and change the diffuse “Color” to white, the reflection “Reflectivity” to 0.500, the “Glossiness” to 0.400”, and the “Glossy Samples” to 25.

Step 50

Add this material to all of the white objects in your scene.

Step 51

Open the “Hypershade” window and create a new “mia_material_x”.

Step 52

Go to its “Attributes Editor”, name it, and select the “Chrome” preset.

Step 53

Add this material to all of the metal objects in your scene.

Step 54

Open the “Hypershade” window and create a new “mia_material_x”.

Step 55

Go to its “Attributes Editor”, name it, and change the diffuse “Color” to blue and the reflection “Glossiness” to 0.660.

Step 56

Add this blue material to the scene.

Step 57

Open the “Hypershade” window and create a new “Phong” material.

Step 58

Go to its “Attributes Editor”, name it, and change the “Color” to white and the “Incandescence” value to grey.

Step 59

Scroll down until you find the “Special Effects” section and change the “Glow Intensity” value to 0.020.

Step 60

Add this material to your polygonal light.

Step 61

Open the “Hypershade” window and create a new “mia_material_x”.

Step 62

Go to its “Attributes Editor”, name it, and change the diffuse “Color” to black and the “Reflectivity” to 1.000.

Step 63

Add this material to the mirror.

Step 64

Render the scene.

Step 65

The render should look too dark and the quality should be pretty bad.

Step 66

Open the “Render Settings” window.

Step 67

Under the “Indirect Lighting” tab, activate “Final Gathering”, change the “Accuracy” to 200, the “Point Density” to 0.100, and the “Secondary Diffuse Bounces” to 2 .

Step 68

Click on the “Create” button of “Image Based Lighting”.

Step 69

Click on the small button that is next to the “Create” button.

Step 70

The “Attributes Editor” should display new options. Click on the button with a folder to select your image.

Step 71

Render the scene.

Step 72

The lighting in the scene should look much better, but the quality of the render should still be very low.

Step 73

Open the “Render Settings” window.

Step 74

Under the “Quality” tab change the “Max Sample Level” value to 3, under the “Multi-Pixel Filtering” section change the “Filter” to “Gauss”, and under the “Sample Options” section activate “Jitter”.

Step 75

Scroll down to the “Raytracing” section and activate “Raytracing”. Change the “Reflections” value to 4, the “Refractions” value to 4, and the “Max Trace Depth” to 8.

Step 76

Render the scene.

Step 77

Now everything should look pretty good except for the black mirror. To fix this, you need to create something that the mirror can reflect.

Step 78

Open the “Hypershade” window and create a new “Surface Shader”.

Step 79

Go to its “Attributes Editor”, and click on the texture button next to the “Out Color” slider.>

Step 80

In the new window, click on the “File” texture.

Step 81

Click on the folder button, add your image, and apply this material to the back wall you created earlier.

Step 82

Render the scene.

Step 83

Now the mirror has something to reflect, but it should look pretty dark.

Step 84

Go the “Attributes Editor” of material you just created, and click on the button next to the “Out Color” slider.

Step 85

The “Attributes Editor” should display different options. Scroll down until you find the “Color Balance” section. Once there, change the “Color Gain” value to “R= 4.200, G= 4.200, B= 4.200″. This will create a brighter color than white.

Step 86

Render the scene.

Step 87

The mirror should look pretty good now, but the rest of the scene is probably really bright.

Step 88

Select one of your main lights.

Step 89

Go to its “Attributes Editor” and change the “Intensity” value to 0.115. Repeat this process for both lights.

Step 90

Render the scene.

Step 91

Congratulations! You’re done!!.

This tutorial is Day 2 in a series – Go to Day 1.

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Model, Paint, and Animate a Realistically Stylized Eye in 3ds Max – Day 3

Fabio Silva — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:00:15 +0000

In this multi-part tutorial, you will learn how to create simple, yet effective, 3d eyes that can be used in either CG illustrations, or animations. This series of tutorials will cover all of the steps that are necessary, from modeling and unwrapping, to texturing, to rigging, and eventually animating the eye.

This tutorial is Day 3 in a series – Go to Day 1, or Day 2

Today we will learn how to use the Gradient Ramp map to improve the general look of our eye, give us more control of our color and bump map, and help us with our animation. We will also learn how to create proper lighting for the eye using the Scanline rendering system.

The software that will be used are 3ds Max and Photoshop, but these principles can be applied to any other 3d modeling and painting packages.

Final Effect Preview

1. Gradient Ramp

Download

Note: click the ‘Monitor’ icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.

2. The Scanline Renderer

Download

Note: click the ‘Monitor’ icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.

This tutorial is Day 3 in a series – Go to Day 2or

Start at the beginning – Go to Day 1

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Making of “The Tunnel” in Maya and Photoshop – Day 3

Abed Ibrahim — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:00:45 +0000

In this tutorial you will learn how to create a fantastic tunnel scene in Maya, and then add some final lighting touches in Photoshop. You will follow Abed Ibrahim through his process of modeling, texturing, shading, and rendering techniques, and finally arrive at the spectacular result that is shown here.

This tutorial is Day 3 in a series – Go to Day 1, or Day 2

Final Effect Preview

Click on the image to open a High-Rez version.

Step 1

This is where we left off on Day 2.

Step 2

Open Photoshop, then go to “Image > Adjustments >
Brightness/Contrast”.

Step 3

Set the “Contrast” to ‘10′.

Step 4

Go to “Image > Adjustments > Photo Filter”.

Step 5

Set the “Filter” to “Cooling Filter (80)”, with a density of
‘20%’, and press “OK”.

Step 6

Again, go to “Photo Filter”, and choose “Magenta” with a
density of ‘30%’.

Step 7

Select the “Burn Tool” with the settings as shown.

Step 8

While using these types of Photoshop tools, keep modifying
the brush “Master Diameter” and the “Exposure” as necessary.

Step 9

Using the “Burn” tool, paint where it is highlighted green in the image. Note: Use a high “Exposure” value for the condensed areas
and vice versa.

Step 10

Switch to “Range: Midtones”, to darken some areas better.

Step 11

Your result should look something like this.

Step 12

Now select the “Dodge” tool with the following settings.

Step 13

Paint where it is highlighted yellow in the image.

Step 14

You should get the following result.

Step 15

Select the “Brush” tool with the following settings, and a color code of ‘954172′.

Step 16

Now paint where it is highlighted white in the image.

Step 17

Use the “Dodge” tool again, and paint in the following highlighted areas to
make them appear more shiny.

Step 18

Your result should look like this.

Step 19

Select the “Blur” tool with the following settings, and use
it to blur the poly planes or “car_trace” objects.

Step 20

Try to make them look like this. Note: The other long lines on the left side simulate
the trace for a fast car, and these ones represent a slower vehicle.

Step 21

Select the “Smudge” tool with the following settings.

Step 22

Use the “Smudge” tool on the highlighted area. Make sure to drag toward the red arrows.

Step 23

Try to achieve the following result.

Step 24

Select the “Dodge” tool, open the “Brush Preset”
picker, then load the “Assorted Brushes” and press “Append”.

Step 25

Select the “Crosshatch” brush.

Step 26

Scale the “Master Diameter” to ‘200′, then press on
the center of the first light’s glow three times.

Step 27

Open the “Brushes Palette”, select “Brush Tip
Shape”, and set the “Brush Angle” to ‘35′ degrees.

Step 28

Scale the “Master Diameter” to ‘150′, then press three times in the same area.

Step 29

Set the “Brush Angle” to ‘70′ degrees.

Step 30

Reduce the “Master Diameter” to ‘100′ and press three times again in the same area.

Step 31

Repeat these steps for the rest of the lights on the tunnel roof, and you should wind up with the following result.

Step 32

Congratulations! You have reached the end of “The Tunnel” tutorial. Save your image and you’re done!!

This tutorial is Day 3 in a series – Go to Day 2 or,
Start at the beginning – Go to Day 1

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Making of “The Tunnel” in Maya and Photoshop – Day 2

Abed Ibrahim — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:00:43 +0000

This tutorial is Day 2 in a series – Go to Day 1, or Day 3

Final Effect Preview

Click on the image to open a High-Rez version.

Texture Files

Download

Step 1

Your scene should now look like the image below, which means you are ready for the texturing, shading, and rendering stage of the tutorial!

Step 2

Go to “Window > Rendering Editors > Hypershade”.

Step 3

Create a new File Node.

Step 4

Open the “Asphalt_Floor.jpg” texture file.

Step 5

Repeat steps 2 – 4 for all of the texture files found in “Textures” folder.

Step 6

Assign the “Asphalt” material to the “Street” object.

Step 7

Select the “Street” object, and go to “Create UVs > Automatic
Mapping”.

Step 8

Go to the file placement utility “place2dTexture1”, and modify the settings as shown.

Step 9

Zoom in on the “Sewer” and assign the “Sewer_Floor.jpg” texture
file to it.

Step 10

Select the face, then go to “Create UVs > Planner Mapping”.

Step 11

Modify the following attributes for the “polyPlanarProj1”.

Step 12

Select the “Sewer” material, and
drag the “Sewer_Floor_Bump” file into its “Bump Mapping” attribute.

Step 13

Modify the “Bump Filter” as shown.

Step 14

Give a little ambient power to the “Sewer” material.

Step 15

Now select the top face of the “Sidewalk” object.

Step 16

Assign the “Sidewalk_Floor.jpg” texture to the face.

Step 17

Select the face again, and go to “Create UVs > Planar
Mapping”.

Step 18

Modify the following values for the “Poly Planar
Projection”.

Step 19

The sidewalk should now look like this.

Step 20

Create a “Cloud” 3D texture in the Hypershade window.

Step 21

Modify the attributes for the “Cloud” texture as shown. Be sure to use the eyedropper to pick the exact color.

Step 22

Select the “Sidewalk” material.

Step 23

Press on the “Cloud1” texture (sidewalk dirt) with your
“middle mouse button”, and drop it into the “Sidewalk” material’s “Ambient Color”.

Step 24

Select the sidewalk brick faces, and assign the
“Sidewalk_Bricks.jpg” texture to them.

Step 25

With the faces still selected, go to “Create UVs > Automatic
Mapping”.

Step 26

Go to the texture placement utility of the “Sidewall_bricks” material and
modify the following settings.

Step 27

Drop the “Sidewalk_Bricks_Bump.jpg” texture into the “Bump
Mapping” attribute for the “sidewall_bricks” material.

Step 28

Now modify these values for the bump utility.

Step 29

Modify the texture placement utility for the “Sidewalk_Bricks_Bump.jpg” as shown.

Step 30

Create another “Cloud 3D” texture with the following values in the “Hypershade” window.

Step 31

Drop the “Cloud” in the “Diffuse” attribute of the “sidewall_bricks” material.

Step 32

Create a new “Phong” material with the following settings.

Step 33

Assign the “Phong” material to the cylinder shapes located on the left side of the tunnel.

Step 34

Create another new “Phong” material with the following settings.

Step 35

Create a new “Ramp” texture.

Step 36

Modify the “Ramp” colors as shown.

Step 37

Create a “Sample Info” utility.

Step 38

Select the “Sampler Info” utility using “Ctrl + middle mouse button”, then drag and drop it over the “Ramp” texture, to connect two attributes together using the “Connection Editor”.

Step 39

After the “Connection Editor” window has popped up, connect the “Facing Ratio” in the left menu, with the “vCoord” in the right menu.

Step 40

Now select the “car_trace2” material, and drop the “car_trace2_transperancy” ramp into the “Transparency” attribute.

Step 41

Assign the “car_trace2” material to the long thin poly planes, located on the right side of the tunnel.

Step 42

Create a new “Lambert” material with the following
color, then assign it to the street lines in the center.

Step 43

Create another new “Lambert” material, change the color to white, then assign it to the street lines on both sides.

Step 44

Select the “Tunnel” object, then assign the “Tunnel_Walls.jpg” texture file to it.

Step 45

Change the material type to “Blinn”, and rename it “Tunnel_Walls”.

Step 46

Select the “Tunnel” object, then go to “Create UVs > Cylindrical Mapping”.

Step 47

The “Tunnel” object should now look like this if you turn on “Hardware Texturing and Lights”:

Step 48

Select the “Tunnel” object, then go to “Mesh > Sculpt Geometry Tool” and open up the option box.

Step 49

Reset the tool, then modify the following attributes.

Step 50

Begin sculpting the “Tunnel” object, changing the axis from time to time to create some light curls and bumps in the surface.

Step 51

Drop the “Tunnel_Walls_Bump.jpg” texture into the “Bump
Mapping” slot of the “Tunnel_Walls” material.

Step 52

Adjust the “Bump” attributes as shown.

Step 53

Drop the “Tunnel_Walls_Diffuse.jpg” texture into the
“Diffuse” attribute of the “Tunnel_walls” material.

Step 54

Now adjust the “Tunnel_Walls” material to look exactly as shown.

Step 55

Create a new “Point Light” with the following settings.

Step 56

Place the new point light at the end of the Tunnel.

Step 57

Optionally, you can delete the bottom half of the “Tunnel” mesh to reduce render times. To do this, use the “Cut Face Tool”, select the bottom half, then press delete.

Step 58

Open the “Render Settings” window, and adjust to the following settings.

Step 59

Switch on the “Quality” tab, and adjust the following settings.

Step 60

Select your “Renderable Camera”, then hit the “Render the current frame” button.

Step 61

We are done the texturing, lighting, and rendering part of the project. You should now have a render that looks something like this. Stay tuned for the “Post-Production” stage, where we will create some subtle lighting effects and finishing touches in Photoshop.

This tutorial is Day 2 in a series – Go to Day 3 or,
Start at the beginning – Go to Day 1

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Making of “The Tunnel” in Maya and Photoshop – Day 1

Abed Ibrahim — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:21:14 +0000

This tutorial is Day 1 in a series – Go to Day 2, or Day 3

Final Effect Preview

Click on the image to open a High-Rez version.

Step 1

Create primitive poly Cylinder, name it “Tunnel”, and then modify the attributes as in the following image. *Be sure to name every new shape you create, as it will make selection easier later on.

Step 2

Rotate the “Tunnel” on the ‘X’ axis, and then scale it as in the following image.

Step 3

Select the face that is facing in the ‘Z’ direction, and extrude it to
a value of ‘164′.

Step 4

Create a primitive poly Plane, name it “Street”, and scale it as in following image.

Step 5

Create another poly Cylinder, with a “Subdivisions Axis” of ‘32′, and then
place it on the street near the “Tunnel” walls.

Step 6

Select the “Street” object, and the new cylinder, then go to
“Mesh > Booleans > Difference”.

Step 7

Select the inner face, and then pull it up and scale it in a little.

Step 8

Create a poly Cube, and scale it as in the following image.

Step 9

Go to “Edit Mesh > Split Polygon Tool”.

Step 10

Set the “Snap tolerance” (for the “Split Polygon Tool”) to
“100”, and then split the top face as shown.

Step 11

Move the new edge a few degrees on ‘-X’, and then extrude the face up.

Step 12

Move the shape, and place it exactly by the wall on the right side of the street.

Step 13

Now scale and translate the sides of the shape to match the length of the Tunnel.

Step 14

Create a poly Plane with no subdivisions, and then scale it as in the following image.

Step 15

Now align this long poly Plane exactly with the “Street” object, name it “Street Line”, and then go
to “Edit > Duplicate”.

Step 16

Keep on duplicating the “Street Lines”, until it looks like the following image.

Step 17

Create 2 poly Cylinders, and scale them to match the street length. They will be representing the car brake lights in fast motion, so name them “Brake Lights”.

Step 18

Do the same for the right side of street, but this time
create poly Planes instead of Cylinders. Now give them an ‘X’ Scale value of ‘0.025′, rotate them to ‘-44.50′ on the ‘Z’ axis, and then extend them to the length of the street.

Step 19

Raise the 2 poly Planes a few degrees above the street surface, and then place them on the right side as shown.

Step 20

Create a point light with the following settings.

Step 21

Translate the Point Light to “8.500” on the ‘Y’ axis.

Step 22

Duplicate the lights along the length of the tunnel. You can press “Shift + d” after the first duplication, so that it will copy the transformation too.

Step 23

Now it’s time to create your “Render Camera”. Go to “Create >
Cameras > Camera”.

Step 24

‘Attribute Editor’ for the camera, enter the following values.

Step 25

Activate the “Resolution Gate” as shown

Step 26

Select the camera, and in the “Channel Box”, highlight the attributes by holding “Shift + LMB”, then “Right click > Lock Selected”. This will lock these basic attributes to avoid moving the camera by mistake.

Step 27

The modeling stage is now complete. If you render your scene in Mental Ray, it should look something like this (although I brightened it a bit in PS, so you could see the scene more clearly).

This tutorial is Day 1 in a series – Go to Day 2, or Day 3

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Model and Texture a Posh Living Room Scene in Maya – Day 2

Alan Monroig — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 10:00:59 +0000

In this tutorial you will go through the process of modeling and rendering a Living Room in Autodesk Maya. You will learn to use Mental Ray, along with the new architectural materials, and also create realistic fur, implement studio lighting for nice and soft shadows and highlights, and then execute the final render.

This tutorial is Day 2 in a series – Go to Day 1

Final Effect Preview

Click on the image to open a High-Rez version.

Step 1

Go to “Window > Rendering Editors > Hypershade”.

Step 2

Inside the ‘Hypershade’ editor, with “Create mental ray Nodes” active, create a new “mia_material_x”.

Step 3

Open the ‘Attributes’ editor for the “mia_material_x”, and name the material “sofa”. This will make sure your ‘Hypershade’ window stays organized.

Step 4

Under the “Diffuse” section, change the color to a beige tone.

Step 5

Adjust the settings below as shown:

Diffuse: Roughness = 0.500

Reflection: Color = White Grey; Reflectivity = 0.450; Glossiness = 0.500; Glossy Samples = 16

Step 6

Scroll down to the “Bump” section, click on “Overall Bump”, and select the 2D “Mountain” texture.

Step 7

Change the “Bump Depth” value to ‘0.001′, and then go to the “Bump Value” settings.

Step 8

Leave the default settings as they are.

Step 9

Check the ‘Hypershade’ editor to make sure everything is correct.

Step 10

Now assign the material you just created to both sofas.

Step 11

Go to “Window > Rendering Editors > Hypershade” to open the ‘Hypershade’ editor.

Step 12

With “Create mental ray Nodes” active, create a new “mia_material_x”.

Step 13

Go to the ‘Attributes’ editor of the new material, name it “Table”, and then change the following options:

Diffuse: Color = Black

Reflection: Reflectivity = 1.000

Step 14

Now scroll down to the “Refraction” section, and change the following options:

Index of Reflaction = 1.500

Color = Soft blue

Transparency = 1.000

Step 15

Apply the new material to the table.

Step 16

Go to “Window > Rendering Editors > Hypershade”, and open the ‘Hypershade’ editor.

Step 17

With “Create Mental Ray” nodes active, create a new “mia_material_x”.

Step 18

Go to the ‘Attributes’ editor of the new material, name it “Legs”, and select one of the presets named “Chrome”. This will automatically create a chrome material.

Step 19

Apply the chrome material to the legs of the sofas, and also to the vase.

Step 20

Open the “Hypershade” editor.

Step 21

With “Create mental ray Nodes” active, create a new “mia_material_x”.

Step 22

Go to the ‘Attributes’ editor of the material we just created, name it “Table Base”, and add a file texture to the “Diffuse Color” slot.

Step 23

Under ‘File Attributes’, click on the “Image Name” option to browse for a wood texture of your own choice.

Step 24

Apply the new material to the table base, and if you look closely, you will see that you need to adjust the UV mapping.

Step 25

Select the table base, then go to “Create UVs > Spherical Mapping”.

Step 26

The texture should now look much better.

Step 27

Now go to “Create > Polygon Primitives > Sphere” to create some geometry for the carpet.

Step 28

Position the sphere accordingly.

Step 29

Then scale it to an appropriate size.

Step 30

Open the ‘Hypershade’ editor”.

Step 31

With “Create mental ray Nodes” active, create a new “mia_material_x”.

Step 32

Go to the ‘Attributes’ editor of the new material, name it “Carpet”, change the “Diffuse” color to a beige tone, and change the “Reflectivity” to ‘0′.

Step 33

Apply the new material to the carpet.

Step 34

Select the carpet object, go to the “Fur” tab, and select the “Sheep” preset.

Step 35

In the ‘Attributes’ editor of the “Fur” you just created, change the “Base” and “Tip” colors to beige.

Step 36

Go to “Create > Lights > Area Light”.

Step 37

Position the new “Area Light”.

Step 38

Duplicate the “Area Light”, and position the copy accordingly.

Step 39

In the ‘Attributes’ editor of both lights, change the “Intensity” to ‘0.450′.

Step 40

Scroll down to the “Raytrace Shadow Attributes” section, enable “Use Ray Trace Shadows”, and change the “Shadow Ray” to ‘15′. Again, do it for both lights.

Step 41

Position the camera as you see fit.

Step 42

Go to “Window > Rendering Editors > Render Settings”, to open the “Render Settings” window .

Step 43

Inside the “Render Settings” window, change the “Render Using” option to “mental ray”. Then, under the “Quality” tab, change the “Max Sample Level” to “2″, and under the “Multi-pixel Filtering” section, change the “Filter” to “Gauss”. Lastly, under the “Raytracing” section, change the following options:

Reflections = 5

Refractions = 5

Max trace Depth = 10

Shadows = 5.

Step 44

Go to the “Indirect Lighting” tab, and in the “Final Gathering” section, enable “Final Gathering”, change the “Accuracy” to “300″, and adjust the “Point Density” to “0.200″.

Step 45

If you render the scene now, you will see that it still needs more light.

Step 46

Go to “Window > Outliner”, to open the “Outliner” window, and then select your camera.

Step 47

In the ‘Attributes’ editor of the camera, scroll down to the “Environment” section, and change the “Background Color” to grey. This will make all of the surroundings brighter.

Step 48

If you render the scene, you should see that it looks a lot better. The carpet, however, still needs some work.

Step 49

Select the carpet, and go to the ‘Attributes’ editor of the fur. Change the “Density” to “50000″, adjust the “Tip Color” to a whiter beige, and increase the “Length” to “1.200″.

Step 50

If you are still not happy with the carpet at this point, you can try adjusting the “Fur” to your own settings. That’s it! Hope you enjoyed the tutorial!!

Start at the beginning – Go to Day 1

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Model and Texture a Posh Living Room Scene in Maya – Day 1

Alan Monroig — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 10:00:45 +0000

In this tutorial you will go through the process of modeling and rendering a Living Room in Autodesk Maya. You will also learn to use Mental Ray (along with the new architectural materials), create realistic fur, and implement studio lighting to create nice and soft shadows and highlights.

This tutorial is Day 1 in a series – Go to Day 2

Final Effect Preview

Click on the image to open a High-Rez version.

Step 1

Create a primitive cube.

Step 2

Go to the ‘Attributes’ editor of the cube, and change the “Subdivisions Width” to ‘20′ (this will give us enough geometry to deform the cube).

Step 3

Go to “Edit Mesh > Insert Edge Loop Tool”.

Step 4

With the “Insert Edge Loop Tool” selected, create 2 lines around the cube.

Step 5

Select all of the faces that go around the cube.

Step 6

With those faces selected, go to “Edit Mesh > Extrude”

Step 7

Extrude outwards, just a little bit.

Step 8

Select the small faces that go around the cube.

Step 9

Go to “Edit Mesh > Extrude”.

Step 10

Extrude the faces outwards a bit.

Step 11

With the cube selected, press number 3 (the entire cube should smooth out). It it should pretty good now, but the corners are not sharp enough yet.

Step 12

Go to “Edit Mesh > Insert Edge Loop Tool”.

Step 13

With the “Insert Edge Loop Tool” active, create 4 edges to make the corners smooth out.

Step 14

With the “Animation” menu active and the cube selected, go to “Create Deformers > Nonlinear > Bend”. This will create a deformer to make the curvature of the sofa.

Step 15

With the ‘Bend’ deformer selected, go to the ‘Attributes’ editor and change the ‘Z’ rotation to ‘90′ (this number will vary depending on the position of your cube).

Step 16

Go to the “bend1” attributes and change the following settings:

Curvature: 1.700

Low Bound: -0.600

High Bound: 0.400

Note: These settings will vary depending on the shape of your cube and how you want it to deform.

Step 17

The result should look something like this.

Step 18

Select the cube and the deformer, and rotate them to position the sofa. The sofa is almost ready now. You are only missing the legs.

Step 19

Create a cylinder.

Step 20

Go to the ‘Attributes’ editor of the cylinder, with the “polyCylinder1” tab active, and change the “Subdivisions Height” to ‘36′.

Step 21

Select the cylinder, and using the scale tool, squeeze the cylinder on one axis.

Step 22

With the “Animation” menu active, go to “Create Deformers > Nonlinear > Bend”.

Step 23

Go to the ‘Attributes editor, and change the ‘Y’ rotation value to ‘90′ (this setting will vary depending on the position of your cylinder).

Step 24

Go to the “bend2” tab of the ‘Attributes’ editor, and change the following settings:

Curvature: 0.750

Low Bound: -0.300

High Bound: 1.500

Note: These settings will vary depending on your cylinder, and how you want it to deform.

Step 25

Make 4 duplicates of the cylinder, and position them to match the size of the sofa.

Step 26

Select all of the cylinders (including the deformers), and move them into position.

Step 27

Now that the sofa is finished, select all of the objects and go to “Edit > Group”.

Step 28

Under the ‘Attributes’ editor of the new group, change the name of the group to “Sofa”.

Step 29

With the side view active, go to “Create > CV Curve Tool”.

Step 30

With the “CV Curve Tool” active, make a curve.

Step 31

Duplicate the curve, and move the copy to the other side.

Step 32

Select both curves, and with the “Surfaces” menu active, go to “Surfaces > Loft”.

Step 33

Duplicate the “Sofa” group, and position both sofas.

Step 34

Go to “Create > Polygon Primitives > Pipe” and create a pipe.

Step 35

Rotate the pipe into position.

Step 36

Go to the ‘Attributes’ editor of the pipe, and change the “Subdivisions Axis” to ‘6′.

Step 37

Select some of the vertices and start modifying the base geometry of the table. When you are finished, press ‘3′ on the keyboard to make the table smooth.

Step 38

Under the “Polygons” menu, go to “Edit Mesh > Insert Edge Loop Tool”.

Step 39

With the “Insert Edge Loop Tool” active, add some edges around the table to make the corners sharper.

Step 40

With the table selected, go to “Mesh > Smooth”, change the “Division Levels” to ‘2′, and click “Smooth”.

Step 41

You are almost done modeling, but you are still missing the table top and the vase.

Step 42

Go to “Create > Polygon Primitives > Cylinder” and create a cylinder.

Step 43

With the top view active, scale the cylinder to match the size of your table.

Step 44

With the side view active, go to “Create > EP Curve Tool”, and create a curve that matches the silhouette of one half of the vase.

Step 45

With the curve selected, go to “Modify > Center Pivot”.

Step 46

With the “Surfaces” menu active and the curve selected, go to “Surfaces > Revolve”.

Step 47

If your object does not look improperly deformed (like the ones in the image), skip to “Step 49”.

Step 48

Select the curve and move it to right or left until the object looks right.

Step 49

Congratulations, you have reached the end of the modeling stage of the tutorial! Stay tuned for part 2…Materials!!

This tutorial is Day 1 in a series – Go to Day 2

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How to Create an Awesome Fire Effect Using Maya Fluids

Alan Monroig — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 10:00:37 +0000

In this tutorial you will learn how to create a fire animation inside Maya, and adjust the settings for your own projects. We will create the fire from scratch using Maya Dynamics and Fluids. The fire animation we will create can be rendered using both Maya software and Mental Ray.

Final Effect Preview

Click on the image to open a High-Rez version.

Step 1

Open the scene you are going to use. I created a scene with a lighter, some lights and a white background.

Step 2

Make sure the “Dynamics” menu is active, and then go to “Fluid Effects > Create 3D Container with Emitter”. Position and scale the container to match your scene.

Step 3

Select the container you just created, and then go to its attributes (make sure you are looking at the “fluidShape2” attributes).

Step 4

You are going to leave the resolution at a very low number for now. Change the following options under “Container Properties”.

Resolution = 10, 10, 10

Boundary Y = -Y side

Contents Method

Temperature = Dynamic Grid

Fuel = Dynamic Grid

Step 5

Select only the emitter and move it down with the move tool.

Step 6

Increase the number of frames. Do a playback to see how the animation of the flame is looking.

Step 7

Select the container, and under the “fluidEmitter1” attributes, change the following options:

Fluid Attributes: Heat/Voxel/Sec = 2.000; Fuel/Voxel/Sec = 4.000

Fluid Emission Turbulence: Turbulence = 1.150

Step 8

Go to the “fluidShape2” attributes and change the following options:

Density: Buoyancy = 9.000; Dissipation = 0.182

Step 9

Inside the “fluidShape2” attributes, change the following options under the “Contents Details” section:

Velocity: Swirl = 10.000

Turbulence: Strength = 0.010

Temperature: Temperature Scale = 1.930; Buoyancy = 9.000

Step 10

If you do a playback of the fire you should see the fire reaching the top of the container and creating an undesirable effect.
To fix this, you need to increase the size of the container.

Step 11

Go to “Fluid Effects > Extend Fluid” open the settings of that tool, and then change the “Extend Y by:” to ‘2′ and click on “Apply and Close”.

Step 12

Now the fire has more space to move.

Step 13

Select the container, and under the “fluidShape2” attributes, change the following options:

Fuel: Fuel Scale = 1.960; Reaction Speed = 0.970

Step 14

Scroll down to the “Shading” section and change the following options:

Shading: Transparency = White Grey; Dropoff Shape = Sphere; Edge Dropoff = 0.440

Color: Selected color = Black

Step 15

Scroll down to the “Incandescence” section, and change the graph as shown on the image.

Step 16

Go to the Opacity graph and change it as shown in the image. Then modify the following options:

Incandescence: Incandescence Input = Temperature; Input Bias = 0.387

Opacity: Interpolation = Spline; Opacity Input = Density; Input Bias = 0.315

Step 17

If you do a playback of the fire, you should see a nice looking animation.

Step 18

If you render the scene, you should see that the fire looks good now too.

Step 19

If you want to modify the “Brightness” intensity of the fire, go to the “fluidShape2” attributes, and under the “Incandescence” section, change the “Input Bias” to a value that works for you.

Step 20

I used Mental Ray to render the fire, but you can change it to Maya by going to the “Render Settings” menu, and at the top of the window, change “Render Using” to Maya Software.

Step 21

If you render the scene it should still looks pretty great, but all of the objects in my scene disappeared (except for the fire) because they all have mental ray materials.

Step 22

Lastly, if you go to the “Attributes” of the container, you can use one of the other cool presets that Maya has built in.

Step 23

The image below was created using the “thickcloudPuff” preset.

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Model and Texture a Photorealistic USB Cable with Maya and Mental Ray, Day 2 – Basix

Alan Monroig — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 07:00:30 +0000

In this tutorial you will go through the process of modeling and rendering a Photorealistic USB cable in Autodesk Maya. You will also learn to use Mental Ray, along with the new architectural materials, rendering layers, and Photoshop, to create a fast, accurate, and photorealistic depth of field.

This tutorial is Day 2 in a series – Go to Day 1

Final Effect Preview

Click on the image to open a High-Rez version.

Step 1

This is where we left off at the end of Day 1.

Step 2

Go to “Window > Rendering Editors > Hypershade”.

Step 3

Go to “Window > Settings/Preferences > Plug-in Manager”, and locate “Mayatomr.mll”. Check off both “Loaded”, and “Auto Load” (do this step only if mental ray is not already loaded).

Step 4

With the “Hypershade” window open, change the type of nodes from Maya to Mental Ray, and create a new “mia_material_x”

Step 5

Go to the attribute editor for the new material, name the material, and adjust the attributes as shown.

Step 6

Scroll down to the “Bump” selection, click on the little check board square at the right of “Standard Bump” (this will open a new window). Now scroll to the “3D Textures”, and select “Rock”.

Step 7

With the “Bump” attribute editor open, change the “Bump Depth” to ‘0.062′, and click on the door at the right of “Bump Value”.

Step 8

Change “Color 1” to a white grey.

Step 9

In the “Hypershade” editor, create 3 “mia_material_x” materials.

Step 10

Open the attribute editor of one of those materials, name it “mia_cable”, and adjust the attributes as shown.

Step 11

Scroll down to the bump section, click on the check board square next to “Overall bump” (this will open a new window), scroll down to 3D textures and select “Brownian”.

Step 12

With the “Bump” attribute editor opened, change “Bump Depth” to “0.372″, and click on the little door next to “Bump Value”.

Step 13

Name the texture “brownian_cable” and modify the settings as shown.

Step 14

Open the attribute editor for another one of the “mia_material_x” materials, name the material “mia_MetalConnector”, and adjust the attributes as shown.

Step 15

Don´t forget to check the “Metal Material” option, at the bottom of the “Reflection” section.

Step 16

Scroll down, open the “Anisotropy” section, and change the “Anisotropy” value to “0.100″.

Step 17

Open the last “mia_material_x” material, name it “mia_whitePlastic”, and adjust the attributes as shown.

Step 18

Now assign every material to corresponding polygons in the scene. This is how it should look.

Step 19

Select the white box inside of the metal connector, and go to “Window > UV Texture Editor”.

Step 20

Go to “Create UV´s > Planar Mapping”.

Step 21

With the top view active, scale the mapping so it only covers the 2 holes on the metal connector.

Step 22

With the “UV Texture Editor” open, go to “Polygons > UV Snapshot” (this will open a new window).

Step 23

Modify the settings as shown.

Step 24

Open up the UV snapshot file you just saved in Photoshop.

Step 25

Make a White layer.

Step 26

Add some dirt to the image and save it out.

Step 27

Open the attribute editor for the white material, click on the little check board square next to color, and in the new window, click on “File”.

Step 28

Select the image you made with Photoshop, and change the “Filter Type” to off.

Step 29

Go to “Create > Lights > Area Light”, and create 2 lights.

Step 30

Position the lights as shown.

Step 31

Open the light attribute editor and change the “Intensity” to “0.744″.

Step 32

Scroll down to the “Shadows” section, check the “Use Ray Trace Shadows” option, and change “Shadow Rays” to “30″.

Step 33

Make the same adjustments for the other light.

Step 34

Go to “Create > Cameras > Camera”.

Step 35

In the little menu on top of the perspective view, go to “Panels > Perspective > Camera”.

Step 36

Move the camera to a good position.

Step 37

Open the “Rendering Settings”, and change “Render Using” to “Mental Ray”.

Step 38

Go to the “Quality” tab, and adjust the settings as shown.

Step 39

Go to the “Indirect Lighting” tab and activate “Final Gathering”.

Step 40

Go to the “Common” tab, change “Renderable camera” to your main camera, and the image size to “720P”.

Step 41

Now render the scene. As you can see, we are only missing the depth of field.

Step 42

Go to the “Rendering” layers editor, create a new layer named “Depth of Field”, and add all the objects in the scene to it.

Step 43

With the new render layer selected, go to the camera attributes, scroll down to “Depth of Field”, right click the option, and select “Create Layer Override” (the words should change to orange).

Step 44

Adjust the settings of the depth of field as shown.

Step 45

Go to the “Depth of Field Tab”, click on “Presets”, and select “Luminance” map (everything should turn black).

Step 46

This is how the scene should look.

Step 47

Render the layer. Now we have depth of field information for Photoshop.

Step 48

In the “Render View” menu, go to “File > Save Image” and save the image.

Step 49

Now render the master layer, and save the image.

Step 50

Open Photoshop, make 2 layers (1 with the USB, and the other with the depth of field information). Select the depth of field layer and copy it.

Step 51

With the “Channels” tab active, create a new channel, and go to “Edit > Paste”.

Step 52

Hide the depth of field layer, and select the USB layer.

Step 53

Go to “Filter > Blur > Lens Blur” (this will open a new window).

Step 54

Change the source to “Alpha 1”, and adjust the other settings to match you preferences. Click on OK.

Final Result

Now save the image and you are done!!!

Start at the beginning – Go to Day 1

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Model and Texture a Photorealistic USB Cable with Maya and Mental Ray, Day 1 – Basix

Alan Monroig — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 07:00:28 +0000

This tutorial is Day 1 in a series – Go to Day 2

This is part 1 of the tutorial: the modeling process.

Final Effect Preview

Click on the image to open a High-Rez version.

Step 1

Create a primitive cube and scale it to match the size of a USB.

Step 2

Under the “Polygons” menu, go to the “Edit Mesh > Insert Edge Loop Tool”.

Step 3

Create 2 edge loops.

Step 4

Select 8 vertexes from the end of the geometry, and with the scale and move tools, modify the geometry to match the basic shape of a USB.

Step 5

This is how it should look (depending on the type of USB cable you are trying model).

Step 6

Select the front face of the USB.

Step 7

With that same face still selected, go to “Edit Mesh > Extrude”, and create an inner face.

Step 8

Once again, go to “Edit Mesh > Extrude”, and extrude the face inward a bit.

Step 9

Go to “Edit Mesh > Insert Edge Loop Tool”, and add some edges, to create a new face on the top of the USB.

Step 10

Select the new face, then go to “Edit Mesh > Extrude”, and extrude the face slightly inward.

Step 11

Go to “Edit Mesh > Insert Edge Loop Tool”, and create 16 edges on the side of the USB.

Step 12

Select 16 faces from the 32 you just created (every other one).

Step 13

With those faces selected, go to “Edit Mesh > Extrude”, and extrude the faces inward as shown.

Step 14

Scale the shape of the faces to make them smaller on the vertical axis.

Step 15

This is how it should look on both sides.

Step 16

Go to “Edit Mesh > Insert Edge Loop Tool”, and create 2 edges on the sides of the USB. If you get a problem like the one in the image, just go to the next step.

Step 17

Go to “Edit Mesh > Split Polygon Tool”, click on the beginning of the line you want to create, and once again at the end. Do this for both edges, and for both sides of the USB.

Step 18

Select all of the small faces that you just created on the sides of the USB, then go to “Edit Mesh > Extrude”, and extrude those faces inward.

Step 19

You should have something that looks like this.

Step 20

Go to “Edit Mesh > Split Polygon Tool”, and to “Edit Mesh > Insert Edge Loop Tool”. Using both tools as necessary, create edges at every hard angle change of the USB (use the images as reference).

Step 21

When you are finished, select the USB object and simply press number 3 on your keyboard to smooth it. Then just sit back and watch how nice the smoothed USB looks.

Step 22

Now, create a primitive cube, position it, and scale it to fit inside the USB.

Step 23

Go to “Edit Mesh > Extrude”, and extrude the front face of the metal connector.

Step 24

Once again, go to “Edit Mesh > Extrude”, and extrude the face inward.

Step 25

Go to “Edit Mesh > Insert Edge Loop tool”, and create 2 edge loops through the middle of metal connector.

Step 26

Select the small faces you just created, then go to “Edit Mesh > Extrude”, and extrude them slightly inward.

Step 27

Go to “Edit Mesh > Insert Edge Loop tool”, and create some new edges to make 2 faces at the top of the connector.

Step 28

Go to “Edit Mesh > Extrude”, and extrude the 2 faces inward.

Step 29

Select the 2 faces and delete them to create 2 holes.

Step 30

Now you are going to use a different method to smooth the object (this method can only be used with simple geometry).

Go to “Edit Mesh > Bevel”, set the ‘Width’ to ‘0.6′ (this will depend on how smooth you want the object to be, and also the size of the object). Also, set the ‘Segments’ to 1, the ‘Offset type’ to ‘Fractional’, the ‘Offset space’ to ‘World’, and the ‘UV assignment’ to ‘Planar project per face’.

Step 31

Now simply press number 3, and you should see some nice edges.

Step 32

Make a primitive cube, and fit it inside the metal connector.

Step 33

Go to “Edit Mesh > Bevel”, to smooth the cube.

Step 34

Go to the “Create > EP Curve Tool”, and set the ‘Curve degree’ to ‘3 cubic’ (this will create a nice curve).

Step 35

Draw the cable as shown.

Step 36

Select the control vertexes of the curve and adjust them to your liking.

Step 37

This is how my curve looks, but you can make yours any way you like.

Step 38

Make a primitive cylinder, and scale the diameter to match your cable.

Step 39

Move the cylinder to the end of the curve.

Step 40

Scale the cylinder to match the length of the cable.

Step 41

Increase the ‘Subdivisions Height’ to at least 300.

Step 42

Select the cylinder, press “shift”, and then select the curve (the order in which you select the objects is very important).

Now, with the objects selected, go to “Animate > Motion Path > Attach to Motion Path” (in the “Animation” menu).

Step 43

Move the time line to check if the object is moving properly.

Step 44

Now we need to make the cylinder distort around the curve.

So, with the cylinder selected, go to “Animate > Motion Paths > Flow Path Object”.

Step 45

With the deformer you just created selected, change the ‘T Divisions’ to ‘400′, and the cylinder should be following the curve smoothly.

Step 46

To hide the deformers, go to “Show > Deformers” in the little menu on top of perspective view.

Step 47

Now create a primitive plane for the floor.

Step 48

To attach the cable to the USB, just create a primitive cylinder, and position it as shown.

Step 49

In the “Polygons” menu, go to “Edit Mesh > Insert Edge Loop Tool”, and make some edges around the cylinder.

Step 50

Select the faces that you want to extrude, then go to “Edit Mesh > Extrude”, and extrude them inward.

Step 51

Create a primitive cylinder (this will be the thick portion of the cable).

Step 52

Change the “Subdivisions Axis” to ‘50′.

Step 53

Go to “Edit Mesh > Insert Edge Loop Tool”, and insert to 4 edges (2 on each side).

Step 54

Select the vertexes at the end of the cylinder and scale them.

Step 55

Do the same for the opposite side.

Step 56

Go to “Edit Mesh > Insert Edge Loop tool”, and insert some edges at the hard angles of the cylinder.

Step 57

Make sure it’s the same for both sides.

Step 58

Create small cylinders and position them were you want the holes to be.

Step 59

Select the 4 cylinders, and go to “Mesh > Combine”.

Step 60

Now you need to create some geometry for the holes (this is very important, because if you don´t do it, the hole could have some errors).

Step 61

Select the big cylinder, press “shift”, and then select the small cylinders. Go to “Mesh > Booleans > Difference”.

Step 62

This is how it should look (little holes without glitches). If you do get any problems, just move the edges around until they disappear.

Step 63

Now position the cylinder where you want it to be.

Step 64

Select the front faces from both sides.

Step 65

Go to “Edit Mesh > Extrude”, and extrude the faces to make a smaller circle.

Step 66

Select the new faces, go to “Edit Mesh > Extrude” and extrude them inward.

Step 67

This is how it should look (I have hidden the floor so you can see the results better).

Step 68

For the background, I used a cloth included in a tutorial from the “Digital Tutors” series. You can check it out here: http://www.digitaltutors.com

This tutorial is Day 1 in a series – Go to Day 2

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