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

Alan Monroig on Jul 22nd 2009 with 48 comments
Tutorial Details
  • Program: Maya, Mental Ray
  • Difficulty: Intermediate
  • Completion Time: 1-2 hours

Final Product What You'll Be Creating

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

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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By Alan Monroig

Rollover to read this author's bio or click through to see a full list of posts by this author.

I am currently a student of Visual Effects and 3D animation, with 2 years of experience. I have used Maya, Photoshop, After Effects, Boujou, Zbrush, and Mudbox, and have created work for such venues as: magazines, cover pages, motion graphics, and catalogs. My goal is to be a professional VFX artist.  

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Discussion 48 Comments

  1. vasu says:
    July 22, 2009 at 3:21 am

    great tut

    Reply
  2. PhSn says:
    July 22, 2009 at 4:18 am

    great result!

    Reply
  3. Cristian Pop says:
    July 22, 2009 at 4:25 am

    Great job!

    Reply
  4. BHO says:
    July 22, 2009 at 4:53 am

    Good Job.. Will Definitely be using this one..

    Reply
  5. Modisana says:
    July 22, 2009 at 7:25 am

    Incredible…Will definitely give this one a go since Im learning Maya….
    Pity we don’t have that many Maya tutorials on CG Tuts, Hopefully that’ll change soon.

    Thanks
    :-)

    Reply
  6. Emin says:
    July 22, 2009 at 9:29 am

    Wow, i have to try this thx…

    Reply
  7. BISMARCK says:
    July 22, 2009 at 9:54 am

    Really! we need more maya tuts, yeah!!!!

    Reply
  8. Deer Workshop says:
    July 22, 2009 at 11:00 am

    Man I think I love U! jajaja lo, This one worked like a charm 2! thanks a lot!

    Reply
    • Alan Monroig says:
      July 22, 2009 at 7:23 pm
      Author

      This is the final work you did with my tutorial??? http://deerworkshop.deviantart.com/art/USB-final-render-130475440

      Nice I like it, (you could position the light more on top of the USB and your shadows won´t be so large)

      *Great job!!!*

      Reply
      • Deer Workshop says:
        July 23, 2009 at 10:21 am

        OH! thanks man! LOL I really appreciate that one! Sure, I’ll be practicing a lot more!, By the way, could U please show us how to put textures on Maya and Mental Ray?, like wood textures or something, it’s just that for the USB I wanted to make the “floor” made od wood like if the USB was over a table, but I don’t know how 2 do that :’(, so I don’t know if U can help me on that, I don’t know if I have to do some UV mapping or creating a material :S, so anyways, Thank U a lot! That USB I made maight not be the greatest but I’ll keep practicing a lot! Greetings!

  9. Diego SA says:
    July 22, 2009 at 11:50 am

    100% of realism! Dude, it’s awesome!

    Reply
  10. Fidget says:
    July 23, 2009 at 1:23 am

    Thanks for the cool tutorial. It helped me out much in the modeling dept.

    Are there any other ways to create wires? I remember seeing one created in a similar fashion, but different. But I do not remember exactly how.

    Here is my result. Thanks again.

    http://www.sinewavezero.com/cgtut1.html

    Reply
    • Alan Monroig says:
      July 24, 2009 at 5:51 am
      Author

      I love the reflective floor and the metal bars Great idea…

      I don´t know any other way to make a wire, make a Google search :)

      Nice work!!!

      Reply
      • Fidget says:
        July 24, 2009 at 1:04 pm

        thanks, I had to put the metal bars there because when I was done the plug was somehow floating above the surface. :) so I needed something for it to rest on.

        I remembered the alternate way to make wires. for those interested here it is.
        1) create a path with the CV Curve tool
        2) create a nurbs circle
        3) rotate the nurbs circle upright
        4) select the nurbs circle then select the CV Curve path
        5) go to surfaces> extrude
        6) in the extrude menu make sure “tube” is selected and make sure “at path” is selected and hit apply

        I hope this helps too.

        thanks again for the tutorial.

  11. Tom Newbold says:
    July 23, 2009 at 7:55 am

    Nice tut! need more maya tuts like this imo! I struggled a little with the planor mapping and uv texture editor for the dirt on the white part.. Ill post link when ive finished :)

    MORE MAYA TUTS!

    Reply
  12. arlington cruz says:
    July 28, 2009 at 10:16 am

    yes more more Maya Tuts please. Thank you for all your help and effort into sharing all these tuts with us.

    Reply
  13. Danny says:
    August 29, 2009 at 2:13 am

    The final result is not very realistic, you need to work out a little. The rest is ok.

    Reply
  14. Rully says:
    August 30, 2009 at 11:38 pm

    alan, I follow this tutorial step by step but in finalize the result different with your result picture.my metal connector is not like metal please send me step by step detail, because i am beginner in maya.
    Thanks

    Reply
  15. Vee says:
    September 22, 2009 at 9:26 am

    Both parts of this have helped a LOT! Seeing your work flow was of great assistance.

    I didn’t quite get the lighting to work out the same way, but I’ll keep tweaking.

    Thank you for posting these!

    Reply
  16. rully says:
    September 27, 2009 at 11:09 pm

    anybody, may i have your final working file (mb) file to compare the result with my. because my result not like your picture.

    please send to my email at lirusme@gmail.com

    thanks

    Reply
  17. sandeep says:
    October 2, 2009 at 10:01 am

    ur work is excellent and very useful to all. thanks

    Reply
  18. Rajath says:
    October 7, 2009 at 11:12 pm

    great tut. Fine detail. And absolutely great illustration. Thanks. Where can i find more of your work?

    Reply
  19. Kully says:
    November 7, 2009 at 10:24 am

    hey sup dudes, great tut, i am having trouble with the mia_material for the first part, when i go to the attribute editor i dont seem to have a 3d bump there, please help!

    Reply
  20. ctbram says:
    November 17, 2009 at 10:07 am

    Not sure why my comments are not showing up and apologize if this ends up being a repost.

    Here is the result of my first render after assigning the materials and setting up the area lights.

    It does not really match the results in the tutorial and I would really like to know what I am doing wrong. The metallic connector is the main problem as it does not look metallic to me. I rechecked all the settings several times and even recreated the material from scratch.

    http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x185/ctbram/usb_cable_cgtut/usbConnector_cgTut_001.jpg

    Reply
  21. elcarlio says:
    December 10, 2009 at 2:56 pm

    Great Tut, but ive got one problem, cant find the depth of field tab to get the luminance preset in my camera after activating the orange DoF.

    Thanks

    Reply
  22. Frank D says:
    February 11, 2010 at 1:03 pm

    Thank you so much! awsome tutorial, easy to follow and easy to understand.

    Reply
  23. Ross says:
    March 5, 2010 at 3:44 am

    I did this tutorial, line for line, twice and am getting a lot of the issues other people have gotten.

    1. The metal connector surface is not coming out right. Like others, it’s just gray, not shiny (and I triple checked it).
    2. The UV texture on the dirt isn’t coming through (not sure if it’s even working).
    3. The method to make the cord is overly complicated (there’s easier ways)
    4. I get no Depth of Field tab when I enable DOF and right-click it to the layer override (using Maya 2009). This whole part of the tutorial doesn’t work. It does however process the DOF right in the render, which looks bad.

    Here’s my image:

    Overall though it’s a good modeling tutorial. Like most of non-video tutorials on here, it leaves steps out or doesn’t explain everything you need to do.

    Reply
  24. Mike O'Hearn says:
    March 6, 2010 at 10:41 am

    done in Modo

    http://www.blue-coyote.com/usbfinal.jpg

    Reply
  25. nimil says:
    April 4, 2010 at 11:28 am

    well i’m very very new to making things in maya but i think mine came out pretty good :D

    http://nimil-3d.deviantart.com/art/a-simple-usb-plug-159510318

    thank you for this tutorial. a couple of steps were a little hard to figure out but thankfully google was there for the parts i couldn’t find on my own :p

    Reply
  26. ricardo franco says:
    April 24, 2010 at 5:32 pm

    there is a tip that works fine with me for the metal connector take the texture of metal.. go to window /rendering editors /hypershade take open the mia_MetalConnector and in the atribute editor in the top, in the part where you can change the name of the material, you can see to the right the presets* button. ok so you only press the button presets /crhome / replace and that’s it, you will have the texture of metal :D

    Reply
  27. smile says:
    May 15, 2010 at 6:46 am

    hi :) amazing tutorial. i’m working in an arch firm as a graphic designer and doing 3d proposals. however, i saw this image and it was so realistic so i wanted to give it a try as its not using ibl as well! but i didn’t get the same the quality! im losing details on the plastic and not getting the amazing look that you had on the metal!

    this is my try: http://yfrog.com/5zusbsamplej

    and please do u have any tutorials for using mental ray for exterior rendering! im using hte sun/sky or ibl but im always missing something! i want it to be so realistic as i will place the building on an actual picture. anyone who can help ill be really appreciated :)

    Reply
  28. yoneverknow123 says:
    May 26, 2010 at 8:41 am

    im a 13 year old graphic modeler from Pakistan and i find ur tutorial very easy to follow. i got confused in the photoshop section as i havent used photoshop before but i got it right in the end. Great Tutorial!

    Reply
  29. vikas says:
    June 3, 2010 at 12:57 am

    im a 24 year old 3d modeler from india and i find ur tutorial very easy to follow. i got confused in the animation section . plz add any tutorial walk cycle in maya .and thanks Great Tutorial!

    Reply
  30. thilo says:
    January 4, 2011 at 6:24 am

    very well done, perfect. thx.

    Reply
  31. diseño web tenerife says:
    January 24, 2011 at 6:08 am

    wow! good tutorial and good work!

    thanks!

    Reply
  32. Dušan Tomić says:
    February 2, 2011 at 10:08 am

    Very nice tutorial!

    Reply
  33. Janne says:
    May 31, 2011 at 11:01 pm

    >:( nothing worked from 43 until the end

    Reply
  34. Tanay Kothari says:
    July 5, 2011 at 12:09 pm

    Hi.having a lot of problems while smoothing. Please reply on my email ID so that I can write everything in detail

    Reply
  35. Simon says:
    September 15, 2011 at 10:28 am

    Great tutorial, really got me thinking about getting the best results.

    Reply

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