Post by Anthony on May 18, 2015 10:26:14 GMT
01 – The rule of thirds When I finish a scene, I always try to use it to adjust the position of the camera and observe some rules of photography. One rule, the rule of thirds, is very simple. It proposes that the image should be divided into nine equal parts, and that important compositional elements should be placed along the intersections to create more interest in the piece than a central object would
02- Always use a linear workflow when rendering You will get better lighting and light falloff in your renders with a linear workflow. Personally, I prefer leaving Enable Gamma/LUT Correction unchecked and just setting Vray Color mapping to Gamma Correction and 2.2 Gamma. Don’t forget to change Gamma on your input images to 0.454.
03 – Create test renders When doing test renders, lower your Shadow, Reflection Glossiness and Global Illumination quality to get those renders done faster. When using VrayDisplacementMod, try to keep the subdivision values at a reasonable level. Try doing some test renders with lower values first.
04 – Try to use low-resolution models as a base to test your lighting High-res models will slow down your rendering time, so don’t set too much light in your scene. Use just one light, then carefully add more lights one by one, depending on what you see in test renders to avoid messing up your lighting effect.
05 – Deal with huge scenes To render huge scenes, such as cities, I divide my scene into different areas that I save individually in a different 3ds Max file, then render them all together at the end. I use the Xref object to bring them together so I can work in each area without losing any performance when dealing with scenes with lots of geometry
06 – Render Z-Depth When rendering for illustrations, make the most of render elements. Z-Depth is great for creating atmosphere in Photoshop. I’ll use 3ds Max and generate Z-Depth with Photoshop’s Color Picker to select areas behind the buildings. This allows me to paint clouds and fog to add atmosphere. It’s possible to use 3ds Max’s Volume Fog to achieve similar atmospheres.
07 – Colour correction Images coming out of a render can look really good, but keep in mind that post-processing a rendered image can produce an even more visually striking result when done correctly. Adding small visual details, such as localised colour corrections, a layer of noise on the image, depth of field, a glow or a slight sharpening can make your render look more realistic because it can introduce small imperfections to the image, making it look more like photo. Software like Fusion or NUKE is perfect for these tasks because they are built around non-destructive workflows. Photoshop can also be a good place to do post-processing too, but sometimes it requires you to bake certain effects.
08 – Organise your projects in most efficient way It is essential to organise your project files. 3ds Max has got a built-in tool that allows you to manage the project’s content. Reset your scene and manage the new location of your project. This way all paths including the export of meshes, previews or textures will be in the correct place in a newly created set of properly named folders. Make sure to work with UNC file system (go to Preferences>Files and check Convert File Paths To UNC).
09 – Use the Gradient map to animate cloud shadows With the use of a Spot light we can map the projector with a noisy gradient. This works particularly well for cloud shadows if the noise is large enough, but you can also simulate some nice forest lighting if you make the noise a little bit smaller. Simply animate the Gradient’s phase if you want moving cloud shadows.
10 – Keep all your assets ready to use Keeping your assets in the correct place and connecting them properly is essential for every project. I know from my own mistakes that as a beginner or even later on as a freelance artist, I could work in chaos without paying much attention to asset locations. For farm rendering and group work it is absolutely crucial to keep order in your files so you can locate them in the right way. To do so in 3ds Max, you should use Asset Tracking. This way you can locate all missing files like textures, meshes, proxies and so on.
02- Always use a linear workflow when rendering You will get better lighting and light falloff in your renders with a linear workflow. Personally, I prefer leaving Enable Gamma/LUT Correction unchecked and just setting Vray Color mapping to Gamma Correction and 2.2 Gamma. Don’t forget to change Gamma on your input images to 0.454.
03 – Create test renders When doing test renders, lower your Shadow, Reflection Glossiness and Global Illumination quality to get those renders done faster. When using VrayDisplacementMod, try to keep the subdivision values at a reasonable level. Try doing some test renders with lower values first.
04 – Try to use low-resolution models as a base to test your lighting High-res models will slow down your rendering time, so don’t set too much light in your scene. Use just one light, then carefully add more lights one by one, depending on what you see in test renders to avoid messing up your lighting effect.
05 – Deal with huge scenes To render huge scenes, such as cities, I divide my scene into different areas that I save individually in a different 3ds Max file, then render them all together at the end. I use the Xref object to bring them together so I can work in each area without losing any performance when dealing with scenes with lots of geometry
06 – Render Z-Depth When rendering for illustrations, make the most of render elements. Z-Depth is great for creating atmosphere in Photoshop. I’ll use 3ds Max and generate Z-Depth with Photoshop’s Color Picker to select areas behind the buildings. This allows me to paint clouds and fog to add atmosphere. It’s possible to use 3ds Max’s Volume Fog to achieve similar atmospheres.
07 – Colour correction Images coming out of a render can look really good, but keep in mind that post-processing a rendered image can produce an even more visually striking result when done correctly. Adding small visual details, such as localised colour corrections, a layer of noise on the image, depth of field, a glow or a slight sharpening can make your render look more realistic because it can introduce small imperfections to the image, making it look more like photo. Software like Fusion or NUKE is perfect for these tasks because they are built around non-destructive workflows. Photoshop can also be a good place to do post-processing too, but sometimes it requires you to bake certain effects.
08 – Organise your projects in most efficient way It is essential to organise your project files. 3ds Max has got a built-in tool that allows you to manage the project’s content. Reset your scene and manage the new location of your project. This way all paths including the export of meshes, previews or textures will be in the correct place in a newly created set of properly named folders. Make sure to work with UNC file system (go to Preferences>Files and check Convert File Paths To UNC).
09 – Use the Gradient map to animate cloud shadows With the use of a Spot light we can map the projector with a noisy gradient. This works particularly well for cloud shadows if the noise is large enough, but you can also simulate some nice forest lighting if you make the noise a little bit smaller. Simply animate the Gradient’s phase if you want moving cloud shadows.
10 – Keep all your assets ready to use Keeping your assets in the correct place and connecting them properly is essential for every project. I know from my own mistakes that as a beginner or even later on as a freelance artist, I could work in chaos without paying much attention to asset locations. For farm rendering and group work it is absolutely crucial to keep order in your files so you can locate them in the right way. To do so in 3ds Max, you should use Asset Tracking. This way you can locate all missing files like textures, meshes, proxies and so on.