BBSc303 Lecture, 5th May 2009 - Sam Curtis

3dsmax mental ray Setup Workflow  (similar workflow lightstudio, different daylight systems and materials)

1) Setup your units. Make sure you are working in real world units.

2) Import your model (via FBX for Revit). Check the units (Measure tool under the tools tab)

3) Create a Arch & Design (mi) 'matte' material (from the template), 50% grey. Apply to the entire scene.

4) Hide the glazing in your windows, or create a Arch & Design (mi) 'Glass: Thin Geometry' material (from the template)

5) Create a Daylight system. Say yes to both questions when asked.

6) Make sure the Compass Rose is not too big, and do not drag the daylight system out too far from the scene. Keep it small,just twice as high as your buildling.

7) Setup the correct location for the daylight system. Change the day and time to something suitable.

8) Set up your camera views.

9) Go to Exposure settings and change exposure pre-sets to 'Physically Based Lighting, Indoor Daylight'

10) Bring up the render dialog box. Set render size to 320 x 240. Turn on finalrender and set to Draft. Set image anti-aliasing to Draft (Min 1/64, Max 1/4).

11) Render.

12) Adjust the sun position. Change the time in the daylight system until the sun is in the correct position. Re-render and repeat until satisfied.

13) Adjust your exposure. Go to Exposure settings and again and change the exposure setting (Exposure Value (EV)) and click Render Preview. Adjust the exposure setting until satisfied.

14) Create your materials for your walls and floor.
For gib painted walls create an Arch & Design (mi) 'matte' material (from the template) with 80% white. This is the reflectance value real white walls.
For a wooden varnished wall, use Arch & Design (mi) 'Satin Varnished Wood' material (from the template)

15) For the rest of the scene, use ony Arch & Design (mi) or ProMaterials. There are ProMaterial libraries you can load with a wider range of pre-defined realistic materials

16) When doing final renders, increase the render size, anti-aliasing the final render quality.

 

Useful Keyboard Shortcuts

F10  Render Dialog
F9  Re-render last
F12  Transform Type-in Dialog (move, rotate, scale)

M  Material Editor
H Object Selection
Q Select
W Move
E Rotate
R Scale
Alt-Q Isolate Current Object
Shift-W Turn off navigation wheel
Ctrl-D De-select current selection
Space Lock selection