« Posts under Uncategorized

Mental Ray Linear Workflow Tests

So, I’ve decided to take a better look at using a proper linear workflow within Mental Ray and part of that seems to be learning Global Illumination and Final Gather. These lightning systems have always seemed scary and complicated to me, but after some great tutorials at Lester Banks.com (http://www NULL.lesterbanks NULL.com)and Stuart Christensen (http://www NULL.youtube NULL.com/user/deepfriedectoplasm)‘s YouTube channel I am starting to see the light :) I would also like to thank Brandon from Backwards8.com (http://www NULL.backwards8 NULL.com)for sitting down with me the other day to explain some of the different GI and FG settings.

Labatt Beer with ice (http://www NULL.terrymatthes NULL.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/beer_ice NULL.jpg)I dug up a scene I had modeled a few months back of my old apartment. This is lighting s a test to see how I would like to take the render further. The render itself is black and white and the few textures and colours in it were added in Photoshop. I should mention that I’m not using the mia_roundCorner node. There are 5 area lights in the scene being controled by a mia_portal_light. Right now the large windows are emitting 1,000,000 photons per light and the smaller windows are emitting 500,000. The portal lights are all connected to the same mib_blackbody node which is outputting a colour temperature of 5500K. This is in an effort to simulate mid-day sun. The render camera is set up so that the film back is the same ratio as the resolution gate (960×540 px) and I added the lens shader mia_exposure_photographic to even out the gamma. I am still getting a bit of blotchyness around the corners, but part of that is due to the area light samples being set at 16. Overall I am really happy with this as a test and I will keep posting updates as my work progresses. I’ve also done a small linear light test with a beer can model and I will post that shot when I get off of work. If you have any questions about settings or the process as a whole post a comment below or shoot me an email (terry null@null terrymatthes NULL.com).
.
Global illumination and final gather rough render. (http://www NULL.terrymatthes NULL.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/apt_test NULL.jpg)
.

A Few Good Sites…

Links

Here are some sites I honestly think you will benefit from if you haven’t visited them yet.  Yes you do have to pay for a lot of the training in the “3rd party training” section, but those sites produce content worth saving your pennies for.  This post is checked on a regular basis so all of the links should be live. This isn’t one of this “hit it and quit it” link pages. I don’t roll that way.

Social Networking Sites

  • Twitter (http://www NULL.twitter NULL.com/terrymatthes)Catch news about upcoming tutorials and projects.
  • YouTube (http://www NULL.youtube NULL.com/delightningvfx) All video tutorials are hosted here.

Community Links

  • Games Industry Mentor (http://gim NULL.acanaday NULL.com/)Aaron hosts a pod cast with game industry professionals.
  • CG Society (http://www NULL.cgsociety NULL.org/) Thousands of threads to search for solutions to your 3D woes.
  • Concept Art.org (http://www NULL.conceptart NULL.org/)Inspiration by the boat load. Want to improve your drawing skills?
  • Gamer Artists.net (http://www NULL.game-artist NULL.net/forums/)The monthly challenges here will keep you sharp.
  • Polycount (http://www NULL.polycount NULL.com/forums) A great place to go for advice. Thin skinned be warned.
  • Unreal Developer Network (http://udn NULL.epicgames NULL.com/)Anything and everything to do with the Unreal engine.
  • Unreal Development Kit (http://www NULL.udk NULL.com/) A great site to introduce users to the UDK community.

Unreal Artists

  • Hourences (http://www NULL.hourences NULL.com/) Unreal tutorials covering a variety of topics. We all owe Hourences a “Thank you”.
  • Email me to get your site here. (theauthor null@null terrymatthes NULL.com)
  • Dave Prout (http://www NULL.daveprout NULL.com/) Lighting tutorials you can really use.
  • Arcadia Vincennes’ Level Design (http://www NULL.avld NULL.org) Konfused by Kismet? Also has some good level design tutorials.

3rd Party Educators

  • Gnomon Workshop (http://www NULL.thegnomonworkshop NULL.com/) On the Internet? Into 3D?  What are you waiting for? Amazing tutorials.
  • Eat3D (http://www NULL.eat3d NULL.com) Some really great Unreal related Lessons sets.
  • Digital Tutors (http://www NULL.digitaltutors NULL.com) Friendly, bright and upbeat 3D tutorials that are very easy to follow.
  • 3D Motive (http://www NULL.3dmotive NULL.com) A ton of beginner to intermediate 3D game tutorials.

Tools / Programs

  • nDo (http://quixel NULL.se)Create your normal maps in Photoshop with this free tool.
Newer Posts »