Not quite sure where to post this, figured it fits under pimping/previews better than anywhere else.
So due to the number of people interested in my rendering setup for my High Poly models I decided to just sit down and make a tutorial for it. I don't have much time so forgive me if there's not a pic for every step.
Hope this helps out those interested in presenting your models! Feel free to post any questions/comments/concerns or if you have trouble getting the result you can post your result.
Thanks!
Material Rendering Tutorial
Replies
I had to turn off CSS to read it - other than that - great stuff - will be trying it out soon.
Congrats on your new job.
QFT!
-Changed the background color to be lighter, hopefully this will be easier on everyone's eyes!
-Updated to include using the default scanline renderer
Junkie_XL: Thanks! The spotlight is coming from above and to the right of the model, to the right and above the camera as well.
Microneezia: Yes I am using the Default Scanline renderer in Max. If you set that as your renderer and go back through the tutorial you should be fine. Thanks for the feedback!
John
sampson - Light tracer gives you a lot more GI options, but the skylight can be used without it on.
Haha, hope it helps John - post your stuff when you get it rendered out!
EDIT: Yeah, apparently skylight just brightens up the scene entirely. When I deleted the skylight, the entire scene became a tad darker, which looks great aswell. Also without the skylight it renders a lot faster. By the way, I tried it on a low poly model to see how it looked. I like it a lot:
Oops, I forgot to set the skylight multiplier to 0.4, that's why it's so bright.
heres my effort on one of my old HP peices.
Regards,
John
but do we render with scanline or with mentaray render? i tried both, scanline looked better.
also, we have to enable light tracer, no?
Or did you forget to mention to turn the Light Tracer on in the Advanced Lighting settings? You won't get fancy GI shadows from the Skylight without turning that on, I'm pretty sure...
Nice tutorial anyway, I'm sure loads of people will suddenly start updating their portfolios with models rendered in this style, heheh
That was following the tutorial pretty closely. I just adjusted the light colors a little. (dimmer skylight, brighter spot.)
oops! nope, forgot to put that on. Trying a new render w/it. I'll post in a few.
Vig: Yep, good idea! There's plenty of tweaks you can do to this process to help push the end result. Like I said this is a basic setup of the material and rendering steps so take it for what it's worth, and I definitely encourage everyone to take their own direction with it and make your own unique setups.
MoP: You can definitely get very similar results with the rendering setup in different ways, but the main idea I was pushing with this tutorial is the Material I created and how it helps highlight details. As I said above it's the basic setup for the renders and definitely tweak the settings and render setup to push what you like for the end result.
Thanks again for all the positive feedback guys and for posting your work!
Crossing my fingers there'll be a maya version some time soon.
Anyway, here's the difference:
-Grab the 3DSMax 'normalmap maker' shader from Ben Cloward's folio (or setup a scene with the RGB normalmap lights)
-Apply to the highpoly model
-Make a animation>preview of this (renders the viewport to a file) at full res
-Take that "normalmap" in crazybump or xnormal, convert it to AO
-Overlay that on top of the render.
BAM, instand dark pits and bright peaks on the render. It looks great, kindof like the recent Appleseed and Vexile movies. Will post examples later!
i'm coming from a maya/modo background so i'm a little lost.
i'm ok with each step and can set up the scene. my only problem is with the material (it might be a maya/max lingo thing). am i making the changes to a single standard material ball?
4) Click on your first material and select Standard
5) Go back up one level and select your Second material
6) Go back up to the base level of the material
i can tell this is noob question while i'm typing this.
any help is appreciated.
Thanks you
You're doing all of this on 1 ball. At the root of your ball, you switch the setting to "Shellac"
Once you set that, you'll see under "Shellac Basic Properties" that there are 2 NEW material slots, "Base material" and "Shellac Material" However, those are both still contained within the original material on a single ball.
Hope that helps!
I'm glad this has received such a positive response, it makes me want to do some of the others I've had planned for a while.
Tumerboy: thanks for taking the time and lending a hand.
X-Convict: thanks for sharing the tut and following up.
i'll give it a go on a few hi poly scenes and see what happens.