vray

Welcome! by reading this page i see you have made it this far and you are now ready to start RENDERING. First lets talk abit more about rendering. As we stated in our 3DS MAX posts rendering the process by which we send out images from 3DS max. 3DS 2013 come with its own build in renderers, namely: the scanline renderer, Mental Ray renderer and Iray renderer all of which are powerful renderers but i never took the time to learn these renderers because there is another render called Vray which i much more prefer and it has more tutorials from which you can learn. Vray is used in many commercials and movies an is fast becomming an industry standard. Vray is refered to as a plugin and so it is a software that needs to be installed and it attaches itself to 3DS max to basically function inside 3DS max. Vray is made for many different modelling softwares so when you want to test it go to the makers website CHAOSGROUP and sign up and download the version of vray relevant to 3ds max 2013 which is vray 2.40.02 Here is a video i put together to show you how you activate Vray after installation inside 3DS max and how to use it so to speak. Enjoy!

Rendering Cars with HDRI as Lighting and Environment with Vray & 3ds Max

Here is on more guys that teaches about rendering objects like cars inside max with very little setup.

Follow the link to aleso3d.com and i hope you enjoy!. More

Compositing V-ray Render Element Layers in Photoshop

Here we go guys, one of the best Vray render elements tutorials out there. Its very long to read but its a great eye opener for those who want to get the most out of rendering using Vray. This come highly reccommended by us here at MITVIZ, so please enjoy! More

Vray Render Elements Description

We all know the Vray render elements tab in 3ds max in the render setup dialogue box but how many of us use it or know what each render element does? well here is a list and description of each render element and there will be a follow up with a tutorial on how to use some essential render elements in you production pipeline. More

FAUP Full Exterior Scene - FREE DOWNLOAD!

Metro Cubico Digital has now offered up a full 3D scene complete with plants and materials etc. See the link post on Chaosgroup and see the images on their website.Check it out! More.

Vray 2.40.01 Released

CHAOSGROUP has brought its new release of its rendering software and its a hot item on everyones test list. Grab a trial version if it is available or just read more about till you can get your hands on it. More

Understanding the DMC Sampler

This is a much debated topic in 3ds max and Vray and so it is time to clear this issue up with simple tutorials i have found online that both confirm how DMC works correctly within Vray. The first recommended tutorial is that by the 3DAS group and this looks at Chaosgroup's "universal settings" also. In the link provided below scroll down and look for the article "an in-depth look at image sampling" Next is the a video tutorial by Christopher Nichols from the thegnomonworkshop titled "Speed vs Quality in Vray" demonstrating exactly how the DMC sampler works in real time and leaves a user without any doubt about how the DMC sampler works. This video can be watched for a very low price of just $12 and is a must watch! (you can also download it).

3DAS-DMC sampler
thegnomonworkshop - DMC sampler

Basic rendering with vray

Here is a Tutorial showing how vray is basically used, in this video you will hear terms such as vray material, standard material, vray plane etc. and look for my explanation of all these after this video.

Materials in 3ds max

A material in 3ds max is a feature of 3DS max that allow for an object to have "skin" so called. By applying a material to any object in 3DS max you are changing how the object appears and this is very important because you will want your objects to look like certain elements in real life such as brick, grass, water, glass etc. Let me clear this up in 3DS max materials are also called shaders and you will hear people use these two words very often. There are many materials in 3ds max by default and so these are referred to as 3ds max materials. When you add a renderer such as Vray to 3ds max you add more materials to vray and thus gives you more options to give your object even more appearances. Now what can get confusing with vray materials is the the term "Vray material" because within the list of Vray materials there exists a specific material called the "Vraymtl or vray material" this is Vray's basic material and with this single material you can give the appearance of glass, water, bricks, dirt etc to an object within 3ds max.

The other Vray materials are not labelled "Vray materials" within 3DS max and so the only way to know them is by the word "Vray" at the beginning and "mtl" at the end of the word, also they come very last in the selection rollout of all materials within 3ds max.These other vray materials are used to give special effects or looks to your objects and require extra practice in using them. All materials whether Vray or 3ds max materials have the ability to use what are called "MAPS" inside specially grayed out areas inside each material. These maps again are divided between vray maps and 3ds maps and the vray maps appear with the word "Vray" at the beginning.

Another confusing thing people often ask is what are textures? textures are images or pictures, whether you download them online, take them with your camera, make them in Photoshop or some other softwares. Textures are used within a specific 3ds map called "bitmap" and this is very common practice so you will see a 3 tier structure alot of the time in 3ds max consisting first of a material, then in a material is a map then in the map is a texture. This is all very easy withing 3ds max an dis the only way to achieve high quality Realistic Render within 3ds max.

Creating Basic Vray materials

Creating Basic Vray Materials is very easy in 3ds max and so i have researched and found some of them most simple tutorials to follow online. i will provide you with the links so you know exactly where to look. If you have any qeustions feel free to ask at anytime and i will respond to you in 24 hours or less. Please watch visit these websites in the order i have provided.
SPOT3D.COM
viscorbel.com
jamesshaw.co.nz
aversis.be
aleso3d.com
robertokoci.com

Creating Advanced Vray materials

Now since you understand the basic you can proceed to making more advanced materials to give added effects to your objects. Such advanced materials are called layered materials and are so called because you will find one material being used inside of another. as usual here is my list of best places to look at these materials in simplicity.
viscorbel.com
bertrand-benoit.com
3dtotal.com
vray-materials.de
tutorials.cgrecord.net

Two very common maps you will use in creating vray materials and is very handy at creating complex materials are the 3ds max "composite map & composite material" and the "mix map" these basically allow you to combined two or more materials or two or more maps and you also have the option of using "masks" to hide or show certain parts of your textures to give certain appearances to your materials that you will use on your objects inside 3ds max. A "mask" is simply a black and which picture where if you use it in any of the mask slots in a material inside 3ds max it allows us to see through the white part of the picture to what is below but the black parts of the picture will hide anything below it. What i mean by showing or hiding what is below in max is that you can layer two materials or maps one above the other and the mask basically sits between the two materials or maps and allows the area of the material or map that sits under that white part to be shown. much like a mask that you buy for Halloween :) it covers your whole face but has holes for your eyes and sometimes our mouth. These holes when compared to the picture that is used as a mask in the mask slot would be the white areas in the picture. Watch these four of my most recommended tutorials and get some more insight and as usual of you are unsure contact me and i will make a video for you guys.