Before you start

This tutorial assumes you have a basic Vray and 3DS

Max knowledge, and an official Vray copy ! used
version "#$%3 while making the tutorial
&ou have to be able to create Vraymaterials, load maps
in the material editor, open the render settings dialog
etc This tutorial also uses of Vray '!, ! will not
explain these settings in this tutorial (heck out the
other tutorials on my site for that
step1: Basic settings
)irst, open 3D Studio Max Make sure you set Vray as
the production renderer )or test rendering, lower the
output si*e to #+%,3-%px This is the easiest way to
speed up rendering while testing.
'o to the global switches rollout and turn off /default
lights/ 0e don/t want the default lights to interfere
with our lighting, since this will be based only on the
hdri map.
step2: Anti Aliasing settings
! always render with the 1daptive 2M( image sampler
3see screenshot4 because this allows for great control
over every aspect in the scene with only a few mouse
clicks
1lso turn off the anti aliasing filter, this speeds up
things too 5nly use one of these filters if you can/t get
good enough 11 on fine textures or very small details
step3: Create the testscene
Make a small testscene which you want to render Start
with something simple. ! made a cylinder with a max
teapot on it 674
step4: First render test
8it render and en9oy a black picture. !f it/s not black
you forgot to turn off /default lights/ in step"
The reason for this is :uite obvious, there is no light in
the scene, so it/s completely dark
step5: Let there be light!
'o to the ;nvironment rollout and turn on both '! and
environment overrides <eave them at default colors
8it render again, you/ll see it is still black.
step: Let there be !" light!
0hen using the Vray skylight option, you need to
enable '! to make it visible The sklight is treated as
first bounce '! light, it/s not a direct light as for
example a max spotlight or Vray area light
So open the !ndirect !llumination rollout and enable '!
3/5n/ checkbox4
step#: $ender again
!f you hit render now, Vray will start calculating the '!
coming from the skylight, and after that the actual
rendering will start This can take a while on slow
machines.
Shadows are very diffuse because of the skylight <ight
is coming from all directions with e:ual strength, so
there are no directional shadows
step%: &peed up rendering
The default irradiance map settings are too slow for
test rendering, so we will speed things up by making
some ad9ustments
)irst ! lowered the secondary bounces to %,+ 3'!
rollout4 Then choose /custom/ in the preset list to have
full control over the settings )ill in all the other
settings like ! did 3click image on the right4 The most
important are 8sph subdivs and the min=max rate
step': (elpfull settings
1lso change the render region division to 3>,3> in the
system rollout 3good for small resolution images only.4
(heck the frame stamp box and delete everything
except the render time part
?ender again if you want to, notice how fast it renders
now.
step1): Create *ray +aterials
!t/s always best to use Vray materials if you can, they
will render faster in many cases, and the chance of
incompatibility is reduced
Make a very light grey VrayMaterial for the
groundplane, and a fresnell reflective one for the
teapot See my settings in the image on the right for
the reflective material
step11: $ender
1fter you created and assigned the new materials, hit
render to see the result @otice that the grey
groundplane looks blueish, this is because of the light
blue color of the skylight
step12: ,lay -ith en.iron+ent colors
Make the skylight light yellow, and the reflection white
with a >,A multiplier ?ender again and notice the
colour change and the stronger reflections in the
teapot
step13: Load (/$" +ap
!n the material editor, click the blue get material button
and choose V?ay8D?! from the list
step14: (/$" settings
(lick the browse button and locate a hdri you
downloaded from my website 1ll these 8D?! maps are
in /mirrored ball/ format So check the mirrored ball
option in the 8D?! parameters
Many free hdri maps are unwrapped 3they look like an
unwrapped globe4, you need to set the type to
spherical environment for these map types Some are
/angular maps/ 3Blight probes, like the old hdri/s on
devbecs website4, so check angular map if you/re using
one of those
step15: Assign (/$" +ap
&ou can simply drag and drop this hdri map onto the >
environment slots in the Vray environment rollout
Make sure you choose instance method.
0hat you did now is telling Vray to use the map for
skylight and reflections instead of the color swatches
The multipliers have no effect anymore now.
step1: $ender
8it render. Skylight is now calculated according to the
hdri map, also reflections are coming from the 8D?!
environment
@otice the longer rendertimes when using hdri for
lighting
The lighting is a bit too strong !n the Vrayhdri
parameters, lower the multiplier to %,C and render
again &ou/ll notice there will be no blown out area
anymore
Dlay with the hori*ontal rotation to get the reflections
and lighting to appear the way you want
step1#: Final settings
7 Set output si*e to -#%,#+%
7 (hange !rradiance map settings according to image
on the right
7 (hange the 2M( Samplers noise threshold to %%%"
7 (hange the region render division back to -#,-#px
8it render and wait. These are high :uality settings
that are always good, but usually you can get away
with lower ones to speed things up
step1%: Final $endering
(lick the image to see the final rendering at -#%,#+%
resolution
0otes:
!f you want the hdri to show up in the background too,
simply drag the map onto the 3ds max environment
slot