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Cinema 4D Training: Introducing Vray - Version1
Cinema 4D Training: Introducing Vray - Version1
Cinema 4D Training
Introducing VRay | Version1
A short guide to the settings of VRayForC4D
Stuart Lynch
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case sensitive
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TheC4DVault(.com)
TheC4DVault.com was created by Stuart Lynch and provides Cinema 4D training, resources and sample
files for the C4D community. Stuart is a veteran Cinema 4D user with over 10 years of professional experience in the industry and several years providing instructional information to intermediate users.
This first in a series of new short instructional pdf s is aimed at providing the user with enough information to digest without becoming overwhelmed. It highlights the backend of VRay and relates the importance of understanding the settings that make VRayForC4D one of the best render engines around.
Over the coming months, TheC4DVault pdf booklets will cover a wide variety of topics, providing a free
and reliable way to learn Cinema 4D.
I hope you enjoy this first addition and learn a thing or two about VRay in the process. Thanks for reading.
Stuart Lynch
http://www.project1media.com
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figure 1.2
figure 1.1
For this example were simply going to activate the Sun/Sky and become familiar with
the lighting it provides for the scene.
figure 1.7
figure 1.8
figure 1.5
figure 1.9
figure 1.6
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The VRayLight tag contains a lot of important functionality and well become familiar
with all of the options as we progress.
figure 1.12
figure 1.10
figure 1.11
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Color mapping
To make a point stick with his students, my college instructor would occasionally use profanity.
So let me say that using Color Mapping in your workflow will often save your ASS!
There are plenty of headaches to come, trust me, but with this simple workflow youll avoid blown out
light sources that can make or break a render.
figure 1.13
figure 1.14
Its a straight forward concept to understand when illustrated with this amazing set of renders.
In figure 1.13 The area light in this simple room appears to give off the correct light intensity and
illuminates the portion of the room closest to camera. But at the source, the light appears nuked
In figure 1.14 If we dial back the lighting intensity a little, the light at the source appears to have corrected
itself, but at the expense of less light reaching the back of the room.
figure 1.15
In figure 1.15 the light intensity is restored to the brightness of figure 1.13, color mapping is applied and the
light adequately reaches the entire space. Balance is accomplished.
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You can use find this function in VRay settings under Color Mapping. figure 1.16
figure 1.16
By default VRay uses the Color Mapping type (menu option Type) Linear Multiply with default Dark and
Bright Multiplier values set to 1
You will notice several other Types in this drop down menu.
Exponential
HSV Exponential
Intesity Exponential
Gamma Correction
Intesity Gamma
Reinhard
The most practical color mapping Type for interior rendering is Exponential mode (or HSV Exponential)
For exterior shots, it is recommended to use Reinhard
The following settings are a general guideline for what these numbers should look like.
Type: Reinhard
Multiplier: 1.5
Burn Value: 0.5
Gamma: Between 1.8 - 2.2
LinearWorkFlow - Check to ON
If youre not already aware of the implications of using a LWF - See the following PDF
http://www.pixsim.co.uk/downloads/The_Beginners_Explanation_of_Gamma_Correction_and_Linear_Workflow.pdf
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In figure 1.17 we have the issue where the sunlight is not illuminating the scene correctly.
In figure 1.18 the samples illuminate the shot
correctly and the light intensity is well balanced.
The difference lies in the mode Exponential, this prevents colors from becoming
too burned out and bright. Itll saturate the
colors as they reach too high of an intensity.
figure 1.17 is
figure 1.17
figure 1.18
figure 1.19
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figure 2.3
figure 2.1
figure 2.2
figure 2.4
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figure 2.5
figure 2.6
figure 2.9
figure 2.7
figure 2.10
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Select the wall polygons in between the windows and extrude. figure 2.11
figure 2.11
figure 2.12
figure 2.13
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figure 2.14
figure 2.16
figure 2.15
figure 2.17
A small improvement.
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figure 2.18
figure 2.21
figure 2.19
figure 2.20
figure 2.22
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figure 2.23
figure 2.25
Make a few adjustments to your camera position and to the SunLight and try to balance
both lighting direction and composition.
figure 2.24
figure 2.24
figure 2.26
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The Physical Camera in VRay allows us to reproduce the parameters of a real world camera.
To improve our scene without further adjusting the Color Mapping or the default lighting intensity of the
Sun, well implement the Physical Camera and make use of its features such as ISO and FStop.
figure 2.27
figure 2.27
figure 2.28
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Activate a Specular layer in your wood material and input a Glossiness reflection value of
0.8.
figure 2.29
figure 2.31
figure 2.32
figure 2.30
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Quality is very important when we think about final renders, but this shouldnt always come at the cost
of lengthy render times. Through exploring VRays render settings well learn to tweak the parameters in
order to get the best results in an optimal amount of time.
In this section well optimize the VRay Render Settings and then explore the method behind the madness. Open the example bedroom.c4d open from www.thec4dvault.com and lets begin.
figure 3.1
figure 3.2
Although with the correct values, this technique is equal to Unbiased rendering.
GI Preset 19_LC_LC_PPT_unbiased is set
up to render in this way.
figure 3.3
figure 3.5
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After successful completion of Light Caching, the Engine then begins computation the
Irradiance Map.
figure 3.8
figure 3.6
figure 3.7
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Anti Aliasing (AA) is another important factor in determining final VRay render quality.
figure 3.11
figure 3.12
figure 3.9
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figure 3.16
figure 3.14
figure 3.15
#1 In the tab Indirect Illumination (GI) select 03_IR-LC_medium from the GI Preset
list and check the box GI On
#2 In the Irradiance Map sub menu
Min Rate: -3
Max rate: -1
Hemispheric SubDivision: 55
Interpolated samples: 15
#6 Time to render.
figure 3.17
figure 3.18
A Hemispheric SubDivision is part of the Irradiance map and is used to determine the
quality of individual GI samples. Relating
only to the samples of IR map in this case.
Interpolated samples refers to the interpolation of the IR map samples. This calculation
look towards the range of existing data and
attempts to refine that process further.
figure 3.19
figure 3.20
figure 3.21
figure 3.22
figure 3.23
figure 3.24
figure 3.25
figure 3.26
Un-checking this box and manually inserting your own value is recommended, especially if the secondary bounces require more
attention.
Reconstruction parameters.
These parameters control how the light cache
is used in the final rendering, after it has
been calculated.
Prefilter Checked on - Prefilter will be used.
Prefilter is applied once the cache is computer or loaded from disc.
Prefilter samples More prefilter samples
equals a more blurry and less noisy cache.
Filter type. This is for tracing the Light cache
along a camera path and is beneficial for
animation.
figure 3.27
Adaptive tracing. Stores additional information about incoming light for each light
sample.
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figure 3.29
samples
figure 3.31
figure 3.30
Whenever you create a light, a blurry reflection, use Depth of field or Motion Blur (to
name a few), youve actually been providing the
DMC sampler with more samples and information about the scene.
adaptive)
Noise Threshold.
figure 3.32
figure 3.33
figure 3.35
figure 3.34
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When a single object causes an issue, its important to look at its individual subdivision
parameters to resolve.
figure 3.36
Minimum Samples
Min samples equals the minimal amount of
samples that the DMC sampler will compute
before terminating the algorithm.
Photon maps are occasionally useful for interiors scenes, but this is an older method of
approximation and I typically avoid it.
A increase to 1.5 would provide a 150% increase to all of these values. (Increasing the:
Glossiness Subdivs: to 12)
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Antialiasing
Im certain youre all familiar with the practice of using Antialiasing in your scenes.
VRay features 3 types of image samplers (antialiasing methods) and each one differs slightly in approach.
We have the Fixed rate sampler, the Adaptive DMC sampler and the Adaptive Subdivision sampler.
Choosing the right image sampler is determined by the individual scene and there are different considerations for each approach.
figure 3.38
figure 3.37
Note: Though not be ignored, I would recommend one of the other two choices based on
my experiences with Fixed rate sampling.
figure 3.39
Experimentation is key.
Antialiasing filter
In VRay as with other render engines,
Antialiasing filters can be applied. These are
methods for sharpening or blurring values
dependant on your needs.
These filters are integrated into the sampling
process and do have an affect on render time.
For example a sharpening filter like Catmullrom and Mitchell-netravali may cost you a
few additional seconds when compared to
blurring filter like Box, Area and Gaussian
and Area.
Note; These filters are not the same as applying sharpening/blurring filters in post. I would
recommend using one based on your needs at
all times.
figure 3.41 - Using the Adaptive DMC sampler
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Wrapping up
If you want VRay to create high quality images that dont take forever to render, then we already have one
thing in common.
To achieve this, I frequently tell my students that the best starting point is from lower/medium quality
presets. From here youll be able to discern what part of the render needs your attention the most. Is it
splotches on the walls? Then look to the IR map. Or are the walls fine and its some nuisance ornament
with a bump map giving you grief? Then look to its material setting, the nearest light source, or better
manage the antialiasing settings.
That may seem like a common sense approach, but if I got a dollar for every time somebody sent me a
scene where theyd randomly entered 0.001 in the Noise Threshold to resolve a simple issue, Id be rich!
That value may well have fixed the issue, yet they inadvertently made the rest of the scene more complicated than it needed to be. On inspection its usually obvious that they were only trying to improve upon
a couple of small problems.
Similarly theres a list of preset values known as Universal VRay 1.5 Settings that people rave about.
You can see the appeal right away, although if you use these settings be open to the possibility of waiting
around for a long time.
Its my hope that I explained this process with relative clarity. If you do have any unresolved questions the
VRayForC4D manual offers very precise examples of why each setting performs the way it does.
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figure 4.1
figure 4.2
Specular layers
VrayAdvancedMaterial
figure 4.4
In figure 4.5
Sphere A, the Vray Material is tracing
only the fake specular values.
Sphere B, is tracing both fake specular
and blurry reflections.
Sphere C, is tracing blurry reflections
only.
figure 4.5
Note: In the real world, almost every object contains at least some specularity.
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figure 4.8
figure 4.6
figure 4.9
figure 4.7
figure 4.10
figure 4.12
figure 4.11
figure 4.13
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In both figure 4.16 and figure 4.17 you can see the
vast amount of flexibility available to you in
the Specular layer channel.
Using a similar technique in figure 4.15 to create a Galvanized metal, the differences in
blurry values vs more reflective values are
obvious.
figure 4.15
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There are two Diffuse layers in the Vray advanced material, these are useful for mixing diffuse (color/texture) effects without resorting to separate materials.
VRay Dirt is also accessible through the Diffuse layer. By applying Ambient occlusion at the material
level this option creates the appearance of dirt on the surface details of an object.
The Diffuse layer Transparency option serves two functions, it is first required to let the underlying layer
show (Diffuse layer 2) and is also required to use the Fast SSS shader option (see page 57)
Open example file scene test_stage2.c4d
Create a new Vray advanced material and apply
to the sphere object.
In Diffuse layer 1 check from the Diffuse options - Use VRayDirt.
The menu layout will now change to the
VRayDirt workflow.
Add a black Color channel to the Occluded
color slot (from the drop down menu)
figure 4.19
figure 4.18
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figure 4.20
Refraction Layer
VrayAdvancedMaterial
figure 4.13
The example from figure 4.19 uses the following setup. figure 4.18
figure 4.18
figure 4.19
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In this scene Ive simply added a VRayFastSSS material to the cylinder shape, made
a couple of adjustment to color and added a
texture map.
figure 4.22
figure 4.20
figure 4.21
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The Raytraced-Solid mode will calculate/estimate the Volume inside the object.
figure 4.25
figure 4.23
figure 4.24
figure 4.26
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VRay2Sided Material
Standalone material
Making a lamp shade with the bulb obscured behind a layer of fabric (as in figure 4.27) used to be a difficult task to accomplish. Fully opaque materials simply werent designed to transmit light through their
surface in this way. Adding Diffuse layer transparency (or alpha in C4D) didnt help matters either, as a
percentage of the light would simply pass through the volume.
The VRay2Sided material solves this old limitation by allowing us to have a diffuser in VRay.
A diffuser softens light as it passes through a surface, essentially making it what we call translucent.
This material was created to address the need for thin translucent objects like paper, leaves, fabrics, diffusers etc, but its application can be much more experimental.
In figure 4.27 the lamp shade object highlights an example of how this material was intended to work.
Illumination from within the object passes through the material via translucency and displays the result
on the front facing normals.
The VRay2Sided material is controlled by two standard diffuse materials (VRayAdvanced material) for the
front/back facing normals and a Translucency color to determine how much of the effect should come
through.
The VRay2Sided material in figure 4.28 features reflective properties on its front side. A separate object with
a colored pattern light has been placed within the dragon model (via the Luminosity layer) and the result
creates a glowing translucent effect. This behavior looks closer to a refractive SSS solution, but is actually
cheated as the light is emitted from the inside only. Of course cheating in 3D is never a bad thing.
In figure 4.29 Im using the same approach but on a much bigger scale. This time Ive placed uniquely colored light objects within each skyscraper. The Luminosity layer casts its rays outwards and are intended
to fake the lighting that would have otherwise come from a traditional lighting solution. This was a test
scene, but also a very practical solution for visualizing cities at a distance.
figure 4.27
figure 4.28
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figure 4.29
figure 4.30
figure 4.31
figure 4.31
figure 4.33
figure 4.32
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figure 4.34
figure 4.36
figure 4.36
figure 4.35
figure 4.37
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VRayBlendMaterial
Layering shader - Standalone
The VRayBlendMaterial allows you to stack materials - It works in almost exactly the same way as manually stacking them in the object manager, but allows for better management in some cases.
The process starts off with a base layer such a brick map for example, then additional materials are applied as a coat material, this could be useful for peeling paint of a layer of broken concrete.
Various mapping techniques that have some Material weight (alpha) or Diffuse Layer transparency are
useful in determining to what degree the underlying material is seen.
Below are some examples of materials that have been layered with this technique.
In figure 4.38 an underlying rock material is coated with a slightly translucent coating of snow.
In figure 4.39 glass is affected by a fiery layer and covered with a dusting of sand.
In figure 4.28 an organic rock is coated with a glow based effect based off a vertex map selection.
All very straight forward, but with amazing amounts of potential.
figure 4.38
figure 4.39
figure 4.40
VRayDisplaceMaterial
The VRayDisplaceMaterial allows the usage of Displacement maps in VRay.
Its possible to mix this material with a standard VRayAdvancedMaterial by stacking it to the right of the
standard material and choosing Mix textures from the texture tag. Lets quickly explore.
The following example uses the Displacement type: 3D Mapping, which is suited to procedural effects.
In the VRayDisplaceMaterials texture path,
add a noise channel from the drop down
menu. Click the noise channel and change
the type to Cel noise, finally increase the
Global scale value to 250%.
figure 4.40
Select VrayDisplacement
material.
figure 4.39
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figure 4.40
The Displacement type: 2D Mapping, is used when an image based displacement map is available.
With this workflow, you can maintain a low polygon count and depend on the displacement map to give
the appearance of millions of polygons at a sub polygon level.
Parameters.
The amount value (in both the 3D and 2D options)
control the maximum height of the displacement map.
The shift value specifies a constant amount
that the polygons will be shifted relative to
their normal position.
While Use default parameters is checked, the
resolution for 3D displacement is controlled
via the VRayBridge settings under Displacement.
Note: Its still possible to add a VRayDisplacement Tag from the object manager, although
this is the old workflow and only remains
available for Legacy reasons (to support older
files).
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Luminosity Layer
VrayAdvancedMaterial
The Luminosity layer (from the standard VRayAdvancedMaterial) provides light via self illumination.
You can use self-illuminated materials on objects to represent lights that dont need an actual light source.
An example would be the LCD display on the front of a DVD player, or the backlight for a PDA device.
In VRay, the Luminosity layer also has an option to turn the effect from a standard self illuminated material into a full fledged light source via the Direct Illumination option. Lets take a look.
Open example file self_illumination.c4d
figure 4.46
If you add a Physical Camera tag to the available camera, theres a drastic dip in exposure.
Also in the Environment tag from the Vraybridge settings, increase the Background Environment brightness to 50 to compensate.
figure 4.45
figure 4.45
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Direct illumination does not work with selection tags, instead the system will manually
override and use standard self illumination
properties.
In the case of a single object with geometry
you wish to use for light (i.e a lamp and bulb as
one object), it is necessary to double click the
selection tag (or manually select the polygons) and
separate the geometry via the split command. Cinema 4D lacks a split and delete
function, so you would also be required to
remove the remaining geometry from the
original object.
The reason for this is because were still using Cinema 4Ds units, which really dont
represent any real world values. Instead if
we switch the Intensity units to Radiance
(W/m/m/sr), we get a much more accurate
representation of their actual brightness. In
this case, the area lights are 100 watts.
Note: Always remember to enable shadows
when working with VRayLights. (This parameter
can be found in the VRay Light - Common tab.)
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figure 5.07
figure 5.08
figure 5.09
figure 5.11 (from example file a_bulb_of_sorts.c4d )
figure 5.10
figure 5.11
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figure 5.13
figure 5.14
figure 5.15
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figure 5.19
Controlling this light source is straight forward. Position of the light in your scene is
irrelevant, however rotation values will affect
the orientation of an image based map.
While this is suitable for most tasks (especially with an accompanying light setup), if
you want some extra bang for your buck, the
Area light Dome is more powerful.
figure 5.18
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figure 5.20
figure 5.21
Prior to the creation of the Direct illumination method in the luminance channel, it
was not possible to pick and chose work
flows. In the scene from figure 5.24 Mesh lights
were used throughout the piece to light areas
that needed to match the shape of the opening.
figure 5.22
figure 5.23
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Well take a brief at the remaining settings from the Area light tab.
Affect Reflections: With this option unchecked, the brightness of the light will be ignored by the material
reflectivity.
Invisible: All light sources are visible unless otherwise indicated. Unchecking this option will provide a
light source, thought the origin of the light will not be visible.
No Decay: All lights in VRay have decay (falloff) based on real world calculations. Enabling No Decay
will essentially create a light source with no falloff at all. This is not recommended when trying to realistically light a scene, but can be useful in product shots if you require an infinite light source.
Double sided: A rectangular area light emits light from the Z+ direction only, enabling Double Sided
enables the light to illuminate from both surface normals. *CHECK
Samples: As discussed on Page 32, the amount of samples used determines the quality of the light source.
Lights producing undesirable noise benefit from additional samples.
Store with Irradiance map Using this option, the light calculated from the Area map is processed and
stored during the Irradiance map calculation. Discussed on Page 55.
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IES lights
IES data is taken from existing real world lighting fixtures and is made available for users in varying
professions to download and utilize in their projects.
An IES represents the shape of the lights falloff, but not the falloff amount. In figure 5.25 its
easy to recognize the differences in how each
light reacts to the IES data.
figure 5.27
figure 5.25
Enabling Soft shadows does as you would expect, it softens the shadow density, which is
occasionally desirable and only slightly more
time consuming to render.
A hint of color in the filter color will tint
the IES light to the desired value. Rarely are
lights 100% white, making a tint a worthwhile change. figure 5.28
figure 5.26
figure 5.28
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The remaining light sources are Spot, Infinite and Parallel. I wont cover these in detail because their parameters are logical and require no special attention.
In future PDF instructional manuals well take a closer look at lighting individual scenes.
Lighting in VRay is a unique process, one that can be as simple as the Physical Sun/Sky setup or as complex as lighting a city. My advice is to stay away from the simplest work flow and push the boundaries of
what can be done with lighting and composition.
Before tackling a project that involves a lighting rig, try to think of the balance you want to strike beforehand. In a night time shot for example - Would it be wise to create the overall environment light first, fills
etc and then work your way down to the lighting fixtures? I would say not. My approach is to always start
small, lighting fixtures first, achieve a sense of balance with the smaller details and when youve refined
and refined some more, only then would it be time to look towards the bigger lights.
Lighting can be a tedious part of the process if you make it so, continuously rendering the same shot time
and time again. This is why I recommend a base test setting, where the results of your scene lights can
be visualized in a matter of seconds vs waiting 10 minutes every time you make a change. Get used to
switching out between crap settings and medium ones to ensure you get overall sense for your scene and
to ensure that with better settings, the lights will withstand scrutiny.
When you arrive to a point where the correct values flow, lighting is perhaps the most interesting part
of the project, after all this process is what brings your work to life. It makes or breaks your work, so pay
careful attention to what the masters do and try to replicate the best rigs without settling for mediocrity.
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Prior to there being a working fog solution in VRay, there were definite limitations when using the render
engine for environment design and landscapes. Eventually ChaosGroup introduced the Environment fog,
which is a unique and physically accurate calculation of scene fog. The concept may seem quite limiting,
how often do I want fog? Yet the implementation opens up a world of creativity.
Lets first take a quick look at what it can do in terms of finished projects.
The scene Sunday figure 6.1 is initially setup with only a physical sun/sky, but due to the Environment fog
and the enabled Scatter GI parameter, the sun light is able to illuminate the fog. The result as in real life is
that the fog itself becomes a source of illumination for the scene and the actual sun light and its potential
shadow casting has diminished to such a degree that its almost completely invisible. An increase in exposure and an adequate interior lighting rig restores the balance.
The scene Fall figure 6.2 is setup with Proxy objects and consists of around 2 billion polygons. Fog with GI
scattering is enabled and is indicated to reach a height of 4 meters at a distance of 50 meters. This clears
the way for sun to still have a visible affect on the scene, but creates a sense of depth that would otherwise
not be possible.
The scene Modern fog test figure 6.3 was the first real test where I used the Environment fog parameters.
Given my lack of understanding at the time its easy to for me to critique the work. The fog height is essentially infinite, which under such heavy fog cover doesnt allow any light penetration from the Sun.
Given an opportunity to re-work this piece, I would have chosen more fitting parameters.
So lets do that, lets figure out what works best by creating a fog lit scene.
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figure 6.6
figure 6.4
figure 6.5
figure 6.7
Page 66
To finally see a result of using the Environment Fog, well want to manipulate the Fog
Distance parameter, bringing that numerical
value down from 1000 to around 100.
figure 6.8
figure 6.10
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figure 6.11
Links
Id have spent some time teaching VRay for animation, but upon review there is little more I can say than
what has already been clearly spelled out on the VRay message board by STRAT
These step by step guides will get you through both GI object animation and GI camera animation
Though if you have any remaining questions, please feel free to email me @ thec4dvault@hotmail.com
http://forum.vrayforc4d.com/showthread.php?t=7727&highlight=object+animation
http://forum.vrayforc4d.com/showthread.php?t=7728
Even with knowledge of VRayForC4D, I still refer to these tutorials as a step by step checklist.
For Clarification and further reading on any of the subjects covered here, the VRay manual is an excellent
resources with up to date information.
http://vrayc4d.com/manuals/booktree
Heres a couple of older tutorials I created with regard to illuminating skyscrapers
You may or may not find these useful.
http://vrayc4d.com/manuals/vrayc4d-tutorials/skyscraper-lighting-inthecity
http://vrayc4d.com/manuals/vrayc4d-tutorials/city-illumination-inthecity
For Free models
http://archive3d.net/
And the best collection of textures available online
http://www.cgtextures.com/
And finally - Exclusively VRay based materials
http://www.vrayforc4d.com/portal/materials/
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Thats a wrap
thec4dvault@hotmail.com
Join me again in the near future.
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