V-RAY FOR 3DS MAX

PBR material
PBR MATERIAL
PBR also known
as Physically Based
Rendering is a texture
workflow that aims to
simulate how light reacts with
a model to attempt to
simulate real life materials.

Artwork by Name
Why Should You Use PBR
Light is a complex phenomenon as it
can exhibit properties of both a wave
and a particle. As a result, different
models have been created to
describe its behaviour.

As texture artists, we are interested

in the ray model of light as it
describes the interaction of light and
matter. Understanding how light rays
interact with surface matter is
important because our job is to
create textures that describe a
surface.

Artwork by Name
TABLE OF CONTENTS
• These are some of the terms to be aware of when thinking about CG Materials
– Light Rays –
– Absorption and Scattering - Transparency and Translucency
– Diffuse and Specular Reflection - Microfacet Theory
– Color
– BRDF
– Energy Conservation
– Fresnel Effect - F0 (Fresnel Reflectance at 0 Degrees)
– Conductors and Insulators - Metals and Non Metal
– Linear Space Rendering
LIGHT RAYS
Real World Materials
• A light ray is incident on a plane interface between two
media. When a light ray hits a surface, one or both of the
following events may occur:
1. The light ray is reflected off the surface and travels in a
different direction. It follows the Law of Reflection, which
states that the angle of reflection is equal to the angle of
incidence (reflected light).
2. The light ray passes from one medium to another in the
trajectory of a straight line (refracted light).
• At this point, light rays split into two directions: reflection
and refraction. At the surface, the ray is either reflected
or refracted, and it can be eventually absorbed by either
medium. However, absorption does not occur at the
surface of the material.
.
V-RAY FOR 3DS MAX
V-Ray Material
LESSON INTRODUCTION
Orientation

• This presentation covers the commonly

used settings of the V-Ray Material inside
3ds Max
• This lesson topic is approximately 50
minutes in length
• This presentation covers all three
learning cycles: Lecture, Demonstration
and Activity
V-RAY MATERIAL
• Objective – We will create a
wide range of materials using
the V-Ray Material
• Outcome – You will be able
to use the V-Ray Material to
create more realistic
materials in your renders

Artwork by Name
TERMINOLOGY
• These are some of the terms to be aware of when thinking about CG Materials
– Material – in CG the term is used to describe a collection of definitions for the way a surface
behaves when exposed to light
– Shader – a frame work for a material. The parameters in a shader allow you to describe a material
– Diffuse – a general term used to describe the color of an object
– Highlight – a reflection of a light source
– Fresnel – an algorithm that changes the amount of reflections based on the viewing angle
– Texture – an image or a pattern used to define parameters in a shader, i.e. diffuse color
– Refraction – the bending of light as it passes through a substance such as water or glass. This is
different from opacity/transparency where the light passes directly without being bent.
– IOR – index of refraction is a physical term used to describe how much light is bent when passing
through a substance
– Dispersion – the scattering of light into its component colors, as with a prism
– Translucency – the effect of light scattering inside a semi-transparent substance like milk, skin or
wax
V-RAY MATERIAL
Real World Materials
• In the real world, the way objects look
depends on the substance they are made of
and the micro-structure in which the
substance is organized
• Substances can reflect, refract and absorb
different light waves in different proportions
which results in different types of reflections,
refractions and colors
• The micro-structure of the substance affects
how clear or blurry the reflections and
refractions are.
V-RAY MATERIAL
CG Materials
• In CG, materials use different parameters to describe the way objects look in the real-world
• To optimize render times, extremely blurry reflections (matte surfaces like wood or concrete)
can be calculated using a mathematical model to approximate the result. These kind of
reflections are referred to as Diffuse Reflections or just Diffuse.
• Specular Reflections require tracing one or more rays to evaluate the result. They can be
clear or blurry depending on the roughness (micro-structure) of the surface.
• Refractions can be clear or blurry depending on the internal micro-structure.
• Texture maps can be used to control certain parameters like diffuse, reflections, refractions
etc. Textures can be either a bitmap image or procedural textures (generated by mathematical
rules)
V-RAY MATERIAL
Overview
• The basic V-Ray material – allows you to
create a wide range of realistic materials
• Three main layers:
– Diffuse
– Reflections
– Refractions (Translucency)
• Physically plausible – the V-Ray material has
been designed to create materials that obey
the rules of physics. For example a material
cannot reflect more light than is hitting it
(unless using the Self-illumination)
• Self-illumination layer allows the creation of
glowing surfaces
V-RAY MATERIAL
Diffuse and Opacity
• Diffuse – specifies the diffuse color of the
material.
• Roughness – used to simulate rough
surfaces or surfaces covered with dust. Higher
values make the material appear more dusty
or “flat”
• Opacity – the Opacity parameter can only be
controlled using texture maps. Darker colors
make the object more transparent.
Connecting a VRayColor map here allows us
to control the opacity using a single color.
V-RAY MATERIAL
Self-illumination
• This layer allows us to create emissive
(glowing) materials
• Self-illumination – controls the emission
color of the surface.
• GI – when this checkbox is enabled the Self-
illumination color and intensity will affect GI
rays and will contribute to the scene
illumination. However this is not the most
optimal way to produce illumination from
glowing objects. (V-Ray Mesh Light)
• Mult – a multiplier for the Self-illumination
parameter. Higher values produce stronger
illumination when GI is enabled.
V-RAY MATERIAL
Reflection
• Reflect – controls the amount and color of
reflections.
• RGlossiness (Reflection glossiness) –
controls the sharpness of the reflections. 1,0
means perfect mirror reflections, lower values
make the reflections more blurry simulating
the effect of a rough reflective surface
• HGlossines (Highlight glossiness) – usually
this parameter is locked to the RGlossiness to
produce physically accurate results. When
unlocked this value determines the spread of
the highlight.
V-RAY MATERIAL
Reflection
• Fresnel reflections – when enabled the
strength of the reflections depends on the
viewing angle and IOR (Index of Refraction)
parameter in the Refractions layer.
• Fresnel IOR – this parameter is usually
locked to the IOR parameter in the Refractions
layer to keep the material physically accurate.
It can be unlocked to change the index of
refraction when computing Fresnel reflections.
V-RAY MATERIAL
Reflection - BRDF
• The BRDF options affect the shape of the
highlights and blurry reflections. These
options have effect only if the Reflect color is
different from black and the RGlossiness is
smaller than 1.0
• Type – the name of the mathematical model
used to generate the highlights/blurry
reflections
– Phong – used for plastic surfaces
– Blinn – a simpler method that can be used
for most common materials
– Ward – an old method used for metallic
surfaces
– Microfacet GTR (GGX) – the best
method for metallic reflections
V-RAY MATERIAL
Reflection - BRDF
• GTR tail falloff – Controls the transition from
highlighted areas to non-highlighted areas when the
BRDF type is set to Microfacet GTR (GGX).
• Anisotropy – this parameter is used to simulate
brushed metals and has an effect only when the
RGlossiness parameter is set to values smaller than
0. When set to 0,0 the “roughness” of the surface is
uniform. Negative or positive values makes specular
reflection more stretched
• Rotation – determines the orientation of the
anisotropic effect in a float value between 0 and 1.
To create brushed metal this value needs to be
mapped using a grayscale texture.
V-RAY MATERIAL
Refractions
• Refract – specifies the amount and color of refraction.
Any value above 0 enables the tracing of refractions
• Glossiness – Controls the blurriness of the refractions.
Value of 1.0 creates perfect glass like refractions.
Smaller values produce the effect of frosted glass.
• IOR – specifies the index of refraction for the material.
A value of 1 means that light doesn’t change direction
when passing through the object. Higher values change
the amount of bending.
• Abbe number – enables and controls the strength of
the dispersion. Smaller values make the dispersion
wider.
V-RAY MATERIAL
Refractions
• Fog color – the attenuation of light as it passes through
the material. Simulates the fact that thick objects look less
transparent than thin objects. The final look of the object
also depends on its absolute size.
• Fog multiplier – allows you to adjust the fog strength.
Higher values make the object less transparent, lower
values make the object more transparent. Use this to adjust
for the size
• Fog bias – changes the way the fog color is applied.
Negative values make the thin parts of the objects more
transparent and the thicker parts more opaque and vice-
versa (positive numbers make thinner parts more opaque
and thicker parts more transparent).
V-RAY MATERIAL
Translucency
• In order to create translucent (Sub Surface Scattering)
materials using the V-Ray Material, the Refract color needs
to be white and the Glossiness has to be lower than 1
• The SSS color is controlled by the Fog Color parameter
• Translucency – select the algorithm used to calculate the
translucency effect
– None – translucency calculations are disabled
– Hard(wax) model – used for hard materials like marble
– Soft(water) model – old model that is left for compatibility
– Hybrid model – This is the most realistic SSS model used
for skin, milk, etc.
V-RAY MATERIAL
Translucency
• Fwd/bck coeff – controls the direction of scattering for a
ray. A value of 0.0 means a ray can only go forward (away
from the surface, inside the object); 0.5 means that a ray
has an equal chance of going forward or backward; 1.0
means a ray will be scattered backward (towards the
surface, to the outside of the object).
• Back-side color – allows you to tint the translucency effect
with a color different from the Fog color
• Light multiplier – a multiplier for the strength of the
translucent effect.
V-RAY MATERIAL
Bump and Normal Mapping
• Bump mapping – a technique in CG for simulating tiny
bumps by perturbing the surface normals and using the
new normals during rendering. This is a shading effect and
it doesn’t change the original geometry – only the way it
looks.
• Normal mapping – a different approach that allows us to
add fine detail to a geometry with the help of a texture that
changes the surface normals during rendering This is a
shading effect and it doesn’t change the original geometry
– only the way it looks.
V-RAY MATERIAL
Bump and Normal Mapping
• Bump – a slot to connect a texture to be used for bump
mapping. The number allows you to control the strength of
the bump effect
• A normal map can be connected to the Bump map slot
but it needs to go through a Normal Bump node first
DEMONSTRATION
V-Ray Material
Sit back and watch as I demonstrate how
to create different materials with the V-Ray
Material…
ACTIVITY
V-Ray Material
Now it’s your turn. Use the provided scene
and handout to experiment with the V-Ray
Material…