THE ULTIMATE MAYA AND MENTAL RAY ARCHVIZ GUIDE

[withego]

Hi!!! Thanks for this massive data! I finished my ‘How To’, ‘Intro’ and now I am on ‘Part1’ -YAY! It’s going pretty slow since I am also reading all the extra links you have included which also links to other mr resources. How Fantastic!! Since it’s such a large data I am trying to follow everything to the ‘T’ and got freaked out for not being able to find ‘sponzasimulations.mb’ file. There are sponzasimulations2009 and sponzasimulations2011 mb files but they look different from the screen shots so I am assuming there is a file without version extension (?!) Where did I miss it? Could you please post a link?! :eek:

Exactly the files was re-done and renamed as follows: SPONZASIMULATIONS_2009_SP1A and SPONZASIMULATIONS_2011.
Remind you that you can download all the assets, using the links provided on the first page of this thread.
Suggest you to use the mirror download, kindly provided by Mitch aka “EightBit”:
http://thepixelfarm.com/ArchvizGuide/index.html
Sorry but no more flooding CGTalk with my online rants, for the moment…
Ciao.:wavey:
PS. Please don’t archive this thread, I’m not finished yet…

[blank000]

Wow, i was just thinking about Maya, since 3ds max MR integration is poor beyond words, and then i find this! Thank you so very much! I will never, ever, ever again get agitated when i see firms i never heard of use my AutoCAD dynamic blocks

You sir are awesome, and an inspiration to us all.

[ARARAT]

most of this file are and extractable for me , as soon i extract one of them lets say the SPONZATUTORIAL i got an error of missing files !

i spent a long time to download all of them and manage them before the extraction !

[withego]

Most of this file are and extractable for me, as soon I extract one of them lets say the SPONZATUTORIAL I got an error of missing files! I spent a long time to download all of them and manage them before the extraction!

Thanks for pointing out the problem, seems that the link which points to the mirror download provided by Mitch is down: “This Web page parked FREE courtesy…” http://thepixelfarm.com/ArchvizGuide/index.html. But guess that the links that points to the main SPONZATUTORIAL folder, as well as to all the other assets hosted on my web should be fine since never moved or deleted any asset. Downloaded them several times in the past and apart from the very slow download speed “takes almost for ever… ”, never had any issue extracting them using either WinRAR or WinZip. Btw I’m downloading the main SPONZATUTORIAL folder from my web, and will let you know if got any issue. And please tune in with the little unnoticed The Ultimate Maya And Mental Ray Archviz Guide page, for a major recap as well as a new and maybe last round of shares. Once will post them there will update the links on the first page of this thread as well, assuming that the links to the assets still works. Man, who got me into this in the first place? Guess, it must be definetely a curse… :argh:
Ciao :wavey:

[ARARAT]

Thanks for pointing out the problem, seems that the link which points to the mirror download provided by Mitch is down: “This Web page parked FREE courtesy…” http://thepixelfarm.com/ArchvizGuide/index.html. But guess that the links that points to the main “SPONZATUTORIAL” folder, as well as to all the other assets hosted on my web should be fine since never moved or deleted any asset. Downloaded them several times in the past and apart from the very slow download speed “takes almost for ever… ”, never had any issue extracting them using either WinRAR or WinZip. Btw I’m downloading the main “SPONZATUTORIAL” folder from my web, and will let you know if got any issue. And please tune in with the little unnoticed The Ultimate Maya And Mental Ray Archviz Guide page, for a major recap as well as a new and maybe last round of shares. Once will post them there will update the links on the first page of this thread as well, assuming that the links to the assets still works. Man, who got me into this in the first place? Guess, it must be definetely a curse… :argh:
Ciao :wavey:

now i am downloading for the 4th time within 3 days , but now from the main CG Talk , i hope i could extract and start reading and working on them , so i could communicate with you on this section .

[ARARAT]

something wrong is going on either with my windows 7 or this SPONZATUTORIAL

i downloaded it , but as soon i extract a bunch of troubles i get .

it doesn’t extract properly either because of long assets names or because of missing files .

iv been 2 days playing with this , dowloaded and deleted it a zillion times .

is it just me facing this ?

[withego]

Something wrong is going on either with my windows 7, or the main SPONZATUTORIAL [color=white]folder. [/color]I downloaded it , but as soon I extract a bunch of troubles I get. It doesn’t extract properly either because of long assets names or because of missing files. I’ve been 2 days playing with this , dowloaded and deleted it a zillion times. Is it just me facing this?

Sorry to hear about your struggle downloading the main SPONZATUTORIAL folder since considering the low bandwith displayed by my web, Mitch offered himself to re-upload it on a mirror which unfortunately is down at the moment. But I can guarantee that almost every time I uploaded assets either to CGTalk or the Facebook page, I proceeded to re-downloaded it again. And in the case of the huge SPONZATUTORIAL folder (1.34 GB), I re-downloaded it without errors. Plus trust me when I say that I’m using this very folder since then, to create all the recent assets shared on the page. Yesterday I tried to download it again, but I’m in Samui which is afflicted by tropical storms and unfortunately the connection dropped. Will try again today but if the connection drops again, have to postpone it until will reach Bkk in 10 days from now. In the due time if you still experience long file names extraction errors, which btw I didn’t and I run on Windows 7 as well. Suggest you to go back to the page Timeline ‘February 28, 2013’, to download the updated SPONZAMAPFILES2009_NEW texture folder. And start to download the individual assets you are interested in, from the first page of this thread. If you go back to Timeline ‘May 11, 2013’, you can download the Classroom_Production_Scenes_2012.rar zip file as well. Hope it helps and apart from creating a few page ‘Milestones’ to make it more easy to download the assets, really can’t do much more at the moment.
Ciao…

[cyrus3v]

Hi Alex,

Just to let you know that I am still working with this amazing tutorial. :bowdown:
Thanks for the time you put on this project.

[withego]

Hi Alex, just to let you know that I am still working with this amazing tutorial. Thanks for the time you put on this project.

Thanks Ciro for having helped me to ‘re-charge the batteries’ here on CGTalk during this long Odissey, really appreciated and I’m glad to know you are using it.

An in depth look at the Maya and Mental Ray Modeling, Lighting, Shading, Texturing, Rendering, nDynamics, Cloth and Fur features used. Such as the ‘mia_physicalsky’, ‘user_ibl’, ‘Area Light’, ‘mia_portal_light’, ‘mia_light_surface’, ‘mia_roundcorners’, ‘mia_lens_bokeh’ as well as the ‘lightLinker’ and the ‘GLOBAL_ILLUMINATION_CUBE’ dummy node etc. In conjunction to the ‘Unified Sampling’, ‘Global Illumination’, ‘Final Gathering’, ‘Importons’, ‘Irradiance Particles’, ‘Progressive Rendering’ and ‘Environment Lighting’ String Options, as well as the links to the 3D assets shared so far. Please notice that in some of the main Maya 2013 interiors, Maya ‘Fur’ was used in conjunction to the Mental Ray ‘mia_lens_bokeh’ shader in one go on the Master Layer for almost 100 hrs. of rendering non stop. Will share a few pics and assets to highlight the main page milestones starting from Timeline May 27, 2013 onward. And please refer to the first page of this thread, for the links to the recently updated 3D assets.

Timeline: May 27, 2013

The Mental Ray ‘mib_amb_occlusion’ texture node ‘Output Mode’ value set to (1), which goes for the ‘Environment’ mode:

The Mental Ray ‘mib_amb_occlusion’ texture node ‘Output Mode’ value set to (1), Maya 2012 interior scene download:

http://www.samui3d.com/Living_Day_Sky_Ao_Env_2012.rar

Timeline: May 27, 2013

The ‘mib_amb_occlusion’ texture node ‘Output Mode’ set to the default value (0), used in conjunction to the Mental Ray ‘mia_lens_bokeh’ shader:

The ‘mib_amb_occlusion’ texture node ‘Output Mode’ set to the default value (0), Maya 2012 interior scene download:

http://www.samui3d.com/Living_Day_Sky_Ao_Simple_2012.rar

Timeline: May 28, 2013

The ‘Light Fog’ pass achieved using either Mental Ray in conjunction to the ‘mip_matteshadow’ production shader, or the standard Maya Software render engine in conjunction to the ‘useBackground’ material:

The ‘Light Fog’ pass achieved using either Mental Ray in conjunction to the ‘mip_matteshadow’ production shader, Maya 2012 interior scene download:

http://www.samui3d.com/Living_Day_Sky_Light_Fog_2012_Software.rar

The ‘mentalrayOutputPass’ custom ‘Label Pass’, useful for post-compositing purposes:

Timeline: May 29, 2013

The ‘Light Glow’ pass, using the standard Maya Software in conjunction to the ‘useBackground’ material and the ‘opticalFX’ node:

[color=deepskyblue]The LumeTools Collection is not supported for Maya.

[/color]

The ‘Light Glow’ pass using the standard Maya Software in conjunction to the ‘useBackground’ material and the ‘opticalFX’ node, Maya 2012 interior scene download:

http://www.samui3d.com/Living_Day_Sky_Light_Glow_2012_Software.rar

Timeline: May 30, 2013

A brief recap in a single post, from the page [color=white]Timeline July 25, 2012 onward:

From the screenshots you will understand that to go through extremely elaborate translucent shading networks, like the one used here is an hell of a task. Most of the shading networks used for the walls, floors, wooden furnitures and fabrics have a high coefficient of translucency.

[/color]

Timeline: May 31, 2013

Going up to the page [color=white]Timeline July 30, 2012, you will find a round of tests to show the differences between the lighting provided by the former (IBL) ‘Environment Lighting’ String Options, and the new Mental Ray 3.10 ‘user_ibl’ shaders:

The new user_ibl shaders are the equivalent of the ‘mia_portal_light’ nodes, when using an HDRI ‘High Dynamic Range Image’ file as the main source of illumination. Seems that they concentrate the blueish environment lighting provided by the HDRI image file, much better then the former (IBL) ‘Environment Lighting’ String Options. The late afternoon and evening lighting conditions, achieved using various Mental Ray native ‘Area Lights’ in the scene. Is where the user_ibl shaders really rocks, when using a HDRI image file as the main source of illumination.

[/color]

Timeline: May 31, 2013

The Mental Ray 3.10 ‘misss_fast_sss_shader2_x’, Sub-Surface Scattering shader attributes:

Remember to go to the page [color=white]Timeline August 30, 2012. For a round of tests that will help you to understand the new Mental Ray 3.10 ‘misss_fast_sss_shader2_x’ Sub-Surface Scattering shader attributes. Versus the standard ‘misss_fast_skin_maya’ materials, assigned to the 3D ‘Plants’ Meshes in the Maya 2012 interior scenes. Using the simple ‘teapot’ test scene, provided by Bitter on the NVIDIA Advanced Rendering Forum. As well as the 3D ‘Plants’, taken from the above mentioned interiors.

[/color]

The ‘misss_fast_shader2_x_tutorial.rar’ zip folder (150.MB) with the Maya 2012 test scenes, using the simple ‘teapot’ test scene provided by Bitter on the NVIDIA Advanced Rendering Forum. As well as the ‘Plants’ 3D object, taken from the above mentioned interiors:

http://www.samui3d.com/misss_fast_shader2_x_tutorial.rar

As well as the ‘Adobe_Acrobat_Learning_Resources.rar’, zip folder:

http://www.samui3d.com/Adobe_Acrobat_Learning_Resources.rar

And the ‘Textures.rar’ folders, zip folder:

http://www.samui3d.com/Textures.rar

PS. To be continued, since I’m not allowed to share more pics on a single post.

Ciao.

[withego]

Going on with the brief recap, from the previous post:

Timeline: May 31, 2013

The raw un-optimized ‘misss_fast_shader2_x’ Sub-Surface Scattering Shader, Maya 2013 interior scene.

Created on the fly back on my B’Day, [color=white]Timeline: August 30, 2012. Using the ‘misss_fast_shader2_x’ Sub-Surface Scattering Shader, with the ‘Output SSS Only’ attribute either disabled or enabled for a sort of ‘Clay’ translucent rendering effect.

[/color]

[color=red]The raw un-optimized ‘misss_fast_shader2_x’ Sub-Surface Scattering Shader, Maya 2013 interior scene download:

http://www.samui3d.com/Living_Night_Sky_SSS_2013.rar[/color]

Timeline: June 3, 2013

The Maya 2012 ‘static’ production scenes meant to be rendered with the Nvidia iray render engine, that should enable you to test the new nVidia Material Description Language (MDL) Mila shaders. Which are the simpler counterparts of the complex ‘nDynamics’ 3D assets and that can be tested using Maya 2012, as well as the latest Maya 2013 and Maya 2014 versions. Since that no nDynamics was used, due to the ‘Pfx bug’ discussed on page (10) of this thread:

If you already downloaded the main [color=deepskyblue]‘SPONZATUTORIAL’ folder, you will need to replace the previous ‘SPONZAMAPFILES2009’ folder with the updated ‘SPONZAMAPFILES2009_NEW’ version. And please remember to backup the previous ‘SPONZAMAPFILES2009’ folder, just in case.

[/color]

[color=red][color=red]The (5) ‘static’ production scenes meant to be rendered with the Nvidia iray render engine that should enable you to test the new nVidia Material Description Language (MDL) Mila shaders, Maya 2012 interior scenes download:
[/color]
http://www.samui3d.com/IRAY_SKY_8_ENV_1_DOF_2012_SP1A.rar[/color]

http://www.samui3d.com/IRAY_IBL_ENV_SCALE_4_DOF_2012_SP1A.rar

http://www.samui3d.com/IRAY_IBL_ENV_SCALE_8_MULT_8_PHOTO_1_DOF_2012_SP1A.rar

http://www.samui3d.com/IRAY_SKY_8_ENV_SCALE_1_DOF_3D_PEOPLE_2012_SP1A.rar

http://www.samui3d.com/IRAY_IBL_ENV_SCALE_8_MULT_8_PHOTO_1_DOF_3D_PEOPLE_2012_SP1A.rar

The complex ‘nDynamics’ scenes created using the Mental Ray ‘Unified Sampling’ feature, in conjunction to the ‘mia_physicalsky’ node and the ‘environment lighting’ (IBL) String Options as well as the Nvidia iray render engine:

Featuring the Maya NParticles with Pfx Strokes instanced using the NParticles ‘Instancer’ node, as well as the Paint Effects surface interaction and collisions to Pfx Strokes. Used for the various Paint Effects, Dynamics and nDynamics nodes parented under the Aston Martin wheels. And that actually leaves trails, when drifting between the Pfx dynamically animated grass blades. The NCloth flags, the Nucleus ‘Rain’ Asset, the Dynamic Fluids and Particles, Soft/Rigid Bodies and the 3D characters Pfx Hairs. Animated using NFields as well as the Aston Martin Motion Path animation, converted to poly’s prior caching. The Full 3D Motion Blur feature found under the ‘Quality’ tab of the main ‘Render Settings’ panel. As well as the 2.5 Motion Blur feature, with the ‘mip_motionblur’ node connected to the (2) main cameras as a ‘Legacy Output Shader’ as suggested by Zap on his Blog.

[color=red][color=red]The (10) complex ‘nDynamics’ scenes created using the Mental Ray ‘Unified Sampling’ feature, in conjunction to the ‘mia_physicalsky’ node and the ‘environment lighting’ (IBL) String Options as well as the Nvidia iray render engine, Maya 2012 interior scenes download:[/color][/color]
[color=red][/color]
[color=red][color=deepskyblue]http://www.samui3d.com/DAYSKYPHOTO_UNIFIED_SAMPLING_POLY_NDYNAMICS_2012.rar[/color][/color]
[color=red][/color]
[color=red][color=deepskyblue]http://www.samui3d.com/DAYIBLPHOTO_UNIFIED_SAMPLING_POLY_NDYNAMICS_2012.rar[/color][/color]
[color=red][/color]
[color=red][color=deepskyblue]http://www.samui3d.com/DAYSKYPHOTO_UNIFIED_SAMPLING_POLY_NDYNAMICS_BLUR_2012.rar[/color][/color]
[color=red][/color]
[color=red][color=deepskyblue]http://www.samui3d.com/DAYIBLPHOTO_UNIFIED_SAMPLING_POLY_NDYNAMICS_BLUR_2012.rar[/color][/color]
[color=red][/color]
[color=red][color=deepskyblue]http://www.samui3d.com/DAYSKYPHOTO_UNIFIED_SAMPLING_HAIRS_DYNAMICS_2012.rar[/color][/color]
[color=red][/color]
[color=red][color=deepskyblue]http://www.samui3d.com/DAYIBLPHOTO_UNIFIED_SAMPLING_HAIRS_DYNAMICS_2012.rar[/color][/color]
[color=red][/color]
[color=red][color=deepskyblue]http://www.samui3d.com/DAYSKYPHOTO_UNIFIED_SAMPLING_POLY_NDYNAMICS_FLUID_VOLUME_BLUR_2012.rar[/color][/color]
[color=red][/color]
[color=red][color=deepskyblue]http://www.samui3d.com/DAYIBLPHOTO_UNIFIED_SAMPLING_POLY_NDYNAMICS_FLUID_VOLUME_BLUR_2012.rar[/color][/color]
[color=red][/color]
[color=red][color=deepskyblue]http://www.samui3d.com/DAYSKYPHOTO_UNIFIED_SAMPLING_POLY_NDYNAMICS_BLUR_CAMERA_1_2012.rar[/color][/color]
[color=red][/color]
[color=red][color=deepskyblue]http://www.samui3d.com/DAYIBLPHOTO_UNIFIED_SAMPLING_POLY_NDYNAMICS_BLUR_CAMERA_1_2012.rar[/color][/color]

The “Maya 2013 Ndynamics Paint Effects Fluid Cloth Simulation”:

//youtu.be/UJK4zrqwIWA

The “Maya 2013 Ndynamics Paint Effects Fluid Cloth Hair Rain Simulation”:

//youtu.be/DNwG6LPe2DY

Timeline: June 4, 2013

The simplified versions of the Maya 2012 interiors, meant to be rendered with the Nvidia iray render engine:

With the hope that to say thanks for all the efforts thrown in this huge and complex learning project, you will start to test them using the Nvidia iray render engine in conjunction to the new Mila shaders. And will also start to post and discuss the results here, kind of a mini 3D lighting and rendering challenge in order to keep the page alive. Go on to download and test them, since that in no time the Progressive Sampling starts and they are pretty intuitive and fun to render.

If you render the scenes using the Maya 2013 version instead, you will likely get this slightly incorrect result due to the metal and glass shading networks. Which shows the nightmare of creating huge and complex assets, that spans multiple versions:

From [color=white]Timeline: July 25, 2012. Every time Autodesk releases a new Maya version, I’m forced to recreate most of the metal and glass shading networks. In this case, the shading networks that seems to be screwed up are the frosted glass ones.

[/color]

[color=red][color=red]The simplified versions of the interiors meant to be rendered with the Nvidia iray render engine, Maya 2012 interior scenes download:[/color][/color]
[color=red][/color]
[color=red][color=deepskyblue]http://www.samui3d.com/Living_Day_Sky_2012_Iray_Test.rar[/color][/color]
[color=red][/color]
[color=red][color=deepskyblue]http://www.samui3d.com/Living_Afternoon_Ibl_2012_Iray_Test.rar[/color][/color]
[color=red][/color]
[color=red][color=deepskyblue]http://www.samui3d.com/Living_Night_Sky_2012_Iray_Test.rar[/color][/color]

Timeline: June 5, 2013

The original Maya 2012 interiors, with all the previously mentioned Maya and Mental Ray Lighting, Shading, Texturing, Rendering features. Plus loads of ‘nDynamics’ features such as ‘ncloth’, ‘nRigid’, ‘nConstraints’ and the Nucleus ‘nSolver’ node:

From [color=white]Timeline: April 2, 2013.[/color]Starting with the 3D renderings of the main Maya 2012 interior scenes, shared here back in August 2012. And which should not be underestimated considering that these highly technical assets, was created to demonstrate that Maya used in combination to the Mental Ray and the Nvidia iray render engine. Is possible to render millions poly’s from the ‘Render View’ panel at the resolution of (2000X1500 px), using all the features listed above in sync and without crashes.

The Maya 2012, Livingroom interior:

The Maya 2012, Bedroom interior:

Timeline: June 5, 2013

As well as the original Maya 2013 interiors created using loads of Maya and Mental Ray features such as the ‘mia_physicalsky’, ‘user_ibl’, ‘mia_portal_light’, ‘mia_lens_bokeh’ and the ‘misss_fast_sss_shader2_x’ Sub-Surface Scattering shader. In conjunction to the ‘Unified Sampling’, ‘Global Illumination’, ‘Final Gathering’, ‘Importons’, ‘Irradiance Particles’ etc. Plus Maya Fur, used in ‘one go’ on the Master Layer:

From Timeline: June 5, 2013. A last note to remind you that if you still would like to test the original Maya 2012, as well as the Maya 2013 interior scenes. Well you know what to do, since I already repeated it many times before. And if my efforts trying hard to help you out with this stuff won’t be wasted, I will be so glad to share these assets as well asap.

The Maya 2013, ‘mia_lens_bokeh’ Livingroom interior:

The Maya 2013, ‘misss_fast_sss_shader2_x’ Bedroom interior:

Ciao.

[withego]

Following up from the previous post, in order to give a meaning to this long thread and to put a full stop to The Ultimate Maya And Nvidia Mental Ray Guide learning project. Guess it’s about time to share both the original Maya 2012 as well as the 2013 interiors 3D assets, instead of let them sitting idle on my hard drives. Btw looking at Bitter’s very informative Elemental Ray blog, these assets are still up to date and might be useful for the Maya and Mental Ray green users.

Click the above image, to jump to the online resource.

Before to start, a last few “How To” instructions on how to use both the original Maya 2012 and 2013 interiors 3D assets correctly:

First of all strongly suggest you to use the scenes provided here just as a reference for your projects, in order to explore the elaborate Mental Ray lighting and shading networks.

But if you still prefer to render the scenes assuming you setup correctly all the scripts and plug-ins required, prepare yourself for long hours waiting for the computation of the various [color=white]Mental Ray features used[/color]. Including the several “misss_fast_lmap_maya” Light Maps, generated by the “misss_fast_skin_maya” and “misss_fast_sss_shader2_x” Sub-Surface Scattering shading networks.

And as already mentioned several times back on this thread, considering the different Mental Ray shaders integration across Maya releases, the Maya 2012 scenes should be used exclusively in conjunction to the Maya 2012 version.

The same goes for the Maya 2013 scenes, which should be used in conjunction to the Maya 2013 version. Even if you still can open scenes created using different Maya versions by enabling the “Ignore Version” option, located in the “General Options” tab of the “Open Options” panel under the Maya toolbar “File” drop down menu.

But you will likely need to debug them, in order to avoid the appearance of the infamous “nan” pixels at render time.

Therefore to avoid you this pain, strongly suggest you to open the scenes with the latest Maya 2014 version and just use them as a reference for your projects. Since the Window > General Editors > File Path Editor feature is already built-in in this version, so you won’t need to use the “File Texture Manager” utility included with the main “SPONZATUTORIAL” folder provided on Page 1 of this thread.

The File Path Editor shows a list of all the directory paths for references, textures, audio nodes, and image planes that are included in your Maya scene. This tool lets you diagnose and fix unresolved paths quickly and easily.

[size=2]Click the above image, to jump to the online resource.

Please go back to Page 8 of this thread, for more info’s on how to setup correctly the 3D assets provided here.

The original Maya 2012 interiors, with all the previously mentioned Maya and Mental Ray Lighting, Shading, Texturing, Rendering features. Plus loads of ‘nDynamics’ features such as ‘ncloth’, ‘nRigid’, ‘nConstraints’ and the Nucleus ‘nSolver’ node.

The “SPONZAMAPFILES2009_NEW.rar” textures folder:

First suggest you to download the SPONZAMAPFILES2009_NEW.rar zip folder, with the updated texture files required by both the original Maya 2012 and Maya 2013 interiors. Use the above mentioned “File Path Editor” feature already built-in in the Maya 2014 version, or either the “File Texture Manager” utility included with the main “SPONZATUTORIAL” folder provided on Page 1 of this thread if you are using previous Maya versions. To force Maya to correctly point to the texture files, contained within the SPONZAMAPFILES2009_NEW.rar zip folder.

The original Maya 2012 interiors 3D assets, meant to be rendered with the standard Nvidia Mental Ray render engine:

http://www.samui3d.com/Living_Day_Sky_2012.rar

http://www.samui3d.com/Living_Day_Ibl_2012.rar

http://www.samui3d.com/Living_Night_Sky_2012.rar

The original Maya 2012 interiors, meant to be rendered with the Nvidia iray render engine.

The original Maya 2012 interiors 3D assets, meant to be rendered with the Nvidia iray render engine:

http://www.samui3d.com/Living_Day_Sky_2012_Iray.rar

http://www.samui3d.com/Living_Afternoon_Ibl_2012_Iray.rar

http://www.samui3d.com/Living_Night_Sky_2012_Iray.rar

And to conclude this tedious and exhausting post, the page Condo_Cloth_2012_Screenshots. Which displays in a step by step fashion how the various ‘nDynamics’ features such as ‘ncloth’, ‘nRigid’, ‘nConstraints’ and the Nucleus ‘nSolver’ node was used in the scenes.

And the corresponding ‘nDynamics’ simulations.

The “Maya 2013 Bedroom Cloth Simulation”:

//youtu.be/lF_kSUb-EPo

The “Maya 2013 Livingroom Cloth Simulation”:

//youtu.be/LKXzYZu93D4

Hope it helps and that’s it, sorry if I bore you to death with this ancient thread but had to do it in order to give a meaning to the whole thing. Next will likely share the more complex Maya 2013 interiors, and finally let the whole thing fade away…;)[/size]

[withego]

Following up from the previous post, considering the complexity of the Mental Ray lighting, shading and rendering techniques used to create the Maya 2013 interiors scenes:

As well as the original Maya 2013 interiors created using loads of Maya and Mental Ray features such as the ‘mia_physicalsky’, ‘user_ibl’, ‘mia_portal_light’, ‘mia_lens_bokeh’ and the ‘misss_fast_sss_shader2_x’ Sub-Surface Scattering shader. In conjunction to the ‘Unified Sampling’, ‘Global Illumination’, ‘Final Gathering’, ‘Importons’, ‘Irradiance Particles’ etc. Plus Maya Fur, used in ‘one go’ on the Master Layer.

Will share a few quotes from the page Timeline: May 7, 2013 onward.

For the translucency to work accurately there has to be a level of transparency (0.25). Setting the translucency to (1) ensures that all light absorbed by the material is used as translucency and not transparency. The issue comes with how the transparency setting affects the texture mapped into the ref_trans_col slot by reducing its intensity and over brightening the light. This can be corrected by connecting the file to an input of a multiplyDivide node and setting its multiply value accordingly to make the final value (1). So with a transparency value of 0.25 the multiply value needs to be set to (4).

The “mia_material for realistic leaves” thread

Before to share the screenshot of the Maya 2013 ‘SP2’ interiors, a last reminder on how to increase the ‘mia_material_x’ translucency factor using the ‘multiplyDivide’ node in conjuction to the ‘misss_fast_skin_maya’ material. To demonstrate that these scenes was meticulously created based on several online learning resources, such as the ‘Forests in maya mental ray’ and the ‘mia_material for realistic leaves’ threads at CGTalk just to mention a few.

The “Forests in maya mental ray.” thread

The ‘mia_material_x’ translucency factor:

The Maya 2013 ‘SP2’ interiors renders, created using the ‘misss_fast_shader2_x’ shaders ‘as is’. To produce a few extra ‘sss’ layers, later composited in post on top of the other layers using either Adobe AE or PS CS6 (64 Bit). ‘As is’ means the ‘misss_fast_shader2_x’ was applied to all the polymeshes in the scenes, without being connected to the ‘mia_material_x’ materials ‘Additional Color’ fields. Used in conjunction to the ‘user_ibl’ shaders, in ‘one go’ along with the other Mental Ray lighting and rendering features. Notice that I didn’t bother to bypass the cutout alpha transparency, usually achieved by connecting a ‘.tga’ or ‘.png’ file texture to the ‘mia_material_x’ material ‘Cutout Opacity’ field. Therefore to achieve cutout alpha effects, the ‘misss_fast_shader2_x’ as well as the ‘misss_fast_skin_maya’ materials should always be connected to the ‘mia_material_x’ materials ‘Additional Color’ fields.

The Condo_Renders_2013_misss_fast_shader2_x:

The Maya 2013 interiors 3D assets meant to be rendered with the standard Nvidia Mental Ray render engine, created using the ‘misss_fast_shader2_x’ shaders ‘as is’. To achieve different lighting setups (Day, Afternoon and Night) using either the standard Mental Ray ‘mia_physicalsky’ node in conjuction to the ‘mia_portal_light’ node, or the new Mental Ray 3.10 ‘user_ibl’ node in conjunction to a 32 bit HDRI (High-dynamic-range) image file. Notice that I didn’t bother to bypass the cutout alpha transparency, usually achieved by connecting a ‘.tga’ or ‘.png’ file texture to the ‘mia_material_x’ material ‘Cutout Opacity’ field:

Living_Day_Sky_2013_textures_sss

Living_Night_Sky_2013_textures_sss

Living_Day_User_Ibl_2013_textures_sss

Living_Afternoon_User_Ibl_2013_textures_sss

Living_Night_User_Ibl_2013_textures_sss

And the screenshot of the Maya 2013 ‘SP2’ interiors renders, with the correct shading workflow. Using the ‘mia_material_x’ applied to the polymeshes in the scenes, with the ‘misss_fast_shader2_x’ as well as the ‘misss_fast_skin_maya’ connected to the ‘mia_material_x’ materials ‘Additional Color’ fields. Plus the cutout alpha transparency, achieved connecting either ‘.tga’ or ‘.png’ file textures to the ‘mia_material_x’ materials ‘Cutout Opacity’ fields. Compared the previous Maya 2012 interior scenes, reduced the ‘mia_exposure_photographic’ lens shader ‘Cm 2 Factor’ to the input value (4000). And after a long debugging struggle with the infamous ‘NAN’ pixels, find out that with extremely huge scenes with millions of polys and all the other lighting, shading and rendering features enabled. The ‘importon trace depth’ String Option value should be set to the default input value (0). When lowering the Final Gathering ‘Secondary Diffuse Bounces’ value, you should reduce the ‘importon trace depth’ value as well since these attributes works in tandem.

The Condo_Renders_2013:

The original Maya 2013 interiors 3D assets meant to be rendered with the standard Nvidia Mental Ray render engine, with a couple of variations either using the Mental Ray 3.10 ‘misss_fast_sss_shader2_x’ Sub-Surface Scattering shader with textures connected to its attributes or not:

Living_Day_Sky_2013_no_textures_fur

Living_Day_Sky_2013_textures_fur

As well as a few variations to achieve different lighting setups (Day, Afternoon and Night) using either the standard Mental Ray ‘mia_physicalsky’ node in conjuction to the ‘mia_portal_light’ node, or the new Mental Ray 3.10 ‘user_ibl’ node in conjunction to a 32 bit HDRI (High-dynamic-range) image file:

Living_Day_Sky_2013_Low_Trans

Living_Day_Sky_2013_High_Trans

Living_Night_Sky_2013_textures

Living_Day_User_Ibl_2013_textures

Bedroom_Day_User_Ibl_2013_textures

Living_Afternoon_User_Ibl_2013_textures

Living_Night_User_Ibl_2013_textures

And finally here is one of the main reasons which explains the outrageously high render times as high as (100 hrs.) ‘Guinness World Record’, like the one rendered with the ‘mia_lens_bokeh’ lens shader. Considering that also the Mental Ray Unified Sampling 3.10 feature was used and for every render, a huge (100 mb) 32.bit Multichannel EXR file was output as well. By enabling the ‘Diagnose samples’ checkbox, found under the ‘Raytrace/Scanline Quality’ section under the ‘Quality’ tab of the main ‘Render Settings’ panel. And in the latest Maya 2014 release, the ‘Diagnose samples’ checkbox option was moved to the ‘Sampling’ section under the ‘Quality’ tab of the main ‘Render Settings’ panel.

The screenshot of the huge 32.bit Multichannel EXR image files, which you can download and open using either the Mental Ray ‘imf_disp’ image display utility. Or Adobe Photoshop C6 (64bit) with the help of the ‘ProEXR’ plug-ins, as already discussed in the main Tutorial Guide PART1.pdf doc:

The Condo_Pro_Exr_Diagnostic_Renders_2013 zip folder with the huge 32.bit Multichannel EXR image files, which you can download and open using the Mental Ray ‘imf_disp’ image display utility:

Condo_Pro_Exr_Diagnostic_Renders_2013

[color=darkorange]Here comes my bulletproof workflow to avoid the infamous ‘NAN’ pixels, when rendering Maya’s Fur in ‘one go’ on the Master Layer. You can still use this quite primitive but effective workaround, with your own scenes whenever using Maya’s Fur. Go on and delete all the ‘Fur Attribute Maps’ files from the ‘furAttrMap’ folder, which in these case should be located under the main ‘SPONZATUTORIAL’ folder directory. Repeat the previous step and delete all the ‘Fur Equalizer Maps’ files, from the ‘furEqualMap’ folder as well. Once opened the scenes created using Maya’s Fur feature, go on to recreate them both by selecting the polymeshes with ‘Fur Descriptions’ nodes attached. One by one in the ‘Assigned Surfaces’ window panel, selecting the ‘All’ option in the ‘Bake Attribute’ drop down menu and pressing the ‘Bake’ tab to recreate all these files on the fly.[/color]

The Condo_Fur_2013 _Screenshots, and please remember that this is just a personal stunt to demonstrate that is possible to render Maya’s Fur in ‘one go’ on the Master Layer with huge files along with all the above mentioned lighting and rendering features. [color=white]But when playing around with Maya’s Fur, in order to avoid the appearance of the infamous ‘NAN’ pixels. Is always advisable to place and render the 3D polymesh objects to which the Fur Description nodes are attached, on a different layer other than the Master Layer:[/color]

And the “How to avoid ‘NAN’ pixels when rendering Maya’s Fur” screenshot, just in case you want to try this primitive but effective workaround:

Plus just in case you are a real masochist, you can still download the correct Fur Attribute Maps used to test this workaround. And place them in the ‘furAttrMap’ folder, which in this case should be located under the main ‘SPONZATUTORIAL’ project folder:

furAttrMap_Condo_2013

To conclude this exhaustively tedious and logorroic post, would like to remind you that if you prefer to test the Mental Ray 3.10 ‘misss_fast_shader2_x’ versus the standard ‘misss_fast_skin_maya’ shader using simple test scenes. You can download the ‘misss_fast_shader2_x_tutorial.rar’ folder, as well as the ‘Adobe_Acrobat_Learning_Resources.rar’ and the ‘Textures.rar’ folders. By following the links provided above in a previous post, as well as here below:

Timeline: May 31, 2013
[color=white][/color]
[color=white]The Mental Ray 3.10 ‘misss_fast_sss_shader2_x’, Sub-Surface Scattering shader attributes:

Remember to go to the page Timeline August 30, 2012. For a round of tests that will help you to understand the new Mental Ray 3.10 ‘misss_fast_sss_shader2_x’ Sub-Surface Scattering shader attributes. Versus the standard ‘misss_fast_skin_maya’ materials, assigned to the 3D ‘Plants’ Meshes in the Maya 2012 interior scenes. Using the simple ‘teapot’ test scene, provided by Bitter on the NVIDIA Advanced Rendering Forum. As well as the 3D ‘Plants’, taken from the above mentioned interiors.

The Mental Ray ‘misss_fast_sss_shader2_x’ Shader:[/color]

The ‘misss_fast_shader2_x_tutorial.rar’ zip folder (150.MB) with the Maya 2012 test scenes, using the simple ‘teapot’ test scene provided by Bitter on the NVIDIA Advanced Rendering Forum. As well as the 3D ‘Plants’ object, taken from the above mentioned interiors:

[http://www.samui3d.com/misss_fast_shader2_x_tutorial.rar

As well as the ‘Adobe_Acrobat_Learning_Resources.rar’, zip folder:

[url=“http://www.samui3d.com/Adobe_Acrobat_Learning_Resources.rar”]http://www.samui3d.com/Adobe_Acrobat_Learning_Resources.rar](http://www.samui3d.com/misss_fast_shader2_x_tutorial.rar)

And the ‘Textures.rar’ folders, zip folder:

http://www.samui3d.com/Textures.rar

And considering that this might well be my last tediously long post on CGTalk (sorry again, but that’s the only way I know to share complex 3D assets like these), allow me to say to the green users that the final renders might not be as realistic or cinematic as other tutorials. But on a technical standpoint this huge complex and sometime confusing tutorial rocks, and every single feature used work as expected (at least it does for me). Therefore is up to you follow up with it, since now that I shared the last 3D assets which was sitting idle on my hard drives since very long time, I’m finally at peace. That’s it [size=2]and while wishing that the whole thing make some sense, so long guys. And for one last time, hope it helps… [/size]

[joie]

Your work and patience is awesome my friend…, we should invest our time improving our artistic skills, not fighting with Mental Ray!

[cyrus3v]

:eek: :bowdown:

What a fantastic job my friend. I really need to get back to this and finishing this tutorial. Really amazing.

[withego]

What a fantastic job my friend. I really need to get back to this and finishing this tutorial. Really amazing.

Your work and patience is awesome my friend…, we should invest our time improving our artistic skills, not fighting with Mental Ray!

Thanks guys, really appreciated. Jose if we didn’t took the burden to debug the flawed Mental Ray implementation in Maya, the new breed of Mental Ray users might not be able to improve their artistic skills while being busy fighting the several bugs and flaws. [color=red]Therefore a last note to inform you that on the previous page of this thread, I also provided the direct links to the Maya 2012 and 2013 raw scenes used to extract a few extra render passes to be composited in post such as: the ‘Ambient Occlusion’ pass, the ‘Light Fog’ pass, the custom ‘Label’ pass, the ‘Light Glow’ pass as well as the raw un-optimized ‘misss_fast_shader2_x’ Maya 2013 interior scene. Plus the link to the simple test scenes folder, useful to test the Mental Ray 3.10 ‘misss_fast_shader2_x’ versus the standard ‘misss_fast_skin_maya’ shader.[/color]

[color=red]Last and not least, I’ve also provided the direct links to both the Maya 2012 ‘static’ production scenes as well as the complex ‘nDynamics’ scenes. [/color]Created using the Mental Ray ‘Unified Sampling’ feature, in conjunction to the ‘mia_physicalsky’ node and the ‘environment lighting’ (IBL) String Options as well as the Nvidia iray render engine:

Featuring the Maya NParticles with Pfx Strokes instanced using the NParticles ‘Instancer’ node, as well as the Paint Effects surface interaction and collisions to Pfx Strokes. Used for the various Paint Effects, Dynamics and nDynamics nodes parented under the Aston Martin wheels. And that actually leaves trails, when drifting between the Pfx dynamically animated grass blades. The NCloth flags, the Nucleus ‘Rain’ Asset, the Dynamic Fluids and Particles, Soft/Rigid Bodies and the 3D characters Pfx Hairs. Animated using NFields as well as the Aston Martin Motion Path animation, converted to poly’s prior caching. The Full 3D Motion Blur feature found under the ‘Quality’ tab of the main ‘Render Settings’ panel. As well as the 2.5 Motion Blur feature, with the ‘mip_motionblur’ node connected to the (2) main cameras as a ‘Legacy Output Shader’ as suggested by Zap on his Blog.

[color=darkorange]Please note that all of these advanced Dynamics and nDynamics techniques used in the above mentioned 3D assets, were also very well described by the [/color]page screenshots folders listed below:

‘The_Ultimate_Guide_Dynamics_Screenshots_3’:

‘The_Ultimate_Guide_Dynamics_Screenshots_4’:

[color=white]
[color=red]The ‘Sponza_2013_Dynamics_Motion_Blur_Screenshots’:

[color=white][/color][/color][/color]
While hoping that this huge tutorial Guide “somehow” slightly and indirectly inspired young skilled instructors like Jesús Fernández, since his bro Isidro was following up with it, to come up with great Maya and Mental Ray tutorials like the “Forgotten Forest Tutorial”:

Click the above image, to jump to the online resource.

I wish you once again an happy journey, through the steep Maya and Mental Ray learning curve. And that’s my final farewell, Ciao…

[joie]

One of the most annoying things of mental ray is that render proxies don’t have depth channel!, so they appear in black in the ZDepth pass…, Any update on that?.

[withego]

One of the most annoying things of mental ray is that render proxies don’t have depth channel!, so they appear in black in the ZDepth pass…, Any update on that?

Jose if you refer to the Mental Ray Render Proxies instancer nodes, used in conjunction to the Render Passes feature displayed below by the link to the main Maya 2014 online help docs. Only for you will reply one last time, since already wrote thousands of pages (the main pdf docs) and provided loads of 3D assets to be used as a reference for your projects.

Using render proxies in your scene:

[color=white]Click the above image, to jump to the online resource.[/color]

Therefore will reply using once again a few quotes and screenshots, from both the main Part1 and Part4 pdf docs. If you bothered checking out both NOTE35 of the main Part1 pdf doc and NOTE50 of the Part4 pdf doc, you should already be acquainted with the correct workflow required when using Render Proxies stand-in geometries in your scenes. As well as the correct shader assignment order, used for the mesh object poly faces of the stand-in geometry.

[color=white]Click the above image, to jump to the online resource.[/color]

Open the main [color=deepskyblue]Part1 pdf doc and either the SPONZA2009X32 Maya 2009 production scene created to show how to work with both the Render Layers and Render Layers Overrides, as well as the [color=deepskyblue]SPONZA2009X64 scene created to show how to work with the Mental Ray Multi-Render Passes features in conjunction to the mip_binaryproxy Render Proxy instancer node. [/color]

[color=white]

Explore the last (5) p_color_plus_alpha Mental ray custom shaders, used in conjunction to the previous p_z1 custom shader. Piped to the "Input Color” field of the p_color_plus_alpha, Mental Ray custom shaders. Used to output a Zdepht Render Layer for the "ZDEPHTALPHA” layer in the SPONZA2009X32 and the SPONZA2009X64 Maya scenes. [/color][color=red]Also notice the png file texture nodes, piped to the “Input Alpha” field of the p_color_plus_alpha Mental Ray custom shaders. [/color][color=darkorange]Please note that on the Master Layer, the png file texture nodes are piped to the “Cutout Opacity” field of the mia_material_x/x_passes materials.

[/color]

[color=#ffffff][/color]
[color=#ffffff][color=white]Click the above image, to jump to the online resource.[/color][/color]

From the screenshot below please notice the absence of the “ivy” high poly count mesh object, referenced by the mip_binaryproxy stand-in geometry. Since the [color=deepskyblue]mip_binaryproxy stand-in geometry, was rendered on the “ZDEPHTALPHA” layer in both the SPONZA2009X32 and SPONZA2009X64 Maya production scenes.[/color]

[/color]Click the above image, to jump to the online resource.

The “ivy” high poly count mesh object referenced by the mip_binaryproxy stand-in geometry, rendered on the “ZDEPHTALPHA” layer in the SPONZA2009X64 Maya production scenes:

Click the above image, to jump to the online resource.

Please note that with the above screenshots, I’ve provided the link to the Maya_Production_Scenes_2009X64_SP1A_Pro_Exr_Renders.rar zip folder. Where you’ll also find the final output Multichannel Pro Exr image files, rendered from the above mentioned [color=deepskyblue]SPONZA2009X64 scene “ZDEPHTALPHA” layer. [/color]

Now please open the main Part4 pdf doc and either the DAYHDRPASSES2011 or the DAYSKYPHOTOPASSES2011 Maya 2011 production scenes, created to show how to work with both the Render Layers and Render Layers Overrides. As well as the Mental Ray Multi-Render Passes “passContributionMap” feature, in conjunction to the “mip_binaryproxy” Render Proxy instancer node.

[color=white]

Please note that the DAYHDRPASSES2011 and the DAYSKYPHOTOPASSES2011 Maya 2011 production scenes, was created to present you with an in depth description of the Mental Ray Multi-Render Passes “passContributionMap” feature. Quote from the main Autodesk Maya 2011 Online Help: Render pass contribution maps. A Render pass contribution map associates a subset of lights and renderable objects in your scene with one or more render passes.[/color]

Click the above image, to jump to the online resource.

As you can see from the [color=red]red arrows displayed by the screenshot below, the “ivy” high poly count mesh object referenced by the mip_binaryproxy stand-in geometry is correctly rendered in the ZDepth pass.[/color] The masking in black of the other objects, is the result of the Mental Ray Multi-Render Passes “passContributionMap” feature.

Click the above image, to jump to the online resource.

Please note that with the above screenshot, I’ve provided the link to the Maya_Production_Scenes_2011_Pro_Exr_Renders.rar zip folder. Where you’ll also find the final output Multichannel Pro Exr image files, rendered from the above mentioned [color=deepskyblue]DAYHDRPASSES2011 and DAYSKYPHOTOPASSES2011 scenes “AODEPHTSHADOWS” layers. [/color]

While hoping this last post make some sense, wish you the best in your struggle with Mental Ray. Ciao…

[joie]

I will check it again, but, as far as I know, the ZDepth render pass only renders correctly with mip_binary_proxies, not with the regular ones. It’s a shame you can’t render correct ZDepth pass directly without any extra shaders, the assembly proxies SHOULD work right away in my opinion.

[JesusFerC]

While hoping that this huge tutorial Guide “somehow” slightly and indirectly inspired young skilled instructors like Jesús Fernández, since his bro Isidro was following up with it, to come up with great Maya and Mental Ray tutorials like the “Forgotten Forest Tutorial”:

Click the above image, to jump to the online resource.

I wish you once again an happy journey, through the steep Maya and Mental Ray learning curve. And that’s my final farewell, Ciao…

Hi Alex! Thx for the share!!!, and once again I just want to say thx its amazing the amount of information that you do with the archiviz tutorial, I have no words to explain it, you are the best! no doubt, if there wasnt for you my progress would be a lot slower and all the info that you gave us could chance life oportunities for us all!!!

Thank you again !!!

And happy holydays!

[cyrus3v]

Thanks Alex for your hard work. I am still reading all the information. :arteest: